This study investigated changes in and factors related to students' technology-related abilities, beliefs, and intentions. Participants were 76 preservice teachers who responded to pre-and post-course surveys while taking an introductory educational technology course. Statistically significant changes were found in students' perceived abilities, self-efficacy beliefs, value beliefs, and intentions to use software in their future classrooms. Students' self-efficacy, value beliefs, and intentions were moderately correlated with each other. Abilities were correlated with self-efficacy and computer access. The best predictors of intentions were self-efficacy beliefs, gender, and value beliefs. These results strongly support the effectiveness of educational technology coursework in improving not just abilities, but also beliefs and intentions. They highlight the importance of relationships between preservice teachers' beliefs about technology integration and their potential use of technology in their future classrooms. The authors provide suggestions for enhancing preservice teachers' beliefs during technology coursework.A critical issue in teacher education relates to how to best prepare preservice teachers to integrate technology into their future classrooms. Prospective educators should have sufficient technology skills, understand the advantages of using technology in the classroom, and be able to use it to improve the instruction provided to K-12 students (Wright & Wilson, 2005. Integrating technology into the teacher preparation curriculum is considered very important (Collier,

This study investigated relationships among students' technology-related abilities, beliefs, and intentions. Participants were 217 preservice teachers who responded to post-course surveys. Value beliefs were the best predictor of their intentions to use a variety of software and their intentions regarding frequency of technology use with students in their future classrooms. Selfefficacy for technology integration also contributed to the prediction of intentions to use a variety of software, and technological abilities contributed to the prediction of intentions regarding frequency of future technology use. Constructivist beliefs were moderately correlated with self-efficacy and value beliefs, as well as with both types of intentions. The results highlight the importance of relationships between preservice teachers' beliefs and their potential integration of technology in their future classrooms.In a national survey of educators and future educators, the majority of school district administrators (60%) and principals (55%) reported that effective integration of instructional technology was extremely important to their core mission, 321 Ó 2011, Baywood Publishing Co., Inc.

This study sought to examine how educators are using Twitter to increase their professional learning opportunities beyond the boundaries of traditional professional development offers, and whether educators feel a greater sense of fulfillment receiving professional development through networking and community learning than they do through traditional means of learning. A population of 160 educators-105 females and 55 males between the ages of 22 and 65-were surveyed using education related hashtags on Twitter. Thirty-two educators from the survey population elected to participate in an interview. The study discovered that educators are frequently using Twitter professionally to collaborate, network, and engage in professional development. Ninety percent of the educators responding said they are extremely likely to use Twitter for professional development in the next six months, and 69% of educators said their use of Twitter for professional learning will increase over the coming school year.Keywords: Twitter, professional development, education, technology integration rofessional development opportunities and professional learning networks where educators meet to exchange ideas, acquire new knowledge, and receive feedback have existed almost since the beginnings of education itself (Kabilan, Adlina, & Embi, 2011;Killion, 2011). Over the course of the past ten years, technology has moved into every facet of the classroom as students and teachers are being prepared to interact with and compete in a 21 st -century digital world (King, 2011). Educators must be able to navigate this world in order to prepare students appropriately. The melding of social media, professional development, and professional learning networks are expanding the way educators acquire information from "one-size-fits-all, sit-and-get professional development" (Killion, 2011, p. 4) sessions that have little transference to the classroom to highly engaging, dynamic, and interactive applications that allow for individualized learning through the management and selection of content, co-construction of knowledge, demonstration of competencies, and generation of networks for ongoing learning. Just as education is pushing students to be accountable for their education by navigating and evaluating an ever-expanding network of information, highly effective teachers must model this process by collaborating, engaging in ongoing professional development, reflecting through communication and feedback, and using instructional technology tools to enhance instruction (Reich, Levinson, & Johnston, 2011;Trust 2012). The opportunity for asynchronous learning that occurs outside of the constraints of time and place and synchronous learning, where a group takes part in learning at the same time, allows educators to transform the traditional ideas of professional development and the creation of professional networks restricted by boundaries and time (Trust 2012). In making this transition, educators move from isolation to become true life-long learners wh...

No abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.Caddo Gap Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Thought This content downloaded from 128.163.