DEVELOPING EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE: A PROFESSIONAL TOOL PERSPECTIVE

The selection, and use of educational software and its impact in schools are still controversial issues. In this paper we present an alternative conceptualisation of educational software based on considering the software as an instrument for teachers' professional performance. We review previous work in the areas of the design, development and evaluation of educational software and of the process of educational innovation. The review of these four areas converges to demonstrate the need for knowing and considering the context of use of educational software and for understanding users' perspectives about its roles and possibilities and hence supports a perspective on educational software which sees it as a professional tool for teachers' performance of their teaching role.     

Recent educational reforms in Norway and their effect on adult education in that country

This paper examines the relationship between education, learning and civic participation arising from 120 biographical interviews conducted with respondents in three areas of England. Through analysis of individual biographies, it is argued that the relationship between education, learning and the generation of ‘bonding’ social capital is largely unrealistic. Rather, there emerge three loose typologies of relationship between education and civic participation: atomistic, networking and altruistic. These relationships are shaped by individual biography, type of learning and structural considerations. Class, gender and ethnicity particularly influence relationships between education and participation but not in a rigidly deterministic fashion, and may additionally be generators of creative tension. It is concluded that although policy makers would be naïve to expect investment in education and learning to automatically generate virtuous cycles of social capital, the role of education in generating benefits in what can be called the ‘ecology’ of community is both unexpected and illuminating.     

Education,Equality and Social Cohesion: A distributional approach

Promoting social cohesion through education has re-emerged as an important policy objective in many countries during the past decade. But there is little clarity in policy discussions about what social cohesion means and how education may affect it. In this article we distinguish between social capital and societal cohesion and argue that education acts in differential ways on each. Using comparative, cross-country analysis, we develop a 'distributional model' which shows the relationship between equality of educational outcomes and various measures of social cohesion. In the final part of the article we discuss theories explaining the cross-country trends and variations in educational inequality and social inheritance in education, and argue that education system characteristics, such as degrees of 'comprehensiveness' in secondary schooling, may be an important factor in both. We conclude by arguing that policies to increase social cohesion through education must pay more attention to the reduction of educational equality than they currently do.     

机器人走向战场

不出10年，当陆军士兵开赴战场的时候，他们的身后将着一群具有完全自主控制能力的机器人，他们将并肩。[编者按]