There are a universe of possibilities when it comes to integrating computing and digital literacies into teacher education. Below, we share our approach and the values we hope to promote across CUNY.
CITE aims to support faculty and teacher candidates to apply CITE equity perspectives, and mobilize crosscutting digital and computing practices to enhance and transform learning and practice around traditional and expanded teacher ed topics.
Click each area or scroll to learn more!
Perspectives and commitments around equity
We want computing and digital literacies integration to be driven by the values of our broader community. But there are some perspectives and commitments we think are important for our community to take up.
Equitable CITE pedagogy begins with awareness and examination of self in relation to what, how and who you teach, as well as in relation to social power hierarchies. It involves considering the kinds of power you have within your institution given your identities, positions, and so on. It involves using your reflections to interrogate and push your pedagogy.
Through affirming learner-centered design, equitable CITE pedagogy seeks to…
- empower learners and communities
- transform institutions towards justice
- promote joyful, meaningful learning
…for teacher educators, teacher candidates and alum, P-12 students, families, and communities,
To get there, we hope teacher educators and teacher candidates:
- Co-learn and co-construct knowledge in communities
- Support learner agency to tinker with, modify and create tools
- Center creativity and expression
- Critique tools, tech and tech cultures
- Grapple with and redress systemic injustices
- Validate typically unsanctioned forms of knowledge and purposes for learning
Stay tuned for an expanded write-up created by CITE’s Equity Working Group. There are also some resources around equity lenses at our FAQ here
Computing and Digital Practices
Computing Integrated Teacher Education means equipping teacher candidates to teach and learn about, with, through, and against technology
We hope faculty help teacher candidates take up a variety of orientations towards technology as they teach and learn these literacies:
| ABOUT | WITH | THROUGH | AGAINST | |
| For teacher learning | Teachers engage in conversations about technology, digital citizenship, and its impacts (from a user and teacher perspective). | Teachers learn with technology to help them explore concepts for themselves. | Teachers express themselves and their learning through their creation and modification of computational artifacts | Teachers to think critically about technologies to dismantle unjust tech. |
| To integrate into teachers’ pedagogy | Teachers strategically bring these conversations to their students. | Teachers teach with technology to support student learning and participation. | Teachers prompt their students to express themselves through creation and modification of computational artifacts. | Teachers strategically bring these conversations to their students. |
We’re using the New York State Digital Fluency and Computing Standards as inspiration, but teacher educators might find many other computational and digital literacies relevant to their work across teacher education. Practices that CUNY faculty have found especially relevant to their contexts include:
Digital Practices
- Digitally-supported communication, participation, reflection
- Critically and ethically navigating digital information and media ecosystems
- Digital storytelling / composition
Computing Practices
- Prototyping and iterating
- Tinkering, experimentation
- Data practices
- Modeling and simulation
- Abstraction and decomposition
- Algorithms, programming, debugging
Consult our Computing/Digital literacies gallery to learn more about what faculty in the CITE initiative have taken up in their artifact designs.
Teacher Education Topics
We’ve decomposed teacher education into six areas, inspired by accreditation standards.
- Learners; learning theory, including social, emotional, and academic dimensions; and application of learning theory
- Creation and development of positive learning and work environments, including understand and engaging diverse local school and cultural communities
- Equity and culturally responsive practice, including intersectionality of race, ethnicity, class, gender identity and expression, sexual identity, and the impact of language acquisition and literacy development on learning, teaching strategies, materials, technology used
- Content, pedagogical, and/or professional knowledge relevant to the credential or degree sought
- Instructional Practices and Assessment of and for student learning, use of data to inform planning, teaching strategies, materials, technology used.
- Dispositions and behaviors required for successful professional practice
We also recognize that teacher ed topics in the areas above have been influenced, and will continue to be influenced by digital and computing technologies and culture. This means, the areas above necessarily include tech-related topics like:
- Understanding learners’ digital lives
- Digital citizenship, privacy, health, and safety online
- Assistive technology, using technology for accessibility
- Computing and digital practices across the K-12 disciplines, planning for this integration
- Advocating for learners, equity, and teachers’ professional interests using digital means
Below find some ideas and examples of potential integrations and applications of computing across different components of teacher education at CUNY.
