Learning technologies and the lifelong learner: Armament or disarmament?

Educators at all levels are underpressure to produce ‘lifelong learners’. Their task is to ‘arm’ the student with knowledge and skills that will enable them to be creative and enterprising scholars. One possible way of arming the lifelong learner is through the use of learning technologies. Learning technologies can offer armament by widening access and participation and offering flexible delivery. This paper will use the results of two evaluation studies to explore the argument that learning technologies have the capacity to both arm and disarm students. Results from an evaluation of an email discussion list will be presented to highlight how the way a learning technology is used may arm a learner by giving them information but disarm them by promoting a lack of confidence and a low valuation of discussion. Results from an evaluation of a Microcosm application will be presented to highlight how the way a learning technology is used may arm a learner by helping them to apply knowledge but disarm them by placing restrictions on their self‐directed learning. These results will be discussed in order to argue that the ‘disarmament’ of students through the use of learning technologies may place obstacles in the way of lifelong learning

Developing on-line e-commerce business plans to provide students with context and job opportunities

This action research presents a description of how an on-line E-commerce business-planning unit was developed. Initially, an intensive ten-day E-commerce course was developed in collaboration with government, industry and university sectors with a view of raising awareness and promoting electronic business planning issues. The course utilised a range of learning approaches, including peer teaching, in which participants were trained as team leaders to facilitate group learning. Based on the evaluation of this course, a full semester course for final year tertiary studentswas developed and evaluated. An overview of both case studies is given with recommendations for future developments

Reflection on-line or off-line: the role of learning technologies in encouraging students to reflect

This paper presents case studies that describe the experiences of the two authors in trying to use learning technologies to facilitate reflective thinking in their students. At the University of Leicester, a Web-based biology tutorial called ‘How Now Mad Cow’, which covers the topics of bovine spongiform encephalopathy and a new variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (nvCJD). At the University of Southampton, a web-based hyper-mail discussion list to support teaching on a first year psychosocial science module for occupational therapy and physiotherapy students has been established. In both examples, the tutors had attempted to create a learning environment that would engage students in the learning experience and facilitate reflection by helping them to create meaning from the learning experience and see things in a different way. The evaluation data from both case studies provides some evidence that the learning technologies helped to facilitate reflection for some students. However, the evidence for reflection is not overwhelming and the data provides some evidence that four key factors may have influenced how successful the use of learning technologies were in facilitating reflection. These factors are the way the learning technology is used, the nature of the student groups, the role of the tutor and student preferences for ‘off-line reflection’. These are discussed and ways forward are identified

Investigating processes of social knowledge construction in online environments

On-line forums provide opportunity and potential for collaborative work, dialogue and study that can increase the flexibility of learning while motivating participants. By enabling teacher-learner and learner-learner interaction online systems can support the essential elements of a learning conversation by providing scope for discussion, dialogue and interaction. It is argued that this medium presents a socio-cognitive educational domain, unique in its potential for dialogue, participation and collaboration and a departure from face-to-face didactic paradigms of learning. Often, the types of verbal interactions and the means by which new knowledge is created on-line are not well understood. The paper provides frameworks for tertiary teachers and moderators of computer conferences that can be applied to the analysis of processes and activities that occur in text-based conferencing

Design research in early literacy within the zone of proximal implementation

Despite intentions to the contrary, insights on pedagogically appropriate innovations with representative teachers in everyday school settings are severely limited. In part, this is because (design) research is often conducted at the bleeding edge of what is possible, exploring innovative uses of new technologies and/or emerging theories, while insufficient research and development work focuses on what is practical, today. This leaves a problematic gap between what could be useful research in theory, and what can be useful research in practice. This paper calls for (design) researchers to attend to factors that determine if and how innovations are understood, adopted and used by teachers and schools, and gives one example of how this was tackled in the domain of early literacy. Across ten studies, researchers collected data that helped shape an intervention that can be implemented by representative teachers, for diverse learners, in varied school settings

Teacher design of technology for emergent literacy: An explorative feasibility study

McKenney, S., & Voogt, J. (2012). Teacher design of technology for emergent literacy: An explorative feasibility study. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood 37(1), 4-12.The active participation of teachers in designing classroom learning experiences contributes to teacher abilities to facilitate learning. This paper reports on a case study of one Dutch teacher designing a technology-rich learning environment for emergent literacy. Data were collected to explore the design and implementation of the learning environment, respectively. The main findings from the design study are that scaffolding teacher design: takes mammoth effort; appears to contribute to teacher learning; yields usable products and ownership, both of which seem to contribute to classroom implementation, but also yields products whose subject matter quality is questionable. The pre-post test data from the implementation study indicate that all children working with the intervention exhibited significant learning gains. Based on the findings, it is hypothesized that the high degree of teacher ownership which stems from designing classroom materials positively influences integration of on-computer activities with off-computer classroom activities, and that a high level of integration yields positive influence on pupil learning about the functions of written language. This rich, but small scale study points to the need for more refined understanding of the gap between what teachers have already mastered and what they can achieve when provided with support, when engaging in technology-rich classroom innovation. We therefore call for innovation design to not only meet learner needs, but also to fit explicitly within a teacher’s ‘technological zone of proximal development’

Teacher design of technology for emergent literacy: An explorative feasibility study

The active participation of teachers in designing classroom learning experiences contributes to teacher abilities to facilitate learning. This paper reports on a case study of one Dutch teacher designing a technology-rich learning environment for emergent literacy. Data were collected to explore the design and implementation of the learning environment, respectively. The main findings from the design study are that scaffolding teacher design: takes mammoth effort; appears to contribute to teacher learning; yields usable products and ownership, both of which seem to contribute to classroom implementation, but also yields products whose subject matter quality is questionable. The pre-post test data from the implementation study indicate that all children working with the intervention exhibited significant learning gains. Based on the findings, it is hypothesized that the high degree of teacher ownership which stems from designing classroom materials positively influences integration of on-computer activities with off-computer classroom activities, and that a high level of integration yields positive influence on pupil learning about the functions of written language. This rich, but small scale study points to the need for more refined understanding of the gap between what teachers have already mastered and what they can achieve when provided with support, when engaging in technology-rich classroom innovation. We therefore call for innovation design to not only meet learner needs, but also to fit explicitly within a teacher’s ‘technological zone of proximal development’

Learning to Learn in a Digital Context: Language Learning Webtasks for an Autonomising “Wreading” Competence

In this paper we aim to analyse how language learning tasks can help students develop an autonomising wreading competence, i.e. a competence involving the ability to read online texts and to construct one’s own text by traversing sites. This competence involves different types of skills: technical skills of information elaboration and management, linguistic and semiotic skills, cognitive skills, and metacognitive skills. We consider, therefore, that the development of the wreading competence calls for a new approach to language learning, based on the joint development of autonomous learning and new literacies. Although new technologies provide quality resources and tools for teachers to design pedagogical environments which meet the principles of learner autonomy, ICT does not foster by itself autonomous learning (Villanueva, 2006). The promotion of learner autonomy requires carefully designed learning tasks aiming at a long-life learning process. The purpose of this paper is to put forward criteria for the design of language learning cybertasks that promote the development of new literacies applied to language learning autonom

Iskustvo e-učenja stečeno na različitim sveučilištima: stajalište sveučilišnog nastavnika

E-learning has become an increasingly popular mode of instruction in higher education all over the world. In spite of proliferation of e-learning, few studies/cases have attempted to investigate the differences in e-learning processes from faculty perspective. This paper presents observations on e-learning experiences at three premier universities which provide online courses for students and professionals. Based on some important characteristics supported by literature review, a comparative view is presented and discussed. Furthermore, suggestions based on the outcome of our study are made for further reference. The objective of this paper is to discuss significant e-learning experiences as current practices at different universities from the perspective of the faculty.E-učenje postaje sve popularniji način podučavanja u visokom obrazovanju širom svijeta. Unatoč širenju e-učenja postoji samo nekoliko studija u kojima se pokušavaju proučavati razlike u metodama e-učenja sa stajališta nastavnika. U ovom se radu daju zapažanja o e-učenju stečena na tri glavna sveučilišta koji organiziraju online tečajeve za studente i profesionalce. Na osnovu nekih važnih značajki spomenutih i u priloženom pregledu literature, izlažu se i diskutiraju komparativni stavovi. Nadalje, daju se prijedlozi za daljnju uporabu, bazirani na rezultatima našega istraživanja. Cilj ovog članka je razmotriti stečeno iskustvo e-učenja kakvo se provodi na različitim sveučilištima, sa stajališta nastavnika