A Success Story: MSU’s Educational Technology Certificate Program

The Educational Technology Certificate Program is one of the most successful programs ever offered at Michigan State University. Over 2,000 teachers in Michigan and around the world have completed this three-course, nine-credit graduate program. Completion of this sequence results in the receipt of a Technology Certificate (http://edutech.msu.edu). The aim of this sequence is not only to help individuals use the hardware and software generally available in their organizations, but also to help them use it in ways resulting in observable gains in student learning. Because of the constant changes in technology, the Certificate courses are continually being updated to reflect the technology currently available in schools.

To foster critical thinking regarding appropriate uses of technology, there has been a continual focus on educational research and what such research says about improving teaching and learning. To give the participants ready access to the research, the Certificate Program has made use of Dr. Larry Lezotte’s Correlates of Effectives Schools. Lezotte identified seven correlates which must be present in order for a school to be effective. For the past 14 years, Lezotte has been publishing abstracts of key research studies. Presently there are more than 1100 abstracts in an on-line database (http://esrlink.com). Each abstract defines what the researchers did, what they found, and the implications of the research for the educational setting.

Program participants are provided access to this database to guide them in identifying key problems and technology-based solutions for their own school settings. Such solutions are defined in a formal proposal and submitted as part of the course sequence. A technology-based proposal writing guide is used in the development of such proposals. It is noteworthy that a number of these proposals eventually have been funded, providing a double payoff for the work done by the participants.

For more information, contact us at 517-432-9259 or visit our website at http://edutech.msu.edu.

–Norman Bell, Co-Editor

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 1st, 2005 at 4:55 pm and is filed under Certificate News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.