Teachers, pedagogy and professional development - Teaching with Technologies: The Essential Guide - page 103

The knowledge required of the range of technologies and their potential affordances
for learning (which are provided by the interactions between the hardware, software,
other resources, teachers and other learners) are so vast as to be unwieldy for an indi-
vidual teacher to maintain a detailed knowledge. Webb (2010) argues this can be sup-
ported by a move to 'distributed pedagogies'. For example, pupils are also developing
pedagogical reasoning processes as they reflect on their learning and consider how
to reach their targets. Similarly, Younie and Leask (2009) argue that the 'technology
knowledge' generation required by teachers can be co-constructed through 'distrib-
uted professional development' via teachers' online learning communities.
In acknowledging how unmanageable it is for an individual teacher to keep up a
working knowledge of technological affordances across an ever-advancing range, we
must look to 'distributed' solutions. Teachers working online in distributed networks
or teams can share expertise collaboratively and gain appreciation of the affordances
of a range of technologies. This will enable teachers to develop appropriate pedagog-
ical strategies, which are only possible when there is an understanding of the vari-
ous affordances of technologies and how these relate to existing subject knowledge
regarding the concepts, processes and skills of specific disciplines.
In understanding the processes that teachers engage with when incorporating
technology into professional practice, the research indicates that the technologies
most likely to be assimilated are those that match with existing pedagogies (Dwyer
et al. 1991; Higgins et al. 2005; Somekh 2007). The most important finding of Veen's
(1993) research on factors supporting technology use was that if the software matched
the teachers' pedagogy they used it. This is corroborated by Agalianos et al. (2001:
488), who discovered that LOGO was 'more easily assimilated where it fitted with
existing practice and caused no substantial changes in content or pedagogy'. Stronach
et al. (2001) identified 'ecologies of practice', which referred to teachers' preferred
teaching styles. These are put under pressure with changes such as technological
innovations and it is the case that technology fits better with some with 'ecologies
of practice' rather than others - for example, interactive whiteboards and whole-class
teaching.
Hall and Hord (1987) provided a 'Concerns Based Adoption Model' (CBAM) of
technology use that emphasized that it is more likely to occur when it is perceived to
address the teacher's personal concerns. If we take concerns to be both cognitive and
affective, then there is the belief that the technology is aligned to the view of learn-
ing. So, how do beliefs about teaching affect the use of technology? Teachers' beliefs
about technology play an important role in shaping use and affects whether technol-
ogy is used as a 'servant' to reinforce existing pedagogy or as a 'partner' to change the
way teachers and learners interact with each other and the learning activities (Goos
et al. 2003 in Webb and Cox 2004: 258).
Transforming pedagogy with technology
Rather than slipping into existing pedagogies, there is a need to transform and change
pedagogy itself. Developments in technology provide new affordances for learning,
which give rise to new and emergent pedagogies.