Building Collaborative Capacities in Learners: The M/cyclopedia Project Revisited

In this paper we trace the evolution of a project using a wiki-based learning environment in a tertiary education setting. The project has the pedagogical goal of building learners’ capacities to work effectively in the networked, collaborative, creative environments of the knowledge economy. The paper explores the four key characteristics of a ‘produsage’ environment and identifies four strategic capacities that need to be developed in learners to be effective ‘produsers’ (user-producers). A case study is presented of our experiences with the subject New Media Technologies, run at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. This progress report updates our observations made at the 2005 WikiSym conference

Keeping up with the 'digital natives': Integrating Web 2.0 technologies into classroom practice.

This report describes a self-study using an action research spiral of problem analysis, intervention design, trial, reflection and analysis. The main purpose of the study was to investigate and evaluate whether Web 2.0 technologies and, in particular, social software could be effectively integrated into a senior secondary English classroom. The methodology used in the study, while mainly qualitative, did include a degree of quantitative data-gathering. The study took place over two terms of the 2007 school year in a semi-rural school south of Auckland. My Year 12 English class of twenty-four students were participants in the study and I was the teacher-researcher. As part of the study the students responded to my 'blog' and created and maintained their own 'blogs'. These 'voices' are important threads in this narrative. Two of my colleagues acted as 'critical friends' in this process. During the study my own beliefs regarding new technology and the descriptor 'digital natives' were challenged. While the data collected and the interpretative analysis of it created further questions that need to be addressed, the findings indicate that there is a place for Web 2.0 technology and social software in English classrooms. The findings also show that in order for these applications to be integrated effectively, a number of issues need to be addressed. My recommendations as teacher-researcher at the 'chalk-face' attempting to keep up with the rapidly changing lives of our students concludes this report

Disrupting Schools for Boys: Interrogating Program, Policy, and Culture

This inquiry draws upon a variety of philosophical and theoretical perspectives, including post-structuralism, feminist theory and Marxist philosophy for the purposes of identifying an appropriate leadership framework for educators at schools for boys. It is proposed that a disruptive approach to leadership might serve to stimulate the conscientization of stakeholders within boys’ schools with respect to how essentialist notions of masculinity may be limiting student achievement and personal growth. This conscientization may engender a deep interrogation of those programs, policies, and cultural aspects that might be serving to promote unhealthy and/or toxic performances of masculinity. The application of a constructivist and pragmatic lens to the daily work within schools for boys may serve to counter prevailing limiting stereotypes of masculinity and provide boys a myriad of paths to pursue their humanity. The work within this Organizational Improvement Plan may serve to inform educators of boys in any educational context. More research is required regarding practical strategies that might be adopted by educators of boys in light of emerging understandings pertaining to masculinities and gender identity and expression

"What social media ""likes"": a discourse analysis of the Google, Facebook and Twitter blogs"

Google, Facebook and Twitter are arguably synonymous with social media (Vaidhyanathan, 2011; Yakolev, 2007; Levy, 2009). Selling the attention spans of internet users to advertisers using content almost entirely created by the labour of others, makes these organizations leaders in a media environment that is beginning to redefine the relationship between consumers (or prosumers), technology, and the modern digital organization (Drache, 2008; Lessig, 2008; Rainie & Wellman, 2012; Castells, 2010; Shirky, 2010). As such, these organizations often get caught in between public action and other forms of online protest, such as the Arab Spring (Castells, 2012) and their practical business needs to maintain discursive control. This dissertation examines the tension between corporate control and user participation as it manifests on the official Google Facebook and Twitter corporate blogs. This research employs critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 1995) supported by corpus linguistics techniques (Stubbs, 1996) to analyze each entry from the official Google, Facebook and Twitter corporate blogs between 2006 and 2011. When taken together, the discourses from these three corporate blogs reveal an underlying media logic, otherwise known as social media logic (van Dijck, 2013) that drives these sites, and directs the actions of people who engage with these sites. Put simply, all three sites have an organizational discourse on the blogs which makes technological develop seem both necessary and inevitable. They construct a techno-centrism which often comes at the expense of the people who both develop the technologies, and the end users. These discourses support the commercialization of these sites, but do not support the view that these technologies are somehow inherently democratic (Shirky, 2010). Fortunately however, the fact that the business models of social media sites depend on the free contributions of user-generated content, means that should the people who use these sites decide to fight for change with respect to these organizations, they would be uniquely positioned to do so

Discourses of multicultural teams : implications for policy practice in open and distance learning

Although a number of researchers have attempted to identify measures to account for the core elements of effective intercultural/multicultural teams of community of practice (CoP) in open and distance learning (ODL) formal institutions, there is no consensus on those measures. Previous studies also suggest important differences in teamwork across cultures but they do not adequately address the complexity of issues affecting culturally diverse teams and do not identify the specific factors that contribute to these differences (Earley & Gibson 2002). The purpose of the study was to collect views and experiences of multicultural lecturers from the six Unisa colleges and the Directorate for Curriculum and Learning Development (DCLD) personnel on the operationalization of Unisa Framework for the implementation of a team approach to curriculum and learning development. Soon after South Africa’s independence in 1994, Unisa had to respond to a new paradigm shift by re-aligning their curricula to meet the new national and global economic demands and social justice. The process relates to major revisions of programmes and modules, as well as new programmes and modules. The study adopts a qualitative research approach and uses Van Dijk (2009) critical discourse analysis (CDA) as a methodology and data analysis strategy. Sociocognitive Approach (SCA) theory as espoused by Van Dijk (2009) is underpinned by a narrative research design. A purposive sampling method was employed to collect data and critically analysed views and experiences of interracial/multicultural academic lecturers, a Director and DCLD education consultants engaged in collective partnerships in the craft of ODL curriculum and learning development at Unisa in South Africa. I used the Unisa Framework for a team approach to curriculum and learning development at Unisa as a model. Previous discourse studies in this area suggest that differences in communication practices may be attributed to power differentials or language competence. In particular it surfaces key tensions within subject expertise autonomy, such as those between commitments to reform and efficiency that may have a significant impact on the outcomes of subsequent policy compliance. In my analysis of the research participants’ discourses, it emerged that a culture of dichotomy; “us and them” inhibits the operationalization of the Unisa Framework for the implementation of team approach to curriculum and learning development which may be attributed to the failure to manage multicultural identity issues.Educational Leadership and ManagementD. Ed. (Education Management

Sharing Knowledge: How the Internet is Fueling Change in Anthropology

With the Internet anthropologists are reaching new audiences and improving the dissemination of their work. Articles and books published through scholarly presses were once the best ways to disseminate academic research, but now with the Internet this isn’t entirely true. Open access publishing, self-archiving, and even self-publishing can disseminate research better than the most prestigious anthropology journals. Established journals, not blind to this issue, are changing the ways they generate revenue from publishing research. There are alternatives to the reader-pays model which restricts access to a select few. But the Internet, beyond transforming the ways anthropologists disseminate their work between each other, has had more profound significance for engaging anthropology outside its traditional audiences. For many anthropologists, new online spaces have reinvigorated the discipline, providing opportunities to reach new audiences, to incorporate new participants, and to present anthropological research in entirely new ways. Blogs, Twitter feeds, Facebook and other social media are quickly being integrated into scholarly practices. By participating online in the anthropology blogosphere, writing “openly”, this research has experimented with the ways blogs and other social media can be used to collaboratively engage participants in the research process

A FRAME ANALYSIS OF NGO LITERATURE ON INTERNET CENSORSHIP IN CHINA: THE CASE OF AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, AND REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS

ABSTRACT This thesis critically examines the way in which Amnesty International (AI), Human Rights Watch (HRW), and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) frame the issue of internet censorship in China. As three of the world’s leading non-governmental human rights organizations, how these NGOs frame this issue—i.e. what aspects they emphasize or neglect, whose actions they highlight or obscure, and what kinds of solutions they propose—can influence which institutions or actors might take up the issue, who will pay attention to it, and what kind of action is taken to address it. In order to investigate the respective framing strategies employed by these NGOs in their discussions about internet censorship in China, a content analysis involving both quantitative and qualitative research methods was conducted on relevant literature published by all three organizations between the years 2005 - 2010.1found that all three NGOs tended to emphasize certain issues, including internet blocking and filtering, cyber dissidents, and foreign corporate complicity, while ignoring other issues, including Chinese internet laws and regulations, government surveillance and propaganda, and the complicity of hardware and domestic internet companies. The collective lack of attention to these items is problematic insofar as it may influence how target audiences interpret and respond to the issue of internet censorship in China. Largely ignored by these organizations, the items listed above are therefore likely to remain ignored by other political actors, including governments and policymakers with the capacity to take action on this issue