Jenny Leach

Innovative and Sustainable Mobile Learning in Africa

Mobile learning is gaining ground in the developed countries of Europe, North America and the Pacific Rim. In the dramatically different affordances of sub Saharan Africa, mobile learning is developing in a different direction. This paper brings together accounts of two contrasting initiatives, both of which support in-service teacher training and novel but appropriate blended learning formats, in the region in order to illustrate the differences and the difficulties of mobile learning and in order to explore their potential synergy.

Extract from new understandings of teachers' pedagogic knowledge 1

How significant is content or subject knowledge for creative and effective teaching? What links can be made between a teachers knowledge and the associated pedagogic strategies and practices to en...

Do new information and communications technologies have a role to play in the achievement of education for all

Many commentators have suggested that the use of new information and communications technologies (ICTs) has significant potential in providing access to, and improving the quality of, teacher education. Such an idea is particularly relevant for the Global South, it is argued, where tens of thousands more qualified teachers are required if universal primary education (UPE) is to be achieved. This article explores six arguments commonly used to critique the relevance of ICT for development, encompassing technical, cost, philosophical, cultural and pedagogic issues. The arguments are categorised as the ‘technological’ view; the ‘donor’ view; the ‘anthropological’ view; the ‘standard’ view; the ‘individual’ view; and the ‘transmissional’ view. Drawing on empirical research into ICT and teacher education in sub‐Saharan Africa, including the work of the Digital Education Enhancement Project, six responses are used to review these arguments (‘developmental’, ‘democratic’, ‘cultural’, ‘deep’, ‘community’ and ‘ped...

Do new information and communication technologies have a role to play in achieving quality professional development for teachers in the global south

This paper is addressed to the international community of educators and educational policy makers who, it is argued, need to commit to joint research and creative action in respect of the challenge of Education for All (EFA). The first section, A Global Challenge for Teacher Development, sets out: the implications for teacher education of the Education For All agenda; the potential of new information and communication technologies (ICT) in addressing this problem; an overview of an applied research project exploring new models of teacher education using ICT in rural and resource challenged environments. In the second section Towards New Models of Professional Development, four categories of teacher professional knowledge from this model are used to interpret and explore the findings of the project and its impact on teacher knowledge and development. The paper concludes that ICT can no longer be viewed as some sort of optional pedagogic strategy available in ever increasing sophistication, as well as quantity, to only a small proportion of the worlds teachers. They need to be seen as an essential aspect of teachings cultural toolkit in the 21st century, affording new and transformative models of development that extend the nature and reach of teacher learning wherever it takes place. Such models must be experienced, shared and evaluated by educators world wide if the global commitment to achievement of the EFA targets is to become a reality.

The curriculum knowledge of teachers: a review of the potential of large-scale, electronic conference environments for professional development

This article presents an analysis of two large-scale computer mediated conference environments, supporting teacher education programmes. The analysis draws on programme purposes and policies, log file data, user questionnaires, and conference observation. A review of the task of creating, developing and sustaining such environments for professional learning is presented, based in particular on the community of practice (COP) concept. This focus on a social view of learning is sustained in the final section of the paper, where a model is proposed for exploring the development of teacher professional knowledge. The model is exemplified by means of individual messages and discussion threads drawn from the conferences. The article concludes that professional learning in e-environments is only sustainable through the gradual development of joint enterprises, which draw on the common, as well as distributed knowledge, of a range of participants, including newcomers and expert practitioners.