Personal Attitudes and Technology: Implications for Preservice Teacher Reflective Practice (Report‪)‬

The increasing importance of technology in today's world challenges teacher educators to create technology-proficient teachers, practitioners who can utilize existing technology, learn to work with emerging technology and adapt as needed when confronted with technological issues. In the 2001 report, Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology: Perspectives of the Leaders of Twelve National Education Associations, a panel of educators agreed that "future teachers emerging from the nation's teacher education programs [must be] prepared to meet this challenge" (Bell, 2001, p. 517). Acknowledging the need for technologically proficient teachers, teacher educators across the nation now infuse some degree of technological competency into the preparation of their preservice teachers (Bird & Rosaen, 2005; Cohen & Tally, 2004; Rosaen, Hobson, & Khan, 2003). Teacher educators face several obstacles to the implementation of technology into teacher preparation, however, among them the attitude held by preservice teachers toward the technology itself (Gunter, 2001; Johnson & Howell, 2005). While providing opportunities for preservice teachers to engage with technology personally, academically and pedagogically, teacher educators must also consider the attitudes toward technology that influence preservice teachers' experiences with that same technology. Technology has a place not only in preservice teachers' emerging classroom pedagogy but in their professional development as well. Reflective practice is one area currently drawing on different technologies, as teacher educators incorporate a range of technology into preservice teacher reflection. Drawing from a qualitative study in which weblogs were used for voluntary preservice teacher reflective practice, this article examines preservice teacher attitudes toward a specific technology and the influence of those attitudes on the use of that technology for voluntary reflection. The researcher uses the term "voluntary reflection" to express reflection that is undertaken by choice, outside course or programmatic requirements, with all aspects of the reflective activity (such as topic, quantity, formality and medium) determined by the preservice teacher.