Abstract

This paper reports on a two-year case study of university lecturers’ professional learning about digital technologies, and their development of associated innovative teaching practices. During this time, new hardware and software, as well as planned professional development (PD) opportunities, were made available to assist lecturers in a Faculty of Education at an Australian university to integrate digital technologies into their teaching. Results indicate that participating lecturers succeeded in integrating a range of digital technologies over the 2011-2012 period, with some lecturers transforming their teaching practices substantially. A key finding was that the provision of formal PD was only a springboard – much unplanned and unanticipated professional learning occurred through informal interaction, with lecturers co-learning with colleagues, and indeed with students, in an environment of discovery and experimentation. Formal learning was thus complemented by a networked, or even viral, model of the spread of knowledge and skills among colleagues, students, and indeed wider educational communities. The paper concludes that educators benefit greatly from a combination of formal and informal professional learning strategies when it comes to integrating digital technologies into their practices in pedagogically innovative ways. Two vignettes are included to illustrate and authenticate the findings.