Southeastern NEWS

                                                       Southeastern Louisiana University
                                           Public Information Office
                                           publicinfo@selu.edu
                                           SLU 10880, Hammond, LA 70402
                                           504/549-2341/fax 504-549-2061
    Date: 1/24/00
      Contact:                           Christina Chapple   128

Editors: Photo accompanies release           
SLU HOSTS WORKSHOP ON TEACHERS AND TECHNOLOGY
     HAMMOND -- Southeastern Louisiana University is one of eight universities
nationwide selected to participate in a project to connect today's technology with tomorrow's
teachers.
     Teams from six of the eight universities participating in SUNRAY (Strategies for
Understanding and Networking Resources, Actions, and e-Yearbooks) gathered at Southeastern
Jan. 10-15 for a special institute on ways to effectively incorporate technology resources and
activities into teacher education programs, curricula and field experiences.
     In addition to Southeastern, SUNRAY partner institutions include the University of
Arkansas at Pine Bluff; Fairmont State College in Fairmont, W.Va., Jackson State University in
Jackson, Miss., Mercer University in Atlanta, Ga., North Carolina Central University in Durham,
N.C., the Universidad Metropolitana in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Winthrop University in Rock
Hill, S.C.
     SUNRAY, said Suzanne Martin, head of Southeastern's department of special education
and communication sciences and disorders, is headed by the University of North Carolina at
Greensboro and SERVE, the university's non-profit education organization. The program is
funded by a three-year U.S. Department of Education grant through the "Preparing Tomorrow's
Teachers to Use Technology (PTTT) program. Elizabeth Byrom, director of the Technology in
Learning program at SERVE, is heading SUNRAY.
     Byrom said SUNRAY aims "to produce technology-proficient teachers for 21st century
schools." She said the six-day workshop at Southeastern was one of a number of professional
development institutes and academies that SUNRAY will conduct to prepare technology-
                             (MORE)
SUNRAY AT SLU -- Add One
proficient teachers. The program also plans to create and maintain a virtual technical assistance 
community and establish and support cohorts of higher education faculty and colleagues across
the southeast to further efforts to infuse instructional technology into teacher preparation
programs. Participants also will document the processes and lessons learned during the project to
share with other educators.
     At the Southeastern institute, university teams worked with SUNRAY staff, facilitators
and consultants to develop solutions, address issues and implement plans for improving
technology infusion into their programs. 
     "The idea is that the teams come with a problem and leave with a product" to solve it,
Byrom said.
     Southeastern's team includes special education professors Jean Mead and David Fuller
and teacher education professor Paul Simoneaux. Martin said the team's "problem" was "to take
a required general education course and attempt to infuse technology into that course." After the
workshop, team members will teach fellow teachers how to incorporate technology into their
own courses.
     For additional information about SUNRAY, contact Martin at 504-549-2214.
                            - SLU -
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