With rapid changes in information and communication technologies, it is no longer sufficient for language teachers and pre-service teachers (PTs) to know how to use existing digital tools. They also need to be digitally literate in order to critically evaluate such tools and platforms for safe, wise, and productive use. Within a qualitative approach, this study investigated Turkish PTs’ conceptualisation of digital literacy. This included an exploration of how PTs defined this concept, what kind of tools they used, and for which purposes they preferred to use digital tools. First, we found that PTs concept of digital literacy consist of many levels from knowledge to use, and to critical, creative, and collaborative use. Second, we observed that university professors play an important role in the development of digital literacy levels of PTs. Third, it was found that PTs use social media platforms heavily for various purposes, however, we identified a need for further guidance in supporting PTs' use of these platforms for their professional development. The findings of this study shed light on the current digital literacy skills of PTs in Turkey and will be beneficial for educational policy makers and teacher trainers in teacher education for the twenty-first century.
The study reports on a telecollaboration exchange between two teacher education classes in the United States and Turkey. In synchronous and asynchronous conversations, preservice teachers (PTs) engaged in social justice issues and made discourse choices that captured culture(s) and communities as diverse or essentialized. These choices were affected by PTs’ positionings and impacted how PTs connected to individuals only and/or to broader society. PTs asked questions that created space for critical discussions and facilitated awareness of diversity, yet sometimes led to overgeneralizations. The study has implications for designing telecollaborations that promote language and practices to unpack the issues of social justice.
Since advances in computer-mediated communication (CMC) tools have made virtual exchanges readily available in educational practices, telecollaboration has been gaining traction as a means to provide practical experiences and cultural exposure to language learners and, more recently, teacher trainees. Drawing upon Byram’s (1997) model of intercultural communicative competence (ICC), this study examines 48 teacher trainees’ interculturality through a telecollaborative project between two teacher training classes from Turkey and the USA. This study relies on data generated by the participants throughout this telecollaborative project: weekly online discussion board posts within groups of six and post-project reflections. Although developing ICC is an arduous and prolonged task, the data analysis suggested that the participants’ experiences in this telecollaboration contributed to their emergent ICC through discussions on the topics of multicultural education and interactions with trainees from another educational context. Their intercultural learning is evidenced by their (1) awareness of heterogeneity in their own and interactants’ culture, (2) nascent critical cultural awareness, and (3) curiosity and willingness to learn more about the other culture. Thus, this study implies that telecollaboration offers an effective teacher training venue that affords teacher trainees with first-hand intercultural encounters to engage with otherness and prepare for their ethnolinguistically diverse classrooms.
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