posted on 2013-01-01, 00:00authored byGail Casey, Muriel Wells
This paper reports on how the findings from an eighteen month secondary school action research study, in which social media was integrated into face-to-face classroom practice, was used to inform a fourth year undergraduate teacher-education unit at Deakin University in Australia. The school action research study was conducted in an Australian public secondary school. Students were aged between 13 and 16 years of age and a total of thirteen classes were involved. In each of the three semesters of data collection, one online social network was shared with up to seven classes and each class had approximately 25 students. Blogs, Groups, Chats, Discussion Forums, Web 2.0 tools and a wide range of student-generated content were shared online, within a class and between classes. Students were encouraged to interact and to share their thoughts and ideas about planning as well as using their out-of-school skills and knowledge. Each topic, within each class, was one action research cycle, using Armstrong and Moore’s (2004) framework. By following Graham Nuthall’s lens on learning, the researcher was able to focus on teaching as being about sensitivity and adaptation: adjusting to the here-and-now circumstances of particular students (Nuthall 2007). Elements of self organisation with spontaneous and strange attractors were identified throughout the study and these made links to Doll’s (1993) post-modern perspective of chaotic behaviour and the complexity of Hayles’ (1990) ‘disorderly order’.
History
Pagination
3812 - 3821
Location
Valencia, Spain
Open access
Yes
Start date
2013-03-04
End date
2013-03-06
ISSN
2340-1079
ISBN-13
9788461626618
Language
eng
Publication classification
E2.1 Full written paper - non-refereed / Abstract reviewed
Copyright notice
2013, IATED Publications
Title of proceedings
INTED 2013: Proceedings of the 7th International Technology, Education and Development Conference. 2013