In an effort to enrich and modernize education, the United States government has invested billions of dollars to provide schools with modern technical equipment. For these investments to pay off, future teachers must be able to use these learning tools to improve education. With a three-year Catalyst grant from the Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) program, Technology Based Learning and Research (TBLR) is creating an online Digital Video Library (DVL), targeting teacher candidates and methods professors. This digital library will be based on the National Education Technology Standards (NETS) developed by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and will contain footage of teachers modeling lesson activities that incorporate the NETS. The content of the DVL will also integrate discussion from experts, resources for technology integration and listings of NETS for Teachers and Students.
The DVL will provide on-demand support for educators, helping them to introduce preservice teachers to a wide range of technological tools and resources. Through this project TBLR hopes to impact the national educational system by providing an online digital video collection of exemplary technology-using teachers and teacher education faculty effectively integrating technology. The online collection of digital models provides preservice teachers and teacher education faculty with specific strategies on how to organize and manage technology-based learning environments.