Browsing by Author "Timgren, Arvi-Johannes"

In today's society, children are living in homes surrounded by technology. After graduating from school, they will enter a working life where information is being processed predominantly using technology. There is an ongoing public debate regarding the usage of technology in schools. Previous research indicates that there are significant differences between individual schools and teachers alike. Modern day tools provide opportunities to reform teaching methods and shift the focus from knowledge acquisition to learning through participation and knowledge creation. Although technology is often being used solely with knowledge acquisition practices, some schools and teachers are more versatile with their methods. The purpose of this research is to discover the knowledge practices used by those more advanced teachers and study the technology used to support these practices. Eight teachers were interviewed for this research, ranging from elementary to high school. The knowledge practices they discussed in the interviews were included in the analysis using inductive coding. These practices were first categorized according to the concept of learning they represent and then by the timeliness of the technology utilized. An example of each category was provided and quantitative analysis was conducted. Among the diverse knowledge practices discussed by the teachers, the three metaphors of learning (acquisition, participation and knowledge creation) were almost equally represented. The results of this study also suggest that teachers who utilize new tools in teaching are more open to knowledge creation rather than repeating existing information.