My PhD study is focusing on teacher’s adoption of ICT (Information and communication technology) in teaching. I have come to study School development, were ICT is an essential part and a prerequisite for the projects. The overall aim is to examine what happens when ICT is being implemented in teaching: what are the opportunities and the challenges?
My work mainly reports from a 3-year EU-funded project were technology is used to cross boundaries between Scandinavian schools. The goal is to use digital technology to develop and support cross-border models for innovative teaching and collaboration between the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish school systems. The project design, rely on distance collaborations between teachers and students, put teachers in a situation where traditional forms of teaching is not optional as using technology becomes a necessity to handle the geographic distance. Teachers are working in transnational teams developing teaching designs that were planned, run and evaluated in virtual classes.
The project is designed as collaboration between researchers and practitioners and takes a user-driven, action-oriented approach. The didactical designs were planned, implemented and evaluated in, with support from researchers in the fields of subject didactics as well as ICT and learning. The goal is to innovate novel teaching models with the support and assistance of researchers. Hence it seems highly relevant for me to gain deeper understanding of the research approach: possibilities and challanges, how to avoid pitfalls and how should I consider my role and participation?