Faculty Fellow:
Cynthia Brock

Course:
CI 361
Language Arts and Literature

Course Description:
Learning and instruction in reading, writing, oral language and literature for the 4-8 grades.

Improvements to the Course:
Dr. Cynthia Brock is a novice technology user and entered her PLL faculty fellowship wanting to infuse more technology in her undergraduate literacy methods courses. Her pre-service literacy education practicum students (CI 361) interacted with their elementary practicum children over email multiple times across the semester (in addition to the actual face-to-face teaching that occurred at the practicum site). Dr. Brock's CI 361 students also learned how to use technology to submit their course assignments. For example, they used WebCT to submit most assignments. Additionally, rather than submitting a final unit notebook in paper form, Dr. Brock's undergraduate students scanned samples of their students' work. Her students then burned the student work samples, as well as their written reports, onto a compact disc that they submitted to her at the end of the course. Prior to her fellowship, Dr. Brock was not proficient using a scanner or, PowerPoint. Additionally, she had never burned a CD. Through the assistance of PLL graduate assistants and other university support staff, she has increased her understanding of technology so that she can better integrate technology into her courses in the future.