Education Commons^™

Students’ Views About Learning With Technologies: A Literature Review, Kathryn Moyle, Guus Wijingaards, Susanne Owen

Professor Kathryn Moyle

There is a paucity of recent, formal education research that listens directly to students’ views of learning with technologies. Much of the research that has been conducted has tended to focus on evaluating students’ current experiences within a specific course, or concerned with tangible issues such as frequency of computer use, access to computers and the Internet, and evaluations of technical skill levels. Available research has tended to use quantitative or mixed method approaches, with data collected through surveys using convenience samples, Likert scales and free response questions. These methods are sometimes supplemented with interviews and observations. To establish an …

The Cure For Early Grades Assessment Difficulties? Take A Tablet, Maurice Walker

Maurice Walker

Maurice Walker reports on an innovative approach to assessment using tablets to monitor educational development in the early years of schooling.

A Cross-Institutional Initiative In Digital Assessment, Anne-Marie Chase, Diane Robbie, Bella Ross, Ekaterina Pechenkina

Dr Anne-Marie Chase

Preparing For Life In A Digital Age: The Iea International Computer And Information Literacy Study International Report, Julian Fraillon, John Ainley, Wolfram Schulz, Tim Friedman, Eveline Gebhardt

Dr John Ainley

The International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) studied the extent to which young people have developed computer and information literacy (CIL) to support their capacity to participate in the digital age. ICILS is a response to the increasing use of information and communication technology (ICT) in modern society and the need for citizens to develop relevant skills in order to participate effectively in the digital age. It also addresses the necessity for policymakers and education systems to have a better understanding of the contexts and outcomes of CIL-related education programs in their countries. ICILS is the first crossnational study …

Preparing For Life In A Digital Age: The Iea International Computer And Information Literacy Study International Report, Julian Fraillon, John Ainley, Wolfram Schulz, Tim Friedman, Eveline Gebhardt

Dr Tim Friedman

The International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) studied the extent to which young people have developed computer and information literacy (CIL) to support their capacity to participate in the digital age. ICILS is a response to the increasing use of information and communication technology (ICT) in modern society and the need for citizens to develop relevant skills in order to participate effectively in the digital age. It also addresses the necessity for policymakers and education systems to have a better understanding of the contexts and outcomes of CIL-related education programs in their countries. ICILS is the first crossnational study …

Ict Research Comes Of Age, Gerry White

Dr Gerald K. White

That is not to suggest that teachers and students do not use ICT. In fact, they are two of the highest ICT user categories reported by ACMA and ABS. However, the combination of ICT and education programs in classrooms and courses is a situation where issues about pedagogy and the benefits to learning with ICT continue to be debated.

School Connections : Using Ict To Engage Students In Learning, Hamish Coates, Tim Friedman

Dr Tim Friedman

In 2006, one school team from each of the ten NSW Department of Education regions were nominated to participate in the Microsoft Partners in Learning (PiL) Connected Learning Schools Project. With reference to their unique context, each school developed and implemented a project that involved teachers using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in their teaching and learning to engage middle-year students in their education, and to connect more authentically with students’ learning experiences outside of school. The NSW Partners in Learning project was a research and development project. The aim was to investigate how children in the middle years (Years …

Mobile Devices As Assistive Technologies, Sacha Develle

Dr Sacha DeVelle

As mobile devices continue to make inroads into educational environments in low-resource settings, it is ever more important that learners with disabilities be considered and included in the productive use of these technologies. Indeed, as innovations in mobile technologies continue to proliferate and lead to greater affordability, opportunities abound for providing these learners, long too often forgotten, with the tools and services they need in order to benefit from access to rich educational experiences. This session will explore innovative uses of mobile technologies for inclusive education efforts, including efforts by Cambridge to Africa in using mobile phones to improve education …

Structuring And Scaffolding Learners’ Verbal-And-Visual-Thinking, Yukari Makino, Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

Dr Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

In attempting to understand how learners might be supported in developing their multiliteracies, the authors reflected on the educational activity of creating visual products with technology from the perspectives of structuring and scaffolding. This paper presents a case study of two sets of activities that were implemented among university students in Japan. In the preliminary study, the students used a theoretical tool for creating visual products with the help of structures, but scaffolding by the teacher was spontaneous. In the main study, on the other hand, while the students used the same theoretical structure, the scaffolding by the teacher was …

A Study Of Effective Evaluation Models And Practices For Technology Supported Physical Learning Spaces, Ian Pearshouse, Brett Bligh, Elizabeth Brown, Sarah Lewthwaite, Rebecca Garber, Elizabeth Hartnell-Young, Mike Sharples

Dr Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

The aim of the JELS project was to identify and review the tools, methods and frameworks used to evaluate technology supported or enhanced physical learning spaces. A key objective was to develop the sector knowledgebase on innovation and emerging practice in the evaluation of learning spaces, identifying innovative methods and approaches beyond traditional post-occupancy evaluations and surveys that have dominated this area to date. The intention was that the frameworks and guidelines discovered or developed from this study could inform all stages of the process of implementing a technology supported physical learning space. The study was primarily targeted at the …

The Impact Of Eportfolios On Learning, Elizabeth Hartnell-Young, Colin Harrison, Charles Crook, Gordon Joyes, Lindsay Davies, Tony Fisher, Richard Pemberton, Angela Smallwood

Dr Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

This report presents the potential impact of e-portfolios on learning and teaching. It is based on case studies of eight projects that are in the early stages of e-portfolio use within the primary, secondary, further education (FE), higher education (HE) and adult and community learning (ACL) sectors. The report is primarily aimed at policy-makers. Harnessing Technology: Transforming Learning and Children’s Services, the e-strategy published by the DfES in 2005, sets a target of providing a ‘personalised online learning space for every learner that can encompass a personal portfolio’; this should be available to every school by 2008 (DfES, 2005). In …

Can Video With Professional Conversations Improve Teacher Education?, Kathryn Moyle

Professor Kathryn Moyle

Top of the Class, the recent House of Representatives Report of the Inquiry into Teacher Education has reinforced the importance of good practice and the value of the practical dimension of teaching as part of universities' higher education teacher education programs. At the same time, in Australia and in countries in which off-shore teacher education programs are conducted, there are three other concurrent concerns: 1. the shortage of science, maths and literacy teachers and teacher educators; 2. the integration of ICT into teaching and learning in schools and higher education; and 3. the availability of schools and high quality teachers …

Learning About Teaching : Using Video, Hilary Hollingsworth

Dr Hilary Hollingsworth

This article describes some Australian research and professional development projects that use classroom video data, and explains some of the positive outcomes, as well as some of the challenges, of these projects. A variety of methodologies have been used to collect, store, retrieve, code, navigate and analyse classroom video data. These include CD-Rom, DVD and web streaming to dedicated software platforms. Video is used to preserve classroom activity so that it can be 'slowed down' to enable detailed examinations of teaching and learning from multiple perspectives, reveal alternatives through comparative analysis, and stimulate discussions about choices related to teaching learning. …

Joining Up The Episodes Of Lifelong Learning: A Regional Transition Project, Elizabeth Hartnell-Young, Angela Smallwood, Sandra Kingston, Philip Harley

Dr Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

In this paper, we explore the rationale, process and outcomes of the Regional Interoperability Project on Progression for Lifelong Learning, a project that established a model of cross-sector collaboration in personal development planning technology in the UK. With specific reference to the widening participation agenda, and grounded in the perspective of lifelong learners, the project tested an approach in which discrete nodes of an individual’s learning journey are joined up through technology services. The paper describes the development of conceptual and practical tools to assist transitions between various communities of learning. A set of scenarios was developed, involving study to …

Eportfolios For Knowledge And Learning, Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

Dr Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

In the 21st century, we talk of knowledge as the new currency, and knowledge building as the work to be done in learning organizations. While knowledge building is activity directed outward towards the creation of knowledge itself, learning is a personal consequence of this process, the aspect that is directed to enhancing individual abilities and dispositions. This chapter considers how ePortfolios can support four aspects of lifelong learning in the knowledge economy: engagement with technology, representations of identity, developing critical multiliteracies, and global and local mobility. It argues that the focus should be on lifelong learners’ capacity to create and …

Towards Knowledge Building : Reflecting On Teachers' Roles And Professional Learning In Communities Of Practice, Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

Dr Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

This study was undertaken in conjunction with the Successful Integration of Learning Technologies (SILT) Project in Victorian state schools, and its purpose was to identify the forms of teachers' professional practice that enhance knowledge building, in order to inform teacher development policy and pre-service education. Knowledge building is based on a constructivist approach to learning and teaching, and this, in conjunction with the spread of learning technologies, is said to have greatly changed the role of the teacher in the classroom: from the expert dispensing knowledge to the facilitator of student learning. Using an ethnographic approach based particularly on observation …