Technology in Support of Collaborative Learning

This paper reviews the research conducted in the last 20 years on the application of technology in support of collaborative learning in higher education. The review focuses primarily on studies that use Internet-based technologies and social interaction analysis. The review provides six sets of observations/recommendations regarding methodology, empirical evidence, and research gaps and issues that may help focus future research in this emerging field of study.

Evaluation of a collaborative multimedia conflict resolution curriculum

This article describes the development and evaluation of STARstreams, a pilot effort to utilize videos and online discussions in a conflict resolution curriculum that acknowledges the inherent socio-personal aspects of conflict. The STARstreams curricula includes a set of video-based scenarios depicting conflict situations and potential resolutions to those conflicts, a web-based conferencing system for cross-classroom discussion of the scenarios, and a handbook to guide teacher implementation of the curriculum. These materials were evaluated in a 2-week field trial with four geographically diverse 5th and 6th grade classrooms. The experimental STARstreams curriculum was well-received by participating students and teachers, engendered extensive participation in online discussions about the scenarios, and had a statistically significant effect on measures of social problem solving, self-efficacy toward conflict resolution, and perceived value and satisfaction with the materials. The overall program and its development are described; classroom experiences, online discussion, and quantitative outcome measures are presented; and implications for future efforts are discussed.

The Impact of Faculty Attitudes Toward Technology, Distance Education, and Innovation

Distance education plays an important role in broadening educational access and increasing higher educational opportunities. The success, however, for any distance education initiative relies on a critical and core resource, namely having participating faculty who provide quality instruction. This study uses survey design and diffusion of innovation theory to examine faculty participation in relation to their technology use, their attitudes toward technology and distance education, and their adoption of innovations at a public postsecondary 10-campus system. Ordinal regression analysis identified 20 significant variables (16 predictors representing the four latent dimensions of the conceptual model and four demographic characteristics) that explain faculty participation in distance education. The findings identify a number of core issues underlying faculty participation and non-participation in distance education which pose implications for policy and practice relevant to technology use and skills, training and development, course design and technical support, quality issues, and workload and compensation.

Racializing educational change: Melting pot and mosaic influences on educational policy and practice

This article racializes educational change by examining literature on the history of educational approaches to diversity in the United States and Ontario, Canada to demonstrate how their respective national myths for engaging with diversity—the melting pot and mosaic—have impacted their educational policies and practices over three definable eras of educational change. The educational policies and practices of the two countries are evaluated in relation to four significant and—within the existing literature—widely used political and educational strategies for responding to racial and ethnocultural diversity in schools. The paper cautions that the current era of curriculum standardization and high stakes assessments that reflects a melting pot approach to education reinstitutes and reinforces an inequitable vertical mosaic structure of schooling experiences and outcomes for diverse student populations. It urges policy makers to consider how the current movement toward post-standardization, which reflects a mosaic approach, is presently influencing educational policy and practice in international contexts and achieving more just and effective learning outcomes for diverse student groups.

Integrating technology into K-12 teaching and learning: current knowledge gaps and recommendations for future research

Although research studies in education show that use of technology can help student learning, its use is generally affected by certain barriers. In this paper, we first identify the general barriers typically faced by K-12 schools, both in the United States as well as other countries, when integrating technology into the curriculum for instructional purposes, namely: (a) resources, (b) institution, (c) subject culture, (d) attitudes and beliefs, (e) knowledge and skills, and (f) assessment. We then describe the strategies to overcome such barriers: (a) having a shared vision and technology integration plan, (b) overcoming the scarcity of resources, (c) changing attitudes and beliefs, (d) conducting professional development, and (e) reconsidering assessments. Finally, we identify several current knowledge gaps pertaining to the barriers and strategies of technology integration, and offer pertinent recommendations for future research.

Listening and reflecting: an introduction to the special issue

The topic of listening has been broadly neglected in educational studies. This special issue presents studies on the connections between listening and reflecting in educational contexts.

The Role of Nonprofits in Educational Technology Innovation

For decades, nonprofit organizations have played a vital role in educational technology innovation. Sesame Street, online high schools, probeware for science and mathematics teaching and learning, and many other innovations now widely used both in and outside schools were developed by nonprofits, including not only universities but also independent R&D organizations, such as the Concord Consortium. Within the federal budget, there has been a decade-long trend to reduce both the size and number of awards made specifically for innovation in educational technology. Small grants, including those for basic research, are less likely to lead to transformative innovations in teaching and learning than larger, targeted awards for innovation. At a time when digital tools continue to grow more useful and powerful, and when larger numbers of schools are using them effectively, it is time for federal agencies to focus additional resources on educational technology innovation.

Preschool Teachers’ Shared Beliefs About Appropriate Pedagogy for 4-Year-Olds

The 18 preschool teachers in the study tended to agree that preschool education for 4-year-olds should foremost be fun and engaging, not stressful. Teachers should develop curricula based on children’s interests and everyday lives, and allow children to choose their activities and to direct their own play and exploration at their own pace. The goal of preschool education should be to promote children’s social, emotional, and physical well-being, and not focus so much on academic learning.

Digital storytelling: a meaningful technology-integrated approach for engaged student learning

Although research emphasizes the importance of integrating technology into the curriculum, the use of technology can only be effective if teachers themselves possess the expertise to use technology in a meaningful way in the classroom. The aim of this study was to assist Egyptian teachers in developing teaching and learning through the application of a particular digital technology. Students were encouraged to work through the process of producing their own digital stories using MS Photo Story, while being introduced to desktop production and editing tools. They also presented, published and shared their own stories with other students in the class. Quantitative and qualitative instruments, including digital story evaluation rubric, integration of technology observation instruments and interviews for evaluating the effectiveness of digital storytelling into learning were implemented to examine the extent to which students were engaged in authentic learning tasks using digital storytelling. The findings from the analysis of students-produced stories revealed that overall, students did well in their projects and their stories met many of the pedagogical and technical attributes of digital stories. The findings from classroom observations and interviews revealed that despite problems observed and reported by teachers, they believed that the digital storytelling projects could increase students’ understanding of curricular content and they were willing to transform their pedagogy and curriculum to include digital storytelling.

Lessons Learned: Findings from MIT Initiatives in Educational Technology (2000–2005)

Since 1999, MIT has undertaken an extensive effort in creating and implementing educational technology. Broadly speaking, there have been two kinds of efforts: developing web-based services for higher education and creating educational technology applications for use in the classroom. This article reviews a group of projects that produced educational technology applications for use in the classroom or for classroom-based activities and were assessed by educational researchers in the Teaching and Learning Laboratory (TLL). From those in depth studies, as well as less extensive involvement with a half dozen more initiatives, we draw three major findings on the role and impact of educational technologies as they were developed and used at MIT over 6 years: (1) the most successful educational technologies meet a specific instructional need that has been unmet or poorly met by traditional media; (2) too much technology or technology that does not work well can be detrimental; and (3) there are important relationships between the technologies and the learning environments in which they operate.

Understanding educational transfer: theoretical perspectives and conceptual frameworks

Educational transfer is an important and growing body of literature in the field of comparative education. Work from the last decade has focused on the stages of the borrowing cycle, and the context, causes and rationales for education borrowing. This recent work has contributed to earlier research on the role of multilateral organizations in education development and transfer. Rather than reviewing in comprehensive detail the substance, agents or mechanisms of educational transfer, this paper provides an overview of the field’s main theoretical lenses and conceptual frameworks, focusing on the stages, processes and forms of educational transfer. Throughout the paper we link related literature from disciplines other than education to account for education policy changes. The paper concludes with a discussion of future lines of research on educational transfer.

The Impact of an Engineering Design Curriculum on Science Reasoning in an Urban Setting

This study examines the use of engineering design to facilitate science reasoning in high-needs, urban classrooms. The Design for Science unit utilizes scaffolds consistent with reform science instruction to assist students in constructing a design solution to satisfy a need from their everyday lives. This provides a meaningful context in which students could reason scientifically. Eighth grade students from two urban schools participated in the unit. Both schools contained large percentages of racial/ethnic minority and economically disadvantaged students. Students demonstrated statistically significant improvement on a paper-and-pencil, multiple-choice pre and post assessment. The results compare favorably with both a high-quality inquiry science unit and a traditional textbook curriculum. Implications for the use of design-based curricula as a viable alternative for teaching science reasoning in high-needs, urban settings are discussed.

Curriculum translation and environmental education: considering issues of discursive intentionality, interpretation, and validity

We would like to thank our commentators Reis, Ercikan and Alper for their insightful comments on our research study and respond in brief to a few of their criticisms. More specifically, we would like to address what we consider to be the three main issues they raise with regard to the practices of curriculum translation and implementation across languages, namely viewing speakers’ intentions as a mode of signification in discourse analysis, exploring curriculum translation through an interpretive research approach, and establishing the validity of research on curriculum translation.

Institutionalizing <Emphasis Type="Italic">The Outsiders</Emphasis>: YA Literature,Social Class,and the American Faith in Education

The Outsiders if often credited with marking the emergence of YA literature. It was written by a teenager and was intended to represent honestly the difficult lives of other young adults. Despite the novel’s audience and purpose and its potentially provocative acknowledgment of the problems of social class, The Outsiders was readily institutionalized as part of school reading lists and educational curricula throughout the United States. Its institutionalization can be accounted for in part by the way it offers a palliative to the problems it depicts. The protagonist, Ponyboy, represents the novel itself as an intervention into those problems, but it works to reaffirm a notion of rugged individualism and a faith in American education. Such lessons ultimately disarm the novel’s class critique and render it safe for educational institutions.

The Creation of OpenCourseWare at MIT

This paper traces the genesis of the MIT OpenCourseWare project from its initial strategic precursors in 1999 and 2000, through its launch in 2001 and its subsequent evolution. The story told here illuminates the interplay among institutional leadership, and strategic planning, and with university culture in launching major educational technology enterprises. It also shows how initiatives can evolve in unexpected ways, and can even surpass their initial goals. The paper concludes with an overview of challenges facing OpenCourseWare in moving from the end of its production ramp-up and towards sustainability.

Teaching structured troubleshooting: integrating a standard methodology into an information technology program

Troubleshooting skills are integral for the Information Technology professional. In order to address faculty concerns that students were not effectively learning required troubleshooting skills, a standardized troubleshooting methodology (the DECSAR Method) was created and integrated into the standard curriculum of a college information technology program. Components of troubleshooting were measured using a pre-/post-testing approach with the Social Problem Solving Inventory—Revised. Testing indicated improvement in several areas of troubleshooting reinforced by DECSAR. The context in which the troubleshooting methodology was applied was associated with post-test change.

Mathematical preparation of elementary teachers in China: changes and issues

It is generally perceived that Chinese elementary teachers have a profound understanding of the school mathematics they teach. This perception has led to further interest in understanding teacher education practices in China. As some dramatic changes in elementary teacher preparation have taken place in China over the past decade, this article aims to outline these changes with a focus on curriculum provided in the new 4-year bachelor preparation programs. Sample mathematics teacher educators in China were also surveyed to gather insiders’ views about teacher preparation practices and to identify relevant issues. We believe that elementary teacher preparation and its changes in China can provide an important case for mathematics teacher educators around the world to reflect on teacher education practices in their own systems.

The Decline and Revival of Liberal Learning at Duke: The Focus and Gerst Programs

Small programs can make a big difference on college campuses. At Duke University, a few dedicated people, with the support of college administrators, exploited the all-too-evident liabilities of curriculum fragmentation, political correctness, and the lack of direction felt by undergraduate students to create intellectually valuable and stimulating new offerings. Russell Nieli tells how the Gerst and Focus programs have influenced that university and others across America.