Gender issues in computer‐supported learning

Contemporary research identifies significant gender‐related differences in performance and interaction style in computer‐supported learning (CSL) environments. Evidence suggests that initial perceptions of these environments as democratic and offering equal opportunities to all students were flawed because interactions that take place through electronic channels lose none of the sociocultural complexity or gender imbalance that already exists within society. This paper presents a summary of gender‐related issues identified by international research and academic practice together with the opinions expressed by participants in a discussion forum staged at Alt‐C in 2001. Two main questions were addressed during the conference forum. Firstly, if computer access and literacy levels are assumed to be equalizing as the literature suggests, how can educational designers using CSL technologies best serve all student groups? Secondly, does the existence of gender‐based differences in behaviour and interaction style in CSL environments mean that any student group is disadvantaged? The paper concludes with suggestions about how educational designers might increase the flexibility of CSL courses to offer equal opportunities to all students. A number of issues for further research are also identified

The Scientist, Fall 2009

https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/scientist/1005/thumbnail.jp

Mobile Learning in Developing Countries

Commissioned by the Commonwealth of Learning, this is a research-informed guide to mobile learning and includes implementation strategies, applications and case studies. Mobile learning, or m-learning, is a personal way to learn and to access educational tools and material that enlarges access to education for all. It reinforces learners' sense of ownership of the learning experience, offering them flexibility in how, when and where they learn. In developing countries, mobile technologies potentially deliver education without dependence on an extensive traditional communications infrastructure, leapfrogging some of the intervening development phases encountered in developed countries such as installing extensive electricity power grids, and building multiple computer rooms in educational institutions

Harnessing Technology: analysis of emerging trends affecting the use of technology in education (September 2008)

Research to support the delivery and development of Harnessing Technology: Next Generation Learning 2008–1

Building equitable literate futures : home and school computer-mediated literacy practices and disadvantage

This paper examines the complex connections between literacy practices, the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and disadvantage. It reports the findings of a year-long study which investigated the ways in which four families use ICTs to engage with formal and informal literacy learning in home and school settings. The research set out to explore what it is about computer-mediated literacy practices at home and at school in disadvantaged communities that make a difference in school success. The findings demonstrate that the \u27socialisation\u27 of the technology - its appropriation into existing family norms, values and lifestyles - varied from family to family. Having access to ICTs at home was not sufficient for the young people and their families to overcome the so-called \u27digital divide\u27. Clearly, we are seeing shifts in the meaning of \u27disadvantage\u27 in a globalised world mediated by the use of new technologies. New definitions of disadvantage that take account not only of access to the new technologies but also include calibrated understandings of what constitutes the access are required. The article concludes that old inequalities have not disappeared, but are playing out in new ways in the context of the networked society.<br /

Already at a disadvantage? ICT in the home and children's preparation for primary school. (ICT Research Bursaries 2004 - Final Report)

The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of socio-economic disadvantage on pre-school children's development of competences in information and communications technologies (ICT). The study focuses on children's experiences of ICT in the home and in pre-school settings in the year before they begin formal education, and seeks to investigate concepts of advantage and disadvantage in this context. The study also aims to investigate teachers' perceptions of children's ICT competences on entry to school

Silver Surfers : Social Inclusion or Exclusion in a Digital World

Funded and commissioned by Microsoft's Unlimited Potential Programme, with contributions from Citizens Online and UH. This report was the output from the project.When one considers the population profile of a country, no longer is the emphasis upon mortality rates of younger people. As the years progress, enhancements to the quality of life have led to an increasingly ageing society. The emphasis globally has changed to provision for all age groups as a result. In this report, we determine how Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are being introduced through programmes by a variety of agencies into the lives of one particular population group – the silver surfer. The context of this report is the United KingdomFinal Published versio

Shaping educational attitudes and aspirations: the influence of parents, place and poverty: stage 1 report

An interim report of a study which aims to better understand the relationship between children’s aspirations in relation to education and employment, and the context in which they are formed. In particular, the study seeks to explore how parental circumstances and attitudes, the school as an institution, and the opportunity structures of the neighbourhood come together to shape aspirations in deprived urban areas. This report examines: • The assumptions of current policy that aspirations are a key ingredient of educational and labour market outcomes; • What aspirations are and how they can be understood; • What young people’s aspirations are for further and higher education and for future occupations in three secondary schools; • The main influences on those aspirations, including the roles of parents, schools and the neighbourhood context • Messages for the second stage of the research and emerging lessons for policy. The report provides some evidence to question the assumption among policy makers that there is a ‘poverty of aspirations’ among young people from disadvantaged backgrounds or living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods