Relay race of practice: integrating technological tools into teaching and learning scenarios

Even though integrating technological tools into teaching and learning scenarios is an agreed upon goal it is still far from being fully implemented. This study examines a process of integration of a technological tool, to which a group of teachers participated. The technological tool was developed to enhance dialogism and argumentation, in one Grade 9 class. The question we focused on concerns whether the technological tool used by each teacher for a specific subject matter became integrated in teaching and learning practice across disciplines. Data included 22 discussion maps in five activities by different teachers. The analysis focuses on two dimensions of use of the technological tool: its form and its function. The findings show a process of appropriation of the technological tool could be detected along the five activities. This appropriation could be seen through the increase of arguments and challenges, the growing reference to each other's ideas, and capitalization of previous arguments in follow-up arguments. The results of this study stress the importance of the participation of teachers in the same teacher training and shows that appropriation of norms afforded by a tool are instigated by their participation in two activity systems stimulated by the same technological tool.