Assessment of 21st century ICT skills in Chile: Test design and results from high school level students

This paper describes a study that evaluates fifteen-year-old Chilean students Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills. The paper presents an operational definition of ICT skills, an instrument measuring these skills as well as the students' results in the test. The definition of ICT skills used considers Chile's curricular framework, functional and cognitive skills. Specifically, ICT skills were defined as the capacity to solve problems of information, communication and knowledge in digital environments. A performance-based assessment was designed in a virtual environment to measure these skills. The analysis of the results showed that the majority of students were able to solve tasks related to the use of information as consumers, i.e., approximately three quarters of the students were able to search for information and half of them were also able to organize and manage digital information. Additionally, they show that very few students were able to succeed in tasks related to the use of information as producers, i.e., only one third of the students were able to develop their own ideas in a digital environment and less than one fifth were able to refine digital information and create a representation in a digital environment. Socioeconomic group, access, daily use and confidence in doing ICT-related activities were all positively associated with higher scores, showing the need to implement strategies to compensate this inequality, possibly by explicitly defining these aims in the national curriculum.     

Incidences and correlates of Internet anxiety among high school teachers in Taiwan

Once high schools are connected to the Internet, teachers are the key to the successful use of the Internet for both teaching and learning. Teacher anxiety, however, can often reduce the success of such technological and pedagogical innovations. The purpose of this study was to explore the Internet anxiety experience by Taiwan high school and vocational high school teachers. This study reviewed related literature in computer anxiety and discussed the further development of the Internet Anxiety Scale (IAS), which was used to survey 136 teachers in Taiwan. The statistical data produced by this study identified four aspects of Internet anxiety: Internet use, hardware construction, management of students' Internet-use, and learning computer-related skills and knowledge. Among these, survey respondents ranked anxiety over managing students' Internet-use as the highest problem. Further, results indicated that female teachers had significantly higher Internet anxiety than did male teachers, and teachers' majors or subject areas appeared to contribute significantly to the level of Internet anxiety as well. Results also showed that both computer-use hours per week and Internet-use hours per week were significantly negative factors when correlated with anxiety over Internet uses, hardware construction, and management of students' Internet-use.     

Integrating ICT into second language education in a vocational high school

Abstract This study investigated the potential impacts of integrating the Internet into an English as a second language class in a vocational senior high school in Taiwan. Twenty-nine students and a young male English teacher were involved. It was found that the students overall had a positive perception toward using Internet tools. This study indicated that the integration of information communication technology on the Internet with English facilitated the creation of a virtual environment that transformed learning from a traditional passive experience to one of discovery, exploration, and excitement in a less stressful setting. The study revealed that a computer-mediated communication environment could lower students' psychological barriers to enable them to express their opinions freely and to communicate actively on the Internet and that it could also enhance their critical thinking, problem-solving and communication skills through online activities or class homepage construction. An individual case study further revealed that a task-oriented English tutoring strategy in association with email communication could motivate the student's writing competence but the student's language proficiency and grammatical accuracy did not improve. Finally, based on the findings, recommendations for future studies are made.     

Slovak high school students’ attitudes to ICT using in biology lesson

The impact of information and communication technologies and computers on our daily lives has been steadily increasing. This fact influences the change of attitudes toward information and communication technologies. In our contribution we focused on finding the differences between gender and age according to computer attitudes. A questionnaire with 33 Likert type items was used in our research. The sample consists of 518 students from 9 high schools. Students attended the all of grades (first, second, third and fourth). They were 15- to 19-years old. Data were evaluated with factor analysis and the ANOVA. The results of the questionnaire were divided into five dimensions in the concrete. (1) The positive influence of ICT; (2) the negative influence of ICT; (3) advantages of ICT; (4) ICT used in biology lesson; (5) disadvantages of ICT. Totally, boys have more positive attitudes than girls and the younger students had more positive attitudes toward information and communication technologies using in biology lesson in comparison with the older students.     

Police arrest and self-defence skills: performance under anxiety of officers with and without additional experience in martial arts

We investigated whether officers with additional martial arts training experience performed better in arrest and self-defence scenarios under low and high anxiety and were better able to maintain performance under high anxiety than officers who just rely on regular police training. We were especially interested to find out whether training once a week would already lead to better performance under high anxiety. Officers with additional experience in kickboxing or karate/jiu-jitsu (training several times per week), or krav maga (training once a week) and officers with no additional experience performed several arrest and self-defence skills under low and high anxiety. Results showed that officers with additional experience (also those who trained once a week) performed better under high anxiety than officers with no additional experience. Still, the additional experience did not prevent these participants from performing worse under high anxiety compared to low anxiety. Implications for training are discussed.     

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.     

Recognition of Affective Communicative Intent in Robot-Directed Speech

Human speech provides a natural and intuitive interface for both communicating with humanoid robots as well as for teaching them. In general, the acoustic pattern of speech contains three kinds of information: who the speaker is, what the speaker said, and how the speaker said it. This paper focuses on the question of recognizing affective communicative intent in robot-directed speech without looking into the linguistic content. We present an approach for recognizing four distinct prosodic patterns that communicate praise, prohibition, attention, and comfort to preverbal infants. These communicative intents are well matched to teaching a robot since praise, prohibition, and directing the robot's attention to relevant aspects of a task, could be used by a human instructor to intuitively facilitate the robot's learning process. We integrate this perceptual ability into our robot's emotion system, thereby allowing a human to directly manipulate the robot's affective state. This has a powerful organizing influence on the robot's behavior, and will ultimately be used to socially communicate affective reinforcement. Communicative efficacy has been tested with people very familiar with the robot as well as with naïve subjects.     

Internet inequality: The relationship between high school students’ Internet use in different locations and their Internet self-efficacy

This research study utilized the framework of digital inequality proposed by DiMaggio and Hargittai (2001) to examine the relationships among the subdimensions of Internet inequality and their outcomes. We firstly investigated the relationships between constructs of technical apparatus, autonomy of use, availability of social support, variation of use at different locations of Internet access (school, home, Internet cafe, and combinations of these locations) and Internet self-efficacy (ISE). Then the relationships between ISE and high school students' exploratory behavior and academic were also investigated. The survey was developed from reliable instruments used in previous research to measure the following variables: Internet Self-Efficacy, Internet accessibility at home and school, exploratory behaviors, academic performance, study use, leisure use, parents influence, superior influence, and training support. Internet access at the Internet café, gender, and self-reported academic achievement were added to the student survey.     

Evidence-based guidelines for the informal use of computers by children to promote the development of academic,cognitive and social skills

The use of computers in the home has become very common among young children. This paper reviews research on the effects of informal computer use and identifies potential pathways through which computers may impact children's development. Based on the evidence reviewed, we present the following guidelines to arrange informal computer experiences that will promote the development of children's academic, cognitive and social skills: (1) children should be encouraged to use computers for moderate amounts of time (2–3 days a week for an hour or two per day) and (2) children's use of computers should (a) include non-violent action-based computer games as well as educational games, (b) not displace social activities but should instead be arranged to provide opportunities for social engagement with peers and family members and (c) involve content with pro-social and non-violent themes. We conclude the paper with questions that must be addressed in future research.

Practitioner Summary: This paper reviews research on the effects of informal computer use on children's academic, cognitive and social skills. Based on the evidence presented, we have presented guidelines to enable parents, teachers and other adults to arrange informal computer experiences so as to maximise their potential benefit for children's development.     

Social skills as predictors of communication,performance and quality of collaboration in project‐based learning

The assumption that social skills are necessary ingredients of collaborative learning is well established but rarely empirically tested. In addition, most theories on collaborative learning focus on social skills only at the personal level, while the social skill configurations within a learning group might be of equal importance. Using the integrative framework, this study investigates which social skills at the personal level and at the group level are predictive of task‐related e‐mail communication, satisfaction with performance and perceived quality of collaboration. Data collection took place in a technology‐enhanced long‐term project‐based learning setting for pre‐service teachers. For data collection, two questionnaires were used, one at the beginning and one at the end of the learning cycle which lasted 3 months. During the project phase, the e‐mail communication between group members was captured as well. The investigation of 60 project groups (N = 155 for the questionnaires; group size: two or three students) and 33 groups for the e‐mail communication (N = 83) revealed that personal social skills played only a minor role compared to group level configurations of social skills in predicting satisfaction with performance, perceived quality of collaboration and communication behaviour. Members from groups that showed a high and/or homogeneous configuration of specific social skills (e.g., cooperation/compromising, leadership) usually were more satisfied and saw their group as more efficient than members from groups with a low and/or heterogeneous configuration of skills.     

高中信息技术教学中的渗透计算机科学研究

随着时代的飞速发展,信息技术成为时代进步绕不开的话题,在进行高中信息技术教学中渗透计算机科学史的教育时,需要培养学生的学科意识,树立学科精神,提高学科素养﹐为计算机信息技术的长远发展奠定基础。文章针对目前高中阶段的信息技术教学现状进行分析、探究,提出了相关策略,希望以促进计算机科学在高中信息技术教学中的渗透,提高教学效率,促进我国信息技术的长远发展。     

Qualitative investigation on the views of inquiry teaching based upon the cloud learning environment of high school physics teachers from Beijing,Taipei, and Chicago

The teachers' understanding or conceptual beliefs would reflect their basic views on education, the nature of the course, their students, and how learning should be conducted. Once formed, such views would remain relatively stable for a significant period of time and affect their teaching practice, the ability of their students to carry out inquiry learning as well as developments in corresponding techniques and mindsets. This research analyzed the differences in the level of understanding of inquiry teaching under the cloud learning environment (CLE) between high school physics teachers from Beijing, Taipei and Chicago. As part of the analysis, video recordings of four actual high school investigative physics course sessions were selected from the 4th Competition of Middle School Physics Teachers Instruction Skills held in 2014 and ranked by the high school physics teachers from the three different cities in terms of inquisitiveness of the course. Results revealed significant differences exist between teachers from the three different cities in terms of understanding of CLE-based inquiry teaching. Teachers from Chicago inclined towards the students' awareness of the problem as well as their ability to collect and question data. Teachers from Beijing, on the other hand, prioritized a procedural approach in inquiry and investigations for their students. Finally, teachers from Taipei shared characteristics from both cities. In essence, teachers from Beijing were more teacher-focused in their understanding of inquiry teaching, while teachers from Chicago were more student-focused. Teachers from Taipei, on the other hand, was somewhere in between.     

刍议初中数学中利用计算机辅助教学的优越性

初中教学有效性成为目前教育学研究领域的一项重点内容,原因之一在于初中教学会影响到学生的多方面发展,尤其是数学、物理等理科教学,对学生思维能力的发展和成熟作用巨大。本文目的在于探讨初中数学课堂改善的可能性,以初中数学教学概述开篇,提出＂计算机辅助教学帮助解决初中数学课堂问题是可行的＂这一观点,并对计算机辅助教学的优越性进行探讨,希望能够为学校教育的改革提供建议和帮助。     

Observations of achievement and motivation in using cloud computing driven CAD: Comparison of college students with high school and vocational high school backgrounds

Cloud computing technology has matured as it has been integrated with every kind of digitalization processes. It offers numerous advantages for data and software sharing, and thus making the management of complex IT systems much simpler. For education in engineering, cloud computing even provides students with versatile and ubiquitous access to software commonly used in the field without having to step into an actual computer lab. Our study analyzed learning attitudes and academic performances induced by the utilization of resources driven by cloud computing technologies. Comparisons were made between college students with high school and vocational high school backgrounds. One hundred and thirty-two students who took the computer-aided designing (CAD) course participated in the study. Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was used as the fundamental framework. Open-ended sets of questionnaires were designed to measure academic performance and causal attributions; the results indicated no significant differences in the cognitive domain between the two groups of students, though it is not so in both the psychomotor and the affective domains. College students with vocational high school background appeared to possess higher learning motivation in CAD applications.     

Gender issues in Internet access and favourite Internet activities among Greek high school pupils inside and outside school

This study investigates gender differences in Internet use by Greek high school pupils within school and out of school environments. A sample of 340 pupils (170 boys and 170 girls), aged 12–16 years, completed a written questionnaire on their attainability, location, frequency and purposes of Internet access. The data analysis showed that more pupils use the Internet outside school (at home, in Internet cafés) than within school and that boys have more opportunities to access the Internet. Both inside and outside school, pupils' favourite Internet activities relate to information gathering for personal purposes and to entertainment. Boys use the Internet for entertainment and Web page creation more than girls do, whereas no other significant gender differences were noted regarding pupils' other Internet activities, such as communication via e-mail, chat or videoconferencing, Web surfing and information search for personal or school purposes.     

计算机在高中数学教学中的实践运用分析

随着社会科技的不断进步,计算机应用范围越来越广泛,在教学中能够与学科之间有机结合,一方面促进教学方式的改革,一方面提高教学效率,最终能够促进学校自身长期发展。本文的切入点是高中数学教学与计算机辅助教学的相互结合,从而分析出计算机在数学教学中的重要作用以及应用在教学中的注意项。     

An intelligent system for monitoring students' engagement in large classroom teaching through facial expression recognition

Students' disengagement problem has become critical in the modern scenario due to various distractions and lack of student-teacher interactions. This problem is exacerbated with large offline classrooms, where it becomes challenging for teachers to monitor students' engagement and maintain the right-level of interactions. Traditional ways of monitoring students' engagement rely on self-reporting or using physical devices, which have limitations for offline classroom use. Student's academic affective states (e.g., moods and emotions) analysis has potential for creating intelligent classrooms, which can autonomously monitor and analyse students' engagement and behaviours in real-time. In recent literature, a few computer vision based methods have been proposed, but they either work only in the e-learning domain or have limitations in real-time processing and scalability for large offline classes. This paper presents a real-time system for student group engagement monitoring by analysing their facial expressions and recognizing academic affective states: ‘boredom,’ ‘confuse,’ ‘focus,’ ‘frustrated,’ ‘yawning,’ and ‘sleepy,’ which are pertinent in the learning environment. The methodology includes certain pre-processing steps like face detection, a convolutional neural network (CNN) based facial expression recognition model, and post-processing steps like frame-wise group engagement estimation. For training the CNN model, we created a dataset of the aforementioned facial expressions from classroom lecture videos and added related samples from three publicly available datasets, BAUM-1, DAiSEE, and YawDD, to generalize the model predictions. The trained model has achieved train and test accuracy of 78.70% and 76.90%, respectively. The proposed methodology gave promising results when compared with self-reported engagement levels by students.     

A multidimensional approach to determinants of computer use in primary education: teacher and school characteristics

The central aim of this study was to test a model that integrates determinants of educational computer use. In particular, the article examines teacher and school characteristics that are associated with different types of computer use by primary school teachers. A survey was set up, involving 527 teachers from 68 primary schools in Flanders. A separate questionnaire was administered to information and communication technology (ICT) coordinators from the same schools to gather additional information about cultural and contextual school characteristics. The combined impact of both teacher and school characteristics was explored through a multilevel analysis. Besides the importance of school characteristics, the results reveal differential effects of specific characteristics on specific types of computer use. Cultural school characteristics for instance, such as the schools’ openness to change and the availability of an ICT school policy plan, are positively related to the use of computers as a learning tool and to the adoption of ICT in view of basic computer skills. In contrast, no cultural school characteristic seem to be associated with the use of computers as an information tool. In a comparable way, teacher characteristics are associated with specific types of computer use, e.g. the variable gender. In general, male teachers report integrating computers more often. In this study, it appears that gender differences only exist in relation to the adoption of computers as an information tool. The results demonstrate that a multidimensional approach provides more insight into the characteristics affecting computer use.     

‘Because it’s boring, irrelevant and I don’t like computers’: Why high school girls avoid professionally-oriented ICT subjects

The current paper details results from the Girls and ICT survey phase of a three year study investigating factors associated with low participation rates by females in education pathways leading to professional level information and communications technology (ICT) professions. The study is funded through the Australian Research Council’s (ARC) Linkage Grants Scheme. It involves a research partnership between Education Queensland (EQ), industry partner Technology One and academic researchers at (affiliation removed for review purposes). Respondents to the survey were 1453 senior high school girls. Comparisons were drawn between Takers (n = 131) and Non Takers (n = 1322) of advanced level computing subjects. Significant differences between the groups were found on four questions: “The subjects are interesting”; “I am very interested in computers”; “The subject will be helpful to me in my chosen career path after school”; and “It suited my timetable”. The research has demonstrated that senior high school girls tend to perceive advanced computing subjects as boring and they express a strong aversion to computers.     

The nature of adolescent learner interaction in a virtual high school setting

This study used survey data to measure the effect of learners' reported interactions with content, peers, and instructors on several course outcomes in two virtual high school courses that emphasized interactive learning. Surveys found that the large majority of students viewed all investigated types of interaction as educational and motivational. Students perceived learner–instructor and learner–content interactions to have significantly higher educational value (α < 0.01) than learner–learner interactions, and viewed learner–instructor interaction to be significantly more motivational (α < 0.01) than learner–content interaction. Furthermore, nine significant correlations were found involving the time students reported spending on human interaction and course outcomes. Seven of the significant correlations were related to the time students reported spending in human interaction and the more affective outcomes, such as course satisfaction and disposition towards the subject area. Outcomes also indicate that learner–learner interaction had higher correlations with course outcomes than learners' interactions with the content or their instructor. Students' perceived learning was not significantly correlated with any type of interaction, and only students' total reported time spent on learner–learner interaction and students' social learner–learner interaction were significantly correlated with their grade.