In 1999 the University of Wisconsin-River Falls (UW-RF) was awarded a Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) Implementation Grant totaling $572,356,00 from the United States Department of Education. The title of this grant: "Preparing UW-RF Teachers for 21st Century Schools: Effective Use of Technology for Teaching and Learning"
The original Technology Leadership Cadre (TLC), four graduate leaders and twenty-two undergraduate team members, and those who followed, were central to the implementation of the PT3 grant goals. These team members, working with a steering committee of graduate leaders and grant directors, Mary Lundeberg, So-young Zeon and Karen Ryan, were charged with providing technology integration support through workshops, and just-in-time individual assistance.
Although the PT3 funding ended in 2004, the Technology Leadership Cadre continues to this day, and each semester since 2004, sixteen to twenty TLC members have represented all four Colleges and served as technology leaders supporting peers, professors, and area k-12 educators.
Efforts to retain the TLC as a student technology integration leadership model are on-going. Connie Foster, Dean of the College of Education and Professional Studies, Mary Manke, Associate Dean, Karen Ryan, current TLC director, in collaboration with Linda Onan, TLC program assistant, seek ways to institutionalize funding for the work of the Technology Leadership Cadre.
