AERA Open (Sep 2018)

Teachers’ Insights Into Connected Learning Networks: Emerging Activities and Forms of Participation

  • Henriikka Vartiainen,
  • Saara Nissinen,
  • Sinikka Pöllänen,
  • Petteri Vanninen

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858418799694
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 4

Abstract

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The aim of this socioculturally informed study is to explore teachers’ insights into connected-learning activities and networks. An instructional approach based on design-oriented pedagogy (DOP) was employed for a teachers’ in-service project in Finland. An open-ended design task for the participating teachers and educators from kindergartens (N = 27) and primary schools (N = 2) involved designing and implementing a forest-related learning project with their own students or kindergarten children. A deductive content analysis of openly published project portfolios revealed that the teachers and educators harnessed learner interest as a basis for connecting with peers, family, external experts, and extended environments through diverse physical and digital information resources, tool-mediated activities, and the externalization of the learners’ evolving object-oriented ideas. Conclusions are drawn about extended learning networks and activities that afforded inquiry activities to emerge.