The chapters included in this compilation describe the efforts that teacher educators around the world have made to integrate technology in teacher preparation agendas. This collection of what the editors characterize as “best practices” seeks to reflect the tendencies in the intersection of these two fields. Considering a reflective approach as the spinal cord of the volume, Yamamoto et al. claimed that the projects included in the chapters can provide models to encourage replications in suitable contexts. The sections of the book certainly offer a diverse myriad of issues: on line and blending learning (chapters 1 to 4), communication and collaboration (chapters 5 to 8), social and affective issues (chapters 9 to 11), subject-specific teacher education (chapters 12 to 18) and framework and application learning environment in digital age (Chapter 19 to 23).
The first section “Online and Blending Learning” starts with the chapter “A Blended Learning Course for Teachers’ Ongoing Development in Greece” (Charalambos Mouzakis, and Constantios Bourletidis). This experience focuses on a teacher education experience in Greece. 187 teachers mainly in rural areas participated in a program sponsored by the Ministry of Education. The course integrated traditional strategies used in face to face learning with online learning experiences and sought to prepare teachers to understand and handle school bullying. Likewise, the modules combined theoretical, practical and evaluative activities, not only to support participants as they leant about bullying, but also as they employed technological tools.
By means of questionnaires, 132 participants shared their perceptions about the program, the materials, the tutoring and the web-based learning. The results indicated that blended learning made the development program more enjoyable. In addition, the experience guided teachers towards a more flexible exploration and planning of their learning strategies, increasing their knowledge and interest. Teachers also regarded the experience as being coherent with their current needs in their school settings. The aforementioned benefits vindicate what the following studies, cited in the chapter, have concluded (Hellmig, 2008; Fiege, Peacock and Geelan, 2004; Holsholt-Polsen, 2007). Notwithstanding, participants identified several pitfalls in the program: lack of time to cover contents and to hold face to face meetings , difficulties to use the web in some cases, reduced support from facilitators and insufficient interaction with other participants on the web. Similarly, a high number of participants were not confident enough to work autonomously.
The third chapter included in this section is “Faculty Reflections on Decision-Making and Pedagogical Use of Online Activities in Teacher Education” (Swapna Kumar). This chapter explores the reflection of teacher education faculty members who included online technologies to support their students’ discussion and collaboration in face to face courses. Their experience was regarded as illuminative for their similar colleagues who had struggled to introduce these technologies in their classes. Participants had worked with older technologies and made a transition towards more recent tools as blogging and wikis.
Faculty’s decision to involve their students on online discussions sought to encourage these prospective teachers to interact with course contents, expand their possibilities for broader participation, build networking and assess their understanding of course materials. Student teachers working with the tools were assigned activities to develop before classes. This stage provided them and their tutors more strategies to be ready for classes and to adjust face to face sessions based on their online performances. Prospective teachers also engaged in post-class interaction which encouraged them to implement class ideas and to expand their participation and knowledge. As faculty changed their practices from more traditional to more innovating formats, they perceived they assumed a more student centered model.
“Peer to Peer Using the Electronic Discussion Board During Student Teaching” (Karen Johnson) is the next study. This chapter discusses the use that elementary student teachers made of Electronic Discussion Boards (EDB) as they moved from college to the institutions where they developed their practicum. This communication tool allowed them to share and count on a variety of ideas to face their challenges as debutant teachers. EDB seemed to be an alternative for the lack of support that student teachers could face from university supervisors and cooperating teachers. In addition, coordinators of field experiences can find it beneficial in order to connect student teachers in an institution.
The study focuses on the experiences of two different groups of pre-service teachers. In the first phase of this action research project, a pilot group engaged in discussions about the use of computers in teaching by means of WebCT. A mix method approach grounded on qualitative and quantitative data (surveys, information from discussions and statistics) guided the researcher towards the second phase. The second stage involved a different group of elementary teachers who used Blackboard during thirteen weeks. In this renew scenario, there were some changes from the first phase: less number of obligatory postings, discussion groups organized by grades and free selection of topics. Results revealed that student teachers supported each other emotionally sharing feelings and inquiring about similar emotions, their most common topic of discussion was how to handle challenging students and they exchanged information in relation to topics outside their student teaching assignments.
The second section “Communication and Collaboration” includes four chapters. Among them “Using Free Source Eportfolios to Empower ESL Teachers in Collaborative Peer Reflection” (Adrian Ting and David Jones). By means of this study, the authors sought, not only to buttress ESL teachers’ professional development through reflection, but also to guide them in acquiring the technological skills and rationale behind keeping portfolios. It was expected that teachers’ learning directly influenced in the expansion of portfolio use in Hong Kong secondary schools.
In the first part of the chapter, the authors shared an analysis of free source technologies in various social networks. Consequently and bearing in mind their purposes to implement portfolios in the teacher education program, they decided to resort to “My Space” to conduct their case study. In addition, their review of literature showed them that even if collaborative reflection took place, some other challenges could emerge complicating teachers’ involvement in these practices. In the case of foreign language teachers, for instance, their language proficiency and confidence could jeopardize their participation as previous studies showed.
The project took nine months and during that period, fifty digital immigrant English teachers developed three workshops. Being constantly involved in reflection, they started by learning how to use the necessary technologies to work in their portfolios and concluded in their design of a plan to implement these artifacts in their schools. Participants’ reflection upon their experience showed that they were able to keep their portfolios, gaining skills in using the required technology. Furthermore, in general, they opened to exchange their views with their peers, lowering their anxiety when they were provided feedback. They acknowledge they felt better teachers after learning about portfolios since they experience and reflected upon these tools as learners and educators. Some teachers alluded to the high demand of time and internet security as negative aspects during their immersion in the study.
Virginia McCormack also contributes with a chapter for this section: “Utilizing Voice Thread to Increase Teacher Candidates’ Reflection and Global Implications for Usage”. This experience describes some of the avenues that teacher educators and future teachers can find to make substantial use of Web 2.0 tools. The second version of the Web can support users in expanding their spectrum and skills for interaction, thus they accept others’ differences and collegially bolster their comprehension and production of learning. In this case, the target of the discussion is specifically a new technology called voice thread, “a collaborative multimedia slide show that collects and retains images, documents, and videos” (p.115). The author describes how by utilizing voice thread teacher candidates uploaded digital video, monitored children reading aloud and played an active role in their pupils’ production of stories. Moreover, they became involved in assessment through an analysis of a case study about the implementation of this technology. Each of these applications was linked to candidates’ opportunity to count on teaching and learning records from their classrooms. Opportunities for reflection were generated when they analyzed with others the recorded events.
Practices as the ones described above can be challenged by several issues this chapter reviews from the existing literature. Several scholars reveal the influence that the lack of necessary resources, the mismatch between programs objectives and participants’ beliefs and teachers’ preference for previous models can have. Furthermore, the quality of tutors’ scaffolding plan is critical for the suitable implementation of voice thread in education and teacher preparation programs (Moja, 2004;Chen,2008;Rao,2008). Despite these challenges, the chapter remarks that during the experience, teacher candidates felt comfortable and encouraged to work with this new technology.
The following group of articles focus on “Social and Affective Issues”. In this context, Alias Nor Aziah and Alias Nor Aiza contribute with a chapter called “Technology to Enhance the Affective Learning Outcomes of Teacher Trainees.” The description of a pilot project generated in Malaysia with a group of pre-service teachers serves to illustrate how technology enhances immersive affective learning. The context of the experience being described was the four-year teacher education program in higher education institutions (HEIs.). The authors argue that the constant progress of technology has leveraged the advancement of teacher education. Nowadays teachers count with more alternatives to join others and share knowledge, collaborate, increase their technological literacy and make technology part of the curriculum. Furthermore, these authors lay the foundation of their experience in the conceptualizations and taxonomies that Krathwohl, Martin and Reigeluth, (1999) propose for the affective domain. In general, the affective domain comprises what teachers believe, feel and the attitudes they reveal. Similarly vindicating what Mishra and Koehler (2006) comment, these teacher educators regard pre-service teachers’ development of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) as fundamental.
Guided by trainees, the teacher educators in the target experience, opened communication channels between their students and potential cooperating teachers. By means of asynchronous exchanges, prospective school cooperating teachers provided substantial information, depicting the educational contours of their classrooms. As teacher educators and pre-service teachers gained a broad perspective of the school settings, they all interacted creating conditions for the emergence of affective outcomes. In the same token, data led pre-service teachers to prepare research questions for their practice in these settings and to assume critical positions about some of the intricacies revealed by school cooperating teachers.
The fourth section gathers experiences around “Subject-specific Teacher Education”. One of them is “Fostering Educational Tech nology Integration in Science Teacher Ed ucat¡on: lssues of Teacher ldentity Development” (Brenda Capobianco, James Lehman). Working with two cohorts of elementary school science pre-service teachers, the researchers sought to examine these future teachers’ attempts, reactions and tensions to make technology part of their teaching. In connection with the previous query, the study discusses how participants’ emerging professional identity was related to their attitudes towards technology. For the researchers, technology has rapidly transformed various aspects of our lives, but its impact in education has not achieved the expected projections yet. This situation is linked to the unyielding structure of school settings, teachers’ attitudes and their identity. Several scholars cited in the chapter propose that identity originates from the actions and affiliations which characterize teachers, but mostly from what they aspire or not to be (Markus and Nurius, 1986; Dunkel &Kerpelman, 2006; Helms, 1998). Teachers’ identity becomes a critical issues since it is a factor which can make teacher education efforts highly challenging.
During this action research design, a science teacher educator and an educational technologist teamed up. As student teachers learnt how to apply and integrate technology in classrooms, their artifacts as well as their science tutor’s journal and field notes provided the data to systematically improve their experience and find answers to the research questions. By means of a grounded approach, they established that most student teachers’ initial positive expectations, in regard to the application of technology in classrooms, evolved. At the end, they seemed to be determined to implement concrete actions in their future settings. Notwithstanding, some of them were mostly focused on gaining expertise as science teachers and to work in science contents; learning how to handle technology in classes was not their priority. They were afraid that not focusing in their core subject teaching purpose could cause them losing control of the situation and failing in fulfilling institutional demands. Moreover, their perception that they could be the only science teachers integrating science and technology in their schools led participants to believe they could be detached from their area colleagues.
The last section considers “Frameworks and Applications”. One of the chapters in this section is “Teacher candidates Learning Through the Creation of Podcasts” (Christian Penny). The experience described in this chapter focuses on the use of Podcasts for teacher education. Podcasts are “audio or video digital-media files delivered over the Intenet by syndicated download, through real simple syncidation (RSS) to personal computers and portable media players” (381). This technology is rapidly increasing its popularity in educational settings. The fact that it is a practical means to share information and that it can be easily accessible by means of mobile audio devices have contributed to its growing acceptance, especially in universities. The author of this study reveals the process he followed in order to guide teachers in a technology course to know, not only how to employ but also how to design podcasts. This challenging perspective in the prevailing culture of digital consumerism was expected to enrich the learning process of teacher candidates.
Pre-service teachers designed a sort of radio program in podcast format to be published in iTunes. The goals the researcher set for this project were evaluated by means of a survey. The qualitative analysis of information concluded that teacher candidates gained skills in designing podcast of their interest. They also developed skills to handle ancillary tools needed to prepare the podcasts. In regards to their collaborative skills, they reported high motivation and engagement to work with others. Moreover, they increased their interpersonal abilities to reach common decisions. Prospective teachers also learnt about educational software since their podcast task required their evaluation of this kind of material for the program. Furthermore, they claimed that they had exercised their high thinking skills, reinforced previous knowledge and used their creativity. Finally, candidates found new options to nurture their students’ diverse skills in classes. This podcast task had a real life purpose and thus, it became a meaningful and enjoyable activity for future teachers.
Another application in chapter twenty one is “Game Based Learning: A Strategy to Integrate Digital Games in Schools”(Begoña Gros). Despite being been associated with the development of some undesirable attitudes in young learners, digital games engage users in cognitive and social practices which increase their knowledge and skills. This pedagogical potentiality of games has increased scholars interests in bridging the gap between the use of games in informal settings and formal educational contexts. To this end, this chapter shares methodological approaches that can be used to integrate digital gaming in education. In order to connect this kind of gaming to learning, the author embraces the approaches that Gee (2003), Squire (2005), Prensky (2005) and Freitas and Oliver (2006) have developed. From the perspective of these scholars, gamers build particular worlds in playing, creating communities which require the mastery of not only complex thinking abilities, but also collaborative and communication skills to succeed.
Using games in schools with pedagogical purposes requires teachers to plan the socialization experiences around them, thus based on the author “ the context, the learner specification, the representa-tion of the game,and the pedagogical approach (370)” need to be considered. Kolb’s (1984) model for experiential learning and Hakkarainen’s (2003) model for progressive inquiry were used in this chapter to exemplify how teachers could integrate digital gaming in classes. In the first case, the implementation of a game called “Age of empires” implied to set a team of experts who constantly advised teachers about how to employ the game. In addition teachers needed to gain awareness of the possibilities the game offered by playing it and finally to reflect upon cross-curricular planning and the implementation of punctual pedagogical experiences connected with the game. The Second case shows the combination of digital games and progressive inquiry. By means of the game “Zoo Tycoon”, students determined contexts of their interest to explore their topics as they counted on a tool to experiment and simulate experiences. Furthermore, they could research information cooperatively.
The last chapter in this review is “Annotation Practices with Pen-Based Technologies” describes (Kevin Reins). This experience is part of the Classroom Connections program in South Dakota which aims at providing students with accessible software anytime wherever they go. This particular case involves the use of a pen based technology: tablet Pcs. The chapter reviews two applications to utilize digital ink on tablets by means of a stylus: augmentative ink and collaborative active ink. In order to empower students in their adoption of this tool, current and future educators need to become themselves not only expert users, but also designers of pedagogical applications in specific curricular areas. By sharing the results of a research study with students in a Mathematic methods course, the author illustrates options for the integration of pen-based technologies in teaching preparation. The study, experimental in nature, sought to determine “if the use of digital ink affected the attitudes and learning that occurred during a mathematical investigation (p.407).” While the control group relayed on class deliberation and a Sympodium to exchange their problem solving process, the experimental group counted on software to utilize ink and slides while they managed and shared their annotations.
The results in the study match the ones discussed in the literature review of the chapter. These tools increased interaction among peers as well as between student and teacher. Participants in classroom activities could see in actual time, the teaching and learning that happened while others employed their ink tools. Knowledge was collaboratively shared to solve problems, thus participants learnt more possibilities to develop Math problems as they refined their Mathematical reasoning. In general, there was more cognitive activity, which was coherent with the literature included in the chapter (Fischman,2007;Cantu, and et al.,2008; Berque and et.al,2008). The experience was more substantial in this way than in a whole class discussion arrangement. Participants also valued that they did not feel the use of this tool was forced upon them. An aspect some participants did not feel comfortable about was the alternative everyone had to witness everybody else’s strategies to solve problems. Anxiety might have emerged from several participants’ fear to be publicly critiqued.
EVALUATION
This edited volume provides a broad variety of educational and research experiences in technology and teacher education. The chapter can allow readers to gain a clear and updated perspective of the emerging topics of interest in the field. Likewise, as a teacher and a teacher educator I consider this book a valuable resource to learn about the strengths and weaknesses which other practitioners have encountered during their preparation and implementation of teacher development experiences in connection with technology. Whether it is for the preparations of basic lessons or for the design of a whole project, the cases included in this volume can certainly illuminate readers.
The structure of the chapters contributes to the quality of the volume. In general chapters reveal coherent and solid implementations. Each study includes a substantial review of literature. Moreover in most cases chapters contain comprehensive accounts of procedures and extra sources for the reader to deepen into their areas of their interest. It is also worth highlighting that the various authors reveal not only the benefits, but in general the limitations in their experiences. This indicates a high degree of objectivity in their discussion of results. Besides, they left readers with substantial suggestions. The aforementioned qualities of chapters support the editors’ claims in relation to the rigorous selection and peer-reviewed process they commented they conducted.
To my mind, the volume falls short in two aspects. As a professional in the field of Foreign Language Teaching, I expected to find a representative number of studies in connection to the preparation of teachers in this area. Unfortunately, from the 23 articles only two of them focus on this population and sadly, they did not generate any particular implication in connection with the specificity of the field. At any rate, EFL is not the only area poorly represented in the book; there were not studies in connection with arts, geography and so on. In fact, the volume clearly reveals a tendency to prioritize Math and Sciences. From the seven chapters in the” Section Subject-Specific Teacher Education”, only one belongs to an area different from Math and Science.
Secondly, the editors advertise this is volume as including “international authors who are teacher educators presenting their best practices (p.”. However, what one encounters going through the volume is that the compilation of studies does not represent most of the world regions. From the 23 articles, only 8 are written by scholars outside the United States. In the case of Latin America, there is only one chapter and there are none from Africa. Experiences from those contexts which were not included in this opportunity can provide insightful perspectives for scholars under similar cultural and social circumstances.
Finally, it is worth clarifying the nature of the “reflective model” the editors claim the volume holds. Traditionally in the teacher education field, reflective models emerge from the organization of experiences systematically and substantially. Thus, teachers can integrate their observation, awareness and critical thinking of the several socio-cultural, political and psychological factors around their context to their teaching actions. Several examples of well-known reflective models have been proposed by Wallace (1991); Barlett, (1990); Rodgers, (2002); Pollard and Tann (1993). Bearing in mind, the idea of “reflective models” as previously described, none of the articles follow a model. In general, the reflection they promote originates mainly from qualitative research and instruments such as journals and portfolios. To conclude it is interesting the possibility that tools such as voice thread imply to promote reflection since teachers can think critically and collaboratively about their performance as they review their recordings.
References
Wallace, M. (1991) Training Foreign Language Teachers: A Reflective Approach CUP
Bartlett, Leo. 1990. Teacher development through reflective teaching. In J.C. Richards and D. Nunan (Eds), Second Language Teacher Education (pp. 2002-214). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Pollard, A. and Tann, S. (1993) 2nd ed Reflective Teaching in the Primary School. London: Cassell.
Rodgers, C. (2002) Seeing student learning: Teacher change and the role of reflection, Harvard Educational Review. Vol. 72, Number 2, pp. 230-253.
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