The Learning to Teach with Technology Studio (LTTS) provides professional development courses that:

• Engage pre-service teachers in real curriculum issues in the content areas.
• Provide guidance on creating learner-centered, inquiry lessons that they can use in the classroom.
• Provide strategies for using technology as a tool to support student inquiry.
• Guide pre-service teachers in creating lessons that meet your state's curriculum and technology standards.
• Learn to develop competency-based assessments.

» LTTS Courses

In each course, learners will submit 4-7 assignments for evaluation. The final assignment includes creating a project ready for use in the classroom and may also contribute to student portfolios.

Most of our courses focus on designing inquiry lessons that integrate technology in the content areas: language arts, math, science, etc. Course topics include author studies, doing field work in science using probe technologies, and creating lessons using the power of dynamic geometry software. Other courses are cross-disciplinary for supporting student-centered instruction (e.g., WebQuests). These courses are applicable across many content areas.

LTTS courses are accredited by Indiana University; graduate credit is available for interested teachers. LTTS courses are also accepted for Certification Renewal Units in Indiana and other states.

» LTTS Basics

• 50+ courses developed with teachers.
• Available online, anytime, anyplace.
• Online mentoring.
• Problem-centered: focused on curriculum issues and technology integration.
• Self-paced.

» Meet your curricular needs

You can use the LTTS courses:

1. As individual offerings that your pre-service teachers take as:

• Electives.
• Part of the methods curriculum.
• Part of a technology certification.

2. As a component of your courses whenever you want students to engage in the design of project-based or inquiry-based learning and to develop technology integration skills.

3. To enrich your distance-education offerings or even to initiate a distance-education program.

4. To enrich your professional development offerings.

5. You may offer continuing education units or university credit for completing an LTTS course. (In Indiana, students can enroll for 15 continuing education units or one hour of graduate credit.)

6. You can enrich LTTS courses with face-to-face workshops in technology integration, technology skills, inquiry-based instruction, assessment, or standards.

» Customizing the Use of LTTS

We want to work with teacher education faculty to design LTTS to fit your needs. Some things to consider:

• Either you or we can serve as the online instructor for the course, or we can work together.
• Students can work individually or collaboratively.
• We can add facilitated discussion forums.
• LTTS courses are designed to be self-paced, but schedules can be imposed to assure that the semester or quarter time requirements, or the unit, are adhered to.
• You can prescribe the course or courses students may enroll in, or you may specify a menu of courses.

» Two Ways to Work with Us

As a user of our courses.

All of the above strategies can be implemented simply by having students enroll at our site, http://ltts.indiana.edu. LTTS is a resource to support your instructional and professional development programs. We also support group enrollments and offer volume discounts. Contact us for details.

As an LTTS consortium member.

We have been careful in developing the LTTS system to be pedagogically sound, expandable, and usable. As the system is maturing, we are excited by the potential that the system holds for not only aiding teacher professional development, but for supporting other education and training goals and in serving as a platform for research on distance education. Because of this we are excited to partner with other universities in applying LTTS.

LTTS consortium members play an equal role with us in offering LTTS courses, enrolling and mentoring students, and developing new courses. Consortium members license the LTTS system and can market the courses as their own. We continue to perform system administration while you use the system to meet your needs-including developing a new or enhanced revenue stream.

Why become a consortium member? There are several reasons, including:

• Managing the LTTS system may be a first step in instituting your own distance-education program.
• LTTS courses and enhancements (such as face-to-face workshops) can become a valuable revenue stream.
• The process of designing LTTS courses is useful as an advanced course in learner-centered course design or technology integration. Help your new teachers learn by “teaching” other teachers!
• Designing your own courses permits you to meet the particular needs of your teacher education program.

» Consortium Membership

You can develop a closer relationship by joining the LTTS consortium. Membership is available to teacher education providers. Consortium membership is through an application service provider model: we continue to house the server and administer the system while you use LTTS to meet your needs - including generating new or enhanced revenue streams.

Through the LTTS license agreement, consortium members have full access to all of the LTTS tools for setting enrollment fees, managing enrollments and credit offerings, and facilitating student learning. Consortium members can also design their own LTTS courses for inclusion in the LTTS catalog and collect revenue from all uses of those courses.

As a consortium member, the university receives:

• A personalized LTTS portal page in which you can have your university's own unique information (such as announcements).
• Full access to LTTS modules to use for in-service or pre-service instruction.
• Full access to the LTTS management system for management of enrollments and for facilitation.
• Rights to set enrollment fees for the modules at or above the fees charged by LTTS.
• Rights to offer continuing education credit for the modules with fees set at or above the fees charged by LTTS.
• Rights to offer modules for university credit.
• Training and guidelines in the design of modules.
• Training and guidelines for facilitating learning.
• Access to IU for basic LTTS system support.

The university expense and commitments are:

• A two-year license.
• A commitment to produce four modules per year as part of the license.
• Revenue sharing.
• Responsibility for all interactions with students including: enrolling students, providing learning facilitation, and providing student help support.

» Proven Effective

We have been developing LTTS courses since 1999 and have incorporated continuous input from teachers as we evaluated and refined the design. When we interview teachers who have taken our courses, over 80% tell us they used the projects they developed. Teachers who were interviewed or completed a course evaluation stated that the LTTS course was a valuable professional development experience.

» Learners Have Told Us:

"I really liked it … they gave you enough guidance that you felt confident about what you were doing, but you were still designing your own product." Paul, classroom teacher, Georgia

"I am extremely satisfied with what I have learned about integrated thematic instruction and supporting all learners with technology! Although I have developed many units before, this is the first time that I have really planned a unit with thoughtful consideration about the learning styles of my students, adaptations in terms of access for my challenged students, and technology enhancement. What a GREAT feeling!" Bonnie, classroom teacher, Indiana

“I am really impressed with this. I think this is a marvelous tool for teaching.” Marcia, instructional technology specialist, Texas

» Next Steps: What should you do if you are interested?

Several simple steps:

1. Review several LTTS courses.

a. Send us an e-mail and let us know:

• What courses you would like to access.
• The e-mail address for each reviewer.

b. Once we establish your review account, we will send you login information.

2. Decide how you would like to use the LTTS - either as a resource for classes or as a consortium member. We can help you make that decision and talk about the customization you may need.
Contact us and we will set up a time to talk about numbers of students and the custom features. Within one day we will be able to give you a price per student.

Point of Contact:

Thomas M. Duffy
Center for Research on Learning and Technology
School of Education
Indiana University
Bloomington, IN 47405
duffy@indiana.edu