Promoting technology integration through collaborative apprenticeship

Teachers often learn technology skills and integration strategies in intensive seminars, ineffective means for professional learning because experiences are seldom transferred to instructional practices. Thus, effective technology integration requires teachers to obtain learning experiences within the context of their teaching so they can practice, reflect, and modify their practices. Learning in a teaching community is a social process that involves ongoing, on-site, and just-in-time support. Teachers need avenues to continually interact to provide such support across all members of the community. Collaborative Apprenticeship, a professional development model featuring reciprocal interactions, is one such approach to promoting technology integration. Teachers experienced in technology use serve as mentors of peer-teachers' technology applications aimed at improving instruction. Technology is progressively infused as peer-teachers learn to design technology-rich lessons from their technology-savvy peers through modeling, collaboration, and coaching.