The Educational Psychology and Educational Technology Program at Michigan State University is the recipient of the 2013 Best Practice Award for the Innovative Use of Technology awarded by the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE). This award honors both our Master’s Program as well as our doctoral (face to face and hybrid) programs for incorporating “innovation beyond meeting national or state standards for program-wide educational technology integration.”
In its citation the AACTE committee on Innovation and Technology which reviews submissions for the award cited our program
… for its demonstration of exceptional implementation and research of the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework on a program level. The program engages candidates in the rich problems and interrelationships of pedagogy, technology and content to produce graduates who develop innovative pedagogical solutions. The Committee found technological competency woven throughout the program and seamlessly integrated with pedagogy and content knowledge.
Other selection criteria included…
… that programs must be using technology to bridge the theory and practice of teacher education through the use of multiple technologies; have changed in some way as a result of the technology use and integration; and be able to communicate the impact technologies have had based on qualitative or quantitative research.
Leigh Wolf, Matt Koehler and I (with some invaluable last minute help from Danah Henriksen) pulled together this proposal which is attached below. All credit for this award goes to the faculty, instructors, graduate teaching assistants and staff who every day seek to make our program one of the best in the nation! Congratulations to all.
The award will be handed to us during the 65th AACTE annual meeting in Orlando, Florida, early next month. At hand to receive the award will be Leigh Graves Wolf (co-director of the MAET program) and our Dean (Dr. Don Heller).
Here is a link to the AACTE press release (AACTE Honors Michigan State University with Innovative Use of Technology Award) and to our original proposal (AACTE-TechnologyAward-MichiganState). I strongly recommend reading our original proposal, if you have a moment, because I think it captures many of the innovative approaches and strategies that make our program stand out from other programs out there.
Here is the video of Leigh’s acceptance speech:
Couldn’t be more proud as a graduate of the MAET program. The innovative methods that were used during the course of the program to integrate technology in such meaningful ways have been models to follow when designing my instruction and now when training teachers.