Abstract
Technology has been impacting the way people learn for some time and the rise of online learning has benefitted participants by allowing a degree of freedom in time and space that was not possible before Web 2.0. Nontraditional learning spaces (Brown in Educating the net generation. EDUCAUSE, pp. 2.1–2.20, Boulder, CO, 2005) have afforded students greater control of their learning but teachers in-service have embraced these new spaces much more reluctantly. There is a need for teachers to connect, share, and learn from others to improve their practice and minimize their isolation from each other (Darling--Hammond et al. in Professional learning in the learning profession: A status report on teacher development in the United States and abroad, 2009). This study focuses on an online social networking site for teachers in Trinidad and Tobago as they learn new technologies. This participatory action research study allowed secondary teachers to have a voice in the design of the site and data was captured directly from the site. Critical friends from the Curriculum and ICT Divisions of the Ministry of Education were included. Participation was observed and analyzed over the research period of April to August. Findings indicated that teachers from all parts of the country of a wide age range participated on the site through various Web 2.0 tools, such as blogs, wikis, and online chats. Analysis revealed that teachers preferred asynchronous tools such as blogs over synchronous tools such as chats and chose to participate when and how they wanted. Findings also showed a preference to reading over writing. Recommendations to expand the site to the Caribbean and to increase usability and sociability can allow further research of this social networking site as a learning space.
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Kamalodeen, V.J. (2016). Are Teachers Ready for New Digital Learning Spaces: Case Study of an Online Social Networking Site for Secondary Teachers in Trinidad and Tobago. In: Zhang, J., Yang, J., Chang, M., Chang, T. (eds) ICT in Education in Global Context. Lecture Notes in Educational Technology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0373-8_7
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