Web access varies considerably among schools, regions, countries and it seems more plausible to relish the idea of a model combining a physical and a virtual teaching- studying- learning plan allowing both teachers and students to work within a flexible framework that emancipates them from spatial and temporal limitations. This again requires teachers to reconsider issues of representation and, consequently, of possible ways to exploit the extended forms of textuality offered by the networking tools.

1. Network-based Encounters: Teachers’ cognition of sharing expertise using Social Media A pilot case of Greek and Finnish Subject State School Teachers ECER Conference, Berlin, Freie University, 2011 Marianna Vivitsou, PhD candidate Department of Teacher Education, University of Helsinki

2. Agenda Research background Network: What is it? Teacher education: Principles currently 21st century teacher education Understanding teachers... Research questions & Methods The pilot study Preliminary findings Discussion & conclusions Research in the future...

3. The problematique Social networking sites and platforms as technological mediators means of interaction and expression pedagogical meeting space Integration of networked digital environments influences teaching action the notion of traditional school environment undergoes a radical change Towards a flexible model combines a physical and a virtual teaching studying learning (TSL) plan and emancipates from spatio-temporal limitations Teachers need to reconsider issues of representation and possible ways to exploit the extended forms of textuality offered by the networking tools.

4. Network: What is it? Technical (e.g. trains, electricity, internet) Organizational mode extended by ICTs ‘In social life, networks are communicative structures that process flows. Flows are streams of information between nodes, circulating through the channels of connection between nodes.’ Castells, 2009: 20 A concept; a tool to describe; not what is being described (Latour, 2005: 132) ’emerging networks have the capacity to challenge and to reinforce the existing socio-cultural, economic & political systems’ Mowlana, 1997: 199; in Tella et al, 1998

5. current trends in teacher education

6. 21st century teacher education

7. Understanding Teachers’... Teacher Pedagogical Cognition = Reasoning + judgement+ situationality thinking + practical knowledge+ beliefs +theories (Borg, 2006; Kansanen et al., 2000) Essential in order to ... Effect CHANGE towards the 21st century school Through the lens of Network-Based Education (NBE )

8. Research Framework

9. Preliminary Findings

10. Network-based encounters Pedagogical Infrastructure Framework (Lakkala, 2010)

11. Teachers’ practical reasoning Practical argument (Fenstermacher & Richardson, 1993)

13. Therefore, Ts’ NBEncounters...

14. Conclusions - Future trends Translocal/global civil society Open Network-based Learning Virtual+ Physical = Real Critical Practical Reason (Dunne & Pendlebury, 2003) Higher-order thinking; (counter-) argumentation; initiative-based action Social Learning multi-Environments Actor-Negotiated curricula Multi-directional dialogue Polyphony (Tella & Mononen-Aaltonen, 1998)

15. Future research orientations Teachers’ Communities on Social Media & about Social Media Teachers’ Networks Physical settings; networking sites integrated Ethnographic plan Interviews Observations

16. References Borg, S. (2006). Teacher Cognition and Language Education: Research and Practice . London: Continuum. Castells, M. (2009). Communicationpower. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press. Dunne, J. & Pendlebury, S. (2003). Practical Reason. In the Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Education, pp. 194-211. Blackwell Publishing Ltd: MA, USA. Fenstermacher, G. D., and V. Richardson. 1993. The elicitation and reconstruction of practical arguments in teaching. Journal of Curriculum Studies 25 (2):101–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0022027930250201 (accessed September 22, 2010). Kansanen, P., Tirri, K., Meri, M., Krokfors, L., Husu, J., & Jyrhämä, R. (2000). Teachers´ Pedagogical Thinking. Theoretical Landscapes, Practical Challenges. New York: Peter Lang. Lakkala, M. (2010). How to design educational settings to promote collaborative inquiry: Pedagogical infrastructures for technology enhanced progressive inquiry. Doctoral Thesis, Institute of BehaviouralSciences, University of Helsinki, Finland. Latour, B. (2005). Reassembling the social: An Introduction to Actor-Network Theory. Oxford, UK: Oxford UP. Sellers, W. and Gough, N. (2010). Sharing outsider thinking: thinking (differently) with Deleuze in educational philosophy and curriculum inquiry. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education (QSE), Sep/Oct2010, Vol. 23 Issue 5, pp. 589-614. Tella, S. & Mononen-Aaltonen, M. (1998). Developing Dialogic Communication Culture in Media Education: Integrating Dialogism and Technology. Helsinki: Media Education Publication 7, MEC, Helsinki University.

17. Thank you for your attention! Contact: marianna.vivitsou@helsinki.fi