Displacing Student–Teacher Equilibrium in Virtual Learning Environments

A great catalyst causing considerable change in our 21st century classrooms is the recent implementation and usage of the now ubiquitous computer; this new technological innovation in the secondary school classroom has had a tremendous over-riding effect on traditional learning environments.With digital technologies supplanting older ones, the computer has had an impact within schools. Not only are computers instrumental in the creation of virtual learning environments, but also within these new environments they also affect student-teacher social dynamics. Consequently, what are being altered are the learning environments themselves aswell as the pedagogical and social relationships forged between educators and their pupils.

In this chapter I will discuss case study research in which I examined the relationships between teachers and students in virtual learning environments (Black, 2002). For this study, I interviewed both educators and pupils in order to obtain their perceptions of the complex interactions and dynamics they have forged. One of the teachers I interviewed, Mr. Ross observes that good technology teachers obtain much respect because the prevalent student attitude is that mastering technology is not only important but also “cool”. The ideal situation is for teachers to have acquired a firm foundation studying computers and technology at university. The condition for this model foundation is superb technological teacher training at a teacher’s college; one can then supplement this beginning later through teacher support programs and in-service training to keep abreast of ongoing technological changes when student teachers are hired as educators in the classrooms (Jordan & Follman, 1993). Reality, though, is often far from ideal. Schools lose the very people they need: Most educators trained in the computer technology area at university do not enter the teaching profession because there are greater salaries in the computer industry (Black, 2002). Consequently, few new educators have solid backgrounds in computers. Moreover, if more experienced teachers have indeed obtained previous university training, their knowledgewould be obsolete as a consequence of rapid technological changes in the last decade.