Mary Lou Razza

Teaching Tools > WebCT
Technology Details

Learning Objectives and Standards

Given their adoption of WebCT as a total communication tool, Mary Lou and her students are using the tool in a way that is very much in line with those aspects of the Vermont Teaching Standards that speak to collegiality. The standards note that teachers need to have the skills to connect with necessary colleagues on a professional level, and need to understand the value of this for their work.

Mary Lou notes that the standards also speak about teachers having accountability for their work, their ideas, and their own learning. Because the professional conversation between and among these future teachers is captured in the WebCT environment, Mary Lou says, they have the ability to take more responsibility for their learning. If she has the students write a reflection or do some other piece of work, it's generally entered in or uploaded to WebCT, and this central repository of artifacts of their learning becomes an important part of future teachers' assuming accountability for their work.

The following tables describe Mary Lou's use of WebCT to prepare pre-service teachers to meet ISTE NETS for teachers

The first table lists each ISTE standard while the second table illustrates exactly how Mary Lou's use of WebCT addresses these standards

Standard I	Standard II	Standard III	Standard IV	Standard V	Standard VI
Technology Operations and Concepts	Planning and Designing Learning Environments and Experiences	Teaching, Learning, and the Curriculum	Assessment and Evaluation	Productivity and Professional Practice	Social, Ethical, Legal, and Human Issues

Description of Use	Standards Addressed	Explanation
Mary Lou uses WebCT to post course information and resources. Students also turn in assignments and receive feedback online. These uses dramatically simplify administrative aspects of the course by reducing the amount of time Mary Lou and her students spend chasing down paper. In addition, Mary Lou’s students are able to have up-to-date, easy access to course information, enhancing their own productivity.	Standard I Standard III Standard V	This use provides pre-service teachers with experience using WebCT to access course information, post work, and collaborate with colleagues. This use models to pre-service teachers how WebCT can be used to deliver and manage a course. This use provides teachers with experience in using technology to enhance their own productivity – e.g., for communication and obtaining resources – skills which they can transfer from Mary Lou’s course to their future professional practices.
Students in Mary Lou’s course use WebCT to form a learning community – communicating, sharing, and asking each other for advice about course content. The course web site has gone from being a repository of information to something that fosters a collaborative exchange among students.	Standard V	The course provides pre-service teachers with experience in using technology communicate and collaborate with peers as a means of enhancing their own professional practices.
By using the administrative tools in WebCT to monitor students' activity in the site, Mary Lou is beginning to explore using WebCT for assessment.	Standard IV	This use models to pre-service teachers how technology can be used to assess student learning when that learning is, itself, supported by technology.

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