Edusource: Canada's Learning Object Repository Network

An alliance of Canadian Universities and government agencies pooled their resources to establish a network to share and combine Learning Objects from a variety of sources and further develop this technology. In the process, they resolved many learning, logistical, and legal problems and moved this technology forward by an order of magnitude. Principal goals include: nationwide interoperability, network of repositories, linked servers, repository software programs, national and international standards, digital rights management, business and management models, evaluation and feedback, dissemination of results, and bilingual access to all Canadians, particularly learners with disabilities. The defined tasks were sub-divided into nine work packages, each with a lead institution as package manager

Teaching Teachers for the Future (TTF): Building the ICT in education capacity of the next generation of teachers in Australia

The Teaching Teachers for the Future (TTF) project is a unique nationally significant project funded by the Australian Government through the Department of Employment, Education and Workplace Relations (DEEWR, Au$8.8 million) and the Information and Communication Technology Innovation Fund (ICTIF). This 2011-2012 project has ambitiously attempted to build the ICT education (ICTE) capacity of the next generation of Australian teachers through its focus on pre-service teachers, teacher educators and the new Australian Curriculum. This paper will provide an overview of the project including a description of its genesis in a changing educational and political landscape, its structure and operations, its grounding in contemporary theory, the research opportunities it has engendered and its tangible outcomes

Using computers at home and at school : children's views and perspectives

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Playing and learning with digital technologies : at home and at school

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Children's use of computers in their homes

This project explores the interactions of young children with computers in their homes. It focuses on: resources available and what affordances these enable; socio-cultural contexts, discourses and family practices; nature of the use and affordances children perceive; and how school experiences differ from those at home and the impact of teachers' discourses about computing. Findings were: common activities comprised game playing, editing and decorating texts and using information texts; gender and socio-economic differences interacted with varying rules, resources, discourses, affordances, and family use and expertise; parental discourses and resources combined to generate key affordances of the computer as toy and tool; parental discourses revealed different conceptions of childhood and computers; children’s patterns of learning and use are relatively consistent across age, gender and family background – they learn by exploring and the dominant affordance is the computer as playable; teachers’ discourses and conceptions lead to the marginalisation of computer use within the curriculum; at school, children have less access, control and time to use computers in ways that allow them to draw on the expertise and approaches they have developed at home. Theories are developed to show how children come to perceive the computer as playable, and how parents’ and teachers’ discourses position computing as marginal to the curriculum. The other issues relate to conceptions of learning, types of learning that computers afford, and the possibility that children’s approaches to learning are changing as a result of their interactions with computer

Perceptions of how ICT has the potential to influence children beyond the curriculum : home/school/community links

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Blending play, practice and performance: children’s use of the computer at home

In this paper I report selected results of a multi-method, multi-staged study of children’s use of computers in their homes and examine the implications of such use for educators. The study took place between 1995 and 1998, drawing evidence from 500 children with diverse socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds from urban Sydney who regularly used a computer at home. My aim with this study is to develop knowledge and understanding about the reciprocal relationship that develops between the child and the computer within the sociocultural context of the home. I explore social discourses surrounding children’s use of home computers in ways that elucidate the relationship between discourse and affordances, and highlight the children’s conception of the computer as a playable tool. In my discussion I consider the co-agency of the relationship between the child and the computer that leads to learning through a blending of play, practice and performance. This approach to learning is contrasted to the approaches imposed within schools when children are engaged in learning, either with or without the use of computer-related technology. The significance of these findings goes beyond challenging the way we integrate computers into schooling; it challenges the assumptions that underpin current teaching and learning practices in our schools

New learning environments and the multiliterate individual : a framework for educators

Being literate in today's society and in the future is more than just being able to read and write the written word. With advances in technology and the inclusion of technology in educational settings students are reading and viewing an increasingly complex and diverse range of multimodal texts. Literacy and learning in these new environments requires students to be multiliterate. This paper presents a curriculum framework for new learning environments to assist teachers to develop pedagogical practices for the multiliterate student, the case for the use of metalanguages in the implementation of this framework, and an example of the use of the curriculum framework with a Year 6 class

Positioning ICT in teachers' career path: ICT competency as an integral part of teacher standards (Australia) [pp.21-43 in Diverse approaches to developing and implementing competency-based ICT training for teachers: A case study, Volume 1]

Twenty-first century teachers need the technical, pedagogical and content skills to use information and communication technologies (ICT) to create meaningful learning experiences for their students. In Australia, Standards have been developed and operationalised at the national level and steps have been taken to ensure that both beginning and practising teachers demonstrate appropriate ICT competencies. Firstly, the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (AITSL, 2011a, 2011b) describes what a teacher should know and do at four career stages: Graduate, Proficient, Highly Accomplished, and Lead. One such Standard is simply entitled ‘Information and Communication Technology’, and requires individual teachers to demonstrate increasing capacity and leadership in ICT pedagogy. Second, teacher education institutions must show national accreditation panels, through the Initial Teacher Accreditation Programme Standards (AITSL, 2012a), how preservice teachers have opportunities to gain and demonstrate the relevant Australian Professional Standards for Teachers at Graduate Level; and, also, how institutions themselves are using ICT in their own teaching and in the resources they make available to their students. This case study will detail the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers and Initial Teacher Education Programme Accreditation Standards relating to ICT pedagogy. This study will build on the ambitious large scale 2011-2012 ‘Teaching Teachers to the Future’ (TTF) project (ACDE, 2012) that involved all major teacher education providers in Australia and provided an important step in building the capacity necessary for effective ICT pedagogy. Both national Standards and the TTF project have helped to ensure that Standards are enacted in the daily practice of classrooms across the nation