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This paper explores policy related to digital competence and the digitalisation of Nordic K-12 schools. Anchored in some key transnational policies on digital competence, it describes some current Nordic movements in the national policies of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The concept of boundary objects is used as an analytical lens, for understanding digital competence as a plastic and temporal concept that can be used to discuss the multi-dimensional translation of this concept in these Nordic countries. The paper ends with a discussion of the potential to view digital competence as a unifying boundary object that, with its plasticity, temporality and n-dimensionality, can show signs of common Nordic efforts in the K-12 school policy.

Purpose: The digitalization of society results in challenges and opportunities for learning and education. This paper describes exemplary transformations from current to future practices. It illustrates multi-dimensional aspects of learning which complement and transcend current frameworks of learning focused on schools. While digital technologies are necessary for these transformations, they are not sufficient. The paper briefly illustrates the applicability of the conceptual framework to the COVID-19 pandemic. It concludes that design opportunities and design trade-offs in relation to digital technologies and learning should be explored by envisioning the cultural transformation that are desirable for making learning a part of life. Design/methodology/approach: This paper is based on the work conducted at the symposium "Rethinking and Reinventing Learning, Education, and Collaboration in the Digital Age--From Creating Technologies to Transforming Cultures" that took place in Engeltofta outside of Gävle, Sweden in September 2019. The symposium invited scholars in collaborative analysis of design opportunities and design trade-offs in relation to digital technologies and learning and explored design strategies for systematically and proactively increasing digital technology's contributions to learning and collaborating. The paper first provides a condensed introduction of a conceptual framework summarizing current practices, their problems and promising alternatives. Multi-dimensional aspects of learning and lifelong learning will be briefly described as promising future alternatives to school learning. Examples of transformative practices are supporting the major argument of the paper that creating new technologies is an important prerequisite to address the fundamental challenge of transforming cultures. The unanticipated but fundamental event of the occurrence of COVID-19 will be briefly described to provide further evidence for the need and the applicability of our conceptual framework for rethinking and reinventing learning, education and collaboration in the digital age. Findings: The paper provides a condensed introduction of a conceptual framework summarizing current practices, their problems and promising alternatives. The framework includes multi-dimensional aspects of learning and lifelong learning as a promising future alternative to a focus on school learning. Originality/value: This paper describes exemplary transformations from current to future practices. It illustrates multi-dimensional aspects of learning which complement and transcend current frameworks of learning focused on schools.

In this paper, the progress of a three-year cooperative project investigating the current state of TPD (teacher professional development) in Sweden and China in the area of TPD and ICT (information and communication technologies) is summarized. A brief introduction to the field of TPD is given, and thereafter, ICT is related to what in the project is referred to as TETPD (Technology Enhanced Teacher Professional Development). Thereafter, the project as such is given a short presentation, followed by findings regarding policies and initiatives related to TETPD in Sweden and China for investigating the current state of TETPD in each country respectively. The framework for investigating TETPD is presented, and four Chinese and four Swedish cases are compared to some facets showing differences in models for TETPD in the two countries. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.)

It is sometimes assumed that teachers in an informed way shall embrace TEL (technology enhanced learning) in their practices. In this article, it is argued that TPD (teachers' professional development) for this purpose can be a part of their engagement in an OLC (online learning community), and we ask the questions--How can professional development be understood in relation to TEL? For what contents and in what form can TPD in an OLC have a potential to transform teaching? It is suggested that OLCs have the potential to through TEL make teachers implement technology in their practices to enhance learning and that this is an effective form of TPD, since teachers in an OLC at first hand answer to their own demands or that from colleagues. In this article, we elaborate on the possibilities and limitations of the OLC for TPD in terms of content and form. Six different OLCs for TPD are chosen to serve as examples on the diversity of forms and contents possible to focus. (Contains 1 table.)

This article reports on the working conditions within Swedish ICT-supported distance-based teacher education. Data collected from teacher trainees are analyzed and discussed in relation to Swedish governmental policies concerning teacher education and distance education and theories emphasizing the importance of social aspects of education. The findings indicate working conditions that are mainly controlled by the teacher education program, and that teacher trainees to a high degree are fostered into individualism. Exceptions are in group work, which on the other hand seems to be given only minor attention in teacher education. This raises questions related to the intentions of teacher education. First, there are questions concerning issues of flexibility and choice, more precisely about what aspects are flexible or not. Second, there are questions concerning possibilities of teacher education providing an education that enables teacher trainees to develop the competencies needed to be able to teach. (Contains 3 tables and 1 figure.)

This study investigates what teachers taking part in a longitudinal research project on the use of ICT for teaching and learning in three upper secondary schools in Sweden want to learn more about. At the beginning of the project eighty-four teachers were invited to respond to a questionnaire relating to what teachers wanted to learn more about during their participation in a research project, both for themselves, their colleagues and their students. The questionnaire consisted of Likert-scale and open-ended questions. Sixty teachers responded, thereby yielding a response rate of 71%. In focus in this paper is a qualitative content analysis of the open-ended questions. The analysis revealed six desired areas of learning: (a) technological aspects, (b) how to use ICT for teaching and learning, (c) the Learning Management System (LMS), (d) safety and plagiarism, (e) best practice and (f) collaboration and professional development. The aspects of knowledge addressed in these themes were analysed and discussed in relation to the TPACK model. A conclusion that can be drawn from the analysis is that the teachers inquired different forms of knowledge and that interpretation of "technological pedagogical content knowledge" only emerged in one of the themes. This study then informed the research design in multiple ways, the two most apparent being a survey of students acknowledging teachers' expressed research interests and the design and implementation of a formative intervention group interview.

In Sweden, technology-mediated participation has increased in tertiary education, which has led to changing conditions for its delivery. However, one part has proven more resistant to change, technology-mediated or not: the supervision of students' undergraduate dissertation work. This article presents a study that analyses technological applications to mediate supervision of students' undergraduate dissertation work. It is shown that students in general find such mediated participation helpful for supervision, both one-to-one and collaboratively. Mediation by technologies and collaborative forms for the supervision of students' undergraduate dissertation are, therefore, suggested as productive ways to enhance students' learning.

This article discusses the professional dimension of making technology-enhanced learning (TEL) a part of European higher educational practices. In order to position the article in a European context, three of the most important European research Networks of Excellence (NoEs) aimed at understanding, developing, and implementing TEL and educational technologies are described. Using a meta-design inspired approach proposed by Fischer (2007), it is proposed that teachers through professional development can become designers of their own learning activities and develop the pedagogical tools they need for teaching with technologies in the 21st century.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide an understanding of students' meaning-making processes, as they are part of an e-assessment practice via written blog posting upon their own, and their co-students' performances, presented online through shared video media. Design/methodology/approach: The research relies on qualitative data to provide an analysis of students' use of the educational technology tool called VoiceThread[C]. These data were provided by collecting Swedish higher education students' postings and comments in relation to two video clips published in VoiceThread. The formal learning sequence model by Selander together with theories on communication and reflection were used in the analysis. Findings: The data and the analysis show that shared video media and blogging embrace a potential to facilitate communication and reflection among online higher education students. In addition, the design of the course seems to strengthen the use of formative e-assessment. Research limitations/implications: The research reported on in this paper should, preferably, be followed by additional research on educational technology, social software and e-assessment; informed design of practices of formative e-assessment; and the role of formative e-assessment in the facilitating and enhancement of the students' learning and meaning-making processes. Practical implications: This paper provides researched-based ideas of ways in which teachers in online higher education can design their courses, if they want to cultivate the students' communicative and reflective skills. Originality/value: This paper provides an important insight into the use of shared video media and blogging in online higher education, especially, the way it can be designed for within a formative e-assessment course approach. (Contains 6 figures.)

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the use of blogs as part of a formative assessment practice, to report how reflective peer-to-peer learning can be designed and provided in online higher education. Design/methodology/approach: The research relies on a qualitative approach. The empirical setting comprised an online higher education course in which 23 students were enrolled. All students wrote individual blogs, and the analysis was done using all postings and comments from the blogs. For the analysis the ICE (Ideas, Connections, and Extension) three level classification model was used. Findings: The designed blog exercise turned into an informal and formative type of assessment that scaffolds the students' learning, providing a reflective peer-to-peer technology-enhanced learning design. Research limitations/implications: The study is limited to one online higher education course. Additional research on educational technology and e-assessment is needed. In particular, research on the informed design of technology-enhanced learning practices characterized by formative e-assessment and the role of the designed use of blogs in the facilitating and enhancement of the students' peer-to-peer learning. Practical implications: The paper demonstrates that the design and use of blogs embrace a formative assessment approach that cultivates the students' reflective peer-to-peer learning. Originality/value: The paper provides insight into the designed use of blogs in online higher education together with the potential in formative assessment for learning. The ICE three-level classification model provides a dynamic possibility to analyze online higher educational practices. (Contains 1 note.)

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to report how Swedish upper secondary schools involved in a European Union-financed collaborative project intertwined aspects of subject integration and international collaboration with the use of ICT. Design/methodology/approach: The methodology used is a case study in which aspects of subject integration and international collaborative ambitions are intertwined with the use of ICT. Data consist of interviews with participants, texts concerning the project, the participating school, and the Swedish upper secondary schools system. Findings: Teachers and students have worked towards the objectives in the project and in the national curricula, and the case shows how difficult and how many barriers there are to overcome. Even though the curricula seem difficult to coordinate, students appear to have learnt more about the European perspective, as well as about themselves, through the approach. The teacher describes student motivation as high--authenticity and real people to collaborate with support the students' experience of a holistic education, which applies to real life. The teacher tried to change the role towards providing students with structure and advice, monitoring their progress, and assessing their accomplishments, but reported to be struggling with the teacher role. Originality/value: The paper demonstrates originality and value by providing important insight into the use of ICT in upper secondary schools for the purpose of collaboration and at the same time working towards joint curricular themes.

This article is about learning to perform in a digital environment with specific focus on online higher education. In the article, an online higher educational setting is analysed from a hermeneutical approach, using the learning sequence model suggested by Selander (2008) as a theoretical frame. The institutional framing, used as an empirical example, is a Swedish online higher education course. Based on the course presentation in the course study guide, the course curricula, and the course evaluation, the setting for this article is considered as a case (Stake, 1995; Yin, 2003). The analysis of the setting and course design, in terms of objectives and aims, assessment, and social software used in the course, is focused on the signs as design for learning and on the performative aspects of these intentions. In the final section some issues and questions in relation to designing for learning in online higher education are raised. (Contains 1 figure.)

Purpose: With a philosophical stance in relation to education, this paper aims to discuss different understandings of participation in an information and communication technology (ICT)-supported distance-based teacher education program in Sweden. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on early results from two studies, both of which involved a group of teacher-trainees, with one interview and one questionnaire. Findings: The findings indicate that there is a need to be explicit about the ontological assumptions inherent in the intended use of ICT. The conclusion is that the program in question is built on assumptions of realism and that ICT lays the ground for individual participation and works to tell the students apart. Originality/value: Helps in understanding how ICT, and its use, can have different effects on different groups.