In an era marked by the widespread use of digital technology, educators face the need to constantly learn and develop their own new literacies for the information era, as well as their competencies to teach and apply best practices using technologies. This paper underscores the vital role of ongoing teacher professional learning (OTPL) with a focus on reflective practices and pedagogical reasoning and action (PR&A) in shaping education quality and equity. Examining three key drivers of educational transformation—big data and learning analytics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and shifting teacher identities—the paper explores their overall impact on teacher practices. This paper emphasizes technology as a crucial boundary object, a catalyst of educational transformation, when used to foster communication and professional growth. To this end, three boundary objects are identified, namely dashboards, AI-driven professional learning environments, and digital communities of practice. These tools illustrate technology’s capacity to mediate relationships between transformative educational drivers and teacher practices, offering a pathway to navigate shifting perspectives on OTPL. With a theoretical foundation in equitable education, the paper provides insights into the intricate relationship between boundary objects and evolving educational dynamics. It highlights technology's pivotal role in achieving both quality and equitable education in the contemporary educational landscape. It presents a nuanced understanding of how specific tools may contribute to effective OTPL amid rapid educational transformations.
3 August 2018 in Technology, Knowledge and Learning
Studentteacher relationships are vital to successful learning and teaching. Today, communication between students and teachers, a major component through which these relationships are facilitated, is taking place via social networking sites (SNS). In this study, we examined the associations between studentteacher relationship and studentteacher Facebookmediated communication. The study included Israeli middle and highschool students, ages 1219 years old (n=667). Studentteacher relationships were compared between subgroups of students, based on their type of Facebook connection to their teachers (or the lack of such a connection); their attitudes towards a policy that prohibits Facebook connection with teachers; and their perceptions of using Facebook for learning. Regarding students' attitudes towards banning studentteacher communication via SNS and towards using Facebook for learning, we found significant differences between three groups of students: those who do not want to connect with their teachers on Facebook, those who are connected with a teacher of theirs on Facebook, and those who are not connected with a teacher of theirs but wish to connect. Also, we found significant associations between studentteacher relationship and studentteacher Facebookmediated communication. We argue that in the case of studentteacher Facebookmediated communication, there is a gap between students' expectations and inpractice experience. The key to closing this gap lies in both policy and effective implementation. La relación profesoralumno es crucial para un aprendizaje y una enseñanza exitosos. Actualmente, la comunicación entre alumnos y profesores –factor esencial que facilita estas relaciones– sucede a través de las redes sociales. En la presente investigación examinamos las asociaciones entre la relación alumnoprofesor y la comunicación alumnoprofesor mediatizada por las redes sociales. La muestra incluyó a alumnos israelíes de educación media y secundaria de 1219 años de edad (n=667). Se comparó la relación alumnoprofesor entre subgrupos de alumnos de acuerdo al tipo de conexión con sus profesores en Facebook (o la falta de conexión), sus actitudes hacia la prohibición de conexión por Facebook con los profesores, y sus percepciones acerca del uso de Facebook para el aprendizaje. Con respecto a las actitudes de los alumnos en relación a la prohibición de comunicación alumnoprofesor vía redes sociales, así como el uso del Facebook para estudiar, encontramos diferencias significativas en tres grupos de alumnos: aquellos que no se interesan por conectarse con sus profesores en Facebook, aquellos que se conectan con sus profesores en Facebook, y aquellos que no están conectados con sus profesores, pero que desean hacerlo. Encontramos asociaciones significativas en la relación alumnoprofesor y la comunicación alumnoprofesor mediatizada por Facebook. En esta última existe una brecha entre las expectativas del alumno y la experiencia práctica. La clave para cerrar esa brecha se basa en las normas y la implementación efectiva.