Rethinking Video‐conferencing: Lessons Learned from Initial Teacher Education

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Abstract
SUMMARY Much recent writing on video‐conferencing has tended to give this means of communication a poor press, focusing heavily on the use of expensive and inflexible units of technology delivering a didactic, transmissive approach to education from one ‘authority’ to a large gathering of students. This is particularly evident in reports of studies conducted in institutions of higher education where emphasis has been on ‘lecturing’. Such a teaching and learning paradigm is challenged here. It is suggested that the communications needs of Initial Teacher Education resulting from recently imposed structural changes and a current model of reflective practice, make this a fruitful context for the development of telematics. This paper reports developments breaking new ground which have taken place using a more flexible, ‘desktop’ telematic system. The greater emphasis on collaborative working, shared applications and discussion‐based dialectical approaches to learning afford real opportunities to examine the possibilities of desktop telematic technology.

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