Objectives

(Note: all Project results were shared with the 144 D/HH Ed. Teacher Prep. Pro. faculty present at the 3/30-4/2/2000 ACE-D/HH conference)

Goal 1: Partners

Planned: Phone calls, e-mail messages, listserv messages and post to the ACE-D/HH Web site were used to inform and encourage D/HH Ed. Teacher Prep. Program faculty to participate in the Project.

Outcomes: Project "Partners" increased "across-the-board", i.e., Faculty = 14 to 44 (+338%); Programs = 13 to 31 (+238%): and States = 11 to 23 (+209%). The "Implementation Plan’s" "Catalyst" grant proposal, if funded, will serve to substantially increase the number of "Partners."

(+) Circumstances: growing consensus regarding the need to collaborate as a Field, rather than maintain their individual teacher prep. program status

(-) Circumstance: geographic dispersal of programs and subsequent isolation of faculty and preservice teachers

Needed PT3 Assistance: ongoing grant opportunities

Planned Corrective Action: a Catalyst grant proposal has been submitted that, if funded, will substantially increase the # of faculty, prog. & states

Goal 2: Syllabi

Planned: Five "Curriculum Teams" were formed (i.e., Language, Literacy, Curriculum, Oral Com. & Sign Com.). Each team used conference calls, e-mail, faxes & chat room exchanges to: a) develop a syllabi collection and analysis protocol; b) collect "best practice" syllabi from throughout the country; c) discuss the results of the syllabi collection; d) determine how technologies can be most effectively used w/in the sylabbi content; and e) develop a "draft" form of the resulting "best practices", technology rich, content specific syllabi.

Outcomes: Preliminary syllabi were presented for: a)Curriculum; b) Language; and c) Oral Communication. Focused groups reviewed resulting material and gave suggestions concerning improvements in and use of the syllabi. Syllabi teams for Literacy & Sign Com. reviewed the presented syllabi and met to determine how they could complete their own syllabi work.

(+) Circumstances: programs teach essentially the same courses, but they have never collaboratively developed course material

(-) Circumstance: syllabi dev. was carried out via telecommunication technologies, not all faculty were equally competent with those tech.

Needed PT3 Assistance: ongoing grant opportunities

Planned Corrective Action: individual mentoring and instructional guidance of faculty as they use technologies to carry out grant activities

Goal 3: Case Studies

Planned: A "Case Study Team" was formed and phone calls, faxes and e-mail messages were used to determine the: a) basic design; b) data collection strategies; c) time line; and d) locations for the targeted case studies of technology proficient K-12 teachers of d/hh students. Sites visits were made to the targeted teachers where multimedia data was collected concerning the patterns of instruction and student products.

Outcomes: Two preliminary, multimedia case studies were presented. Due to technical difficulties, focused groups were only able to review the multi-media format of one case study. Suggestions for the completion and use of the case studies were received. Data from the Project Evaluator’s ‘Baseline Survey" indicated that 68% of D/HH Ed. faculty would use the resulting multi-media case studies.

(+) Circumstances: established acceptance of the use/importance of case studies as a teaching tool, plus recognition of need for more case studies

(-) Circumstance: cut of $31,000 in the proposed budget meant the loss of "student workers" in this Project thus, faculty did not have needed help

Needed PT3 Assistance: ongoing grant opportunities

Planned Corrective Action: have redesigned case studies and have sought other sources of student assistance

Goal 4: Faculty

Forums

Planned: A "Faculty Development Team" was formed and two "Faculty Development Forms" were conducted with a total of 26 D/HH Ed. faculty (.e., Smith College - North Hampton, MA on 11/13-14/99 & Fontbonne College - St. Louis, MO on 2/25-26/00). The Forums concentrated upon the use of PowerPoint to present course information and the use of Web publishing toolsto share faculty and student products.

Outcomes: Data indicated that attending faculty felt "very confident" in their use of the presented technologies, and were also "very confident" that they would use their newly acquired technological skills to enhance their instruction this semester! Pending the availability of funds, an additional Forum is planned for "out West" thisSpring.

(+) Circumstances: wealth of expertise’s found in Project faculty plus, technological resources at faculty colleges/universities

(-) Circumstance: amount of funds allocated to support faculty travel to Forms was not adequate to cover their expenses in attending

Needed PT3 Assistance: ongoing grant opportunities

Planned Corrective Action: review the remaining Project funds to determine if the travel support to Forms can be increased

Goal 5: Funding Options

Planned: A "Funding Development Team" was formed and phone calls, e-mail exchanges, internal resources and Web data bases were used to first identify, then evaluate and finally describe Federal, state and foundation grant initiatives that fund technology based projects. The team focused its efforts on private foundations and corporate grant makers. Specific information was gathered concerning the: a) focus of the funded projects; b) region(s) funded; c) application process; and d) application deadlines.

Outcomes: A "Guide to Technology Funding Opportunities" was published and shared at the ACE-D/HH conference. Focuse groups discussed how faculty could best use the guide and how the ACE-D/HH organization could support collaborative grant activities. A plan of action was developed.

(+) Circumstances: grant writing expertise’s of Project faculty plus an array of funding opportunities that exist in the area of special education

(-) Circumstance: a significant # of Project faculties’ teaching, advising and supervision load is so heavy that they do not have time to write grants

Needed PT3 Assistance: help in identifying additional funding opportunities that Project faculty could pursue

Planned Corrective Action: encourage regional grant efforts leading to less work, more collaboration, increased resources & greater recognition

ment

Planned: The Project Directors conducted e-mail, fax and phone surveys of all the U.S. D/HH Ed. Teacher Prep. Programs. The purpose of that survey was to determine how the Programs recruited students to their colleges/universities.

Outcomes: Survey results on program recruitment strategies were received from 30 of the 72 DHH Ed. Teacher Prep. Programs. Data indicates that the most common strategies were to: a) respond to requests; b) rely upon "word-of-mouth"; c) depend upon college sponsored "Discovery" days; d) receive referrals from community colleges; and e) develop Web pages concerning their programs.

(+) Circumstances: common task all Programs encounter and must manage

(-) Circumstance: lack of time and funds to support innovative efforts

Needed PT3 Assistance: share information concerning other "innovative" strategies used around the country

Planned Corrective Action: build Web resources as a recruitment tool + explore the use of distance/distributed technologies for course options

mentation

Planned: A "Catalyst Grant" proposal was written and submitted to serve as the "Implementation Plan" for this Project. The "Catalyst" proposal, entitled "Crossing the ‘Realities Divide:’ Preservice Teachers as ‘Change Agents’ for the Field of Deaf Education" will serve to expand the current Project to include preservice teachers, existing teachers, parents, deaf adults and all of the major Deaf Ed. organizations.

Outcomes: Following presentation of the proposed "Catalyst " grant at the ACE-D/HH conference, 57 faculty, from 33 D/HH Ed. Teacher Prep. Programs in 20 states (+D.C.) have committed to incorporate specific activities that will insure the preparation of technology proficient teachers

(+) Circumstances: a growing sense of what the field of D/HH Ed., can do by collaborating and pooling our resources toward a common vision

(-) Circumstance: the nation wide geographic dispersal of Programs increase the complexities and expense of collaborative efforts

Needed PT3 Assistance: ongoing grant opportunities

Planned Corrective Action: submission of a Catalyst proposal was accomplished on 3/6/00 = search for funding to continue/extend what has begun

uation

Planned: (see next section)

Outcomes: (see next section)

(+) Circumstances: availability and use of Web based technologies to facilitate data collection + consensus of need to use technologies w/in D/HH Ed.

(-) Circumstance: geographic dispersal of programs increased the complexities and cost of gathering data

Needed PT3 Assistance: identification of additional Web based data collection tools + ongoing grant opportunities

Planned Corrective Action: continue with existing plan, it is working well

Objective 1: Faculty member within the country's 72 D/HH Education Teacher Preparation Programs will be contacted to inform them of the project activities (i.e., Goals 2-7) and to encourage their participation in one or more of those activities.

Accomplishments: The project began with 13 partners and by the end of March 2000, 44 partners had agreed to participate. Thus, the project has accomplished this objective. A baseline survey was conducted to determine barriers to integrating technology into instructional programs. The most common responses were:

Count Percent

Count Percent

Lack of knowledge about ways to integrate

technology in the curriculum

51 56.0%

Not enough teacher training opportunities

for technology projects

47 51.6%

Lack of adequate technical support for

technology projects

49 53.8%

Financial support for faculty training

is inadequate

41 45.1%

Lack of time in school schedule for

projects involving technology

47 51.6%

Objective 2: Five technology enhanced, D/HH Education method course syllabi will be developed and shared. Each syllabi will identify how Internet linked, computer based technologies and resources can be used to enhance instruction and improve learning. Each syllabi will identify the specific hardware, software and technology skills that will be needed by the faculty and students who use them.

Accomplishments: At the ACE-D/HH annual meeting at the end of March, five syllabi were presented in various forms of development. Formative feedback was given to the developers by means of focus groups at the annual meeting. The focus groups were asked to comment on the specific Internet links that were included in the draft syllabi and to suggest additional resources. They were also asked to indicate if the syllabi contained information concerning Internet-links, computer-based technology and resources, identified hardware, software, and technical skills, and require complex reasoning and problem solving. The participants in the focus groups agreed that the draft syllabi were inclusive of the appropriate types of information, and the developers agreed that the participants had provided them with helpful feedback and additional ideas for improving the syllabi. The developers will be sharing their syllabi with K-12 teachers and university students for additional feedback.

On the Baseline Survey, only 10% of the respondents indicated that they incorporated technology in their syllabus extensively, and an additional 25% indicated that they did so a fair amount. Respondents did provide an extensive list of ways that they incorporate technology into student projects. The projects involve many different types of technology, most commonly the preparation of PowerPoint presentations (or less commonly web pages), use of speechreading CD-ROMs, web searches and critiques, and videotaping and viewing.

Objective 3: 2-3 multi-media case studies developed in partnership with K-12 D/HH education teachers, meeting established criteria: capture and explain the effective use of technology and enhances student learning, gender, ethnicity, and other cultural sensitivity, responsive to needs of D/HH students.

Accomplishments: At the ACE-D/HH annual meeting at the end of March, two multi-media case studies were presented to the membership in draft form. Formative feedback was provided to one of the developers by means of a focus group at the annual meeting. (The other developer had technical difficulties in displaying his case study during the focus group time period, and so was unable to get feedback at that time.) The focus group members agreed that the developer had been able to capture and explain the effective use of technology and that it demonstrated enhanced student learning, and was well balanced in terms of gender. However, they expressed concern about the lack of ethnic diversity and suggested various strategies for improving that dimension of the case study.

Respondents on the Baseline Survey were asked to indicate whether or not they used case studies in their teaching. Almost three-fourths of the teachers said they did use case studies (71%). The overwhelming majority used written/print case studies (97%), and only about one-third said they used CD-ROM case studies (34%). However, 68% said that they would use case studies if they were available with deaf/hard of hearing children in a multimedia format. Respondents were given the opportunity to describe how technology is used in their case studies. The most common responses indicated that students view case studies in the form of videotapes.

Objective 4: Increase faculty use of Internet-linked, technology-based teaching in D/HH method courses.

Accomplishments: A baseline survey was conducted using a web-based format to determine faculty use of technology in teaching. A total of 91 ACE-D/HH members responded (70% response rate), which is one indicator of the interest in the activities of this project. The two most frequent uses of technology for both faculty and their students were word processing and retrieving information from the Internet. Faculty requested additional training in multimedia presentations, designing collaborative web activities for students, distance education, web-course design software, and web page development. This information was used to design two faculty development workshops. The first workshop was held at Clarke School for the Deaf/Smith College in Northampton, MA, and focused on Power Point presentation skills. Twelve people attended and rated the workshop very high (ratings were all between 4 and 5 on a five point scale) on various dimensions such as usefulness and clarity. They made such comments as: "It is amazing how much I learned in a very (relatively) short period of time! I'd like a follow-up refresher to bring some of my questions and challenges and to share techniques which have been effective." The second workshop was held at Fontbonne College in St. Louis, MO. The ratings were again uniformly positive, and they commented: "This workshop was well thought out and well presented. I am not a technical person, but I'm getting hooked. I see many more applications for higher tech presentations than I expected and I now feel that I am capable of learning how." Participants at both workshops indicated a desire to have a continued supportive relationship with a technologically savvy mentor.

Objective 5: Identify sources of funding to sustain program activities.

Accomplishments: A handbook of possible funding sources for technology-related projects was assembled and was available for review at the ACE-D/HH meeting at the end of March. It will be posted to the web site. A proposal was developed and submitted to the Department of Education for a Catalyst Grant for three years of continued work by ACE-D/HH in integrating innovative technology in teacher education programs for the deaf and hard of hearing across the United States.

Objective 6: Identify additional strategies to recruit individuals into D/HH education.

Accomplishments: A survey of faculty in the ACE-D/HH membership was conducted to determine how students are recruited into the various programs. The predominate method of recruitment was word-of-mouth. No innovative strategies for recruiting ethnic minority students were uncovered.

Objective 7: Develop plan to restructure D/HH teacher education

Accomplishments: An extensive plan for restructuring D/HH teacher education is included in the proposal that was submitted to the Dept. of Ed. as a Catalyst grant in March 2000. The plan focuses on the incorporation of Standards related to technology into those required for certification for teachers of the D/HH.

Objective 8: Determine progress towards each of the seven other project goals, including the determination of the extent of involvement of D/HH teacher education programs in the project; document the development and quality of the course syllabi and case studies; determine the needs of faculty for further equipment and training; assess the identification of potential funding sources; evaluate strategies for recruitment into the field; and develop a plan to restructure D/HH education.

Accomplishments: Records have been kept on the number of participants from the beginning of the project until the end of March. A baseline survey was conducted to determine the barriers that faculty face in the integration of technology in their teaching. The quality of the case studies and syllabi have been assessed in a formative way through focus groups at the ACE-D/HH annual meeting; additional evaluations are planned with these products. Needs for additional training were identified in the Baseline Survey, and satisfaction with training was assessed through participant observation and evaluation rating forms for two faculty development workshops. The grant proposal that was submitted had an evaluation plan that was developed in conjunction with the two project co-directors. The information about recruitment was reviewed at the annual meeting. The plan to restructure D/HH teacher education is included in the Catalyst Grant Proposal.

Performance Indicator 1.1 Curriculum redesign. The percentage of teacher preparation programs that redesign their curriculum to incorporate best practices in the use of technology in teacher education will increase.

Project Performance for 1.1: Five syllabi are in draft form that incorporate best practice in the use of technology in the teacher education programs. These will be made available by being posted on the ACE-D/HH web site when they are in final form.

Performance Indicator 1.2 Technology proficient faculty. The percentage of faculty members in teacher preparation programs that effectively use technology in their teaching will increase.

Project Performance for 1.2: Two faculty development workshops were conducted that trained a total of 24 faculty in the development of Power Point presentations, as well as in the design and incorporation of web-based activities in teaching. Ratings for the workshops were very high; participant observation by the evaluator provided additional evidence of the ability of participants to produce technology-based instructional activities.

Performance Indicator 1.3 Graduation requirements. The number of teacher preparation programs that will require teacher candidates to demonstrate proficiency in the effective use of technology in teaching an learning will increase.

Project Performance for 1.3: Plans are included in the Catalyst Grant to reform the graduation requirements by inclusion of technology-based standards in the requirements for certification in D/HH teacher programs.

Performance Indicator 1.4 Learning resources. The percentage of teacher preparation programs that use web-based, multi-media learning resources, course materials, and teaching tools will increase.

Project Performance for 1.4: Three case studies that use multi-media instructional strategies are under development. Two of the case studies were reviewed by the membership in attendance at the annual meeting of ACE-D/HH. One of the case study developers received feedback on her draft product during a focus group that was held at the meeting.

Performance Indicator 2.1 Technology-proficient new teachers. The percentage of new teachers who are proficient in using technology and integrating technology into instructional practices will increase.

Project Performance for 2.1: New teachers are the central focus of the Catalyst Grant Proposal submitted to the Department of Education in March 2000. The Baseline Survey indicated that faculty in teacher education programs currently do not involve students extensively in the use of technology themselves. This is one of the primary goals set for the Catalyst Grant Proposal.

Performance Indicator 3.1 Sustained program activities. At least 35 percent of program consortia members will continue to implement reform in pre-service teacher training for at least two years following the termination of federal funding.

Project Performance for 3.1: A grant proposal was submitted to the Department of Education for the next three years. However, the ACE-D/HH includes members from all 72 institutions in the United States that offer degrees in teacher education of the D/HH. This network is strengthened through the use of technology, the growing number of partners in the current technology grant, and the association's web page.

Performance Indicator 3.2 Inter-disciplinary partnerships. The percentage of teacher preparation programs that communicate, collaborate and partner together with schools of arts and sciences on a regular and formal basis will increase.

Project Performance for 3.2: The number of partners in the ACE-D/HH project increased from 14 to 44 from the beginning of Capacity Building Grant to the end of March 2000. This indicates a high level of partnering amongst the faculty who are involved in the 72 programs across the United States. This is important considering that most of the programs have very few faculty (1 or 2), and professional isolation is a real concern. Partnering with arts and science schools is less of an issue for this particular population.

Performance Indicator 3.3 K-16 partnerships. The percentage of teacher preparation programs that communicate, collaborate, and partner together with the K-12 community on a regular and formal basis will increase.

Project Performance for 3.3: The case studies that are being developed involve partnerships with K-12 schools in that the media is produced on location at these schools in cooperation with the students and teachers there. In addition, the syllabi will be reviewed by cooperating teachers from the K-12 sites in which the students teachers are placed. The new Catalyst Grant Proposal also emphasizes the partnering relationship s between the K-12 teachers and students with university faculty and students.

Performance Indicator 4.1 State teacher certification standards. The percentage of states that include technology proficiency as a component of their initial teacher certification standards will increase.

Project Performance for 4.1: The increase in states requiring technology proficiency for teacher certification is part of the plan in the Catalyst Grant Proposal.