A Collaboration of Five Teacher Training Institutions: Preparing Illinois Educators for the 21st Century.

Five Illinois universities, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), and the Illinois Area IV Learning Technology Hub are collaborating in the Preparing Educators for the 21st Century Program" (PIE-21). This state-funded program focuses on providing preservice teachers, administrators, and teacher education faculty with skills and knowledge necessary to effectively use information technology. Each project includes collaboration between a university and K-12 schools to provide preservice teachers or administrators with training and experiences to effectively use information technology in the classroom. Given that each institution is unique, each PIE-21 partner is developing and piloting a different model of integrating information technology into a teacher education or administrator preparation program. All of the institutions made strides toward their original goals; all were interested in continuing their projects into a second year of the grant. Direct benefits to the institutions through PIE-21 monthly team meetings included: exposure to current ideas about technology integration and how these ideas are implemented around the state; increased confidence locally in ideas about technology integration and K-12/university collaboration; and demonstration of technologically complex innovations in educational technology. Individual approaches are described for each of the five participating universities: Eastern Illinois University, Illinois State University, National-Louis University, Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, and University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. (AEF)