Adopting New Digital Technologies in Education: Professional Learning

Abstract

Educators develop professionally through continued engagement with new learning experiences and putting into practice the new knowledge gained as a result of the experiences. Developing professionally is important for improving and maintaining teaching quality and students’ learning outcomes. Research has shown that the quality of educators is a key determinant of students’ achievement. In order to be effective, educators need to have good content knowledge of their subject, an understanding of how students learn specific subject matter and be able to implement pedagogy that is supported by a range of strategies and practices that foster student learning. To achieve this with technology, an intrinsically motivating framework for the professional learning of educators to systematically incorporate new digital technologies into their teaching is described in this chapter.