Teachers’ personal web use at work

This article presents findings from an online survey of teachers concerning personal web use (PWU) at work. Often considered as ‘cyberslacking’ or ‘Internet abuse’, PWU is a growing phenomenon within increasingly Internet-dependent workplaces. The findings of this study highlight a wide range of types of personal web usage amongst teachers ranging from sending personal emails to social networking and personal banking as well as a range of reasons for PWU from a means of addressing permeable work-life boundaries and coping with work intensification to providing a virtual space for routine resistance. The data also suggest that, rather than being detrimental to the organisation, PWU could potentially be a means of increasing worker productivity and developing the digital literacy of teachers. It concludes by considering the implications of the findings for senior managers within organisations

Competences for collaboration and knowledge sharing in digital society - a case study with an erasmus intensive programme

With the advent of social and collaborative environments, students became more active and participative - they not only have access to contents but also create and share them, becoming proactive. Communication has evolved, and with this evolution came the new media and the possibility of live conferencing, video sharing, social networking, collaborative tools, allowing the student to create, work collaboratively and communicate in a more direct way with their peers and their teachers. Instead of merely searching for information, applications such as bookmarking, feeds, tweeter and pinboards, digital portfolios, etc., along with the possibility of creating your own personal webpage, today’s Web gives students also the chance to create a PLE - A Personal Learning Environment. A PLE “recognizes that learning is continuing and seeks to provide tools to support that learning” (Attwell, 2007). The Individuals are responsible for the management of their own learning environment and for the selection of tools and contexts where learning will take place. Students need to acquire certain skills and competences, specific of a digital and connected society, in order to “effectively benefit from e-government, e-learning and e-health services, and participate actively in the knowledge society as co-creators, and not simply consumers, as highlighted by the European e-skills strategy” (McCormack, 2010). To only possess hard skills (that comes with experience and formal education) may not be enough to get someone a job. Besides e-skills and e-literacy competences, soft and social skills are also required. These can be practiced and enhanced in virtual environments. Digital literacy, and therefore e-skills, are transversal competences needed to every citizen. In this paper we will present the results of a case study carried out with attendees of an Erasmus Intensive Programme, which has promoted the development of digital literacies among participants. The Programme took place during 2013 summer and involved students and teachers (of teacher education and social service fields) from 3 different countries. The classes covered different tools and 12 tutors were involved. The main objectives were to provide students with information and communication technologies (ICT) skills for a digital society, namely: • Identification of students’ competencies in ICT; • Present students with different available collaboration tools by exploring the web 2.0; • Selection of specific tools to create students' personal learning environment (PLE); • Acquire necessary knowledge to master the selected tools; • Work collaboratively with the web 2.0 tools; • Establish methods for instruction and course design based on Web 2.0 (teacher education) with the goal to integrate technology enhanced learning and individual knowledge management in educational processes. At the end attendees were able to: • Master the different tools & services; • Be capable to use and select the most adequate web 2.0 tools & services; • Create and manage their PLE; • Share and to work collaboratively; • Be digitally skilled.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The adoption of Web 2.0 tools in teaching and learning by in-service secondary school teachers: the Mauritian context.

Doctoral Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.With the current rapid increase in use of Web 2.0 tools by students, it is becoming necessary for teachers to understand what is happening in this social networking phenomenon, so that they can better understand the new spaces that students inhabit and the implications for students’ learning and investigate the wealth of available Web 2.0 tools, and work to incorporate some into their pedagogical and learning practices. Teachers are using the Internet and social networking tools in their personal lives. However, there is little empirical evidence on teachers’ viewpoints and usage of social media and other online technologies to support their classroom practice. This study stemmed from the urgent need to address this gap by exploring teachers’ perceptions, and experience of the integration of online technologies, social media, in their personal lives and for professional practice to find the best predictors of the possibility of teachers’ using Web 2.0 tools in their professional practice. Underpinning the study is a conceptual framework consisting of core ideas found in the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) and technology pedagogy and content knowledge (TPACK) models. The conceptual framework, together with a review of relevant literature, enabled the formulation of a theoretical model for understanding teachers’ intention to exploit the potential of Web 2.0 tools. The model was then further developed using a mixed-method, two-phase methodology. In the first phase, a survey instrument was designed and distributed to in-service teachers following a Postgraduate Certificate in Education course at the institution where the researcher works. Using the data collected from the survey, exploratory factor analysis, correlational analysis and multiple regression analysis were used to refine the theoretical model. Other statistical methods were also used to gain further insights into teachers’ perceptions of use of Web 2.0 tools in their practices. In the second phase of the study, survey respondents were purposefully selected, based on quantitative results, to participate in interviews. The qualitative data yielded from the interviews was used to support and enrich understanding of the quantitative findings. The constructs teacher knowledge and technology pedagogy knowledge from the TPACK model and the constructs effort expectancy, facilitating conditions and performance expectancy are the best predictors of teachers’ intentions to use Web 2.0 tools in their professional practice. There was an interesting finding on the relationship between UTAUT and TPACK constructs. The constructs performance expectancy and effort expectancy had a significant relationship with all the TPACK constructs – technology knowledge, technology pedagogy knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), technology and content knowledge and TPACK – except for content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge. The association between the TPACK construct PCK with the UTAUT constructs performance expectancy and effort expectancy was an unexpected finding because PCK is only about PCK and has no technology component. The theoretical contribution of this study is the model, which is teachers’ intention of future use of Web 2.0 tools in their professional practice. The predictive model, together with other findings, enhances understanding of the nature of teachers’ intention to utilise Web 2.0 tools in their professional practice. Findings from this study have implications for school infrastructure, professional development of teachers and an ICT learning environment to support the adoption of Web 2.0 tools in teaching practices and are presented as guiding principles at the end of the study

The challenge of supporting networked personal inquiry learning across contexts

Supporting learning across different contexts can be challenging. Defining formal, informal and nonformal learning is the subject of continuing debate as each can be difficult to describe. We report on a study that evaluated the effectiveness of a Personal Inquiry toolkit on supporting personal inquiries into the sustainability of the food cycle, carried out across the contexts of home and an after school club in a UK secondary school. The toolkit consisted of a web-based Sustainability Investigator that could be accessed from any location, together with a selection of data-gathering tools such as environmental sensors (e.g. temperature probes) and cameras. It was designed to support students through the process of carrying out inquiries within the club and between the club and their home. Our main focus here is on describing how the Sustainability Investigator supported students' inquiries that were conceived and designed within the club and conducted at home. The 30 students (aged 12-14 years) chose to investigate home food storage, packaging and preservation. Our focus is on exploring the nature of the semi-formal club context and how this mediated students' use of the Sustainability Investigator. Analysis of our field notes, log files of students' use of the Sustainability Investigator, together with video and audio recordings of club sessions and interviews with teachers and pupils, suggest that while the pupils' use of the toolkit across contexts was sporadic and varied between students, they successfully completed personally relevant inquiries and developed positive attitudes to the process. This was different to the predictable, sustained and consistent use of the toolkit identified in our previous studies when the students used it (again successfully) to support their inquiries in a formal classroom setting (see e.g. Scanlon et al. 2009). Three main features of the school club context that mediated the ways in which the Sustainability Investigator was used by the students across contexts were: 1) the students' aims and priorities, 2) affordances and constraints of the technology, and 3) institutional priorities. We use this example of a study of learning across contexts to suggest implications of the work for the potential of a Personal Inquiry toolkit to support learning across the life course

La Web. Herramienta de trabajo Colaborativo: ¿Experiencia en la Universidad de Carabobo?

Indudablemente la revolución de la tecnología de la información y comunicación (TIC) a través de las telecomunicaciones y la informática han cambiando los estilos de vida en esta sociedad del conocimiento. Esto llega a indicar que estas TIC están aquí, y están para perpetuar en el tiempo. Hoy día se convive con el gran desafió que representa el uso de estas TIC en ambientes educativos por ello la necesidad de preparar y actualizar al personal docente de nuestro sector educativo (escuelas, colegios, tecnológicos, universidades, e institutos educacionales) para soportar el reto que implica su implementación. La Web es una de las herramientas de estas tecnologías que inducen a implementar cambios importantes en el proceso de enseñanza aprendizaje, específicamente en el desarrollo de trabajos colaborativos. Esta es una estrategia de aprendizaje que se ha expandido en todas las áreas de conocimiento facilitando a todos los actores del proceso (docentes, estudiantes) a una alta interacción de información construyendo su propio aprendizaje. El presente trabajo muestra una experiencia del uso de la web como herramienta en el trabajo colaborativo en cursos de "Diseño de Material Computarizado" en pregrado y postgrado en la Universidad de Carabobo y que demuestran la efectividad en el aprendizaje significativo de los tópicos tratados. Se utiliza como estrategia metodológica la creación de un entorno virtual de aprendizaje con el uso de la plataforma nicenet y el desarrollo de páginas web por parte de cada uno de los participantes de los cursos.The revolution of communication and information technology (CIT) through the use of telecommunications and computers has changed the life style of this society of knowledge. This fact indicates that this CIT is here to prevail in time. Nowadays we live with the challenge of the use of this CIT in educational environments, thus the necessity to prepare and to update the teachers and professors within the educational field (schools, technical colleges, universities, educational institutes) to sustain the defiance its implementation implies. The web is one of this technology tools that induces us to carry out important changes in the teaching and learning processes, specifically in the development of cooperative work. This is a learning strategy that has spread to all areas of knowledge, providing the teachers and the students with a high information interaction which permits them to build their own knowledge. The present paper exposes an experience on the use of the web as a cooperative work tool in courses of "Computerized Material Design", at pre and post degree levels at Carabobo University, that shows the efficiency of such a tool to accomplish a significant learning. The methodological strategy employed includes the creation of a learning virtual environment which comprises the use of the nicenet platform and the development of web pages by each of the participants of the courses

Web 2.0 technologies for learning at Key Stages 3 and 4: summary report

The research project on Web 2.0 technologies for learning at Key Stages 3 and 4 was a major initiative funded by Becta to investigate the use and impact of such technologies in and out of school. The purpose of this research was to help shape Becta's own thinking and inform policy-makers, schools and local authorities on the potential benefits of Web 2.0 technologies and how their use can be effectively and safely realised. This document is he summary of the reports published for this project

Development of pre-service mathematics teachers’ professional knowledge and identity in working with information and communication technology

This paper describes the work undertaken in a course in communication and information technology in a pre-service program for secondary school mathematics teachers. This course aimed to help pre-service teachers develop a positive attitude regarding ICT and use it confidently. It focused on the exploration of educational software and of the Internet’s potential as a means of research and production of web sites. We discuss how the pre-service mathematics teachers evaluate their work concerning their commitment, difficulties they found, learning they identified, and personal relationship. We also analyse the effects of the course on the development of their professional knowledge and identity

Pedagogic approaches to using technology for learning: literature review

This literature review is intended to address and support teaching qualifications and CPD through identifying new and emerging pedagogies; "determining what constitutes effective use of technology in teaching and learning; looking at new developments in teacher training qualifications to ensure that they are at the cutting edge of learning theory and classroom practice and making suggestions as to how teachers can continually update their skills." - Page 4

Implementing Web 2.0 in secondary schools: impacts, barriers and issues

One of the reports from the Web 2.0 technologies for learning at KS3 and KS4 project. This report explored Impact of Web 2.0 technologies on learning and teaching and drew upon evidence from multiple sources: field studies of 27 schools across the country; guided surveys of 2,600 school students; 100 interviews and 206 online surveys conducted with managers, teachers and technical staff in these schools; online surveys of the views of 96 parents; interviews held with 18 individual innovators in the field of Web 2.0 in education; and interviews with nine regional managers responsible for implementation of ICT at national level