Abstract
This chapter takes a school management perspective and investigates an upper secondary remote school in northern Sweden and its ambitions to create conditions for teachers’ professional development (TPD) of digital competence. More specifically, the chapter explores possibilities and challenges in how TPD of digital competence can be organised, facilitated, and sustained. By means of Cultural–Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), the results and analysis show that the development of teachers’ digital competence requires a school management that is supportive in creating a culture of change that can be sustained beyond single TPD actions and activities. Moreover, teachers need support to elaborate and negotiate on what type of tools, rules, roles, and divisions need to be added to the activity for the networked learning to take place and to proceed both in a short-term and long-term perspective. It is also shown how the school management needs to be sensitive to when and how the learning network is in need of encouragement and external support, that is, the importance of finding a balance between when the learning network can be self-organised and when it is in need of being externally directed with support from the school management.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Akkerman, S., Petter, C., & De Laat, M. (2008). Organising communities-of-practice: Facilitating emergence. Journal of Workplace Learning, 20(6), 383–399.
Ala-Mutka, K., Punie, Y., & Redecker, C. (2008). Digital competence for lifelong learning [Policy brief]. European Commission Joint Research Centre, Institute for Prospective Technological Studies. Retrieved September 25, 2018, from http://ftp.jrc.es/EURdoc/JRC48708.TN.pdf
Balanskat, A., & Gertsch, C. A. (2010). Digital skills working group: Review of national curricula and assessing digital competence for students and teachers: Findings from 7 countries. Brüssels, Belgium: European Schoolnet.
Conole, G. (2007). Describing learning activities: Tools and resources to guide practice. In H. Beetham & R. Sharpe (Eds.), Rethinking pedagogy for a digital age. Designing and delivering e-learning (pp. 81–91). New York: Routledge.
De Laat, M. (2012). Enabling professional development networks: How connected are you? Inaugural address. Heerlen, the Netherlands: Open Universiteit.
Dohn, N. B. (2016). A practice-grounded approach to ‘engagement’ and ‘motivation’ in networked learning. In T. Ryberg, C. Sinclair, S. Bayne, & M. de Laat (Eds.), Research, boundaries, and policy in networked learning. Research in networked learning (pp. 145–164). New York: Springer.
Engeström, Y. (1987). Learning by expanding: An activity-theoretical approach to developmental research. Orienta-Konsultit: Helsinki, Finland.
From, J. (2017). Pedagogical digital competence: Between values, knowledge and skills. Higher Education Studies, 7(2), 43–50.
Gleerup, J., Heilesen, S., Helms, N. H., & Mogensen, K. (2014). Designing for learning in coupled contexts. In V. Hodgson, M. De Laat, D. McConnell, & T. Ryberg (Eds.), The design, experience and practice of networked learning. Research in networked learning (pp. 51–65). New York: Springer.
Goodyear, P., Carvalho, L., & Dohn, N. (2016). Artefacts and activities in the analysis of learning networks. In T. Ryberg, C. Sinclair, S. Bayne, & M. De Laat (Eds.), Research, boundaries, and policy in networked learning. Research in networked learning (pp. 93–110). New York: Springer.
Guba, E. G. (1978). Toward a methodology of naturalistic inquiry in educational evaluation (CSE Monograph Series in Evaluation No. 99-0235846-2). Los Angeles, CA: University of California.
Hanraets, I., Hulsebosch, J., & De Laat, M. (2011). Experiences of pioneers facilitating teacher networks for professional development. Educational Media International, 48(2), 85–99.
Hatlevik, O. E., & Christophersen, K.-A. (2013). Digital competence at the beginning of upper secondary school: Identifying factors explaining digital inclusion. Computers & Education, 63, 240–247.
Haythornthwaite, C., & De Laat, M. (2012). Social network informed design for learning with educational technology. In A. D. Olofsson & J. O. Lindberg (Eds.), Informed design of educational technologies in higher education: Enhanced learning and teaching (pp. 352–394). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
Johnson, J. M. (2001). In-depth interviewing. In J. F. Gubrium & J. A. Holstein (Eds.), Handbook of interview research (pp. 103–119). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Krumsvik, R. J. (2008). Situated learning and teachers’ digital competence. Education and Information Technologies, 13(13), 279–290.
Krumsvik, R. J. (2014). Teacher educators’ digital competence. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 58(3), 269–280.
Kvale, S., & Brinkmann, S. (2009). Interviews. In Learning the craft of qualitative research interviewing. London: SAGE.
Lindberg, J. O., & Olofsson, A. D. (Eds.). (2010). Online learning communities and teacher professional development: Methods for improved education delivery. Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
Niemi, H., Kynäslahti, H., & Vahtivuori-Hänninen, S. (2013). Towards ICT in everyday life in Finnish schools: Seeking conditions for good practices. Learning, Media and Technology, 38(1), 57–71.
Olofsson, A. D., & Lindberg, J. O. (Eds.). (2012). Informed design of educational technologies in higher education: Enhanced learning and teaching. Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
Pettersson, F. (2015). Learning to be at a distance: Structural and educational change in digitalizing medical education. Doctoral thesis, Umeå University, Department of Education.
Pettersson, F. (2017). On the issues of digital competence in educational contexts: A review of literature. Education and Information Technologies, 23(3), 1005–1021.
Pettersson, F. (2018). Digitally competent school organizations: Developing supportive organizational infrastructures. International Journal of Media, Technology & Lifelong Learning, 14(2), 132–143.
Pettersson, F., & Olofsson, A. D. (2013). Implementing distance teaching at a large scale in medical education: A struggle between dominant and non-dominant teaching activities. Education and Information Technologies, 20(2), 359–380.
Ryberg, T., Sinclair, C., Bayne, S., & De Laat, M. (Eds.). (2016). Research, boundaries, and policy in networked learning. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
Schreurs, B., & De Laat, M. (2014). The network awareness tool: A web 2.0 tool to visualize informal networked learning in organizations. Computers in Human Behavior, 37, 385–394.
The Swedish Government. (2015). Remote teaching and contract by tender – New possibilities for teaching and study guidance on mother tongue. 2015/16:173.
Vaessen, M., Van den Beemt, A., & De Laat, M. (2014). Networked professional learning: Relating the formal and informal. Frontline Learning Research, 2(2), 56–71.
Vrieling, E., Van den Beemt, A., & De Laat, M. (2016). What’s in a name: Dimensions of social learning in teacher groups. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 22, 273–292.
Vrieling, E. M., Bastiaens, T. J., & Stijnen, P. J. J. (2010). Process-oriented design principles for promoting self-regulated learning in primary teacher education. International Journal of Educational Research, 49(4–5), 141–150.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Yu, L., & Chen, S. (2016). Synchronous remote classroom connecting K–12 schools in developed and undeveloped areas: A case study from China. In J. Zhang, J. Yang, M. Chang, & T. Chang (Eds.), ICT in education in global context (pp. 277–291). Singapore, Singapore: Springer.
Zhang, Y. (2018). Design and development of web-based remote network physical education teaching platform in colleges and universities. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning, 13(4), 151–161.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Pettersson, F., Olofsson, A.D. (2019). Learning to Teach in a Remote School Context: Exploring the Organisation of Teachers’ Professional Development of Digital Competence Through Networked Learning. In: Littlejohn, A., Jaldemark, J., Vrieling-Teunter, E., Nijland, F. (eds) Networked Professional Learning. Research in Networked Learning. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18030-0_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18030-0_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-18029-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-18030-0
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)