| Preservice teacher education students are overwhelmed with the need for skills, techniques, and knowledge. These students must be prepared to integrate computing and technology into curriculum and instruction and to bring these teaching tools with them as they enter the teaching profession. Teacher education instructors are the immediate role models for preservice teacher education students. Effective teacher preparation programs reflect changes in schools and prepare new teachers to teach with computers and technology and become facilitators of information, not just deliverers. Teacher preparation instructors who model computing and related technology skills, utilization, and integration in teacher preparation curriculum and instruction provide preservice teachers a means to obtain positive attitudes and confidence about integrating technology in the classroom.;The purpose of this study was to examine the perceived computing and related technology skills and utilization attitudes of students in the treatment and control groups of the Fall 1996 undergraduate course, Social Foundations in Education, EDF 3333, in Mississippi State University's College of Education teacher preparation program. The research design was quasi-experimental, testing of sample students' attitudes towards computing and related technology. The sample population consisted of 84 undergraduate preservice teacher preparation students. Five research questions were addressed. Participants in the study were randomly assigned from intact class sections to experimental/treatment and control groups. The experimental group received treatment employing computing and related technology skills, utilization, and integration. The data collection instrument used for this study was the CARTS II Survey Questionnaire. Participants' attitudes were measured with a pre/post CARTS II attitudinal, likert-type questionnaire. The results indicated a significant difference between treatment and control groups' attitudes toward computing and related technology skills, utilization, and integration in teacher preparation curriculum, instruction, and research. Utilization and integration of computing and related technology in curriculum and instruction resulted in preservice students having a stronger agreement in positive attitudes towards use of computing and related technology in curriculum, instruction, and research. |
