The Illinois Community College Board, Illinois Board of Higher Education, and the Illinois State Board of Education have formed the Illinois Consortium for Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology. The Consortium has been awarded a PT³ Grant from the United States Department of Education. The grant is designed to prepare preservice teachers to understand how to use technology to enhance learning.

The consortium proposed accomplishing this goal by incorporating technology into the general curriculum through the "Preparing Technology Proficient Educators in Illinois" project. As stated in the 1999 report of the Milken Exchange on Education Technology,

Education reformers have long noted that teachers teach as they were taught. If we want to encourage the use of technology as a tool for learning and problem solving, it makes sense that we would want teachers to model this activity for students at all levels and in all contexts.

Preservice teachers will be learning how to teach using appropriate technologies, while all students will benefit from the new technology-infused curriculum.

The grant provided funds to establish four curriculum design teams composed primarily of faculty from partnership institutions.

In Phase 1, each team was charged with redesigning one of four core curriculum areas:
(1) communications, (2) humanities, (3) math, and (4) science.

Phase 2 consisted of implementing each team's redesigned, technology-infused model curriculum at each team's appropriate partnership institutions. During the final phase, all four redesigned curriculums will be available at all partnership institutions.

Additional grant objectives include developing technology-infused teaching resources for potential teaching candidates and developing P-16 technology partnerships to provide support for preservice and beginning teachers.

Additional information regarding the PT³ Project may be accessed at:

Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology Illinois Community College Board Note: These links will open a separate browser window

This project will receive 1.2 million from the U.S. Department of Education, which is approximately 50% of the total cost of the project. These web pages do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education or imply endorsement by the Federal Government.