Editorial: Assessment and ICT, innovative practices and future possibilities

The New Zealand Curriculum [NZC] document states that information and communication technology [ICT] and eLearning have considerable potential to support the teaching approaches recommended in the curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2007). In this special issue, we explore the potential for ICTs to support innovative assessment practices that complement effective teaching approaches. Such innovations can enrich the opportunities students have to demonstrate their developing understandings and knowledge, and foster a sense of responsibility for their own and group/class learning. Designed thoughtfully, they can also promote positive student attitudes and motivation towards learning in curriculum learning areas, and towards learning in general

Digital tools disrupting tertiary students’ notions of disciplinary knowledge: Cases in history and tourism

This paper reports on the findings from a two year research project that explored the potential of digital tools in support of teaching–learning across different disciplinary areas at a New Zealand university. Two courses (in History and Tourism) are case studied using data collected through interviews with lecturers, tutors and their students, and an online student survey. Findings from the research revealed that both lecturers and students were challenged in learning about the affordances and use of the lecturer selected digital tools as a mediational means. The tools were not initially transparent to them, nor were they able to be easily deployed to undertake their primary task—teaching for the lecturers, and, learning and demonstrating learning for the students completing assigned tasks. The process of learning and using the tools disrupted participants’ prior thinking and led to new understandings of both disciplines and of effective pedagogies for the two disciplines. The findings increase our understanding of the ways digital tools can develop, challenge and expand tertiary students learning and have implications for practice

A framework for developing and implementing an online learning community

Developing online learning communities is a promising pedagogical approach in online learning contexts for adult tertiary learners, but it is no easy task. Understanding how learning communities are formed and evaluating their efficacy in supporting learning involves a complex set of issues that have a bearing on the design and facilitation of successful online learning experiences. This paper describes the development of a framework for understanding and developing an online learning community for adult tertiary learners in a New Zealand tertiary institution. In accord with sociocultural views of learning and practices, the framework depicts learning as a mediated, situated, distributed, goal-directed, and participatory activity within a socially and culturally determined learning community. Evidence for the value of the framework is grounded in the findings of a case study of a semester-long fully online asynchronous graduate course. The framework informs our understanding of appropriate conditions for the development and conduct of online learning communities. Implications are presented for the design and facilitation of learning in such contexts

Lecturer--student views on successful online learning environments.

While many are enthusiastic about the promises of online learning as a flexible form of learning, others are cautious and concerned with the quality of teaching and learning rendered in such environments. In response, this article reports on the findings of a study conducted to better understand the issues related to the nature of learning in online environments and how learning in such environments can be successfully facilitated. Ten online lecturers and their students were surveyed at the Faculty of Education, University of Waikato. Successful online teaching and learning was characterised as a social interactive process such as that embodied within learning communities. Teaching practices and responsibilities associated with four lecturer roles were crucial to this process-pedagogical, managerial, social and technological. Considering these multiple roles is argued to be a productive framework in enabling online lecturers to understand and act on each role's required responsibility, tasks and practices and adapt them to their particular teaching context

Developing an online learning community: A model for enhancing lecturer and student learning experiences

This paper reports on a study aimed to better understand teaching and learning in an online learning environment through the development of a learning community to facilitate successful learning experiences. To achieve this aim, a qualitative interpretive methodology was adopted to case study an online lecturer and his 14 students’ experiences in a semester long fully online asynchronous graduate course in a New Zealand tertiary institution. Based on the findings, a model for understanding and developing an online learning community for adult tertiary learners is proposed. In accord with sociocultural views of learning and practices, the model depicts successful online learning as a mediated, situated, distributed, goal-directed and participatory activity within a socially and culturally determined learning community. The model informs our understanding of appropriate conditions for the development of online learning communities and has implications for the design and facilitation of learning in such contexts

Augmenting primary teaching and learning science through ICT

This study explored how information communication technologies (ICTs) in primary classrooms can enhance the teaching and learning of science. By building on teachers’ and students’ prior knowledge and experience with ICTs, we investigated how ICT use can structure activities to offer enhanced opportunities for active participation in science. The project generated examples of how ICTs can support subject-relevant ways of exploring and communicating science, and evaluating what has been learnt. The major implications from the key finding, found in the Summary report are that; ICTs amplify science learning if teachers unpack the scientific ideas to identify specific pedagogical strategies that exploit the opportunities of each ICT. Visually recorded data present instant, immediate and context-rich information that teachers and students can use as a repository for evaluation, analysis and communication. For ICT-supported activities to meet the needs of diverse learners, students and teachers need “sandpit” time to develop competencies to participate in various tasks. Teachers who use ICTs require support tailored to the specific pedagogical, content and technology needs of the topic they are teaching

Collaborative practices using computers and the internet in science classrooms.

Investigations that allow for students to self-direct their inquiries in science classrooms involve building on existing understanding, problem solving and reasoning. The process of explaining complex problems means that students work with multiple sets of data including online resources and information from the Internet. Outcomes of such activities are often in written form, frequently prepared on the computer, representing a collage of negotiated ideas. This article presents primary science classroom investigations about changes of state and landforms and argues that inscription practices were shaped by the functional and social affordances students imbued with the computer and information from the Internet. Findings from the qualitative study with a year 7 teacher, Clara, and her students illustrate how the Internet provided social and collaborative opportunities for scientific meaning making. The argument is made that access to the computer and information from the Internet can open up and constrain opportunities for social thinking and inscription practices. Talking, thinking and composing were observed to constitute the nature of science inquiries as a collaborative effort of meaning making

Short-term fate of phytodetritus in sediments across the arabian sea oxygen minimum zone

The short-term fate of phytodetritus was investigated across the Pakistan margin of the Arabian Sea at water depths ranging from 140 to 1850 m, encompassing the oxygen minimum zone (~100–1100 m). Phytodetritus sedimentation events were simulated by adding ~44 mmol 13C-labelled algal material per m2 to surface sediments in retrieved cores. Cores were incubated in the dark, at in situ temperature and oxygen concentrations. Overlying waters were sampled periodically, and cores were recovered and sampled (for organisms and sediments) after durations of two and five days. The labelled carbon was subsequently traced into bacterial lipids, foraminiferan and macrofaunal biomass, and dissolved organic and inorganic pools. The majority of the label (20 to 100%) was in most cases left unprocessed in the sediment at the surface. The largest pool of processed carbon was found to be respiration (0 to 25% of added carbon), recovered as dissolved inorganic carbon. Both temperature and oxygen were found to influence the rate of respiration. Macrofaunal influence was most pronounced at the lower part of the oxygen minimum zone where it contributed 11% to the processing of phytodetritus

Adoption of innovative e-learning support for teaching: A multiple case study at the University of Waikato

In response to recent social, economic, and pedagogical challenges to tertiary-level teaching and learning, universities are increasingly investigating and adopting elearning as a way to engage and motivate students. This paper reports on the first year of a two-year (2009-2010) qualitative multiple case study research project in New Zealand. Using perspectives from activity theory and the scholarship of teaching, the research has the overall goal of documenting, developing, and disseminating effective and innovative practice in which e-learning plays an important role in tertiary teaching. A “snapshot” of each of the four 2009 cases and focused findings within and across cases are provided. This is followed by an overall discussion of the context, “within” and “across” case themes, and implications of the research

An ecological approach to Understanding assessment for learning in support of student Writing achievement

In this paper, we report on a project conducted in a New Zealand primary school that aimed to enhance the writing achievement of primary school boys who were achieving just below the national standard for their age or level through the use of peer feedback and information and communication technologies (ICTs). The project involved a teacher collaborative inquiry approach where all seven teachers in the school and the school prin- cipal participated to achieve the project aim. We adopt an ecological approach as a lens to offer a holistic and comprehensive view of how peer assessment and use of ICTs can be facilitated to improve writing achievement. Data were collected through teacher inter- views and written re ections of practice and student learning, teacher analysis of student work, team meeting notes, classroom observations, and student focus group interviews. Findings from the thematic analysis of textual data illustrate the potential of adopting an ecological approach to consider how teacher classroom practices are shaped by the school, community, and wider policy context. At the classroom level, our ecological analysis highlighted a productive synergy between commonplace writing pedagogy strategies and assessment for learning (AfL) practices as part of teacher orchestration of an ensemble of interdependent routines, tools, and activities. Diversity, redundancy, and local adaptations of resources to provide multiple pathways and opportunities—social and material and digital—emerged as important in fostering peer assessment and ICT use in support of writing achievement. Importantly, these practices were made explicit and taken up across the school and in the parent community because of whole staff involvement in the project. The wider policy context allowed for and supported teachers developing more effective pedagogy to impact student learning outcomes. We propose that an ecological orientation offers the eld a productive insight into the contextual dynamics of AfL as classroom practice that is connected to the wider community and that has long-term value for developing student independence and learning outcomes