Toni Downes

Children's and Families' Use of Computers in Australian Homes

Childrens approaches to learning may be changing as a result of their interactions with modern technologies. In Australian society there have been quantum leaps in the use of and reliance upon computers and information and communications technologies. An understanding of the lived experiences and interactions of children of various ages with computer technologies in their homes is the focus of this article. Such an understanding informs the work of educators who wish to provide effective instructional environments that draw on childrens starting points and the positive aspects of their home computing environments. The research found that childrens family computer resources, patterns of use and sociocultural contexts combined to affect childrens computing experiences. Several discourses exist surrounding the use of computers by families. These discourses are the importance of computers for education, for the future and as productivity tools. From childrens discussions emerged a comfortable co-existence of ‘toy use’ (for playing games) and ‘tool use’ (for purposeful work and leisure tasks) when using the computer and a preference for an exploratory mode of learning. A number of key elements present in domestic computing environments were identified as contributing significantly to childrens learning. Implications for teachers are discussed.

New literacies for connected learning in global classrooms

While much is being researched and written about the nature of new learning environments and the changing roles for teachers in the school of the future little serious attention is being paid to the new demands being placed upon students in secondary schools as they communicate, handle information and learn in global networked classrooms. In secondary schools, teachers expect to build on students’ existing literacy skills and understandings. These skills and understandings are essentially built around the paper-based technologies of pen, paper, books and libraries. Learning processes in networked learning environments require substantially different literacies. The key differences relate to the changing nature of texts with which students will need to work. This paper will discuss the implications for secondary curricula and pedagogy of the challenges presented by the literacy demands these “new texts” place on secondary school students in networked learning environments. In particular it will argue for a redefinition of basic literacies and learning processes taught and used in secondary classrooms.

Communications and Networking in Education

Technology is shared minds made visible. It connects people through time and across distances. Our shared past is divided into five periods which are based on the intellectual puzzles that have dominated our collective minds in terms of communication. These puzzles are discussed by focusing on how they have been transforrned by technology in the past and will continue to be transformed by technology in the future. The 21st Century will be the Age of Communities because of the rapid expansion of what is possible in terms of shared values, goals and actions by people who can communicate over time and distances in ways not previously conceived. The four Cs for the future of education are: Community, Collaboration, Curriculum, and Creativity. Each of these is used to organise a discussion of where we are heading in education during the Age of Communities.

Children's Participation in Evaluating the Role of New Information and Communication Technologies in Schools

The central thesis of the paper is that children should be accorded a greater role in the evaluation of the role of new information technologies in schools, that is, where possible they should be stakeholders who help shape the design, processes and interpretations of evaluation studies as well as informants who provide data for the study. Arguments for this position draw on childrens special relationship with the new technologies as well as current movements in childrens rights and the development of a new paradigm of childhood studies. The paper finishes with a discussion of some of the issues that might arise from involving children as stakeholders.

The computer as a toy and tool in the home: implications for schools and teachers

This paper presents the findings of a recent research project into children’s access to and use of computers in their homes. The study involved over 400 children who regularly used a computer at home. The children were aged between five and twelve and came from a variety of social, economic and cultural backgrounds in urban Sydney. Significant themes that emerged from the discussion included issues of equity and access, the variety of use of computers, the ways children learned to use them in their homes and children’s perceptions of differences between computing at home and at school. Each of these themes is discussed in terms of the implications for schools and teachers.

Children and electronic media: the home-school connection

Educators worry away at issues of teaching, learning and technologies in the classroom without acknowledging that today’s children and their world are being dramatically changed by electronic media and communication technologies. Children’s life experiences, attitudes, knowledge and skills in relation to these new technologies need to be understood if classrooms are to meet the needs and interests of today’s children.

Projects in networked learning: European experiences

In the last 5 years ‘networked education’ has come to refer not only to computer networks in education but to co-operative networks of educators working together to research, address issues and define good practice in the use of ICTs in education. At the ComNEd99 conference, European colleagues from a number of these co-operative projects presented panel sessions where they shared their work, the issues and findings arising out of their work. Each of these panel sessions was attended by rapporteurs who have written the following accounts of the sessions and projects. Where possible World Wide Web addresses have been provided to allow the reader to seek out more information about each of the projects. The paper ends with a number of reports of Finnish projects. These projects highlight good practice in networked education taking place in Finland, the host country of ComNEd99.

Models of Teacher Development for the Integration of ICT in the Classroom

This professional group explored a range of pre-service teacher education and continuing professional development strategies undertaken in the countries/systems/institutions of the members. No single strategy was identified as best, rather a variety of strategies were found to meet the varying needs Issues during design, implementation and evaluation of strategies for the effective implementation include time, money, leadership development, alignment of the goals of assessment and professional development, lifelong learning, motivating teachers, rewards and incentives, language barriers.

Tracking Technology and Literacy Practices

Technology standards, such as the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) (ISTE 1999) have been developed to assist teachers achieve technology outcomes. However, these standans do not take into consideration the literacy demands of the technology, and literacy frameworks tend to ignore the place of technology. This paper reports on an exploration of how a technology-focused framework (ISTE 1999) and a literacy-focused framework (Downes and Zammit 2000) can be blended in a way that is useful to teachers. The outcome was the development of a single revised literacy curriculum framework which unites the two areas of technology and literacy.

The computer as a toy and tool in the home—implications for teacher education

The paper will present the findings of some recent research into children’s access to and use of computers in their homes and discuss the implications of these results for pre-service teacher education. The study involved over four hundred children who had computers in their homes. The children were aged between five and twelve years and came from a variety of social, economic and cultural backgrounds in urban Sydney. All children regularly used a computer in their home or some one else’s home. Significant themes that emerged from the discussion were that children move easily between the notion of the computer as a toy and a tool, and that they bring the language of ‘play’ with them when they use the computer as a tool. Children learn to use the computer using a variety of strategies including “watching” and “sharing”. Some direct teaching from other family members occur, and when it does it is in the mode of “just in time” coaching. In many families, the children themselves are the expert, and have learnt what they know through ‘fiddling’ and ‘exploring’. Also, when children were comparing their experiences at home and at school, mention of issues such as lack of access and control at school were common.