Get yourself connected: conceptualising the role of digital technologies in Norwegian career guidance

This report outlines the role of digital technologies in the provision of career guidance. It was commissioned by the c ommittee on career guidance which is advising the Norwegian Government following a review of the countries skills system by the OECD. In this report we argue that career guidance and online career guidance in particular can support the development of Norwa y’s skills system to help meet the economic challenges that it faces.The expert committee advising Norway’s Career Guidance Initiativ

Corroding consensus-building: how self-centered public diplomacy is damaging diplomacy and what can be done about it

Public diplomacy (PD) is an activity which has become central to the analysis of modern diplomacy. Yet while there are common definitions of PD widely used internationally, practice between states has come to diverge more and more. There is disagreement in the academic literature about what should be included in PD activities, the actors, and boundaries. But there is little analysis of the effects of PD on mainstream diplomacy. This paper, written by a diplomat and sometime practitioner of PD, argues that PD is losing its connection with wider diplomacy which is based on reciprocity and consensus-building. The digital revolution has enabled PD self-promotion which diminishes the necessity for diplomatic partnering. Global rivalries are played out daily for global publics with little room for quiet reflection and compromise. Such self-centered PD has immersed itself in the confusing and divisive nature of online engagement. While the Internet has brought massive benefits and opportunities to both diplomacy and PD, the consensus-building part of true diplomatic engagement is receding. The activities of ISIS and Russia were just the first major collective challenges to diplomacy through new PD techniques. In the past, diplomacy has responded to crises and conflicts and rebuilt its options. Now PD’s chaotic and troubling evolution needs a new response. This should include partners in the non-state sector and the owners of technology platforms. The article takes a practitioner’s perspective and proposes a forum where state and non-state experts could discuss appropriate collective responses by diplomacy so it can reassert options available for consensus-building.Accepted manuscrip

Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies

A systematic search of the research literature from 1996 through July 2008 identified more than a thousand empirical studies of online learning. Analysts screened these studies to find those that (a) contrasted an online to a face-to-face condition, (b) measured student learning outcomes, (c) used a rigorous research design, and (d) provided adequate information to calculate an effect size. As a result of this screening, 51 independent effects were identified that could be subjected to meta-analysis. The meta-analysis found that, on average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction. The difference between student outcomes for online and face-to-face classes—measured as the difference between treatment and control means, divided by the pooled standard deviation—was larger in those studies contrasting conditions that blended elements of online and face-to-face instruction with conditions taught entirely face-to-face. Analysts noted that these blended conditions often included additional learning time and instructional elements not received by students in control conditions. This finding suggests that the positive effects associated with blended learning should not be attributed to the media, per se. An unexpected finding was the small number of rigorous published studies contrasting online and face-to-face learning conditions for K–12 students. In light of this small corpus, caution is required in generalizing to the K–12 population because the results are derived for the most part from studies in other settings (e.g., medical training, higher education)

Are digital natives a myth or reality?: Students’ use of technologies for learning

This paper outlines the findings of a study investigating the extent and nature of use of digital technologies by undergraduate students in Social Work and Engineering, in two British universities. The study involved a questionnaire survey of students (n=160) followed by in-depth interviews with students (n=8) and lecturers and support staff (n=8) in both institutions. Firstly, the findings suggest that students use a limited range of technologies for both learning and socialisation. For learning, mainly established ICTs are used- institutional VLE, Google and Wikipedia and mobile phones. Students make limited, recreational use of social technologies such as media sharing tools and social networking sites. Secondly, the findings point to a low level of use of and familiarity with collaborative knowledge creation tools, virtual worlds, personal web publishing, and other emergent social technologies. Thirdly, the study did not find evidence to support the claims regarding students adopting radically different patterns of knowledge creation and sharing suggested by some previous studies. The study shows that students’ attitudes to learning appear to be influenced by the approaches adopted by their lecturers. Far from demanding lecturers change their practice, students appear to conform to fairly traditional pedagogies, albeit with minor uses of technology tools that deliver content. Despite both groups clearly using a rather limited range of technologies for learning, the results point to some age differences, with younger, engineering students making somewhat more active, albeit limited, use of tools than the older ones. The outcomes suggest that although the calls for radical transformations in educational approaches may be legitimate it would be misleading to ground the arguments for such change solely in students’ shifting expectations and patterns of learning and technology use

The Formal, the Informal, and the Precarious: Making a Living in Urban Papua New Guinea

For many Papua New Guineans, the dominant accounts of 'the economy' � contained within development reports, government documents and the media � do not adequately reflect their experiences of making a living. Large-scale resource extraction, the private sector, export cash cropping and wage employment have dominated these accounts. Meanwhile, the broader economic picture has remained obscured, and the diversity of economic practices, including a flourishing 'informal' economy, has routinely been overlooked and undervalued. Addressing this gap, this paper provides some grounded examples of the diverse livelihood strategies people employ in Papua New Guinea's growing urban centres. We examine the strategies people employ to sustain themselves materially, and focus on how people acquire and recirculate money. We reveal the interconnections between a diverse range of economic activities, both formal and informal. In doing so, we complicate any clear narrative that might, for example, associate waged employment with economic security, or street selling with precarity and urban poverty. Our work is informed by observations of people's daily lives, and conversations with security guards (Stephanie Lusby), the salaried middle class (John Cox), women entrepreneurs (Ceridwen Spark), residents from the urban settlements (Michelle Rooney) and betel nut traders and vendors (Timothy Sharp). Collectively, our work takes an urban focus, yet the flows and connectivity between urban and rural, and our focus on livelihood strategies, means much of our discussion is also relevant to rural people and places. Our examples, drawn from urban centres throughout the country, each in their own way illustrate something of the diversity of economic activity in urban PNG. Our material captures the innovation and experimentation of people's responses to precarity in contemporary PNG.AusAI

Using Technology To Create A Dynamic Classroom Experience

There are a multitude of diverse technologies available for integration in the college classroom, but considering how to implement these initiatives can be overwhelming to the instructor.  The adaptation of this technology is often very simple and involves little more than the Internet and basic word processing skills.  A review of the multimedia applications, which are inexpensive (often free), easy to implement, and require limited technology skills, is covered. Multimedia items that can be easily implemented in the college classroom include animation, slideshows, blogging, instant messaging, podcasting, and video on demand.  Multimedia, which uses the Internet as its transfer mechanism, can be an effective method of creating a dynamic college classroom experience

Integrating Technology With Student-Centered Learning

Reviews research on technology's role in personalizing learning, its integration into curriculum-based and school- or district-wide initiatives, and the potential of emerging digital technologies to expand student-centered learning. Outlines implications

The Effects of Technology on Reading Fluency in a First Grade Summer School Classroom

The purpose of this action research project was to determine if the technology app EPIC! is more effective in helping first-grade students increase their oral reading fluency skills compared to a teacher-assisted, non-technological intervention. Before the interventions began, the students completed three oral timed reading passages at the first-grade level by FASTbridge. This score was used as a baseline for the data. The intervention lasted for two weeks. The experimental group completed stories on the application EPIC! for 15 minutes each session, while the control group completed research based educational games with the researcher. Both were done in addition to all students receiving regular classroom reading instruction. A post-test was then given to determine how all students’ fluency skills were affected by the intervention using three FASTbridge passages at the first-grade level. The data collected was used to determine how many words per minute a student read on the pre-test versus the post-test. The findings indicated that students in the teacher-assisted, non-technological intervention improved fluency scores by seven more words correct per minute compared to the experimental group using EPIC! only increased fluency by one more word correct per minute

Possible approaches to personalisation at Cass Business School

This report discusses the result of an investigation into the personalisation of learning and how it could be applied in a university with primarily face-to-face instruction, and, a diverse student body

Digital Opportunities for Student's Motivational Enhancement

AbstractYoung people, who are the fundamental asset of our economies and societies across the world, face a real and increasing difficulties in finding a decent job with each day. Three additional merging factors are worsening the youth employment crisis even further, causing challenges while transiting to decent jobs, namely (i) numbers of discouraged youth, in other words, young people, who are neither in education nor in employment or training (NEETs) are increasing, (ii) unemployment among university graduates of tertiary education in general are rising and (iii) potential NEET group students, especially in the 1st year, who, apart from reduced study fees, require extra motivation and moral support from educators. The study aim - to find the e-learning and conventional learning as the optimal ratio for 1st year students to increase motivation. Research methods – during two academic years (2013/2014th and 2014/2015th.) the first year students of the course “Entrepreneurship (Distance Learning e-course)” were tested about quality of this course using different research methods. Students had been tested by: 1) survey about the course on “Entrepreneurship (Distance Learning e-course)” assessment; 2) psychologist M.Lusher color test, based on the method of projection individual's emotional state of the diagnosis; 3) the degree of risk appetite according to Schubert's method of success; 4) motivation after T.Elersa methods, failure avoidance motivation in correlation with T.Elersa method; 5) survey about optimal proportion between traditional and e-learning studies. Paper contains analyses of these results