Impacts of a university elementary school partnership designed to support technology integration

Although administrators are scrambling to bring technology into their schools, the introduction of computers into individual classrooms has created challenges for both experienced and inexperienced teachers. Recognizing that teachers' use of technology is likely to increase when support is more readily available, a university-elementary school partnership was formed to provide ongoing professional, instructional, and technical support to teachers at one elementary school. Professional support was provided through monthly meetings and ongoing interactions initiated by teachers' changing technology needs. Instructional support was provided through two teacher inservice workshops that emphasized practical ideas for infusion. Technical support was provided, at least in part, by training 18 third- to fifth-grade students to serve as technology "experts" for the school. Survey and interview data from teachers, students, the principal, and the library media specialist were used to examine the impact of these efforts. Findings describe perceived increases in teachers' levels of instructional and professional uses, and in students' confidence, self-esteem, and computer skills. Although participants described changes in the school's overall approach to technology use, use of student-trainers was limited.