Following on from my previous post, which asked: what can we do to push the frontiers of understanding about learning technologies in general and Web 2.0 in particular? I’d like to pose a question to all the educators out there who have recently undertaken a formal course of teacher education – a PGCE, a University Teachers’ programme – that kind of thing.
What I’d like to ask is… how was/is the issue of social and collaborative learning – in particular the use of web 2.0 tools to enable this – addressed within the scope of your course?
Perhaps technology-enabled collaborative learning was embedded into your learning experience, through online discussion and/or social bookmarking? Maybe this wasn’t actively encouraged or required by the course facilitator or tutor, but you or a group of you benefited from engaging with this type of activity out of your own choosing?
Perhaps the use of such tools in teaching and learning was explicitly ‘taught’ and/or assessed? This might have been a compulsory or an optional element of the course or programme.
It would be great if you could not only share your experience, but also your views. Do you think formal teacher education should explicitly cover the use of online tools for collaborative learning – forums, blogs, wikis, microblogging, RSS, social bookmarking, etc..? Should this be a compulsory aspect of teacher education? Should teacher educators go one step further and embed these tools and activities into the learning and assessment process?
Here’s my views and experience to kick things off…
I completed a PGCE in 2003, when ‘learning technology’ was not in the general educational vocabulary. The Internet did not figure within the learning outcomes of the programme. We had to pass a basic ‘IT skills’ test which focused on word processing and spreadsheets. My PGCE tutor – a brilliant and inspirational teacher – recently contacted me (via Facebook) to ask what the deal was with ‘e-learning’; it sounded like he was feeling pressured to change the way he taught (and what he taught) and was considering hanging up his lab coat. So I’m interested to hear about what’s going on with the PGCE and its approach to all things ‘e’.
At the institution I’m with at the moment, we have a relatively new PGCAPP course for new lecturers. ‘e-learning’ is ‘covered’ (sorry for all the inverted commas, I hope you understand why I’ve used them) in one (optional) unit, which aims to explicitly educate new lecturers on the use of web 2.0 tools and other technologies relevant to learning, and also encourages the use of web 2.0 tools like social bookmarking and blogging as learning processes within the unit. However, I do feel that the participants on the programme would be more likely to use these tools (and gain more benefit from them) if their use was embedded across the programme rather than restricted to a single optional unit. I also have concerns about having a distinct ‘e-learning’ unit and the message this sends out about the use of technology in education.
What do you think? 
6 responses so far ↓
1
Adam Read
// Aug 13, 2009 at 9:48 am
Hi Lindsay. Although I haven’t undertaken it myself I thought I could provide some insight into our PGCE ICT course.
Students are expected to engage heavily in the use of blogs (closed blog between trainee and lecturer to update placements progress), wikis (group create key themes topic areas and glossaries), discussion boards are normally used to explorer topics related to readings or other materials.
I would suggest however this is NOT the norm. The lecturer is also the Head of e-Learning at our institution so as you’d expect makes use of the technologies we champion!
Other PGCE groups however are encouraged (normally by their own trainees) to adapt these new tools.
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2
Matt
// Aug 13, 2009 at 10:03 am
Completely agree with your last point about the need to embed.
Unfortunately the position is the same for our PGCertHE, although we don’t even have the elearning half unit! It’s something that we, the Learning Technology team are keen to see changed (of course!). Part of the problem I feel is that the Teaching & Learning team are a separate entity which further adds to the perception that teaching with technology is distinct from teaching.
I haven’t been involved in any formal teacher education as such recently but my MA ICTs in Education was woefully lacking in it’s use of any learning technology…
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Sharon
// Aug 13, 2009 at 11:38 am
Hi Lindsay,
very interesting set of blog posts, and I completely agree with your call to embed technologies in teacher/lecturer education.
As both Matt and Adam have identified, the key seems to be within the integration of the “teaching & learning unit” with the “learning technologies unit”. If there is a tight integration, then usually technologies are embedded in the teacher training. But if these units are not tightly integrated then, as Matt says, this “further adds to the perception that teaching with technology is distinct from teaching”
At my institution, the learning technologies group are part of the T&L centre. We contribute a complete (now compulsory) Learning Technologies module to the PG diploma in Academic Practice, but technologies (including the VLE, blogs for learning journals, lecture capture technologies, etc) are integrated into all aspects of the PG cert in Teaching & Learning in Higher Education, and the PG diploma.
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lindsayjordan Reply:
August 13th, 2009 at 11:43 am
Hi Sharon – many thanks for this. It sounds like a good model. It would be interesting to hear from student teachers and lecturers who have participated in this type of programme
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4
Twitted by lindsayjordan
// Aug 18, 2009 at 8:49 am
[...] This post was Twitted by lindsayjordan [...]
5
Jez Cope
// Aug 24, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Hi Lindsey,
This has been on my mind a little recently, as I recently completed a Postgraduate Certificate of Higher Education (PCHE) at the University of Sheffield, a teaching qualification for doctoral students. Although the course as a whole is well run and worthwhile, it concentrates on face-to-face modes of learning.
e-learning is covered under a single, optional workshop entitled “blended learning”. In previous years this has been ably handled by two graduates of the programme, and this year I was in the odd position of taking over the session in spite of still being a participant on the course. A whole separate learning experience there!
Anyway, although I did my best to get my fellow participants to engage with the posibilities of social media, it was difficult primarily because the use of such tools isn’t embedded in the course itself: it’s difficult for people to get to grips with this stuff in a single afternoon, and there’s not really enough time to convince many of the skeptics.
I think digital literacy more generally needs to be embedded in all courses, not just those focusing on education, and I’m glad you’ve highlighted this. Students tend to turn off when they’re faced with a separate “how to use the internet” or whatever section.
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