This study of primary school classes (N=50) in Tasmanian government and Catholic schools (N=32) used a social constructivist approach to investigate the factors that shape the successful and sustained use of ICT in classroom teaching and learning practices. The findings are elaborated using activity theory. Observations covered ICT provision and working arrangements in the classroom, and teaching and learning practices in use. These in-class observations were supplemented by interviews of key school staff members including the participating teachers, principals and other school leaders, ICT coordinators, technical support staff and others involved with the use of ICT in the school. As an original contribution to knowledge the study identifies a set of key factors that together influence the success or otherwise of the use of ICT in teaching and learning. At the class level, there are four key factors: the purpose of the teaching and learning practices (and the rationale for using ICT to achieve the intended purpose); the availability of technology that matches the practices; the working knowledge required to select, operate and troubleshoot the technology being used; and the cost effectiveness of doing so. Four additional factors that are largely determined outside the classroom were also found to be significant including: governance of ICT and its use across the school; ‘reliability’ of devices, arrangements and practices; professional learning that results in a transfer of learning into practices; and collaboration as a key characteristic within classes and the school as a whole.

No description available.

No description available.

The story of wired schools addresses the lack of critical debate over the adoption and implementation of the Internet in New Zealand schools. It is set in the backdrop of rapid technological change and growing international concern over the wisdom of the substantial investment in new computer technology in the education system. The study addresses the problem that the hype surrounding the Internet in schools is potentially diverting much attention away from its real pedagogical value. Thus, the research objective investigates how teachers believe the Internet has affected learning and teaching—for better and worse. In the context of this objective, a number of methodological issues related to conducting research in the area of educational technology are considered and a multi-paradigmatic framework is adopted utilizing both quantitative and qualitative research techniques. The research consists of three phases over a period of three school years. It reports a process to identify and systematically investigate a purposive sample of proficient, accomplished and experienced internet-using teachers. The first phase involves a survey in which a written questionnaire gathers baseline information on the background characteristics, experiences, perceptions and practices of a group of teachers nominated as proficient in using the Internet for learning and teaching. In Phase Two, the survey is repeated through a follow up questionnaire and informant interview with a refined sample of perceived accomplished internet-using teachers. The final phase culminates with narrative-biographical and micro ethnographic case studies of three teachers judged to be experienced in using the Internet for pedagogical purposes. An analysis of data shows that the advent of the Internet has clearly had an impact on the nature of teachers' work. The standout effects of the Internet are reported under the themes of: (a) school organization and classroom management, (b) displacement costs, (c) collegial relationships, (d) workload considerations, and (e) teachers thinking more globally. Notably, the research shows that teachers do not simply experience the Internet, they reshape and reframe it based on their pedagogical beliefs and lived experiences. Thus, teachers have equally affected the Internet and these effects are reported under the themes of: (a) differential uptake, (b) limited local action, (c) teaching is messy, (d) computer as tool, and (e) technology as progress. The key lesson is that the implementation of an educational technology is a mutually adaptive process full of conflicts, tensions, and contradictions that simultaneously give rise to positive, negative, and unknown effects. Accordingly, the effects of the Internet on teachers' lives and work culture can not be analysed in terms of simple dichotomies of good and bad as a more dialectical perspective is required of the relationship between technology and society. A rough portrait of the educational technology landscape is sketched from the tensions and individual mindsets embedded in the research sample, and the shape of the topography is shown to amplify rival theoretical positions in the literature. From a post-technocratic political economy perspective, the new digital landscape consists of a number of competing and coexisting discourses that borrow and co-construct a socio-cognitive language of persuasion to advance their own hegemonic agenda. Such an analysis brings into question the hidden curriculum behind the new ways of enterprise constructivism promoting the adoption of information and communication technology (ICT) in New Zealand schools. The ensuing discussion endeavours to reframe the teacher's role around critical pedagogy and the need for pedagogical activism in the backdrop of a number of potential dark clouds looming on the digital horizon. Finally, the story of wired schools is brought together through the metaphor of planes, trains and automobiles in which a lot of misinformation, dissembling language and even propaganda is claimed to prevent teachers from understanding the meaning and non-educational intention of the ICT-related school reform movement. A number of implications arise from the explanation of how things have come to be this way and these are presented for teachers, researchers and policy-makers. The central thesis is that teachers need to approach the ICT movement as problematic and a deeper level of critical dialogue is required over the move to plug New Zealand schools into the Knowledge Economy. In short, wired schools require wired educators capable of reading and responding to current efforts to boost capacity, increase bandwidth and catch the knowledge wave—for better and worse.

No description available.

e-Learning has the potential to radically change the way we teach and learn in higher education, but there is ongoing debate as to what constitutes effective e-learning environments. This study explores the interrelated areas of e-learning technology and pedagogy within the context of a postgraduate special education and educational psychology programme. The study is framed in a scholarship of teaching and learning approach and covers three successive phases of overlapping activities of teaching, learning and research. The first phase of the research focuses on the design of a community of practice approach to e-learning. The aim is to enable students to develop their identity as members of the professional community by bridging the gap between university-based learning and its real-world application. In the second phase of the research, alternative technology is used to investigate a better alignment of e-learning technology and pedagogy. The findings here show that a community of practice pedagogy is better aligned with a social constructionist e-learning technology. In the third phase of the research an e-learning alignment guide is developed to analyse the changes in e-learning in relation to the interrelated areas of technology, pedagogy and context. The guide is applied to the e-learning case studies in Phases 1 and 2 of this study. The profiles of alignment from these case studies illustrate the complexities and tensions in e-learning and the potential of linking advanced technologies with effective teaching practices to change the way we teach and learn. The key finding of this study is that careful alignment of technology, pedagogy and context is needed to actualise the potential of e-learning in higher education. The e-learning alignment guide developed in this study enables analysis of e-learning environments to provide alignment profiles. Aligning innovative technologies with appropriate pedagogies in different contexts is essential for e-learning to meet the needs of learners in the digital age. The enormous and rapid development of new educational technologies has seriously challenged traditional forms of pedagogy. This study shows that both a scholarship of teaching and learning approach and the use of the e-learning alignment guide can make a positive contribution to designing effective e-learning environments.

This thesis presents an investigation into the effect of Liberated Learning Technology (LLP) on academic listening comprehension, notetaking and listening strategies in an English as a foreign language context (L2). Two studies are reported: an exploratory study and subsequent main study. The exploratory study was undertaken to determine L2 and native speaker (L1) students' perceptions on the effectiveness of the technology on academic listening and notetaking. The main study took a more focused approach and as a result, extended the exploratory study that was done in an authentic lecture context in order to gather data to measure listening comprehension and notetaking quality. The participants in the main study comprised six L2 students: five of whom intended to go to university. The methodology was a multimethod one: data was gathered from notetaking samples, protocol analysis, email responses and a questionnaire. Results indicated that continuous speech recognition (CSR) has the potential to support the listening comprehension and notetaking abilities of L2 students as well as facilitate metacognitive listening strategy use and enhance affective factors in academic listening. However, it is important to note that as CSR is an innovative technology, it first needs to meet a number of challenges before its full potential can be realized. Consequently, recommendations for future research and potential innovative uses for the technology are discussed. This thesis contributes to L2 academic listening and notetaking measurement in two areas: 1. the measurement of LLP-supported notetaking; and, 2. the measurement of LLP-supported academic listening comprehension.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.