Anne McDougall

Researching IT in Education.

Many regions around the world are experiencing a gradual paradigm shift away from information technology (IT) use that complements traditional teaching and towards embedded IT use in E-learning that is ubiquitous and pervasive. This has been conceptualized in this article using a framework depicting the affects of these shifts on learning environments that may change schooling and impact society. These trends provide new challenges for educational researchers at national and international levels, requiring attention to the interrelationships among the various components in an educational system. New evidence, which builds on earlier claims of an increasing digital divide between developing and developed countries, has shown that this phenomenon is much more complex than was previously thought. We suggest that a promising way to maximize the knowledge and impact of researching IT in education is to establish longitudinal programmatic research sustained through the establishment of E-learning observatories, which can bring together expertise across a range of disciplines. A major challenge in forming a clear and coherent strategy for researching IT in education lies in the fact that there are multiple stakeholders with differing aims, goals and objectives. Therefore, reciprocal relationships are needed in which practice informs research and research informs practice with support and guidance from policymakers.

Theory and History, Questions and Methodology: Current and Future Issues in Research into ICT in Education.

Serious criticisms of research in information and communications technology (ICT) in education have been published recently in both the UK and the USA. This paper addresses several issues raised in these commentaries: a lack of sound theoretical underpinnings to our research, persistent neglect of the history of our sub‐discipline, the choice of research questions to be studied, and the use of appropriate methodologies for investigating them. The paper argues that the major role for ICT research in education should be an important contribution to the understanding of the processes of learning, with a view to informing teaching strategies and approaches to developing educational software. This implies that the theoretical work on learning on which wider educational research is based should be used to underpin research in ICT in education as well. In addition, specific theoretical frameworks have been developed for research into the use of ICT in education; however, associated with an almost complete neglect of the history of the area, the most powerful of these, developed in the early years of the sub‐discipline, are now generally ignored. Consistent with this, the authors argue that questions for investigation in this area should focus more on contributing to knowledge about learning and teaching, and less on the seemingly widespread concern for demonstrating benefits of ICT use in education to justify its cost. The types of research studies the authors advocate are generally more complex, difficult and time‐consuming to undertake than these quantitative surveys and evaluations, and they describe a methodological approach developed to undertake such complex work.

Models and Practices in Teacher Education Programs for Teaching with and about IT

Teacher education and professional development is critically important for effective use of IT in education. The task is complex as many new learning opportunities are offered in IT rich settings and significant pedagogical change may be needed to exploit the potentials offered by the fast developing learning technologies. The chapter outlines goals and purposes for teacher education programs, and then describes a wide range of models, structures and strategies used in award-bearing courses for pre-service education and professional development in tertiary institutions, and then in less formal programs initiated from outside schools, from within schools and by individual teachers. Evaluation of IT teacher education programs is considered, and an argument made for more research and evaluative work in this area.

Researching IT in education: EDUsummIT 2011: Researching IT in educ

Many regions around the world are experiencing a gradual paradigm shift away from information technology (IT) use that complements traditional teaching and towards embedded IT use in E-learning that is ubiquitous and pervasive. This has been conceptualized in this article using a framework depicting the affects of these shifts on learning environments that may change schooling and impact society. These trends provide new challenges for educational researchers at national and international levels, requiring attention to the interrelationships among the various components in an educational system. New evidence, which builds on earlier claims of an increasing digital divide between developing and developed countries, has shown that this phenomenon is much more complex than was previously thought. We suggest that a promising way to maximize the knowledge and impact of researching IT in education is to establish longitudinal programmatic research sustained through the establishment of E-learning observatories, which can bring together expertise across a range of disciplines. A major challenge in forming a clear and coherent strategy for researching IT in education lies in the fact that there are multiple stakeholders with differing aims, goals and objectives. Therefore, reciprocal relationships are needed in which practice informs research and research informs practice with support and guidance from policymakers.

Taking the E-Train in University Education

This paper looks at the increased use of e-learning in university education. Acknowledging the origins of the term in business and industry settings, it outlines features of e-learning in university contexts. It suggests some directions for research on the use of e-learning in university education, particularly arguing for research endeavour focused on issues specific to what is novel in e-learning, but building on findings from educational research in earlier more limited technological environments.

What Did We Think We Were Doing

This paper reflects on some aspects of the introduction of computers into Australian schools and teacher education, with an emphasis on the state of Victoria. Developments in the U.K. and the U.S.A. have significantly influenced Australian educational computing, often being adopted with a local flavor. This is acknowledged here through the use of vignettes that illustrate local incidents, which are then related to occurrences in other Australian states as well as other countries.

The Educational Programming Language Logo: Its Nature and Its Use in Australia

Although Logo was expressly designed as a Mathematical language for use in Education its early versions were very logic-orientated. With the addition of Seymour Papert’s ‘turtle’ the system became far more accessible to students and teachers. This paper explores some of the educational ideas behind its development and describes its first use in schools in Australia through reminiscences by two of the co-authors, Sandra Wills and Anne McDougall. The paper concludes with a reflection that educational research has not been able to prove the educational benefits of a ground-breaking approach that empowered students with computers. However, many rich case studies of successful implementation by passionate teachers abound in the literature to provide inspiration to teachers working with the new digital natives.

Gearing up for Robotics

This naturalistic, qualitative research investigated the extent and depth to which the perceived embedded educational skills and concepts associated with gears in a robotics environment were realized. The research literature revealed a paucity and confusion of description and definition of gears, and a lack of articulation of the embedded skills associated with gears. Based on some seminal research papers, a novel skills grid was developed as a measuring instrument, against which deep mining of the knowledge progress of the understanding of gears of four teachers was observed. The analysis of results pertaining to considered gear integration in the construction of a robot revealed that learning does not occur serendipitously and, unless taught overtly, the opportunities for the learning of gear concepts are often missed or deliberately bypassed. This lack of desire to learn about, and consider gear integration in constructions, could be attributed to confusion of interpretation of a non-contextualised ratio, or more deeply, the confusion of ratio representation in rational number and colon formats.

Issues in the assessment of real-life learning with ICT

This paper examines some aspects of the assessment of the effectiveness of learning with information and communications technologies (ICT) in real-life learning contexts, and looks at the role of ICT as a tool in assisting this endeavour. It argues that real assessment of learning with ICT is a challenging task, and that assessment strategies that are simple and economical to use need to be balanced with use of strategies that acknowledge the complexity of the learning processes and outcomes being assessed. To illustrate the case the paper draws on research work being undertaken by two groups within the Department of Science & Mathematics Education at the University of Melbourne. The first is a group of staff and research students who are examining the learning of students in a postgraduate teacher education course on robotics. One researcher within this group is comparing the learning of novice programmers working in both syntactic and symbolic programming environments, looking at the need to take account of differences in learning styles and preferences among individuals when learning is assessed. The second group is a research team exploring novel and sophisticated uses for ICT itself as a tool in educational research, particularly in the study of the complex learning processes of groups of students. This work, initially devised for studying the learning interactions occurring in classrooms, is being adapted by another researcher in the robotics research group to study the learning by groups of adult learners of scientific concepts such as gearing.

The Networking of School Systems: Can IT Improve Teaching and Learning?

Geoff Romeo described the support for ICT in schools in the state government school system in Victoria, Australia. A network, VicOne, links all government departments in the state; its largest user is the Department of Employment, Education and Training. Services provided by this network include an electronic mail system called EduMail; a very popular web site titled SofWeb which connects schools to global classroom projects, software and other resources, and discussion groups; professional development materials, and information from the state’s so-called navigator schools where innovative activities involving learning technologies are undertaken.