"Why swallow the silicon snake oil?" mainstreaming online learning in teacher education

The future of education itself has become the driving force in integrating technology in pre-service teacher education. This paper discusses the experiences of faculty and students in the foundational teacher education unit EDFD 204 Catholic Education and Schooling at the Australian Catholic University, Strathfield. Since 1999 this unit has integrated online learning in an ‘adjunct mode’ as a compulsory component for on-campus students. Motivations for this may be described as pragmatic but are essentially pedagogical. Common reactions from students begin with “Why do we have to do this?” but usually end with an appreciation of the value of the experience. At the commencement of the Semester, faculty sometimes feel like the fabled ‘snake oil’ peddlers (Stoll, 1995), exhorting students to swallow the oil. This paper discusses faculty motivation and student reactions to “swallowing the oil”: the “Why?” of mainstreaming of online learning as a compulsory element in teacher education. It answers the question by analysis of faculty and student responses and by reference to relevant literature in the field.