Pre-Service Teacher Education for the Management of Actual and Virtual Classes

Teaching And Learning In Networked Environments

Schools in networked environments provide new challenges for teachers and for teacher educators. Teaching in traditional classes and in networked environments in which classes are linked across dispersed sites requires preparation starting with pre-service teacher education. In the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador and in other sparsely populated parts of the world it is becoming increasingly important to be able to teach students who live beyond major centres of population and whose small local schools cannot provide a full curriculum on-site through its own teachers. The development of teaching and learning in networked school environments has proceeded through three stages in Newfoundland and Labrador: the creation of awareness of changes that have taken place in the province in the last decade using contemporary technologies, the use of collaborative pedagogy to maximize the potential of technological changes in schools and the integration of virtual and actual teaching and learning.