This paper reports on the preferences among a group of pre-service English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher trainees for social media rather than Moodle, an institutional Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), as a forum for
support during a recent five week teaching practice in southern Sweden. The teacher trainees responded to a questionnaire relating to preferences for their own Facebook
group as opposed to the Moodle forum set up specifically by the course tutor for the purpose of sharing observations and discussing lesson planning, aspects of reflective practice and resources while on teaching practice. Their reflections shed interesting light on the importance of student EFL teacher ownership and ‘student centricity’ in the learning space. These concepts emerge from a consideration of the learning
space at the intersection of pedagogical, technological and content knowledge and the nature of forum discussions when faced with the alternative between social media and institutionalized learning platforms under the direction of teacher trainers and course managers |