Arab Educational Information Network

This study investigates hole teacher educators use a Learning Management System (Blackboard) in their teaching practice and focuses on the role of learning technologies. The key issue explored is how students' learning and understanding is developed at a higher education institution, London Metropolitan University. London Metropolitan University refers to their LMS as l4reblearn. The research I conducted took place at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities in the Education Department of London Metropolitan University. The research study considers Learning Management Systems (LMS) and their "affordances" in developing students' learning and understanding. "Affordance" can be described in the context of human-machine interaction as actions which are performed by an individual. The investigation was intended to address the research question: How do teacher educators use a Learning Management System (LMS) in their learning and teaching? The qualitative paradigm is used as a framework to this study. The reason I have chosen the qualitative paradigm is: firstly because it is a small-scale-research study, and secondly, I wanted to observe teacher educators' involvement and thoughts, and to explore their engagement with the technology and thirdly, I wanted to have a "thick description" (Geertz, 1973) of how they engaged with the technology since the study aimed to have holistic perspective on how teacher educators use LMS in their practices and how it is perceived by them. For the data collection I have used the semi-structured interview method because it has all the natural affordance to collect detailed evidence of the social interactions which are performed by teacher educators using an LMS platform. There has been a strong trend in the use of virtual communities and information communications technologies (lCT) in Higher Education (HEI) settings and it is becoming increasingly important to explore the challenges faced by teacher educators in their engagement with the Levels. I believe this approach enabled me to achieve a better understanding of the challenges educators face, and their views on the benefits of the technology which they have adopted or, which they have been compelled to use This study has more than one intention. Although my main intention was to seek more elaborate descriptions and perceptions of the engagement of teacher educators regrading the learning technologies, in this study, I also aimed to describe the challenges faced by educators in using learning technologies so that these challenges could be addressed. In this study, I discuss my personal experiences and my involvement as an insider (emic) researcher in the study. Using key literature from the field, as well as London Metropolitan University policy on blended learning, I have attempted to justify my choice of research methodology, methods and instruments of data collection. I then move on to discuss my findings and end with recommendations for the way forward, as I see it. (Published abstract)