Competent Teachers for the Competent Teachers for the Rural Arctic in the turbulence Rural Arctic in the turbulence

of globalizationof globalizationÞuríður JóhannsdóttirÞuríður Jóhannsdóttir

Randi SkjelmoRandi SkjelmoKjell JohanssonKjell Johansson

ICT competences in teacher ICT competences in teacher education - meeting new education - meeting new

challenges in the rural Arcticchallenges in the rural Arctic

Iceland University of educationIceland University of education

Þuríður JóhannsdóttirÞuríður Jóhannsdóttir

Teacher educators´ response to Teacher educators´ response to

contemporary transformationscontemporary transformations What are teacher educators doing to enhance students´

use of ICT, such that they are capable of meeting new challenges caused by social and cultural changes and emerging new technologies?

We focus here on ICT in teacher education with special attention to the role of distance (decentralized) teacher education

• We present text analysis of teacher education curriculum texts in – Luleå University of Technology, – Tromsø University College and – Iceland University of Education

Intentions of the teacher educationIntentions of the teacher education

• How competent in ICT use are the teacher students supposed to be when graduating?

• Is there a difference between distance students and on campus students regarding ICT competency – in what way?

• How is ICT being used in learning and teaching in distance education?

Analyzing the use of ICT by the Analyzing the use of ICT by the Computer Practice FrameworkComputer Practice Framework

• How much? In what way? And for what purpose? – to develop information technology skills – as a learning tool, – or perhaps for some other reason e.g. as a reward– identify to which extent the use of technology is

affecting the content and practices of learning – http://www.med8.info/cpf/twining/twining-details.htm

– use of the CPF can be helpful to support vision building and shared understandings of use of ICT in education.

The main conclusion of a study on the current and The main conclusion of a study on the current and future use of ICT in higher educationfuture use of ICT in higher education

• Carried out in the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, Australia, Finland and the USA

• General conclusion 1: – Change is slow and not radical – moving toward more flexibility

within the traditional campus based setting • General conclusion 2:

– ICT in teaching and learning: Widespread but part of a blend • General conclusion 3:

– Instructors gradually doing more, but with no reward

See: Collis & van der Wende http://www.eden.bme.hu/contents/dissemination/bulletin.html

Twining, Collis & van der WendeTwining, Collis & van der Wende

• Rationales mentioned in the research literature are used to clarify which understanding seems to be underlying objectives for ICT in education (Twining 2002)

• International comparative study– Crucial difference seems to exist between the countries with

higher scores and those with low scores related to their views and expectations with respect to the diversifying student population.

– Institutions and countries with comparatively higher scores related to change and ICT use have a clearer view on their mission with respect to serving different target groups (e.g. lifelong learning or international students) with ICT …” (Collis & van der Wende 2002)

Iceland University of Education Iceland University of Education

• Student population 2001-2002:– Distance students: 1130 – Undergraduate at a distance 650

• primary school teachers: 365• Post-graduate faculty: 480 ????

• Student population 2002-2003: (status march 2003)

– Distance students: 1232 (808 on campus)– Undergraduate at a distance 752

• primary school teachers: 367• Post-graduate faculty: 480

ICTICT in Iceland University of in Iceland University of EducationEducation

• We analyze – The institution's policy texts– ICT as a subject (obligatory for all students and ICT

as a specialization subject)– General use of ICT in teaching and learning – ICT integrated with the primary schools´ subject

matters– In-service teacher training in the post-graduate faculty

at distance– The distance learning

ICT objectives as stated in the ICT objectives as stated in the policy textspolicy texts

• teacher students are supposed to gain competency in finding information, evaluate it value and learn to use it in their studies as well as in their profession (work).

• as ICT plays an important role in the contemporary society, teacher students are supposed to have the opportunity to be competent users of the technology,– being able to use it in their studies – as well as in their work as teachers. – In addition they need to be competent at evaluating

and judging how ICT is best serving them as a tool.

Why an innovator in ICT Why an innovator in ICT

• Identified rationales compared to research literature see Twining 2002– In order to learn IT skills– As a tool to achieve traditional teaching and learning

goals across the curriculum– In order to provide access to the curriculum, for those

who might otherwise be excluded from it (the distance education)

– As preparation for living in a society that is permeated with technology

ICT as a subject in the Icelandic ICT as a subject in the Icelandic teacher education teacher education

• The ICT competencies – ICT-skills, knowing how to use the computer

and computer programs– pedagogical use of ICT, which includes to use

ICT as a tool to support learning, be it their own or their future pupils.

– use ICT creatively with their students and in preparing their teaching

– understanding the role of ICT in the society, in the schools as well as in the pupils´ life.

Analyses according to the Analyses according to the Computer Practice FrameworkComputer Practice Framework

• A good deal of time spent on enhancing ICT skills• ICT is also being used as a learning tool

– as a support in traditional learning tasks e.g. mind-manager for organizing learning tasks

– as an extension where ICT makes it possible to organize learning tasks that otherwise would be too complicated

– e.g. access to different kind of information which can be processed in easy way by available computer programs

• Transformation; the curriculum content and/or process are different, and these changes could not have taken place in a classroom context without a computer See http://www.med8.info/cpf/twining/twining-details.htm

• e.g. making of multimedia educational material.

General use of ICT in teachingGeneral use of ICT in teaching

• the teachers are using ICT as a tool to support their teaching– the same content and same processes but the

technology is making their work more effective

• Some teachers take one step further and use the course webs to extend their students´ learning, – e.g. by organizing discussion on the web and

publishing students learning products such as thesis and papers on the course web

ICT – part of a blendICT – part of a blend

• All students should when graduating, have an experience of using ICT as a natural part of their learning tools

• What we se in Iceland University of Education fits perfectly with model generated by Collis and van der Wende– “The general picture seems to be that there is much

ICT in use, not to replace traditional on-campus settings, rather to complement them. “Blended learning” using ICT (especially Web-based systems) combined with lectures, books and other traditional media and ways of learning is already the norm.” (31)

ICT and subject integration ICT and subject integration

• Specialization subjects – learn how to integrate ICT in primary school teaching– ICT integration mentioned only sporadically in the course

descriptions– The few examples seem to be because of personal enthusiasm

of individual teachers

• Collis & van der Wende 2002 – comparative study– “Instructors are less concerned/interested in/hopeful about

technology than those not on the ‘front line’ (the decision makers and support staff). Instructors are not particularly concerned about ICT, and not very much changing their ways of teaching even though they use ICT in different ways.”

ICT in distance educationICT in distance education

• In the Iceland University of Education distance learning has been offered the last ten years via the Internet (from 1993)

• It began using e-mail, building on the tradition of letter exchange by ordinary mail

• gradually as the ICT technology evolves, web-based solutions are more and more used

Distance students´ learning tasks Distance students´ learning tasks

• Tasks to perform on the web are most commonly– discussion about the learning material – publishing of the result of their studies - becomes

more and more common in form of text documents or PowerPoint presentations

– to write a log book to map their learning process and enhance their meta-cognition as students

• Teachers publish their ‘lectures’ on the web in various forms, word documents, PowerPoint presentations and some experiments with PowerPoint with talk

The distance students The distance students are using ICTare using ICT

• as a learning tool in their studies and in that way it is an integrated part of their studies

• It is clearly both a support and an extension• But we can not see that ICT use is transforming

learning and teaching in general • Teachers have not basically changed their way

of teaching, but they have learned to use ICT as a tool to do things on the Internet that they used to do in the classroom.

Iceland University of Education Iceland University of Education Open and flexible teacher education ?Open and flexible teacher education ?

Collis and van der Wende• Institutions and countries with comparatively higher

scores related to change and ICT use, have a clearer view on their mission with respect to serving different target groups (e.g. lifelong learning or international students) with ICT …”

• They are “…aware of and responding to changing demand from these new target groups and that they have a strategic commitment to be successful in these markets seems to be a major drive for change in

Iceland University of Education is an Iceland University of Education is an open and flexible teacher education open and flexible teacher education

• Policy texts reveal a vision to serve changing demands and this is important for future evolution.

• The university has stated overtly its´ will to meet new demands from a society in change and clearly ICT is the catalyst. Without ICT the university could not do what it is doing.

• So we can conclude that institutionally ICT is transforming the way the university goes about organizing teaching and learning.

• When it comes to organization of individual courses we are not seeing much transformation (some innovators)

• but we are seeing ICT used as a support and extension, and as a part of a blend.