Showing papers in "Learning, Media and Technology in 2012"
TL;DR: In this article, it is argued that relational networks create a sense of belonging and that online networks just as easily trace the contours of existing social divisions as they transcend or transform them.
Abstract: Despite the widespread popularity of social networking sites (SNSs) amongst children and young people in compulsory education, relatively little scholarly work has explored the fundamental issues at stake. This paper makes an original contribution to the field by locating the study of this online activity within the broader terrain of social network theory in order to inform future educational debate and further research. The first section offers a way of classifying different kinds of online social networking and then places this within the context of the study of social networks. It is argued that relational networks create a sense of belonging and that online networks just as easily trace the contours of existing social divisions as they transcend or transform them. This analysis informs the second section which specifically addresses educational issues, including both the attractions and the limitations of such work. The paper concludes with an exploration of three possible approaches to using in SNSs...
133 citations
TL;DR: The results of this study suggest that cognitive load plays an important role in determining how much information is retained when students perform more than one task at a time.
Abstract: While multitasking is not a new concept, it has received increasing attention in recent years with the development of new media and technologies. Recent trends appear to suggest that multitasking is on the rise among the younger generation. The purpose of the study is to determine if students obtain more or less information in multitasking conditions. We examined the relationships of multitasking to attention, cognitive load and media with 130 college student participants. In this study, participants were given a timed (16 minutes) reading comprehension test in three conditions: Silence (only reading), Background multitasking (reading with a non-tested video shown simultaneously), and Test multitasking (reading with a tested video shown simultaneously) conditions. Our findings indicated that: (1) participants in the Background condition performed as well as those in the Silence condition, and (2) when participants were tested on their video comprehension, the group in the Test condition performed signific...
110 citations
TL;DR: Despite the everincreasing use of digital technologies in contemporary society, education researchers have yet to fully get to grips with the digital age as mentioned in this paper, while the topic attracts large amounts of attention.
Abstract: Despite the ever-increasing use of digital technologies in contemporary society, education researchers have yet to fully get to grips with the ‘digital age’. While the topic attracts large amounts ...
96 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the effects of three multimedia design principles on undergraduate students' learning outcomes and perceived learning difficulty in the context of learning entomology from an educational video, including segmenting the video into smaller units, signalling to direct students' attention to relevant information, and weeding to remove any non-essential content.
Abstract: Informed by the cognitive theory of multimedia learning, this study examined the effects of three multimedia design principles on undergraduate students' learning outcomes and perceived learning difficulty in the context of learning entomology from an educational video. These principles included segmenting the video into smaller units, signalling to direct students' attention to relevant information, and weeding to remove any non-essential content (SSW). It was hypothesized that the SSW treatment would decrease perceived learning difficulty and facilitate the transfer of knowledge and the structural knowledge acquisition. Results of the study demonstrate that participants in the SSW group outperformed the non-SSW group on the tests of knowledge transfer and structural knowledge acquisition and reported lower levels of learning difficulty. These findings support the use of SSW to help novice learners organize and integrate knowledge from complex, dynamic audio-visual media like video.
91 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors report on qualitative research that sought to investigate SSA's readiness to adopt Open Educational Resource (OER) and find that low technological levels in Africa do not necessarily impede the adoption of such educational technologies; the real challenges facing the readiness to use OERs appear to be related to socioeconomic, cultural, institutional and national issues.
Abstract: In the past few years, Africa has joined the rest of the world as an active participant in the Open Educational Resource (OER) movement with a number of home-grown and externally driven initiatives. These have the potential to make an immense contribution to teaching and learning in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, certain barriers prevent full participation. This paper reports on qualitative research that sought to investigate SSA's readiness to adopt OERs. This study involves three case studies based in higher education institutions involved in OER projects and located in Kenya, Uganda and South Africa. Contrary to the popular belief, findings indicate that low technological levels in Africa do not necessarily impede the adoption of such educational technologies; the real challenges facing the readiness to adopt OERs appear to be related to socio-economic, cultural, institutional and national issues. This paper argues for a complete mind shift in how people perceive OERs. It also proposes raising awar...
55 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, an online community was designed at a secondary school in China for the teachers to prepare their lessons collectively, reflect on their teaching practices, collect comments from peers, and share resources.
Abstract: In this case study, an online community was designed at a secondary school in China for the teachers to prepare their lessons collectively, reflect on their teaching practices, collect comments from peers, and share resources. A survey was administered to the teachers to investigate their perceptions on the online community for their professional development. Two hundred and eighty-three teachers responded to the survey and eight teachers were further interviewed by email. The result showed that most teachers liked using the online community as they could gain subject knowledge and could obtain support from peers, share experiences and get feedback, and exchange resources. Also, online entries confirmed that transformational changes in teaching pedagogy and students’ learning activities occurred along the time. However, certain teachers did not participate in the online community frequently. This paper describes the context of the case study, design dimensions of the online community, teachers’ positive p...
41 citations
TL;DR: This article identifies how clicker use can support or augment existing principles of good teaching across different disciplines in higher education and offers empirical data from five courses in three disciplines to show how SRSs can be used to support contemporary pedagogical goals.
Abstract: This article identifies how clicker use can support or augment existing principles of good teaching across different disciplines in higher education. While many of these principles will be familiar to instructors, the link between student response system (SRS) use and existing pedagogical methods is still often unclear, even for scholars who are well read in the literature. Functioning as a resource for both novices and instructors who have already incorporated clickers into their courses, this article synthesizes existing literature and offers empirical data from five courses in three disciplines to show how SRSs can be used to support contemporary pedagogical goals. The authors discuss five exemplary practices, providing sample clicker questions along the way, to show how clickers can be used to facilitate active learning in large courses.
41 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe how the reactive formation of a student-led Facebook community became a source of conflict within the wider academic social community and how this conflict was eventually resolved.
Abstract: The use of social networking services has rapidly increased in recent years, especially by university students. Some authors assert that they have educational potential in terms of promoting collaborative learning practices among undergraduate students which enhance engagement and understanding. This possibility is particularly relevant to mathematics learning, because university communities are frequently experienced as isolating and performance-oriented. This case study reports on the use of Facebook to support mathematical communication and more participative learning identities within a UK university mathematics department. It describes how the reactive formation of a student-led Facebook community became a source of conflict within the wider academic social community and how this conflict was eventually resolved. While it raises questions about the extent to which Facebook can encourage open collaborative learning within the wider context of student aspirations in a competitive climate, it notes its ...
38 citations
TL;DR: Newmann et al. as discussed by the authors conducted a case study of teachers and students in two ninth-grade US history classes and found that students in these classes were engaged with the medium of film in developing conceptual knowledge.
Abstract: This collective case study of teachers and students in two ninth-grade US history classes examines the role that films can play as a ‘thoughtful’ medium for teaching history. Specifically, the study focuses on the nature and range of authentic intellectual work that students are engaged in with film in the classroom (Newmann, F., B. King, and D. Carmichael. 2007. Authentic instruction and assessment: Common standards for rigor and relevance in teaching academic subjects. Des Moines, IA: Iowa Department of Education. http://centerforaiw.com/resources/center-aiw-materials). The findings contribute to the literature by challenging and extending current notions of pedagogy with a film, in particular, Hobbs' (2006. Non-optimal uses of video in the classroom. Learning, Media and Technology 31: 35–50) findings of ‘non-optimal’ use of video. In addition to using a film as simply a historical ‘text’ or visual textbook, students in these classes are engaged with the medium of film in developing conceptual knowledge...
34 citations
TL;DR: This article examined computer use among third grade students, including in relation to an array of ICT resources and other key factors, and found that such use was more sophisticated among students in affluent suburban schools when compared to students in all other locations including various rural and urban locations.
Abstract: Computers are now a ubiquitous part of US elementary school education. With policy reports suggesting that inequities in information and communication technology (ICT) access across US schools are a thing of the past, investigating how such resources and their use may nonetheless continue to vary becomes all that much more important. Through a survey of a statistically representative sample of teachers in Ohio, this research examined computer use among third grade students, including in relation to an array of ICT resources and other key factors. The results indicated that such use was more sophisticated among students in affluent suburban schools when compared to students in all other locations, including various rural and urban locations. These differences were correlated with numerous ICT resource discrepancies. Overall, the discrepancies in ICT use and resources can be understood as not only symptomatic of persistent, broader social inequalities, but also factors that reinforce such inequalities as well.
31 citations
TL;DR: This article investigated gender differences in science learning between two pedagogical approaches: traditional lecture and narrative case studies using personal response systems (clickers) and found that women either performed better with clicker cases or about the same with either instructional method, but men performed markedly better with lectures in most topic areas.
Abstract: This study investigated gender differences in science learning between two pedagogical approaches: traditional lecture and narrative case studies using personal response systems (‘clickers’). Thirteen instructors of introductory biology classes at 12 different institutions across the USA and Canada used two types of pedagogy (Clicker Cases and traditional lecture) to teach eight topic areas. Three different sets of multiple regression analysis were conducted for three separate dependent variables: posttest score, change in score from posttest to final, and transfer score. Interactions between gender and pedagogical approach were found across the three analyses. Women either performed better with Clicker Cases, or about the same with either instructional method, but men performed markedly better with lectures in most topic areas. Our results suggest that men and women experience two pedagogical approaches—Clicker Cases and lectures—differently, and that Clicker Cases are more favorable for women than for men.
TL;DR: The authors examine patterns that reveal how their linguistic exchanges both drew from and extended beyond in-school literacy practices, and examine data from a 3-year ethnography that documents specific ways in which their multimodal design migrated across contexts and facilitated their social language development.
Abstract: In our contemporary society, digital texts circulate more readily and extend beyond page-bound formats to include interactive representations such as online newsprint with hyperlinks to audio and video files. This is to say that multimodality combined with digital technologies extends grammar to include voice, visual, and music, among other modes for articulating ideas beyond written language. In this paper, I discuss these multimodal designs in relation to a group of transcultural youth and their multilingual exchanges online. I examine patterns that reveal how their linguistic exchanges both drew from and extended beyond in-school literacy practices. Using discourse and multimodal analyses, I examine data from a 3-year ethnography that documents specific ways in which their multimodal design migrated across contexts and facilitated their social language development. In so doing, I describe their artistic approach to attending to language variety beyond code-switching through a process I identify as ling...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present interview data derived from secondary schools teachers in Bangladesh, in a context beset with many difficulties associated with technology use, and reveal the implications for the teachers' professional development when they used the iPod as a mul...
Abstract: The increasing use of media and technologies for enhancing teaching and learning is an important current trend to overcome the challenges of schooling and teacher training in the changing world. Many countries in the Global South are trying to adopt technologies in their school and teacher training systems to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals. Though some recent research shows impacts of using technologies for enhancing teaching and learning in technology-poor contexts, no research actually addresses the challenges and difficulties associated with using the technologies in those specific contexts. This article presents interview data derived from secondary schools teachers in Bangladesh, in a context beset with many difficulties associated with technology use. In a pilot project, Apple iPods were introduced in 2009 to explore the challenges and consequences of using technology in schools. The data reveal the implications for the teachers’ professional development when they used the iPod as a mul...
TL;DR: The authors argue that both overt and covert uses of digital media in "face-to-face" educational encounters such as lectures have served to undermine several taken-for-granted binaries, such as: material/virtual, digital/analogue, then/now and here/not here.
Abstract: The lecture is often posited as the prototypical ‘face-to-face’ educational encounter, seen as embodying key features of the pre-networked academy. These are implicitly characterised as forms of boundedness or impermeability, in terms of both the physical and temporal context, and the ontological status of the participants and the nature of the event in terms of rhetorical structure. However, the increased ubiquity of digital technologies such as virtual learning environments and networked mobile devices has altered the nature of the lecture in profound ways. Drawing on posthuman theory, this paper will argue that both overt and covert uses of digital media in ‘face-to-face’ educational encounters such as lectures have served to undermine several taken-for-granted binaries, such as: material/virtual, digital/analogue, then/now and here/not here. It will conclude that this breakdown of dualisms – in terms of social and representational practices – repositions lecturers and students as hybridised ‘cyborg’ s...
TL;DR: In this paper, a socio-genetic approach is used to understand human activity and to show how categories are a fundamental part of learning in a specific type of institutional practice, and how categories in the progressive inquiry model could guide students towards a more systematic orientation to problem solving.
Abstract: In this article, I develop a perspective on learning as multilayered phenomena. I take a socio-genetic approach in order to understand human activity and to show how categories are a fundamental part of learning in a specific type of institutional practice. In the empirical section, student dialogue is analysed in relation to a set of categories taken from scientific discourse. The analysis illustrates how categories in the progressive inquiry model could guide students towards a more systematic orientation to problem solving.
TL;DR: It became increasingly clear during the study that there is a distinction between technical interactivity and pedagogical interactivity, and it is suggested that training is needed when introducing these boards for future users.
Abstract: This paper reports on a project aimed at identifying and exploring the development and implementation processes of teaching practices with interactive whiteboards (IWBs) in two Swedish K-6 schools. ...
TL;DR: Investigation of the relationship between students' engagement with digital technologies and their experience of transition to postgraduate study in five areas suggests that students may initially be less functionally competent in IT than might be expected, but use these tools in an informed manner.
Abstract: Taught Master's students have been largely overlooked in research into learners' engagement with digital technologies. This article reports work to redress this imbalance, in which an extended email correspondence was conducted with 23 Master's students. Specifically, it investigates (1) the extent to which these students start their courses both functionally competent in the use of IT and digitally literate, and (2) the relationship between students' engagement with digital technologies and their experience of transition to postgraduate study in five areas: knowledge and skills, autonomy, ‘deeper’ learning, enculturation into an academic community, and self-concept. Findings suggest that students may initially be less functionally competent in IT than might be expected, but use these tools in an informed manner. Engagement with a wider range of digital technologies parallels their shift from novice to expert practice and their developing self-concept as researchers; however, non-digital means also remain...
TL;DR: In this paper, the balance between cohesion and tension in the interplay between modes is an issue at the core of the challenging question of what patterns of multimodal rhetoric characterize the most successful texts meant for learning.
Abstract: What patterns of multimodal rhetoric characterizes the most successful texts meant for learning – inside or outside school? This article argues that the balance between cohesion and tension in the interplay between modes is an issue at the core of this challenging question. Texts meant for learning need both cohesion and tension in order to be both understandable and engaging. While cohesion has long been a central issue of interest among researchers of multimodal texts, the same can hardly be said about multimodal tension. The article offers a discussion of the concepts of multimodal cohesion and tension, relating them to three dimensions of user–text interaction: the dimensions of perception, interpretation and performativity. This elaboration concludes with the outline of a framework model for analytical purposes. The model is, thereafter, used in an illustrative analysis of an award-winning multimodal feature story collected from the online site of the New York Times.
TL;DR: This paper explored how children are establishing literary concepts such as genre, characterisation and genre, and highlighted the kinds of semiotic choices the children are making for their stories, and included excerpts from the interviews to illustrate how they are able to articulate justifications for their choices.
Abstract: This paper draws from research conducted as part of an Australian Research Council funded Linkage Project ‘Teaching effective 3D authoring in the middle years: multimedia grammatical design and multimedia authoring pedagogy’, which is a collaboration between the University of New England, the University of Tasmania and the Australian Children's Television Foundation. This project is being conducted in over 20 schools around Australia. The data presented in this paper focuses on one such school, located in Tasmania. It explores one school's endeavour in the teaching and learning of multimodal narrative. Data includes interviews from students and multimodal analysis of student narratives. The paper showcases the kinds of semiotic choices the children are making for their stories, and includes excerpts from the interviews to illustrate how they are able to articulate justifications for their choices. In particular, it focuses on how children are establishing literary concepts such as genre, characterisation ...
TL;DR: The authors discusses the effects of copy-and-paste on the rhetoric and politics of communication in digital environments, by examining direct and indirect (misquotation and referencing in YouTube video-exchanges and by providing further examples in one-to-one communication via Facebook and email.
Abstract: The paper discusses the effects of copy-and-paste on the rhetoric and politics of communication in digital environments, by examining direct and indirect (mis)quotation and referencing in YouTube video-exchanges and by providing further examples in one-to-one communication via Facebook and email. The forwarding of (snippets of) artefacts in new contexts reshapes patterns of coherence and cohesion, producing intertextuality and implicitness. A rhetoric of the implicit shapes the politics of communication in elitist terms, assigning meaning-makers the responsibility for communicative success/failure while discharging sign-makers from obligations of being clear, cohesive, coherent and explicit. Common in informal contexts, such rhetoric may effect also more formal ones, with more or less successful results, hence the usefulness of meta-reflection in raising sign- and meaning-makers’ awareness on the varied effects of these practices in different contexts.
TL;DR: In the field of educational technology, the main aim of academic endeavour is to talk only with like-minded peers as discussed by the authors, which is not the case in the case of social media.
Abstract: Academics working in the field of educational technology tend to think very carefully about what they say. However, far less thought is usually given to where and to whom they are saying it. As a result, the topics of ‘ed-tech’ and ‘ed-media’ tend to be disseminated and discussed within limited circles, with many academics content to publish in specialist journals (such as this one), attend specialist conferences, and interact within specialist networks. Even by the cliquey norms of general academic practice, educational technology remains an especially inward-looking and self-referential field of study. Of course, if the main aim of academic endeavour was to talk only with like-minded peers, then these separatist tendencies would be of little concern. Yet, if the work that takes place within our field is to have a genuine influence on the wider world, then there is a clear imperative for everyone working in educational technology to change their ways – not least to make a conscious effort to move beyond the ‘ed-tech bubble’ that many of us seem to operate within. This is by no means an easy task. In keeping with the general tendency of academics to seek refuge in exclusive ‘tribes,’ educational technologists have proved adept at keeping themselves far apart from other academics as well as from their wider ‘publics.’ If anything, this segregation has deepened with the growth of social media, with groups of educational technologists now devoting substantial amounts of time and energy to talking with each other (or perhaps more accurately talking at each other) through numerous online forums, blogs and Twitter feeds. While a healthy level of intra-disciplinary exchange is not a problem in itself, educational technology certainly suffers from a lack of rigorous and sustained inter-disciplinary exchange. For the most part, then, this is an area of academia that appears increasingly to be talking to itself and no-one else. The limitations of such solipsism have been certainly evident in recent academic enthusiasms for the educational benefits of social media. Anyone moving in ed-tech circles could be forgiven for assuming that education is now based predominantly around the use of social media – with swathes of students, teachers and institutions apparently in thrall to the benefits of wikis, blogs, social networks and so on. Of course, this hyperbole is not reflected in the realities of most educational contexts (see, for example, Crook 2012). So, why then are many supposed academic ‘experts’ seemingly so out of touch with the realities of social media use ‘on the ground?’ Undoubtedly, a major contributing factor to this particular gap between rhetoric and reality is the fact that many of the discussions taking place
TL;DR: Web-based communication technologies that enable collaboration and sharing of information among users – such as podcasts, wikis, blogs, message boards, and others – are used commonly in contemporary organizations to increase and manage employee learning and this investigation identifies which of these collaborative communication technologies are used in relation to college courses, and with what frequency.
Abstract: Web-based communication technologies that enable collaboration and sharing of information among users – such as podcasts, wikis, blogs, message boards, and others – are used commonly in contemporary organizations to increase and manage employee learning. In this investigation, we identify which of these collaborative communication technologies are used in relation to college courses, and with what frequency; we report student evaluations of their use and reasons why students indicate using them. Next, using Keller's ARCS theoretical framework, we examine the role of course-related communication technology use in four dimensions of course-specific motivation. Results indicate that in courses where students perceive that technology is used effectively, motivation to learn is higher than in courses where students perceive technology is used ineffectively – and that technology-related motivation is substantially related to course-specific learning outcomes. Importantly, students reported higher levels of cogn...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present the preliminary results of a survey carried out in order to explore how player involvement and learning come together in this context, and the initial findings suggest that how a player identifies as a gamer relates to what they think they gain from their gaming experiences with respect to learning.
Abstract: In the last few years, digital games have become increasingly popular with both ‘hardcore’ and ‘casual’ audiences. At the same time, it has been argued that games can be powerful learning environments, since they are seen to encourage active and critical learning through participation in affinity groups and semiotic domains but there is a need for further empirical evidence to explore how this participation occurs and how prevalent it actually is. In addition the effectiveness of games within education indicates mixed results, though it has been suggested that this may indicate that learning through immersive worlds involves a more complex understanding of learning, one that is not so easy to tie to specified learning outcomes. It would seem the area would benefit from research that seeks to develop our understanding of how player involvement and learning come together in this context. This paper presents the preliminary results of a survey carried out in order to explore these issues. The initial findings suggest that how a player identifies as a gamer relates to what they think they gain from their gaming experiences with respect to learning.
TL;DR: In this article, student variables, including gender, grade, and year of program predicted student perceptions of ARS, and practice variables, such as consistency of use, question type, question difficulty, and ease of use also predicted student perception.
Abstract: Audience response systems (ARS) are effective tools for improving learning outcomes and student engagement in large undergraduate classes. However, if students do not accept ARS and do not find them to be useful, ARS may be less effective. Predicting and improving student perceptions of ARS may help to ensure positive outcomes. The present study expands on previous work by simultaneously evaluating several student and practice variables that may predict student perceptions of ARS. Perceived learning outcomes, engagement, interaction in class, enjoyment of ARS, attendance, and preparation for class were examined using multivariate regression analysis in two undergraduate samples. Student variables, including gender, grade, and year of program predicted student perceptions of ARS. Practice variables, including the consistency of ARS use, question type, question difficulty, and ease of use also predicted student perceptions. The nature and implications of these findings are discussed.
TL;DR: Nicola Whitton argues that collaborative learning via digital games is vital in the acquisition of higher order cognitive skills and uses the introductory chapter to outline her position and explain the structure of the book and its relevance to higher education.
Abstract: Learning with digital games: a practical guide to engaging students in higher education, by Nicola Whitton, London, Routledge, 2010, 232 pp., US$46.95 (paperback), ISBN 978-0-4159-9775-1 Are there ...
TL;DR: In this article, different approaches to a contemporary theory of rhetoric for exploring the politics of representation and communication in the digital age are presented, as an evolving and multifaceted process.
Abstract: This special issue presents different approaches to a contemporary theory of rhetoric for exploring the politics of representation and communication in the digital age. As an evolving and multiface...
TL;DR: This paper examined the preferences for various forms of educational media by freshmen students studying English in Thailand and found that there is a great interest from all students to have more technologically focused media available to help them learn.
Abstract: There have been many reports indicating that there are differences between male and female students in various issues in education. This research examined the preferences for various forms of educational media by freshmen students studying English in Thailand. Approximately 3000 students at seven university campuses in central Thailand were surveyed on their preferences for the media used in and out of English classes. The results indicate many similarities between the male and female choices. Overall, students believed that traditional media were effective for in-class learning, but the media used in alternative classroom activities are more enjoyable. The students thought that entertaining media and the internet are popular ways to learn English and can be better utilized in classes. There was a stronger interest in the internet among male students. Overall, this study shows that there is a great interest from all students to have more technologically focused media available to help them learn.
TL;DR: The theoretical assumptions upon which speculation so far has been based are considered and the methodologies that are best suited to investigating further the relationships between text, self and technology are explored.
Abstract: The expression of the self through multimodal texts is a central theme in education. While it has been suggested that new technologies act as important mediators in the relationship between texts and subjectivity, the mechanisms underlying such mediation has been a neglected topic of research. This paper considers the theoretical assumptions upon which speculation so far has been based and explores the methodologies that are best suited to investigating further the relationships between text, self and technology.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore how they teach students to critically engage with each other and with online media sources through a class blog discussing the violence in Gaza during January of 2009, and show how the students investigated this new media landscape (from blogs to YouTube) increasing their levels of techno-literacy by searching beyond their 'normal' sources and by recognizing the political bias present in all online venues.
Abstract: As educators interested in pedagogical uses of technology, we utilize the internet to improve students' knowledge and awareness of the world beyond our own national borders. Web-based technologies offer us resources for our courses and can play an important role in promoting a more active style of learning from our students. Yet when teaching about politically sensitive topics, or regions of the world that are less well known, we inevitably access information that is unfiltered, out-of-context, inaccurate, or biased. This paper will be an exploration of how we taught students to critically engage with each other and with online media sources through a class blog discussing the violence in Gaza during January of 2009. During the two-week project, the students investigated this new media landscape (from blogs to YouTube) increasing their levels of techno-literacy by searching beyond their ‘normal’ sources and by recognizing the political bias present in all online venues. Evidence will show how the students...