Technorati have recently released their annual State of the Blogosphere report. Since 2004, thier annual study has unearthed and analyzed the trends and themes of blogging, but for the 2008 study, they resolved to go beyond the numbers of the Technorati Index to deliver even deeper insights into the blogging mind. The 2008 report has some interesting depth presented in five special sub-reports:

• Who Are the Bloggers?
• The What And Why of Blogging
• The How of Blogging
• Blogging For Profit
• Brands Enter The Blogosphere

The 2008 report reveals just how pervasive blogs have become , and the extent to which they are a part of our daily lives. The figures supporting this vary from survey to survey, but all are now consistently high!

The understanding of what a blog is is changing - once known as an abbreviated form of Web-log, this report reveals a relatively equal distribution of use of blogs across all age, gender and occupation categories.  In addition, the figures reveal that blogging is now a truly global phenomenon.

Technorati defines the Active Blogosphere as: The ecosystem of interconnected communities of bloggers and readers at the convergence of journalism and conversation. As the Blogosphere grows in size and influence, the lines between what is a blog and what is a mainstream media site become less clear. I found it interesting to note, for instance, that in the US, 95% of the top 100 US newspapers have reporter blogs now.

Perhaps the other thing that stands out in this report is the emergence of brands and branding of blogs, and the fact that there is now good money to be made from certain genres of blog.

For anyone interested in the emerging trends associate with blogs and blog use this is a fascinating report. Probably the most interesting section for me is the “what and why of blogging” which reveals all sorts of interesting data about why people blog, what they blog about and how they measure the success of their blog. Although Education doesn’t specifically get a mention (doesn’t even appear in the top 18 topics blogged about!), there’s plenty in this report to inform thinking about the use of blogs and blogging in educational contexts.

Recently published by the Commonwealth of Learning is this edited e-book titled Education for a Digital World - advice, guidelines and effective practice from around the globe. This 500-page volume contains a comprehensive collection of proven strategies and tools for effective online teaching, based on the principles of learning as a social process. It offers practical, contemporary guidance to support e-learning decision-making, instructional choices, as well as program and course planning, and development.

There are five sections in the book, with contributed chapters under the headings of:

• The impact of Instructional technologies

• Preparing Online Courses
• Implementing Technology
• eLearning in Action
• Engagement and Communication

The book itself has been designed in such a way that it could be used as a handbook for a course on the topic - with each of the 31 very informative chapters introduced with a list of learning outcomes that should be achieved as the reader works his/her way through the chapter.

There’s simply too much in this book for me to do it justice with a brief mention here - suffice to say that there is something of value in here for everyone, from the newcomers to the topic to those who are well down the track.

I found chapter 30,”Supporting eLearning through Communities of Practice” of particular interest having just attended an all day seminar yesterday with Etienne Wenger, whose work gets quoted in this chapter. There are some very useful models and frameworks explained in the chapter, as well as some informative case studies that illustrate the nature and operation of some of these communities of practice - including one that I’ve been a part of for a while, namely the SCoPE online community hosted Simon Fraser University in Australia which brings together individuals who share an interest in educational research and practice.

Another excellent piece of work from the Commonwealth of Learning!

Terry Anderson has released the second edition of his popular “Theory and Practice of Online Learning”. The book is available for purchase or as a free download (click here to download the entire book in .pdf format). Topics include social media, philosophies of technology, mobile learning, cost decisions about technology, libraries, learner support and more.

I was particularly interested in the chapter titled “Towards a Theory of Online Learning” which had me thinking back to the work I did in the field of distance education with theorists such as Holmberg, Keegan, Moore etc. Anderson has a background that comes from these same traditions, and like these theorists before him, he begins with a general assessment of how people learn, using as a framework the work of Bransford, Brown, and Cocking’s (1999). He goes on to assess the unique characteristics or affordances of the Web to enhance these generalized learning contexts and discusses the six forms of interaction and their critical role in engaging and supporting both learners and teachers. He then presents a model of e-learning, a first step towards a theory, in which the two predominate forms of e-learning - collaborative and independent study modes - are presented with a brief discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of each. Anderson ends with a discussion of the emerging tools of the Semantic Web, and the way they will affect future developments of theory and practice of online learning.

Separate chapters are devoted to exploring infrastructure and support (including chapters on social software and the use of mobile technologies); the design and development of online courses, and on the delivery, quality control and student support of online courses. The broad range of subjects, both theoretical and practical, should be of immense interest to researchers and practitioners in the field of online education and eLearning.

Broadband has been in the news this week - in Thursday’s budget in New Zealand the government announced the establishment of The Broadband Investment Fund, to be the main mechanism for the distribution of the government’s planned NZ$340 million (US$266 million) in urban and rural broadband funding. In addition to this, NZ$160 million has been earmarked for broadband services to the education and health sectors, bringing the total investment to NZ$500 million. A week or so earlier the National party announced plans to spend $1.5 billion on a public-private partnership for a fibre-optic network by 2012 (should it win the election later this year). According to the news release, the Labour package will be “a targeted fund aimed at increasing speeds to businesses, universities, schools, hospitals and under-served rural areas.” In urban areas it will be used to connect users to infrastructure that is required to be operated on an open access and non-discriminatory basis. The priority in urban areas is to deliver high bandwidth services to businesses, health and tertiary institutions, schools and other entities and that supports future roll-out of fibre or other high bandwidth technology to the home.

This is all good news for those of us working to promote the development of broadband services within education, and the development of things like the Virtual Learning Network and local schools “loops”. Providing access to broadband technologies for our school and tertiary level students is essential, not only for the opportunities they create to provide quality educational experiences for these students, but also because the development of skills, understandings and competencies in the use of these technologies is going to be increasingly important for their future as workers and citizens, and for the economic well-being of our nation.

Of course, while this sum of money appears large, it must be seen as just a beginning, as to do things properly we will have to continue to invest in this basic infrastructure for some time yet. In his response to the budget announcement, Ernie Newman from TUANZ comments, “to be honest, I feel a bit underwhelmed. The amount of money is pretty sparse and I guess I was anticipating more.” Ernie has long been a campaigner for bringing NZ’s broadband connectivity up to speed with other parts of the world - and in the other key broadband news item of the past week, we can begin to understand why.

The OECD released its 2008 report on Broadband Growth and Policies in OECD countries during the week, and for anyone wanting to come up to speed with the significance of broadband in a 21st century economy this is a good read. The report begins by stating; “Broadband not only plays a critical role in the workings of the economy, it connects consumers, businesses, governments and facilitates social interaction” and proceeds to illustrate the extent to which the various OECD countries are making progress in providing broadband connectivity to their citizens. The report canvases a range of issues such as cost, coverage and competition, and concludes in the policy section that open access ducting and dark fibre will be key.The report also states that… “because of their reach, wireless Internet connections using 3G or emerging wireless networks will be an increasingly important but largely complementary access technology to wired broadband. “

So how does New Zealand fare?

It would appear that out of all OECD countries we are currently just below the OECD average for broadband penetration (see graph above), with the majority of connections being DSL - so the recent government announcements are timely if we are to rise above that average line. This is not simply a case of “keeping up owith the Joneses” - access to a reliable, competitively priced broadband network is essential to the future economic wellbeing of our nation. We are simply too far from anywhere to remain competitive in the world while depending on shifting high volumes of physical goods too an fro. Broadband connectivity will enable us to participate in the global knowledge economy and contribute what NZers have become known for - innovation, creativity and the capacity to problem solve!

Latest OECD Broadband standings
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/32/58/40629032.pdf main findings
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/32/57/40629067.pdf full report

I spend a lot of time speaking to teacher groups, principal groups and others with an interest in the education of our young people in early childhood centres, schools and tertiary institutions. The topics I am asked to speak on include things such as “Educating for the 21st Century”, “Visioning the future of Education” and other such grandiose titles. The common themes involve change, educational reform, pedagogical shifts etc., and generally focus on the impact of technology, societal changes, vocational changes and so on.

I’ve only occasionally been confronted by someone in the educational system who doesn’t accept that we need to change what we’re doing in our schools and how we’re doing it. Generally, there is a high level of acceptance that the world is changing, and that our students need to be prepared for it in ways that are different to the traditional ways we’ve done things in our educational institutions.

The problem occurs, of course, in shifting these ideas from our head (our understanding of the situation) to our hands (actually doing something about it.) Some would argue that there is a third dimension that is often missed out - the heart, from which flows our sense of passion, driven by belief and a sense of vision. In visiting a large number of schools now around NZ (and overseas), plus the experience of my own five children as students at school and university, I can only say that there is a huge degree of variability in terms of how successful we (as a profession) are in realising and responding to change.

Thus it was with interest that I read this morning of a report just released by Education Sector, a national independent nonpartisan education think tank, titled Waiting To Be Won Over: Teachers Speak on the Profession, Unions and Reform. The report contains the findings of a survey of over 1000 teachers in the USA about their views on the teaching profession, teachers unions, and a host of reforms aimed at improving teacher quality. It examine teachers’ opinions and attitudes toward teacher unions, teacher unionism, and a range of current district reforms, including those aimed specifically at improving teacher quality.

The survey itself asked specific questions about the work teachers do and about reform proposals that are currently being debated in the US. It also examines the views of new teachers and those who have been in the system for some time. And, when possible, the survey discerns trends by asking some identical questions from a 2003 national survey of K-12 public school teachers and comparing the responses.

While the context is the USA, the findings ring true for us in New Zealand as well - and are worth considering, particularly for those of us who are working in the area of challenging the existing paradigm and seeking to bring about changes at all levels from policy to practice. Some of the trends and findings that stood out for me…

• Concerns from teachers who feel ‘locked in’ to teaching, with no real options for doing something else if they feel they’re past their prime. “Too many veteran teachers who are burned out stay because they do not want to walk away from the benefits and service time they have accrued.”

• Well over half of the teachers surveyed (55 percent) say that in their district it is very difficult and time-consuming to remove clearly ineffective teachers who shouldn’t be in the classroom
• A strong feeling that their experience of appraisal (teacher evaluation) was ineffective, not providing any worthwhile sort of feedback for growth or recognition of work well done, or in identifying and dealing with poor performance. Most saw this as just a formality.
• When responding to a question about what sort of school is best for students teachers were unanimous in talking about providing flexibility and dispensing with unnecessary rules and restrictions.

When asked to identify the things that would contribute significantly to change in schools, teachers responded with…

• making appraisals and teacher evaluations more rigorous and meaningful
• Providing financial incentives, including for teachers who work in ‘tough’ areas or poor performing schools
• De-emphasising the use of student test scores as a key measure of teacher performance and basis for financial rewards.
• Providing more time in the school day for teachers to carry out planning and preparation work as a way of attracting high quality people into the profession.

No big surprises for me here - but the detail of the report reveals some interesting perspectives that were shared, and to be honest, disappointed me from the perspective that, frankly, I can hear these same perspectives echoing in my mind from numerous meetings and staffroom conversations I’ve been involved in over my 30 years of teaching.

Yes - this report is useful as a benchmark or ’state of the play’ - but for goodness sake, where is the innovative, “outside the box” thinking that will truly energise and refresh our whole approach to education - that will ensure we are educating students for their future - not our past??

In the
NZ Herald today is an article about a survey released in Australia today which tells a story of the 21st century nuclear family as one whose children are media-rich; who have multiple communications devices in the home; who value the internet and are striking a comfortable balance in their children’s use of media.

The report is described as an in-depth study of children’s use of electronic media and the way parents mediate that use. It includes an up-to-date review of the academic research literature on the long-term influence of media on children and families.

The research considered a range of children’s leisure activities and investigated how the internet, free-to-air and subscription television, radio, mobile phones and games fit into the lives of Australian young people and families.

The report includes analysis of:

• detailed information from over 1000 children (aged eight to 17 years) about the time they spend on leisure activities, including electronic media

• an inventory of media equipment in 750 homes and
• a questionnaire to 750 parents/guardians examining the attitudes and behaviours that families adopt to mediate the use of electronic media by children.

There is no information about how representative the samples are of Australian society - for instance, to what extent rural and indigenous communities are involved?

Headlines:

• Children (8-18) spend an hour and 15 minutes online every day, and more than 42 per cent of all children say they have posted their own content online on social networking sites such as FaceBook and MySpace.

• The tv set plays as important a role as ever in the average home, and its influence is increasing.
• In 1995, just 8 per cent of children had a television in their bedroom. This year that figure jumped to one in five, and half of those have their own internet connection. In Britain, 70 per cent children have a TV in their bedroom. In the US, the figure is 75 per cent.

Besides the fascinating profile that is created of today’s young people and their exposure to media and digital communications ( eg family homes with 3 or more TVs, computers (98%), broadband internet (76%), 3 or more mobile phones etc) the report explores parents’ views on their children’s media use and strategies they employ to manage this use.

There’s also a great review of the literature looking at the impact and implications of various types of media, including TV, film, video, games, and mobile phones etc. which will be of interest to anyone pursuing research in this area.

A part of the report that particularly interested me 9in the wake of a discussion I got drawn into at a school recently) comes towards the end, and explores the consumer socialisation of children through exposure to these various forms of media, and the influences of media on children’s health. The latter section explores the relationship between media and obesity and physical (in)activity, nutrition, substance use, eating disorders, sexual behaviour and suicide.

The conclusion of this final section is divided. The report concludes that there is a wealth of literature supporting the view that media content and use may influence the way young people perceive their environment, their bodies, their relationships, and various risk taking behaviours. But it also concludes that media has the potential to enhance young people’s health and behaviour, having the potential to promote physical activity through intensive mass media campaigns and pro-recovery eating disorder websites for instance. The report also identifies a number of areas in which more robust evidence is still needed.

Definitely worth a read for those contemplating research in this area, or who are simply interested in reading an evidence-based perspective on what our kids are doing on the computer (and other forms of media).

Follow these links to download the report overview(PDF, 248 Kb) or the full report (PDF, 3.8Mb) In addition, you can view a slideshow summary of the report.

1800 - less than 3% of the world’s population lived in cities
1900 - 150 million people lived in the world’s cities
2000 - more than half of the people on earth live in cities
2050 - predicted to be more than two thirds of the world’s population will live in cities

Here’s a great project (and resource) that is sure to appeal to teachers and students working in the geography, economics or general ‘futures’ area. The Flash-based intro along makes for a useful resource, posing questions and presenting trends and statistics about the growth of cities around the world.

The mission of 19.20.21 is a multi-year, multimedia initiative to collect, organize and better understand population’s effect regarding urban and business planning and its impact on consumers around the world. This 5+ year initiative aims to deliver results via 5 channels; web (including mobile), television (broadcast and cable), print (magazines, books and atlases), exhibits and seminars (virtual and on-site).

The 19.20.21 project will provide a road-map for understanding the world ahead. The five year study will encompass all aspects of the phenomenon of supercities, and be a valuable, entertaining, comparative and statistical analysis of the world’s great cities of today and tomorrow.

I’ve just been reading the latest of the Knowledge Maps series from InfoDev, titled KnowledgeMaps: ICT in Education - the objective of the work being to create a “Knowledge Map” of what is known - and what isn’t - about information and communication technology (ICT) use in education. The report makes for sobering reading - and should be of interest to anyone with a research interest in this area, for there are many pointers here to areas that would make for a worthwhile research focus.

The report provides a summary of “what is known” in ten topics that are then grouped into four themes. In the area relating to what is known about the impact of ICT in education the following summary is made:

• The impact of ICT use on learning outcomes is unclear, and open to much debate.

• There is an absence of widely accepted standard methodologies and indicators to assess impact of ICTs in education.
• There is a disconnect between the rationales most often put forward to advance the use of ICTs in education (to introduce new teaching and learning practices and to foster 21st century thinking and learning skills) and their actual implementation (predominantly for use in computer literacy and dissemination of learning materials).

The report writers go on to say that the review of the research on impacts of ICTs on student achievement yields few conclusive statements, pro or contra, about the use of ICTs in education. For every study that cites significant positive impact, another study finds little or no such positive impact. The writers also point out that many studies that find positive impacts of ICTs on student learning rely (to an often uncomfortable degree) on self-reporting (which may be open to a variety of positive biases).

As the footnote to each paper warns, the Knowledge Maps are not meant to be an exhaustive catalog of every- thing that is known (or has been debated) about the use of ICTs in education in a particular topic; rather, taken together they are an attempt to summarize and give shape to a very large body of knowledge and to highlight certain issues in a format quickly accessible to busy policymakers. They are intended to serve as quick snapshots of what the research literature reveals in a number of key areas and are not meant to be an exhaustive catalog of everything that is known (or has been debated) about the use of ICTs in education in a particular topic.

Read with this in mind this compilation of papers will benefit anyone getting into the field of research about the use of ICTs in education, or anyone who is involved in the formulation of policy at a local or national level.

The blogosphere is active with people making comments on the release of the the fifth editon of this annual Horizon Report which is a collaboration between the New Media Consortium and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, and having now read it myself, I thought I’d add my penny’s worth (before its official release at at Educause in San Antonio tomorrow).

It’s a very timely read, as in the coming week I’m going to be speaking to a number of staff gatherings at schools preparing themselves before the onslaught of students the week after. The contents of this report provide useful food for thought at a time of year when we are thinking aspirationally, and are not bogged down in assessment activities and other deadlines that often become the focus of our energies.

Like the previous reports, this one analyzes the MetaTrends of the last 5 years, and outlines the major emerging technologies for college level education in the next 5 years including user-generated video content, collaboration webs, mobile broadband and data mashups. While the focus is on tertiary (college) settings, the discussion around these trends and what they mean for learners and for the education institutions applies just as much to the school sector, particularly as some of the trends (Collective Intelligence and Social Operating Systems) are seen as 4-5 years out still.

In addition to these technology trends, the report also identifies and discusses key trends affecting the areas of teaching, learning, and creative expression. This year four such trends are identified:

• The growing use of Web 2.0 and social networking–combined with collective intelligence and mass amateurization–is gradually but inexorably changing the practice of scholarship.

• The way we work, collaborate, and communicate is evolving as boundaries become more fluid and globalization increases.
• Access to–and portability of–content is increasing as smaller, more powerful devices are introduced
• The gap between students’ perception of technology and that of faculty continues to widen.

There is some excellent discussion on each of these trends in the report - well worth a read!

Here’s another report to complement the one from Pew Internet that I blogged about earlier. According to this British Library study many of the assumptions made about the Google generation - defined as those born since 1993 - fail to stack up to the evidence. study was commissioned by the British Library and JISC to identify how the specialist researchers of the future, currently in their school or pre-school years, are likely to access and interact with digital resources in five to ten years’ time. This is to help library and information services to anticipate and react to any new or emerging behaviours in the most effective way and to inform and stimulate discussion about the future of libraries in the internet era

I found the following statement of interest with regards to the impact on libraries of a move towards the much talked about ‘information-on-demand” environment:

The implications of a shift from the library as a physical space to the library as virtual digital environment are immense and truly disruptive. Library users demand 24/7 access, instant gratification at a click, and are increasingly looking for `the answer’ rather than for a particular format: a research monograph or a journal article for instance. So they scan, flick and `power browse’ their way through digital content, developing new forms of online reading on the way that we do not yet fully understand (or, in many cases, even recognise).

However, it seems the industry has overestimated the Google generation’s net-savvy credentials. According to this report, “A careful look at the literature over the past 25 years finds no improvement (or deterioration) in young people’s information skills“. it also claims there is no hard evidence to prove the Google generation needs information immediately and that it has no tolerance for delay in getting such data.

There’s plenty more to challenge and inform - including the section on the Google Generation itself… it’s certainly challenged some of my assumptions - I’m off now to read further…