Identifying multiple roles of ICT coordinators

This study reports on the development and validation of measurement scales to study the different roles fulfilled by ICT coordinators. Based on a review of the literature, a 24 item questionnaire was constructed and administered to a sample of 177 Flemish ICT coordinators working in primary education. Exploratory factor analysis revealed a four-factor solution: the ICT coordinator as a planner, a budgeter, a technician, and an educationalist. Qualitative data corroborated these roles. This study provides a quantitative measure of the different roles assumed by ICT coordinators in practice. The implications of our findings for schools, researchers and policy makers are discussed.     

Innovative pedagogical practice with ICT in three Nordic countries – differences and similarities

Three Nordic countries, Denmark, Finland and Norway, participated in the IEA SITES 2006 study. All the three countries have launched huge policy and investment programmes to promote digital literacy and readiness for the information age. In relation to the remarkable Finnish Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results, it is interesting to see if the Finnish school system may be better suited to ground and contextualize pedagogical practice with Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) than the Danish and Norwegian counterparts. One main difference is that the Finnish system seems to anchor decisions about and interpretations on how ICT should be utilized stronger at the local level than the two other systems. One of the general goals in the policy programmes is to get teachers to innovate with ICT in the classrooms. The Second Information Technology in Education Study (SITES) 2006 indicators for two innovative pedagogical orientations, lifelong learning orientation and connectedness are utilized to compare teachers from the three nations. The main findings is that Finnish teachers are either not differing or they are scoring significantly lower on the two indicators than teachers from Denmark or Norway. The exception is Finnish science teachers who are more inclined towards using ICT in lifelong learning practices than their Danish and Norwegian counterparts. Generally, the Finnish teachers seem to be more autonomous in their pedagogical choices but may also be more conservative than the Danish and Norwegian teachers in making use of ICT.     

School leaders, ICT competence and championing innovations

The implementation of new technology is becoming more important to schools and the success of such implementations is often due to the presence of ICT champions. This article examines ICT champions to determine whether the intention to champion ICT is determined by the ICT competence of school leaders. This article, based on responses from 64 school leaders in New Zealand, reports that professional development and ICT usage are antecedents of ICT competency and that school leaders are ICT competent and willing ICT champions. These findings are contrary to existing research which has found that school leaders have poor ICT competency.     

Direct measures of digital information processing and communication skills in primary education: Using item response theory for the development and validation of an ICT competence scale

In the past decade, several studies have measured ICT competences from the perspective of ICT self-efficacy. Such indirect measurements tend to have validity problems, as they depend on the pupils' ability to judge their own ICT competences. This study outlines the development of a performance-based digital test and the validation of a direct measure of ICT competence through the use of item response theory (IRT). More specifically, the test and the developed measure focus on primary-school pupils' proficiency in digital information processing and communication. 56 Items were administered to 560 pupils at the end of their primary-school education (age between 10.79 and 13.85 years old). The items were controlled for dimensionality, model-data fit, local item dependence and monotonicity. The final measure contains 27 items that refer to retrieving and processing digital information, and communication with a computer. The results indicate that the instrument is particularly reliable for low and median ability levels. Further refinement and possible future use of the instrument is discussed.     

职业教育多媒体实验室的设计与建造

本文提出了一般网络化计算机多媒体实验室涉及的载体,以及工科职业教育师资专业对多媒体实验室的功能及使用要求,从而给出的多媒体实验室的设计原则更另适合工科对学生培养目标的要求,将信息技术,计算机多媒体技术,网络技术与工科的职业教育科学更进一步完善地结合在一起。文章最后给出了同济大学职业教育多媒体实验室的建造实例。     

Examining the digital divide in K-12 public schools: Four-year trends for supporting ICT literacy in Florida

While there is evidence that access to computers in schools has increased, there remain questions about whether low socio-economic status (SES) schools provide students with equitable supports for achieving information communication technology (ICT) literacy. This research first presents a theoretical model to examine the digital divide within schools. Using this model, this research uses statewide data from four school years to investigate significant trends in ICT integration by school level and SES in Florida. Multilevel models for repeated measures analysis were used to compare models for predicting trends on nine different aspects of school technology integration. Results show statistically significant differences between high and low SES schools at every level in terms of student access to software, student use of software, teacher use of software, and the level of technology support. This research provides evidence of the existence of the digital divide among Florida’s K-12 schools.     

ICT in education policy and practice in developing countries: South Africa and Chile compared through SITES 2006

This paper presents a comparison between South African and Chilean results on SITES (Second Information Technology in Education Study) 2006 study, aiming to show and discuss both disparities and similarities, and trying to explain them through an analysis of their ICT in Education policies and national contexts. Firstly, these policies and contexts portray national backgrounds and initiatives. Secondly, methodological approach is described (a secondary analysis of the international data consisting in a two-way statistical analysis to calculate significant differences between South African and Chilean results, but also including some specific references to the northern hemisphere countries). Thirdly, main results are shown, organized in five sections: a) access to ICT resources; b) support to teachers; c) teachers professional development; d) principals’ pedagogical vision and e) teaching and learning practices.     

Policy impacts on pedagogical practice and ICT use: an exploration of the results from SITES 2006

The Second Information Technology in Education Study (SITES) 2006 results reveal that principals' perceived presence of lifelong learning‐related pedagogical activities in their schools had changed markedly since the same data was collected in 1998 in SITES‐M1. More intriguing was the fact that the directions of the changes were quite different depending on the education systems concerned – many of the Asian countries reported very high increases while some of the European countries reported large drops over the same 8‐year period. This paper reports statistical evidence that the observed ‘pendulum swing’ reflects actual changes in teaching practices in these countries. Exploratory multilevel analyses results consistently show that national means of principals' vision can be used as a system‐level indicator predicting national means of pedagogical orientations in schools several years later. These findings also indicate the possibility of the ‘pendulum effect’ being a consequence of system‐level policy differences in the countries participating in the two SITES studies.     

Using an online tool to support school‐based ICT policy planning in primary education

An important step towards the successful integration of information and communication technology (ICT) in schools is to facilitate their capacity to develop a school‐based ICT policy resulting in an ICT policy plan. Such a plan can be defined as a school document containing strategic and operational elements concerning the integration of ICT in education. To write such a plan in an efficient way is challenging for schools. Therefore, an online tool [Planning for ICT in Schools (pICTos)] has been developed to guide schools in this process. A multiple case study research project was conducted with three Flemish primary schools to explore the process of developing a school‐based ICT policy plan and the supportive role of pICTos within this process. Data from multiple sources (i.e. interviews with school leaders and ICT coordinators, school policy documents analysis and a teacher questionnaire) were collected and analysed. The results indicate that schools shape their ICT policy based on specific school data collected and presented by the pICTos environment. School teams learned about the actual and future place of ICT in teaching and learning. Consequently, different policy decisions were made according to each school's vision on ‘good’ education and ICT integration.     

Multimedia blogging in physical education: Effects on student knowledge and ICT self-efficacy

The main idea behind this study was to explore the educational potential of multimedia blogging for academic disciplines such as Physical Education (PE) that are not heavily based on written discourse and where multiple representations are important in learning. A class blog was utilized as a means for PE students to reflect on and showcase their performances of four specific basketball skills, through creating multimedia posts on these skills and receiving comments from their instructors, peers and an external expert. The effectiveness of multimedia blogging was evaluated, in terms of the acquisition of knowledge of the specific basketball skills and the self-efficacy in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), as compared to that of an equivalent multimedia website which lacked the blogging component. Students’ responses to the blogging activity were also investigated. The sample were 70 undergraduate PE students who were assigned to two groups, one of which used the class blog (Group A, N = 35) and the other one the website (Group B, N = 35), both for 11 weeks. The study followed a pretest/posttest experimental design, taking before and after measurements of each group through written questionnaires. Participation in the blogging activity did have a positive impact on students’ ICT self-efficacy, given that Group A students exhibited significant gains in Internet self-efficacy as well as in multimedia processing and blogging self-efficacy, whereas those of Group B did not. Students’ responses to the blogging activity were also positive. However, within both groups no significant increase was found in students’ knowledge of the basketball skills. The implications of the findings for higher education and future research are discussed.     

How the ICT development level and usage influence student achievement in reading,mathematics, and science

The main purpose of this study is to investigate how national ICT development level and individual ICT usage will influence achievements in reading, mathematics, and science for 4th and 8th grade school students. Large-scale international databases, including TIMSS 2011, PIRLS 2011, and PISA 2012, were employed in the current study. Hierarchical linear models (HLM) were applied to examine both country- and individual-level variables. According to the findings of this study, the national ICT development level is a significant positive predictor for individual academic performance in all three subjects for both 4th grade and 8th grade students, while the national economic development level was controlled for. Such finding indicates a similar trend of the ICT influences for both groups, although there exists a difference in terms of the extent of the relationships. In addition, individual-level ICT use is a significant predictor, even if students' gender and socioeconomic status are controlled for; however, its influence is mixed across different student groups and subjects depending on the ICT usage type.     

The impact of access to ICT,student background and school/home environment on academic success of students in Turkey: An international comparative analysis

This paper utilizes OECD's original PISA 2012 dataset to investigate the impact of access to ICT, student background and school/home environment on academic performance of students. Using cross-section data from 4848 15-year-old students in Turkey, ordered logit models are developed and analyzed. The results indicate that (i) availability of internet connection at home or school and student's possession of his/her own room at home have positive impacts on academic success, (ii) internet connection at schools may not be used for school-related activities and therefore distracts student's attention from schoolwork, (iii) as student-per-teacher ratio or school size increases, the academic success of students declines, (iv) pre-primary education and education in student's native language contribute to academic achievement, (v) there is a positive relationship between education level of parents and student's performance at school. Using additional data from 22,273 students, the paper also presents an international analysis that compares the results from Turkey with those from Germany, France and the United Kingdom. Finally, the urgent need for collection of micro level (at student, school or parent level) data on Turkish education system is underlined.     

多媒体技术在职业高中思想政治课教学中的应用

多媒体技术在思想政治课教学中的应用是一个必然的趋势,尤其是在职业高中的思想政治课教学中,更应得到广泛而积极的运用。运用时要注意：适实而用,切勿随意;注重人机交互,重视师生沟通;善于选择,宁缺毋滥。     

Measuring achievement of ICT competency for students in Korea

In the current information society, the need for securing human resources acquired with ICT competency is becoming a very important issue. In USA, England, Japan, India and Israel improving students’ ICT competency has become a pedagogical issue. Accordingly, education on ICT competency is changing in many countries emphasizing the basis of computer science. The Korean government revised the ICT curriculum of 2001 focused on the basic concepts and principles of computer science as educational policy in 2005. However, it is still difficult to determine a student’s ICT competency level and the outcome of ICT curriculum based on changed direction. Thereupon, this study has developed test tool for measuring the level of Korean elementary school students’ ICT competency based on computer science. In this study, ‘Content’ and ‘Information processing’ are established as the two axes of the test frame standard through literature research, consideration and discussion. The validity and reliability of questions are verified though the preliminary test and the main test tool has completed through question revisions considering the distribution of answers. About 40,000 students, roughly 1% of the total elementary school students, are selected for the main test. There were several findings made in this study. Korea’s elementary school students have a weakness in ‘algorithm and modeling’. Information processing stage has been found to vary by grade. A modified ‘Angoff method’ is used to confirm the spread of the ICT competency levels of the target students. From the results, the cutoff score employed to divide the subjects into three levels, excellent, average and below average, the ratio of excellent levels decreases and the ratio of below average increases in higher grades. To solve these problems, we need to emphasize algorithmic thinking oriented more principal of computer science in ICT curriculum. For more effective ICT elementary education, teaching and learning strategies appropriate for young children to teach computer science should be introduced.     

基于Authorware开发的多媒体课件发布及Autorun光盘的制作技术

随着Internet的发展及普及,越来越多的人通过Internet网络或多媒体课件光盘进行学习,充分利用优秀教学课件以及在In-ternet上开发优秀的教学课件,是电教教育研究的一个重要内容。该文介绍Authorware作品在Internet/Intranet上发布、访问和播放多媒体作品的方法及Autorun光盘的制作技术。     

Socioeconomic differences in elementary students’ ICT beliefs and out-of-school experiences

The purpose of the study was to explore possible links between student socioeconomic status (SES), beliefs about information and communication technologies (ICTs), and out-of-school learning resources. Grades 5 and 6 students (N = 345) who were enrolled in one private and six public elementary schools in Greece, located in areas with different demographic characteristics, responded to a questionnaire addressing their ICT self-efficacy and value beliefs, out-of-school ICT access and activities, perceived parental support and regulation of home ICT activities, and access to sources of technological support beyond the family. Findings showed that students from all SES family backgrounds tended to have positive views about the value of ICTs, but students from low-SES families expressed lower confidence in their ICT skills. Parents from all SES backgrounds appeared to view equally favorably their children’s engagement with ICTs, and perceived parental support correlated highly with students’ ICT value beliefs. However, students from low-SES families appeared to have fewer opportunities to develop ICT competencies, which may explain why they expressed less positive self-efficacy beliefs. Findings stress the need for school ICT integration efforts to take into account student differences in prior experiences and to be coordinated with students’ home computer use.     

Institutionalised ICT use in primary education: A multilevel analysis

This study uses a multilayered framework of different independent school and teacher variables to study which factors are related to the use of ICT for teaching and learning in Flemish (Belgium) primary schools. Special attention is paid to widely accepted technology uses by teachers, which is labelled as ‘Institutionalised ICT use’. A questionnaire has been administered to a representative teacher sample (N = 433) in 53 Flemish primary schools. Factor analyses and multilevel hierarchical regression analyses have been conducted. The results of the multilevel analysis show that ‘Institutionalised ICT use’ should not only be considered as a teacher phenomenon but also as a school phenomenon. The null model shows that about 14% of the variance in ICT use of teachers is due to between-school differences. In a final model, the variables ‘ICT professional development’, ‘ICT competences’, ‘developmental educational beliefs’, and ‘schools' ICT vision and policy’ showed a positive association with ‘Institutionalised ICT use’.     

Recognizing value of educational collaboration between high schools and universities facilitated by modern ICT

In this paper, we address the problem of an educational gap existing between high schools and universities: many students consider their choice of field of study as inappropriate, mostly due to insufficient information regarding the discipline and the university educational process. To solve this problem, we define an innovative, information and communication technology‐supported educational process enabling various ways of collaboration between high schools and universities. The goal of that process is to increase the knowledge of prospective students regarding the next level of their education. We propose an environment for the implementation of the educational process. The concepts have been verified in practise as part of the Ma?opolska Educational Cloud project across several disciplines. We discuss the achievements of the pilot phase of the project as well as its reception by educators and students. Based on evaluation reports and opinions from both educators and students, we claim that the proposed model for information and communication technology‐supported collaboration between high schools and universities can effectively reduce the educational gap.     

Teaching and learning activities in Chilean classrooms: Is ICT making a difference?

This paper presents the results of the analysis of teaching and learning activities in state subsidized schools in Chile. The study is based on the data collected through a national survey applied to all state subsidized schools (census) and a sample of private schools and examines teachers’ and students’ reported teaching and learning activities in general and with the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Additionally, it compares the frequency of these activities between primary and secondary schools as well as between a set of the highest and lowest performing schools.     

浅析几款课件制作软件的功能与特点

本文通过对几款常用的课件制作软件的介绍，使读者较深入的了解每种工具的功能与特点。为了对几款软件作出比较直观的评析．本文还用实例分别介绍了用不同软件制作同一个效果的方式，指出不同软件在各方面的优势与特点，使读者在制作课件的过程中，能够选择最适合自己课堂教学的软件来进行课件的制作。