Professional Development | News

St. Leo U Ramps Up K-12 Teacher Tech Training

• By Mike Hohenbrink
• 11/29/11

Saint Leo University's Education Department has opened a ground-breaking teacher training facility designed to prepare teachers to be at the forefront when it comes to new technologies in the classroom.

Housed in the main campus library, the new interactive training facility is designed to improve access for students and faculty to new tools and to integrate technology more completely into the learning experience.

"We've developed this initiative because we know that in order for our students to go out and be the best possible teachers they can be, they need to know how to make learning fun and engaging," said Candace A. Roberts, chair of the Education Department and associate professor of education. "We now require our education students to incorporate technology into their lesson plans when doing student-teaching in real-life classroom situations. We've seen big changes in their levels of confidence."

The facility is an outgrowth of a pilot program last year that featured an educational technology lab. The new facility launched this fall with space for up to 32 students.

Key features of the new facility include:

• iPad and iPod touch;
• MacBooks;
• MimioVote assessment system for polling and measuring student comprehension;
• Document camera;
• Flip video cameras; and
• Interactive whiteboards coupled with the MimioTeach Interactive System.

The new facility serves 100 students and 14 full-time faculty members in the education department and is open as well to the entire faculty and student body at St. Leo University.

With a main campus located 30 miles from Tampa, Saint Leo University educates more than 1,900 students on its main campus and more than 15,000 with its regional centers and online programs. The school offers a bachelor's in elementary and middle school education and a minor in secondary education, as well as graduate programs.

To learn more about Saint Leo University's Education Department, visit the program's Web site.