Seeing eye to eye: An evaluation of the use of video-conferencing to support collaboration

Student mobility and trans-national collaborative modes of learning at University level have been strongly promoted within Europe. However, such initiatives are expensive, difficult to organise and do not always attain their objectives. Recently there has been considerable interest in the extent to which computer-mediated communication between students in different countries can either supplement or substitute for actual student mobility. This paper reports an evaluation of a project in which video-conferencing was introduced in the context of an established Anglo-Spanish programme in which UK and Spanish Fashion students undertake collaborative projects in each others’ countries. Project aims included fostering and supporting second language use, providing an innovative context for collaborative art and design projects and offering an opportunity to simulate trans-national working conditions. Questionnaires, observation and interview data indicate that not all these objectives were realised, though student reaction to the technology and to the benefits it afforded for collaboration were broadly positive. The strengths and weaknesses of video-conferencing as a support to collaborative learning in this context are discussed.     

Developing a research partnership: teachers as researchers and teacher educators

This paper discusses a combined university–school research project involving three associate teachers from the pre-service teacher education degree at the University of Otago, New Zealand in the examination of their literacy teaching practice. The provision of resources for this collaborative study allowed the teachers to design the project in response to the learning needs of the children in their classrooms. The paper specifically analyses the research experience for the teachers as they theorized their classroom literacy practice and utilized the research findings to inform the content and processes of teaching at both the primary and tertiary classroom levels.     

Body movements of boys with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) during computer video game play

The type and severity of body movements exhibited by 79 (unmedicated) boys clinically diagnosed with ADHD (30 Predominantly Inattentive Type and 49 Combined Type), and 67 non-ADHD boys were recorded while playing Crash Bandicoot I, a Sony Playstation platform computer video game. In Crash Bandicoot, participants control the movements of a small animated figure (CB) through a hazardous jungle environment. Two tasks totaling 12 trials were administered, each of which incorporated with and without Distractor conditions. For those trials with the Distractor, a segment of the television show "The Simpsons" was simultaneously played on a television screen adjacent to the computer game monitor and at an equal volume. Contrary to theory and expectations an analysis of the data did not reveal any statistically significant differences in the frequency, type and severity of body movements between the ADHD and non-ADHD boys, or between the ADHD subtypes during computer video game play. These findings have important implications for assessment and teaching processes in both classroom and therapeutic contexts.     

‘World-travelling’: a framework for re-thinking teaching and learning in internationalised higher education

In an era of unprecedented student mobility, increasingly diverse student populations in many national contexts, and globally interconnected environmental and social concerns, there is an urgent need to find new ways of thinking about teaching and learning. Static assumptions about so-called ‘Western’ versus ‘non-Western’ teaching and learning approaches or ‘local’ versus ‘international’ students are inadequate for responding to the complex histories, geographies and identities that meet and mingle in our higher education (HE) institutions. In this paper, I use María Lugones’ ‘world-travelling’ as a framework for discussing international and New Zealand women students’ reflections on teaching, learning and transition in New Zealand HE. I conclude with some suggestions as to what effective pedagogy might look like in internationalised HE if we think beyond culturalist them-and-us assumptions and recognise students’ complexity.     

Children's Writing and the Use of Information and Communications Technology

This paper outlines issues around learning to write and considers the range of difficulties children may experience. The role of Information and Communications Technology in facilitating writing development is considered. Software applications that can be used to support aspects of the writing process and target teaching are outlined. Criteria for evaluation of existing products and the implications for practice in educational psychology are discussed.