Using Sociocultural Theory to Guide Teacher Use and Integration of Instructional Technology in Two Professional Development Schools

This article demonstrates how sociocultural theories can be used to support strategic structuring of professional development activities for preservice and practicing teachers on technology use and integration. Examples are drawn from the authors\u27 experiences with teachers in two professional development schools that participated in a four-year Preparing Tomorrow\u27s Teachers in Technology (PT3) project. After a review of sociocultural theory and their context, the authors describe three activity systems in these schools: one for practicing teachers, one for preservice teachers, and a joint preservice/practicing teacher system. Important supports for use and integration of technology built into each of these activity systems included varied activities aimed at both beginning and advanced technology users, multiple levels of assisted performance, and a collaborative culture that offered numerous opportunities for shared work. Lessons learned and implications for teacher educators involved in similar partnerships are outlined

Enhancing school-university partnerships.

Preservice teachers are offered school-based experiences as a component of their undergraduate teacher education programmes. While there have been major shifts toward establishing new types of partnerships between schools and teacher education providers internationally, in New Zealand the relationship has generally gone unexamined. New Zealand teachers, therefore, have continued as supervisors of students' experiences rather than as collaborative partners in teacher education. This study makes particular reference to the professional development school (PDS) movement in the United States of America to seek innovative ideas that might enhance school-university partnerships in New Zealand. Broader issues, however, surface as challenges and complexities are identified. Despite various criticisms there are benefits in the collaborative efforts giving cause for optimism for new types of school-university partnerships

Collaborative trails in e-learning environments

This deliverable focuses on collaboration within groups of learners, and hence collaborative trails. We begin by reviewing the theoretical background to collaborative learning and looking at the kinds of support that computers can give to groups of learners working collaboratively, and then look more deeply at some of the issues in designing environments to support collaborative learning trails and at tools and techniques, including collaborative filtering, that can be used for analysing collaborative trails. We then review the state-of-the-art in supporting collaborative learning in three different areas – experimental academic systems, systems using mobile technology (which are also generally academic), and commercially available systems. The final part of the deliverable presents three scenarios that show where technology that supports groups working collaboratively and producing collaborative trails may be heading in the near future

The JIDA conference: teaching practice as research

The Workshop on Educational Innovation in Architecture (JIDA) promotes reflection and debate among the faculty of the different schools of architecture. The communications presented in the five editions held so far (2013-2017) can be considered a “living archive” of the teaching practices of more than thirty Spanish and twenty foreign universities. This material is extremely helpful for improving the education of architects and to lay the foundations for research into the instructional scenario in this discipline. With this purpose in mind, work is being done on a constellation of terms related to pedagogical practices, which is intended to conceptualize the diversity of strategies and methodologies presented these years at the conference. This sample of teaching experiences is a base upon which to consider the current situation of schools of architecture and to ask ourselves: what will training be like for architects 20 years from now?Peer Reviewe

Learning by Design, Design by Learning: an investigation into (re)designing a Rochester school for the future of learning

School buildings and their learning environments have remained relatively static over time. Many of the classrooms still in use today were built for traditional, “chalk-n-talk” pedagogies and passive learning; they are not prepared for today’s more active learning approaches.1 Innovative schools are beginning to adopt new curricula and pedagogical strategies that align with research being done on student learning outcomes. In Rochester, New York, an initiative called the Rochester Schools Modernization Program (RSMP) has secured $325 million from New York State for Phase I of an effort to redesign, renovate and update 12 existing schools. Later phases will address the remaining schools in Rochester, NY. How can physical environments accommodate these new learning models, and continue to inspire students? School developers and designers are rethinking all physical resources to create “breakthrough environments”: ones where their new school models can thrive and where students can be fully engaged in their learning.2 Because students will continue to spend less seat time in traditional classrooms, new school designs are built to foster learning anytime and everywhere, through both purposeful and unscheduled social interaction.3 This thesis will combine research of how students learn, environmental factors of learning, and the benefits of sustainable schools into a schematic redesign of Nathaniel Hawthorne School #25, a struggling elementary school in Rochester, New York. This school building redesign will then serve as a model for the Rochester School Modernization Project (RSMP), offering insights and researched ideas that will support the project as a whole

The Need for Computerization in Basic Education in Nigeria

Information and communication technologies (ICT) have become commonplace in all aspects of life. Across the past twenty years, the use of computers has fundamentally changed the practices and procedures of nearly all forms of endeavor within business and governance. Education is socially-oriented activity and quality education has traditionally been associated with strong teachers having high degrees of personal contact with learners (pupils and students). The use of ICT in education lends itself to more student-centered learning settings. But with the world moving rapidly into digital media and information, the need for computers and its peripherals in universal basic education is becoming more and more important and this importance will continue to grow and develop in the 21st century. In this paper, a literature review regarding the importance of ICTs in basic education was provided, effective use of ICT for Education, along with ICT use in the teaching-learning process; quality and accessibility of education; learning motivation and learning environment. Besides, an overview of the ICT and scholastic performance

Indicators of Constructivist Principles in Internet-Based Courses

The purpose of this study was to provide greater assurance of quality in Internet-based courses. Current literature supports the assumption that the inclusion of constructivist principles in online courses adds to course quality. Therefore, identifying indicators of constructivist learning theory is important to the development of online courses. A peer-nominated panel of national experts in constructivism and instructional technology participated in a 3-round Delphi web survey. Through the iterative process, panelists assigned a mean rating of importance of 4.0 or higher (on a 5-point Likert scale) to 40 indicators of constructivist principles in online courses. Three implications for course design were identified; (1) one size (of learning model) does not fit all, (2) the six identified categories and their related indicators provide a framework for course development, and (3) indicators of constructivist principles transcend technology

Indicators of Constructivist Principles in Internet-Based Courses

The purpose of this study was to provide greater assurance of quality in Internet-based courses. Current literature supports the assumption that the inclusion of constructivist principles in online courses adds to course quality. Therefore, identifying indicators of constructivist learning theory is important to the development of online courses. A peer-nominated panel of national experts in constructivism and instructional technology participated in a 3-round Delphi web survey. Through the iterative process, panelists assigned a mean rating of importance of 4.0 or higher (on a 5-point Likert scale) to 40 indicators of constructivist principles in online courses. Three implications for course design were identified; (1) one size (of learning model) does not fit all, (2) the six identified categories and their related indicators provide a framework for course development, and (3) indicators of constructivist principles transcend technology