Exploring the Use of Video Coding in Literacy and English Teacher Preparation

This chapter describes a new video-coding tool, Edthena, and how two teacher preparation programs adopted and implemented this technology. We present our successes and our missteps to help other teacher preparation programs learn from our experiences.

Multiple stakeholders were involved in the implementation of Edthena: teacher candidates, cooperating teachers, university supervisors, and university course instructors. Each of the authors of this chapter fills at least one of these roles. Each author reflected on his or her use of this tool, and we collaboratively analyzed our reflections to ascertain successes and lessons learned in the implementation of a new tool.

We found that Edthena provided many enhancements to traditional teacher candidate field experiences and internships, most notably more consistent and richer reflection on and communication about instruction.

When implementing a new technological tool, teacher educators need to be very strategic and intentional in introducing the tool. All stakeholders need to know the benefits of using a new tool and also require clear guidelines for its use to reduce the natural tendency of resisting change.