August 17, 2015
College of Education faculty, clinical instructors present at national conference
Two College of Education faculty and two clinical instructors from the department of curriculum and instruction recently presented on distance supervision at a national teacher education conference.
David S. Allen, associate professor and director of field experiences, and Lori Goodson, assistant professor, along with Twyla Sprouse of Manhattan-Ogden USD 383 and Allison Rothwell of Junction City USD 477, presented Aug. 2 on "Enhanced Supervision Opportunities: Technology as a Vehicle for Enabling Distance Supervision and Improving Accountability." The presentation was part of the Association of Teacher Educators, or ATE, Summer Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The group shared its research on distance supervision through the use of SWIVL, a robotic video and audio recording system, and Zoom, a cloud-based conferencing application. The team worked on this project, which allowed student teachers more site locations and the possibility of completing their internship closer to their hometowns, reducing student expenses. The research team has presented and published numerous times on this project.
The focus has been on the elementary education program, which started because of a southwest Kansas district's request for placements to help recruit new teachers to the area to fill vacancies. Beginning this fall, the research team will have its first two secondary student teachers participating in the distance supervision program.
The program also benefits the college by eliminating travel time while providing a more cost effective and efficient quality support for student teachers.