New literacies and teacher learning: Professional development and the digital turn

Abstract

"New Literacies and Teacher Learning examines the complexities of teacher professional development today in relation to new literacies and digital technologies, set within the wider context of strong demands for teachers to be innovative and to improve students' learning outcomes. Contributors hail from Argentina, Australia, Canada, Finland, Mexico, Norway, and the U.S., and work in a broad range of situations, grade levels, activities, scales, and even national contexts. Projects include early year education through to adult literacy education and university contexts, describing a range of approaches to taking up new literacies and digital technologies within diverse learning practices. While the authors present detailed descriptions of using various digital resources like movie editing software, wikis, video conferencing, Twitter, and YouTube, they all agree that digital "stuff"--While important -- is not the central concern. Instead, what they foreground in their discussions are theory-informed pedagogical orientations, collaborative learning theories, the complexities of teachers' workplaces, and young people's interests. Thus, a key premise in this collection is that teaching and learning are about deep engagement, representing meanings in a range of ways. These include acknowledging relationships and knowledge; thinking critically about events, phenomena, and processes; and participating in valued social and cultural activities. The book shows how this kind of learning doesn't simply occur in a one-off session, but takes time, commitment, and multiple opportunities to interact with others, to explore, play, make mistakes, and get it right."--Publisher's website. Teacher learning, digital technologies and new literacies / Michele Knobel and Judy Kalman -- Accompaniment : a socio-cultural approach for rethinking practice and uses of digital technologies with teachers / Oscar Hernández Razo, Victor Rendón Cazales and Judy Kalman -- Doing-it-ourselves development : (re)defining, (re)designing and (re)valuing the role of teaching, learning, and literacies / Susi Bostock, Kathleen Lisi-Neumann and Melissa Collucci -- Professional development from the inside out : redesigning learning through collaborative action research / Heather Lotherington, Stephanie Fisher, Jennifer Jenson and Laura Mae Lindo -- Literacy spaces, digital pathways and connected learning : teachers' professional development in times of new mobilities / Ola Erstad -- A digital book project with primary education teachers in Finland / Reijo Kupiainen, Hanna Leinonen, Marita Mäkinen, and Angela Wiseman -- Professional development and digital literacies in Argentinean classrooms : rethinking "what works" in massive technology programs / Inés Dussel -- Exploring multidirectional memory-work and the digital as a phase space for teacher professional development / Teresa Strong-Wilson, Claudia Mitchell, and Marcea Ingersoll -- Expanding notions of professional development in adult basic education / Erik Jacobson -- #PD : examining the intersection of Twitter and professional learning / Carly Biddolph and Jen Scott Curwood -- Connected learning professional development: production-centered and openly networked teaching Ccmmunities / Christina Cantrill and Kylie Peppler.