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- Håkansson Lindqvist, Marcia, et al.
(författare)
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Professional development as a collaborative endeavour of networked learning in higher educational settings : Dissemination of knowledge among teacher training professionals
- 2018
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the Eleventh International Conference on Networked Learning 2018. - 9781862203372
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- University teachers continue to strive to take up mobile and blended learning technologies in their teaching practices and universities continue to support this work through professional development courses for university teachers. At Mid Sweden University, two projects have recently been carried out with the objective to develop higher education practices supported by mobile and blended learning technologies in teaching in practice. Professional development for university teachers was expected take place using an iterative design comprising five features: participating in a competence development course, planning trials, conducting trials, evaluating teaching and participating in a pedagogical seminar. In this paper, the preliminary results of the final interviews with 12 teacher educators will be presented. The interviews were carried out to explore beliefs regarding changes in teaching practices, following the completion of teacher professional development project. The results showed that the teacher educators in this study experienced change in the use of mobile and blended learning in their teaching through dialogue, collaboration, dissemination and networked learning. Three themes were identified. The first theme was collaboration. Here, the teacher educators expressed beliefs which could be related to collaboration for learning to use mobile and blended learning technologies in their teaching, supporting conditions for networked learning. This involved working and planning new technologies in new courses together. In the second theme, sharing is caring, the teachers in the study expressed helping each other out and supporting each other in the work to learn and use new technologies in their teaching. Support through pep talks and taking on learning new technologies as a group was one example of gaining knowledge about new technologies. In the third and final theme, the teacher educators’ expressed beliefs regarding dissemination as a way to share knowledge and experiences. Beliefs expressed here included learning through seeing what others were working with and exchanging knowledge. The teacher educators’ in this study also expressed the need for continued learning through collaboration and dissemination, as networked learning in their community of practice. How universities continue to provide professional development to support teachers’ continued work together in communities of practice through networked learning will be of importance. These efforts in professional development will provide possibilities to push forward change in teachers’ use of mobile and blended learning in their teaching practices.
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| 2. |
- Mozelius, Peter, 1959-, et al.
(författare)
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Location-based games as a key to unlock the classroom
- 2018
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the the 12th European Conference on Games Based Learning, ECGBL 2018. - Sophia Antipolis, France. - 9781911218999
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Around a century ago John Dewey (2015) questioned the idea of schooling with a mandatory focus on classroom based studies only. Today, after a century of rapid technological development and vivid didactic discussions the classroom focus still remains. New portable, interconnected and omnipresent 21st century technology opens up possibilities for a spatial independent ubiquitous learning in the spirit of Dewey (Cope & Kalantzis, 2010). This study had the aim to explore and discuss the potential of using location-based games as a catalyst for outdoor activities in formal education. In what ways might a location-based and augmented reality unlock the constraint of traditional classrooms? The overall research strategy has been the case study approach where data has been gathered by spy glasses, hand-held video cameras and group interviews. Two outdoor teaching and learning activities were the two main case units. In the walking sessions K12 students played Pokémon Go to learn about local history and mathematics. Around 1 TB of video clips have been thematically analysed with the use of the computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software tool NVivo. Patterns and themes found in the video analysis have been compared to themes in the answers from the group interviews. Analysis themes related to location-based gaming were Discussions, Outdoor activities and Gaming and gender. Findings indicate that the use of a location-based game can be motivating and a way to unchain students’ sit-down 'enchairment'. However, game-based outdoor activities seem to have more reliable learning outcomes if they are combined with follow-up activities in the classroom. Physically active students also tend to have more active discussions than sitting students in a classroom. Finally, boys and girls seem to have different collaboration patterns during the gaming sessions.
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| 3. |
- Mozelius, Peter, 1959-, et al.
(författare)
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Teachers’ beliefs about professional development and the use of collaborative online tools in higher educational settings
- 2018
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Networked Learning 2018. - 9781862203372 ; , s. 361-364
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Teaching in higher education beyond the boundaries of face-to-face education is an evolving practiceincluding the integration of various technologies to support collaboration between learners andteachers. From a historical perspective the integration of such technologies in this practice hasafforded different time- and location-related conditions for collaboration. This development hasbrought new conditions for the practice of teaching in higher education. From being a practice mainlylocated at the university, teaching is possible to occur elsewhere; e.g., on the move, or from the homesetting. It has paved the way to introduce so called blended learning practices of teaching in highereducation. Such practice has been an emerging trend in the 21st century with an overall impact on thedesign of university courses. Applications, devices and networks that initially were used inexperimental distance education have later become natural parts of mainstream education, withblended learning as a standard concept in higher education. The rich plethora of information andcommunication technologies applied as tools to mediate learning and support teaching have created aneed for teachers’ professional development. The aim of this study is to present and discuss universityteachers’ perceptions and beliefs about how the supplementary training should be organised. Datawere gathered by semi-structured interviews at a department for Computer and System Science whereall seven interviewees teach in blended synchronous educational settings. The empirical material wereanalysed inductively by applying a thematic analysis method. Findings show that all courses have abasic common toolbox as well as an extended specific toolbox that both are continuously changing.This can be stressful and the formal teacher professional development is far from satisfying. Teacherscope with problems by consulting the collegium, a peer group where colleagues share experiences andassist each other in problem solving. Despite the constant pressure many teachers have creative ideasfor a further development of the blended synchronous learning concept. Many of the teachers in thisstudy see the continual attempts to implement these tools and experimenting with these tools in theirteaching as possibilities in their teaching as well as a source of professional development.
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