The Future of Education

Several recent studies indicate that there is a need for the increase of usage of ICT and social media in the Finnish education.  This challenge has also been recognized in the teacher training at Tampere University of Applied Sciences School of Vocational Teacher Education (TAOKK) which offers training for future professionals mainly in vocational and higher education.

To improve and develop teacher training at TAOKK by increasing the teacher students´ awareness and skills in the use of ICT, social media and networking in teaching and learning, a narrative study was launched. The study proceeded in three phases: 1) Narratives highlighting the motivation of 60 teacher students to use of ICT were collected in Spring 2013; 2) Teacher training methods were revised to include a systematic use of social media tools; 3) A second narrative was collected in November 2013 to assess the effect of the new learning design.

In the first narratives two essential themes were picked up from the narratives: skills of using social media and the level of activity of using social media.  Accordingly the material could be divided into four groups.  Each group was then analysed using two different approaches: conceptions of teaching and learning and expressions of emotions in the narratives. 

The results of the first narratives show that these four groups could be characterized as Outsiders, Insiders, Sceptics and Optimists. The Outsiders experienced learning and teaching as a teacher centered activity with the teacher in control.  The emotions expressed by the Outsides showed mostly threats and fear of losing control. As to learning and teaching Insiders were not a unified group but showed traditional as well as more advanced attitudes towards teaching and learning. The emotions in the narratives written by Insiders showed a positive undercurrent towards the use of social media.  Sceptics had a traditional view of teaching and learning with some indications of a transformation process towards a more student centered approach.  Doubts and fear were also seen in the narratives of the Spectics but not as strongly as in those of Outsiders.  Optimists were mostly at the very beginning of building their teacher identity.  Optimists were concerned about the their skills but in general showed trust in their own ability to acquire these skills.  Expressions of joy and pride were observed.

The second round of narratives collected from the students showed changes in the attitudes and a positive impact on skills and willingness to use social media in teaching.

The narrators were evidently in different stages in the process of building their professional teacher identities. The effectivities of the narrators are in most cases not at a level which would enable them to fully utilize the affordances of social media for teaching and learning. The integration of social media into the implementation of the teacher training curriculum is seen vital in TAOKK, and this study provides new information and guidelines for the future development work.