Learning environments in information and communications technology classrooms

Abstract

The study of learning environments provides a useful research framework for investigating the effects of educational innovations such as those which are associated with the use of the Internet in classroom settings. This study reports an investigation into the use of Internet technologies in high-school classrooms in Australia and Canada. Specifically, it combined the investigation of the physical and psychosocial learning environments featured within these ‘technological settings’, as well as interactions among the selected physical and psychosocial factors in influencing students' satisfaction with their learning in these settings. Further, we explored how both the physical and psychosocial domains can effectively enable or, alternatively, constrain the teaching methods used in these classrooms. We first explored the learning environment in these classrooms through the use of a questionnaire measuring aspects of the psychosocial learning environment together with ergonomic site evaluations. Next, we investigated interactions among physical and psychosocial variables in these classrooms through selected and detailed case studies, which included a more detailed assessment of the physical classroom environment in tandem with classroom observations and student/teacher interviews. The results offer insights into new approaches to technology implementation and teaching practice and call for teachers to take a leading role in classroom laboratory design.     

Academic Library Collaboration in Supporting Students Pre-Induction: The Head Start Project

For higher education institutions in the United Kingdom there is a growing focus on improving student retention, encouraging academic engagement, and easing transition into university life. This article reports on the creation and outcomes of Head Start, a pre-induction online course created to provide students with a level of understanding of academic literacies including information literacy to aid preparation for university study. Information literacy librarians have reported that there has been a marked improvement in the confidence and information literacies of new starters taking the module. The article is of value for others wishing to support students at pre-entry.     

Working-class women study social science degrees: remembering enablers and detractors

In this article, we report on a feminist memory work project conducted with 11 working-class women in Australia. Participants responded to the question: what helps and hinders working-class women study social science degrees? The women confirmed that to succeed at university, they needed opportunities, resources, support and encouragement. We called these enablers and considered the role of ‘enlightened witnesses’ [Miller, 1997. The essential role of an enlightened witness in society. Retrieved from http://www.alice-miller.com/index_en.php?page=2]. Hindering the possibility of university success were detractors of many forms including inadequate resources and social conventions that discouraged the women from study. We describe saboteurs as undermining people and forces that the women had to overcome. We found that enlightened witnesses, broadly conceptualised, go some way but not all, to mitigating detractors and saboteurs that continue to hamper fair and meritocratic access to tertiary education.     

Global citizenship and the importance of education in a globally integrated world

As national borders dissipate and technology allows different cultures and nationalities to communicate on a regular basis, more individuals are self-identifying as a global citizen. Using Social Network Analysis and multi-level modelling, this study explores factors associated with global citizen affinity and finds that education plays an important, perhaps the most important, role in individual’s affinity towards this self-identification. Results clearly indicate that more education, not national economic or social integration, is more closely associated with an individual’s positive identity as a global citizen. Additionally, the magnitude of the education effect is greater in more socially integrated societies.