| This ethnographic study was conducted by a high-school teacher (participant-observer) who studied the cultural and pedagogical challenges that he and his colleagues encountered as they transitioned their classrooms from "paper and pencil" technology to those which integrated student laptops. The researcher facilitated a professional learning community (PLC) in order to support colleagues through their transition from notebook to netbook based classrooms. The PLC convened during five forty-five minute sessions scheduled throughout the 2009–10 school year at a 1,000-student, suburban high school. Data for the study were acquired through participation/observation within the PLC and through semi-structured interviews with eleven research participants who were members of the PLC, which took place over a two year period. Findings from the study revealed a need for teachers to discover not only how to use the technology—which in itself is crucial—but more importantly for educators to appreciate the power that the technology has to impact the culture within classrooms. A new paradigm is proposed here, Student Teacher Technology (STT), which intends to contribute to Mishra and Koehler's (2006, 2010) scholarship on Technology Content Pedagogy Knowledge (TPACK). STT requires that educators ask not only, "How can digital technology contribute to students' learning?" as posed by Mishra and Koehler's (2006, 2010). More importantly, educators also need to ask, "With the integration of digital technology in the classroom, how can educators ensure the development of all aspects learning—from social, to emotional, to scholarly—for the whole child?". |
