In 2008 Bodø University College (as from January 1^st 2011 became the University of Nordland) and Centre for Life-Long Learning (learning technologists unit) initiated a new priority area called “The Flexible University” – a priority area which included a new way of thinking regarding the use of ICT and emerging technologies (Veletsianos et al., 2010) in the University’s educational programmes. The aim of the priority area was a) to put the University in lead nationally when it comes to flexible learning and b) become a University with a range of flexible programmes for the region (Nordland county), nationally and in the long term internationally.

The priority area started with at pilot project at the Faculty of Professional Studies, whereas the Bachelor in Nursing programme was the first one out in January 2010 as a web- and practice based programme. In August the same year the Teacher Education Programme followed up with a similar model. Both models consists of a combination of online courses, session based teaching and periods of practical and supervised professional training.

In this paper we seek to explore two key aspects within the web- and practice based Teacher Education Programme; the facilitating and development of new and various teaching methods  where the teachers focuses on the students learning outcome, and the benefit of having a dedicated staff of support (learning technologists with technical and pedagogical skills (Bates & Sangra, 2011; Salmon, 2011)). Combined with these aspects, it is also of great importance to explore the new pedagogical challenges the academic staffs are facing regarding the shift from face-to-face teaching towards web-based and online teaching using ICT and emerging technologies (Schneckenberg, 2009), and how a learning technologists unit may support this change.

Therefore we tend to ask the following research question:

In which way does new teaching methods within web- and practice based teaching seem to be important when it comes to the development of the Teacher Education programme, and how does these methods, by using technology, both adapt and facilitate for the students activity and better learning outcome?

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