Social technologies for online learning: theoretical and contextual issues

Three exemplars are presented of social technologies deployed in educational contexts: wikis; a photo-sharing environment; and a social bookmarking tool. Students were found to engage with the technologies selectively, sometimes rejecting them, in the light of their prior conceptions of education. Some students (a minority in all the studies) were unsympathetic to the educational philosophy underpinning the technology’s adoption. The paper demonstrates, through an examination of in-context use, the importance of socio-cultural factors in relation to education, and the non-deterministic nature of educational technology. The academic study of technology has increasingly called into question the deterministic views which are so pervasive in popular discourse and among policy makers. Instead, socio-cultural factors play a crucial role in shaping and defining technology and educational technology is no exception, as the examples in the paper show. The paper concludes by drawing out some implications of the examples for the use of social technologies in education

Authentic education: lessons from an online Finnish teacher development Program for 21st century faculty

The Finnish education system has received a lot of media attention due the results of PISA examinations. Many countries have considered ways to implement the \u27Finnish model\u27 into their own context. This paper examines the experience gained from the first graduating cohort of a fully online Finnish teacher development program in a Middle Eastern country with diverse, multicultural faculty participants. It examines the challenges of implementation and reflects upon the successes and participant experience. The paper describes how the principles of authentic e-learning (Herrington, Reeves and Oliver, 2010) were used to design the program and whether it was possible to harness these to enable real change to take place in professional practice. The program made use of both formal tools and social media to engage and support staff as they implemented new ideas and methods into their classroom practice and reflected on their professional identities

"Now we’re COOC’ing”: The Design and Implementation of a Collaborative Open Online Course (COOC) in Educational Leadership

This paper examines the design and implementation of a collaborative open online course in educational leadership. The paper sets out the context and need for such a course and the stated objectives and how these were then incorporated into the design. It examines the various choices that were available during the design process with regard to pedagogy and platforms and the reasons for the decisions that were made. The paper then considers the application period, the demographics of applicants and issues that emerged from the application process. The paper concludes with a consideration of how successful this open online course was at meeting the objectives of the university and students, the lessons that have been learned and identifies areas that are worthy of further investigation

Teacher Lived Experiences of Learning Analytics Use and Implementation

Digital education technology takes on many forms within schools and its use is growing alongside increasingly globalised and competitive contexts for educational institutions, supported by trends promoted by globally recognised policy influencing organisations. Learning Analytics software collects and processes vast amounts of data about young people to track learning and growth so that teachers may design personalised learning pathways. Critical academic voices are communicating concerns about the contribution the use of Learning Analytics makes to student surveillance, datafication of education, and the erosion of teachers’ abilities to make choices based on their own professional knowledge. Critical applied research was conducted to explore the lived experiences of teachers at a private international secondary school in Bogotá, Colombia, and a narrative about shared perceptions of the implementation of Learning Analytics was developed. This paper summarises the study and the conceptual themes uncovered from semi-structured interviews with seven teachers interacting with Learning Analytics. The research revealed that there was a significant lack of confidence in the way Learning Analytics were implemented at the school, primarily resulting from an absence of clear objectives, unsuitable training, and minimal onboarding for new teaching staff

Post-Covid-19 Education and Education Technology ‘Solutionism’: a Seller’s Market

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