Educating online student teachers to master professional digital competence: The TPACK-framework goes online

In this article we study how online teacher education programmes may enhance innovative ways of teaching and learning with Information and Communication Technology (ICT). We explore how online teachers are practising professional digital competence, in general and within subject areas, and to what extent they encourage student teachers to develop their own professional digital competence. Based on online teacher education programmes at two distinct higher education institutions (HEIs), we applied mixed method design including quantitative and qualitative approaches to illuminate the aims and the scope. Our study revealed that even if online teacher education programmes represent good avenues for stimulating teachers and student teachers to develop digital competence for pedagogical purposes, this aspect is poorly integrated within the actual programmes, although some interesting examples were demonstrated. By looking at the origins of the discourses on online education and on digital competence, we found that they derive from different stakeholders: while the discourse on online education originated from the management side at both HEIs, the discourse on digital competence derived from certain teaching staff at the two HEIs. Our study indicated that there is still some way to go to innovative solutions and to develop the potential of professional digital competence in online teacher education programmes.     

A comparison of e-learning in Scotland's colleges and secondary schools: the case of National Qualifications in 'Core Skills'

Abstract   This paper investigates and compares the utilization of online resources to support teaching and learning in two different educational sectors with overlapping student groups in Scotland: secondary schools and further education (FE) colleges. The online 'Core Skills' materials included Numeracy, Communication, Information Technology (IT), Problem Solving and Working With Others. The research involved two large-scale national surveys with representative samples of staff drawn from secondary schools and FE colleges, and four qualitative case studies purposively selected to represent a range of geographic locations. The most popular resources were for Numeracy. In the majority of colleges, respondents' attitudes to the materials were positive and the e-resources were used in conjunction with other teaching approaches. The evidence suggested that less motivated learners benefited from the materials when they were contextualized. Among secondary teacher respondents, however, the resources were virtually unknown. The majority of secondary teachers reported that they needed time to evaluate the materials and that they would benefit from specific training related to curriculum-linked e-resources. In conclusion, as the Numeracy materials have been found useful, e-learning in mathematics warrants further investigation among less motivated students who are currently not achieving their potential in secondary schools.     

供给侧改革理念下的数字资源建设实践

为了优化现有中等职业学校的数字化教学资源建设与应用机制,探索教学资源建设与管理新路径是有必要的.本文在供给侧改革经济学原理下,以需求为导向,对数字资源建设与应用进行改革.以东莞理工学校为例,依托东莞地区线上教育,通过优化激励机制和应用大数据等新技术推进数字教学资源建设与实践人优化应用.实践结果表明,新的方案能有效地解决...     

Characterising effective eLearning resources

The widespread availability of digital learning resources in a variety of media formats offers the possibility to make a profound difference in education. This potential has not been fully realised for range of interrelated reasons. In this paper we study the key characteristics of learning resources that have proved effective in changing learning and teaching, and relate them to existing frameworks for understanding resources. We outline the relationships between resources, their users, and the way they are used, and explore issues that influence practitioners in choosing a particular resource. Our study is based on a review of resources for e-learning and chemistry in post-compulsory education, undertaken for the UK Joint Information Systems Committees (JISC), as part of a wider study examining ‘The Effectiveness of Resources, Tools and Support Services used by Tutors in Designing and Delivering E-Learning Activities’.     

基于云技术理论的高职数字化教学资源建设研究

随着信息化时代的到来,科技的进步,越来越多的信息技术应用在教育领域,改变了传统的教学模式,也改变了人们的学习方式.数字化教学资源的建设,使得高职院校的教学改革有了新的要求.为了更好的发挥数字化教育资源的优势,体现数字化教学特点,本文研究了基于云技术理论,设计出云计算系统架构,实现基于云技术理论的高职数字化教学资源的建设,从而提高高职院校的整体教学质量.     

ACCESSING SERVICES WITH CLIENT DIGITAL CERTIFICATES: A SHORT REPORT FROM THE DCOCE PROJECT

This article explores the advantages and disadvantages of end user/client digital certificates as means of online authentication in a higher or further education information environment. We conclude that the use of client certificates is feasible and scalable. Nevertheless, it is valid to question whether there is a future in such a technology. Certificates could be useful to some users as the front-end authentication tokens for single sign on systems and we believe that it is not critical that most users will never fully understand how they work. With feedback from over eighty users, with a broad spectrum of technical abilities, the Digital Certificate Operation in a Complex Environment (DCOCE) project looked deeply into the usability of such credentials. Whatever access management technology an institution uses, there is much to learn from the human methodologies of public key infrastructure (PKI) and how these can be made to scale. The use of local user registration individuals to issue user credentials is to be encouraged. Library services are good examples of resources that may be authorized centrally, but other services are not suited to central authorization control. We consider these issues and indicate where digital certificates could be used in the future access management protocols within the UK.     

关于网络教育的几点思考

网络教育以其信息的无限开放性、教学资源的丰富性、时间空间的灵活性、形式的新颖性成为了各种教育活动中不可缺少的有效资源。网络环境下的教学探索,有利于推动教学现代化,扬长避短,让网络技术更好的为教学服务。本文分析了我国网络教育的现状并对其存在的问题及其发展提出了自己的看法。     

计算机网络应用教学数字化资源的研究

针对数字化资源应用在计算机网络课程存在诸多问题的基础上,对职业院校计算机网络课程现状进行有针对性的分析、研究,介绍了数字化资源平台的设计原则,提出了数字化资源设计的方案,解决上述中的一些问题。将数字化教学资源应用于教学过程,以解决传统教学中无法解决的问题,提高教学效率,转变学习方式,探索总结信息化环境下数字化教学资源应用于职业教育各学科的教学模式。     

The scope of digital image media in art education

In this case study of forms 7–9 in a Swedish school, the subject conceptions of and teaching practices in art subjects of schoolteachers and pupils are studied, in particular with regard to digital media. How the core content of a subject is conceived is compared to the importance of digital media in the teaching practice. For three years a class was followed whose teachers taught the pupils in both the art subject and in a local optional subject called Media. The method of triangulation involving participant observations, focus talks, interviews and questionnaires was employed in order to study the role of digital media in different subjects and their actual use by pupils. The results show that the school subject paradigm in the subject of art is chiefly connected to image production for developing aesthetic-practical skills. Traditional manual production is encouraged, thereby contributing to the limited use of digital media in the subject of art. Frame factors such as time and material also contribute to the limited use of digital media in the subject of art. Unlike the subject of art, the optional subject of media is conceived of more as a communication subject, and digital technology for image production is encouraged. In general, the use of digital media in the school is mainly guaranteed by the school's media plan. The role of the art subject is not prominent in this plan, but its teachers are active in implementing digital media in other contexts than within the framework of the art subject. In this study the representatives of the subject of art hardly used digital image processing at all in their teaching, but did so to a great extent in the optional subject of media. This made it clear that digital media in the subject of art in this school are not regarded as a prioritised media-specific competence. Offering and being able to provide a larger repertoire of digital media in the teaching of art could contribute to a change of the subject paradigm in a more clearly communicative than aesthetic-practical direction.     

Debunking the ‘digital native’: beyond digital apartheid,towards digital democracy

This paper interrogates the currently pervasive discourse of the ‘net generation’ finding the concept of the ‘digital native’ especially problematic, both empirically and conceptually. We draw on a research project of South African higher education students' access to and use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to show that age is not a determining factor in students' digital lives; rather, their familiarity and experience using ICTs is more relevant. We also demonstrate that the notion of a generation of ‘digital natives’ is inaccurate: those with such attributes are effectively a digital elite. Instead of a new net generation growing up to replace an older analogue generation, there is a deepening digital divide in South Africa characterized not by age but by access and opportunity; indeed, digital apartheid is alive and well. We suggest that the possibility for digital democracy does exist in the form of a mobile society which is not age specific, and which is ubiquitous. Finally, we propose redefining the concepts ‘digital’, ‘net’, ‘native’, and ‘generation’ in favour of reclaiming the term ‘digitizen’.     

Teaching composition online: Whose side is time on?

Although online education is at times envisioned as a time-saving enterprise, a recent, mostly anecdotal consensus indicates that, in fact, online education is more labor intensive for the instructor, if not for the student as well. Previous studies both confirm and deny this consensus because they examine different design paradigms that resist comparison. This study compares the workload for a student-centered paradigm in one face-to-face (F2F) and three online sections of the same composition course, and finds that teaching composition online takes almost twice as much time as face-to-face teaching. The major causes of this disparity appear to be hardware and applications, instructional design, and student learner characteristics.     

Applying a critical approach to investigate barriers to digital inclusion and online social networking among young people with disabilities

Despite the seeming ubiquity of young people's Internet use, there are still many for whom access to the Internet and online social networking remains inequitable and patterned by disadvantage. The connection between information technology and young people with disabilities is particularly under‐researched. This article contributes to the field of critical information systems research by exposing significant barriers and facilitators to Internet accessibility for young people with disabilities. It uses Bourdieu's critical theory to explore how the unequal distribution of resources shapes processes of digital inclusion for young people with disabilities. It highlights access needs and experiences that are both disability and non‐disability related. The article draws on interviews in South Australia with 18 young people aged 10–18 years with a physical disability (such as cerebral palsy) or acquired brain injury and with 17 of their family members. Interviews evaluated participants' and parents' reflections on the benefits of a home‐based, goal‐oriented intervention to increase the young person's Internet use for social participation purposes. The Bourdieuian analysis demonstrated how varying levels of accrued individual and family offline capital resources are related to digital/online resources and disability‐specific online resources. This revealed how unequal resources of capital can influence technology use and hence digital inclusion for young people with disabilities. Our study demonstrates that young people with particular types of disabilities require intensive, personalised and long‐term support from within and beyond the family to ‘get online’. We conclude that Internet studies need to more frequently adopt critical approaches to investigate the needs of users and barriers to information technology use within sub‐groups, such as young people with disabilities. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd     

基于Web 2.0的网络教学资源平台的构建

网络教学资源平台是高校实施网络教学,共建共享优质教育教学资源的重要途径,是教育信息化水平的重要标志。本文以高等院校教学资源库应用为基础,运用Web 2.0技术和知识管理技术对网络教学资源平台进行设计与实现。     

Teaching digital library concepts using digital library applications

Many digital library topics may be taught using digital library applications, in the context of project-based digital library courses. Several digital library applications exist, and these applications are used as teaching tools to illustrate the functionality of digital libraries as well as the design decisions that go into them. Using digital library applications as teaching tools provides a valuable learning experience for students, and may provide useful feedback to the developers of DL applications. This paper identifies and explores DL topics that may most effectively be taught using DL applications, in the context of project-based DL courses.     

Evaluating peer learning and assessment in online collaborative learning environments

Transformation of learning and teaching in higher education now offers greater educational equality through enhanced access and collaboration within the framework of lifelong learning in the digital age. This study aims to evaluate online peer learning and assessment in the collaborative learning process in higher education practices. The study also investigates the impact of online peer learning on the development of skills within collaborative learning through the use of volunteered responses from learners concerning their experiences with and perceptions of online learning. Therefore, a quantitative approach is applied through the administration of a survey with 32 items that is distributed to 715 participants. According to the objective of the study, a set of inferential statistical analyses are performed. The theoretical framework of this study is the CHAT (cultural historical activity theory) which reconstructs the knowledge of learners through the application of the Adobe Connect program to demonstrate how learners can be collaborative and social with their peers in an online context. The results revealed that the collaborative online peer learning process in higher education encourages critical reflection and self-assessment. The study contributes to the understanding of the value of learner satisfaction in online collaborative learning environments through the experiences of learners.     

Comparing marginal effects of Chilean students' economic,social and cultural status on digital versus reading and mathematics performance

This paper provides evidence that helps understand the digital divide in education. It does so by comparing the effect of economic, social and cultural status (ESCS) on the digital skills of Chilean students compared with mathematics and language. This comparison is made using national standardized tests. The marginal effect of a group of variables measuring student ESCS was compared both as a whole and separately using multivariate linear regression analysis. The results show that the marginal effect of ESCS as a whole on students' digital skills was equal to the effect on mathematics and greater than the effect on language. Furthermore, the results show that the parents' level of education was the most relevant factor of ESCS for explaining student performance on the digital test, more so than for mathematics and language. These findings challenge the belief that the Internet would reduce economic, social and cultural inequalities in new generations. Instead, they reveal that the gap among Chilean students tends to perpetuate or widen when comparing performance in mathematics and language with performance in the digital domain. At the same time, by comparing national test results, this paper offers empirical evidence for the existence of a second digital divide in the field of education, a concept which is widely discussed at a theoretical level but with little empirical support to date.     

数字化校园安全管理研究

数字化校园的建设和应用,实现了管理网络化和教育教学手段现代化,极大提高了学校的教学管理效率;但随着数字化校园应用的不断增加,各种安全问题也在不断暴露,因此网络安全技术也越来越受到人们的高度重视,如何让校园网高效、安全的服务于教育教学,已经成为高校网络管理不可忽视的问题。本文首先分析了三江学院数字化校园的网络特点,并进一步分析了安全管理,然后指出了数字化校园存在的安全问题,最后提出了如何解决数字化校园安全问题的方案。     

Reviewing the need for gaming in education to accommodate the net generation

There is a growing interest in the use of simulations and games in Dutch higher education. This development is based on the perception that students belong to the ‘gamer generation’ or ‘net generation’: a generation that has grown up with computer games and other technology affecting their preferred learning styles, social interaction patterns and technology use generally. It is often argued that in education this generation prefers active, collaborative and technology-rich learning, i.e. learning methods that involve extensive computer use and collaboration among students. Gaming is then proposed as a new teaching method which addresses these requirements. This article presents the results of a survey which studied whether this discourse is also applicable to higher education students from the Netherlands and whether games, considered as active, collaborative and technology-rich learning experiences, are of greater importance in the formal education of today’s students. Of 1432 respondents from eight Dutch institutes of higher education surveyed between 2005 and 2009, about 25% fit our criteria of being a clear representative of the net generation. Furthermore, our analysis shows that there is little difference, and no statistically significant difference, in active, collaborative and technology-rich learning preferences between the representatives and non-representatives of the net generation. Furthermore, no large or statistically significant differences were found between representatives and non-representatives of the net generation with respect to the value they accorded to gaming in education. Overall our dataset did not fit the expectations raised by the net generation theory, with the percentage of students who fit the criteria being much lower than expected. However, regardless of whether they represented the net generation or not, in general our respondents preferred collaborative and technology-rich learning and deemed games a valuable teaching method.     

基于P2P的流媒体教学系统结构研究

随着计算机网络技术和数字技术的迅速发展,网络教育已经进入了数字化、智能化、个性化的发展阶段。本文致力于研究网络学习系统中的基于P2P流媒体技术的视频教学资源系统平台的构架,为学习者提供一个＂以学习者为中心＂的网络化学习环境。