Paul Resta

Infusing a Teacher Preparation Program in Learning Disabilities with Assistive Technology

A recent trend in the fields of special education, rehabilitation, and technology is the development and implementation of assistive technology (AT) devices and services to assist individuals in compensating for disabilities and/or utilizing functional capabilities to meet environmental demands. AT devices and services have major implications for individuals with learning disabilities (LD) regarding life span issues, environmental and curricular accessibility, and compensatory strategies. Faculty members in higher education who are responsible for designing teacher preparation programs in LD must explore ways to structure curricula, methodologies, and practica to better prepare teachers to work with students who use AT devices to compensate for their specific learning disabilities. The purpose of this article is to describe curriculum design steps and barriers to and solutions for infusing LD teacher preparation programs with assistive technology.

Issues and Challenges Related to Digital Equity

Although there has been significant growth worldwide in access to computers and the Internet, the digital divide continues to be a major form of social and economic exclusion for many peoples across the globe. This section focuses on research related to digital-related issues and challenges encountered in the field of primary and secondary education. Five issues and related challenges and possible strategies are identified: 1) access to hardware, software and connectivity to the Internet; 2) access to meaningful, high quality, culturally relevant content in local languages; 3) access to educators who know how to use digital tools and resources; 4) access to high quality research on the application of digital technologies to enhance learning; 5) access to content creation.

TEACHING WITH VIRTUAL WORLDS: FACTORS TO CONSIDER FOR INSTRUCTIONAL USE OF SECOND LIFE* †

Substantial evidence now supports pedagogical applications of virtual worlds; however, most research supporting virtual worlds for education has been conducted using researcher-developed Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVE). Second Life (SL) is a MUVE that has been adopted by a large number of academic institutions; however, little research has systematically investigated the potential of using SL for higher education. A 2–year pilot study was conducted that included seven SL activities and a mixed-methods evaluation of the SLs affordances, challenges, and limitations. Three SL integration factors emerged, each with sub-factors: pedagogical (relevance, complexity of required SL skills, use of SL affordances); contextual (student prior gaming experience, activity duration, frequency of events); and logistical (SL usability, training, technical support, computer issues). A framework for creating SL instructional activities is presented using the factors.

CSCL as a catalyst for changing teacher practice

This paper presents results of a study of middle school teachers using a prototype Macintosh version of CSILE to help create a knowledge-building community. The study, involving middle schools in two school districts in the Southwest United States, provided teachers with training and technical support in the use of the CSILE over a period of one semester.In-depth interviews were conducted with the teacher participants a year after the termination of the project to understand their experiences and to learn their stories of the impact of the Knowledge-Building Community Project on their teaching practices. Five major themes emerged from the analysis of the interview transcription data. This paper presents a summary of the teacher reflections and stories related to the emergent theme of how the knowledge-building community changed their teaching practices, roles, the structure of their classroom discourse, and their views of curriculum. The results of the study suggest that CSILE, accompanied by appropriate support, can serve as a catalyst in changing teacher practices from didactic teaching to more constructivist approaches to learning. The paper presents teacher reflections on changes in their roles, views of curriculum and classroom discourse as a result of the knowledge-building community project.

Organizing Education for Minorities: Enhancing Minority Access and Use of the New Information Technologies in Higher Education

Abstract Many minority students in the United States are entering higher education with less expertise and experience in using the new academic tools than majority culture students. The lack of computer competence can become an additional barrier, (in addition to the fiscal, cultural and educational barriers) to their successful pursuit and completion of an academic degree program. This paper discusses: the rapid changes which are taking place in the use of computers and related technologies in higher education institutions; the potential impact of present inequities in pre-college access and use of computers experienced by minority students, particularly Black, Hispanic and American Indian students; and strategies and recommendations to enhance the computer competence of minority students in institutions of higher education and public schools.

CollabU: a design for reflective, collaborative university teaching and learning

This paper describes a collaborative university seminar, CollabU, involving five North-American universities in its first implementation in the Winter of 1999. In this report we emphasize the design process, the role of reflective practice, and the implications of the seminar for understanding emerging transformations in university learning, teaching, and scholarship.

The Structure and Characteristics of #PhDChat, an Emergent Online Social Network

#PhDChat is an online network of individuals that has its roots to a group of UK doctoral students who began using Twitter in 2010 to hold discussions. Since then, the network around #PhDchat has evolved and grown. In this study, we examine this network using a mixed methods analysis of the tweets that were labeled with the hashtag over a one-month period. Our goal is to understand the structure and characteristics of this network, to draw conclusions about who belongs to this network, and to explore what the network achieves for the users and as an entity of its own. We find that #PhDchat is a legitimate organizational structure situated around a core group of users that share resources, offer advice, and provide social and emotional support to each other. Core users are involved in other online networks related to higher education that use similar hashtags to congregate. #PhDchat demonstrates that (a) the network is in a continuous state of emergence and change, and (b) disparate users can come together with little central authority in order to create their own communal space.

Digital equity and intercultural education

Digital equity and intercultural education continue to be areas of concern in the emerging knowledge-based society. The digital divide is present across the globe as the result of a complex of factors such as the inequality in: access to hardware and connectivity; autonomy of use; digital and literacy skills; availability of technical and social support; and access to educators skilled in the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). Although there is rapid progress in the growth of mobile subscriptions across the globe, there remain groups of digitally excluded peoples within and across countries. Moreover, although progress has been made in addressing connectivity issues and challenges in learning about digital technology, teachers and learners continue to face issues and challenges related to teaching-and-learning with digital technologies and resources within local contexts and beyond. For instance, in an era of rapid global cultural, political, economic and social changes, the need for intercultural education has never been greater. Not only does digital exclusion contribute to a knowledge divide but it also limits opportunities for intercultural connections, communications and understandings. Building on the work of previous EDUsummITs, the EDUsumIT 2013 participants focused on exploring how digital equity and intercultural education are intertwined. This paper describes current needs and challenges as well as opportunities related to digital equity and intercultural education, as well as the increasingly important role technology plays in helping to foster intercultural understanding and education. These are illustrated by examples of how access to digital resources may help bridge both the digital and cultural divides and relate them to some of the recommendations for policy and practice made by the EduSummit 2013 Digital Equity and Intercultural Education Workgroup to help address these needs.

Online collaborative learning as a catalyst for systemic change in the teaching-learning process within a multi-campus institution of higher education

This short paper describes an innovative and strategic cross-institutional collaborative project between Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM), Mexico, and the University of Texas at Austin (UT) to support systemic change in the teaching-learning process at ITESM. The purpose of the document is to share the scope, framework, content, and strategies for preparing faculty to serve as change agents, mentors and trainees of colleagues in the use of online and face-to-face collaborative learning strategies and tools. The UT-ITESM Summer Institute on Collaborative Learning and planned follow-on activities with 50 faculty is referred as one of the key components in such institutional effort.

The IT Specialist

The changing role and skill sets of the IT professional in educational organizations is discussed. The IT specialist is confronted with rising expectations for support by students, instructors, and administrators while in many instances funding levels for IT are static or decreasing. The growing demand for IT workers in all sectors of society is making it more difficult for educational organizations to retain their IT professional staff. New strategies are needed to recruit and retain the IT specialist in the educational organization such as broadbanding IT job categories to provide more competitive and flexible compensation. The need for the IT professional to move from enterprise specialist to enterprise generalist is also discussed.