The practice of web conferencing: where are we now?

The use of web conferencing tools to support learning and teaching and facilitate interaction and collaboration is common in many higher education environments as is the replacement of face-to-face meetings with virtual collaboration tools. This paper reports on Phase 3 of a trial of web conferencing conducted at a regional Australian university and further explores the use of web conferencing to support and enhance learning and teaching. Preliminary findings from Phases 1 and 2 of the trial have been reported on in a previous paper. The action research method which framed the initial trial has again been applied to Phase 3. In Phase 1, collaborative mathematical problem-solving in an undergraduate course was carried out using web conferencing and tablet PCs. In addition, students in postgraduate Education courses were linked across the globe to participate in interactive and collaborative web conference activity. In Phase 2, a university-wide trial across disciplines was conducted. Phase 3 represents an analysis of feedback received from teachers who were involved in Phases 1 and 2 and who have had some time to reflect on the impact web conferencing has had on their teaching practice. From this, and their own experience, the authors make further observations regarding the use of web conferencing to support learning and teaching and raise a number of questions and issues to guide future research

E-flection: the development of reflective communities of learning for trainee teachers through the use of shared online web logs

This paper reports on research that has taken place with trainee teachers using web blogs for reflective practice at Sheffield Hallam University and Nottingham Trent University, in the United Kingdom. The research identifies how reflective blogs provided trainee teachers with an opportunity to develop as reflective practitioners in a more evolutionary way – something we might term ‘e-flection’ encompassing as it does reflections that are both evolutionary and online. This is in line with Schon’s ideas of reflection on action (Schon, 1983) as the research indicates that trainees were using the blog after teaching, to reflect on their teaching and learning as a past experience. The research also explores how reflecting as part of a community can benefit students in developing the reflective aspect of their professional identity

Teachers’ reflections on the teaching of Mathematics in Grade 4 in Nongoma Circuit Management Centre.

Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.This dissertation presents an action research study of four teachers who reflected on their teaching of the Mathematics curriculum (CAPS) in KwaZulu-Natal primary schools. The study employ a critical paradigm. The study intended to explore teachers’ reflection on the teaching of Mathematics in Grade 4 in Nongoma Circuit Management Centre. Hence, the study used reflective activity, one-on-one semi structured interview and observation with an aim of generating data. The groups were sampled (using purposive and convenient sampling) with the intention of including teachers with whom I could work with without any difficulty. Action research was instituted with an aim of scrutinizing challenges Mathematics teachers faced when teaching Mathematics CAPS in KwaZulu-Natal. The curricular spider-web was utilised as a conceptual framework for data analysis. The findings of the study revealed that teachers’ reflections were influenced by factors such as rationale, goals, content, accessibility, teachers’ activities, teachers’ roles, resources, time, location and assessment. The rationale for teaching (personal, societal and professional) were found to be most influential in teachers’ reflection. In the case whereby teachers were guided by personal rationale for teaching Mathematics, they demonstrated a conceptual understanding of what they were teaching. On the other hand, where teachers were influenced by societal rationale for teaching, they did not make decisions that contribution to successful teaching of Mathematics teaching. Teachers who were influenced by professional rationale believed that their qualifications assisted them to teach Mathematics effectively. This study recommended that teachers must be directed by rationale in their teaching in order to affect the teaching and learning of Mathematics in Grade 4. Moreover, the study recommends that there is a need for on-going capacity building for Mathematics teachers by the Department of Education, so that they keep well-informed with new and pioneering methods for teaching Mathematics in Grade 4

Coding as a Literacy Practice in Adult Learning Communities

This study considered how computing courses for adult learners might be customized to effectively address their reasons for learning to read and write computer code. The view of coding as a literacy practice is the key theme in this study. Street’s (2006) ideological model of literacy along with the perspective of computational participation, are theoretical models used to explore coding as a literacy practice (Kafai & Burke, 2017). Through the vehicle of action research, this study focused on analyzing the delivery of an introductory web languages coding course for female immigrants. This study drew from both the student and teacher perspectives. The study used student feedback collected from online class survey questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The study also incorporated the teacher’s field notes, a course summary report, and the Teaching Perspectives Inventory survey results (Collins & Pratt, 2011). Findings from this study include these areas of insights: 1) students’ views on the benefits of learning coding, 2) the language and communication challenges students faced, and 3) an overview of some effective teaching tools and approaches. Based on these findings, there is a discussion that considered possible issues related to student engagement in learning web language coding. Included are sections on implications for practice and future research

Knowledge-building : designing for learning using social and participatory media

This report presents the results of a classroom action research that looked at how one teacher redesigned her curriculum while integrating social media, Web 2.0 and face-toface teaching in an Australian public high school. It explores the qualities that social and participatory media bring to the classroom while focussing on students as active and valued participants in the learning process. Building knowledge using the uniqueness of social media enabled students to become active and valued resources for both the teacher and their peers. Designing for learning is a key challenge facing education today; this case offers ideas for learning designers and contributes to a research base that can support educators from all sectors

Teachers' reflections of the teaching of grade 12 physical sciences CAPS in rural schools at Ceza Circuit.

Master of Education in Curriculum Studies. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Edgewood 2015.This dissertation presents an action research study of six teachers who reflected on their teaching of the physical science curriculum (CAPS) in South African high schools. The study adopted a critical paradigm. This study was conducted with an aim or focus to explore teachers’ reflections on the teaching of grade 12 physical sciences CAPS in rural schools in Ceza Circuit, KwaZulu-Natal. As a result, reflective activity, one-on-one semi-structured interviews and focus group discussion were utilised for data generation in order explore teachers’ reflections. Purposive and convenience samplings were used in selecting this specific group of teachers because I needed teachers with whom I was familiar and who were also accessible. I was also involved in the study (action research) in order to help address challenges that are faced by physical science curriculum teachers in South Africa through their implementation of CAPS. This study was framed by the concepts of curriculum spider-web in order to explore teachers’ reflection of their teaching practice. The literature reviewed teachers’ reflections of their teaching practices. Findings from the literature proposed levels of teachers’ reflections as technical, practical and critical level of reflections. Thus, teachers’ reflections were catergorised according to these levels. Findings from the literature indicated that each curricular spider web concepts had three propositions as per level of reflections. Findings from data analysis indicated that most teachers use technical and practical level of reflection during the first phase of action research. Teachers showed much improvement during the second phase of action research because they were able to use critical level of reflection in each concept of curriculum spider web. It is found from the study that critical level of reflection may influence the smooth implementation of curriculum. This Dissertation consequently recommends that teachers enhance all concepts of the curriculum spider-web in order to improve their teaching practice. Teachers are recommended to master the theories that underpin CAPS before teaching in order for them to understand the process intended by CAPS to improve the established curriculum. The study recommends teachers to teach and assess learners for successful achieved curriculum

Finding the community in sustainable online community engagement: Not-for-profit organisation websites, service-learning and research

This article explores the use of action research (2008–2014) based on a case study of the Sustainable Online Community Engagement (SOCE) Project, a service-learning project in which University of South Australia students build websites for not-for-profit (NFP) organisations, to demonstrate that effective teaching, public service and research are interdependent. A significant problem experienced in the SOCE project was that, despite some training and ongoing assistance, the community organisations reported that they found it difficult to make effective use of their websites. One of the proposed solutions was to develop an online community of the participating organisations that would be self-supporting, member-driven and collaborative, and enable the organisations to share information about web-based technology. The research reported here explored the usefulness of developing such an online community for the organisations involved and sought alternative ways to assist the organisations to maintain an effective and sustainable web presence. The research used a three-phase ethnographic action research approach. The first phase was a content analysis and review of the editing records of 135 organisational websites hosted by the SOCE project. The second phase was an online survey sent to 145 community organisation members responsible for the management of these websites, resulting in 48 responses. The third phase consisted of semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 18 of the website managers from 12 of these organisations. The research revealed the extent to which organisations were unable to manage their websites and found that the proposed solution of an online community would not be useful. More importantly, it suggested other useful strategies which have been implemented. In Furco’s (2010) model of the engaged campus, public engagement can be used to advance the public service, teaching and research components of higher education’s tripartite mission, but this requires a genuine and sustained process of listening to the community of which the institution is a part. The article argues that, with recent changes to government policy reducing funding to the community sector, an important role for universities is to engage with their communities in both teaching and research. Service-learning projects are often evaluated for learning and teaching outcomes and valued as aligning with university policy on community engagement, but there is potential to do more harm than good for community partners. The experience with the SOCE project demonstrates that effective community engagement must be based on research of what the community partners genuinely want and then assessed against those objectives. Research and community engagement should not be framed as mutually exclusive but understood as part of the same process

Redesigning learning through social media, Web 2.0 and F2F teaching : an action research study

The focus of this research was to explore how social and participatory media could be used to enhance the face-to-face teaching and learning process. Action research was used to design learning that valued the students’ own experiences and to encourage students to create, connect and form a partnership in the learning process: hence supporting students\u27 strengths and abilities. To monitor and participate in the use of social media required an increase in the teacher\u27s work time. As a partial counter-balance, it was found that the teacher/researcher successfully reduced her time spent on correction by implementing peer and self-assessment and by making more effective use of classroom observations. This led to a valuable triangulation of assessment data. Reviewing many of the screen clips collected in this study, one can see the diversity of roles and activities in which the students were engaged, and their development over time through the action research cycle. Combining Web 2.0, face-to-face teaching and social media, where students made online friends and used pseudonyms, provided students with more choices and flexibility when working, communicating and learning. This research may help curriculum developers interweave new technologies, new literacies and multimodal learning methods into day-to-day learning programs. The developed methods of learning and designs should also be transferable to other educational learning environments

Problematising Participatory Research for Developing Semantic Web Technologies

This paper contributes to a symposium on ‘Designs for learning with the Semantic Web (Web 3.0)’ by presenting the outcomes of critical reflection on methodological issues relating to the design of semantic web technologies for networked learning. Semantic web technologies show great potential for supporting networked learning but are unsettled and under-researched in educational contexts, thus classed within this symposium as ‘emergent’. The design of this emergent and complex technology is considered in relation to empirical research data from an interdisciplinary, multi-institutional technology enhanced learning (TEL) research project. The research project explored the potential of semantic web technologies in Higher Education (HE) to support the use of cases in teaching and learning. Data was collected throughout the project including researcher's wiki-based reflective research logs, transcripts from project meetings and interviews and focus groups with participants and observation notes. Critical reflection on the research process was supported through engagement with this data, which allowed the recognition of nondeterministic constructs and fluidity and contingency in research practice. Therefore, this paper problematises participation by highlighting uncertainties and contingencies inherent in the enactment of participatory research methodology. Rather than viewing uncertainty and contingency as devaluing research, the case is made that this can allow for enrichment of the development process and subsequently the research outcomes. The flexible and emergent nature of semantic web technology matched with participatory approaches in the design of emergent technologies allows for reflection, adaptation and flexible action relating to pedagogy and practices which is essential in educational contexts that are rapidly changing. The findings highlight the uncertain and contingent nature of (1) the settings where design took place; (2) acceptance or rejection of research methods; and (3) the community groups that emerged as interested parties in our work. Vignettes from two different research settings are used to show how participation was enacted reflectively and responsively leading to some positive outcomes; including the development of new teaching practices and new technologies, which were fed back into the open source development of educational semantic web technologies. Therefore, researchers in the field of networked learning are encouraged to ‘design with participatory research’ to match the challenges posed by complex and emergent technologies and changeable educational contexts rather than attempting to apply standardised forms of design methodologie