The Development, Implementation and Evaluation of a Graduate Qualification in Computing for Teachers: How One Polytechnic got it Right!

Alison Young; Paul Wells
UNITEC Institute of Technology
ayoung@unitec.ac.nz

During the early part of the 1990's many new government initiatives in the technology area were introduced in New Zealand. However there was very little attention paid to the training and education requirements of teachers who urgently needed to become proficient users of the technology as well as to gain an understanding of how computers and associated technologies could be used to enhance the learning of their students.

There was an urgent need for a graduate qualification that would upskill and educate teachers at all levels, primary, secondary and higher education,to enable them to use the new technologies in their classrooms and lecture theatres. Not only did teachers need to gain personal computing skills, they also needed to know how to accesstechnology resources and to be able to utilise and/or develop CBT and other applications. Decreases in government central funding meant that teachers in some areas need to explore better and more cost effective ways of delivering curriculum content in order to overcome restraints of increased class sizes and decreased class contact time.

After investigation of the current qualifications available at Australian Universities, the Graduate Diploma in Computer Education was developed as a modular program designed specifically to met the needs of the teachers and the New Zealand education framework requirements. The program was introduced at The Waikato Polytechnic in 1993 with 14 students. It now has over 170 students and it is offered on eight sites throughout the country with the modules being offered by different flexible delivery methods.

This paper will examine the development and structure of the qualification and present an evaluation of the programme which explains how it has helped teachers meet the challenges presented by the new technology and an ever-changing educational environment.