Orillas T3 Orillas Tomorrow's Teachers in Technology Project

This project gives future teachers direct experience, during their teacher training, in learning about global learning networks and in exchanging perspectives with other educators. Through this project three kinds of discussions will take place: 1) future teachers around the world will share perspectives on creating effective and equitable schools and classrooms that will better meet the needs of all students, 2) future teachers will have the opportunity to learn first-hand about IEARN's projects as facilitators or participants, and 3) professors of education can compare perspectives and approaches in designing experiences for future teachers in their courses.

We know that teachers often teach they way they were taught. For this reason it is important to ensure that future teachers get direct experience with innovative technology use and global learning early in their careers. We hope to transform our classrooms and schools, by transforming the way teachers are trained.

The IEARN Future Teachers Project was launched during the 1999 IEARN annual conference in Puerto Rico and has been developed collaboratively during subsequent IEARN conferences. We also collaborate in this work with coordinators of the Learning, Equity, Achievement, and Reform Network (LEARN) who, with a federally-funded project, generated the equity-focused future teacher exchange "Knowing Our Students, Knowing Ourselves."

Facilitated by: Enid Figueroa, Puerto Rico, Kristin Brown, U.S.A. RamÃ3n Iriarte Paraguay

Ages: Future teachers (pre-service education students) and their professors in teacher preparation programs.

Languages: Spanish and English primarily. (Other languages are welcome.)

Dates: September-May

Website: http://www.orillas.org

Contact: For more information about participating in this or other iEARN projects, write to iearn@iearn.org.