Technology enhanced learning as transformative innovation: a note on the enduring myth of TEL

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to offer a critical insight into the ubiquity of technology enhanced learning. The use of technology in higher education is underpinned by a promise that technology will enhance teaching and learning despite an apparent lack of systematic evidence. This raises questions of how this enhancement agenda persists, and of how technology has established a position of dominance within higher education. This orthodoxy is evident across a range of relevant actors, from commercial interests, universities, government, academics, and technologists. This paper utilises a critical logics approach, which problematises the competing interests of these different actors, exploring ways in which the social, political and fantasmatic practices between these actors contribute to the ubiquity and dominance of technology enhanced learning. This paper argues that the technology enhanced project resists in-depth critique, with the repeated failure of technology to transform education attributed towards academics, students and institutions.     

Departmental Publication Productivity and Reputational Quality: Disciplinary differences

Using US national data, this study examines the levels and interactions between reputational rankings, average publications, citations, and external research support across 30 disciplines. The analyses show great variation among the disciplines in average and range of publications, citations, and external research support. They also show that the intercorrelations among the measures vary greatly by discipline. For example, the correlation between average publication level and reputational rankings was substantial in chemistry (.87), but weak in industrial engineering (.20); the correlation between the level of research support and reputation was strong in psychology (.74), but very small in astronomy (.14). Comparison of departments ranked in the top 10 with those ranked near the bottom showed that it was possible for departments to rank very high in a discipline but have publication, citation, and support levels below departments ranked near the bottom. The implications for quality and increasing status in higher education are discussed.     

Educational justice for all: the capability approach and inclusive education leadership

Leaders within education must weigh a number of fundamentals as they engage the needs of the stakeholders they represent within the political, social and economic context they operate within. Leaders must consider the unique needs and capabilities of individuals who might not possess similar abilities or talents to those of the majority. In this paper, we explore the capability approach as a frame to consider such contextual fundamentals in inclusive education leadership. In order to examine how educational leaders address the diverse needs of the groups they serve, we interviewed five central office educational administrators in the USA with the responsibility for leading programming for students with special needs. Using a human capabilities frame, we developed targeted questions to determine whether school leaders uphold the tenets of this theoretical foundation within their district's practices in an era of tight fiscal management and accountability. Findings indicate that those leaders whose districts had the highest level of inclusion for most students, including students with significant disabilities, most closely align with the capability approach. Recommendations for continued research and implications for both practice and policy are included.     

“We’re Not Just Interested in the Work”: Social and Emotional Aspects of Early Educator Mentoring Relationships

The purpose of this study was to explore how often 159 practicing teachers enrolled in a university Master's degree principal preparation program observed their mentor principals model the four mandated Texas standards‐based instructional leadership competencies for the principalship. The competencies focus on leadership through curriculum and planning, nurturing and sustaining the instructional program, implementing a staff evaluation plan and applying decision‐making skills. Findings on the four competencies ranged from a high of 59.1% to a low of only 44.7% of the participants who indicated that they observed their mentor principals modeling these four competencies at least ‘usually.’     

JEWISH EDUCATION IN IRAN

Introduction

Historically, two periods are discernible in the development of the system of extra-curricular activities in the Israeli schools — the first period, from the founding of the first Israeli high school around the beginning of the twentieth century to the establishment of the State of Israel (1948), and the second period, from 1948 to the present. The main difference between the two stages lies in the degree of local autonomy in the administration of the activity program.     

The Effectiveness of Direct-Instruction and Student-Centered Teaching Methods on Students' Functional Understanding of Plagiarism

ABSTRACT

To improve students' functional understanding of plagiarism, a variety of approaches was tried within a comprehensive information literacy program. Sessions were taught as a “module” inside a required communications skills class at a private university. Approaches taken included control, direct-instruction, and student-centered sessions. Students were taught content and definitions regarding plagiarism, what circumstances or instances constitute plagiarism, where to go for help in avoiding plagiarism, and what constitutes appropriate paraphrasing. Pretest and posttest scores indicated that no approach performed significantly better than the others; however, even though students improved across all methods, they nonetheless showed the need for more hands-on practice.     

An assessment of the role of communication apprehension in communicating with the terminally ill

Students who reported being high or low communication apprehensives in interpersonal encounters were asked to read a letter from a terminally or not terminally ill patient and write a letter in reply. These students also completed a variety of self‐report measures. In essence, high CAs were found to be less willing to communicate, less willing to volunteer, less willing to work with terminal patients, and felt less confident about their communication than low CAs. High CAs also disclosed less to terminal patients than did people in any other circumstance. Further, terminal patients who were depicted as quiet received less self‐disclosure and less communication that was sensitive to their perspective than did those in any other circumstance.     

Visualization: The next generation

The purpose of this study was to determine whether adding an educational component to visualization (a procedure designed to reduce public speaking apprehension) increases the effectiveness of visualization. These data indicate that combining visualization and education is superior to either education or visualization alone or a no treatment control group in reducing self‐reported public speaking apprehension.     

A content analysis of local television newscasts: Answering the critics

Local television newscasts have been criticized for being too frivolous, but an analysis of San Diego stations indicates more newscast time is devoted to significant issues of the day than to anything else.