The use of a custom-built online environment for communication with and support of student-teachers during school placement

School Placement is recognised as a central component of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes for the professional development and personal growth of student-teachers. It is also acknowledged to be a particularly challenging time for students during which they require support and guidance from their ITE tutors. In this regard, online environments hold much potential to facilitate greater communication between student-teachers and tutors during school placements. This paper considers the communicative features of a custom-built online environment for teacher education in the context of a concurrent ITE degree. It identifies a number of positive outcomes from the use of this system with regard to communication between student-teachers and their tutors. These include a more sustained and dialogical engagement between student-teacher and tutor throughout the duration of the placement, enhanced levels and quality of support that tutors can extend to student-teachers while on placement, and more productive face-to-face communication between tutors and students.