Integrating Technology Education for Professional Development of Teachers: Developmental Experiences

Abstract

PCF5 Sub-theme: Governance and social justice // The deployment of teacher education programmes, especially to upgrade and change teaching practices, has always been a challenge for teacher educators. It is even more challenging when a group of teacher educators from conventional educational practices get together to develop an innovative professional development programme that is aimed at bringing about a paradigm shift in teaching-learning processes. This is especially so in the case of persuading teachers to integrate technology into their teaching. In spite of the emerging thrust over customization of learning experiences and greater utilization of information technology, face-to-face communication is still considered to be an ideal mode for teaching and learning process. To enable teachers to shift from their habitual approach to contemporary approach, an on-line teacher education programme is being developed by I-CONSENT, the Indian Consortium for Educational Transformation, that was formed to support the development and deployment of ICT based programs for teacher education and for school transformation. This paper describes the innovative approach adopted for the professional development of teachers. It focuses on integrating technology skills based on authentic learning situations from actual school life. It emphasizes that learning designs when prototyped according to real-life events or situations, help learners to internalize learning by engaging in critical reflection, collaborating and cooperating. This claim is supported by necessary and appropriate illustrations that reflect the uniqueness of this learning design. Most important, an attempt is made to highlight the developmental processes that took place while designing this programme. // Paper ID 799