Transatlantic Online Community of Practice

Authors

  • Barbara Schwartz-Bechet UMUC
  • Roelien Bos-Wierda NHL University of Applied Sciences
  • Ronald Barendsen NHL University of Applied Sciences

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v7i3.2213

Keywords:

Internationalization, online communities of practice, informal learning

Abstract


Global citizenship and an international orientation are high on the agenda in higher education both in Europe and in the USA. The realization of ambitions in this sphere is often problematic since student and staff exchange is a costly and time consuming affair. In this paper we will explore to what extent the use of technology may facilitate this process and what the added value is. To that end we will demonstrate how a university in the Netherlands and a university in the United States began a partnership in the area of teacher education. Through the use of technology, faculty and student teachers in the Netherlands and the USA socialize and collaborate on the secure educational platform Myschoolsnetwork.com. We will focus on the relationship between the social and the professional, the formal and the informal. We will demonstrate how parts of the US and NL curricula were synchronized and how students on both sides of the Atlantic uploaded lesson plans, webquests and classroom dilemmas . We will discuss why and how we began our partnership and provide detailed instructions on how to achieve success in the development in a transatlantic partnership. and explore what factors determine success or failure. In the conclusion plans for the future will be described.

Author Biographies

Barbara Schwartz-Bechet, UMUC

Dr. Barbara Schwartz-Bechet, Director of Certification Programs & Collegiate Associate Professor at University of Maryland University College, has been in the field of education for over 25 years. She began at UMUC August 2009 and reworked the Master of Arts in Teaching program from a 3 credit, three year program, into a six credit, 2 year program within 6 months. Dr. Schwartz-Bechet received her doctorate in Applied Behavior Analysis from Columbia University in New York City. Prior to coming to UMUC, Dr. Schwartz-Bechet instructed undergraduate and graduate education students at Johns Hopkins University and Bowie State University (BSU) for a total of sixteen years. She was a Graduate Associate Professor and Coordinator of Early Childhood/Special Education during her tenure at BSU. Additionally, Dr. Schwartz-Bechet was instrumental in the creation of three special education public Professional Development Schools in Maryland and has presented at local, national, and international conferences, has been a requested speaker for local school systems, and has published and received grants throughout her tenure within the University System of Maryland.

Roelien Bos-Wierda, NHL University of Applied Sciences

Roelien Bos-Wierda (Leeuwarden 1955) works as a senior lecturer and curriculumdeveloper for the Noordelijke Hogeschool Leeuwarden, University of Applied Sciences in the North of the Netherlands. Her special fields of interest are : activating ICT didactics, especially the role of social software in secondary and higher education, and the role that e-portfolios can play in personal development planning of students. She has been involved in several projects concerning the development and implementation of a competency-based curriculum both within her own Institute and in other Universities; implementation of an e-portfolio has always been an integral and self-evident part of that process.

Ronald Barendsen, NHL University of Applied Sciences

Ron Barendsen (Heerlen, 1959) works as a senior lecturer and curriculum developer for the Noordelijke Hogeschool Leeuwarden, University of Applied Sciences in the North of the Netherlands. As a former teacher and owner/manager of a company that produces educational software he has a keen interest in e-learning, e-competencies, e-portfolio and their implementation. He has been and is involved in the development of a generic ICT core curriculum for teachers, he has been projectmanager of the NHL E-portfolio-project and he is involved in Worldbank-funded project in Vietnam which has as its main objective to make Higher Education in Vietnam more profession oriented and up-to-date.?

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Published

2012-09-10

How to Cite

Schwartz-Bechet, B., Bos-Wierda, R., & Barendsen, R. (2012). Transatlantic Online Community of Practice. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (iJET), 7(3), pp. 50–53. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v7i3.2213

Issue

Vol. 7 No. 3 (2012)

Section

Short Papers