The articles in this issue demonstrate the widening range of possibilities for e‑learning. The technologies continue to develop and change, and issues of adoption and innovation persist. Like any other technologies, e‑learning hardware and software is best used when it is introduced to solve a real problem which has been carefully thought through. The articles show that there is tremendous promise and opportunity, but there are no quick fixes, and no one‑size‑fits all solutions.

Abstract: As e‑learning is evolving into a mainstream, widespread practice, adopted by higher education institutions worldwide, much effort is geared towards the articulation of models and strategies for implementing e‑learning in formal education setting s. In the field of pre‑service teacher education, a rising challenge is to equip the ⠜21st century teacher⠀ with the necessary toolset of skills and competencies to grapple with the idiosyncrasies of the new generation of ⠜millenials⠀. To this pur pose, what still remains an open issue is the degree of innovation afforded by specific e‑learning designs, in a field where traditional teacher training pedagogies co‑exist with e‑learning‑specific ones. This article proposes a synthesis of two models, t he Community of Inquiry (COI) model, based on the Practical Inquiry model introduced by Garrison, Anderson, & Archer (2000) and the Learning by Design framework (LbyD), based on the conceptualization of â New Learning⠒, articulated by Kalantzis & Cope (2012). Both models were invented with new learning styles and circumstances in mind. The proposed synthesis guided the design of the six‑month introductory course in Technology Enhanced Learning by the School of Pedagogical and Technological Edu cation (ASPETE) research team (located in Athens) and implemented with 18 pre service student‑teachers at the Higher Education Technological Institute (TEI) of Lamia, located in another geographical area of Greece. In this context, elements of the C OI framework were employed as tools both for designing and for evaluating the contents, structure and activities of the e‑learning course. Two elements of the framework, teaching and cognitive presence were the axes supporting the course structure, whilst the kinds of activities most promoted were discussion, collaboration and reflection. The LbyD framework functioned as an awareness enhancement mechanism for trainee teachers to formulate, collaboratively negotiate and finally articulate and support pedag ogical scenarios integrating the meaningful use of technol

Abstract: This paper is intended to adds to the emerging dialogue on best practices in teacher education for preparing future teachers to use technology to promote grounded theory‑based practices in their classrooms. In it, I report on an evolving model f or such training that resulted from a a longitudinal case study examiningning how changes to teacher trainees identities, learning and teaching practices changed when they are exposed to the use of a variety of social networking technologies for languag e learning in the context of their teacher preparation program in a private university in Chile. . The 12‑month classroom‑based case study was conducted at a private university in Chile, using a variety of ethnographic tools .… observation, interviews, an d online conversation analysis. I investigated how the integration of certain ICTstechnology into their content courses, as opposed to more traditional stand‑alone courses on technology use, mattered both in terms of the way the participants. The approach to technology used mattered both in terms of making a difference in the ways that these pre‑service teachers viewed themselves as learners and as future teachers of language, as well as of their evolving perspectives on the use of technology for learning and teaching. My aim in conducting the study was twofold: 1) to determine was twofold. First, I examined whether innovative technology‑ infused (TI) courses would serve to enable the beginning teacher participants to shed their traditional, passive, rather narrow cultural mindset as individuals and learners that are contrary to the identities of effective, 21st century teachers; and 2). Secondly, I sought to determine to see whether opportunities for these individuals to use a variety of innovative technologies for their own learning would have an influence on the pedagogies these individualsy themselves employed in their teaching practices. Would technology‑infused courses lead to teaching with technology? While the longitudinal study provided enc ouraging signs on both accounts within the teacher preparation program, questions remained about whether the model would be supported where it mattered … in real classroom teaching. In this article, I report on follow‑up acknowledging the challenges wit hin classroom‑based research and the complexities involved in social science‑based qualitative and numbers‑based findings that suggest that, generally, the positive changes were not sustained. These findings provide strong support for the need for teacher education models to be tested in real practice. Importantly, they also uncover the essential ingredient for promoting future teachers uptake of effective use of ICTs … collective support from the Teacher Education stakeholder community research para digms in drawing generalizable conclusions, the data analysis clearly confirms that there were encouraging signs for both aims for this particular group of pre‑service teachers. This study should be of interest to all stakeholders in education, most espe cially those whose responsibility it is and who may struggle with practical strategies to ensure that pre‑service teachers have the identities, skills and tools necessary for providing quality 21st century education programs.

This paper describes the initial findings of a longitudinal case study that investigates the use of a virtual learning environment to enhance the placement experience for full time postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE) students. Geographically separated trainees can feel very isolated on placement. The purpose of the VLE was to try to alleviate this by offering a way for trainees to maintain contact and offer mutual support while on placement. A preliminary analysis of the results is used to offer some insight into how this type of support might be improved for future students, by the construction of minimum pedagogical framework for initial teacher training.

This paper reports on a study carried out with pre‑service teachers who first developed a course by designing it in a Learning Design (LD) tool and then implemented it as a course in Moodle. The research explores the potential of the Learning Designer, the LD tool utilized in the study, by addressing three aspects of the LD tool’s added value for teachers as designers: a) the development of a learning design, b) the reflection on a design and c) the usefulness of the LD process using an LD tool towards the implementation of a design in a Learning Management System (LMS). The findings suggest that the graphical representation of a learning design provided by the LD tool supports designers to structure learning activities. The components of a learning design incorporated in the LD tool such as the learning outcomes, the type of a learning activity according to a typology and how learners are organized scaffold the articulation of the pedagogy of a learning design. Moreover, the pre‑service teachers requested more components e.g. for organizing technology‑enhanced learning and more customizable features e.g. for defining and combining activity types. All means of design analysis, especially the graphical ones trigger the designers’ reflection on the nature of the activities included in a learning design and provoke them to improve it. The pre‑service teachers perceived as beneficial the LD process in the Learning Designer towards considering components of the learning design which are applicable in its implementation as a course in an LMS. Nevertheless, difficulties were reported concerning non‑matching and missing components leading to the reconsideration of aspects of the original design during the implementation. The conclusions drawn from the study’s findings reveal the potential of the Learning Designer to support teachers as designers and are of value both to researchers involved with developing LD tools and to practitioners interested in harnessing an LD tool to promote LD practices.