Going Public: Pre-Service Teachers and Teacher Educators Put Their Thoughts on the Line

摘要

This research examines two uses of web-based technology in a teacher education context. The aim of the study is to promote an understanding of the ways in which the web can be used as a tool for research and collective writing and, more specifically, how this writing could serve an academic and professional workplace purpose. The notion of a public audience is the key concept underpinning the analysis of the electronic texts written by students. The article shows how the relations and links between readers, writers and texts that emerged through the use of electronic mediums, influenced the development and representation of ideas, pedagogical relations and practices, and students' understanding of the purpose of university assignments. A key argument that develops through the analysis is that this form of writing enables students to integrate ideas from academic and professional sources of knowledge and to develop a sense of university assignments that extends beyond writing to "please" one instructor.