White Paper
Working Document
To be soon on the CILT Web Site

The past decade has established the tremendous potential of global communications to provide information, enable empowerment and raise productivity. At the same time, society as a whole is extending its educational expectations, and foresees a brighter future for the active, lifelong learner. To prepare for the knowledge age now upon us, schools need to integrate technological innovation and the reform movement in education which is based on a view that children construct their own understanding of the world through active engagement with topics and problems that are meaningful to them. Many educational researchers point to teachers as the key component (e.g., Darling-Hammond, 1997; Goodlad, 1994; Shulman, 1987). This paper begins a discussion on how technology might be used for creating and sustaining effective teacher professional development.

Teachers are engaged in exploring how information and communication technologies may help them accomplish their complex professional tasks. Educational administrators are adopting electronic solutions to respond to a growing diversity of learning needs. Learning activities, tools, and programs increasingly offer a mixed variety: face-to-face and/or online, synchronous or asynchronous. The school curriculum is being digitalized, and virtual universities have begun to compete on local universities' turf. The traditional textbook is evolving to become the e-book. Half of U.S. households now have a computer, and 41.5% have Net access (Silicon Valley News, October 17, 2000) affording the possibility of new school-home connections. All of these technological changes are transforming the social and intellectual roles of teachers.

The challenge is knowledge building. Future, technology-enhanced professional development must contribute new depth and rigor to professional development as well as provide greater access. These programs must not only support adult learning pedagogy, but allow teachers to identify their new role in learning through a community of practice (Seely Brown & Duguid, 2000). Hopefully, such a professional community is one in which some expert teachers are organizing and managing their classroom as a community of learners or as a knowledge-building community.

The new dimensions of the roles of learners and teachers in networked classrooms are recognized in this White Paper which uncovers the evolving nature of professional development when it comes to knowing about and knowing with learning technologies. Moving to reconceptualize the classroom as a learning community, one in which members may be, partly or totally, physically or virtually present, this paper presents 1) the new baseline from which it departs from, that of the learning context, content, and process addressing the needs of the majority of teachers; 2) the online teaching and learning practices that early adopters are finding useful, and 3) the advanced practices that teachers are pioneering, with the support of networked computers (desktop, laptops, and Pocket PC).

The learning context, content, and process addressing the needs of the majority of teachers

Although there are still classroom teachers who resist use of computers, the majority of them are responding to the social expectations that call for classroom learners' use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), and for the development of the technical skills required to access online resources for learning purposes. Becker et al. found that 93% of teachers in grades 4-12 were using computers as a part of their professional lives. A majority of teachers now have a computer in their classroom and nearly 80% have one at home. Most teachers find computers useful for preparing handouts for lessons, recording student grades, and doing other work of knowledge professionals (Becker, Ravitz & Wong, 1999). They know they must be prepared to confront technical issues, as well as classroom organization/management, and pedagogical issues.

Teachers have heard about the new theory of learning (ASCD, 2000). However, when it comes to ensuring that students achieve specific learning outcomes, teachers tend to rely on what they know best(1) , that is, teach-to-the-test. They face the "doublebind" they are confronted with, when they introduce computer-supported collaborative learning activities. This add-on strategy reflects a prudent attitude, but also a well-entrenched trust in the transmission model, in the relevance of presenting interesting lessons using the delivery mode they know well. Even when teachers are developing a capacity to access online resources (information, tools, and people) that suggest ways to enhance the learners' experience and success, they tend to use these resources for delivering information.

Using PowerPoint, a Web page editor, or other software, some become most resourceful in turning their lectures into multi-media events. Others are more inclined to download from recommended sites, lesson plans or learning scenarios, and adapt them to fit a specific learning context, activity, or curriculum. Teachers face different classroom planning and management issues when they choose to take the whole class on the Internet for a particular learning activity or project. Such issues may relate to learners' basic technical skills including information retrieval and Web page production to intellectual property and confidentiality issues. The danger is that we incorporate powerful tools without rethinking practice. Teachers tend to retrofit their traditional, transmission delivery curriculum with powerful computers.

In both the technological and pedagogical realms, teachers exhibit a certain discomfort with radical new solutions. The tension between social reproduction and transformation reaches its crux when they see governance bodies becoming interested in emerging "technology-based solutions"(2) . Market-driven forces want to enter education systems, and a new round of negotiation between private-public interests is underway. What teachers will do is of critical value. It is troublesome to think that the majority will integrate the e-book (or any type of canned or pre-organized learning materials) in a way similar to how they use the textbook (declarative/procedural/conditional knowledge). The aspirations of the knowledge society and of the teaching profession itself call for a renewal of the use of learning technologies with current theories of learning in mind.

Thus, individual-, school-, and network-based professional development is key. Teachers who are developing a capacity to access online resources (information, tools, and people) are presented with an increasingly broader range of learning resources for themselves, and the students they work with. When those resources suggest to them ways to enhance the learners' experience and success, and providing that connectivity or access is not an issue, they are likely to integrate some online materials into their teaching. But the question remains, will teachers' implementation efforts incorporate new understanding of learning afforded by technology.

As technology becomes a greater resource and context for learning, our view of learning changes. At this dynamic juncture we must continue to ask how the new approaches and strategies we develop add more depth and rigor to professional and student learning. Are we taking full advantage of this opportunity to rethink teaching and learning?

Given the above considerations, this White Paper establishes, as its baseline, the learning needs(3) of the majority of teachers. Traditional workshops that provide formal, face-to-face training optimally followed by online and one-on-one support and just-in-time training may be what is needed for learning to use technology within existing school practices.

However, meeting teacher professional development needs for integrating technology more deeply into classrooms requires more than incentives based on seat time. As an example, the majority of teachers are more inclined to engage learners in one task at a time rather than use multi-task and activity rotation. "But real life learning is often characterized as playful, recursive and non-linear, engaging, self-directed, and meaningful from the learner's perspective. Motivation and learning look like the natural processes they are in real life learning" (McCombs, 2000).

The online teaching and learning practices of early-adopter teachers

Teachers are also pathfinders in the fast growing world of online learning resources. The combination of face-to-face and/or online social interaction for teaching and learning, creates a new learning environment here identified as the networked (or connected) classroom. Those teachers whose classrooms have high access to online resources and who work in an organization that supports classroom online activity (colleagues, administrators, and parents), are organizing and managing activities in such ways as to engage students in a variety of learning projects using ICTs. They have intentions, and ideas, and they move ahead. They believe, as Fullan (2000) suggests, that the more powerful technology becomes, the more they are needed. Technology is changing their roles, but it is also requiring them to engage more powerful roles - using technology to open new pathways to learning, and finding ways to connect to communities outside the school building. They also have questions, and face issues. For support and help, they go to their colleagues, their students, parents, and other members of their local, or extended, community(4) or network(5) .

They find online communities of interest, and engage in sharing and support activities(6). Some of them have been introduced to electronic conferencing during their pre-service studies(7) , or through initiatives such as I*EARN (International Education and Resource Network), The Great Lakes Collaborative, a US national initiative to improve student achievement in K-9 mathematics and science education, or the ones sponsored by the European Union(8) .

The application of the community-of-practice framework was suggested)(9) in the field of teacher education only one year after it was introduced by Lave & Wenger (1991). Educational leaders, including teachers-as-leaders, that managed to assemble the basic conditions (connectivity to the Internet, teachers' awareness of the potential of electronic networks for their field of practice, teachers' mastery of basic technical skills and access to appropriate support systems or tools, and recognition of teachers' participation in online communities as true learning), have expertise of value to others(10) that can be accessed by other adopters through legitimate peripheral participation (LPP) in communities of practice.

Referring to the teacher professional development model developed by Laferrière (1997), one may distinguish specific areas of progressive expertise in the pedagogical integration of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the classroom. Teachers who identified new learning possibilities with the use of ICTs and who renewed the routines of their classrooms have expertise of value to teachers within their proximal zone of development and to teachers that are mastering entry-level skills (awareness of the network phenomenon and access) in face-to-face or online dialogue. Professional learning communities (Dufour and Eaker, 1998) that combine these two modes of interaction have an advantage.

At the early stage of their practice of online interaction for learning purposes, school teachers may devote more time to peer support than to collaborative knowledge building, but they qualify, nevertheless, as early adopters of learning technologies. In and of itself, teacher collaboration is a new way of doing things for those working in a team, a professional community, a university-school partnership(11) , and/or a network. Support tools such as those in TAPPED IN developed at SRI International (Schlager, & Schank, 1997; Schlager, Fusco, & Schank, 1998) are designed to scaffold the key processes of communities of practice such as engagement and negotiation of meaning.

The technology that supports the community is a Web-based multi-user virtual environment designed to support large numbers of education professionals in a single virtual place. An integrated set of communication mechanisms (speaking, whispering, paging, nonverbal actions) and support tools (e.g., virtual whiteboards, sharable text documents, Web page projection, transcript recorders) enable users to be more expressive than with other types of online tools. See http://www.tappedin.org/info/pap ers.html

Through TAPPED IN, educators can attend activities hosted by education organizations, conduct their own activities, take online courses, bring their students online, experiment with new ways to teach, or expand their circle of colleagues by participating in community-wide events (Nystrom, 1998; Gray, 1999). Since the virtual doors of TAPPED IN opened in 1997, it has become the online home to a rapidly growing community of more than 9,000 K-12 teachers, librarians, teacher education faculty, professional development staff, researchers, and other education professionals.

TAPPED IN has also demonstrated a viable model for partnering with, and supporting the online activities of, a wide range of teacher professional development grant projects, nationally recognized content and service providers, university teacher education programs, and school districts. Seventeen organizations have become TAPPED IN tenants. Scores of other organizations use TAPPED IN facilities on an as-needed basis for special events, courses, and workshops. Several university faculty incorporate TAPPED IN into their courses or teach an entire course through TAPPED IN.

TAPPED IN also provides critical services to the community. Our staff and volunteers from the community help organization leaders quickly and effectively plan and conduct online activities using our technology, often in conjunction with face-to-face activities and other online technologies. We alleviate much of the burden of training project participants to interact effectively online through our live, real-time, online Help Desk service and through authentic small-group online activities that teachers attend before their online project begins, thereby enabling the teachers and TPD staff to focus on learning content, not learning to communicate.

Finally, TAPPED IN helps to knit together and fill in the gaps between isolated TPD projects by offering TPD projects a shared online environment where each can engage in its own online activities, but share expertise, resources, and technical support. Because TAPPED IN does not shut down when a project ends, we can provide continuing support to teachers whose TPD project has come to an end. More importantly, because TAPPED IN is open to any K-12 education professional, those who are not fortunate enough to participate in formal projects can interact with those who have and with other education professionals outside of their local confines. They can learn about new ideas and emerging technologies as professionals in other professions do-through informal networking with colleagues (Schlager, 2000).

Currently, computer-supported collaborative learning may be considered as a new context in itself, one presenting additional challenges and issues. For instance, practical questions such as the following are emerging:

1. Which tools with which affordances of online interaction exist that support deep teacher learning?
2. How can online discussions be organized and moderated to further deep professional conversation?
- How to foster "dialogue" (see Freire's sense of dialogue)(12) as a potentially transformational experience?
- What new pedagogical strategies does online learning provide opportunity for?
- How can pedagogical strategies that deepen student learning be developed in the online environment?
3. How does the best we know about pedagogy play out in an online context? e.g., the importance of building on prior knowledge? Constructing ideas individually and collaboratively? Sustained time? Application of understanding?
4. How do we determine what effective online professional development looks like?
5. How do structures and strategies for building content knowledge and building skills differ in the online environment?
6. How do we support and sustain the online communities of practice (CoPs)?
7. What human and technical infrastructures are needed to support teacher CoPs?

The development of a knowledge base for the networked (or connected) classroom is a knowledge-management issue in and of itself that the teaching profession is bound to face. Participation in online communities of practice makes sense to early adopters; through give-and-take practices, they are developing the online side of their professional identity.

The group that worked on this paper had its share of knowledge-building moments. Here are specific creative uses of concepts and tools:

- Use of the construct "collegial-online-dialogue". Linda suggested "the Community of Practice or even the activity theory perspective, i.e., that speakers/writers/readers need to engage around a task or artifact of their practice. She pointed to the fact that there is enough research from the 80s showing us that most classrooms are dominated by I-R-E exchanges (teacher initiated question - student response -teacher evaluation), and added: Surely an I-R-E kind of interaction belies any efforts at classroom constructionism. Perhaps if teachers could engage in collegial online dialogue about their own practice, illustrated by digital snippets, they might be open to a revisiting of their own classroom interactions. Seems like a possible proximal/next development in technology and teacher ed, no? It's not that technically far-fetched, and yet it does push us further along than current tools and practices. (View on Critical Issues, Note 62). Issues of trust building, openness as characteristic of the communication process, and the development of shared and quite specific learning goals were also identified for effective multimedia-online discussions. (View on Critical Issues, Therese, Note 70).

- Use of video artefacts/scenarios. An example that was offered is sharing of and dialoguing about classroom video --snippets of teachers' work. Surely this is growing increasingly manageable on the 'Net every month, was it noted. Ricki Goldman Segall's Points of Viewing web site was mentioned as an example. It was noted that even here there's not a clear collaborative purpose (http://cgi.pointsofviewing.com/ lasso.acgi) (View on Critical Issues, Linda, Note 62). Mary built on this suggestion: "In our group we have been using videotape more and more extensively to document classroom participant structures that augment children's interactions in Knowledge Forum®. This year we have begun to help children become classroom ethnographers as well. One version of KF permits the inclusion of Quick Time movies. By making them a part of the database they then become objects for discussion among teachers and researchers (http://kf.oise.utoronto.ca/Virtu alTours/). Our problem is a technical one because most schools don't have the broad band required for much video or the computers needed." (View on Critical Issues, Mary, Note 67). Raymond informed us that: "We've just submitted a proposal to the US Dept of Ed that would use online video scenarios as the primary source material for a national mathematic professional development effort. (View on Critical Issues, Linda, Note 72)

- Building a taxonomy of online-dialogue functions: Horizontal and vertical functions were distinguished: 1) horizontal functions such as: extension of f2f conversations and exploration of additional topics, and 2) vertical functions such as: ongoing support, deepening understanding (of a part, of the whole), building collective intelligence in a specific domain. (View on Critical Issues, Therese, Note 66)

- Combining f2f and on-line interaction, local and global communities. Site-based professional development is highly recommended for change to really happen in classrooms. So, I suggest that we provide some space for site-based f2f interaction in the white paper we develop. (View on Critical Issues, Therese, Note 73). Nancy added: "I agree that the site is the center for the staff development programs, but I suspect that the process must ultimately move beyond these borders. Teachers will need to form site communities of learning and global communities. (View on Critical Issues, Nancy, Note 74). Nancy provided the following testimony:

The Pepperdine Masters program was 90% on-line. We started the program with a face-to-face meeting in Los Angeles in July. This camp lasted one week and allowed members to develop social/human connections within the cadre. After our initial f2f meeting, all projects, classes, discussions, planning, etc. were carried on via the Internet. We utilized synchronous and asynchronous venues that were affordable and accessible to professors and students. Our next f2f was a technology conference in Florida. This f2f was an opportunity to plan for an integrated case study project. The final f2f was during the presentation of action research projects.

Are developing online communities of practice one goal for teacher professional development? If the goal is to collaborate through sharing of what works and doesn't work in the classroom then it is. Technology can be used to extend the forms and meanings of teacher action research. But, how does participating within slowly evolving communities advance teacher knowledge? This is the question posed by Bereiter (1999) who argues that there is a split between the cultures of teaching and of educational research. To make teaching a progressive enterprise we need to form a hybrid culture where the cultures of theory and practice come together to solve common problems that require the knowledge and talents of both.

The advanced practices of pioneer teachers in networked classrooms

The networked classroom (elementary, secondary or post-secondary classroom) presents possibilities, issues and challenges for pioneer teachers. Koschmann et al. put forward (1994) the six following learning principles (multiplicity, activeness, authenticity, articulation, termlessness(13) , and discussion) for university graduates to learn the skills now expected of them in many fields, including teaching. Greening pointed (1998) to the application of those principles on instructional design for higher education.

Laffey, Musser, and Tupper (1998) documented the first implementation year, of an Internet-based Journal System designed to support the development of a learning community, and CILT 2000 program features a number of initiatives being taken to support learning communities.

When it comes to pedagogical integration of learning technologies, elementary classrooms have nothing to envy from the quasi-totality of post-secondary classrooms (namely, teacher-educators' classrooms) as regards equipment, access, and student engagement(14) . Pioneer teachers working in K-12 classrooms, and in collaboration with researchers (Brown, 1997; CTGV, 1997; Gomez, 1999; Laferrière, 2000; Lamon et al., 1996; Lamon, Reeves and Caswell, 1999; Pea, 1999; Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1996; Schofield, 1995; Derry et al., 2000; and others) have developed leading-edge practices which are guided by the metaphor of the learner as a researcher, and WHICH FOCUS ON DEEP UNDERSTANDING AND TEACHING FOR UNDERSTANDING RELYING ON INQUIRY- AND PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING. In those classrooms where collaborative knowledge building is valued and implemented, striking performances may be observed.

Classroom knowledge building communities

As one example taken from the CSILE project (Scardamalia, Bereiter & Lamon, 1994), knowledge building classrooms function in much the same way as scientific research teams. Students work collaboratively to create theories that help them understand the world. There is learning of scientific, historical, or literary domains through solving problems of understanding and because students have formed, criticized and amended their theories they are able to go well beyond a mere recitation of facts. An added advantage of knowledge building as an educational approach is that it has value for living and working in a knowledge society. In the best of these classrooms, we see students taking off with an idea or project that carries them into intellectual realms that even adults find exciting. Students approach problems from multiple perspectives, work individually or collaboratively to advance their knowledge and are proud of being in charge of their own learning. Students work both face-to-face in small and large groups and asynchronously using Knowledge Forum®. Knowledge Forum® is a participant constructed database where students enter their ideas making them explicit and setting them in a context where they are built on, cited, refined, summarized, analyzed, and improved. All members have access to the notes of all other members, and in this way individual contributions are raised to the level of significant knowledge resources.

The following scenario is another example that applies to teacher education:

Mary Roberts is a student teacher in a fourth grade classroom. Her master teacher has asked her to observe and videotape a group of students as they carry out a science investigation to determine when and under what conditions condensation forms on the side of a glass. The video will provide a way for Mary and her master teacher to look more closely at what the students do and how their understandings develop.

After class the student teacher and master teacher view the video together and share observations. They also review the students' written explanations about the investigation. One student, Richard, thought that water came through the glass.

How can Mary help Richard to move his understanding forward within the context of inquiry? What questions might she pose? What steps might she encourage Richard to take?

The master teacher suggests that they use the online community to assist in thinking about the question. Mary posts the video clip and student explanation to an online forum where practicing and student teachers share and interpret actual teaching events in a problem-based community. As part of the case study, Mary and her master teacher present an overview of the classroom event and two questions: What is the student's understanding? What intervention on Mary's part will further both Richard's inquiry and conceptual understanding? As the online discussion takes shape, suggestions are weighed and new questions are raised.

Doubler et al. (1994) commented:

Teachers are also learners - learners of practice. If we are to support their efforts to teach science well, we need to provide forums in which they can do science in new ways, reflect on their own learning and consider implications for their own classrooms. If current theory is to reach the classroom, teachers must have more than awareness of current ideas. They must have action knowledge that can only come from experiencing active learning themselves. (p. 3)

Online experiences can provide the time and structure for learning how to take the stance of a particular discipline. For example, in Lesley/TERC online master's degree program teachers further their understanding of key science concepts through scientific inquiry:

Participants engage in sustained investigation at their home study site. In their online discussions they share predictions, investigation results, and explanations based on data that they have gathered. They then compare their findings and explanations with each other. Discrepancies often result in re-testing or using new investigation designs.

The asynchronous environment ensures that everyone's ideas are heard and that each individual has enough time to formulate and rethink hypotheses and explanations, and then to respond to each other's ideas. The need to explain scientific ideas in writing for others contributes to explicit understanding.

Program courses are co-taught by a scientist and science educator. The scientist helps participants to take a scientific stance as they address questions through investigation. While participants are expected to learn through discussion with their study group, one-on-one coaching between the scientist and participants also occurs.

Participants reflect on their own science experiences and consider implications for practice. Their final challenge is to implement new strategies into their teaching. These efforts are shared and supported through online discussion with colleagues and the science education facilitator.

Online professional development can involve in-depth, sustained study that provides direct access to experts and state-of-the-art resources.

We would add to this perspective by referring back to Bereiter's comments that to create a researcher/teacher culture and to the scenario above that the online community needs to include more than educators. Scardamalia (2000) is engaged in a design experiment, the Knowledge Society Network (KSN), which takes collaborative knowledge building to a new level--to a network-of-networks of knowledge-building communities. The KSN is an international virtual institute. Its participants represent cross-sector communities (schools, small businesses, universities, hospitals, research scientists). Communities are joined through partnerships and shared commitment to break down traditional organizational isolation and barriers. By making use of talents within and between communities, knowledge building is built into the dynamics by which participants communicate and pursue organizational goals. For example, elementary school social-studies communities might work with high school social-studies communities, and they in turn with social scientists in various community organizations. There is no predetermined alignment; communities may find their cutting edge in unanticipated places. The process common to everyone is knowledge advancement. Their work to date suggests that it is better to think in terms of interleaved or nested communities, rather than one global community, and to support multiple and diverse forms of interaction.

Wall-less schools and classrooms

"During the past century, Americans increasingly came to associate learning with schooling and competence with credentials (Spady, 2000)". The common educational experience for most people is school. School is the institution that delivers the formal learning experiences. Students have traditionally gone to school ­ meaning students travel physically to the school building. Within school, formal learning experiences are organized as courses. Each course is a set of structured activities arranged in a linear sequence through which students are expected to move more or less together as a group.

The term "school," brings with it the image of a building where students go to get their education. There may be different physical buildings for different types of education, and there are different levels of school, but generally people "go to" school. And the learning this system values typically happen in courses and classes. Sometimes learning takes place in the informal learning environment of the school institution­ in the community-building activities that include a variety of social and less formal gatherings, however these are most frequently considered ancillary to the core curricular goals.

The ubiquity of computers and the Internet is changing what we think of as learning activities, where they occur, and who provides them. Technology makes it possible to communicate rapidly across great distances, and has changed what it means to "go to" school. Our understanding of how individuals learn continues to evolve as we develop technologies that make use of this new knowledge creating an upward spiral. Formal learning has always had time conditions on it ­ courses had to take a certain (specified) length of time, and the effective rigor of the course is often as much a function of the time a student devotes to it as the content itself.

The next generation of online learning tools

The next generation of online learning tools could move away from the constraints of the traditional concepts of school, course, and class, while at the same time providing a way to accommodate those metaphors. Learning can take place anywhere and any time. Technology can enable formal learning experiences to take place anywhere and any time. Present day schools have a problem now in classifying and capturing a range of learning experiences that are not part of courses or classes. But, it's clear, especially in business training, learning events are more commonly of shorter duration.

Two distinctly different tools are needed. The first is a modular course delivery platform. It needs to be fully cross-platform at the desktop level for both students and instructors -- and must be designed to be compatible with the accessibility tools available today. It's clear that(15) the Americans With Disability Act (ADA) applies to access issues with online courses as it supports learning for all students.

"Feature wars" play a large role in defining the features of every product, however to deliver all the features of every other potential competitor and those unique to a particular platform places increasingly greater demands on learning institutions to upgrade hardware and infrastructure in what is effectively a losing battle. Modularity is important so the platform can be customized to meet particular course needs, and to maintain flexibility, and enable incremental upgrades to individual modules as the technology changes. At the same time, it's important to maintain the UI (user interface) across the modules.

Now platforms are primarily synchronous or asynchronous, with some minor support given to the other approach. They must support both approaches equally. Customization of the modules is where the platform can be directed to be more synchronous or asynchronous.

The online text-based discussion is currently a critical vehicle for online courses, but it's not necessarily the strongest element of the current asynchronous products. The threaded discussion should support not just discussion between the participants, it also needs to support the community-building aspects of the online course. To this end the platform should provide thumb-nail graphics of the authors as an option, and should have a single-click to link to the information page about the author of each posting. There should be an easy way to change the filter for the sorting messages which can be done on the threads as well as navigational aids. A graphical map that shows the position of the current message within a thread is important, as is the ease of moving up and down a thread. It should be able to display the target message that is being replied to when composing as well as displaying the target when reading a reply (e.g. VGroups in Virtual-U).

One of our key learnings over the past years has been; it doesn't matter how the program is designed, or what use the developer had for the whole tool, or just a feature; someone will come along and use it in an unanticipated way. We know it's unanticipated because it always elicits a "why did you do that?" response from the developer.

The key is a delivery platform with unlimited flexibility and the ability of the instructor and ultimately the system administrator to control the feature set available for the learning environment. It should be possible to adapt the feature set, mid-course not just prior to building the learning events. There has to be control at the administrative level, in case there are organizational absolutes that either must be present, or shouldn't ever be used. Experience with teachers shows that even when there are clear policies about procedures, they don't always get followed. Administrative control can't be overridden at the instructor level and yet the system should facilitate the communication of instructor and learner needs to the system administrator.

The content delivery platform needs to fit within an institutional context. As such it needs to provide:

- large-scale automated student registration,
- integration with institutional record-keeping systems (e.g. grading, transcripts)
- a link to all the courses an individual student has registered for,
- organizational and personal calendar,
- institutional announcements, and
- institutional community organizations and structures, and
- links and hooks for e-commerce billing.

The management structure also needs to help manage the structure of a formal instructional program. The key to program management would be to keep track of a variety of different grain-sized learning events. For management and economic reasons, institutions tend to organize events around a common institutional schedule and require the individual to fit into the organization's schedule. Technology provides more flexibility and those institutions that cater to individual needs will have a market advantage. The "anywhere, any place" metaphor will have a very different meaning.

To describe the management system we need to create a metaphor, because the implementation can take a variety of different forms. Our metaphor is marbles. Every acceptable learning event that could make up a program would be assigned a value in marbles, and/or a pre-requisite learning activity. Marbles could have different colors, to designate specific learning strand categories. A formal degree program might require a total of 250 marbles, with a required distribution between five colors (black for basic or core activities, blue for related activities, red for content concentration, yellow for personal enhancement, and green for community building activities). An individual learning event might have a three different marbles attached to it, two black and one red. Another activity might only have a single yellow marble. Activities that required more intense commitment could have more marbles than more casual learning events.

There would be nothing in this model that would preclude a mix of content delivery techniques, or granularities. On the other hand, this approach might encourage a change away from a set of courses that needed to fit into an organizational calendar. Individuals in a hurry might look for a path through the marbles that would have them collecting the "right" combination quickly, while someone else could meander through the learning events paying more attention to personal development than to program completion.


Conclusion

The reconceptualization of the classroom as a learning community allows early adopters to engage in innovative practices as they combine face-to-face and online learning activities for themselves and for students. Pedagogical problems come to the forefront, and technology fades in the background; it has become a support tool for a more challenging teaching task.

This challenging teaching task is knowledge building. Access to online professional development could provide teachers with
1) quick, just-in-time information about a program they are using, a topic of study, specific pedagogical issues such as supporting students with special needs,
2) it can provide opportunity for colleague-to-colleague learning in which teachers share ideas and strategies and consider specific classroom case studies,
3) it can provide access to current data and resources of a field, e.g., up-to-the-minute scientific data and how to use this data to further student learning,
4) it can provide opportunities for deep, sustained and rigorous professional learning. For example, in the area of science, teachers who have not experienced scientific inquiry in their own learning can engage in sustained inquiry to develop new understandings of science concepts. This can be supported by experts-practicing scientists who coach teachers as they take a scientific stance in their own learning thus developing a new understanding of the discipline, its questions, and how the discipline goes about answering its questions.

So online professional development can serve multiple purposes. But, in each case, the mantra is serious knowledge building that goes beyond what happens in face-to-face experiences. If we are not thinking in these terms, we are not exploiting the opportunity we have to rethinking and improve professional learning.

References

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Ashton, S., & Levy, P. (1998). Networked learner support in higher education: Initiatives in professional development and research for a new role. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 49(9), 850-853.

Becker, H., Ravitz, J. & Wong, Y.T. (1999). Teaching, Learning, and Computing: 1998 National Survey, Report #3 Center for Research on Information Technology and Organizations, University of California, Irvine and University of Minnesota.

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1 See Donald Schön's espoused theory and theory-in-use concepts (1983).

2 Heather-Jane Robertson, Canadian Teachers Federation, wrote the following book: No More Teachers, No More Books : The Commercialization of Canada's Schools, 1999.

3 Some needs, likely not to be much related to the new theory of learning, are currently met through online learning offered at virtual places such as ICONnect (http://www.ala.org/ICONN/ib asicsschedule.html), and Global Connections (http://www.nsglobalonline.com/); the l atter offers Web-based training program to K-12 teachers to effectively integrate the Internet into their existing curriculums. The Telecampus' database includes more than 250 online courses related to technology integration and the use of information and communication technologies (http://courses.telecamp us.edu/index.cfm?query=142). Teachers' professional associations are also developing online learning activities. For instance, the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development's (ASCD) Web site features interactive lessons that have been specially designed for Web-based training. And networks may be joined: Fermilab Leadership Institute is creating a network of educational leaders who pursue the integration of Internet with instruction and curriculum (http://www-ed.fnal.gov/lincon/in dex.html).

4 See Dufour & Eaker (1998) on teachers' professional communities.

5 Some teacher networks have added an online dimension to their professional development activities; Lieberman & Grolnick (1996) mentioned electronic networking and conferences. However, most teacher networks devoted to the improvement of teachers' knowledge, motivation, and school reform are not primarily computer-supported; see the descriptive analysis provided by Firestone and Pennell (1997) of the two state-sponsored networks, California and Vermont.

6 In Canada, the Education Network of Ontario (ENO, http://www.enoreo.on.ca ) has developed online support activities, and formed communities of interest. An estimated number of 5 000-6 000 teachers are considered to be regular participants.

7 The use of electronic networks in teacher education goes back to Merseth (1988, 1990), and Bull et al. (1989).

8 Dobson (1996) reports on US tele-mentoring activities; Ashton & Levy (1998) on reference assistance and skill training in the EU.

9 Watts & Castle (1992) suggested electronic networks as a means of constituting communities of practice in teacher education; exploratory research followed (Blanton et al., 1993, 1996).

10 See the OECD study (in progress) on the story of such schools which assembled conditions that contributed to their advancement in the successful integration of ICTs.

11 In their study of collaborative teacher research, Knight, Wiseman, & Cooner (2000) do not mention any significant use of online conversation for collaborative-knowledge-building purposes.

12 Dialogue rather than just "conversation" or chat: "We have seen researchers comment on the failure of online interaction in listservs or threaded news groups to support or rise above simple Q&A about procedural (rather than conceptual) knowledge: how do you show; where can I get; etc."

13 In rich domains, the emphasis is to be put on the learning process rather than on the product.

14 The networked computers that are installed in elementary classrooms outgrow by far those installed in post-secondary classrooms of pioneered teachers. In one-computer classroom, elementary students are also more likely to access the computer that post-secondary students.

15 Congress's 1997 amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) a federal law passed in 1975 and reauthorized in 1990, mandates that all children receive a free, appropriate public education regardless of the level or severity of their disability. Public Law 101-336. The Americans with Disabilities Act, Public Law 336 of the 101st Congress, enacted July 26, 1990. The ADA prohibits discrimination and ensures equal opportunity for persons with disabilities in employment, State and local government services, public accommodations, commercial facilities, and transportation. It also mandates the establishment of TDD/telephone relay services.

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