On the relationship between society and higher education: what path should we take?

Abstract

The current network society, with its primacy of information and communication technologies, is challenging the higher education model. The needs and expectations of today’s students differ from those of students in the past, and educational practices should adapt to modern times. But what changes will we see in the relationship between societal transformation and the higher education system? In this research paper, we set out a quantum-based approach in order to analyze this relationship and to advance the understanding about the role that distance education will play in the future. Under this perspective, we provide an illustration that allows for the representation and evaluation of future scenarios.     

Collaborative approaches in initial teacher education: lessons from approaches to developing student teachers’ use of the Internet in science teaching

In many countries, governments are keen to persuade teachers at all levels to seek to enhance the learning of their students by incorporating information and communication technologies within their classrooms. This paper reports on the development of collaborative approaches to supporting use of the Internet by Post Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) science students on initial teacher education (ITE) courses in England, drawing on data from five higher education institution (HEI)–school partnerships across four years. A mixed-method approach was used, involving questionnaires, structured interviews, lesson observations and case studies. The outcomes of the first three years identified barriers to practice and suggested the need to develop more collaborative approaches to development. The focus of this paper is on examining ways in which university faculty tutors and mentors or cooperating teachers can work together with students on PGCE courses in developing practice. The lessons from this focus on the Internet, no longer a new technology, have enabled us to identify implications for HEI partnerships in ITE and suggest a need for further collaborative structures in order to support and develop practices, including those involving the innovative use of new technologies in the post-industrial society.     

教育4.0全球框架:未来学校教育与模式转变--世界经济论坛《未来学校:为第四次工业革命定义新的教育模式》之报告解读

伴随着第四次工业革命的到来,教育系统与全球经济社会的现实需求越来越脱节,需要一个新的教育框架和模式以培养符合未来社会需求的人才。在2020年1月世界经济论坛(World Economic Forum)发布的《未来学校:为第四次工业革命定义新的教育模式》之报告中,描述了教育4.0的全球框架、特征和方法,以案例方式展现了向教育4.0过渡的16所学校的教育模式。这一《报告》对我国的教育决策者和学校领导具有五个方面的启示:把握第四次工业革命和教育4.0的内在联系,达成教育4.0共识;利用新技术构建全新、动态的未来学校形态;构建创新创造、技术技能、人际交往和全球公民意识四维能力的人才培养体系;创新学习范式、教育场域、教学方法和学习方式;加强学校与社会相关子系统的合作关系,提高教师的职业核心素质,加快融入教育4.0,迈向未来学校。     

小学教育专业信息素养教育类课程设置研究

教育信息化进程和教师专业化发展对教师的信息素养提出了新的要求,作为未来教师的小学教育专业学生必须掌握寻找知识和信息的能力。基于此,对当前小教专业学生的信息素养培养的现状进行分析,提出小教专业学生信息素养教育类课程设置的方案及相应的实施措施:以期进一步提高小学教育专业学生的培养质量。     

Universities,the Information Technology Challenge,and Open and Distance Learning in Central and Eastern Europe

The educational needs of eastern and central Europe can be met by distance education methods. The need to reform and to expand open and distance education possibilities led in 1990 to the founding in Budapest of EDEN, the European Distance Education Network. After 1990, the proponents of open and distance education were able to expand the scope of their activities as the result of expanding possibilities provided by the rapidly developing information and communication technologies. The pedagogical possibilities offered by these technologies are described with an emphasis on their democratizing tendencies, their ultimate inexpensiveness in terms of the total costs of different types of higher education, and their commercial possibilities. The setting up of the Distance Education Centre of the Technical University of Budapest is presented as a case study. Governments and institutions must find the best ways to use the information and communication technologies to integrate traditional higher education with open and distance learning techniques so as to offer the best possibilities at regional, national, and institutional levels.     

浅析高校学生思想政治教育

本文针对新时期大学生思想政治教育，作了全面观察和了解。对如何有效地作好思想政治教育工作，文章从思想政治教育工作的重要性、应遵行的原则、应避免的误区、方式方法等方面作了论述，闻述了对大学生的了解和思想政治教育全过程及内在联系。     

Examining the use of e-assessment in higher education: teachers and students’ viewpoints

The combination of teaching and information technologies is at the origin of a more embracing, flexible and accessible approach to learning. Assessment is considered an integral part of the learning process, but it has always been considered challenging for teachers. Through the adoption of information technologies, it is possible to create new opportunities to improve assessment. Despite its numerous advantages, e-assessment remains a topic of much discussion for many, due to doubts that arise about its efficiency and effectiveness. In order to understand this issue, this study aims to explore e-assessment in higher education, from the viewpoint of teachers and students. Four online surveys were distributed among teachers and students in Portugal and other countries. While the results show that Portugal is slightly behind in terms of adoption, there is a strong awareness of the importance of e-assessment. Internationally, e-assessment has higher adoption rates, and both teachers and students believe that this method of assessment is advantageous.     

信息素养的培养——信息检索课面临的新挑战

信息检索课在高校推进信息素养教育中起着至关重要的作用,要使其作用发挥得淋漓尽致。信息检索课就要在教学内容、教学方法和教学模式上作彻底的改革,使用多种教育手段,以达到使学生能够准确地表达自己的信息需求,选择有效的检索途径,制定好的检索策略,能解释和分析检索结果,并能正确地评价检索结果。     

IITE信息与通信技术教育评价指标体系述评

介绍了联合国教科文组织教育信息化研究所(IITE)建立的教育信息化评价指标体系的主要内容,国家信息技术政策与行动方案和统计及其具体指标,分析了其对我国信息技术教育发展的启示,希望对我国信息技术评价体系提供一些思路。     

Globalisation: The role of new information and communication technologies in distance education

Abstract

The rapid changes and convergence of new information and communication technologies over the past decade have changed the way distance education is employed. The new information and communication technology revolution has enabled academic institutions to provide a flexible and more open learning environment to students and has brought distant sites into an electronic web of information. As a result, the gist of this paper is to examine the promise of new information and communication technologies and public service broadcasting (particularly television broadcast-based distance education) in Africa in the face of globalisation.     

The use of the internet in university teacher training

Education students often complain about the style of learning practiced at universities. In addition to theoretical knowledge, they want to gain more experience with “real” students. We are investigating new ways of combining theoretical learning and practical teaching by using digital communication techniques. We design courses for the study of German in primary and secondary schools, where our students cooperate with high school students via E-mail, messageboard, and chat. We aim to interest future teachers of German language and literature in media literacy and to prepare them for their future tasks in German classrooms against the background of the new information society. We developed the coursework over the last 5 years in the light of the experience we have gained, research performed, and the changes in hardware and software. Our program can also be transferred to other fields of teacher education.     

浅析江苏自学考试“助学二学历”教育之创新

新形势下"助学二学历"教育作为江苏自学考试一种新的办学形式,是在秉承传统的自学考试制度基础上的大胆创新。在普通高校在校生中有序开展自学考试第二学历教育,对高校教育教学与管理提出了新的要求。作为高校教学管理者应与时俱进,在工作实践中认真分析研究并把握其改革的精髓,推进自考事业健康顺利发展。     

比较教育与国际教育交流论坛

前些年大家都在讨论比较教育学科的身份危机,然而近年来世界各国,特别是发展中国家比较教育学科的发展依然繁荣,其生命力何在?笔者重申了作为比较教育方法论框架的国际教育交流论坛这一观点的重要性,认为随着知识经济的发展以及世界的多极化和经济体的多元化发展,今天世界各国的教育更需要在真诚沟通的前提下,在教育理论、观念、价值、制度、政策和实践领域互相交流,在具有跨文化性、发展性和预测性的国际性课题中相互合作。由此可见,把比较教育作为国际教育交流论坛,就可以摆脱比较教育学科身份危机的困境,开拓比较教育研究新的广阔天地。     

My School, My University, My Country, My World, My Google, Myself…What is education for now?

Education is today in question, both in its institutional forms and in its conceptual remit. The sense of a knowledge explosion and a world in rapid change challenges the curricula of schools, universities, vocational colleges. And the institutions seem to have to account for themselves in new ways, as if their purposes have subtly shifted. Outside formal institutions the possibilities of new technologies and new forms of communication are highly visible. Do we need education when we have information? What happens to education when it is all about learning? And what is the role of education research in any of this? In this 2011 Radford Lecture, Lyn Yates discusses challenges and transformations evident across the education spectrum today, and why, in the flux of new possibilities and new kinds of institutions, there is a need to talk again about the distinct purposes of education and education institutions.     

Use of Internet Technologies for Teaching Purposes

With the development of information technologies we observe more and more possibilities for their use in education. The paper deals with general issues in the field of Internet use in education and with its role in so-called distance education. After a brief review of actual issues, the paper describes how novel approaches could be utilized in the case of teaching Computer Communications and Networks at the Faculty of Computer and Information Science. As the plan has not yet been accomplished, its first phase (improved communication/ information flow between students and teacher as well as computer-mediated assignment accomplishing) and the work in progress are described in the paper. Intuitive evaluation of results is given and further steps are described.     

The Development of Distance Learning Delivery Systems

The history of distance learning, traditionally a peripheral university activity, is briefly traced. The advent, first of the British Open University with its renovated philosophy of distance learning, and then of the new information and communication technologies and their application to distance education, has led to a revalorization of open and distance education. These technologies are rapidly blurring the distinction between traditional higher education and distance learning. Various techniques of distance learning are described, particularly the electronic classroom and the electronic library. These techniques, based as they are on text transmission, stand to improve the reading comprehension and writing skills of students even as they make radical changes in the positions, relative to one another, of students and teachers. At the same time, the ease of electronic writing may lead to a decrease in required intellectual rigour, chat rooms producing chatter rather than serious ideas. Also, the economies of scale available via the information and communication technologies may lead to serious cut‐backs in traditional higher education provision.     

用和谐的校园文化促进电大教育科学发展

在党和政府高度重视教育的新形势下,学习和贯彻落实全国教育工作会议和《教育规划纲要》精神,建设和谐校园,大力推动电大教育的科学发展,是当前和今后一个时期各级电大责无旁贷的重要任务。发扬有自身特色的电大校园文化,要把人才培养目标放在校园文化的首位,坚持以社会主义核心价值体系作为理论基础。建设以人为本、健康和谐而富有特色的校园文化,用先进文化塑造师生形象,使校园文化建设达到塑造人、发展人,提升师生整体素质的目的。     

信息技术在远程开放教育互动交流中的应用探讨

基于Intemet网络环境的远程开放教育具有不同于传统教育的特点,在开放教育的实践中师生运用了各种信息技术开展学习互动交流。论文分析了远程开放教育中各种信息技术在互动交流中应用情况、特点并进行了比较。结合开放教育实践,对远程学习中各对象之间互动时信息技术的合理应用提出了建议。     

Education for future-oriented citizenship: implications for the education of twenty-first century competencies

Globalization and the knowledge economy have opened up worldwide agendas for national development. Following this is the emphasis on the social dimension, otherwise known as social capital. Much of social capital includes “soft skills” and “twenty-first century skills”, which broadly cover critical, creative and inventive thinking; information, interactive and communication skills; civic literacy, global awareness and cross-cultural skills. Proactively, the Singapore government is preparing for Curriculum 2015, a new curriculum that would develop student attributes, embedded in the “confident person”, “self-directed learner”, “active contributor”, and “concerned citizen”. Significantly, a new curricular initiative, Character and Citizenship Education, emphasizes the integrative nature of citizenship and twenty-first century competencies and has been implemented in all schools in Singapore from 2011. This future-oriented approach to citizenship education emphasizes the significance of individual initiatives and the intellectual capital of citizens. This paper analyses features of this particular approach to citizenship education, and its strengths and significance, which may be viewed as an integrative “total curriculum approach” with a “whole-society” perspective. In addition, the challenges of teaching twenty-first century skills will also be highlighted. This departs from the conventional paradigm of socialization, but to help students develop attributes for a future society to come.