A phenomenographic investigation on the use of iPads among undergraduate art and design students

The increasingly widespread use of iPads in higher education (HE) brings to the forefront questions about the contribution of these computer tablets towards teaching and learning. However, there is a noticeable gap of research on the instructional potential of iPads in HE. This paper describes the first stage of a research project on the use of iPads in undergraduate art and design disciplines, and is a collaboration between the research lab “Networked Learning Technologies in Art and Design” at Cyprus University of Technology, and the “Centre for Pedagogic Research” at Falmouth University in England. The participants from both institutions provided a student‐centred perspective, and the qualitative analysis (phenomenography) revealed varied perceptions. Based on the findings of this project, the implication is that there are a number of challenges and obstacles in embedding the use of iPads in art and design education. Further research in the second stage of this collaborative research will investigate the views and motivations of art and design faculty. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBXnuVJ8eBY     

Schools of the Future

The speaker, Dr. Anna Hyer, considered that it was hardly surprising that developments in education are currently the subject of so much attention, since such changes are at the root of any social development, and opinion in the United States has never looked so frankly at the problems of society.     

Stakeholder analysis is key to client-supplier relationships of global outsourcing project success

Outsourcing as a logical consequence of globalization has caused a shift towards the integration of labour forces where communications play a significant role in the success of outsourcing partnerships. Utilizing the lens of an outsourced telecommunications case study we examine how a problematic client-supplier relationship across global loci was transformed by implementing a stakeholder analysis. We discuss how ineffectual project communications caused confusion, disinterest and apathy of client stakeholders challenging the outsourcing partnership. Our insight evidences not only the necessity to transparently address cultural challenges but emphasizes a crucial need to explicitly validate the different audiences. From the increased clarity and purpose provided it proved possible to instigate solutions such that real benefits to the project were realised. We suggest a number of key learning points as ‘lessons learnt’ to enlighten current and future practice of outsourcing relationships across global projects.     

Complexities and compromises: The new era at Parkview School

This paper deals with the managing of externally imposed curriculum change from the teacher's perspective in a UK state-maintained school. When I delivered this paper at the AERA conference in Boston in 1990, it appeared that the substance of the paper was recognized as being as relevant to American educators as to their British counterparts. British teachers are now being required to teach to national specifications. These were legislated in the Educational Reform Act of 1988, with national curriculum and national prescribed assessment tasks for pupils at the ages of seven, eleven, fourteen, and sixteen. At the age of sixteen, pupils take a national examination called the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE). The GCSE was introduced in September 1986, and for the first time in the history of English examinations, teachers had to teach from syllabuses that adhered to nationally prescribed criteria in all the major subjects of the curriculum. They were also obliged to assess the subject in the way specified. With the passing of the Educational Reform Act of 1988, the GCSE became the nationally prescribed assessment for all sixteen-year-olds.The American educational context has, for a long time, had to deal with decisions being made about curriculum and assessment outside the school. Mary Futrell (1986) states: Between 1983 and 1985, state legislations enacted more than 700 statutes stipulating what should be taught, how it should be taught, and by whom it should be taught (p. 1). This is now the situation in Britain, and so it would appear that much can be gained from an exchange of ideas between the UK and the United States about the impact that externally imposed curriculum change has on the organizational structure of schooling. I could quite easily have begun my paper with a quote by Ernest Boyer (1985), President of the Carnegie Foundation. This quote could refer to British as well as American teachers: Teachers feel that they have more responsibilities and less authority, less recognition, less empowerment to do their work (p. 1).The Parkview School is situated in a town in the southwest of England that has a variety of manufacturing and service industries. The school copes with problems familiar to schools in larger urban conurbations. The town has a center that suffers from urban decay and that over recent years has been demolished and rebuilt. The pupil population is composed of the full range of academic ability, pupils' families being in the middle- to low-income bracket. There is evidence of poverty and deprivation among the pupil population, and the more wealthy members of the population send their children to private independent schools. As is true of the majority of state schools in Britain, the Parkview School is underresourced, and education takes place in old, poorly maintained buildings. All schools in Britain are funded in a similar way regardless of the geographic area in which they are located. The schools share common organizational structures, have teachers on a national pay scale, and suffer from poor administrative backup.The issues, concerns, stresses, and tensions described in this paper will, I am sure, be familiar to educators on both sides of the Atlantic.     

Choosing Technologies for Education

The aim of this paper is to help towards the development of national policies for the use of communication technology in education. It suggests that policy should be shaped by answering five questions: what technology is convenient for the learner; what are the national constraints on technology choice; what makes curricular sense; what are the costs; what works for small states?.     

A Longitudinal Investigation of African American and Hispanic Adolescents' Educational and Occupational Expectations and Corresponding Attainment in Adulthood

Adolescents' expectations about school and work may be key antecedents of adult attainment and this relationship may vary by specific racial, ethnic, and gender groups. This article examines how educational and occupational expectations change in adolescence and how expectations predict corresponding attainment in adulthood. Participants included African American and Hispanic females and males. Educational and occupational expectations were reported at ages 14, 16, and 18, and educational and occupational attainment at ages 20 and 26. Results indicated distinct developmental trajectories per racial or ethnic and gender group. Educational expectations were more nuanced for African American and Hispanic females than for their male counterparts; occupational expectations were more varied for Hispanic females than for other groups. Educational expectations positively predicted educational attainment for all participants, whereas occupational attainment was predicted just by educational expectations and for Hispanic females and males only.