Upper Secondary Teachers as Designers of Technology Use for Learning

Sammanfattning: The use of technology in education is by policymakers expected to expand, and efforts are laid out by the research community to support such a development. This thesis will explore how the introduction of design patterns in upper secondary education may contribute to an extended use of technology by applying the Educational Design Research (EDR) methodology. The aim is to understand what the design patterns disclose on central matters for teaching with technology and how the design pattern format is utilised by technology experienced upper secondary teachers.To be informed of the suitability of design patterns for contributing to an extended use of technology, a collection of design patterns written by upper secondary teachers constitute the data. Learning activities found in the design patterns are analysed in terms of teachers’ pedagogy and digital competence development of learners. The collection of design patterns as a whole are also examined to understand how the teachers utilised the format.The analysis of pedagogy indicates that upper secondary teachers predominantly design for individual activities and that matters of reflection and experiences are portrayed less clear. The digital competence that learners develop when performing a learning activity is found to belong to an area of Collaboration and communication, involving activities related to accurate referencing to digital content. When upper secondary teachers use design patterns for the articulation of ideas on technology, it is observed that the format is underused and that the teachers generally create fragmented and incomplete designs. The results are discussed in relation to Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) and Design for learning. A conclusion is that the design patterns do not portray transformative learning experiences for the learners but are able to portray the teachers experiences on technology use that can be shared with colleagues.The thesis contributes by providing a novel methodology for analysis of the content of design patterns. It is able to capture upper secondary teachers’ perceptions on pedagogy and learners’ digital competence development respectively.