Chapter 2: Evaluating The Quality and Impact of a Faculty Development Model: The SUNRAY Experience

In 1998, the Southeast and Islands Regional Technology in Education Consortium (SEIR*TEC) conducted a needs assessment survey of teacher educators in the southeastern states (N = 397) and found that, in general, the state of technology integration was dismal. Many, but not all, faculty were using technology for word processing, email, and other everyday applications, but few were using it in their teaching. In programs where instructional technology was addressed in the curriculum, it was usually taught as a stand-alone course rather than integrated into methods and content courses. Fewer than 25% developed Web pages or used authoring tools. They rarely used digital cameras, scanners, or other tools for electronic portfolios and desktop publishing (Baumbach, Byrd, & West, 1998). For the partners in SEIR*TEC, the challenge was clear—to substantially improve the capacity of teacher education programs so that the programs could in turn prepare technology-proficient teachers. Thus was created SUNRAY: Strategies for Understanding and Networking Resources, Actions, and e-Yearbooks, a 3-year catalyst grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) Program. The project began in the fall of 1999 and ended in the summer of 2003.