Teachers and Innovative use of ICT

1. Teachers and Innovative use of ICT A Marriage Searching for Quality Elsebeth K. Sorensen Aalborg University, Denmark (eks@hum.aau.dk) Gunilla Jedeskog Linköping University, Sweden (gunje@ibv.liu.se) Daithí Ó Murchú Gaelscoil Ó Doghair, Innovative e-Learning/e-Tutoring, Hibernia College, Ireland (omurchu.ias@eircom.net)

2. OutlineAim of paper: A conceptual model of pedagogical quality for thinking about teaching and learning in the 21st century • Analytical perspectives on innovation and quality • Keywords of quality in general practice • Perspectives of implementation • Teacher education • General practice and trends • A conceptual model...... • Learning in the horizon of teaching • Quality in learning and teaching • The model... • Synthesis • Teachers • Time • Questions for reflection

3. Analytical Perspectives on Innovation and Quality

4. Keywords of quality • Learning to learn • Collaboration (knowledge building) • Team teaching & learning • Learning communities • Digital literacy • Lifelong learning

5. Perspectives of implementation(House & McQuillan, 1998) • 3 different perspectives: • Technological (top-down) • Initiated from actors outside schools • Political (?) • Some level of negotiations with teachers • Cultural (bottom-up) • Teachers perspectives in focus

6. Looking to the past - an example from the US(Becker, 1998) • 1982: to have pupils program computers using BASIC. • “It is the language that comes with your computer”. • 1984: to have pupils program in Logo. • “Teach pupils to think, not just program”. • 1986: to use “integrated” drill-and-practice systems. • “Use networked systems that individualise instruction and focus on increasing test scores”. • 1988: to do word-processing. • “Use computers as tools, like adults do”. • 1990: to use curriculum-specific tools such as history databases and science simulators and data acquisition probes. • “Integrate the computers with the existing curriculum”. • 1992: to do multimedia hypertext programming. • “Change the curriculum – pupils learn best by creating products for an audience”. • 1994: to use electronic-mail. • “Let students be part of the real world”. • 1996: to publish students’ work to a world-wide audience via www.

7. Teacher education: Status quo & challenges • Education for the future - and the future is NOW! If we wish to provide our students with a quality education, as previously defined, we must consider more than mere transmission of information and facts. We must take account of what the educational research tells us about learning; namely that students learn best by: building on pre-existing knowledge; active learning; learning with understanding; and adopting a metacognitive approach (Hollingworth, 2002). • As the pace of change increases the more important it will become to ensure that teachers and students acquire a breadth of thinking skills and attitudes to keep pace with innovations and developments (Sorensen, Jedeskog, Ó Murchú, 2005).

8. Teacher education: Status quo & challenges • How advances in technology might influence teaching and learning must be of special importance to all teachers and learners. (...) teachers need to reflect carefully and professionally on their teaching practices, preferably with the benefit of a conception of teaching and learning well informed by educational research. • Remember we are preparing students for the society which does not, as yet exist !

9. General practice & trends • Innovation and collaboration as a result of implementation of ICT are not frequent • student-student collaboration • student-teacher collaboration • innovative teaching-learning methodology • and change of roles and power structures between teachers and learners • The Elfe project in general confirms this, also from the teachers’ perspective: • integration of ICT had not led to a real change in practice and innovation in teaching and learning methodology • or to alterations of teacher authority, teacher-student roles and power relationships within the learning processes.

10. A conceptual model of pedagogical quality for thinking about teaching and learning in the 21st century

11. A double value • A conceptual pedagogical model for understanding and cultivating teachers’ learning as well as students’ learning (as the same criteria of meaningful learning apply) • A mutual learning process in a shared endeavor • In a blended environment

12. Learning in the horizon of teaching • We are social beings. Far from being trivially true, this fact is a central aspect of learning. • Knowing is a matter of participating in the pursuit of such enterprises, that is, of active engagement in the world. • Meaning – our ability to experience the world and our engagement with it as meaningful – is ultimately what learning is to produce. • Practice – a way of talking about the shared historical and social resources, frameworks, and perspectives that can sustain mutual engagement in action.

13. Genuine learning is individual, but stimulated collaboratively; It is situationally unpredictable; It has an extension in time and can never be fully finished; It creates existential commitment (with an element of risk) as it has to do with the meaning of life; It is authentic learning; Collaborative learning is a powerful but at the same a fragile process Collaboration creates a positive commitment that motivates participation and drives the learning process Collaboration engages the participants in learning. Quality:Genuine learning through collaboration and dialogue Both emphasize learning as an individual and a social phenomenon Both argue for shared, collaborative and democratic learning efforts, stimulated through participation, engagement, motivation, and ownership.

14. “Bildung” with ICT - through collaboration and dialogue • Developing global democratic values and attitudes: • A critical mind • Ability to listen • Ability to consider and/or incorporate other’s views • Practicing qualifications of modern work life: • Ability to collaborate and teamwork • Ability to practice knowledge building and sharing • Ability to learn continuously (learning to learn)

15. The power of collaborative learning • A social, collaborative phenomenon taking place through ”negotiation of meaning” (Wenger, 1998) in the interplay between reflection and interaction/dialogue • A social phenomenon happening when knowledge has been applied in critical dialogue with others

16. Web Search simulations Instantaneous practical experience with course Research Papers Course readings The Collaborative Dialogue space The Collaborative Dialogue space Multi-media based resources Research Papers Personal Knowledge and experience Web Search Previous dialogue The MMD Model - A Collaborative Dialogue Space (Sorensen & Ó Murchú, 2005)

17. Features of learning quality • Awareness: We cannot design learning - only (V)LEs of good pedagogic quality • The collaborative pedagogy - POPP • Problem-orientation • Transparency • Cross-disciplinary • Collaboration/interaction (shared construction of meaning, mutual engagement) • Quality (knowledge building process) • Reflection, self-reflection, meta-reflection • Creativity • Improvisation • Democratic non-authoritarian process • Dynamic teacher-student role • Student-centeredness, participant-driven: • Initiative, motivation, leadership

18. Synthesis

19. The teacher as the key • The appropriate role of technology depends on the individual educational designer’s/teacher’s views and perception of the goals of education • A conscious choice • Time

20. “Time” is an issue(Fullan, 2001) • Three stages: • Initiation: • Being informed • Implementation (change): • Fear, risk, etc. • Pedagogical imagination • Competence • Institutionalization

21. A set of questions for reflection • Learning - the ultimate goal of teaching? • Dialogue/collaboration? • The role of the teacher/student? • Incitement - a result of authenticity? • Meta-learning? • Methodology? • How to balance student initiatives and teachers’ need to control? • Imagining appropriate assessment models? • How to use ICT to foster collaboration?