Conceptualising teachers' professional learning with Web 2.0

Purpose – This paper seeks to identify and develop an exploratory framework for conceptualising how teachers might use the affordances of Web 2.0 technologies to support their own professional learning. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on a large corpus of literature and recent research evidence to identify the principal elements and features of professional learning and the underlying affordances of Web 2.0 technologies and applications. It generates an exploratory conceptual framework based on the emerging findings from this review using a socio‐cultural theoretical perspective. The framework is explored through three individual illustrations which are drawn from a much larger case study which the author is undertaking within a newly established Academy in the North of England. Findings – The findings indicate that there is potential value in exploring professional learning with Web 2.0 technologies in the ways described. The framework offers an exploratory instrument to examine how professional learning for teachers could be supported with Web 2.0 technologies in ways that might have significant benefits over traditional methods of continuing professional development (CPD). Originality/value – The potential value and affordances of Web 2.0 technologies for teachers' professional learning are largely unexplored and under‐theorised, and this work seeks to establish a framework for further discussion and empirical exploration

Barriers and solutions to innovation in teacher education

This article proposes how mobile technologies are being employed innovatively in teacher education across the European Union, contributing to an adjustment in teacher training models. It identifies various barriers and challenges to innovation and illustrates how teacher educators have addressed these in the first year of an Erasmus+ funded project

Translational research principles applied to education: the mapping educational specialist knowhow (MESH) initiative

MESH is a part of a research project applying knowledge management principles which are well known in other sectors, public and private, to the education sector (Leask, 2011, 2012; Leask and Younie 2013, Leask and Preston 2012). The goal is to develop and test out the new ways of working now possible with digital technologies which can address long standing improvement challenges faced by education sectors in all countries

Teachers learning to use the iPad in Scotland and Wales: a new model of professional development

In learning to use a new technology like the iPad, primary teachers adopt a diverse range of experiential, informal and playful strategies contrasting sharply with traditional models underpinning professional development which emphasise formal courses and events led by ‘experts’ conducted in formal settings such as the school. Since post-PC devices like the iPad have been linked with transformational educational learning, there is an imperative to better understand how teachers can be encouraged to use them more effectively. Despite their growing popularity in schools, there is little research to indicate how and under what circumstances teachers learn to integrate these technologies into their daily practices. This paper uses data collected from two national studies of iPad use in Scotland and Wales to propose a new model of professional development. This model reflects findings that the teachers reject traditional models of sequential, or staged, professional development (often led by external providers or ‘experts’), in favour of a more nuanced and fluid model where they learn at their own pace, in a largely experiential fashion, alongside their pupils in a relationship which reverses the traditional power nexus. The model has the potential to inform professional development for both trainee and serving teachers in learning to use the iPad in the primary classroom

Mobilising teacher education: a study of a professional learning community

This paper reports on a study of a community of university educators that investigated the introduction of mobile technologies into their learning and teaching. The study was conducted by a subgroup of that community. Given the ubiquity of mobile devices, members of the community felt they needed to develop expertise in mobile learning so that they could incorporate it into their teaching. They studied their own learning, supported by a critical friend who evaluated the community's functioning and activities, providing valuable feedback. Activities of this group were informed by and focused on: development of awareness of the potential of mobile devices for learning; construction of action plans within the community; and implementation of these plans. They also included investigating best-practice approaches by interviewing experts in the field, exploring the literature on mobile learning and then initiating and testing some mobile learning pedagogies in the context of their own teacher education subjects. The community met regularly to discuss emerging issues and applications. The paper shares some of the findings gained from studying the community, and discusses the challenges and constraints that were experienced. The authors conclude with recommendations for professional learning communities aiming to learn about technology-mediated teaching practices

Access denied? Twenty-first-century technology in schools

This article considers how developments in technologies have transformed the kind of social interaction possible over the Internet making it feasible to undertake discourse and dialogue without having to rely solely on text based mediation. This represents a fundamental change to learning, shifting from passive acquisition of someone else's ideas to active learning experiences that empower people to inquire, critique, create, collaborate, problem solve and create understanding. Such technologies are also about the portability of mobile digital devices which now have the potential to allow any-time access for users either through Wi-Fi or mobile broadband providers and for those devices to become personal. The implications for education are enormous and the anticipated change probably ranks alongside the introduction of the printing press in terms of historical importance. This article considers those implications and draws on research recently conducted in schools and other educational settings in the UK. We conclude that the need to allow use of personal digital devices in schools seems inexorable the further we go into the new millennium. This simple premise is fraught with many difficulties and challenges, however, which suggest that for many students the current situation is ‘Access denied'

Viewing mobile learning from a pedagogical perspective

Mobile learning is a relatively new phenomenon and the theoretical basis is currently under development. The paper presents a pedagogical perspective of mobile learning which highlights three central features of mobile learning: authenticity, collaboration and personalisation, embedded in the unique timespace contexts of mobile learning. A pedagogical framework was developed and tested through activities in two mobile learning projects located in teacher education communities: Mobagogy, a project in which faculty staff in an Australian university developed understanding of mobile learning; and The Bird in the Hand Project, which explored the use of smartphones by student teachers and their mentors in the United Kingdom. The framework is used to critique the pedagogy in a selection of reported mobile learning scenarios, enabling an assessment of mobile activities and pedagogical approaches, and consideration of their contributions to learning from a socio-cultural perspective

Synapsin selectively controls the mobility of resting pool vesicles at hippocampal terminals

Presynaptic terminals are specialized sites for information transmission where vesicles fuse with the plasma membrane and are locally recycled. Recent work has extended this classical view, with the observation that a subset of functional vesicles is dynamically shared between adjacent terminals by lateral axonal transport. Conceptually, such transport would be expected to disrupt vesicle retention around the active zone, yet terminals are characterized by a high-density vesicle cluster, suggesting that counteracting stabilizing mechanisms must operate against this tendency. The synapsins are a family of proteins that associate with synaptic vesicles and determine vesicle numbers at the terminal, but their specific function remains controversial. Here, using multiple quantitative fluorescence-based approaches and electron microscopy, we show that synapsin is instrumental for resisting vesicle dispersion and serves as a regulatory element for controlling lateral vesicle sharing between synapses. Deleting synapsin disrupts the organization of presynaptic vesicle clusters, making their boundaries hard to define. Concurrently, the fraction of vesicles amenable to transport is increased, and more vesicles are translocated to the axon. Importantly, in neurons from synapsin knock-out mice the resting and recycling pools are equally mobile. Synapsin, when present, specifically restricts the mobility of resting pool vesicles without affecting the division of vesicles between these pools. Specific expression of synapsin IIa, the sole isoform affecting synaptic depression, rescues the knock-out phenotype. Together, our results show that synapsin is pivotal for maintaining synaptic vesicle cluster integrity and that it contributes to the regulated sharing of vesicles between terminals

Exploring communication of the elephant management plan of South African National Parks.

M. Sc. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg 2014.The complexity associated with elephant management within the South African context makes communication of management decisions a difficult undertaking. People construct mental models based on their ideas and understanding which form the bases of the perceptions of their worlds and are the constructs of mental models. An understanding of these mental models is necessary in order for a common focus to be created so that attitudes might be influenced. What is required is a means in which the maintenance of biodiversity could form a component of people’s (or groups of people’s) mental constructs. A recommendation by the Department of Environmental Affairs was that an Elephant Management Communication Plan should be established to facilitate clear channels of communication between the South African National Parks and its respective stakeholders. Thus, the main research question was: How effective is the Elephant Management Communication Plan likely to be in raising awareness amongst all relevant stakeholders about how elephants are managed in National Parks in South Africa? To answer this, the research critically analyses the Communication Plan Formulation Process through qualitative research methodology. The research concluded that the scope of what is required of the Communication Plan Formulation Process needs to take cognisance of changing environments, perceptions and paradigms on elephant management which would involve an overhaul of the communication strategies within SANParks and between SANParks and its stakeholders. In addition, the elephant issue will need to be viewed as a component of a broader system which includes stakeholders and will need to be communicated as such

Blue carbon benefits from global saltmarsh restoration

Coastal saltmarshes are found globally, yet are 25%–50% reduced compared with their historical cover. Restoration is incentivised by the promise that marshes are efficient storers of ‘blue’ carbon, although the claim lacks substantiation across global contexts. We synthesised data from 431 studies to quantify the benefits of saltmarsh restoration to carbon accumulation and greenhouse gas uptake. The results showed global marshes store approximately 1.41–2.44 Pg carbon. Restored marshes had very low greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes and rapid carbon accumulation, resulting in a mean net accumulation rate of 64.70 t CO2e ha−1 year−1. Using this estimate and potential restoration rates, we find saltmarsh regeneration could result in 12.93–207.03 Mt CO2e accumulation per year, offsetting the equivalent of up to 0.51% global energy-related CO2 emissions—a substantial amount, considering marshes represent <1% of Earth's surface. Carbon accumulation rates and GHG fluxes varied contextually with temperature, rainfall and dominant vegetation, with the eastern coasts of the USA and Australia particular hotspots for carbon storage. While the study reveals paucity of data for some variables and continents, suggesting need for further research, the potential for saltmarsh restoration to offset carbon emissions is clear. The ability to facilitate natural carbon accumulation by saltmarshes now rests principally on the action of the management-policy community and on financial opportunities for supporting restoration