Collaborative Design of Technology-Enhanced Learning: What can We Learn from Teacher Talk?

The collaborative design of technology-enhanced learning is seen as a practical and effective professional development strategy, especially because teachers learn from each other as they share and apply knowledge. But how teacher design team participants draw on and develop their knowledge has not yet been investigated. This qualitative investigation explored the nature and content of teacher conversations while designing technology-enhanced learning for early literacy. To do so, four sub-studies were undertaken, each focusing on different aspects of design talk within six teams of teachers. Findings indicate that non-supported design team engagement is unlikely to yield professional development; basic process support can enable in-depth conversations; subject matter support is used and affects design-decisions; visualization of classroom enactment triggers the use of teachers’ existing integrated technological pedagogical content knowledge; and individual teacher contributions vary in type. Implications for teacher design team members and facilitators are discussed

Exploring teacher roles and pupil outcomes in technology-rich early literacy learning

The present study focused on the involvement of Dutch kindergarten teachers in curriculum (design and) implementation of PictoPal activities in three different roles: executor-only, re-designer, and co-designer. PictoPal refers to ICT-rich on- and off-computer activities for early literacy. In the executor-only role, teachers were not involved in design; they implemented ready-made PictoPal activities in their classes. The re-designer and co-designer roles involved teams of teachers in a purposeful act of adjusting, respectively designing and implementing PictoPal. The aim of this study was to understand how teacher roles influence implementation of PictoPal and pupil learning outcomes. Case studies were used to examine each teacher role, and a cross-case analysis was undertaken to compare teacher roles with each other on a common set of measures: teacher perceptions about their role, curriculum practicality, and co-ownership; integration of on- and off-computer activities; and pupil learning. The data was gathered using interviews, checklists, and pre- and post-tests. The findings of this study showed that each teacher role (executor-only, re-designer, and co-designer) contributes significantly to the effectiveness of ICT-rich early literacy learning activities. Significant differences in integration of the on- and off-computer activities were found between the three teacher roles. Teachers as co-designers showed highest extent of integration. Across teacher roles, pupil learning outcomes were not straightforwardly related to the extent of integration. However, teachers as co-designers felt a sense of co-ownership towards PictoPal, which yielded high degrees of integration and willingness to extend implementation of PictoPal beyond the research context. Based on this study, it can be recommended that schools wishing to support early literacy development in kindergarten could responsibly choose to do so by engaging their teachers in collaborative design of ICT-rich activitie

Literacy, technology and early years education: Building sustainable practice

The application of technology to the literacy context presents challenges for teachers in the early years of formal education. One way of thinking about technology may be to consider the intersection of theories of literacy learning and understandings of technology use in the practice of early years teachers. The research reported in this chapter adopted a narrative methodology to explore two teachers’ literacy practices with technology in the early childhood context. The findings suggested that flexible approaches to the application of technology in early years literacy learning contexts could contribute to effective pedagogical practice