Learning to Engage the Digital Generation in Teacher Education

Abstract

The impact of digital technology in education sectors has been overwhelming. To prepare teachers in this digital era, teacher education programmes should explore opportunities for student teachers to experience e-learning pedagogies. This chapter reports a completed project on the development and use of digital lectures (DL) as an additional resource to augment conventional face-to-face lectures in a higher education institution. Working in a non-ICT background, a team of lecturers has adopted a “start from small” approach to seek answers to the following questions: (1) What forms of DLs can be adopted to facilitate student learning in courses of different nature? (2) What are the effects of DLs in facilitating students to learn in the respective course contexts? (3) What lessons have the lecturers learned in the attempt to engage students through such innovative e-learning strategies? By a “one course one digital lecture” principle, a total of nine DLs were produced by the lecturers of respective courses ranging from language studies, literature, to language teaching methods. To evaluate the effectiveness of the DLs, reflections of all the lecturers concerned were collected through in-depth interviews with the lecturers individually. Toward the end of term, a voluntary online survey and focus group interviews were conducted to solicit students’ feedback. A variety of pedagogies emerged with regard to the specific DLs produced. Sharing of practices boosted the lecturers’ confidence in adopting digital tools, and professional growth is evident in individual reflections on teaching and continuous attempts to pursue innovative pedagogies with DLs. Students in general agreed that the DLs were conducive to their learning, but they disagreed that these could replace the face-to-face lectures. In gist, regardless of ICT competency level, “reflection-in-action” is proven to be rewarding for teacher educators who are willing to explore e-learning opportunities for engaging students in the learning process.