Educational design for professional development: an inquiry led approach using the affordances of social media and e-learning 2.0

This paper will outline an inquiry led approach to educational and professional development which aims to support research based practice by teachers in using the affordances of social media and e-Learning 2.0 in their own practices. The educational development as a whole is framed with a design research framework (Hudson, 2008a). This includes a framework of action research which has been developed to support associated professional development and the sharing of practice amongst the participants through the documentation of small scale action research projects. Educational action research is seen as providing a framework for thinking systematically about what happens in teaching situations and learning environments, implementing action for change and monitoring and evaluating the effects of the action with a view to continuing the development for improvement. This paper will address the question firstly of the ways in which the use of social media and e-Learning 2.0 have provided affordances for teacher engagement in action research and secondly will focus on the nature of the associated constraints. In doing so, it will draw on data from a range of sources including questionnaires, interviews, analysis of online communication and also of the documentation by participants of their own action research projects