Using Mobile Technologies and Problem-Seeking Pedagogies to Bridge Universities and Workplaces
The task of providing future music teachers with the capacity to respond effectively in changing teaching environments and the related issues of retention and job satisfaction of early-career teachers present an on-going challenge to teacher educators. Engagement in a process of systematic problem-solving arguably builds the kind of complex understanding of the real-world workplace which inoculates against praxis shock. In this further perspective, the author addresses the problem by demonstrating how the utilization of simple technologies as learning tools can enhance the quality of the teacher education process. The Engagement in the Mobile Technologies Project (MTP) encapsulates a two-way process of having future teachers become comfortable with new technologies, thereby increasing the likelihood that they will use them effectively in their classrooms. The aim of this pedagogical trial was to increase the relevance of tertiary study to the “real world,” linking the reality of teaching with university training.