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In South Africa, Science and Technology Education faces many problems. Insufficient numbers of Science and Technology teachers, inadequate in–service training, large classes, instruction with the aim of narrowly orienting students towards examination passes an insufficient integration of technology in the curriculum, and insufficient physical infrastructure dominates the list. The Department of Education envisages the use of ICT as a tool for learning and teaching. ICT has the potential to improve the quality of education and training. If adequate resources are available, and teachers have confidence in the usefulness of ICTs, then the integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) may improve the teaching and learning of Mathematics and Science. A review of the literature indicated that the deployment of ICT resources alone will not bring about desirable pedagogical practices in the classroom. There exists a need for interventions that will enhance ICT pedagogical practices in South Africa. The following main research questions were formulated: What are the ICT pedagogic practices used by grade 8 Mathematics and Science teachers in South African classrooms? How do the barriers that grade 8 Mathematics and Science teachers encounter, as well as the support they receive, influence their pedagogical practices? What is the Principal’s role in promoting the emerging pedagogic practices using ICT in South African classrooms? This research comprises a secondary data analysis of the SITES 2006 South African data base. The population and sample for this study was based on the South African grade 8 Mathematics and Natural science teachers. In SITES 2006, the samples comprised more than 504 schools. Due to the fact that ICT is only significantly implemented in two out of nine provinces in South Africa, 25 strata were created to secure fair representation of the population with 666 Mathematics teachers and 622 Natural Science teachers. Bromfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory and Engeström’s Activity Theory was used to investigate Natural Science and Mathematics teachers’ progress in their ICT pedagogical practices through the time–frame 2004 to 2013, as stipulated in the South Africa’s White paper on e–Education policy. Statistical analysis using Statistical Package for Social Sciences was used to address the research and sub–questions. The study found that South African Mathematics and Natural Science teachers’ level of ICT use is small; when they do use ICT, it is enhanced 21st century pedagogic practices. This is in accordance with findings from the international literature study. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Education))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

In South Africa, Science and Technology Education faces many problems. Insufficient numbers of Science and Technology teachers, inadequate in–service training, large classes, instruction with the aim of narrowly orienting students towards examination passes an insufficient integration of technology in the curriculum, and insufficient physical infrastructure dominates the list. The Department of Education envisages the use of ICT as a tool for learning and teaching. ICT has the potential to improve the quality of education and training. If adequate resources are available, and teachers have confidence in the usefulness of ICTs, then the integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) may improve the teaching and learning of Mathematics and Science. A review of the literature indicated that the deployment of ICT resources alone will not bring about desirable pedagogical practices in the classroom. There exists a need for interventions that will enhance ICT pedagogical practices in South Africa. The following main research questions were formulated: What are the ICT pedagogic practices used by grade 8 Mathematics and Science teachers in South African classrooms? How do the barriers that grade 8 Mathematics and Science teachers encounter, as well as the support they receive, influence their pedagogical practices? What is the Principal’s role in promoting the emerging pedagogic practices using ICT in South African classrooms? This research comprises a secondary data analysis of the SITES 2006 South African data base. The population and sample for this study was based on the South African grade 8 Mathematics and Natural science teachers. In SITES 2006, the samples comprised more than 504 schools. Due to the fact that ICT is only significantly implemented in two out of nine provinces in South Africa, 25 strata were created to secure fair representation of the population with 666 Mathematics teachers and 622 Natural Science teachers. Bromfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory and Engeström’s Activity Theory was used to investigate Natural Science and Mathematics teachers’ progress in their ICT pedagogical practices through the time–frame 2004 to 2013, as stipulated in the South Africa’s White paper on e–Education policy. Statistical analysis using Statistical Package for Social Sciences was used to address the research and sub–questions. The study found that South African Mathematics and Natural Science teachers’ level of ICT use is small; when they do use ICT, it is enhanced 21st century pedagogic practices. This is in accordance with findings from the international literature study. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Education))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

This essay is a study of the use of IT technology by teachers of English and History at a Swedish upper secondary school. It is based on four interviews and four observations. In my analysis of these I have made use of the theory of Social Shaping of technology, a theory which puts emphasis on a teacher´s purpose regarding the use of IT technology in order to empower the teaching process. As a researcher I aim to explore the reasoning on the part of the teacher and to that end I use the method of interviews and observations. This study shows different ways of using IT technology varying from one teacher to another. The use of laptops and Ipads by students is frequent, laptops being used for writing and information seeking and Ipads for taking pictures, the recording of students´ own performance before making presentations in class and for communication with teachers. In addition to the methods mentioned above, I have used - "Som-seende" and half-structured interviews.

Evolutionary knowledge is important to understand and address contemporary challenges such as loss of biodiversity, climate change and antibiotic resistance. An important aspect that is considered to be a threshold concept in teaching and learning about evolution is the time it involves. The history of evolution comprises several scales of magnitude, some of which are far from direct human experience and therefore difficult to understand. One way of addressing this issue is to use dynamic visualizations that represent time, for example, to facilitate teaching and learning about evolution. This thesis investigates how students’ comprehension of evolution and evolutionary time can be facilitated by visualizations in educational settings. Two different dynamic visualizations were investigated. In paper I different temporal versions of a spatio-temporal animation depicting hominin evolution were explored. The temporal information was expressed as one or several timelines along which an animated cursor moved, indicating the rate of time. Two variables, the number of timelines with different scales, and the mode of the default animated time rate (either constant throughout the animation or decreasing as the animation progressed), were combined to give four different time representations. The temporal aspects investigated were undergraduate students' ability to find events at specific times, comprehend order, comprehend concurrent events, comprehend the length of time intervals, and their ability to compare the lengths of time intervals. In paper II, perceptions and comprehension of temporal aspects in an interactive, multi-touch tabletop application, DeepTree, were investigated. This application depicts the tree of life. The focus was on the interactive aspects, especially how the zooming feature was perceived, but also on any misinterpretations associated with the interaction. The same temporal aspects listed for paper I were also implicitly investigated. The findings indicate that handling the problem of large differences in scale by altering the rate of time in the visualization can facilitate perception of certain temporal aspects while, at the same time, can hinder a correct comprehension of other temporal aspects. Findings concerning DeepTree indicate that the level of interactions varies among users, and that the zooming feature is perceived in two ways, either as a movement in time or as a movement in the metaphorical tree. Several misinterpretations were observed, for example the assumption that the zooming time in the tree corresponds to real time, that there is an implicit coherent timeline along the y-axis of the tree, and that more nodes along a branch corresponds to a longer time. The research reported in this thesis supports the claim that careful choice, and informed use of visualizations matters, and that different visualizations are best suited for different educational purposes / För att kunna förstå och ta ställning till utmaningar i form av exempelvis klimatförändringar, förlust av biodiversitet och antibiotikaresistens krävs kunskap om evolution. För att förstå evolution är det i sin tur viktigt att inse betydelsen av de tidsskalor som evolutionära processer omfattar. Detta utgör inte sällan ett problem vid undervisning om evolution eftersom det rör sig om tidsskalor som sträcker sig långt bortom vad vi själva kan erfara. Tidsskalor ingår i en grupp av begrepp som kallas tröskelbegrepp. Tröskelbegrepp utmärks av att de är svåra att ta till sig, men när väl förståelse uppnås så innebär det en radikal och permanent förändring av hur ett ämnesinnehåll, exempelvis evolution, betraktas. Av den anledningen är de också ”enkelriktade” i meningen att den nya förståelsen är bestående Ett sätt att bemöta problemen med att förstå tidsskalor av varierande storlekar är att använda dynamiska visualiseringar. Denna avhandling handlar just om hur elevers förståelse av evolution med avseende på tiden kan underlättas genom visualiseringar i undervisning. Avhandlingen baseras på två studier som var och en belyser evolutionär tid på olika sätt beträffande såväl innehåll som form. I den första studien undersöktes hur olika varianter av en tidsrepresentation i form av animerade tidslinjer påverkade 144 studenters förståelse av olika tidsaspekter. Representationen av tid hade två variabler, nämligen antal tidslinjer (en tidslinje respektive 3 tidslinjer med olika skalor) och hastighet för animationen av tidsförloppet (konstant hastighet respektive avtagande hastighet när animationen närmade sig nutid). De två variablerna kombinerades för att ge fyra olika varianter av tidsrepresentation. I studien jämfördes varianterna genom att undersöka studenters förmåga kring olika tidsaspekter; hitta händelser vid specifika tider, uppfatta ordning på händelser, uppfatta samtidiga händelser, uppfatta längden på ett tidsintervall och jämföra längden av två tidsintervall. I den andra studien undersöktes uppfattningar och förståelse av tidsmässiga aspekter hos 10 gymnasieelever med utgångspunkt från det interaktiva multi-touch-bordet ”DeepTree”. Det är en interaktiv visualisering av livets träd, det vill säga de fylogenetiska sambanden mellan organismer på jorden. I denna studie fokuserades de interaktiva aspekterna av visualiseringen, särskilt kring hur zoomfunktionen uppfattades av elever men också vilka missuppfattningar som var kopplade till interaktioner. Även tidsaspekterna från den första studien undersöktes. Resultaten från den första studien visar att det under vissa omständigheter kan vara en fördel att variera det animerade tidsflödet, till exempel genom att hastigheten på tidsflödet i animationen avtar under en speciellt händelserik period som behöver granskas noggrannare. Under andra omständigheter kan det däremot vara olämpligt att variera hastigheten för den animerade tiden eftersom det försvårar bedömningen av storleken på, och jämförelsen av, tidsintervall. Det är alltså viktigt att lärare är medvetna om vilken, eller vilka, tidsaspekter som är centrala i den specifika lärandesituationen. Resultaten från den andra studien visar två olika sätt att uppfatta zoomfunktionen när den används i applikationen DeepTree; antingen som en rörelse i tid eller som en rörelse i det metaforiska trädet. Flera missuppfattningar av interaktionen observerades hos eleverna. Till exempel tolkade en del elever den tid det tog att zooma i trädet som att det motsvarade hur lång tid som förflöt mellan olika evolutionära händelser. Ett antal elever verkade anta att det finns en implicit linjär tidslinje längs y-axeln på trädet, och att ju fler grendelningar som fanns längs en gren desto längre tid motsvarade grenen. Generellt är de flesta tidsaspekter svåra att uppfatta för användare av DeepTree. Evolutionära träd av denna typ är dock främst gjorda för att illustrera släktskapsförhållanden, men de tidsmässiga aspekterna skulle kunna förbättras. Applikationer av den typ som DeepTree utgör har potential att erbjuda goda möjligheter till lärande även beträffande evolutionär tid men hänsyn behöver då tas just till hur tidsaspekter beskrivs.

Examensarbetets syfte har varit att bidra med kunskap kring vilka faktorer som styr valet av applikationer för undervisning i förskolan. Syftet har också varit att uppmärksamma vilka applikationer som används i undervisning på kommunala förskoleavdelningar. Kanonforskning utgör de teoretiska utgångspunkterna och bidrar i studien med en begreppsapparat för urvalsprocesser samt urval och ligger till grund för valet av enkät som metod. 39 förskoleavdelningar från 8 kommuner har besvarat enkäten. Enkätsvaren har kompletterats genom ytterligare datainsamling kring de namngivna applikationernas upphovsmän och genom sökning på applikationer i forskningsdatabaser. Resultatet visar att det finns ett brett urval av applikationer som används i förskoleundervisning och att ett fåtal applikationer förekommer i större utsträckning än andra. Resultatet visar också att det finns flera faktorer som påverkar förskoleavdelningarnas val av applikationer. Bland dessa påverkansfaktorer finns ekonomiska resurser, val av operativsystem och personalens värderingar av vad som utgör en pedagogiskt användbar applikation representerade. Slutsatser som dras av studien är att det i stort sett är ett varierat urval av applikationer som används i förskoleundervisningen, men att det på lokal nivå förekommer en selektiv kanon, där en specifik IKT-grupp har inflytande över vilka applikationer som skattas högt. Ytterligare slutsatser som dras är att trots att personalen kommer i kontakt med applikationer via många olika källor så finns det krav som varierar från avdelning till avdelning angående vilka applikationer som kan installeras.

Digital fabrication technologies such as 3D printers entail a radical change to the traditional consumer-producer paradigm. Combined with other recent developments, self-styled Makers design and fabricate sophisticated devices and interactive technologies that would otherwise never have existed. However, stopping the uninitiated novice from making use of this potential is complex CAD software, and a high barrier to entry. In this study a series of workshops explore the potential of combining traditional handicraft materials – such as clay, paper and fabric – with 3D scanning to enable novices to work with 3D printers. Based on the results a set of instruction were created detailing the process of making three types of practical objects, covering the entire process from the making and subsequent 3D scanning of a physical object, to the software clean-up and final 3D printing. The results suggest that whilst the explored method can enable novices to create 3D printable models, a certain mindset is required for the novice to do so effectively. / Innovation +

Practicing breathing exercises isn’t very engaging thou it is seen as great for well-being. Applications can utilize breath as a controller mechanism for interactions. With virtual reality (VR) being an effective tool for inducing the sense of immersion and presence, a breathing exercise was paired up with three alternative sessions in an application that was developed to examine the differences between mimicking and controlling input during an experience in VR, with the baseline of interaction being that of no other controllers but head-orientation-tracking of the VR device. Two pilot tests were performed to evaluate functionality and procedure. The main tests investigated the case of research. It was possible to identify mimicking as an immersive experience that promoted the breathing exercise, while input was more immersive but less beneficial towards performing the breathing exercise. The study was also conducted with- and addresses some design limitations of commonly accessible hardware.

ICT (Information and communication technology) is a fundamental part of modern society and has been part of the educational systems across the world for a few decades. This essay focuses specifically on the relationship between ICT and the teaching and learning of English as a foreign language. ICT has been found to be pedagogically beneficial, but the transition towards and the handling of ICT is often challenging for schools and teachers. The aim of this study is to present and analyze Junior High School English teachers’ opinions regarding the use of ICT in their profession. The study identifies and discusses some of the advantages and disadvantages of ICT in education generally and in relation to the English subject specifically. The results are analyzed through a sociocultural perspective and the empirical foundation of this study is based on qualitative interviews with six English teachers. The results reveal that the interviewed teachers are optimistic towards the new technologies in their profession and that there is a will to further improve and learn more about the pedagogical benefits of ICT. Although there are obstacles hindering successful ICT integration in school, the possibilities and advantages that come with the new technologies make them indispensable. However, the results also reveal that there is still room for traditional materials in school and teachers seem to view ICT as a complement and do not wish to rely solely on modern technologies. / IKT (Informations- och kommunikationsteknologi) är en grundläggande del av det moderna samhället och har varit en del av världens skolsystem sedan årtionden tillbaka. Denna uppsats är specifikt fokuserad på förhållandet mellan IKT och engelskundervisning i den svenska högstadieskolan. IKT har visat sig vara pedagogiskt fördelaktigt i flera avseenden men övergången mot och hanterandet av IKT är ofta en utmaning för skolor och lärare. Syftet med denna uppsats är att presentera och analysera engelsklärares åsikter gällande användandet av IKT i deras yrke. Uppsatsen identifierar och diskuterar några av de fördelar och nackdelar som finns med IKT i skolan generellt och i förhållande till engelskämnet specifikt. Resultaten analyseras utifrån ett sociokulturellt perspektiv på lärande och den empiriska grunden för uppsatsen är baserad på kvalitativa intervjuer med sex engelsklärare i högstadiet. Resultaten visar att de intervjuade lärarna är optimistiska gentemot de nya teknologierna och att det finns en vilja att vidareutvecklas och lära sig mer om de pedagogiska fördelarna med IKT. Möjligheterna och fördelarna med IKT gör företeelsen oumbärlig, även om det finns hinder i vägen för ett framgångsrikt implementerande i skolan. Dock visar resultaten även att det fortfarande finns utrymme för traditionella läromedel i skolan och lärarna tycks betrakta IKT som ett komplement och önskar inte enbart förlita sig på de moderna teknologierna.

This report is an interview study on how the Swedish agency for public management in Jönköping works towards leadership communication. The study is not an examination, however it is done with the goal of understanding the agency communication out of communication models created for companies in the private sector. The theoretical approach is created out of recent behavioral leadership science and principals for leaders to communicate well at work. The report is based out of anonymous qualitative interview conducted with eight workers at the agency for public management in Jönköping. The report explains that an interacting and representative behavior is clearly expressed in the agency, and that independence and transparency are given priority as leadership behavior over strong directives from the leader.