Professional Development 2.0: Transforming teacher education pedagogy with 21st century tools

Back to Annotation Database

Professional Development 2.0: Transforming teacher education pedagogy with 21st century tools

Leanna Archambault
Keith Wetzel
Teresa Foulger
Mia Williams

Abstract

This paper discusses the outcomes of a professional development project offered to faculty of Arizona State University’s College of Teacher Education and Leadership. The goal of this project was to assist instructors with progressing technologies and to help them transform their pedagogy to leverage the affordances provided through the integration of Web 2.0 tools. Through the redesign of an instructional unit to incorporate social networking, instructors experienced positive outcomes. Findings suggest that the benefits of integrating social networking tools used in a meaningful way while carefully considering how they fit within specific content areas and teaching methodologies included increased feedback for students and a more student-centered approach to teaching. These are important considerations for teacher education programs of the 21st century.

Keywords

Professional development, Social networking, Technological pedagogical content knowledge, TPACK

Annotation

This study is a qualitative analysis on instructor reflections on a professional development program focused on the use of social media at ASU for instructors teaching education courses. The professional development program used Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) as its theoretical framework. The purpose of TPACK is to use technology to provide better learning experiences for students. The authors suggest that through use of social networking, “instructors can begin to reap the benefits of their changing roles as they work with their preservice teachers, who in turn might expand these possibilities as they adopt social networking tools with their K-12 students” (p. 11).

Copy to Clipboard

About the Study

Back to Annotation Database