Two Quadrants for the Development of Virtual Environments to Support Collaboration between Teachers

The purpose of this chapter is to outline how pre-service teacher education can be adapted to the emergence of virtual educational structures and processes that complement traditional classes. The chapter is based on research conducted in rural schools in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador that links in-service and pre-service teachers to provide insights for the latter into real-life, networked classrooms, particularly those located in communities located beyond major centres of population, to which most students were likely to be appointed. Face-to-face groups of pre-service teachers were able to include virtual practicing teachers in their discussions. The significance of this study will be judged by the extent to which professional discourse between pre-service and in-service teachers reflects the virtual challenge of intranets to the physical isolation of traditional schools.