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| -- Computer-Based Teaching Methods |
 The goals of this project center around the
improvement of Professional Development of educators by means of new technologies.
Our vision has been to create learning communities in which pre-service
and practicing teachers collaborate in the conduct of real-world tasks
(as opposed to textbook exercises) with the aid of new technologies. We
have created just such a learning community by having pre-service teachers
enrolled in a technology-in-education course team with practicing teachers
as the latter go about their day-to-day work of planning and using technology
with K-12 students. This will provide pre-service teachers with access
to actual "teaching with technology" problems that arise in the classroom
and to authentic feedback on the quality of their efforts, while simultaneously
benefiting practicing teachers who are expanding their knowledge on the
use of technology within the context of their specified needs. This partnership
provides the foundation for supporting a learning community of pre-service
and practicing teachers that situates both in collaborative practices that
are authentic and valuable to all involved.
Specifically, we have studied how issues of ownership, power, authenticity,
and collaboration contribute to students' successes and the success of
the program through four case studies. We also explored how asynchronous
conferencing tools might be used to facilitate communication across geographic
and chronological boundaries, breaking down traditional barriers to distributed
communities of practice and making possible the creation of a co-evolutionary
model for supporting the emergence of a context that was authentic to both
pre-service and in-service teachers. In contrast to claims that suggest
authenticity for an individual can be prescribed to a learner by the instructor,
we deny the legitimacy of preauthentication. Instead, an assumption
underlying this research is that authenticity is an emergent process that
is actualized through individuals’ participation in tasks and practices
of value to themselves and to a community of practice.
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Last updated March 10, 2001
URL: http://inkido.indiana.edu/research/vrcamp.html Address questions and comments to Sasha Barab |