Intercultural competence for future leaders of educational technology and its evaluation

Demands of globalization today continue to increase pressure for the education of global citizens who preserve the variety and vitality of life. Our transatlantic project has been developing a shared community of graduate students and faculty experts in educational technology across six universities. Evidence of the development of intercultural competence was analyzed from artifacts, self-report, interviews, and surveys. The findings showed that students gained intercultural competence in professional and personal spheres, with openness and flexibility that include acceptance, adaptability, and multiple perspectives. Applications of educational technology served as a bridge to introduce new cultures, knowledge and people to students.Demands of globalization today continue to increase pressure for the education of global citizens who preserve the variety and vitality of life. Our transatlantic project has been developing a shared community of graduate students and faculty experts in educational technology across six universities. Evidence of the development of intercultural competence was analyzed from artifacts, self-report, interviews, and surveys. The findings showed that students gained intercultural competence in professional and personal spheres, with openness and flexibility that include acceptance, adaptability, and multiple perspectives. Applications of educational technology served as a bridge to introduce new cultures, knowledge and people to students

Intercultural competence for future leaders of educational technology and its evaluation

Demands of globalization today continue to increase pressure for the education of global citizens who preserve the variety and vitality of life. Our transatlantic project has been developing a shared community of graduate students and faculty experts in educational technology across six universities. Evidence of the development of intercultural competence was analyzed from artifacts, self-report, interviews, and surveys. The findings showed that students gained intercultural competence in professional and personal spheres, with openness and flexibility that include acceptance, adaptability, and multiple perspectives. Applications of educational technology served as a bridge to introduce new cultures, knowledge and people to students.Demands of globalization today continue to increase pressure for the education of global citizens who preserve the variety and vitality of life. Our transatlantic project has been developing a shared community of graduate students and faculty experts in educational technology across six universities. Evidence of the development of intercultural competence was analyzed from artifacts, self-report, interviews, and surveys. The findings showed that students gained intercultural competence in professional and personal spheres, with openness and flexibility that include acceptance, adaptability, and multiple perspectives. Applications of educational technology served as a bridge to introduce new cultures, knowledge and people to students

Virtual Learning in New Zealand: Achieving Maturity

This proposal describes a study into the development of virtual learning in New Zealand, specifically the obstacles that e-learning clusters face or have faced in their journey to sustainability and maturity through the lens of the Learning Communities Online Handbook. Using a variety of data collection methods, the researchers identified three common barriers, including a lack of a coherent vision, difficulty in securing the necessary funding and resources, and a lack of collaboration and cooperation within and between clusters. Based on these findings, it is recommended that individual e-learning clusters develop specific strategies to encourage greater collaboration between clusters and work towards greater consistency between their activities, including professional and organizational development and also of the approaches to virtual learning

Primary and Secondary Virtual Learning in New Zealand: Examining Barriers to Achieving Maturity

This paper describes the organisational development of virtual learning in networked rural schools in New Zealand, specifically the obstacles that e-learning clusters of rural schools face in their journey to sustainability and maturity through the lens of the Ministry’s Learning Communities Online Handbook. Analysis of a nationwide purposeful sample identified three common barriers: a lack of a coherent vision; difficulty in sustaining necessary funding and resources; and of the need for more collaboration within and between clusters. Based on these findings, it is recommended that VLN e-learning clusters develop specific strategies to encourage greater collaboration between schools and work towards greater consistency between their activities, including professional and organisational development and also of the approaches to virtual learning

A case study of secondary pre-service teachers’ technological pedagogical and content knowledge mastery level

In recent years, researchers reported that effective ICT integration requires teachers to acquire knowledge of technology, content, pedagogy and the intersection of these, known as TPACK (Mishra & Koehler, 2006; Archambault, & Crippen, 2009).This study specifically sought to answer: 1) What are pre-service teachers’ perceptions of their TPACK mastery level before and after field experience; and, 2) Is there a significant difference of TPACK after field experience in schools? The TPACK survey instrument was adapted from Schmidt et al.(2009) and Archambault and Crippen (2009) and administered before and after their field experience to 107 pre-service teachers in a research intensive university programme in New Zealand.In addition, three student teachers were interviewed before and after field experience. These pre-service teachers scored highest in Content Knowledge (CK) and lowest in Technology Knowledge (TK) domains within TPACK at both before and after field experience. Paired-sample t-tests showed significant increases in most TPACK domains, namely, TK, PK, PCK, TCK and TPACK.Interviews and observations of three students clarified complex changes in knowledge of TPACK that linked to their experience in schools.The study continues to support the need for field experience while also adding caution to the interpretation of TPACK survey evidence given the strength of the student teachers’ perceived knowledge before field experience.Further research is underway with a comparative survey in a programme that prepares teachers for secondary schools in Malaysia

Researching possible futures to guide leaders towards more effective tertiary education

This research aimed to inform institutional leaders by producing and disseminating a system wide view of what tertiary education might look like in Aotearoa New Zealand, five years into the future. The researchers were responding to a challenge in a speech at the DEANZ 2010 conference by a highly respected national leader (Dr Peter Coolbear). The outcome became known as the DEANZ2016 scenario set. Using JISC scenario planning methodologies, including interviews of 16 national and international education leaders, the scenario set was developed on an X axis depicting the tension between facing the academy vs facing New Zealand employers, professions and iwi, and a Y axis depicting the tension between standardized education vs customization to personalise learning. Each of the four quadrants aimed to expose and contrast potential future scenarios. These were entitled: Articulation, The 'Supermarket', Quality Branded Consortia, and Self Determination. Innovatively disseminated via the web, the DEANZ2016 website became the most popular section of the larger Ako Aotearoa website, which stimulated further research into uptake and impact of the project

Researching possible futures to guide leaders towards more effective tertiary education

This research aimed to inform institutional leaders by producing and disseminating a system wide view of what tertiary education might look like in Aotearoa New Zealand, five years into the future. The researchers were responding to a challenge in a speech at the DEANZ 2010 conference by a highly respected national leader (Dr Peter Coolbear). The outcome became known as the DEANZ2016 scenario set. Using JISC scenario planning methodologies, including interviews of 16 national and international education leaders, the scenario set was developed on an X axis depicting the tension between facing the academy vs facing New Zealand employers, professions and iwi, and a Y axis depicting the tension between standardized education vs customization to personalise learning. Each of the four quadrants aimed to expose and contrast potential future scenarios. These were entitled: Articulation, The 'Supermarket', Quality Branded Consortia, and Self Determination. Innovatively disseminated via the web, the DEANZ2016 website became the most popular section of the larger Ako Aotearoa website, which stimulated further research into uptake and impact of the project

Editorial: Engaging in open, flexible, and distance learning with a new editorial team

This editorial provides insights into the processes of scholarly publishing, at a time of handover to a new editorial team, to publicise evidence of quality processes and leadership. Publishing trends are also briefly identified. The issue also publishes the first set of papers that have been further developed from the research stream of the 2014 biennial conference of The New Zealand Association for Open, Flexible and Distance Learning (DEANZ). We are happy to be able to include papers that represent the wide area of open, flexible, and distance learning supported by our Aotearoa New Zealand association. We start with a paper on using learning management systems to support personalised learning in primary schools, and this is followed by papers situated in the tertiary sector on software literacy in a university’s programmes, embedded librarians in the tertiary sector, and research into social work. The final paper provides a literature review on the highly topical subject of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). The editorial puts the papers into current contexts globally and within the region to inform the field worldwide

Open, Flexible and Distance Learning in a Post-Truth World

The times they are a-changin’. It’s a prophetic song, and one that’s been around long enough to attest to times that are always changing, as very little stands still for long. In this Editorial there are many changes noted, including changes in the editorial team, changes in the profile of this Journal, and a look at changes in the way open, flexible and distance learning is both given and received in the post-truth world. Increased skills in information literacy and digital literacy have become fundamental in this new landscape, enabling able learners to navigate their way in this ‘new’ world with an open mind and a critical eye. There will be changes for educators as well, as we try to manage teaching and learning in this new educational setting

Supporting adults to address their literacy needs using e-learning

Many adults need help with literacy learning. This is extremely challenging for the tertiary education sector and workplace-situated learning organisations. E-learning may be an effective and efficient way to improve the delivery of teaching basic skills learners. Our research study included five embedded case studies within one tertiary institution, and a series of stakeholder interviews with representatives across New Zealand. The study found that e-learning opens up greater interaction between adults’ study, work, home, and community environments, simply because the learning environment can be extended into those places