Sharing the distance or a distance shared : Social and individual aspects of participation in ICT-supported distance-based teacher education

• This chapter is about ICT and participation. Our aim is to initiate a discussion about student participation in a web-based learning environment. The chapter contains some results of a philosophical hermeneutical study of a distance-based teacher education in which ICT is used for sharing materials and teaching. Data was collected by interviewing 19 students, who had been using ICT in their teacher education for more than two years. As a framework for understanding, interpretations about student participation were made based on an explicit description of three different perspectives of learning � social constructivist, social constructionist, and sociocultural - and the divergent assumptions these perspectives could be claimed to hold. The findings indicate that students participate in distance-based teacher education in such a way that their participation is not part of a social, but rather, an individual process of learning. The findings also suggest that there is a need to be more explicit about expectations inherent in the use of ICT as a learning environment, and that the current design of such environments for collaboration and learning are challenging.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Pedagogik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Pedagogy (hsv//eng)

Keyword

design

ICT

participation

social constructivist

social constructionist

sociocultural

Education

Pedagogik

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kap (subject category)