Learning Technology in Continuing Professional Development

This book, being a case study of the Galileo Network, a Canadian organization that exists to promote innovative teaching and learning practices among K-12 students and educators, contributes to current scholarship in such areas as continuous professional development, children’s learning with technology and educational reform. First, the study documents an innovative approach to continuous professional development that puts teachers in control of their own learning and leads to transformed practice as teachers develop innovative pedagogical approaches. Second, the study provides evidence that students in schools can participate in meaningful inquiry with the aid of technology and that teachers who are engaged in further learning themselves are better able to engage the hearts, minds and spirits of their pupils. Third, the study documents the work of the organization, which focuses on improving and increasing opportunities for children to inquire with technology by considering two problems: first, how to leverage the successful examples of children’s and teachers’ inquiry with technology throughout educational systems and communities and, second, how to build upon knowledge of the essential conditions for children’s meaningful learning with technology to guide larger and more widespread educational reform efforts, the conditions of such reform being defined and considered.