Abstract:

Research has shown that many teachers in primary and lower secondary schools are not likely to use ICT in their teaching, in spite of clear guidelines concerning this in the Norwegian Curriculum for Basic Education.

In this paper we present results from a project where teachers use a wiki to publish and share reviews about new children’s books. We examine the following question: How may the use of a wiki tool be integrated in a course for teachers in a way that supports the subject content, giving opportunities to share knowledge and at the same time increasing teachers' readiness to adopt digital tools in their own teaching?

The project conducted in a professional development programme for teachers has two main objectives: One objective is to provide knowledge about children’s books and to share ideas about how to use children’s literature in the teachers’ own school practice. Another objective is to give the teachers experience in using a wiki as a publishing and collaboration tool and to discuss how this technology can be used in an educational context. Our hypothesis is that integrating ICT in a study programme with both theoretical and practical work will help teachers develop digital competence and help them transfer this knowledge into their own teaching practice.

The empirical material consists of a survey, a group interview and reflective texts from the teachers on the course. The theoretical frame for the study involves development of teachers’ professional competence and theory about shared knowledge.

The results at this point in the project indicates that the teachers find this technology interesting and useful while in the course programme, but the threshold of using it in their own classroom seems high. The teachers are aware of several challenges. First of all, it has to do with the teachers' overall digital competence. Secondly, the access to PC’s, the Internet and technical support at the schools may vary. Many teachers mention that it is a challenge to provide enough time to teach students digital judgement, netiquette, privacy and copyright awareness.

Our preliminary conclusion is that it is not sufficient to work with the technology only in this course for teachers. We may also make it a mandatory task for the teachers to try it out with their students. In this way, the teachers can transfer their experience from the course into their classrooms and thus becoming more confident in using new technologies.

Keywords:

Professional development for teachers, wiki technology in school, ICT in higher education.