CTELL is a multi-year collaborative research project between four research universities which uses a unique case-study approach to improve pre-service teacher education and early literacy learning. It uses video cases of K-3 classrooms demonstrating research-based principles of effective practice that are delivered over the Internet. Built on principles of “situated cognition” and “anchored instruction”, CTELL uses rich cases which include many hours of online video of teachers and students; scans of student work (writing and images); test scores; and interviews with parents, students, teachers, administrators, and literacy scholars. In-service and pre-service teachers use these materials to develop their own theory of literacy instruction.

My role in the project was as a software developer. I was the charged with updating the first version of the software to make it more stable, flexible, and intuitive. Working from a desktop version written in Director, the new (and current) version is a web-based application that uses AJAX to maintain the rich user interface CTELL requires. Teachers “clip” video, audio, and text to create multimedia portfolios that express their understanding of literacy instruction. Much of the effort involved separating the content from the application logic. The resulting software is a flexible instructional tool that supports case-based teaching and anchored instruction across any domain of knowledge.