Insights from ICT-expert teachers about the design of educational practice: the learning opportunities of social media

With the permeation of the Internet in teachers’ personal and professional lives, teachers are going online to connect, share ideas and expand their learning opportunities. This qualitative study focuses on the use of digital applications that leverage opportunities for teachers in the design phase, that is, at the time they are developing and curating curriculum materials and designing learning sequences within their discipline areas before implementation in the classroom. Data drawn for this paper are part of a research project examining ICT-expert teachers’ approaches to their ongoing online professional learning. Semi-structured interviews of internationally recognised ICT experts, specifically from Australia, Europe and the United States, are the main data source. The findings suggest that each teacher leveraged their online social media as their first approach or starting point within their design activities, with a curiosity to investigate the pedagogical application of a ‘new’ tool. These teachers looked first to the expertise of the colleague for their recommendation of the tool, engaging in little pedagogical reasoning before implementation. Additionally, elaboration of the term ‘sharing’ is provided for deeper understandings of the ways in which teachers engage in their professional learning networks.