Networking Young Citizens Blog

See link: http://www.aictec.edu.au/aictec/webdav/site/standardssite/shared/Learner_Research_Literature_Review.pdf

This lit review is part of a broader research activity based at the University of Canberra, which I understand will result shortly in a case study report being released /published/uploaded on a website, called ‘Listening to Students Voices’ which reports on views of learners and early career educators about learning with technologies….’

I was thinking the lit review (and certainly the report summarising the survey responses when they become available) may be useful to us, especially in the light of recent comments about what little we know about how learning with ICT actually plays out in classrooms and how young people and teachers relate to ICT learning.

I suspect the lit review, which I have only perused so far, will assume more relevance when the case-study report is available. Even so the lit review does review international (since 2002) research on student perspectives to learning with technologies, which is a rare approach, so it will address matters we will need to be addressing.  The meaning ascribed to ‘student’ is broad too … which should allow it to be more useful to us.  It specifically addresses research methodological issues.

Suzanne

Hi all

Hope you are well. I just came across a summary of a report that may be of use to us. I haven’t looked at it yet but thought I would pass the link along:

UK‘s Inquiry into the Future for Lifelong Learning, report n.2:

Technological change

This paper’s bland title belies its findings, which are relevant far beyond the borders of the UK where it was published by the Inquiry int the Future for Lifelong Learning (IFLL). Established in the UK in 2007 and sponsored by the National Institute of Adult and Continuing Education (NIACE), IFLL is the main advocacy body for adult learning in England and Wales and is “probably the largest body devoted to adult education in the world”. The IFLL paper ‘Technological change’ sets out by reminding us that most learning these days takes place outside formal educational programs, and calls for a rethink of the concepts of computer and information literacy. Although new technologies are being used increasingly outside work and learning environments, “we remain largely inept at responding to this at curriculum, pedagogical, administrative or financial levels. If this situation remains, then formal education is likely to become less relevant for the everyday lives and learning of many people”.

The paper is not saying that lifelong learning will cease to be, but that such learning in future may be “increasingly disconnected from the formal provision of education”. It questions the appropriateness of the term “literacy”, suggests a need to redefine the term “digital exclusion” and appeals for a move beyond associating exclusion or disadvantage with “socioeconomic, generational and geographical determinates”. However unpredictable the long-term nature of technological change might be, “lifelong learning will be shaped by the increasing power and adaptability of the web and the applications that it supports”. Contact: NIACE, ph: +44 (0)116 204 4200/4201; fax: +44 (0)116 285 4514; email: enquiries@niace.org.uk; http://www.niace.org.uk/

A PDF of the report is at: http://www.niace.org.uk/lifelonglearninginquiry/docs/IFLL-TechnologicalChange.pdf

Ariadne

Hello all, below are research ideas and suggested readings sent by Ian on the WUN email list. Lance has also asked me to collect similar items from others and post them on the blog. Since almost everyone is now on the blog, you can go ahead and post them yourself, or email me at muzammilh@gmail.com, and I can post and categorize them for you.

Research Ideas:

I would like to offer the following rather half formed ideas:

* I like the idea of exploring overlapping issues to look at what is happening in and beyond schools and policy communities (this seems to fit fairly neatly with the proposed research methodology in Suzanne and Ariadne’s very useful paper). I would see myself contributing more to the learning group (what young people are doing in schools and beyond) rather than the policy group (although there will be overlaps in all cases).

* Possible research questions for the research related to learning:

i) Are digital media being used by young people in relation to engagement/participation?

ii) for what purposes are they using them

iii) do those purposes vary across ‘locations’?

iv) how are they using digital media in different ‘locations’?

(The use of ‘locations’ in inverted commoas may allow us to move beyond simple issues of in-school out of school activity and allow us to consider issues of managed and/or autonomous learning in different places)

V) what is being learned as a result of use of digital media? (this would have 2 aspects: – acquisition of knowledge, understanding, skills, dispositions etc; acquisition of those things for particular purposes or in alignment with certain perspectives. The latter of these 2 points would allow us to consider AC/DC issues)

Generally, I suppose I wonder if digital media offer the opportunity for new learning or whether they are ‘merely’ providing an opportunity for the same sort of learning that people have advocated for some time but may be applied more successfully to larger groups. (I suspect it is new but that it is not as new as some suggest. I think the potential for it to be associated with the promotion of broader engagement – as well as the potential for use to reinforce the status quo – is greater than conventional chalk and talk teaching.)

Suggested Literature:

* Literature

I don’t think there is much on digital media and schools at least from within England so we are in a good position to make a contribution.

Some of the following may be of interest:

Becta (2005) The Becta Review 2005: evidence on the progress of ICT in education.

Carr-Chellman, A. A. (2005) (ed.) Global Perspectives on e-learning: rhetoric and reality. London, Sage.

Condie, R. and Munro, B. (2007) The impact of ICT in schools: a landscape review. Becta.

Friesen, N. (2003) Three Objections to Learning Objects and e-learning standards. http://www.learningspaces.org/n/papers/objections.html (accessed 7 July 2008)

Kerr, D., Lopes, J., Nelson, J., White, K., Cleaver, E., Benton, T. (2007)

Vision versus Pragmatism: Citizenship in the Secondary School Curriculum in England. Citizenship Education Longitudinal Study: Fifth Annual Report. Slough, National Foundation for Educational Research

Lawson, T. (2005) Information, communication and learning technologies: equipping the digital citizen. Pp. 160-167 in Brelin, T. ad Dufour, B. (eds) Developing Citizens: a compreh4nsive introduction to effective citizenship education in the secondary school. London, Hodder Murray.

Macpherson, M. Some applications of information technology to citizen participation in politics. http://home.snafu.de/mjm/miercurea.html (accessed 4 July 2008)

Ofsted (2004) ICT in Schools 2004; the impact of Government initiatives 5 years on. London, Ofsted.

Smith, F., Hardman, F., and Higgins, S. (2006) The impact of interactive whiteboards on teacher-pupil interaction in the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies. British Educational Research Journal, 32, 3, 443-457.

Whiteley, P. (2004) A Health Check for British Democracy: what do we know about participation and its effects in Britain? Swindon, Economic and Social Research Council.

Other Comments:

I have reservations about the potential of mass education to do more than promote versions of the status quo. Lance referred to my paper in Comparative Education in his recent Citizenship Studies article suggesting that in Canada, Australia and England there is no sense of radical action by policy makers. But there is a tradition of radical education in as well as beyond schools (e.g. Rattansi, A. and Reeder, B. (eds) (1992) Rethinking Radical Education: essays in honour of Brian Simpon. Lawrence and Wishart. Of course, without wanting to sound ridiculous it is often difficult to know what is meant by radical (some radicals that suggest not focussing on schools are more liberatarian rather than liberal) – if we give up on publicly funded schooling then something worse may ensue. In line with what I have written above about ‘locations’ I wonder at times what is meant by school (the reschooling/freeschooling/deschooling debates of some years ago all seemed to lead to a system for getting people together for particular purposes and presumably we could call those gatherings ‘schools’.

*organisational matters

I think I would welcome the opportunity to plan for Seattle. What do we want to achieve before during and after the meeting? I do not want to suggest that we should become too mechanistically focussed on submitting a project proposal to a funder but I would like to suggest that by the end of the Seattle meeting we have a draft ready to submit. Could I suggest that the organising committee proposes some aims for Seattle and a list of jobs to be completed by set points in relation to those aims?

Apologies for the length of the above and for its rather superficial nature. It’s been written rather quickly just before I rush off to teach.

I’m open to all suggestions!

Best wishes, ian

Professor Ian Davies

Department of Educational Studies,

University of York,

York, YO10 5DD, UK.

Tel: +44 (0)1904 433452.

e-mail: id5@york.ac.uk

See details about the MA in Citizenship and Global Education at

http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/educ/gsp/macge.htm