Reframing the Role of Educational Media Technologies

Distance universities excel in using digital media technologies for content delivery and collaborative interaction to compensate for limited face-to-face opportunities. Now that an ever-growing variety of media technologies, devices and services are flooding the market, possession of expertise about the educational opportunities of these technologies is becoming a strategic asset for any education provider. Distance universities may act as informative examples in this regard . This paper discusses how distance universities face the challenges of the ever-shortening lifespans of these new technologies. We describe some of the disruptive changes effected by the Internet, and discuss the critical factors for adopting and implementing the associated information and communication technologies in education. Although many practical, organisational, pedagogical and financial factors are relevant, this paper focuses on hidden conceptual barriers that are the result of misconceptions about the role and function that technology possesses and that seem to foster education’s intrinsic conservatism. Particularly, the notion of technology instrumentalism, which emphasises the one-sided subservient role of technology, is a widely popular, but at the same time a naïve, greatly outdated and fallacious view of technology that confuses the discussions and hampers educational innovation. This paper aims to contribute to the removal of these misconceptions by framing technology in a contemporary view that emphasises the enabling role of technology —particularly media technologies— to develop new pedagogical models and to offer new opportunities for augmenting human cognitive performance

Ubiquitous learning architecture to enable learning path design across the cumulative learning continuum

The past twelve years have seen ubiquitous learning (u-learning) emerging as a new learning paradigm based on ubiquitous technology. By integrating a high level of mobility into the learning environment, u-learning enables learning not only through formal but also through informal and social learning modalities. This makes it suitable for lifelong learners that want to explore, identify and seize such learning opportunities, and to fully build upon these experiences. This paper presents a theoretical framework for designing personalized learning paths for lifelong learners, which supports contemporary pedagogical approaches that can promote the idea of a cumulative learning continuum from pedagogy through andragogy to heutagogy where lifelong learners progress in maturity and autonomy. The framework design builds on existing conceptual and process models for pedagogy-driven design of learning ecosystems. Based on this framework, we propose a system architecture that aims to provide personalized learning pathways using selected pedagogical strategies, and to integrate formal, informal and social training offerings using two well-known learning and development reference models; the 70:20:10 framework and the 3–33 model

Translanguaging as a way to fostering EFL learners’ criticality in a hybrid course design

This case study examines the growth of criticality in three English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners through a hybrid course design which involves a translanguaging space for the development of reading and listening skills. Throughout the course, the learners were encouraged to deal with multimodal materials presented both in Turkish and English in line with translanguaging pedagogy. They were guided to use their full linguistic repertoire in digitally enriched translanguaging space and critically analyze the reading materials in group discussions and reflective writing activities. An exploratory approach is adopted, based upon a series of interviews with EFL learners, observations of their contributions to face-to-face debate lessons, and their reflective papers. All three learners developed criticality to varying degrees. Having discussed the significance of translanguaging in the development of criticality, we introduce implications for the relationship between criticality, translanguaging, and technology for fostering criticality of EFL learners. Then, we present pedagogical implications for teachers and teacher educators as to how fuller understanding and deep learning can be engendered in asynchronous sessions, and how digiticality (digitally-enriched criticality) can be fostered by a hybrid translanguaging space. Implications from these findings may be used to inform classroom pedagogy.publishedVersio

Critically Analyzing the Online Classroom: Blackboard, Moodle, Canvas, and the Pedagogy They Produce

Working from the crossroads of critical pedagogy and software studies, this study analyzes the means by which teaching technologies—in particular the popular learning management systems (LMS) Blackboard, Moodle, and Canvas—support a transmission model of education at the expense of critical learning goals. I assess the effect of LMSs on critical aims via four key critical pedagogy concepts: the banking system, student/teacher contradiction, dialogue, and problem-posing. From software studies, I employ the notion of affordances—what program functions are and are not made available to users—to observe how LMSs naturalize the transmission model. Rather than present a deterministic look at teaching technology, this study calls for closer examination of these tools in order to rework teaching technologies toward critical ends

The Neutrality Myth: Integrating Critical Media Literacy into the Introductory Communication Course

Our current cultural moment requires reflective urgency. COVID-19 has forced a collective pedagogical confrontation with new media’s materiality, and how such materiality intersects with, for example, the public speaking traditions within introductory communication courses. While COVID-19 has spotlighted online-only educational conversations, our disciplinary need to refocus new media introductory course curricular practices pre-dates the pandemic. This essay extends Rhonda Hammer’s (2009) critical media literacy framework into the introductory course, a practice whereby students are empowered to “read, critique, and produce media” rather than be passive consumers. We explore critical media literacy as pedagogically fruitful in identifying and resisting dominant ideologies that sustain inequalities through new media, focusing on information, power, and audience as core pedagogical principles that can re-shape introductory content and teaching

Introducing personal learning environments to informal learners: lessons learned from the OpenLearn case study

Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) hold the potential to address the needs of informal learners for multi-sourced content and easily customisable learning environments. This paper presents the lessons learned from a case study regarding the use of widget-based PLEs by informal learners for finding and evaluating Open Educational Resources (OER). The lessons learned from this case study have allowed the authors to detect some of the obstacles for the successful adoption of PLEs by informal learners, as well as to identify ways for overcoming these obstacles

Technology and Media in Education

The aim of this paper is showing the importance of using modern communication technologies, as well as the media in educational development. The introductory will show importance of technological changes in educational development with special emphasis on the development of online learning and its basic features. Here, the importance of informational infrastructure development will also be shown, as a critical element for Internet learning development. Furthermore, different media used in education, related to their characteristics, will also be analyzed. The paper will use descriptive method, method of analysis, induction and deduction. Conclusion will show current trends and technologies, as well as a critical overview of entire paper. Results will be used as a reference frame for future continuous research. This work is licensed under a&nbsp;Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.</p

The relationship between policy-making processes and e-learning policy discourses in higher education institutions in South Africa

This study offered an explanatory critique of the implications of policy-making processes on policy discourses. Its objective was to understand how policy-making processes affect institutional e-learning policy outcomes in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in South Africa. The study analysed the conceptualisation and design of institutional e-learning policies in three universities.The case-by-case analysis for this study used a qualitative post-structuralist research methodology associated with case study research. This method provided deep insights and intimate knowledge of the individual cases which formed an important basis for cross-comparisons to be made within and across cases, to draw a relationship between policy-making processes and e-learning policy discourses. Interviews were held with stakeholders who formulated e-learning policies at the three universities. The aim of interviews was to understand how the policies were formulated; to explore the factors impacting policy formulation; the composition of actors; and how policy issues were framed. The methodological and analytical lens of the study was based on the Stakeholder theory and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The Stakeholder theory was used to analyse the policy-making processes, whilst CDA was used to analyse the policies. The analysis focused on the assumptions inherent in the views of policymakers on the nature and role of technology in education. Considering power relations that are implicit in policy-making processes, the study examined the competing discourses found in the policy texts and the different frames used by policy actors in framing the policy problem. The aim was to understand the socio-cultural, political and pedagogical implications of these discourses on teaching and learning with technologies in HEIs. This was achieved by comparing the views of policymakers with the discourses found in e-learning policy texts. The study revealed that institutional policies are the products of complex inter-temporal exchanges among stakeholders who participate in the policy-making process. The features of the resultant policies depend on the interaction, interests and power of agents who are involved in the policy-making process. The interaction of agents is also hampered or facilitated by institutional structures, procedures and processes in place, including the institutional culture. Therefore, the ability of the stakeholders involved in the policy-making process to achieve cooperative outcomes plays a central role. An institution that facilitates interaction among policy-making agents is likely to generate policies that are adaptable to the environment, and that are less subject to changes. Contrary to this, an institution that does not encourage cooperation will produce a policy which results in few changes in practice. Whether the policy-making process facilitates or hinders cooperation will depend on some key features of this process, such as the number of actors involved, the level of involvement in the process, how they engage in dialogue and their ideological beliefs on the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in this context

Teaching Tolerance Through English Language Arts

This portfolio examines the ways in which tolerance can be taught and reinforced through English Language Arts. Substantive research is presented justifying the urgency of teaching tolerance at the high school level and the role that English Language Arts teachers play in the process. Methods of practical application are presented through three separate unit plans, each focused on elevating students’ social consciousness