Implications of Open Access Repositories Quality Criteria and Features for Teachers’ TPACK Development

71 Pages·2017·1.125 MB·English

by  Rita Tavares, António Moreira (auth.)

SPRINGER BRIEFS IN EDUCATION
Rita Tavares
António Moreira
Implications
of Open Access
Repositories Quality
Criteria and Features
for Teachers’ TPACK
Development
123
SpringerBriefs in Education
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/8914
Rita Tavares • António Moreira
Implications of Open Access
Repositories Quality Criteria
and Features for Teachers’
TPACK Development
Rita Tavares António Moreira
University of Aveiro University of Aveiro
Aveiro, Baixo Vouga, Portugal Aveiro, Baixo Vouga, Portugal
ISSN 2211-1921 ISSN 2211-193X (electronic)
SpringerBriefs in Education
ISBN 978-3-319-57915-3 ISBN 978-3-319-57916-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-57916-0
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017940636
© The Author(s) 2017
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Foreword
Being asked to write a foreword to a publication is almost always considered a
double-edged task. In one of those edges you should have the impartiality of the
review, the objectivity of the text and its overall scientific or literature contribution
to a given field. On the other edge, you have the authors, your personal connection
(and admiration for, in this particular instance) with them and with their work.
Weighing in these often-conflicting forces is often a heavy load. However, in this
case, this foreword came easy and pleasant.
Putting it simply, what you will find in this brief is a thorough review of European
science education main open access repositories, its features and contributions and,
finally, an interesting connection to an important question: how can these environ-
ments contribute to improve teachers’ knowledge in the pedagogical, scientific and
technological combinations of their practices. More into it you will also find very
interesting insights regarding e-Research, a qualitative research methodology for
dealing with Internet-driven data and instruments. And this is definitely the kind of
work that is interesting both to academics and practitioners, teachers and research-
ers, students and parents.
When talking about the integration of technology in everyday practices one
seems to forget that, in educational contexts, this largely depends on the utility that
the teachers can envision in doing it. Overall, teachers are not lazy professionals,
nor are stuck in ancient methods and strategies because it is easier. Teachers are
pragmatic. Teachers change their practices when they believe they are doing it for
better preparing their students. They do not do it just because it is fancy or because
they mind what others are going to think of them if they do not join the
bandwagon.
One of the strategies to show them that these open resources are valuable is to
invite them to look at them, to discuss them with their peers, to give teachers the
opportunity to appropriate them, to change them taking into account their contexts,
their students and their communities. And that is what this brief is all about: appro-
priation, collaboration, sharing. In one word, it is about networks.
In the hype of social media, many times one forgets that social networks existed
before technology. Being, in the beginning, a sociological concept, nowadays it is
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vi Foreword
almost impossible to mention it without mentioning technology. But these (profes-
sional) social networks existed back in the day when teachers met to jointly plan
their classes, their resources, their strategies and to openly share their ideas and their
pedagogical uptakes on the scientific contents.
This is not the place to discuss how our lives evolved to a point where, profes-
sionally, we seldom can find the time or place to do it face-to-face and we now
prefer (or should we say, have) to technologically mediate these contacts and these
collaborations. However, with this brief, we will understand some of the ways
teachers are coping with open technology and resources and also adapting their
professional practices to this era. Mostly, you will find that they are still open to the
innovation that matters to our schools though there is still much to do and a long
way to go.
To talk about the authors of this brief is the other part of this task. And, by the
way, also simple to do. Both António and Rita are brilliant scholars, although they
have different ages, experiences and professional paths. António has dedicated
much of his life to teaching and research in the Educational Technology field. He is
a revered and celebrated teacher in the Department of Education and Psychology of
the University of Aveiro and a brilliant supervisor and researcher. Moreover, he is a
dear friend, to whom I will always find the time to meet, discuss new and old ideas
or merely talk about soccer matches, our beloved Sporting or the weather. Rita is a
committed and talented Ph.D. student in the Multimedia in Education Doctoral
Programme where she is completing a thesis about a model of development of digi-
tal educational resources using educational data mining. She is a dedicated and
intelligent student that makes the task of co-supervising her a simple one. Rita has
also the experience of working in companies as an Educational Coordinator, and
that is a major advantage she brings to the table when discussing the practicalities
of much of the issues that are discussed in this brief.
Most of all, they are brilliant people to get along with and to discuss what they
have to share resulting from their studies, hard work and diverse experiences. This
is why this is a must-read book and this is why I am so privileged to write this
foreword.
Aveiro, Portugal Luís Pedro
June 2016
Preface
This book was motivated by the will of the authors to understand how open access
repositories are being developed and maintained and to provide, disseminate and
promote the development of digital educational resources. It is also our will to
understand how these technological environments can enhance the development of
teachers’ new skills and new pedagogical and didactic approaches. Thus, the main
objective of this brief is to analyse open access repositories quality criteria and fea-
tures, and how these can improve teachers’ Technological Pedagogical Content
Knowledge (TPACK) development.
This book is organized in six major sections. Section one, Open Access
Repositories and Digital Educational Resources, addresses an historical overview
of open access repositories, presenting some recommendations for their develop-
ment and maintenance, namely regarding digital educational resources (re) use.
Given that this brief is research driven, in section two the authors present the objec-
tives and the methodology used in the present study. Sections three, four and five
analyse namely (1) the prevalence of European Science Education open access
repositories and teachers’ perceptions of those same repositories, (2) the most com-
mon European Science Education open access repositories features and their impli-
cations, and (3) the impact of open access repositories usage on teachers’ TPACK
development. The last section, Results and discussion, focuses on the analyses of a
selected open access repository [House of Sciences (originally Casa das Ciências)],
addressing its characteristics and features, the impact of social media features in
digital educational resources (re) use, and the relationship between repository qual-
ity criteria and teachers’ TPACK development. For this study, the authors collected,
crossed and analysed data from different sources, namely the relevant literature in
the field, information available in open access repository and their social networks,
and information provided by repository stakeholders, adopting mostly a qualitative
e-Research methodology.
This study allowed to stress that Science Education open access repositories
development and availability represent an important tool to increase digital educa-
tional resources (re) use and the adoption of new pedagogical and didactic
approaches. Based on the comprehensive analysis of the selected open access
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viii Preface
repository and attempting to underline availability, maintenance and updating, and
enhancement requirements for the importance of digital educational resources
usage, the authors present a set of proposals to be taken into consideration in (future)
Science Education open access repositories, having in mind a set of keywords that
underlie the whole text: Digital Educational Resources, Open Access Repositories,
Science Education, Social Media, TPACK and e-Research.
Aveiro, Portugal Rita Tavares
June 2016 António Moreira
Acknowledgements
The brief Implications of Open Access Repositories Quality Criteria and Features
for Teachers’ TPACK Development would not exist without the effort of many peo-
ple, the reason why we would like to express our gratitude to those who, either
institutionally or personally, helped shape this book.
Firstly, the authors of this book sincerely thank Springer for having accepted to
publish this brief.
Furthermore, the existence of this book and the study conducted was only pos-
sible thanks to the Foundation for Science and Technology. The authors wish to
express their deep appreciation to this institution for the financial support to the
study, under the form of two Research Fellowships: the first one within the
Technology Enhanced Learning and Societal Challenges Doctoral Program (with
reference PD/BI/113557/2015), and the second one within the Human Capital
Operational Program, supported by the European Social Fund and national funds
of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education (with reference SFRH/
BD/107808/2015).
The study was also only possible thanks to the broad cooperation of open access
repositories stakeholders, in particular House of Sciences (originally Casa das
Ciências). The authors would like to express their many thanks to the staff of House
of Sciences for their support throughout this study, especially to Guilherme
Monteiro, House of Sciences Webmaster, for his invaluable availability and inputs
for this research.
Finally, we would also like to leave a warm word of thanks to Dr. Luís Pedro for
the foreword he so thoughtfully prepared for the book.
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