20th December 2015

Thoughts on issues raised by Cox (2012) and Voogt, Knezek, Cox, Knezek, Brummelhuis (2011) in relation to issues that need researching in the area of educational technologies as well as what they consider needs to be done in the future.

My thoughts - just because young people have widespread access to technology, particularly mobile technology in the form of mobile phones which are constantly connected to the internet, does not mean that they are digitally literate or they can "gather information from any format and make sense of that information, use it and communicate it to others (Stripling, 2010, quoted by Roblyer & Doering, 2014).   Cox refers to the 'cognitive divide' resulting from the level of literacy which the learner has in the IT medium and how this affects the affordances that the technologies will provide. (p. 15).

Cox also discusses the balance between access to IT in formal and informal settings.  Young people today are using ICT far more frequently in an informal setting, but are they learning effectively in the informal setting?  Cox asks, is the information they are receiving appropriate or reliable?  Can the learner discriminate between reliable and misleading resources? Can the learner scaffold the learning to build a body of knowledge and profound understanding?  Learners' ability to do these things will vary greatly.

Widespread access to technology also doesn't mean that there is digital equity.  Voogt et. al. (2011) discuss findings by Resta & Laferriere (2008) who  proposed 5 dimensions to consider when realising digital equity:

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 creating, sharing and exchanging digital content
4. access to educators who know how to use digital tools and resources
5. access to high quality research on the application of digital technologies to enhance learning.

 Voogt et. al. ask the central question: "Under which conditions does ICT have a positive effect on teaching and learning?" and then go on to propose 8 actions to facilitate the teaching and learning processes (summarised below) the say that together these actions should form the agendy of policy, research and practice.


Summary of Cox (2012) Formal to informal learning with IT: research challenges and issues for e-learning

Cox (2012) notes that although young people have access to a wide range of IT technologies during their leisure activites, little is known about this impact on their learning. Researching e-learning is difficult due to ever-changing technology itself and increasing access to IT resources in informal settings shifting the balance btween formal and informal uses of e-learning.  The rebalancing reflects in a wider diversification of IT uses by learners and also a greater variability in their IT literacies and unknown variables such as the level of control of the learning activities. The paper reviews:
1.  how balance between formal and informal uses of e-learning and consequent interface between 2 has changed.
2.  how research methods & foci have evolved in order to address changes
3.  issues and challenges for educational research into formal & informal uses of e-learning in the future. 

Over last 50 years balance between teachers and learners roles and engagement with IT have changes.  Introduction of mobile technology such as laptops in 190s enabled students to learn outside the formal classroom and work independently from the teacher.  Technological development from 1990s to present day shows a second wvge resulting in a blurring of the boundaries between formal and informal settings and has changed balance between the control of e-learning from the teacher to the teacher with the learner, from the teacher to the learner, and from formal to informal uses.

• storage power and speet increased by over 1000-fold & miniaturisation (light weight but still powerful)
• Wireless technologies & universal access to internet anytime, anywhere provided seamless networks
• IT devices became mobile and personalised - learners have ownership of their e-learning resource and can study in setting of own choice
• Web2 technologies provided opportunities for learners to network socially, publish their own creations & share learning experiences with experts and fellow learners
• uptake of thin client technologies relieved teachers of the burden of supporting locak class and local school networks and need to maintain eduicational resources on individual machines.
• Ubiquitous nature of IT in society and diverse features and media forms is changing ways knowledge is presented and how information is sought and gathered, therby changing the ways in which people think and learn.  (p. 5)

In spite of research showing the benefits of e-learning there is still a genuine fear among many teachers about e-learning and scepticism of its value to their students.  Priority is still to maintain order in the classroom so adopting particularly innovative teaching techniques is seen as threatening the orderly pattern.  (p. 6).  Research that using "Logo" in mathematics classes resulted in statistically higher scores than students being taught by traditional methods.

Unlike many other areas of educational research, IT technologies are forever evolving - the medium is relentlessly changing the message.

IT is not the only independent variable, e.g. to find out if using computers improves writing skills an analysis of students'writing via a coputer is necessary but not sufficient, must also know structure of writing curriculum, how its implemented, facility with which the IT tool can be used, additional practice students may be having outside the classroom, attidudes and skills that students bring to the tasks and their understandings and intentions as they engage in writing.  (p. 11)

Researching the impact of teachers' CPD on their e-learning practices, need to take account of the important influence that CPD has on teachers' beliefs and their consequent uses of IT. (Desforges 1995; Rhodes 1999).  PD in IT has taken many different forms over last 20 years - e.g. out of school courses, in-school courses, informal peer teaching and online courses - teachers developed their own personal philosophies alongside changes in their pedagogical practices (cf. Black et al. 2003).

Develoments in IT provide very different learning opportunities and a need to design a new "integrated pedagogy" (Cornu 1994).  Conclusion that use of IT is changing the pedagogical roles of teachers.  (p. 12).

In formal education, beforestudents had unfettered access to the internet, information and information providers of the learning experiences had some quality control, curriculum was monitored and controlled, teachers had content knowledge and were trained how to teach.  None of this happens or is controlled in informal learning.  Some issues:

• Is information acquired by the learner over the internet appropriate or reliable?
• Does the learner have the skills to discriminate between valuable resources and misleading ones?
• Can the learner scaffold their learning experiences to be able to build a body of kinowledge and profound understanding?
• searching internet for information and interpreting it will depend upon individual learner's skills, abilities, previous knowledge and will vary between each learner.  (p. 12).

Research into students use of IT outside formal settings has shown that many school students use IT outsdie schoold even more than in school and learning outside school is equally important in young peoples development.  Students should have access to school learning resources at home through portable computers or virtual learning environments.   Distinction between leisure activity and work is becoming more blurred as teachers make use of web-based video material or pod-casts to support students' homework (Pachler 2007) p. 15.  

Range of recent research into learners access to e-learning in formal and informal settings ha shown an increasing divide between levels of access, types of IT resources and also abilities of the users to benefit from such access (Cooper 2006: Tolley 2008).   Increased mobility of the technology; involving small but very portable debvices to the connected online learning enable students to study anytime, anywhere (Facer & Sandford 2010a0.  Informal access to IT canlink learning across settings, support collaboration, assessment and presentation and can open up new opportunities to learners wtih disabilities or special needs. However greater IT literacy skills, as interpreted as being able to use some applications confidently do not always lead to the most beneficial outcomes.

'Present stage' in education where main concept is still based on traditional face-to-face teaching with e-learning an enhancement or optional extra to 'Future stage' in which the main concept is e-learning only a minor part of which might be face-to-face.

There is now a "paradigm shift" in education with access to IT in the home and on the move but not necessarily only limited by a 'digital divide' but also a 'cognitive divide' resulting from the level of literacy which the learner has in the IT medium and how this affects the affordances that the technollogies will provide.  (p. 15).  Where this shift is occurring, e-learning networds of researchers are also more efftively sharing knowledge, research results, and practices, and overcoming cultural and national boundaries (Sakamoto 2002).  There is a long way to go before the majority of education systems have adopted this paradigm shift , such fundamental changes will be slow in reaching formal education settings, however networked communications is rapidly increasing, e.g. widespread use of Linkedin among professionals.

Researchers can rarely control the range and extent of e-learning use of individual learners because of their increasing access to IT beyond the classroom in any educational setting.

Summary of Voogt, Knezek, Cox, Knezek, Brummelhuis (2011) Under which conditions does ICT have a positive effect on teaching and learning?  A Call to Action

Leading question of International EDUsummIT in The Hague, Netherlands in 2009.  70 international policy-makers, researchers and practitioners deverloped a Call to Action (following the publication of the Handbook on ICT in Primary and Secondary Education by Voogt & Knezek 2008) which summarizes the main action points where policy, research and leadership need to join forces to successfully implement ICT in educational practice.  Include view of role of ICT in 21st century learning; potential of multiple technologies to address individual needs of students, better understanding of the relationship between formal and informal learning; implications of technology for student assessment; need for models for leadership and teach learning to successfully implement technology; the potential of ICT for digital equity; development os a list of essential conditions to ensure benefit from ICT investments.

Central question:  Under which conditions does ICT have a positive effect on teaching and learning?

Teaching and learning processes -8 actions

1.  ICT and 21st century learning - establish a clear view on the role of ICT

2. restructuring schools to use technology in addressing individual needs of students - radically restructure schools to be able to use multiple technology-enhanced pedagogoies to address individual needs of students

3.  the need for new assessment structures to measure outcomes of technology-rich experiences - develoment of new assessments to measure outcomes from technology enriched learning experiences

4.  relationship between formal and informal learning experiences and implications for formal learning.  - to better understand student technology experiences in informal learning environments in order to inform work in formal settings.

5.  To develop and use models for teacher learning on technology use in schools and classrooms at the pre and in -service levels

6.  To develop and use distributed leadership models for technology use in schools and teacher education programs.  Successful ICT leadership should not be assigned to an individual but needs to be distributed so it is the property of a group (Bennett 2008) p. 5.

7.  To develop ideaas on international opportunities relating to new and emerging technologies in order to addess the needs of developing countries and promote global social awareness and responsibilities.  UNESCO and the EU.  Policy can facilitate or hamper the implementation of ICT and can provide dierctions for ICT integration.   Emergence of low-cost mobile computing devices contribues to access to technology on a global scale, e.g widespread use of cell phones (p. 6). (Brown 2008).

Access to technology is not the only aspect of digital equity.  Resta & Laferriere (2008) proposed 5 dimensions relevant for realising digital equity:

a.  access to hardware, software, and connectivity to the Internet
b.  access to meaningful, high quality, culturally relevant content in local languages
c.  access to creating, sharing and exchanging digital content
d.  access to educators who know how to use digital tools and resources
e.  access to high quality research on the application of digital technologies to enhance learning.

To ensure digital equity these 5 dimensions should be considered in any general policy on ICT in education  (p. 6).

8.  To develop and disseminate a list of essential conditions which need to be in place to ensure benefit from technology investments.  Policy makers from around the world should learn from mistkes made in ICT investments in the past.