A Dynamic Framework to Guide the Implementation and Evaluation of Educational Technologies

One vision for Ontario schools is that the use of information and communication technology (ICT) will profoundly change both teaching and learning. Given the diversity of school settings, however, system-wide ICT integration and implementation must necessarily be defined in multiple ways. This paper presents a decision-making framework for guiding the infusion of ICT into different school settings. First, sustainability of the ICT initiative is the identified as the key goal. Next, multiple contextual variables are distilled into five essential qualities. Then, sustainability and the essential elements are combined. The result is a dynamic framework that can be used to identify specific priorities for implementation and strategies for evaluation of ICT initiatives. Finally, it is illustrated how the framework can be used to guide the successful infusion of ICT in any situation, regardless of a school's previous experience with ICT.     

“Under pressure I fall back to being a teacher…” confronting contending desires for schooling and teaching in a middle school reform project

This article examines a Victorian high school’s implementation of a new Year 9 program which was intended to interrupt a traditional academic curriculum and to create an imagined oasis of care and personal development for students. It explores ways in which (1) the existing culture and context of the school continues to frame the subjectivities of teachers, students and parents in relation to the new program, (2) the attempt to preserve a competitive academic traditional orientation alongside an alternative approach is a central dilemma for this school, and (3) the new relationships between teachers and students are experienced by them as an interplay of pleasure and surveillance, connection and discipline. The article argues that the conflicts and pressures experienced by the teachers and students are not simply local and contingent ones but indicative of wider tensions in current Australian education policy.     

Lost in Translation: Public Policies,Evidence-based Practice,and Autism Spectrum Disorder

Prevalence rates of autism spectrum disorder have risen dramatically over the past few decades (now estimated at 1:50 children). The estimated total annual cost to the public purse in the United States is US$137 billion, with an individual lifetime cost in the United Kingdom estimated at between £0.8 million and £1.23 million depending on the level of functioning. The United Nations Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has enshrined full and equal human rights—for example, for inclusion, education and employment—and there is ample evidence that much can be achieved through adequate support and early intensive behavioural interventions. Not surprisingly, most governments worldwide have devised laws, policies, and strategies to improve services related to autism spectrum disorder, yet intriguingly the approaches differ considerably across the globe. Using Northern Ireland as a case in point, we look at relevant governmental documents and offer international comparisons that illustrate inconsistencies akin to a “postcode lottery” of services.     

Breaking the Cycle of Victimization: A Structured Interview Technique

In this short paper Lyn Harrison seeks to go beyond policy to effective practice. She suggests that in the case of at least some schools' bullying policies, teachers do not have the appropriate skills to deliver them. An approach using structured interview techniques is presented as a way of addressing this problem. This is an approach which could provide schools with a practical starting point for both discussion and action in relation to the implementation of bullying policies.     

Teachers' thinking elicited from interactive multimedia professional development courseware

This paper reports data obtained on practicing teachers' thinking as they interacted with a professional development interactive multimedia (IMM) courseware package. The data were obtained from 11 participating teachers via stimulated-recall interviews. Two types of thinking are detailed and discussed. The first type is those mediating processes engaged in by teachers during study sessions that related to the academic and professional content of the IMM package. The second type is those evaluative thoughts reported by teachers that related to instructional design aspects of the IMM courseware. The latter data were used to develop a classification system that provides a conceptualization of the major components, as perceived by the participating teachers, that relate to instructional design. He has been involved in teaching mathematics education courses at a distance via printed text to inservice teachers and through interactive multimedia (IMM) courseware to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander teacher education students in their home communities. His current research interests focus on tertiary students' thinking while studying from IMM materials and their usage patterns of IMM courseware. He also supervises post graduate students in the area of teaching problem solving in upper primary and lower secondary school. Her fields of teaching and research interests concern the cultural contextualization of instructional design of interactive multimedia (IMM) and the World Wide Web (WWW). Other research interests focus on the mental models, thinking processes, and teaching-learning strategies used by teachers and learners when interacting with electronic databases, IMM, and the WWW. His areas of expertise are special education and distance education. His current research interests with respect to interactive multimedia (IMM) focus on tertiary students' thinking while studying with IMM materials and their usage patterns of IMM courseware. He is also involved in a number of school curriculum and systemic evaluations.     

‘Don’t be a smart arse’: social enterprise-based transitional labour-market programmes as neo-liberal technologies of the self

In this paper we re-visit the work of celebrity chef Jamie Oliver and the social enterprise Fifteen Foundation and their development of a programme designed to train unemployed young people in the hospitality industry. We argue, drawing on the Foucauldian literature on governmentality and technologies of the self, that social enterprise-based transitional labour-market programmes can best be understood as neo-liberal technologies of the self that seek to transform persons. In the face of precarious forms of youth labour market participation, the self – the marginalised, unemployed young person – can ill afford to be a smart arse.