Transitioning From Conventional to Connected Teaching: Playful Experimentation in a Preservice Teacher Education Course

• In Event: From Connected Learning to Connected Teaching: Toward a New Vision of Digital Literacy Teacher Education

Abstract

Often lost in the frenzied push for teachers (and teacher educators) to incorporate digital literacy into their practice is the simple but crucial point that many will be unable or unwilling to do so if they do not have the opportunity to develop their own skill sets, find connections between digital tools and the kinds of meaningful learning opportunities they desire for their students, and wrestle with issues of equity and access. (Cuban, 2013; Enyedy, 2014).

This poster explores the experiences of teachers (and the teacher educator) in a pre-service New and Multimodal Literacies course that utilized connected learning as a framework to structure understanding of new literacies theories, exploration of hybrid and multimodal texts, and the creation of digital literacy learning experiences.

This study examined the research question: How does a connected learning approach to literacy teacher education influence pre-service teachers’ knowledge, dispositions, and practices related to classroom education technology use?

Study participants included a literacy teacher educator and four pre-service teachers enrolled in a university teacher education program in one of the largest metropolitan areas on the United States/Mexican border - a setting that provided a unique cultural, linguistic, and socio-political context from which to explore the concept of connection in education.

This study critiques the neoliberal underpinnings of much 21st century learning rhetoric (Brown, 2015) and instead turns to a sociocritical literacy framework (Gutierrez, 2008) that explores not only the ways that multimodal reading, writing, and identity emerge from social, cultural, and historical context, but also the ways that these practices replicate, respond to, and deconstruct dominant power relations and systemic inequity in society.

Cultural historical activity theory (Cole & Engestrom, 1993) provides the methodological groundwork for this ethnography of communication (Hymes, 1976) about the ways pre-service teachers navigated their personal experiences with technology, the expectations of school districts, and the needs of their students in order to forge pragmatic but transformative connected teaching practice.

Drawing upon constant comparative analysis (Glaser & Straus, 1967) of field notes, videotaped discussions, student work artifacts, and a focus group interview collected during a 15-week, semester-long course, study findings indicated that connected learning offered teachers language they could use to wrestle with how to integrate digital literacy tools and practices with their core pedagogical beliefs while navigating the multiple constraints and pressures of a high-stakes accountability culture of teaching and learning. Through engaging in play with self-selected digital tools that reflected their personal interests, teachers documented their own breakthroughs and struggles that they then incorporated into the learning experiences they designed for students.

My model of connected teaching nests the principles of connected learning within teacher knowledge, skills, and dispositions, which is in turn be nested within the context of public education policies and pressures. Pragmatic agency is the key practice that allows teachers to negotiate between their expansive visions and the enduring tensions of their school contexts.

The poster shares teachers’ digital literacy products and reflections and documents the trajectories of their digital literacy identities both as individuals and as professionals.

Author

• Nicole Mirra, Rutgers University