Becoming digitally literate: Reinstating an educational lens to digital skills policies for adults

The development of digital skills for all is a key focus of many educational policies across the globe. Despite the significant attention paid to the nature and suitability of such policies targeted at young people, there has been far less focus on digital skills policies targeted at adults. This article contributes to this literature. It outlines current digital skills policy in England. Having established this background, it analyses 30 interviews with digitally competent adults from lower socio-economic backgrounds about their experiences of learning to use the Internet. In doing so, the article highlights that a narrow and instrumental digital skills agenda is emerging in the education of adults, driven by the needs of the commercial sector, that is in stark contrast to the experiences, motivations and hopes of adults who learn about, and use, digital technologies. Reframing digital skills as part of a broader adult education agenda may offer a way to facilitate the development of digital literacies that individuals seek.     

Failing with grace: kids,Improv and embodied literacies

In this article, we explore the idea that comedy, with its often unorthodox ways of looking at, experiencing, and responding to the world, offers untold possibility for classroom literacy instruction. The article focuses on the potential of Improv comedy as socio‐materialist literacy in the classroom. It provides an account of Improv as a form of embodied literacy that operates as an assemblage created collectively between many people, practices, and material objects. We present findings from interviews with professional comedians regarding the possibilities of comedy for language and literacy instruction with elementary school children. The article then examines a moment from the subsequent classroom phase of the study to look at ways Improv can help students create stories and ways that laughter can be used to create a cohesive assemblage based around students' spontaneous creation of texts. The aim of the article is to provide educators with a practical means to apply socio‐materialist literacy in their classrooms through Improv, which will, in turn, allow students to create collectively generated texts and assemblages.     

What makes a cMOOC community endure? Multiple participant perspectives from diverse cMOOCs

Imagine the challenge of being immersed in a dynamic learning network where you play brinkmanship with being overwhelmed by a plethora of information, comments, and conversations on a topic of intense interest to you. Through adept facilitation, the comments and encouragement of fellow participants, and your own perseverance, you develop a network of personal connections which serve as metaphorical flying buttresses creating enough stability that you are able to learn in a new, yet profoundly meaningful way – the connectivist massive open online course (cMOOC) way. Through the lens of autoethnography, five seasoned educators collaboratively reflect on their motivation for participating in their initial cMOOC. They analyze their lived experience, what they found most engaging, and most importantly, they grapple with why cMOOC communities often endure past official end-dates. This article attempts to provide insight into the thrill and depth of learning and connection possible through participation in cMOOCs.     

知识产权强国建设基本问题初探

知识产权强国是指在知识产权国际竞争中具有强大知识产权实力的国家。知识产权强国具有知识产权综合能力强、知识产权制度优越、知识产权环境优良、知识产权绩效显著、知识产权国际影响力大等主要特征。知识产权大国与知识产权强国的区别在于,知识产权大国针对知识产权的数量或规模而言,而知识产权强国则针对知识产权实力而言。知识产权强国战略是国家知识产权大国发展战略的一个更高阶段、更高目标。二者在战略内涵、战略目标、战略内容、组织实施方式和制定基础上存在区别。创新驱动发展,知识产权强国战略驱动创新,因此知识产权强国战略为创新驱动发展战略提供了制度保障和战略支撑。     

论苏轼的豪放词

苏轼的豪放词,在中国词史上有着十分重要的意义。本文认为:苏轼豪放词的形成,首先取决于他的独特的个性性情,其次与他的词学理念及他的词的创作主张有关系,同时也是北宋诗文革新运动的必然产物。苏轼豪放词的总体风貌特征,可以用“豪放”、“旷达”概括。苏轼豪放词的文学史意义,首先是打破了“诗庄词媚”界限,“以诗为词”,扩大了词的表现功能,提高了词的境界;其次突破了词的声律的束缚,真正实现了词体的大解放,使词从音乐的附属品转变为一种独立的抒情诗体;第三,对词的语言进行了革新,“一洗绮罗香泽之态”,以清新韶秀见长;第四是抒情言志,自我形象超逸,个性分明。     

Using blended learning and out-of-school visits: pedagogies for effective science teaching in the twenty-first century

Background: Recent research and curriculum reforms have indicated the need for diversifying teaching approaches by drawing upon student interest and engagement in ways which makes learning science meaningful. Purpose: This study examines the integration of informal/free choice learning which occurred during learning experiences outside school (LEOS) with classroom learning using digital technologies. Specifically, the digital technologies comprised a learning management system (LMS), Moodle, which fits well with students’ lived experiences and their digital world. Design and Method: This study examines three out-of-school visits to Informal Science Institutes (ISI) using a digitally integrated fieldtrip inventory (DIFI) Model. Research questions were analysed using thematic approach emerging along with semi-structured interviews, before, during and after the visit, and assessing students’ learning experiences. Data comprised photographs, field notes, and unobtrusive observations of the classroom, wiki postings, student work books and teacher planning diaries. Results: We argue, that pre- and post-visit planning using the DIFI Model is more likely to engage learners, and the use of a digital learning platform was even more likely to encourage collaborative learning. The conclusion can also be drawn that students’ level of motivation for collaborative learning positively correlates with their improvement in academic achievement.     

课程教材建设助推新时代中国特色先进水平数学教育发展——首届“京师数学新课程教学与评价会议暨北京师范大学数学科学学院课程教材研究中心成立大会”会议纪要

首届"京师数学新课程教学与评价会议暨北京师范大学数学科学学院课程教材研究中心成立大会"于2019年10月18-21日在北京师范大学成功召开.来自全国高校、教育行政机构、教育出版社、中小学校、教研机构等共计七百余名代表参加了会议.会议围绕数学核心素养导向的课程、教材、教学与评价等关键议题,特邀大会报告9项,组织专题工作坊3场、分组报告112项、研究者论坛3场,这为新时代以数学课程教材建设为抓手,助推中国特色先进水平数学教育发展提供启示.     

How first-year students perceive and experience assessment of academic literacies

Abstract

First-year university students’ underdeveloped academic literacies can lead to dissatisfaction and poor performance. University teachers find it difficult to take action without an understanding of students’ perceptions and needs. This study investigates first-year Chinese students’ perceptions and experiences related to assessment of academic literacies in an English-as-a-foreign-language university context. The datasets include student focus groups at two different time points over their first university year, self-reflective essays written by students at the end of the year, and audio records of nine units of teaching in three teachers’ classes. Findings highlight that fostering students’ academic literacies incorporates both linguistic development and epistemological adaptation. Students held mixed feelings towards alternative assessment other than examinations. Their personal learning goals of using English in everyday scenarios dampened their commitment to teachers’ goals of developing learners’ academic literacies. Findings suggest assessment can be an effective ‘card’ played by teachers to nurture students’ appreciation of new learning goals, communicate areas for improvement in learning strategies, and demonstrate their visible progress.     

Reconceptualising critical digital literacy

While it has proved a useful concept during the past 20 years, the notion of ‘critical digital literacy’ requires rethinking in light of the fast-changing nature of young people's digital practices. This paper contrasts long-established notions of ‘critical digital literacy’ (based primarily around the critical consumption of digital forms) with the recent turn towards ‘digital design literacy’ (based around the production of digital forms). In doing so, three challenges emerge for the continued relevance of critical digital literacy: (1) the challenge of critiquing the ideological concerns with the digital without alienating the individual's personal affective response; (2) connecting collective concerns to do with social and educational inequalities to individual practices; and (3) cultivating a critical disposition in a context in which technical proficiency is prioritised. The paper then concludes by suggesting a model of ‘critical digital design’, offering a framework that might bridge the divide between critical literacy models and the more recent design-based literacy models.     

Changing academies: exploring international PhD students' perspectives on ‘host’ and ‘home’ universities

As students move between universities on different continents, they are expected to adjust rapidly to the academic and cultural practices of their host university. Many of these students are higher educational professionals in their home country and on their return home they are faced with the challenge of how to fit back into – or whether to make changes in – their institution's established academic practices. I explored international PhD students' understanding of, and responses to, the perceived differences between academic cultures of host (UK) and home universities. Whereas some students regarded the changes made in how they conducted and wrote up educational research as temporary and strategic in order to pass the PhD course, others saw themselves as change agents. They were keen to transform academic practices once they returned home and were already actively working out politically and practically how to go about this. By reflecting on how educational research practices are changing and being influenced by the movement of academics between countries, I suggest how UK university departments can respond positively to the differing research practices in which international students engage in their home institutional contexts.