This book is designed as a resource that enriches pre-service teacher education and in-service professional learning – helping teachers to critically question and evaluate the reasons for using technology. It is important to note that this book, while adopting a critical perspective of digital technologies, believes that such technologies can benefit education. However, rather than focusing on what buttons to press, each chapter aims to empower the reader to understand why they should (or should not) use digital technologies, when it is appropriate (or not), and what new implications arise.

In the context of teacher education the text is equally applicable for university subjects that have a discrete focus on digital technologies, as well as subjects that deal with digital technologies in an integrated fashion. The authors of the chapters are notable figures from across a broad range of Australian universities, giving the text a uniquely strong relevance to Australian education. It directly engages with policy, curriculum and other issues particularly relevant in an Australian context. This text provides a resource that assists specialist and non-specialist teacher educators (lecturers and tutors) to incorporate suitable discussion and activity into classes to ensure students engage with many of the key critical issues and debates.

Introduction

Teachers are professionals who work in complex environments that are constantly evolving, within unique contexts, requiring consistent action, evaluation and reflection. A defining characteristic of any profession is the imperative to participate in ongoing professional learning in order to ensure that practice is conducted on a solid foundation of current knowledge in the field. For example, we expect doctors, lawyers or engineers to be familiar with the latest practices within their fields of expertise, and likewise teachers should also continue to update their knowledge so that their teaching practice continually improves. Some consensus is emerging in relation to the types of professional learning that are most salient for improving teacher practice with new technologies. In this chapter we discuss these key aspects and develop a model to illustrate the components of effective professional learning for teaching with technology.

There is a growing body of literature concerning the most effective methods of professional learning for teachers, recognising that ‘teacher learning and development is a complex process’ (Avalos, 2011, p. 17). This chapter focuses on current, research-based practices to support the professional learning of teachers. In particular, it highlights how professional learning is most effective when teachers are engaged with other teachers in conversations about both the task of teaching and how students learn; for example, within an inquiry-based or action research framework. With regard to educational technology, while teachers can be trained to use software or hardware, several decades of failing to meet expectations has proven that simple technical training does not lead to effective use of the technology in the classroom. Teaching is an intimate interaction between the identity of the teachers, their values and beliefs about students, learning, the curriculum, the content, and more. It is also dependent on the school culture, the students, access, and other factors. Obviously, if we expect technology to be used in the classroom we need to accept that the most important role of professional learning activities is to help teachers find a meaningful place for the technology in their professional practice. Clearly, this takes time. As a consequence, professional learning is arguably best facilitated when it is ongoing and involves other teachers, such as in learning communities. Research has also shown that inquiry-based learning, when teachers become researchers, is particularly powerful in reshaping their practice.

Introduction

This chapter explores the potential role of digital technologies in reshaping the activity that goes on in, and out of classrooms. In particular, this chapter addresses the potential for digital technologies to break the commonly assumed boundaries of the classroom, which include time (for example, in-class time), location (for example, the classroom), and people (teacher and students). As an illustration of this, students can still work together using internet technologies such as Google Docs outside of class time. Such technologies also enable us to ‘break boundaries’ by not restricting participants to a particular location; for instance, being able to simultaneously collaborate on a document while at a museum or at home. Finally, online technologies can also change who participates and/or contributes to learning and teaching; for example, experts or other classes can be ‘beamed in’. In these and other ways, commonly assumed boundaries can be broken, or at least redefined.

Whether traditional classroom boundaries should (or should not) be broken or redefined is contestable and it is beyond the scope of this chapter to critique this. However, it is something that should be more fully explored as you gain more of an understanding of what educators are doing. To assist with this, three examples of ‘breaking boundaries’ and redefining traditional learning environments are presented. These are: using the ‘flipped’ classroom approach to teach a class, using massive open online courses (MOOCs) and the Flat Classroom Project. Each example has been chosen not to convince you of the efficacy of a particular strategy, but rather to increase your knowledge of how digital technologies can break boundaries, reveal possibilities, and highlight issues and potential problems. This will help you to make more informed decisions about how you organise learning and teaching in your classroom.

Introduction

Digital technology is a big part of Australian schools and schooling. Schools are now awash with digital devices, learning systems, software and applications. The Australian Curriculum advocates developing ICT capability across the curriculum. This is also an area of schooling that is decidedly creating ‘big business’. Spending has grown to the point that the Australian market for education IT is estimated to be $3.2 billion (Lee, 2012). Understandably, it is an area that is characterised by big ideas, big hopes and big claims. Digital technologies are regularly talked about as ‘game changing’, students are often described as ‘digital natives’, and even federal government policies are presented in emotive terms such as the ‘Digital Education Revolution’.

It is easy for teachers to roll their eyes at such talk. After all, none of this accurately reflects the prosaic, mundane nature of everyday classroom technology use. One does not pay billions of dollars to be frustrated by wi-fi passwords, tangled cables and unpredictable internet filters. ‘Revolutions’ do not involve lengthy consultation periods and central purchasing arrangements. Yet the ‘big’ claims that surround the use of digital technology in education are worth taking seriously and giving some thought. Just why are so many people outside the immediate education community framing digital technologies in dramatic terms of wide-scale change and reform? Is there any substance to the claims that digital technology might do away with the need for teachers and schools altogether? Do digital technologies really pose fundamental challenges to everything that we have come to know as ‘education’ over the past 100 years or so?