Julia Gillen

A "Learning Revolution"? Investigating Pedagogic Practice around Interactive Whiteboards in British Primary Classrooms

Interactive whiteboards have been rapidly introduced into all primary schools under UK Government initiatives. These large, touch‐sensitive screens, which control a computer connected to a digital projector, seem to be the first type of educational technology particularly suited for whole‐class interaction. Strong claims are made for their value by manufacturers and policy‐makers, but there has been little research on how, if at all, they influence established pedagogic practices, communicative processes and educational goals. This study has been designed to examine this issue, using observations in primary (elementary) school classrooms, and builds on the authors’ previous research on Information and Communication Technology in educational dialogues and collaborative activities.

‘A day in the life’: advancing a methodology for the cultural study of development and learning in early childhood

This paper explores the methodology of an ecological investigation of aspects of culture in the interactional construction of early childhood in diverse global communities: Peru, Italy, Canada, Thailand, and the United Kingdom. Regarding culture as a dynamic dimension of the child’s socialisation, the approach taken was to film a ‘day in the life’ of a two‐and‐a‐half‐year‐old girl in each location. The principal investigators viewed these five ‘days’ and selected clips were made into a compilation tape, to be interrogated and interpreted by the local investigators and the child’s family. These latter reflections were also taped and then applied to a growing appreciation of the child in cultural context. Other inter‐researcher techniques were used to elucidate and explore events and values further. Reflexive concerns as to the interplay between aims and methods in interpretive research are critical components of this endeavour to develop new cultural understandings of the girls in context.

Researching Learning in Virtual Worlds

Most of the chapters in this book are extended papers from Research Learning in Virtual Environments (reLIVE08), an international conference held by the UK Open University in Milton Keynes in November 2008. Authors of the best papers and presentations from the conferences were invited to contribute to Research Learning in Virtual Worlds, the first book to specifically address research methods and related issues for education in virtual worlds. The book covers a range of research undertaken in virtual worlds. It opens with an accessible introduction both to the book and to the subject area, making it an ideal springboard for those who are new to research in this area. The subsequent ten chapters present work covering a range of research methodologies across a broad discipline base, providing essential reading for advanced undergraduate or postgraduate researchers working in education in virtual worlds, and engaging background material for researchers in similar and related disciplines.

Safe Places in Domestic Spaces: Two-Year-Olds at Play in their Homes

Abstract This paper contributes to the growing research literature on childrens ‘intimate geographies’ by focusing on two-year-old childrens explorations and play within the domestic spaces of their homes. It draws on video data showing three young girls playing in selected home spaces i.e. a family grocery shop in Peru, the upstairs rooms of a house in America, and the balcony of an apartment in Italy. Through analysis of short video sequences the paper describes the way children use and invest meaning in these spaces. It is argued that the three domestic locations can be seen as ‘safe places’, in both material and personal senses; and that they enable childrens sense of belonging, foster their ‘emplaced knowledge’ and build on their confidence to explore spaces further afield.

Moves in the Territory of Literacy? The Telephone Discourse of Three- and Four-Year-Olds

The concept of the ‘new communication landscape’ (Kress, 1998) is propelling a re-examination of what is meant by literacy, and the ways in which we seek to identify and promote literacy practices in young children.This article reviews theoretical moves to destabilize the dichotomy between oracy and literacy. Challenges posed by an examination of new technologies are set against those that draw on evidence from diverse cultural and historical contexts.The telephone presents a contemporary context that has been largely overlooked in child language research – yet this medium possesses its own specific constraints and opportunities for discourse, necessitating a shift away from the ‘here-and-now’ characteristic of very young children’s talk, to a consideration of the interlocutor’s distance characteristic of literacy. An analysis of the practices of three- and four-year-old children’s spontaneous telephone play demonstrates many ways in which their oral practices in this communication channel may be conceptualiz21ed within an understanding of their symbolic meaningmaking practices that is related to literacy, rather than a separate domain of activity. Finally, it is proposed that Bakhtin’s notion of ‘speech genre’ provides a particularly useful characterization of this important aspect of language development in the context of communication technology.

Distributed cognition in a virtual world

Over a 13-month period, the Schome Park Programme operated the first ‘closed’ (i.e. protected) Teen Second Life 1 project in Europe. The project organised diverse educational events that centred on use of a virtual world and an associated asynchronous forum and wiki. Students and staff together exploited the affordances of the environment to develop skills and enhance community spirit. One popular activity, initiated by students, involved sailing boats around the projects virtual island, a technically challenging task for beginners. This paper studies the records of one of these sailing regattas. Organising and implementing this event involved considerable technical and interactional challenges. We analyse the following: How do people work together, including through the use of (virtual) artefacts, to solve problems? What particular qualities of the literacy practices surrounding the regatta appear to us to involve learning? Simultaneously, we contribute to the development of methodologies for studying learning in virtual worlds by employing a virtual literacy ethnography. Findings include a diversity of creative approaches that are used when solving problems, the significance of adult behaviour in authentically modelling learning and the value of humour in fostering a learning community. The notion of distributed cognition has implications for characterising learning and analytical approaches to analysis.

'Hiya, Mum!' An Analysis of Pretence Telephone Play in a Nursery Setting

Childrens knowledge of telephone discourse has been little researched, despite the inherent challenge of this mode of communication. Previous research has studied childrens performance in artificial environments with children talking to adults, and has focussed upon childrens deficiencies in telephone dialogues. In this paper we argue for the importance of pretence play in the development of discourse skills and present data gathered from spontaneous toy telephone talk in a themed pretence play setting. Evidence demonstrates sociolinguistic competencies displayed appropriately and supports Vygotskys suggestion that pretence play is an important arena for learning within aspirational role realizations.

Listening to Young Children Talking on the Telephone: A Reassessment of Vygotsky's Notion of ‘Egocentric Speech’:

In this article the author explores aspects of young childrens private speech, examining characteristics of their development of discourse knowledge in utterances that are not directed to actual conversants. Two routes are taken, which the author tries to interlink without seeking a hard and fast juncture. The first is a study of what children are doing when they talk into a toy telephone, with reference to a transcript taken from empirical research. Knowledge of the essential structure of telephone discourse is displayed, as are emotional motivations behind the construction of pretence talk. The second is the notion of ‘egocentric speech’ as coined by Piaget and developed, within his sociocultural perspective to language acquisition, by Vygotsky. The author argues that dominant contemporary presentations of Vygotskys notion of ‘egocentric speech’ tend to stress the self-regulatory or planning function at the expense of its role in expression of the imagination. The two discussions come together in the suggestion that the deployment of the imagination in reassembling sociocultural knowledge for the creation of pretence play, sometimes expressed in private speech, can be a significant factor in the exercise of discourse competencies for young children.

Revelations through research partnerships

We examine how the notion of partnership permeated the methodology of a project concerned with investigating high quality educare for children under three. Partnership, in this specific sense of involving participants in the construction of knowledge, meant full participation in data collection leading to a high degree of involvement in later stages of research. The roots of this approach lie in an interpretive perspective, owing much to Vygotsky s holistic theory of child development, from which stemmed the study focus upon interactions with children. We present particular qualities of the fruits of bringing educarers and parents into a perhaps uncommonly broad span of the research process.

Overlooked issues of religious identity in the school dinners debate.

The TV broadcast of Jamies school dinners in 2005 prompted action throughout the UK to improve the standards of school meals. A public debate continues across the media around changes, resistance to them and consequences. This article draws upon the findings of a one‐year ESRC‐funded project on the English school dinners debate, which analysed interviews with stakeholders, focus groups of primary and secondary pupils and their parents, and corpora of newspaper articles and relevant websites. We focus here on our finding of a neglected area of the debate: provision for religious diets, dealing in particular with halal. Despite many intentions by providers to meet complex requirements, these are imperfectly understood, and pupils requiring religious diets may not be benefiting from general reforms. Our analysis suggests that improved communications could lead to better understanding of need and take up of school meals provision.