Pages: 8

This book deconstructs the act of a teacher educator investigating and writing about educational technology (edtech). The chapters develop from studies of specific edtech platforms in the context of teacher education to positioning the author at the centre of the edtech research. The earlier chapters provide practitioner research into selected uses of edtech by student teachers. As the focus shifts towards the act of researching and writing about edtech, some of the later chapters are autoethnographic. There was some quantitative data, but the research would later narrow the focus onto qualitative methods of data collection and grounded theory, then thematic analysis as research methodologies. In terms of a theoretical framework, connectivism has been a consistent thread. Connectivism was selected to highlight the development of theoretical models in edtech either side of the pandemic lockdowns. The fresh contribution to knowledge that the book makes is to propose an openness to multiple paradigms, while still being mindful of potential contradictions. Its rigour resides in its revision of multiple research methods and approaches to reviewing literature. The book is useful to initial teacher education (ITE) in North America and the UK and edtech globally.

Pages: 26

Chatbot is a portmanteau word, formed from ‘chat’ and ‘robot’. Chatbots are conversational agents that mimic real linguistic interactions. Recent iterations of chatbots have been used as a virtual presence, designed to mimic elements of human interaction, via speech to text, speech to speech or text to speech. This chapter addresses the central problems surrounding the literature on chatbots in the context of education. In terms of research methods, the chapter provides a systematic review of the literature yet acknowledges the positionality of the researcher in the process as an entangled and becoming self. In doing so, the author deconstructs the process of systematic review. The findings are analysed using a five-step grounded theory model. The conclusions acknowledge the importance of diverse research methods in understanding the trajectory of the edtech sector. The chapter also provides a case study of two AI applications: Ada, the campus digital assistant, and FirstPass, an AI tool that provides real-time formative feedback to open-ended questions. The chapter will establish the relative value of case study as a research method. The chapter contains an edited transcript of an interview with Aftab Hussein, who is integral to the development of both innovations.

Pages: 15

Virtual reality (VR) in education is often accompanied by immersive experiences, viewed via a headset. This headset may be accessible like Google Cardboard, or sophisticated and expensive like Oculus Rift. VR is frequently the subject of academic study, through systematic reviews, meta-analyses and empirical studies. Though there is significant interest in VR, it is rare that a literature review provides an overview of the geography and specificity of relevant VR research. One element of this specificity is the date of publication. As a consequence of this, the chapter is clear about the inclusion of studies and reviews post-2015 and the exclusion criteria for reviews prior to that period. This chapter follows the structure of the other chapters in the book. The focus of this chapter, though, is a narrative review of the pedagogic uses and impact of VR in the context of Secondary education, or K-12. The review concludes that the taxonomical complexities common across edtech also exist in the VR space. There are inconclusive, tentative of niche claims of educational benefits, though there is a consensus on improved engagement. The chapter also proposes that research should be ongoing, as VR is very much a moving target within a moving target. Though a narrative review may lack the scientific rigour and perceived objectivity of a systematic review, the author was freed to draw his own inferences, based on experience, research and expertise. Furthermore, the author’s recent and current work challenges the preponderance of positivist research in education.

Pages: 14

This chapter will provide a viewpoint piece on learning through games. The theoretical models that this chapter will develop from gamification and game theory to connectivism. Part of the paper will update data from the author’s previous work by viewing the paper on Kahoot! through a personalised lens.

Pages: 20

This chapter develops the findings of a small-scale research project examining how student teachers in the Secondary/High School sector could use Pinterest – a social media platform. The builds on conference proceedings in the author’s previous work by broadening the dataset, narrowing the focus and drawing on the data to make recommendations for use in the classroom. The data was analysed using thematic analysis with in vivo coding. Thematic analysis was deployed as a methodology to help organise potentially unwieldy qualitative data and develop research-informed proposals for use in the classroom. Furthermore, the author ‘proposes collaborative autoethnographies as a future method of exploring the ontological and epistemological questions arising from qualitative inquiry’.

Pages: 14

Twitter and LinkedIn are examples of social platforms that are accompanied by rich data, sometimes via third parties. For example, social media management platforms like Sprout Social and BuzzSumo generate big data that transcends any of Twitter or LinkedIn’s native analytics. This chapter provides a viewpoint piece on the potential benefits of social media analytics in education and proposes that this data could be an essential component in the planning, literature review, data gathering, analysis and dissemination of academic research. The chapter also reports on preliminary autoethnographic findings that critique the opportunities and barriers surrounding social media in education, particularly in relation to effective use of analytics and publicity for events.

Pages: 14

This chapter draws on the traditions of autoethnography and builds on a considerable interest in authors recounting their own educational technology (edtech) journeys during the late 2010s and early 2020s. The author interrogates visual narratology as qualitative data in order to examine the author’s subject position. The chapter is rooted in autoethnographic traditions while developing more fluid works of contemporary relevance. The chapter arises from its findings that the author’s online persona and status as an academic are part of a performative, digital self.

Pages: 22

Social media is much maligned in schools, often justified by emotionally charged and weaponised words like safeguarding, cyberbullying or initialisms like GDPR. How is education finding ways to develop some of the functionality of social media to create private learning communities? This chapter discusses the role of blockchain technologies in the context of Secondary/High School. The bulk of the literature in this chapter concerns the rapid adoption of blockchain technologies in education. The chapter firstly reviews the more recent literature on the topic and then provides a case study of Sch0lar.io, a blockchain-based learning community. The chapter then provides a case study of Opogo, a platform to support new teachers.

Pages: 15

This theoretical chapter draws on the notion of rhizomatic learning. If learning is rhizomatic, it has no beginning or end and can be viewed as more immersive for this reason. The chapter also summarises preliminary findings from a small-scale research project on the use of Pearltrees among student teachers of English (Secondary/High School). The study will propose a model to use Pearltrees or similar to help English student teachers improve their subject knowledge and to help map a revised English teacher education curriculum. This model will draw on the idea of collaborative self-study and self-regulated learning. The application of rhizoanalysis helped cultivate the mindset that is often associated with iterative development of edtech products but also offers suggestions to manage the amorphous, chaotic feeling of becoming a teacher.

Pages: 19

The phenomenon of podcasting has helped create a swathe of educational podcasts which are easily consumed anywhere. This chapter reviews the literature on podcasting since I first wrote about it in 2018.This chapter reports preliminary data collected from Anchor – a podcasting app – and makes recommendations for the next stage of the research. The literature underpins the proposed research project using podcasting for a collaborative autoethnography.

Pages: 15

Edpuzzle is a video presentation and formative assessment tool, where teachers and their students can view, crop and add questions to their own videos that they have sourced online or made themselves. This chapter reviews uses narrow search parameters to review the recent literature on Edpuzzle and to describe the potential uses of Edpuzzle in the Secondary/High School context. The literature and recommendations found that Edpuzzle may improve student’s self-regulation, which appears to have been particularly useful for flipped learning since the pandemic. Furthermore, some studies into Edpuzzle have found that it can make explicit instruction clearer and more engaging. Many studies are not relevant to the context of Secondary/High School, or Initial Teacher Education (ITE). The chapter also contains a transcript of a podcast interview with Victoria James, from Edpuzzle in the United Arab Emirates.

Pages: 19

This conclusion summarises how this book develops from studies of specific edtech platforms in the context of teacher education, to positioning the author at the centre of the edtech research. While some chapters provided practitioner research into selected uses of edtech by student teachers, others deconstructed the act of researching and writing about edtech and, through this, examined the author’s positionality. In terms of a theoretical framework, connectivism has been a consistent but fluid thread from the practitioner book that precipitated this book. Connectivism was selected to highlight the development of theoretical models in edtech either side of the pandemic lockdowns. This conclusion proposes an openness to multiple paradigms while still being mindful of potential contradictions. Its rigour resides in its revision of multiple research methods and approaches to reviewing literature.