Moving beyond the predictable failure of Ed-Tech initiatives

ABSTRACT

The development of Information and Communication Technology has created waves of excitement about its power to fix educational problems and improve learning results, prompting a succession of policy efforts to integrate digital technology into education. Educators, schools and corporations are increasingly driving these initiatives. This article makes the argument that a narrow vision of digital technology, which both ignores the complexity of education and wastes valuable public resources, is becoming an obstacle to significant improvement and transformation in education. Utilising our research and experience in the field of educational technology, this paper problematises the common elision of ‘technology’ and ‘digital technology’. From this basis, we then critically reflect on various common approaches to introducing digital technology in education under the guise of promoting equality and digital inclusion. These include national government-led programmes, more recent trends for local school-led initiatives, and the role of non-formal education initiatives led by corporations/foundations. Amidst the varying surface-level ‘failure’ and/or ‘success’ of these approaches, we point to limited underpinning ‘information and knowledge society’ logics in framing the application of digital technology to education. As such we conclude by considering the educational challenges for future Ed-Tech initiatives.     

增程式电动汽车失火——不对中耦合故障的诊断特征变化研究

在增程器失火-不对中耦合故障下,通过多工况下虚拟样机仿真,对失火故障的故障诊断特征变化规律展开了研究。借助虚拟样机平台搭建某款增程器虚拟样机刚柔混合模型,对已经探索到的失火故障诊断特征,在多转速、多不对中工况下,研究了耦合故障下失火故障诊断特征变化的规律;并通过对失火故障特征变化进行机理分析,说明了其与特征变化规律研究的一致性。     

论新历史小说的变异性

新历史小说是上世纪八十年代中后期出现在中国文坛的小说创作现象。从以下四个方面去阐述新历史小说较之于传统的历史小说究竟有哪些创造性的变异:其历史观的变更、社会个体历史命运的变化、人物形象的变化以及叙事视角的更迭。     

鲁迅的编辑思想及其当代意义

鲁迅是一位伟大的战士，他将编辑出版工作当作化事业和民族解放事业的一部分，而为之呕心沥血，无私奉献。其丰富的编辑出版实践，体现了他卓越的编辑出版思想。这种思想，对今天面临严峻挑战的中国 当代出版业而言，无疑具有重大的理论意义和现实意义。     

大学制度变革中的价值本位博弈

大学制度变革创新的价值抉择过程,是社会本位、个人本位、知识本位、学校本位价值观之间的一场博弈。社会本位在大学制度变革中有着强大的现实动力、功利目的与外在压力;从大学人的福祉出发,以人的全面发展为中心的个人本位是制度变革的终极关怀之所在;以高深学问的增值为旨趣的知识本位是制度变革中的深层次文化动因;学校本位为制度变革提供了直接推动力与内化影响力。大学制度变革的价值博弈过程,从理性角度看,是这四种本位间因时、因地、因校制宜的合力。从代价视角看,人的发展本身才是大学制度设计与制度变革的终极价值关怀之所在。     

Responding to the challenges of student-staff partnership: the reflections of participants at an international summer institute

This article contributes to the growing scholarly literature about students as partners in learning and teaching in higher education by describing an initiative designed to support partnership and a study investigating international staff and student perspectives. The initiative – an international summer institute – is a four-day, professional development experience that brought together students and staff from seven countries to learn about partnership and develop specific partnership projects. Participants in the institute were invited to contribute to a qualitative study exploring their experiences of students as partners work and their perceptions of the institute’s capacity to support it. Given that much existing research on this topic tends to be celebratory, we focus here on the challenges participants ascribed to student-staff partnership, and on the features of the summer institute they thought particularly useful in helping them to navigate these difficulties. Looking beyond the summer institute, we consider the implications of these findings for those looking to support partnership more broadly.     

Measuring the Impact of Professional Accreditation on Student Experiences and Learning Outcomes

This research uses a conceptual model to examine the influence of a change in accreditation standards on a representative national sample of 203 engineering programs at 40 institutions. Based on data collected from more than 140 program chairs, 1,200 faculty, 4,300 graduates of 2004, and 5,400 graduates of 1994, the study investigates the differential impact of the change in accreditation standards on programs reviewed in different years during the period of transition. Despite significant variation across most of the measures and groups in 1994 (before the introduction of the new accreditation criteria), the 2004 evidence demonstrates a surprisingly uniform level of student experiences and outcomes. These findings suggest that engineering accreditation is beginning to accomplish its quality assurance goals. This is a revised version of a research paper presented at the meeting of the Association for Institutional Research, May 17, 2006, Chicago, IL.     

Towards professionalisation? Restructuring of administrative work force in universities

This article examines the restructuring ofadministrative staff in universities throughempirically documenting such processes andproviding a theoretically foundedinterpretation and analysis of change. Theempirical material is drawn from a context ofNorwegian universities the last two decades.Two major changes can be observed in thisperiod. First, a period of steep growth inuniversity administration in early 1990sfollowed by a period of moderate growth and insome cases even decline. The second dominantdevelopment pattern in the 1980s and 1990s isthe change within administrative staff,which could be interpreted as a professionalisation of administrative staff.The article concludes by presenting possibleexplanations to the structuring of theadministrative work force in universities onthe basis of different theoretical approachesto organisational change.     

How university teaching changes teachers: Affective as well as cognitive challenges

This paper argues that the teaching of a subject can change our understanding of what it means to know, to teach and learn that subject. It also argues that when our understanding is questioned and changes then academic work can become an emotionally charged endeavour. This paper reports on a study where, over a semesters teaching, around two thirds of teachers changed some aspect of their scholarly thinking or practice. These teachers were teaching a range of first and second year classes, they were not new to teaching, nor were they unfamiliar with the teaching of the subject. For approximately one third, the change in understanding was not major. It involved a change in teaching practice but it did not involve the questioning of their existing understanding of subject matter. For another third, however, the change was substantial. These teachers, in some way, questioned previously taken for granted assumptions, they re-thought aspects of the structure of the discipline or the relationship of the subject to the discipline. They also revised their ideas about how to best teach that subject and what learning the subject involved. This change invariably involved anxiety and uncertainty and in some cases this was extreme. Little attention has been paid to change in teachers understanding of subject matter and little, or no, research has focused on the emotional impact of this change. This initial exploration of these neglected aspects of university teaching suggests a rich vein for further exploration. This paper builds on previous work that has used phenomenography to examine changes in university teachers understanding of subject matter taught. An analysis of metaphor is used to explore change and to tap into the rich and complex emotional experiences that accompany this change.     

论蒙古族早期创世说中的生态观

世界是由物质组成的还是意识或上帝的创造物,这一哲学基本问题是贯穿整个人类认识史并争论极为激烈的问题。针对这一问题蒙古先民们也进行过反思并得出截然相反的两种观点:一种观点认为世界是由物质组成的;另一种观点便是创世说,认为世界是“腾格里”(天)或“布儿罕”(佛祖)创造的产物。这种观点主要集中在早期蒙古的神话故事、英雄史诗、图腾崇拜和萨满教当中。我们应发现其中的合理成份并使其运用或服务于今天人们的社会-生态实践活动,以达到古为今用的目的。