Virtual Education: An Enhanced Alternative Learning and Practice Tool for Pre-service Teachers
Abstract: Technology permeates all facets of our lives. Advances in education have shown us that technology can improve learning outcomes for students. In teacher education, instructors are looking for ways to provide preservice teachers field experiences that support best practices. Technology is one way to provide an alternative tool for basic skills training and development. Students that are being taught today require both interactive and experiential applications of education. Educators are creating lesson components that are animated and interactive in order to draw upon the behavior skill sets of current students. When a learner practices a procedure in structured simulated environment, methods of interaction have the potential to become crystallized skills, and competent professional behavior becomes a consistent practice. The presentation purpose is to describe a model for virtual pedagogical support, using real life classroom animated issues for the purpose of training preservice teachers how to handle classroom behavior issues. These animations serve as alternative tool for basic skills training in teacher education. Goals of this approach include enhancing the learning experience of pre-service teacher; fostering intrinsic motivation in students; providing support and detailed real-time feedback; and providing multiple scenarios to apply content knowledge for skill development.