Beyond “appropriate” technology. Mobilizing education for development

Having established that technology mediated instruction of some kind\ud has potential and a valuable role to play in education for on the move and remote\ud area learners the paper looks at practice as documented and suggests that social\ud and cultural barriers are a greater challenge than technological ones. It concludes\ud by suggesting that successful implementation may depend both on use of familiar\ud technology i.e. phones rather than internet, and establishing for users a social and\ud cultural validity for using that technology for the delivery of education

Culture in the online class

This study investigates the construction of culture in a remote-accessed virtual class with learners who have been recruited globally. Having reviewed the literature of the field it concludes that using a framework of ideas which equates culture with nationality is problematic, as it tends to emphasise dissonance and difference in classes which are nonetheless functional. Instead the study proposes that culture should be regarded as a process of ongoing negotiation between the different elements involved in the learning context. In the online class this involves not only students, tutors and course materials but also the technology being used. In negotiation, human elements draw on understandings they have previously developed through prior experience of other cultural contexts (including nationality), whilst the understandings of designers and developers are reflected in the structure and functionality of the technology and the course materials provided for the class.Using a methodological framework based on grounded theory a picture of the practice of negotiation of culture in an online class is developed. Posting messages to class discussion forums is found to be the primary means of negotiation of culture. Examples of discussions, and learners' subsequent reflections on them in interviews, demonstrate how issues are presented, and how and what authorities are drawn on to validate or dispute the positions presented. Core themes of technology, time, authority and control are identified as arising across different instances of negotiation. These are seen to introduce contradictions and uncertainties into the negotiation process, and thus potentially impede its effectiveness.Overall, the study argues that the construction of culture in the online class is neither the product of essential attributes of the learners, nor a fixed linear process but, rather, an iterative process of multiple incidents of negotiation. Lessons learned over time provide material for future negotiation but cannot in themselves act as predictive tools. Some suggestions are made for the direction of future research aimed at giving participants more control over this process. Finally, suggestions are offered as to how this view of culture as negotiation can assist the facilitation of interaction and learning in the online clas

Teaching towards social and ecological justice online: Introduction to Global Citizenship at UBC

How can we help university students make connections between ‘academic knowledge’, and their roles as members of local and global communities? How do we create a forum for students to engage in issues of social and ecological justice through critical thought, moral commitment and meaningful engagement in their learning and coming to know as global citizens? We are an interdisciplinary group of researchers and instructors who have collaboratively developed, and are now co-teaching an international, interactive, fully online university course: Introduction to Global Citizenship, available to students at five universities around the world. Our course combines academic rigour with personal reflection and group discussion. It provides students with a broad understanding of barriers and bridges to global citizenship, brings greater awareness of key global issues, and encourages individual and collective action and accountability on issues of sustainability and social justice. Pilot delivery of our course in 2005-2006 suggests that it offers students an extremely challenging, thought-provoking, international educational experience, as we learn about and discuss global issues together. In this working session, we hope describe our experiences with this course project, and to facilitate a productive dialogue with colleagues around teaching strategies for transformative learning in higher education. What ‘kinds’ of transformative learning are we seeking and how can we recognize it? Which instructional strategies facilitate deeper critical analysis and personal reflection? What roles might technology and interdisciplinarity play in this undertaking? Which investigative approaches might help us move our institutions beyond lipservice to global education

Exploring the potential of online communities for distance tutors

As the name implies, distance tutors commonly work away from campus and rarely have an opportunity for ongoing support and informal development such as that enjoyed by campus based staff. In this context we believe there is much potential in making provision for the development of online communities. This Chapter describes four case studies of the establishment and evaluation of online communities of practice at the Open University (UK). Communities of practice are in use both as a central part of course related professional development, and also for wider pedagogical issues. Platforms in use include online conferences which support online discussion, and new wiki environments which also offer the potential for extending the use of communities of practice to the development and sharing of resources. We describe the variety of ways in which communities of practice are in use, the major factors which contribute to their success, and the social and institutional challenges to sharing and developing resources within a community

Learning cultures in online education

This paper introduces the theme of culture in online learning and reviews some of the research in this field to date. It identifies and critiques a tendency to view culture solely as an attribute of individuals inherited from national characteristics, and the problem for online learning solely as one of appropriate design for cultural difference. A forthcoming collection of research is described, which problematises the essentialist view of culture and explores issues around the negotiation of 'learning cultures' specific to online environments. Two directions for future research are proposed: one involves the switching of attention away from the generalised characteristics of local consumers of global online learning products, and on to their possibilities for re-purposing these products; the other involves the investigation of learners' uses of the social web and the attitudes to learning that this is becoming associated with

Teaching towards social and ecological justice online: Introduction to Global Citizenship at UBC

How can we help university students make connections between ‘academic knowledge’, and their roles as members of local and global communities? How do we create a forum for students to engage in issues of social and ecological justice through critical thought, moral commitment and meaningful engagement in their learning and coming to know as global citizens? We are an interdisciplinary group of researchers and instructors who have collaboratively developed, and are now co-teaching an international, interactive, fully online university course: Introduction to Global Citizenship, available to students at five universities around the world. Our course combines academic rigour with personal reflection and group discussion. It provides students with a broad understanding of barriers and bridges to global citizenship, brings greater awareness of key global issues, and encourages individual and collective action and accountability on issues of sustainability and social justice. Pilot delivery of our course in 2005-2006 suggests that it offers students an extremely challenging, thought-provoking, international educational experience, as we learn about and discuss global issues together. In this working session, we hope describe our experiences with this course project, and to facilitate a productive dialogue with colleagues around teaching strategies for transformative learning in higher education. What ‘kinds’ of transformative learning are we seeking and how can we recognize it? Which instructional strategies facilitate deeper critical analysis and personal reflection? What roles might technology and interdisciplinarity play in this undertaking? Which investigative approaches might help us move our institutions beyond lipservice to global education?Arts, Faculty ofScience, Faculty ofUnreviewedFacult