Matter, Literacy, and English Language Teaching in an Underprivileged School in Spain

This article analyzes the processes and findings of a collaborative action research (CAR) project that aimed to analyze the potential of materiality to radically transform the way English was taught and learned in an underprivileged public school in Spain. The CAR drew on new materialisms and new literacy studies to explore the relationship between matter and English language teaching from socioeconomic, sociocultural, and technological perspectives. The main pedagogical strategy consisted of widening the quantity and quality of the material resources in the English classroom, precisely to draw a material link between the English classroom and the students' homes, communities, and the informal literacies they enacted in them. Through two cycles of inquiry, the CAR team put into practice two multimodal and artifactual workshops with a group of nine children from underprivileged, minority backgrounds. A variety of qualitative strategies were used (including classroom recordings, student interviews, and photographs) to confirm that the insights from new materialisms and new literacy studies had generated opportunities for meaningful English learning within a culturally sustaining pedagogy

Treading softly in the enchanted forest: exploring the integration of iPads in a participatory theatre education programme

While it is commonplace to argue that technology integration in educational contexts should be pedagogically appropriate, in some contexts, the notion of “appropriate” integration can be slippery. This is the case in the context of educational theatre, which builds on the experience of “liveness” and of being together in a shared space. In this article we report on a collaborative qualitative study of one iteration of a participatory theatre programme delivered to 7–9 year olds at a primary school in England, through which artist/practitioners worked with researchers to investigate the integration of iPads in ways that were appropriate to the programme’s underpinning pedagogy. Drawing on a sociomaterial analysis of what happened moment to moment in practice, we describe three aspects of the experience that appeared to amplify, shift and/or dissipate as iPads came into play, particularly with respect to the iPad’s video function: narrative complexity; multiplicity; and togetherness. Considering these in relation to the programme’s established principles and practices, we argue that part of “appropriateness” in this context involves responding to the unexpected pedagogical possibilities that open out as digital technologies combine with other people and things

Young Children’s Use of Personalized Technologies: Insights From Teachers and Digital Software Designers in Japan

Many smart technologies offer personalized experiences, such as the possibility for children to record their voice, add their own pictures or drawings to digital stories, customize their avatars or adjust display settings to their needs. This study examined the views of teachers and digital software designers on children’s use of smart personalized technologies in Japan. Sixteen teachers and two designers from Japan took part in semi-structured interviews on the school or company premises in Tokyo and Osaka. Thematic analysis of the transcripts yielded three themes: agency, privacy and autonomy, which we consider through the lens of socio-materiality. While there were clear concerns about the protection of children’s privacy with personalized technologies, children’s agency and autonomy in using them was perceived both as a benefit and limitation of digital personalization features. The participants’ paradoxical perceptions of the risks and benefits of personalization point to a complex socio-technological model of personalization that is embedded in children’s smart technologies and influences adults’ views on their use in early education. Our findings have implications for informing and theorising the design of personalization features in digital technologies

Social living labs for informed learning: An innovative approach to information literacy for the changing workplace

With digital technologies changing the nature of work, and workplaces becoming increasingly mobile, there is a need for innovative approaches to information literacy development that extend across the community. Continuous learning, beyond formal education, is essential to individual productivity and social wellbeing. In particular, to flourish in a contemporary transient workforce, people need a range of digital capabilities for working across complex information environments. These capabilities include critical, creative and collaborative use of information that can be flexibly applied to differing contexts. This paper proposes a social living labs model for workplace and community information literacy development that builds upon findings of a major Australian research study, and the principles of informed learning (Bruce & Hughes, 2010). As this paper explains, social living labs (Ballon & Schuurman, 2015; Schumacher, 2015) are innovative sites of learning and creativity where community members of varied backgrounds work on interest-driven projects. Informed learning (Bruce & Hughes, 2010; Bruce, Hughes & Somerville, 2013) translates information and digital literacy goals into a contemporary approach that enables ‘using information to learn’ in higher education, workplaces and the community. In this conceptual context, information is understood to be “anything that informs” in a particular context, including personal and professional experience, facts, research findings, statistical models, architectural designs and sensory stimuli. The model proposed in this paper is based on research that focused on the digital participation and learning of residents in two Queensland regional centres, Townsville and Toowoomba. Reflecting the important role of public libraries in information literacy development, partners in this QUT-led project included Queensland State Library, Toowoomba Regional Council Library Services and Townsville CityLibraries. Using a variety of qualitative methods, including interviews and focus groups, researchers worked with about 20 different community groups (approx 150 participants in total) to investigate the potential of social living labs to foster community digital participation. The findings, which arise from thematic data analysis, provide real life insights about participants’ experience of social living lab initiatives and their resultant digital learning. The research findings and proposed model represent an innovative contribution to information literacy theory and practice. They are of potential interest to workplace and community educators, librarians and researchers

Digital Participation through Social Living Labs: Valuing Local Knowledge, Enhancing Engagement

<i>Digital Participation through Social Living Labs: Valuing Local Knowledge, Enhancing Engagement</i> connects two largely separate debates: On one hand, broadband internet access is often heralded as a panacea to bring about not only connectivity, but also innovation, economic development, new jobs and regional prosperity. On the other hand, community development research has established that access by itself is necessary, but not sufficient to resolve digital divides and foster digital inclusion.\ud \ud Edited by thought leaders from the fields of education, youth studies, librarianship, communication technology, and digital media studies, this book is positioned as a link to connect these debates. It brings together an international collection of empirically grounded case studies that identify the specific digital needs, issues and practices of different types of communities as they seek to take advantage of high speed internet access.\ud \ud The book brings together researchers and practitioners from diverse backgrounds to engage in broad ranging conversations to advance knowledge that aims to foster digital inclusion and participation

Nerve conduction velocity distribution in normal subjects and in diabetic patients without clinical signs of neuropathy. II : Sensory nerve

A new computer-assisted method to evaluate sensory conduction velocity distribution and dispersion of the digital nerve of the middle finger in normal subjects and in type I and type II diabetic subjects without any neurological impairment is reported. Distribution curves were exponentially shaped in normal and in diabetic subjects. In insulin-dependent diabetics, only slower conduction velocity fibers were involved, whereas no significant difference was observed between the non-insulin-dependent diabetic group and the control group

Nerve conduction velocity distribution in normal subjects and in diabetic patients without clinical signs of neuropathy. I : Motor nerve

A computer-assisted collision method to evaluate motor conduction velocity distribution of the ulnar and external peroneal nerves in normal subjects and in insulin-dependent and non-insulin-dependent diabetics without clinical signs of neuropathy is described. Distribution curves were sigmoidally (bimodally) shaped in normal and in insulin- and non-insulin-dependent subjects. In insulin-dependent patients, motor conduction velocity of the peroneal nerves was globally impaired, whereas of the ulnar nerves it was normal. In non-insulin-dependent patients, slower conduction velocity was involved in both nerves

Developing media production skills for literacy in a primary school classroom: Digital materials, embodied knowledge and material contexts

This chapter investigates the relationship between technical and operational skills and the development of conceptual knowledge and literacy in Media Arts learning. It argues that there is a relationship between the stories, expressions and ideas that students aim to produce with communications media, and their ability to realise these in material form through technical processes in specific material contexts. Our claim is that there is a relationship between the technical and the operational, along with material relations and the development of conceptual knowledge and literacy in media arts learning. We place more emphasis on the material aspects of literacy than is usually the case in socio-cultural accounts of media literacy. We provide examples from a current project to demonstrate that it is just as important to address the material as it is the discursive and conceptual when considering how students develop media literacy in classroom spaces

Editorial: Perspectives on creative pedagogy: exploring challenges, possibilities and potential

Internationally, the first decade of the 21st century was characterised by growth in creativity research and creative classroom practice (e.g. Einarsdottir, 2003; Cremin, Burnard and Craft, 2006; Beghetto and Kaufman 2007; Sawyer, 2010). In England, the Creative Partnerships initiative increased the attention paid by researchers, policy makers and practitioners to creativity in schooling, and an interest in creative learning at the primary phase developed (e.g. QCA, 2005; Galton, 2008; Bragg, Manchester and Faulkner, 2009; Thomson and Hall, 2007; Craft and Chappell, 2009). Whilst recognition of the role and nature of creativity and interest in creative pedagogical practice has grown, tensions persist at several levels, particularly in accountability cultures, where international comparisons such as PISA and PIRLS frame and shape policy, practice and curricula. This Special Issue, planned with Anna Craft before her untimely death, responds to this context and draws together the work of a number of eminent scholars of creativity and creative pedagogies. It offers diverse perspectives from Colombia, Denmark, England, France, Poland, Hong Kong, and the USA and highlights differences as well as similarities across cultural contexts. Individually and collectively, the authors, framed by their own stances on creativity, reveal both the complexities and the possibilities of creative pedagogies. While some focus more upon conceptual challenges, others examine classroom practice, both teachers and visiting artists, and identify difficulties as well as potential. Most pay attention to both teacher and learner orientations, exemplified by Dezuanni and Jetnikoff‘s (2011:265) assertion that creative pedagogies involve ‘imaginative and innovative arrangement of curricula and teaching strategies in school classrooms’ to develop the creativity of the young