Derek's Blog

A recent paper appearing on First Monday reports on findings from a nationwide survey of Internet use by U.S. college faculty. The survey asked about general Internet use, use of specific Internet technologies (e??mail, IM, Web, etc.), the Internet??s impact on teaching and research, its impact on faculty??student interactions, and about faculty perceptions of students?? Internet use.

Some interesting quotes from the paper

1. Seventy??three percent of faculty reported that, in general, their communication with students had increased since they began using e??mail.
   
2. One respondent expressed frustration with administrators who "seem to devalue Internet teaching. They think I??m taking the easy way out when I teach online. They are so wrong. It??s especially hard to teach well online."
   
3. Perhaps the most telling comments came from a faculty member who wrote, "I can??t imagine teaching without the Internet."
   
4. As the faculty in this survey see it, the demands on them to use new technologies in the classroom will grow greater from two directions: administrators and students.

And from the conclusions:

"The findings show that institutions of higher education still need to address three broad areas (infrastructure, professional development, and teaching and research) to assist faculty to continue to make good use of the Internet in their professional work."

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 2:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

MIDNIGHT ASSEMBLY is a fascinating web site developed, I am informed by my colleague Derek Chirnside, by a 17 year old student living in Whangarei, NZ. The opening page reveals his motivation for developing the site:

Many nights I sat at the computer very late at night, searching for others like me. Creatively inspired, thoughtful, deep, lost in a society that had lost touch of what made it human- imagination and creativity. I looked far and wide for a forum where these people would meet and discuss. However I found none, and out of that disappointment The Midnight Assembly was born

This young man has managed to amass a following of hundreds of other young people - the site statistics at the bottom of the forums page makes for interesting reading - to join him in this quest!

This is another example of a digital native using the technology to fulfil what Don Tapscott says in his book:

??For the first time in history children are more comfortable, knowledgeable and literate than their parents about an innovation in society??
??already kids are learning, playing, communicating, working and creating communities very differently than their parents.
They are a force for social transformation!?? (Don Tapscott (1998) Growing up digital)

It's certainly worth exploring the many and varied discussion forums within the site - it provides a useful insight into what the concerns and ideas that these young people have.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 6:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Earlier this year I had the privilege of travelling to India to attend a meeting of the secretaries of education for each state organised by the National Institute for Open Schooling and the Commonwealth of Learning. The focus of that meeting was to look at ways in which the NIOS could work with the Open Schools in each state to address the needs of the more than 50 million students (estimated) who aren't even attending school! My contribution was to share the model of video conferencing clusters in NZ, and the development of the NZ Virtual Learning Network.

I was interested then, to read an article titled Technology in schools - children and computers which details the progress to date of a large scale project funded by the Azim Premji Foundation, aimed at addressing the the complex problem of reaching out to children in rural elementary schools in India - described int he paper as a logistic and linguistic challenge.

The article three phases of this project to date which started in 2001 with the development of child-centric content aimed at actively engaging children in learning using ICT. Much use is being made of single and multi-player games.

The first stage involved establishing computer facilitities in 35 rural schools, which was expanded in stage two to involve a partnership with the state government resulting in more than 180 centres being established in the 27 districts of hte state.

The third stage involves putting computers in villages - setting the scene for the fourth stage which will be to scale the approach nationally.

There are many things in this paper that parallel the interests and concerns we have here in NZ - the need to provide equitable access and opportunity for children in rural areas, the pedagogical issues of teaching at a distance, involvement of community and sustainable resourcing models.

Of interest also are the research claims that appear to demonstrate "improvements in social intelligence, social behaviour, communication and motivation in most children" as a result of these sorts of interventions.

Certainly provides a useful international insight - however, I remain concerned at the premise upon which the project is based: at the heart of all transactions is the CONTENT. Yes, content is important, but what about collaboration, community, interaction, invention, content development etc?

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 1:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)