I think it is time to start documenting the process of developing an instructional approach to this project because so much has already happened and I don’t want it to slip away from me. To start from the beginning.

I met the education instructor in her classroom, arriving at the end of class as she was packing up from teaching. I introduced myself as part of the Seeds Project, assigned to work with her to look into integrating technology into her course, if that was relevant to her course objectives. Unlike many education instructors, whose initial reaction is often one of resistance, this instructor’s face lit up and she immediately started to tell me about an activity she wanted to undertake this term with her student teachers of building an online dictionary of terms and images as a concept map.

During the summer she had read a couple of articles that were seminal to her adoption of a new attitude toward integrating technology into her teaching practice.

Watts-Faffe, Susan, Gwinn, Carolyn, Johnson, Julie, and Horn, Marcia (2003). Preparing preservice teachers to integrate technology with the elementary literacy program. The Reading Teacher, 52, 130-138. pdf

Henry, Laurie (2006). SEARCHing for an answer: The critical role of new literacies while reading on the Internet. The Reading Teacher, 59, 614-627.

She handed me a print out of her idea and we arranged to pursue developing a lesson plan for her class. I was to bring the technological approach, she was providing the theoretical context and content directive.