Section archive - ICT & Teaching

This study examined how prospective teachers engaged in class discussions within a synchronous, online environment. The findings reveal that the prospective teachers used variety of ways to participate in the online discourse. The participants also responded to the instructor with quick affirmations. The authors found that many of the participants commented on how they appreciated viewing live technology demonstrations and the opportunities to discuss issues related to content, technology, and pedagogy with one another.

The present article describes one element of a large-scale nationwide study that surveyed English teacher educators about English teacher preparation programs throughout the United States. This element focused on how technology is integrated within the context of English teacher education programs. Specifically, this article focuses on how English teacher educators viewed recent changes in English teacher preparation and how these changes affected their work. The authors conclude that technology is already changing the understanding of content in the English language arts (ELA) classroom. Hence, the teaching and learning of technology is regarded as essential other content in English. The authors argue that the availability of technology in higher education, as well as in school districts, continues to be problematic and dependent upon a community’s commitment to it.

This study examined how teachers perceive and implement technology in a seventh-grade social studies class. The authors conclude that although the participants believed that using technology can benefit their students, the barriers they faced had more influence than their beliefs and attitudes on their decision to use technology in the classroom.

In this study, the authors were interested to evaluate the participants’ ability to integrate game design in their lesson plans and explore their experiences over time during the workshops. The findings revealed that the participants’ lesson planscan be improved in terms of allowing students to take ownership during the game creation, design, and problem-solving processes. Instead of giving students freedom and agency, the lesson plans did not allow high levels of collaboration and exploration.The analysis of the reflections helped the authors describe participants’ varied experiences and identify challenges faced during the Game Design and Learning (GDL) workshops. At the end of the workshops, all participants indicated that they developed a basic understanding of game design and programming and felt comfortable with the process.