Developing situated knowledge about teaching with technology via Web-enhanced Case-based activity

Situated, case-based approaches, featuring virtual teachers' activity and reasoning in university classrooms, may provide a viable alternative to immersive field-based apprenticeships. Despite widespread advocacy on situated teacher education, research on preservice teachers' situated learning remains rare. This study examined how preservice teachers gain situated knowledge about teaching with technology by engaging the experiences of practicing teachers through Web-enhanced, Case-based activity (CBA). Situated knowledge of exemplary teachers often espouses a constructivist epistemology and a student-centered pedagogy when they use computers for teaching. Also, their knowledge for teaching with technology requires linking computer skills with associated curriculum and pedagogical strategies. Based on this initial framework, in this study, preservice teachers' changes in perceptions and understanding about teaching with technology were documented over the course of a semester. A qualitative case study was used, and constant comparative methods were used to continually compare emerging themes and refine categories. Web-enhanced CBA helped most preservice teachers to both understand appropriate uses of technology and refined their perspectives by using experienced teachers' captured knowledge and practices. Research is needed to refine our understanding of situated case-based approaches' potential to promote both meaningful technology integration knowledge and skill and to address a range of everyday classroom teaching and learning issues, decisions, and practices. (c) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.