ICT and Teacher Professional
Development: Global Trends andPossibilities
Gerald LeTendre, Ph.D.
gkletendre@gmail.com

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My Background• Director, Teacher Leadership Program (PSU)• LeTendre, G. & Wiseman, A. (Eds.) (2015). Promoting andSustaining a Quality Teaching Workforce: Conflict,
Convergence and Consensus• Akiba, M., & LeTendre, G. (2009). Improving teacher quality:
The U.S. teacher workforce in a global context. New York:Teachers College Press.
• Fulbright Research: The Role Of ICT In Self-initiated Teacher
Professional Development Activities.
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Goals for Today’s Talk• Describe how the project originated.
• Overview the range and complexity of the core issues involvedin effectively integrating ICT in mass education and teacher
professional development.
• Introduce a theoretical framework for understanding how
educational policy around ICT is affected by distinct “policyspheres.”• Discuss innovations that may benefit teachers and what role
universities can have in supporting effective ICT integration,
particularly in low-income countries.
3Current ProjectStimulating Teachers’ Professional SelfDevelopment through the Use of InnovativeTechnologies• Assess whether or not the use of innovativetechnologies, such as low-cost, mobile local area
network (LAN) devices, can effectively support
teachers’ professional self-development andengagement with online professional development.
• Identify policies and practices that can promote
effective use of ICT in supporting teacher self-initiatedprofessional development.
4Origins of the ProjectCurrent Project• ペンシルベニア州立大学は、遠隔教育研究のリーダーであります。多くの教員は、遠隔教育やオンライン学習に強い関心を持っています。教授J. Maddox（美術教育）は、1995年に第一のオンラインを教えました.
• Penn State has a long history of innovation inonline and distance education. Dr. Jerrold
Maddox offered the first fully on-line distanceeducation course in 1995.

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Origins of the Project

Rachel-Pi6

Origins of the ProjectTerms• ICT – both hardware (devices) and software (digital textbooks)• Teacher-initiated Professional Development – PD created by andmanaged by teachers for other teachers• Teacher Autonomous Professional Development – Self-directedPD• Device Centric – Focus on physical technology• Knowledge Legitimation – Control over what information isrecognized as authentic or accurate• Tech Millenarianism – Inherent belief that technology in and of itself
will solve human social problems• Policy Spheres – areas of interest and perceived expertise in which
7stakeholders attempt to exert influence.

Core Issues• Initiatives like the One Laptop Per Child exemplify theallure, and difficulties of relying on technologicalbreakthroughs to improve education.
• Researchers, policy makers and practitioners agree thatteachers are the key factor in the success of educationalsystems. Unresolved: What should they know?
• ICT use in educational accountability schemes has seen
rapid growth, innovation, and controversy.
• Identifying effective, scalable and sustainable programs thatsupport long-term teacher development appears key.
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Core Issues

ICT and Teacher Training• InfoDev (2005) and Jung (2005) showed that the goals of theprogram and the level of resources sharply affect how well thetraining can be carried out.
• ICT has promise, but implementation record is varied; filled withcostly failures.
• Previous studies do not account for the way that educational
policy is sectioned into distinct spheres, leading to difficulty inpromoting effective research and achieving integrated policyobjectives.

9Range and Complexities of Issues

Core Issues• Basic technology provision• Devices• Infrastructure• Support• Knowledge legitimation and information distribution• ICT vs. subject• Academic, practitioner and policy ”legitimate” knowledge• Level of data collection and use of data
• ”Big data” vs. “micro data” Accountability vs. personalized collection andanalysis• ICT, e-networks and long-term teacher professional development• Online communities of practice and cultures of professional development
10Core Issues

1 to 1 Computing• This includes the one child, one computer• Device centric – movement away from networks
to individual computing• Emphasis on device and programming skills• Self-determined• Tech Millenarianism – device as solution

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Core Issues

One Laptop

12Core Issues

Tech Millenarianism

13Core Issues

Knowledge Legitimation• What Works (http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/Wwc/)• Commonwealth of Learning(http://www.col.org/programmes/open-schooling)• EdTech Leaders (http://www.edtechleaders.org/)• Uganda Connect (http://www.uconnect.org/)

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Level and Use f Data Collection

Core Issues• TIMSS, PISA and TALIS• SACMEQ“Education Development Center is presently developing a
program in Zambia in which teachers use mobile phones tomake weekly progress reports to mentors on their use of newscience kits. Questions and comments sent by the teachers will
be recorded for broadcast in a 15-minute segment for a weekly
teacher radio program.” (Gaible, 2005: 71)
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Core Issues

ICT eNetworks and PD Provision• ICT Training in Nigeria – Poverty Reduction (Rislana, et al)• Mobile-Phone Based Training in Bangladesh (Walsh et al.)
• iSchools in Africa• Open University• WIDE (Harvard) inactive?
• eTwinning

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Theoretical Model:
Four Separate Spheres of Policy-PracticeInteraction• Basic Technology Provision• Knowledge Legitimation• Level of Data Collection and Goals• ICT, E-networks And Cultures Of Professional Development

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Theoretical Model

Basic Technology Provision:
Inherent Problems• Typically assumes or portrays device as inherently
educative (e.g. interacting with the device IS learning.
• Ignores device breakdown, user fatigue, upgrade andmaintenance costs.
• Fails to adequately address illegal and/or dangerous
uses of devices, especially in use with school children• Among teachers, fails to account for time needed towork with device• Shift in Focus to Perfecting the Device
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Theoretical Model

Knowledge Legitimation• “What Works” – why it didn’t• National standards for teacher education• Practitioner knowledge, academic knowledge,
policy-maker knowledge• Shift in Focus to ICT Skills and/or Programming

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Theoretical Model

Level of Data Collection and Goals:
Accountability for Whom?
• TIMSS, PISA and TALIS• Evolution of SACMEQ• VAM -- U.S. Controversies• Shift in Focus to Accountability and Monitoring

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Theoretical Model

Level of Data Collection and Goals• How does a teacher get better? How does she collect andanalyze data from her classroom in order to identify effective
teaching practices, or use data to identify an individual child’s
learning needs more effectively?
• Can ICT help?
• Cloud based analytics is often touted• What about a much simpler strategy of cell phone input on apart with excel?
• Shift Toward ”Big Data” vs. “Micro Data” Personalized Collectionand Analysis
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Theoretical Model

ICT, E-networks,Cultures Of Professional
Development.
• De-emphasizes specific device and focuses on
establishing networks and infrastructure.
• Typically flexible in terms of types of devices, innovativein terms of delivery mechanism.
• Requires established cultures of professional
communication and development.
• Much innovation going on outside of traditional centersof technology innovation.
• Shift -- To Online Communities of Practice?
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Theoretical Model

Teachers as Networked Professionals• Beginning to transition to communicative power• Models for the Future:• eTwinning23

Summary: The Future of ICT and Education• The improvement of educational systems and increased
educational attainment are seen as primary ways that countries
can prepare for these global, technology-based changes(OECD, 1999, 2001a, 2004b; World Bank, 2002b, 2003).
• And within education, ICT is seen as a way to promote
educational change, improve the skills of learners, and preparethem for the global economy and the information society(Haddad & Draxler, 2002; Kozma &Wagner, in press;
McNamara, 2003; UNESCO, 2002; Wagner & Kozma, 2005).
Source: Kozma 118
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Summary

What Role can Universities Play?
• Universities have typically positioned them selves as
discoveries and conveyors of knowledge: Research Grants vs.
Lectures and Outreach.
• More rarely they position themselves as consultants• Could universities become network supporters? Supporting
information accumulation, analysis and exchange?
• What would be the incentives, how would this work?
• Governments, less capable because of their regulatory role, but
might achieve via units like eTwinning• Regional centers for training and alumni networking
25Summary

Bridging Policy Spheres• Literature reveals multiple examples of innovative use of ICT to up
teacher skills or bring teacher education to under-served
populations.
• These are good and can be supportive, but are limited in addressing
what teachers need.
• Teachers need, ways to get feedback on their teaching, access to
information that is specific to their condition, connections with papers
that can lead to self-sustaining knowledge communities.
• Universities as communication networks.
• Individual schools need to have their own ICT integration plan
(Valcke et al.)26

Summary

What Could ICT Do?
• Enable teachers to study and chart their own
professional development• Facilitate distribution of educational material to children• Allow teachers to share locally derived innovations• Enable nations to upload and disseminate local
innovations• Facilitate teacher communication and strengthencultures of PD• Enable teachers to collect and analyze individual orclassroom data27

Thank You終わり

http://ed.psu.edu/directory/gkl103
gkletendre@gmail.com

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