The Experiment ‘Treatment of Telecommunications in the Course of Information and Communication Technology Education’

Abstract

The article looks at work being done in Lower Saxony in which telecommunications are employed to enhance the teaching of various subjects. Not only does this help with the subjects, but it has led to a deeper understanding of telecommunications media.     

Information Communication Technology(ICT信息传播技术)Rules

ICT,including the Internet and e-mail,is provided for students as part of their learning.Parents'permission is required.Remember that access(准入)is a privilege(特别待遇),not a right,and thataccess requires responsibility.     

Research degrees in Information and Communication Technology (ICT): Why so few doctoral students?

A ‘knowledge society’ relies on a workforce with high-level skills in Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Continuing development of ICT will arise partly from research undertaken by doctoral graduates. However, compared to other cognate disciplines, ICT has relatively few students taking up doctoral studies. This article explores some of the perceived barriers to undertaking doctoral studies in ICT in three Australian universities. Current students were surveyed regarding their post-course intentions relating to employment and further study, and the resulting data was analysed in terms of type of university attended, gender, nationality and first-in-family status. Overall, the perceived barriers to doing a research degree were related to the financial implications of such study and a limited understanding of what research in ICT involves. The following recommendations are made to universities and higher education policy-makers: that universities ensure that students have accurate information about the financial costs of doctoral studies; that students be provided with authentic undergraduate research experiences; and that pathways be developed to facilitate a smooth return to research degrees after periods of working in industry.     

A Survey on the Use of Metacognition in L2 Learning and Teaching

The author tries to verify that there are differences between the usages of the metacongintive strategies through a survey. He also discusses the role of the language teacher, since more and more people believe that teachers are not only language instructors but also learner trainers. So if they are interested in improving learners 'use of strategies for learning and using the language, their roles may be changing.     

Russian in the University Curriculum: A Case‐study of the Impact of the First World War on Language Study in Higher Education in Britain

The outbreak of the First World War and the emergence of Russia as Britain’s ‘glorious ally’ swiftly changed public attitudes in Britain, which had been largely, but not entirely, hostile to Russia. The sense that Britain needed to cure its ‘abysmal ignorance’ of Russia, coupled with the strong desire to replace Germany, the enemy, as a trading partner with Russia led to the initiation of the teaching of the language at eight or more university‐standard establishments. The material and intellectual foundation of the nascent departments of Russian was a partnership between commercial‐financial and academic interests. Money from business sources was crucial in the introduction of Russian teaching at several of them. It was, however, only at Nottingham that the commercial sector actively tried (unsuccessfully) to control the behaviour of the college by restricting promised funding. Meanwhile, partnership with technical schools in recruiting teachers was a significant feature of the introduction of Russian to the higher and further education sector. Staff recruited consisted of both British scholars and expatriate Russians (or other Slavs). Russian departments or divisions were often actively supported within the university by specialists in other fields, who were strongly of the opinion that any serious university system should accommodate the study of a society and culture as significant as that of Russia. When it became clear after the October Revolution that Russia would not continue to support Britain, France and America in the war against Germany, the withdrawal of interest external to the universities did not cause the immediate demise of Russian studies in higher education; they were by this time established firmly enough to survive for intellectual reasons alone, and indeed they survive to this day in most of the institutions discussed here. University College, Nottingham, later to become the University of Nottingham, exemplifies in microcosm the principal trends and features of the national situation.     

Universities,Technology and Academic Work: A Reconsideration of the Murray Committee on Australian Universities (1957) in the light of Dawkins (1987‐1988)

This is a revised version of a paper given at the Annual Conference of the Australian and New Zealand History of Education Society, University of Newcastle, 6‐9 July 1989, by John O'Brien, School of Management, University of Canberra.     

Moral Education of Youths in the Information Age

In Chinese societies, moral education has always been considered the most essential component of education because the nurturing of moral persons is the prime function of schooling. The implementation of moral education has relied on the inculcation of values that reflect moral ideals. The emergence of the Information Age, with a plethora of information and ideas being disseminated instantly through informational technologies, has altered the educational landscape of the world and challenged the conventional approach to moral education. Given this context, we argue that it is important for Chinese educators to find an alternative approach to moral education that can embrace the new realities of our networked world. In this approach, lofty moral ideals should give way to simple and easily understood concepts such as respect, information and ideas in the ＂cyber world＂ should be exploited rather than shunned, and the genuine interests of children and youths should form the basis of moral education that is at once relevant and enlightening. In proposing this approach to moral education, we also assume that moral educators in Chinese societies, which include school teachers, parents, and organizers of nonformal education programs, would endeavor to understand the complex world of cyber realities and devise feasible ways to suit contextual educational needs.     

Industry‐Related Activities in Initial Teacher Education: A Survey

Abstract

This paper discusses research which was stimulated by the controversial question of the educability of entrepreneurial characteristics and the economic value of enterprise training. The research focuses on participants on enterprise training courses within the Irish Republic which aim to help people to set up and run businesses. An attempt was made to develop a technique, that is an adapted Osgood's Sematic Differential Technique, for use in the exploration of participants’ perceptions of entrepreneurial characteristics. This technique could represent a useful assessment technique for appraising participants’ attitudes to themselves as entrepreneurs and any changes over the duration of a training course in participants’ identification with entrepreneurial characteristic. Although, this technique would require self assessments, it could be used to establish the conditions for the development of entrepreneurial characteristics and explore questions of whether entrepreneurial characteristics may be developed. Despite methodological limitations, the reported study lends support to the thesis that many entrepreneurial characteristics may be developed over the duration of enterprise training courses in the view of participants.     

The sub‐culture of music and ICT in the classroom

In this paper the authors utilise findings from the Economic and Social Research Council‐funded InterActive Education project to present a characterisation of the sub‐culture of school music with Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in England. They consider the opportunities and challenges ICT presents to the teaching of primary (ages 4–11) and secondary (ages 11–18) classroom music through an investigation of the perceptions, personal philosophies and pedagogical styles of seven teachers with whom they worked over a period of three years. Their work is underpinned by Goodson and Mangan’s definition of subject sub‐culture and they draw on Shulman’s notion of ‘knowledge bases’ in order to categorise and discuss the data. Through the identification and elaboration of key themes, the authors provide a snapshot of the emerging sub‐culture of music and ICT in schools.     

The Needs of Secondary School Information Technology Co‐ordinators in the United Kingdom

ABSTRACT

This paper reports on a survey of secondary schools in the West Midlands, England, in 1991 and was conducted to measure the tasks required of information technology co‐ordinators and the training requirement of their schools. The main emphasis of information technology work was still on taught, examination courses and there was a perceived need for information technology awareness courses for all pupils. Many co‐ordinators had no clear perspective of the level of information technology permeation across the curriculum in their schools, and thus demonstrated an urgent need for audits of staff awareness and pupil access. Information technology co‐ordinators also saw a need for further in‐service training for many staff to enable delivery of their pupils’ information technology entitlement. Most staff training was school based and included collaborative teaching and courses run by the school staff. Little use was made of co‐operation with subject staff from other schools or outside specialists. The co‐ordinators defined their needs as being predominantly in the areas of time for co‐ordination duties, assessment of information technology across the curriculum, and training in new developments in the wider aspects of information technology.     

Improving Students’ Information Problem-Solving Skills on the Web Through Explicit Instruction and the Use of Customized Search Software

Abstract

Research shows that students face a range of difficulties when using the Internet to solve information problems. Using a quasi-experimental design, we tested a strategy to improve Chilean 10th graders’ skills for information problem solving using the Internet (IPS-I). The intervention was based on a workshop in which students learned IPS-I strategies and solved information problems using a customized Internet search software package. Results showed that members of the experimental group changed their search behavior and improved the quality of their products. However, no correlation between the number of search actions and product quality was found. Based on this, we highlight the potential of combining teaching strategies to improve specific search skills and the use of customized search tools with embedded functionalities that foster good search techniques.     

K-16 Computationally Rich Science Education: A Ten-Year Review of the Journal of Science Education and Technology (1998–2008)

Computing is anticipated to have an increasingly expansive impact on the sciences overall, becoming the third, crucial component of a “golden triangle” that includes mathematics and experimental and theoretical science. However, even more true with computing than with math and science, we are not preparing our students for this new reality. It is appropriate and compelling therefore to consider how computer science can be fundamentally integrated into science education. This study is a ten-year review (1998–2008) of the Journal of Science Education and Technology, with the following research questions in mind: What are the intersections at the K-16 level between science and computing? What do K-16 science educators already know about the newly emerged field, computational science?     

Report to the President on the Use of Technology to Strengthen K–12 Education in the United States: Findings Related to Research and Evaluation

The Panel on Educational Technology was organized in April 1995 under the auspices of the President's Committee of Advisers on Science and Technology (PCAST) to provide advice to the President on matters related to the application of information technologies to K–12 education in the United States. Its findings and recommendations were set forth in March 1997 in the Report to the President on the Use of Technology to Strengthen K–12 Education in the United States. This report was based on a review of the research literature and on written submissions and oral briefings from a number of academic and industrial researchers, practicing educators, software developers, governmental agencies, and professional and industry organizations involved in various ways with the application of technology to education. Its most important finding is that a large-scale program of rigorous, systematic research on education in general and educational technology in particular will ultimately prove necessary to ensure both the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of technology use within our nation's K–12 schools. Finding that less than 0.1 percent of our nation's expenditures for elementary and secondary education are currently invested to determine which educational techniques actually work, and to find ways to improve them—an extremely low level relative to comparable ratios within the private sector—the Panel recommended that this figure be increased over a period of several years to at least 0.5 percent, and sustained at that level on an ongoing basis. Further, because no one state, municipality, or private firm could hope to capture more than a small fraction of the benefits associated with a significant advance in our understanding of how best to educate K–12 students, the Panel concluded that such funding will have to be provided largely at the federal level in order to avoid a systematic underinvestment (attributable to a classical form of economic externality) relative to the level that would be optimal for the nation as a whole. This paper originally appeared as Section 8 of the report.     

The Scientific World View,Information Technology,and Science Education: Closing the Gap Between Knowledge-Generation and Knowledge–Consumption

Scholars of science and society have documented a rising public discontent with the scientific enterprise. Low scientific literacy, and an almost instinctive mistrust of scientists and the scientific enterprise, dominate current public discourse about science-intensive matters. Ironically, this disillusionment has come at a time when the ability of scientific discoveries to inform the human condition has perhaps never been greater. New information technologies, including those for accessing data, interacting with data, and communicating with other people through space and time, may offer new pathways for bridging the large gaps that lie between the frontiers of science, students and laypeople. Examples of recent scientific discoveries that exemplify aspects of the scientific world view are reviewed, and traditional classroom pedagogy is examined in light of the habits of mind these discoveries embody. Finally, specific information technologies and model projects are reviewed. This review reveals both promise and challenges: while information technologies may foster new modes of teaching and learning, they also demand new forms of interaction among scientists, teachers, and technology/software developers, for which there are both few systemic incentives and a largely incomplete theoretical foundation.     

Education in the Information Age – A Preliminary Study of the Changing Roles of School Teachers in Singapore

With the global information boom, and rapid developments in electronic media and the World Wide Web (Web) within the last two decades, the Singapore government envisioned a need for Singapore to be Information Technology (IT) equipped and competent in every industry, beginning most importantly with the education sector. Taking its cue, the Ministry of Education (MOE) implemented rigorous plans for both school teachers and students to possess the necessary skills and knowledge. As a result, there ensued a transformation in existing teaching practices and new expectations of teachers are inadvertently formed. Based on preliminary interviews with practitioners and academics in the area of Education, this paper gives an insight into the changes that have been taking place in the education system in Singapore with respect to the new policies on IT; an overview of the changing roles that teachers have to assume; a brief discussion on how these changes can be expedited, and some possible future trends in the teaching practices and roles of teachers.