| As information technology continues to proliferate in society, research in teacher education suggests that both preservice and inservice teachers have not kept pace with the rapid changes of technology. Teacher education research over the past two decades confirms that tomorrow's teachers are not being adequately prepared to teach in an information society. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate factors that are influencing the readiness of preservice teachers to integrate technology into their instruction.; Using a correlational research design, this study investigated the factors influencing 68 preservice teachers' readiness to integrate technology over a one-year period. Preservice teachers completed surveys about their use of technology, attitudes, proficiency, and self-efficacy with technology. They also completed surveys about their experiences with technology in the teacher education program. Faculty and administration were interviewed about the current status of technology integration in the program. An electronic portfolio rubric was used to score students' electronic teaching portfolio to evaluate their level of knowledge and skill at integrating technology into lesson plans and student projects.; The results of this study suggest the significance of students' personal attributes as the strongest predictors of readiness to integrate technology into instruction. Student teaching was the only program feature to exhibit a strong relationship with readiness to integrate technology. Other program features (faculty modeling technology, constructivist classroom, electronic portfolio development, and program support) demonstrated no relationship or a very small relationship with the criterion of readiness to integrate technology into instruction. Interviews conducted with faculty and administrators supported many of quantitative findings and reflected the current status of technology integration in the teacher education program.; Conclusions include recognizing the importance of students' personal attributes in preparing preservice teachers to integrate technology into their instruction; improving the student teaching experience so that students are given the opportunity to practice teaching with technology; and strengthening the program features to improve their influence on preservice teachers' readiness to use technology. Suggestions for improving the program include: incorporating technology across the curriculum, continued training for the full and part-time faculty, encouraging faculty to model technology use in the classroom, and providing students with more opportunities for technology training and authentic experiences using technology in their coursework. |
