Roger Carlsen

A comprehensive synthesis of research

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) is working to connect educational and community institutions to those with low resources, who are suffering challenges that can be hard for others to grasp. The aim is to build capacity using Information and Communication Technology (ICT). In this paper a comprehensive synthesis of research into ICT in education is given with the aim to inform the WSIS planning and action by drawing together reviews of policy and research, with an emphasis on formal education in schools and universities. The synthesis provides a picture of a complex situation by considering four reasons to invest in ICT in education: economic competitiveness, ICT to increase educational attainment, ICT to increase access to education, and ICT as a catalyst for educational renewal. It clarifies the complex challenges for such reengineering, which will require sustained interdisciplinary and intercultural collaboration to support the diversity of our emerging knowledge societies. This synthesis is a work in progress. The authors invite feedback and additional references to reviews of research, especially to research findings for the many underrepresented populations of the world.

Building productive online learning communities

With reasonable assurance we can now identify and nurture those factors that dramatically increase the likelihood of building sustainable online learning communities. Demands to learn online continue to be exerted on us through our work places and learning institutions. These pressures and opportunities are likely to continue or intensify. This project provides a variety of data from pre-service teachers, practicing educators, and college professors who all received educational online learning experiences. The findings indicate that for online educational learning communities to succeed and flourish they must incorporate appropriate content with both e-moderating and technical support. Recognition of the traps contributing to failure and the preconditions for success is imperative. An electronic online learning community is not business

Using an educational census to reach educational technology tipping point

In the United States, the use of educational technology is mandated by accredited teacher preparation programs and by state accrediting departments of education. Yet the majority of teacher education faculty fail to infuse educational technology procedures into their courses at substantial levels (Mitchell, Dipetta & Kerr, 2001), and teachers fail to infuse technology into their teaching (Anderson & Speck, 2001). For educational technology to become firmly entrenched in our educational systems, educational technology must become a part of the culture of our schools. This paper reports the attitudes and opinions gathered from interviews, questionnaires, and classroom artefacts from two groups of practicing teachers (n=31) enrolled in a ‘teacher leader’ graduate program. This paper represents only the first phase of a census-like assessment of a much larger group of undergraduate (n=133) students, graduate level teachers (n=92), information technology directors and college faculty (n=32) from twelve colleges and universities.