In-Service Teachers' Use of ICT for the Promotion of Collaborative Professional Learning

Abstract

Information and communication technologies (ICT) are often rendered as key tools in the promotion of teachers' collaborative learning. Their use enables teachers to complete assignments, solve problems, or create products together. The content of this chapter is based on the information published in a previous research study by the authors. In that study, they aimed at describing teachers' use of ICT towards collaboration from a triple perspective: what they believe (teachers' opinion), what they know (teachers' knowledge), and what they do (teachers' use). A questionnaire and interviews were the instruments to collect data. Some results pointed out that teachers used ICT to promote collaboration on a regular basis, but it is limited to the knowledge they have on particular tools, which is acknowledged to be intermediate. The most important implication for teacher education programs is considering the actual limitations of teachers' knowledge and use of ICT in practice to set a more accurate starting point to promote collaboration through technologies.