Teresa Dobson

DIGITAL NATIVES, DIGITAL IMMIGRANTS: AN ANALYSIS OF AGE AND ICT COMPETENCY IN TEACHER EDUCATION

This article examines the intersection of age and ICT (information and communication technology) competency and critiques the “digital natives versus digital immigrants” argument proposed by Prensky (2001a, 2001b). Quantitative analysis was applied to a statistical data set collected in the context of a study with over 2,000 pre-service teachers conducted at the University of British Columbia, Canada, between 2001 and 2004. Findings from this study show that there was not a statistically significant difference with respect to ICT competence among different age groups for either pre-program or post-program surveys. Classroom observations since 2003 in different educational settings in Canada and the United States support this finding. This study implies that the digital divide thought to exist between “native” and “immigrant” users may be misleading, distracting education researchers from more careful consideration of the diversity of ICT users and the nuances of their ICT competencies.

Beyond myopic visions of education: revisiting movement literacy

Background: In the industrialized world opportunities for children to explore movement in active, imaginative ways during free play periods are increasingly threatened for a range of reasons, stemming from caregiver concern for childrens safety to the abundance of game technologies that capture the attention of youth. In contrast, Kenya, East Africa, provides indigenous settings wherein children use their unstructured time, in and out of school, to explore and play in active ways. In comparing the two settings, we observe that one problem in the changing childhood environments of the industrialized world is that the value of movement continues to be largely overlooked. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to revisit discourses that promote mind–body connection, such as physical literacy, or, as we phrase it, movement literacy. We hope to engage educators in conversations respecting how we might practically and theoretically dissolve the boundaries between body and mind with a view to exploring curricular structures and pedagogical methodologies that promote holistic approaches to learning. Setting: This inquiry is part of a larger study that took place in Kenya, East Africa, where movement and dance exist as authentic cultural and aesthetic expression. Participants: Data collection took place primarily in national Kenyan schools (N = 14), which included public (N = 8) and private (N = 6) institutions located in urban (N = 6), suburban (N = 3), and rural (N = 5) settings. Research design: This study was qualitative in its design. Four representative cases were identified within the larger dataset, each of which demonstrates the significance of movement literacy in games and dance among the Kenyan children. These are referred to as ‘movement texts’. An hermeneutical approach, involving interpretation and reinterpretation of data from multiple sources, was employed in data analysis. Data collection: Childrens dance, games, and other forms of movement were videotaped. The movement experiences of children and adults were also explored through observations, interviews, and the personal reflections of the participants. Formal interviews occurred with head teachers (N = 8), teachers (N = 5), students (N = 9), a dance director (N = 1), a professional dancer (N = 1), and a cultural expert (N = 1). These were tape-recorded and transcribed for analysis. Dialogue in the context of the video material was transcribed as well. Less formal conversations also transpired with many teachers and students. These were recorded in field notes and a research journal. Data analysis: Data from this range of sources—videotape, audiotape, field notes, journals, and written anecdotes—were compiled and interpreted. Analysis entailed close readings of interview transcripts in relation to video materials, field notes, and so on. Every attempt was made to relate the apparent meaning of an action or statement to the world-view from which it originated. Findings: Our review of data suggested that the most original, inventive learning took place in the playing fields during unstructured time. The absences of formal structures and manufactured toys afforded children the opportunity to create and explore. They invented their own technologies (e.g. footballs made from rubbish bound with a fibrous plant), explored and negotiated gender boundaries, and were constantly on the move. Their activities presented a marked contrast to the behaviours we were familiar with in observing children in industrialized nations in the context of their schools, homes, and community play areas. Conclusions: Observing the contrast between the schoolroom and the playing fields led us to contemplate the fundamental icon of schooling across many cultures: the desk. The desk as a technology for learning is a contrivance aimed at controlling movement and attention in whichever setting it inhabits. As such, it points to the premise underlying education in many cultures: to learn we must be still. Watching the Kenyan children combine learning with movement in a variety of settings sends a message to educators in industrialized nations where a variety of factors are conspiring to limit opportunities for children to move and play freely. The message is this: we must redouble our efforts to engage in holistic methods of education; we must make space within our curricula for movement; we must oppose efforts to remove free play periods such as recess; we must focus on educating caregivers and teachers across disciplines respecting the importance of active play and learning; we must engage children in conversations about their play choices with a view to improving our understanding of the complex interdependencies of movement and learning. Finally, and most importantly, we must stress the inherent value of movement and free play, not only as a means to an educational end, but as an end in itself.

Stitching texts: gender and geography in Frankenstein and Patchwork Girl

This paper considers how two related texts—one in print and one in hypertext—are locations for adolescents to undertake the work of ‘literary anthropology’ in considering questions of gender and subjectivity. The first text is Mary Shelleys Frankenstein, which invites readers to grapple with questions of how adolescents negotiate relations with their parents and others, of how masculinity and femininity are produced and construed, and of how cultural mores inform both processes. The second is Shelley Jacksons Patchwork Girl, a hypertext novel that parodies the former. Both texts offer a multilayered reading experience for adolescents juxtaposing print and digital technologies, themes of boundary and displacement, and issues of identity and sexuality.

Learning from YouTube: an analysis of information literacy in user discourse

YouTube is one of the largest databases in the world, providing informative and entertaining video to millions of users around the globe. It is also becoming an important source of homework assistance to young people as they supplement their learning practices with user-generated tutorials on a range of topics. This poster presents our ongoing work in this emerging area of information literacy: how young people make meaning with information sources on YouTube to support their academic needs. We describe our system for analyzing user-generated feedback on video channels that support students academically, and report preliminary findings of our ongoing analysis. Drawing on several complementary frameworks, including information sharing, help seeking, and dialogic inquiry, we suggest that comments posted to YouTube provide unique insights into the ways young people engage with and make meaning from user-generated video to support their learning. This work has implications for educators, librarians, and the designers of interactive learning technologies.

Visualizing Plot in 3D

We describe the design of several new forms of interactive 3D visualizations, to be used in teaching the concept of plot in fiction. Conventional approaches to teaching plot tend to rely on a Victorian visualization known as Freytag’s Pyramid, which is well suited to a certain range of material but is not appropriate for all fiction currently being taught. Our new visualizations have the potential to allow teachers and students to explore different approaches to understanding plot. We focus in particular on three visual strategies, each of which describes significant features such as characters, objects, events, and transitions in space and time, while respectively emphasizing recurring elements in a primarily sequential structure, complexity of structure, and centrality of some designated feature or features. The technical aspects of the visualizations emerge from the availability of digital text that can be encoded for plot elements using XML.

In Medias Res: reading, writing, and the digital artefact

In information systems and end-user computer research, ‘using’ appears to encapsulate a range of activities, such as reading, writing, viewing and so on. And yet it is a grossly inadequate descriptor for any of these activities, failing to account for the fact that texts — digital or otherwise — are produced and engaged by humans for a variety of purposes, from study to recreation. The wide adoption of ‘use’ as a descriptor for engagement with hypermedia reflects the challenges inherent in understanding and facilitating interaction with complex multimedia artefacts. It also points to a potential problem with research in this area: do attempts to accommodate the complexity of the digital artefact by devising terms that synthesize the range of literacy processes involved in human—computer interaction deter us from attending to the distinctiveness of those processes? The author takes up this question by considering how notions of reading and writing have been construed in relation to digital media, and whether such notions are in fact useful in furthering understanding of digital literacy.

Abstraction and realism in the design of avatars for the simulated environment for theatre

The Simulated Environment for Theatre (SET) is an experimental three-dimensional interface for use in blocking plays. Created using the Unity3D game engine, SET allows directors or student directors to associate character movement and speech with a timeline that represents the line of action, as well as to annotate choices, change the script, place viewpoints in the audience, and specify the scale-model stage and set. In this article, the authors discuss the iterative design choices involved in creating an appropriate range of characters and character attributes, where they were conscious of the need to keep complexity to a minimum while simultaneously providing as wide a range as possible of the features necessary for a director planning blocking. These include considerations of character attributes such as direction of movement, posture, age, and species, while at the same time the authors decided to de-emphasize control of features such as height, weight, gender, costume, and limbs. The purpose of this discussion is twofold: to cast light on the intricacies of the design decisions around what appear to be relatively simple objects; and to help inform related discussions for other researchers making decisions about avatar design, whether in virtual theatre projects or other broader contexts.

The Interface Implications of Understanding Readers

Abstract This paper discusses our work conducting reader studies with prototypical reading interfaces designed in the context of funded Digital Humanities (DH) research projects. We discuss our conceptual and methodological approaches and contemplate which methods have been most productive in advancing our understandings of reading practices and interfaces. To situate this discussion, we first contemplate ways in which reading and new reading interfaces have been conceptualized by audiences within and beyond academia through the period of the emergence of digital environments for reading, and consider the merits of nuanced approaches that acknowledge the diversity of readers and reading practices.