Digital Pedagogies and Teacher Networks:How Teachers’ Professional Learning and Interpersonal Relationships Shape Classroom Digital Practices

Elizabeth C. Homan

Doctoral Committee:

Professor Anne Ruggles Gere, Co-Chair Professor Elizabeth Birr Moje, Co-Chair

Professor Kenneth A. FrankProfessor Sidonie Smith

Professor Pamela A. Moss

Theory and Literature

Networks, Communities, and Digital Pedagogy

Communities of Practice, Professional Learning Networks, and Professional Learning Communities offer possibilities for teachers’ social learning (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009; DuFour et. al., 2010; Lave & Wenger, 1991).

Teachers’ networked connections have the potential to shape their uses of digital technologies in the classroom (Frank et. al., 2011; Zhao & Frank, 2003).

Web 2.0 technologies and literacy practices are shifting alongside one another, challenging teachers to reimagine how they integrate digital technologies into their professional practice (Lankshear & Knoebel, 2011; Hicks, 2013; Mishra & Koehler, 2006)

Research Questions

How do teachers’ social networks shape their digital literacy learning and, by extension, their pedagogical beliefs and practices?

As teachers develop digital practices, what factors play a role in the development or change of teachers’ existing pedagogies?

Borealis High School and Digital Tech

I think we can continue to improve our use of technology across the board. […] We have pockets, pockets that are really excelling and collaborating, and that sort of thing, but they’re still pockets, it goes back to that time and professional development. - Principal Jameson

Defining Digital Pedagogies

I’ve seen our class discussions improve so much as we’ve been doing the forums too, and I’ve seen the forum discussions improve. This year, when I added the exit strategy piece, versus last year when I didn’t do that.

I mean, and this is just my issue with myself, is it makes me feel very inadequate when I, so I have to try not to compare myself to them. Because I am intimidated by the technology. It makes me feel bad about myself, about how awesome they are.

[facilitated digital pedagogies]

Mary

When I met with him, I took the Facebook page that he created and marked all the logical… [laughter] I was the argument teacher and I was like, “This is a logical fallacy. I think we’ve talked about this. This is what this means. Here is where this argument is not supported by evidence,” and so we talked about that.

In many ways, some of the people that I work with outside of school, I have honed the craft of teaching with more than people [at Borealis]. There are some people here that I have worked on that with. But in many ways, in terms of my thinking as a teacher, and in terms of what I do in the classroom, they know me more in that way than some of my colleagues here.

[integrated digital pedagogies]

Complementary MethodsIterative

Analysis of Mixed Data

Using Complimentary

Methods

Learning from Borealis Teachers

PLCs/PDFocused on:• Individual Tools• Alignment• Evaluation• Achievement

Learning from Borealis TeachersInterpersonal NetworksFocused on:• Pedagogy• Reflection• Diversification• Innovation

Implications & Future DirectionsProfessional Development Design and Implementation:• Understand and build upon teachers’ existing learning

networks• Build teachers’ digital literacy across technologies, not

within single tools

Teacher Education:• Integrate technology, pedagogy, and content (TPACK)• Engage future teachers in the digital literacy tasks of their

content areas (NWP)

Research on Digital Integration:• Examine how teachers’ social contexts (formal PD,

interpersonal, and digital networks) shape their pedagogical learning

• Design digital integration PD based on sound research of and work within the context of schools

References• Frank, K. A., Zhao, Y., Penuel, W. R., Ellefson, N., & Porter, S. (2011). Focus, Fiddle, and Friends Experiences

that Transform Knowledge for the Implementation of Innovations. Sociology of Education, 84(2), 137–156. doi:10.1177/0038040711401812

• Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S. L. (1999). Relationships of Knowledge and Practice: Teacher Learning in Communities. Review of Research in Education, 24, 249–305. doi:10.2307/1167272

• DuFour, R. (2010). Learning by doing: a handbook for professional learning communities at work. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

• Hicks, T., Turner, K. H., & Stratton, J. (2013). Reimagining a writer’s process through digital storytelling. LEARNing Landscapes, 6(2), 167–183.

• Latour, B. (2007). Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory. Oxford University Press, USA.

• Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge [England]; New York: Cambridge University Press.

• Lankshear, C., & Knobel, M. (2011). New literacies. Berkshire, England ; New York: Open University Press.• Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. J. (2006). Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge: A Framework for

Teacher Knowledge. Teachers College Record, 108(6), 1017–1054. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9620.2006.00684.x• Project, N. W., DeVoss, D. N., Eidman-Aadahl, E., & Hicks, T. (2010). Because Digital Writing Matters:

Improving Student Writing in Online and Multimedia Environments (1st ed.). Jossey-Bass.• Zhao, Y., & Frank, K. A. (2003). Factors Affecting Technology Uses in Schools: An Ecological Perspective.

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