(2009). Disrupting Class How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns. Journal of Information Privacy and Security: Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 70-71.

Disrupting Class How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns

Models of distance education have evolved over decades, just in time to collide with modern pedagogies in which communication, interaction, student engagement, and active learning are of critical importance. The number of college students taking online classes continues to grow. Today, nearly 30% of college students are taking at least one online class. The social media technologies encompass a wide variety of Web-based technologies such as blogs, wikis, online social networking, and virtual worlds. This paper examines the relevant published literature, looking at online learning activities through the prism of the defining characteristics of today’s new communication technologies.

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Using Social Media Technologies to Enhance Online Learning.

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Exploring the Use and the Impacts of Social Media on Teaching and Learning Science in Saudi

Introduction Recent studies indicate that the implementation of innovative technologies in schools demand a systemic change in the school-culture (H. Becker, 2001; Eshet, 2007; Coffman, 2009; Cuban, 1988; Kent & MacNergney, 1999; Wallace, 2004) and involves a wide range of pedagogical, technological, and managerial factors, whose inter-relationships are not fully understood (Cunningham, 2009; Darling-Hammond, 2000; Day & Smethem, 2009; Fullan & Smith, 1999; Halverson & Smith, 2009). Most studies of technology-implementation in school systems report on disappointment from the projects' outcomes (Avidov-Ungar, 2010; Day & Smethem, 2009; De Val & Fuentes, 2003; Halverson & Smith, 2009; Mioduser, Nachmias, Forkosh, & Tubin, 2004) and emphasize the pivotal role of the teachers' pedagogical perspectives and beliefs in its success (De Freitas & Oliver, 2005; Selwyn, 2010). This claim was illustrated in the meta-analysis of thousands of technology-integration projects (Hattie, 2009), which found that the best predictors of students' achievements are related to teachers' activities and not to the technology itself. This emphasizes the importance of studying the teachers' perspectives and beliefs in the context of a technology-implementation project and the interrelationships between teacher-related variables that affect the project's success (Levin & Fullan, 2008). Studies of the factors that affect the success of implementing change in school in general and innovative technologies in particular (Fullan, 2000; Kontoghiorghes, Awbre, & Feurig, 2005; Sandy, 2010) indicate that the three major success factors are: (1) the teachers' attitudes towards change, (2) the teachers' contextual pedagogic and technological knowledge, and (3) the teachers' perception of school as a learning organization. This study explores the correlation between these three factors, in the context of a systemic change, related to the implementation of innovative "smart classes" in school. Below is a brief description of each of the three factors. 1. Teachers' Attitudes towards Change The teachers' attitudes towards change and their readiness to become active partners is considered a critical success factor (Avidov-Ungar, 2010; Coffman, 2009; Day & Gu, 2007; Fullan & Smith, 1999). Similarly, resistance to change is considered one of the main reasons for failure of processes that involve change in organizations in general and in the educational systems in particular (Fullan & Hargreaves, 1996; Zimmerman, 2006). In the case of innovative technology implementation in schools, teachers' resistance is reported by some studies to be the most important factor in the project's success (Del Val & Fuentes, 2003), mainly because the technology doesn't fit to their pedagogical practices and beliefs (Halverson & Smith, 2009; Harris & Hofer 2009). According to Del Val and Fuentes (2003), resistance to change is divided into cognitive resistance (focused on identifying and presenting weaknesses of the change and enlisting claims and reasons for maintaining the existing situation) and emotional resistance (focused on expressing negative feelings towards the change, such as anger, disdain, hostility or sadness). Emotional resistance is also accompanied by psychological symptoms such as tension, impatience, pessimism, apathy and disinterest. In many cases, resistance to change becomes active resistance, in which participants actively sabotage the process of change (Zimmerman, 2006). 2. Teachers' Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) Teaching in a technological environment faces teachers with a wide range of pedagogical, cognitive and ergonomic challenges (Eshet, 2004; 2007; Koehler & Mishra, 2009, 2008; Mishra & Koehler, 2006). Unfortunately, most teachers are not trained to teach in technological environments (Day & Smethem, 2009), and many of them report on difficulties in effective integration of technologies in their teaching (De Freitas & Oliver, 2005). …

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[Chais] Teachers in a World of Change: Teachers' Knowledge and Attitudes towards the Implementation of Innovative Technologies in Schools

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The Wiley Blackwell Handbook of the Psychology of Training, Development, and Performance Improvement: Kraiger/The Wiley Blackwell Handbook of the Psychology of Training, Development, and Performance Improvement

Information technologies have reshaped teaching and learning in schools, but often not in ways anticipated by technology proponents. This paper proposes a contrast between technologies for learning and technologies for learners to explain how technologies influence teaching and learning in and out of schools. Schools have made significant use of assessment and instructional technologies that help promote learning for all students, whereas technologies for learners, such as mobile devices, video games, and social networking sites, are typically excluded from school contexts. The paper considers how these contrasting models of technology use will come to shape schools and learning in a pluralistic society. (Keywords: school reform, digital media, accountability policies, virtual charter schools, assessment)

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Annette Smith

Papers

How New Technologies Have (and Have Not) Changed Teaching and Learning in Schools