Affordances of ICT in science learning: implications for an integrated pedagogy

This paper presents an analysis of how affordances of ICT‐rich environments identified from a recent review of the research literature can support students in learning science in schools within a proposed framework for pedagogical practice in science education. Furthermore other pedagogical and curriculum innovations in science education (promoting cognitive change, formative assessment and lifelong learning) are examined to see how they may be supported and enhanced by affordances of ICT‐rich environments. The affordances that I have identified support learning through four main effects: promoting cognitive acceleration; enabling a wider range of experience so that students can relate science to their own and other real‐world experiences; increasing students' self‐management; and facilitating data collection and presentation. ICT‐rich environments already provide a range of affordances that have been shown to enable learning of science but integrating these affordances with other pedagogical innovations provides even greater potential for enhancement of students' learning.     

Maker culture and Minecraft: implications for the future of learning

Collaborative learning environments found with gaming communities can provide excellent structures to study the way that learners act within informal learning environments. For example, many of these gaming communities encourage gamers to create videogames and virtual world walkthroughs and commentaries. Walkthroughs and commentaries provide gamers information that helps them in game play. We refer to this process of walkthrough creation as digital maker culture. This study explored the phenomena of digital maker culture through a multiple case study design by examining five Minecraft walkthrough creators who created walkthrough repositories on YouTube. Findings suggest multiple levels of experience are needed when players are involved in digital maker communities. These multiple levels of experience are (a) to engage in creating designs for immediate prototypes, (b) to belong to cultural environments that foster collaboration and sharing, and (c) use common design standards. This has implications that could inform innovative instructional practices with digital tools in school environments, in order to foster a more collaborative, participatory classroom experience.     

Writing and pseudo‐writing from Internet‐based sources: implications for learning and assessment

In recent years, plagiarism has been on the increase across the Western world. This article identifies Internet access as a contributory cause of this trend and addresses the implications of readily available Internet sources for the teaching and assessment of writing in schools. The basis for the article is a previous study showing a wide incidence of plagiarism in the Internet‐based writing of students in three classes at upper secondary school level in Norway. I relate the students' choices to writing as a cognitive process and as a cultural practice. My basic assumption is that the students' writing is work. It is this work we have in mind when we relate writing to learning and when we assess students' skills on the basis of their written texts. Access to the Internet changes the premises for this work because writing can be replaced by ‘pseudo‐writing’. ‘Pseudo‐writing’ is a work reducing writing practice, which neither excludes nor coincides with what we traditionally associate with plagiarism in schools. The main point in this article is that when students have access to the Internet during essay writing, the result is unavoidably a product of both writing and pseudo‐writing. Internet access thus leads to greater uncertainty about the role writing plays in student learning and makes it more difficult to take written assignments into account in assessing students' school results and effort.     

Teachers and ICT: current use and future needs

In Scotland, ICT is clearly integral to the existing curriculum in primary and secondary education, see, for example, the 5–14 Development Programme or Higher Still in which information technology is identified as one of the core skills areas (HSDU, 1998). In light of current UK-wide developments such as the National Grid for Learning (NGfL) and the New Opportunities Fund (NOF) funded training in ICT for teachers and librarians, it is all the more important to understand teachers' ICT skills and knowledge needs, to discover their priorities for future development and to establish what will encourage teachers to adopt ICT where appropriate in their professional lives as classroom practitioners, as planners and managers and as learners. An investigation of the ICT skills and knowledge needs of teachers working in Scotland was therefore commissioned by the Scottish Office and completed by the authors. This paper reports on that study indicating relatively low use of ICT and a number of key issues which have implications for teacher training and development. The full report is available on the Scottish Executive website (http://www.scotland.gov.uk/).     

ICT for adults with learning disabilities: an organisation-wide audit

Microcomputers have recognised value for people with learning disability (mental retardation) and their use has been a feature of many service settings since the 1980s. Recent technological advances, such as the modern and powerful personal computers with multimedia capability and the Internet, have, however, not yet been widely adopted in day and residential services. The implications of these developments for service planning and management are not fully understood. A survey of microcomputer use for adults with learning disability within The Home Farm Trust, a UK national organisation for people with learning disability was carried out in the light of a planned organisation-wide initiative to introduce modern information and communications technology (ICT) to service users. Results show that there had been a limited provision of computers within the organisation and that staffing and support for the introduction of new ICT were not fully in place. The findings are discussed in the light of research on the organisational requirements for effective ICT use. These requirements were built into the planning of a major initiative to equip the organisation with new ICT for its service users. Future research should lead to simple audit procedures to aid organisations develop effective ICT use.     

ICT learning experience and research orientation as predictors of ICT skills and the ICT use of university students

Since our first studies of information and communications technology (ICT) skills and ICT use at universities in 2004, ICT and its use by students has changed greatly. In order to obtain a more detailed picture of ICT skills, we first construct a new instrument to measure the self-perception of ICT skills (49 items) and of ICT use (53 items) by students. This allows us to find some patterns for ICT skills and ICT use. In order to explain these patterns, two basic hypotheses are formulated. The first suggests that positive ICT learning experiences at home, in school, and with peers could contribute to mastering a higher level of ICT skills and more frequent use of ICT among bachelor’s students, a hypothesis that aligns with Dewey’s learning theory. The second hypothesis suggests that there is a similarity between the characteristics of information systems and scientific research, and that students who identify more with scientific research would be more likely to have greater ICT skills and a higher frequency of ICT use. Both hypotheses are tested among bachelor’s students, using some important contextual variables (gender, domain of study, ICT course in secondary school or at university, and education level of parents). It can be concluded that there is a relationship between the ICT learning experience and the research-oriented identity commitment of bachelor’s students on the one hand, and their command of ICT skills and the frequency of use of computers, ICT instruments, and ICT programs on the other.     

The evolution of ICT‐based learning environments: which perspectives for the school of the future?

This paper briefly outlines the evolution of ICT‐based learning environments discussing some of the main aspects that have characterised such evolution (eg, technological evolution, changed cognitive and pedagogical frameworks, changed role assigned to ICT‐based systems in education). The objective is to point out how the implementation of innovative learning environments, based on advanced technology, is the result of the strict interrelation between educational and cognitive theories, technological opportunities and teaching and learning needs. In this paper some indications for current and future evolution are evidenced. Reference is made to an ICT‐based multi‐environment system that supports teaching and learning activities in the domain of arithmetic problem solving at compulsory school level.     

ICT,learning and primary mathematics

A report of a decline in the extra-curricular activities available to the children in a West London junior school is presented. Using interviews with the school staff as evidence, reasons for the decline and its wider implications are discussed.     

Sustainable learning and education: A curriculum for the future

International Review of Education - This article introduces sustainable learning and education (SLE), an emerging philosophy of learning and teaching founded on principles of sustainability. SLE is...     

Modelling the ‘learning divide’: Predicting participation in adult learning and future learning intentions 2002 to 2010

This article presents multivariate analyses of the characteristics associated with both participation in adult education and the intention to participate in future learning. It uses questionnaire data from more than 47,000 individuals collected by the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) over the course of nine annual surveys administered between 2002 and 2010. It reviews both recent and historical policy in the area of ‘lifelong learning’ and considers the findings of previous empirical research in the area. The results of the current study support previous findings suggesting that participation in ‘later’ learning is most strongly associated with positive ‘learning dispositions’ and extended participation in initial, full‐time education. While other socio‐economic factors were related to participation in adult learning, the explanatory power of these variables was much weaker. Despite dramatic changes in online technologies and a ‘massification’ of Internet access over the period studied, there was no evidence that information and communications technologies were either increasing or widening access to participation.     

Instructional principles for fostering learning with ICT: teachers' perspectives as learners and instructors

Educational literature identifies several instructional principles essential to fostering learning with ICT, such as contextual learning, active learning, social learning and reflective learning. Since the ways teachers are taught relate strongly to the ways they later teach, this study sought to explore teachers' use of ICT as university students and their perception of the potential for ICT in school. Data were collected through interviews, questionnaires and the analysis of participants' online activities. The results indicate that while teachers exploit ICT for their own learning, they are cautious about integrating advanced technologies into school studies. Teachers value the potential of technology for making school studies relevant to pupils' real-life contexts and for stimulating their learning, but do not think that ICT is preferable to class-based instruction in terms of promoting cooperation and reflection processes in learning.     

Rethinking the natural capital metaphor: implications for education and learning

One way in which the concept of sustainable development has been understood is through the metaphor of natural capital. This sees that the natural world has performing functions similar to those of economic capital. This metaphor is usually developed by applying to Nature standard economic techniques for capital valuation. However, where valuation of economic capital is complex, additional techniques are often used. One such technique is ‘real options’ analysis. Applying this technique to the concept of natural capital tends to lead to its revaluation, and has particular implications for the role of learning. Learning opportunities arising from the real options metaphor are explored through a number of examples.