Media literacy and audiovisual languages: a case study from Belgium

This article examines the use of media in the construction of a “new” language for children. We studied how children acquire and use media literacy skills through their engagement in an educational art project. This media literacy project is rooted in the realm of audiovisual media, within which children’s sound and visual worlds are the focus of inquiry. Using an ethnographic approach, we examined the engagement in the project of participating children, and we analyzed how they used this “new” discourse as a tool to express themselves. Our analysis focused on how the project was received by children, and on the potential for educational media art projects to stimulate media knowledge.

Connaissance raisonnée des medias et langages audio‐visuels: une étude de cas en Belgique

Cet article étudie l’usage des medias dans la construction d’un nouveau langage pour les enfants. Nous avons étudié la façon dont les enfants acquièrent et font usage de compétences liées à la connaissance raisonnée des medias en s’impliquant dans un projet artistique éducatif. Ce projet sur la connaissance raisonnée des medias s’enracine dans les médias audio‐visuels au sein desquels les mondes visuels et sonores des enfants font l’objet de notre enquête. En ayant recours à une approche ethnographique, nous avons examiné l’implication dans le projet des enfants qui y participaient et nous avons analysé la façon dont ils utilisaient ce nouveau discours comme instrument de leur propre expression. Notre analyse a mis l’accent sur la façon dont le projet a été reçu par les enfants et sur le potentiel des projets artistiques reposant sur les médias éducatifs pour stimuler la connaissance des medias.

Medienkompetenz und audiovisuelle Sprachen: Eine Fallstudie aus Belgien

Dieser Artikel untersucht die Nutzung von Medien in der Entwicklung einer “neuen” Sprache bei Kindern. Wir untersuchten wie Kinder Medienkompetenzen bei ihrer Auseinandersetzung mit einem pädagogischen Kunstprojekt erwarben und verwendeten. Dieses Medienkompetenzprojekt basierte in dem Bereich der audiovisuellen Medien, wobei die auditorischen und visuellen Welten der Kinder im Mittelpunkt der Untersuchung standen. Durch die Verwendung eines ethnographischen Ansatzes untersuchten wir, wie sich die an dieser Studie teilnehmenden Kinder mit dem Projekt auseinandersetzten. Wir analysierten zusätzlich, wie die Kinder diesen “neuen” Diskurs benutzten, um sich selbst auszudrücken. Unsere Analyse konzentrierte sich darauf, wie das Projekt von den Kindern aufgenommen wurde, sowie auch auf das Potenzial von pädagogischen Medienprojekten für die Förderung von Medien‐Wissen.

Alfabetismo mediático y los lenguajes audio‐visuales: un estudio de caso de Bélgica

El presente artículo examina el uso de los medios en la construcción de un nuevo lenguaje para los niños. Hemos estudiado como los niños adquieren y aprovechan sus competencias en alfabetismo mediático cuando se involucran en un proyecto artístico educativo. Este proyecto de alfabetismo mediático está arraigado en el reino de los medios audiovisuales en el cual los mundos sonoros y visuales de los niños son el foco de la presente encuesta. Utilizando una metodología etnográfica, hemos examinado la implicación en este proyecto de los niños participantes y analizado como aprovechaban este « nuevo » discurso como una herramienta para expresarse. Nuestro análisis enfoca la manera de acoger el proyecto por parte de los niños y el potencial de los proyectos artísticos basados en los medios educativos para incentivar el conocimiento de los medios.     

Bridging the digital divide with off-line e-learning

Abstract

This paper explores a proposal for an off-line e-learning platform that will provide a bridge for digitally unconnected students and educators to join the contemporary information and communications technology (ICT) intensive world. Individual remote and unconnected learners face a chicken and egg problem for engagement with contemporary e-learning offerings. Without connectivity, remote learners have no way of engaging with now common ICT intensified learning materials that are intended to teach them how to engage in an ICT intensive world! The paper takes systems approach to developing a solution that will fit into the world we have, and not one we wish we had in terms of infrastructure, economics and skills available in remote and developing regions. Digital learning courses are placed onto a portable e-learning environment that is not reliant on a constant network connection to function but retains interactivity, analytics and the ability to synchronise data with an educational institution when a connection is found.     

Closing the digital divide: evaluation of the World Links program

In response to this digital divide between developed and developing countries in their use of computers to prepare students for the global economy, the World Bank and, subsequently, the World Links organization provided schools in developing countries with networked computers and training that supports integration of ICT into teaching. This article synthesizes findings from 3 years of evaluative research on the program. The findings are based on surveys of teachers, students, administrators, and technology coordinators, as well as a field test assessment of student learning. The study examines the services provided, documents their impact, and draws implications for policy in developing countries.     

Mapping the digital divide in Britain: implications for learning and education

The internet presents many potential opportunities for people to learn for both formal and informal purposes. However, not everyone is able to make the most of the internet for learning. This paper utilises quantitative nationally representative survey data of internet use in Britain in order to explore the digital divide in relation to learning activities online. The results from this analysis give a detailed picture of the digital divide in Britain; illustrating those who are non‐users and users of the internet and the reasons that are important in explaining the diversity in non‐use and use of the internet for learning (e.g., age, educational background, skills, attitudes and experience). The findings may assist in the development of policies that seek to support under‐served groups to make the most effective use of the internet for formal and informal learning opportunities.     

Controlled internationalization: The case of kikokushijo from Belgium

Education, as an institutional tool to shape and bundle the social behavior and the minds of future generations into a basic form of national unity, has always occupied a special position in Japanese society and culture (Kobayashi, 1978; White, 1987). One of the principal objectives of this chapter is to capture the complex reality of Japanese youngsters studying at the International School of Brussels through participant observation, ethnography and interpretative analysis within the larger context of internationalization processes and the discourse on Japanese ethnic identity. In the first part the interplay of migratory, institutional and social processes will be presented. There exists a worldwide network of Japanese schools, which aims at providing unaltered Japanese education on foreign soil, and thus preparing Japanese youngsters for a smooth re-insertion process from the overseas experience into mainstream Japanese society. In the second part, the particular experiences of Japanese youngsters will be discussed in detail. In the concluding note, an attempt is made to venture into explicatory schemes of this controlled internationalization process.     

Universities,the digital divide and global inequality

ABSTRACT

Absolute poverty levels are declining around the world but, measured by income and GDP per capita over time, inequality is getting worse between and within many countries. How is this possible when higher education is celebrated as a vehicle for economic success and when the massification and digitisation of higher education means it is available to more people, in more places, than ever? This paper explores these questions with reference to three discourses: on development and global inequality; on the purpose and responsibilities of higher education; and on the disruptive potential of online learning.     

Dividing at an early age: the hidden digital divide in Ohio elementary schools

Computers are now a ubiquitous part of US elementary school education. With policy reports suggesting that inequities in information and communication technology (ICT) access across US schools are a thing of the past, investigating how such resources and their use may nonetheless continue to vary becomes all that much more important. Through a survey of a statistically representative sample of teachers in Ohio, this research examined computer use among third grade students, including in relation to an array of ICT resources and other key factors. The results indicated that such use was more sophisticated among students in affluent suburban schools when compared to students in all other locations, including various rural and urban locations. These differences were correlated with numerous ICT resource discrepancies. Overall, the discrepancies in ICT use and resources can be understood as not only symptomatic of persistent, broader social inequalities, but also factors that reinforce such inequalities as well.     

Youth voices: connections between history, enacted culture and identity in a digital divide initiative

The design of educational experiences is often mediated by historical, institutional, and social conceptions. Although these influences can initially shape the way that educational opportunities are created and implemented, this preliminary form has the potential to reorganize. In this paper, we illustrate how history shows its presence in the ways that instructors systematically arrange a technology course for urban youth. This original approach to the course inhibits youth participation. Incrementally, however, the cultural enactments of instructors and students lead to a reorganization of activity. Through highlighting history and examining the intersection of culture, we provide insight into the ways in which adolescents of color become successfully engaged in learning technology. We focus our study by asking how co-existence and the dialectic of structure and agency play a role as youth develop an identity as a technology user. Further, this emergent learning design affords outsiders a unique view of the educational and contextual experiences of these youth. Our illustration of how history, enacted culture and identity mediate the emergent learning design stems from a grounded theory approach to analyzing video, interview and artifact data in this after-school technology course.

缩小城乡数字鸿沟 推进教育均衡发展

近年来,我市认真贯彻落实省委、省政府《关于推进广东省义务教育均衡发展的实施意见》和省教育厅《关于实施〈广东省教育资源下乡行动计划（2009—2015年）〉的通知》精神,以创建广东省教育强市为契机,通过创新机制、技术和模式,打造“村小信息直通车”,开展“农村中小学远程多媒体互动教室”和     

Getting closer to the digital divide: An analysis of impacts on digital competencies based on the German PIAAC sample

This paper takes an intersectional perspective to investigate the effect of socio-demographic variables that may constitute to digital divide. The concept of digital divide emerged from a perspective on unequal access to digital technology and relates nowadays primarily the differences in the competencies necessary to handle this technology. To investigate digital divide, the present paper uses the PIAAC framework of digital competencies which is called problem solving in technology-rich environments (PS-TRE). It introduces the approach of intersectionality that describes persons impaired by multiple inequalities.The paper analyzes the impact of these factors on PS-TRE for three subsamples of the German study: (1) employed people who use computers at work and at home, (2) employed people who use computers only at home, and (3) people that are out of the labor force. It analyzes furthermore contributions to digital divide by a comparison of these impacts with literacy and numeracy scores.While employed people with computer use at work and home only had generation as a factor for constituting digital divide, employed people with computer use only at home had migration background as a further factor. Education and cultural capital showed lower impacts on PS-TRE than on literacy and numeracy.     

Deconfessionalising RE in pillarised education systems: a case study of Belgium and the Netherlands

This article reflects on the place of RE in a pillarised education context, taking into account the fact of religious diversity and pluralisation among the school population on the one hand, and the freedom of religion and education of faith-based schools on the other. Particular attention will be given to Belgium and the Netherlands, which do not only have a comparable pillarised education model, but also have a quite similar religious landscape. After a brief historical sketch of the educational systems in both nations, attention will be given to the present situation and to the challenges of religious diversity and secularism in faith-based schools. In order to meet these challenges, recent developments concerning RE in Belgium and the Netherlands are discussed. In conclusion, we will outline some suggestions for the future of RE in faith-based schools in a pillarised education context.     

Across the divide: teaching a transnational MBA in a second language

China is a growing market for the provision of transnational programs. However, there are many challenges associated with providing good—quality learning opportunities while ensuring cost‐effectiveness, particularly in bilingual programs. This paper describes the experience of business academics teaching a postgraduate MBA program in Mandarin to students located in China. The academics found that their attempts to provide an effective teaching/learning environment while teaching through translators led to many additional challenges, including increased rigidity of teaching processes and difficulties in monitoring learning outcomes. The paper identifies some ways in which staff teaching transnationally might be supported, while also suggesting that teaching across a language divide needs to be carefully considered before universities venture into this complex educational setting.     

Global Knowledge-based Policy in Fragmented Societies: the case of curriculum reform in French-speaking Belgium

This article examines the relationship between knowledge and policy in French-speaking Belgium. It starts by describing Belgium as a consociational democracy, i.e. a society that is largely organised around integrated pillars of society (Catholic, secular), each of which provides a wide range of services (educational, training, health, health insurance, social care, family planning, leisure) to 'its' people. This special political-institutional arrangement has profound implications for the way knowledge circulates (or not) and the way it is used (or not) both within pillars and across the policy community. We argue that consociational democracies are not likely to generate knowledge-driven policy communities. Since knowledge could threaten the peace, some things are better left unknown: the co-existence of distinct communities requires a form of discretion ( Mangez, 2009 ).
Recently, however, globalisation has led to changes in this long-standing state of affairs: elites are now seeking more knowledge about systems and joint regulation is on the rise. In the education sector, several policy issues, including curriculum issues, have been subject to new joint regulation. In the second part of the article, we take curriculum reform as a case study to investigate these changes. Although all school networks from both pillars are now obliged to follow common guidelines (influenced by globalisation), they are still responsible for transposing them to their individual curriculum programmes. Lexico-statistical analysis reveals that when they transpose these common guidelines to their own curricula, each network reasserts its own values and cultural references (including its own view of the role of knowledge).     

In the shadow of whiteness: (re)exploring connections between history, enacted culture, and identity in a digital divide initiative

Who we are, our identities, as educators and learners cannot be considered separately from our histories and cultures. As such, many attempts at improving education for historically marginalized minority groups often revolve around finding ways to connect youth culture to curricula. What remains largely unexamined, however, are the history, culture, and identities of White educators and how these forces necessarily impact the ways in which curricula are designed for youth of color. By reconsidering DeGennaro and Brown’s article “Youth Voices: Exploring Connections between History, Enacted Culture and Identity in a Digital Divide Initiative” through a lens of Whiteness, this article aims to illustrate that the histories and identities of African–American learners are dialectically related to the histories and identities of White educators. However, because Whiteness tends to be invisible, White educators have the privilege of not examining who they are and where they come from as part of their own identity development during the teaching and learning process. This article invites White educators to question what it means to educate youth of color by recognizing their own Whiteness as a powerful force in shaping pedagogical activities. By understanding both themselves and their students as racialized, cultural actors, White educators can begin to develop curricula that are truly empowering for minority youth.

Barriers to prisoner participation in educational courses: Insights from a remand prison in Belgium

International Review of Education - This article examines the profile of prisoners who do not take part in formal education while being incarcerated (e.g. language or ICT courses) and the barriers...     

Attitudes of preservice kindergarten teachers toward the integration of computers and the reduction of the digital divide in kindergartens

Educational technology research and development - Given the great importance of integrating computers into kindergartens and the fact that today such integration has been implemented only...