ICT Ecologies of Learning

Abstract

This multiple case study investigates how a cohort of thirty-eight elementary teacher candidates (TC) and a volunteer subgroup of eight teacher candidate researchers (TCR) were prepared to use ICT in their teacher education program (TEP). The authors expected social and cultural relationships would contribute to the formation of these beginning teacher’s pedagogical perspectives and practices in relation to ICT. The study examined both TC and TCR uses of ICT from multiple perspectives: as students in the TEP; as teachers in their practicum classrooms; and as research participants. The researchers collected data on how their TEP, and ICT ecologies of learning (ICT-EL) experiences, influenced the formation of TC and TCR ICT perspectives regarding curriculum knowledge (ICT literacies) and pedagogy (ICT practices). This chapter describes the role institutional isomorphism and knowledge and curriculum fragmentation appear to play in the formation of oppositional, or resistant, ICT perspectives. It argues for active socially engaged learning (ASEL), efficacious learning, and critical inquiry as emergent systems that are in a continuous state of formation and change within these institutional contexts.