Thérèse Laferrière

Emerging E‐Trends and Models in Teacher Education and Professional Development

With the advent of the knowledge era, teacher education needs to prepare teachers to face the changing technological contexts and to model pedagogies and tools for better forms of learning. Despite much enthusiasm about the roles of technology in education, its role in transforming teacher learning, in ways aligned with advances in the learning sciences and contemporary socio‐cultural perspectives, few changes have occurred. While many teacher educators are turning away from technology after early attempts met with mitigated success, some are pushing the boundaries of teacher education and professional activity systems. This paper identifies and analyzes emerging trends and models in e‐learning for teacher education and professional development from the developing research base; both international trends and current developments in the Asia‐Pacific region are described. We focus on progressively more sophisticated approaches including: (1) renewal of delivery of information with online repositories and courses; (2) rise of web‐supported classrooms; (3) participation in learning networks and communities; and (4) knowledge creation in knowledge‐building communities. We propose that technological innovations accompany social and pedagogical changes, and for the betterment of education, teachers need to play key roles as owners and designers of their learning. The potentials and challenges regarding these emerging trends in e‐learning and their implications for teacher learning are examined.

Barriers to Successful Implementation of Technology Integration in Educational Settings: A Case Study.

Representing issues discussed at the EduSummIT 2011 relative to essential conditions and barriers to successful technology integration, this article presents a systemic analysis of barriers that needed to be overcome for an information technology initiative (Remote Networked School project) to be successfully implemented. The analysis was conducted from an activity theory framework. Barriers were conceptualized as tensions that pulled constituents of an activity system or activity systems in opposite directions at four distinct levels of contradiction. Chains of tensions–pivotal actions that led to the overcoming of barriers were identified. Twelve exemplars illustrate how roles, policies and routines were transformed for necessary conditions to be in place in small remote schools. As emphasized by our application of activity theory, these conditions, which parallel the essential conditions formulated by the International Society for Technology in Education, can never be taken for granted by the educational agents of a specific setting. In the case presented, activity theory explains that the overcoming of barriers is an ongoing exercise as some tensions get resolved, reappear or give way to new ones.

Issues and Challenges Related to Digital Equity

Although there has been significant growth worldwide in access to computers and the Internet, the digital divide continues to be a major form of social and economic exclusion for many peoples across the globe. This section focuses on research related to digital-related issues and challenges encountered in the field of primary and secondary education. Five issues and related challenges and possible strategies are identified: 1) access to hardware, software and connectivity to the Internet; 2) access to meaningful, high quality, culturally relevant content in local languages; 3) access to educators who know how to use digital tools and resources; 4) access to high quality research on the application of digital technologies to enhance learning; 5) access to content creation.

Partnerships for Knowledge Building: An Emerging Model

Knowledge Building is approached in this study from an organizational perspective, with a focus on the nature of school-university-government partnerships to support research-based educational innovation. The paper starts with an overview of what is known about effective partnerships and elaborates a conceptual framework for Knowledge Building partnerships based on a review of literature and two case studies of school-university-government partnerships. In one case, a Ministry of Education wanted to bring more vitality into schools of small remote villages, and in the other case another Ministry of Education wanted to renew its school-based international cooperation profile. Emerging from this work is a three-component model for going to scale with Knowledge Building partnerships: Knowledge Building as a shared vision; symmetric knowledge advancement; and multi-level, research-based innovation. Characteristics of, and conditions for, effective partnerships for Knowledge Building are elaborated, and an emerging model is developed to help communities establish effective partnerships and contribute to this evolving model.

Integrating Information and Communication Technologies into Higher Education: Investigating Onsite and Online Students' Points of View

For the past two decades, information and communication technologies (ICT) have transformed the ways professors teach and students learn. The purpose of this study is to investigate the points of view of onsite students (blended or hybrid mode) and of those taking the same courses on the Internet (online mode). A moderator‐type theoretical research model was developed, out of which nine hypotheses were formulated. The model was tested in a field experiment. Data were collected using a multi‐method approach; that is, a web survey involving open‐ended and closed‐ended questions. The sample was formed of 313 onsite and online students from eight undergraduate and graduate courses offered at the Faculty of Administration of a large Canadian university. The quantitative data analysis was performed using structural equation modelling software; that is, partial least squares. The qualitative data were analysed following a thematic structure using QSR NVivo software. This paper presents a summary of the quantitative results (closed‐ended questions) supported by and enriched by the qualitative results (open‐ended questions).

CollabU: a design for reflective, collaborative university teaching and learning

This paper describes a collaborative university seminar, CollabU, involving five North-American universities in its first implementation in the Winter of 1999. In this report we emphasize the design process, the role of reflective practice, and the implications of the seminar for understanding emerging transformations in university learning, teaching, and scholarship.

The Knowledge Building International Project (KBIP): Scaling Up Professional Development Using Collaborative Technology

Classroom-based knowledge building requires advanced pedagogies and collaborative technologies. It qualifies as disruptive innovation: progressively more impressive accounts of what students and teachers can accomplish alter beliefs regarding developmental, demographic, and cultural barriers. To establish knowledge-building communities requires effort from within as well as from outside the classroom. The Knowledge Building International Project (KBIP) has been rooted in school-university-government (SUNG) partnerships, along with their locally based networks of innovation. The chapter starts with a conceptualization of professional development in the digital era, and the main constituents of the Remote Networked School (RNS) initiative are presented. Next, a description of the SUNG partnerships follows. Emphasis is on agency, as it was observed in the RNS and in the SUNG dynamics of partnerships for classroom-based knowledge building: knowledge building as a shared vision, symmetric knowledge advancement, and multilevel, research-based innovation. Following is a descriptive analysis of the Knowledge Building International Project (KBIP 2007–2014) using Engestrom’s (1987) third-generation activity theory framework (Engestrom and Sannino 2010). Referring to Engestrom’s expansive learning cycle (1987), further analysis is provided regarding the overcoming of double binds for KBIP expansion as an activity.

Digital equity and intercultural education

Digital equity and intercultural education continue to be areas of concern in the emerging knowledge-based society. The digital divide is present across the globe as the result of a complex of factors such as the inequality in: access to hardware and connectivity; autonomy of use; digital and literacy skills; availability of technical and social support; and access to educators skilled in the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). Although there is rapid progress in the growth of mobile subscriptions across the globe, there remain groups of digitally excluded peoples within and across countries. Moreover, although progress has been made in addressing connectivity issues and challenges in learning about digital technology, teachers and learners continue to face issues and challenges related to teaching-and-learning with digital technologies and resources within local contexts and beyond. For instance, in an era of rapid global cultural, political, economic and social changes, the need for intercultural education has never been greater. Not only does digital exclusion contribute to a knowledge divide but it also limits opportunities for intercultural connections, communications and understandings. Building on the work of previous EDUsummITs, the EDUsumIT 2013 participants focused on exploring how digital equity and intercultural education are intertwined. This paper describes current needs and challenges as well as opportunities related to digital equity and intercultural education, as well as the increasingly important role technology plays in helping to foster intercultural understanding and education. These are illustrated by examples of how access to digital resources may help bridge both the digital and cultural divides and relate them to some of the recommendations for policy and practice made by the EduSummit 2013 Digital Equity and Intercultural Education Workgroup to help address these needs.

Multivocality in Interaction Analysis: Implications for Practice

While the focus of this book is generally to explore whether multivocal analysis of the same dataset can lead to productive interactions among researchers and possible theoretical and/or methodological developments that this may bring about, this chapter explores whether such multivocality would have meaningful implications for practice. Our analysis demonstrates that irrespective of the analysts’ theoretical or methodological constructs, whether the work has pedagogical relevance depends largely on the purpose and focus of the analysis. A meaningful analysis from the practice perspective can be made by researchers who do not themselves generate the data, and using analytical methods that are grounded on theoretical frameworks different from the ones underpinning the pedagogical practice contexts from which the data were collected. Pivotal moments that are directly linked to the subject matter domain being studied are likely to be easily appreciated by teachers as relevant to their practice. However, not all pivotal moments have direct relevance to pedagogical practice. Further, this preliminary study as provides substantial evidence that the multivocality in interaction analysis can be productive in providing valuable insight and pedagogical support to teachers interested in implementing collaborative learning in their everyday practice. Overall, we find that multivocal interaction analysis can contribute to two types of relevance to practice: those that can inform more immediate pedagogical decision-making and those that provide more general insight and understanding to the processes and outcomes of learning and knowledge building in collaborative contexts.

Knowledge Building/Knowledge Forum ® : The Transformation of Classroom Discourse

The goal of our chapter is to contribute to a better understanding of the new kind of learning: the place of computers, knowledge building, and progressive inquiry. We begin with a discussion of typical classroom discourse: IRE/F. Next, we examined how students and teachers used knowledge-building principles (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 2003) supported by Knowledge Forum (Scardamalia, 2002) in understanding the problems of climate change. At a micro level of analysis, our research focused on the kinds of questions students asked and their subsequent discourse/explanation. We used grids developed by Hmelo–Silver and Barrows (2008) and a classification system developed by Hakkarainen (2003). Results showed a level of explanation in student discourse that contrasted sharply with the IRE classroom discourse structure (teacher initiated question—student response—teacher evaluation; see Cazden, 1988) and with the IRF structure (initiation—response—feedback; see Sinclair, Mc, & Coulthard, 1975; Wells, 1993). The emerging discourse pattern identified in this chapter is called IRFI (initiation—response—feedback/further inquiry).