Technology in education

Includes bibliographical references.The Teacher Education Program at Northern Illinois University is typically divided into two sections: the methods courses/teacher preparation semesters, and the actual sixteen-week student teaching experience. This unintentional separation often leaves the students in the prepatory semesters apprehensive about what is actually going to ,happen when they are student teaching. The student teachers themselves also feel somewhat alienated from the program due to being off-campus. This research project presents a model of how to connect the two divided segments of the Elementary Education program through telecommunications. Students from CIEE 344 were used to complete the model. These pre-semester students searched tools available on the internet to coincide with a thematic unit I was planning for my third grade student teaching experience. In the end, this model grew into not only using the information sent via electronic mail, but also evolved into a technological experience for the children. The third graders learned the basic searching mechanisms on the internet to complete cooperative reports on planets which were shared with the class.B.S.Ed. (Bachelor of Science in Education