Changing Direction with Teacher Educators in Distance Education Provision

Abstract

High-quality delivery of distance education has been a long-standing feature of the University of New England, as it is with many institutions. As the ways of communicating evolve, as we embrace new technologies, so too must the ways of teaching and learning. A challenge for teacher educators adopting new pedagogies that capitalise on the affordances of new technologies is to engage distant learners in interactive and collaborative learning experiences. In addition, the challenge for distance education tertiary providers is how to support their teacher educators in undergoing a learning metamorphosis. This paper analyses the experiences of two action researchers managing a change process in teacher education via an open source learning management system - Sakai. The authors provide a brief outline of distance education in teacher training at their university, and discuss the theoretical framework (action research) for achieving change in distance education delivery, as well as the professional development strategies used to address the resulting issues.