7 Focusing on the Social: Research into the Distributed Knowledge of Novice Teachers in Online Exchange Melinda Dooly Introduction In a presentation at a UNESCO conference a decade ago, Dirke Van Damme described globalization at that time as: (i). the driving force of technological innovation, more specifically in ICT; (ii). [bringing about] intensification and space-time compression of social communication and giving way to a global network society; and (iii). increasing the importance of knowledge and information in various levels of the organization of society. (2002, p. 1) Ten years after the UNESCO conference placed ICT at the forefront of social advances and transformation there have been even further technological, political, economic and cultural changes that continue to affect society. Given the central role of education in today’s knowledge society, teacher development becomes critical as educators are consequently obliged to rethink what and how they are teaching generally, and in terms of language and literacy in particular. Core to this review of teaching is careful consideration of exactly what comprises knowledge within a framework of continuous expanding interconnectivity of individuals and collectives across the world. Interconnectivity implies that knowledge is not located in any given place; it is constituted through networks of connections formed from multiple experiences of sharing, creating, participating and interacting with a knowing