Lifelong Learning

The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, Vol 8, No 3 (2007), ISSN: 1492-3831

November – 2007

David Annand
Athabasca University – Canada’s Open University

Abstract

University education is still generally conducted within pre-Industrial Age organizational structures. As a result of their inability to evolve the predominant cohort-based classroom structure to more cost-effectively meet the aspirations of burgeoning worldwide populations for higher education, universities may see substantial organizational changes imposed on them over the next decades by external forces. Emergent forms of university organizational structures are examined that may affect this needed transformation.

Keywords: Fordism; industrialization; innovation; Luddite; university change

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Matthew Pearson¹ and Steven Naylor¹

Matthew Pearson (Corresponding author) Email: m.pearson@mmu.ac.uk

Steven Naylor Email: s.j.naylor@mmu.ac.uk

Published online: 16 September 2006

Abstract This paper examines data from a series of visits to secondary schools in England which have been identified as doing innovative work with ICT. The paper argues that stable definitions of innovation are difficult in this context and require an understanding of both the technological contexts of innovation and the concept of a school as a dynamic learning community. Data is presented in the form of vignettes to demonstrate how the school visits formed a kind of “performance” in relation to the schools’ own claims about innovations and the enquiries of the research team. Discussion of the data focuses on three key themes which emerge: the changing roles of teachers; new technologies/new pedagogies and the public face of the school. The paper concludes with the observation that innovation is necessarily complex but pupil agency and creativity should always play a vital part.

Keywords Secondary education - Innovation - Teacher identity - Networks - Digital technology

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Ivan Kalas¹ and Michal Winczer¹

Ivan Kalas (Corresponding author) Email: kalas@fmph.uniba.sk

Michal Winczer Email: winczer@fmph.uniba.sk

Published online: 19 October 2006

Abstract For several years we have been engaged in the development and research of software environments for collaborative learning, for example in the recently completed CoLabs project (which we presented at the IFIP TC3 WG3.5 working conference in Budapest in 2004, see also http://matchsz.inf.elte.hu/Colabs/), also within lately defended long-range doctoral research, in which the co-author of this paper together with his undergraduate students had developed and evaluated cooperative computer activities for children aged 10 to 18. They observed children when using those environments and studied the influence of different approaches and solutions on the degree of their involvement and will to cooperate. We have also been involved in the London Knowledge Lab pilot project for developing a collaborative layered learning space travel games construction kit. Our department’s prior engagement in the development of collaborative activities also includes publishing a popular on-line journal (developed by A. Hrusecka and D. Lehotska, this on-line journal (in Slovak) can proudly boast up to 250,000 visits per month) for children, which intensively exploits on-line collaboration. This topic attracts us not only as a support for the learning process, but is a challenge for us as developers of educational programming tools as well. In our SuperLogo and Imagine environments we have always tried to provide users (ranging from children to developers) with new and powerful options to foster learning by exploring and developing. Thus we have equipped Imagine with the means for building objects and their behaviours in incremental loops, with parallel independent processes, event-driven programming and complex yet intuitive support for developing on-line environments for collaborative learning. In this paper we place our collaborative applications in the context of other related interfaces reported in literature. We use eight criteria to classify them and conclude that collaborative applications being developed by us and our students—future teachers—are distinguishable from others along two or three of those criteria: they combine in themselves typical features of Logo microworlds and inspiring support for on-line cooperation. We then analyze in detail our collaborative Imagine microworlds along four dimensions of their development. We specify means for establishing and maintaining on-line connection among any number of participants. We study tools for sending and receiving items (data, active characters with their behaviours, instructions etc.). We reflect on what can be shared by two or more participants in a collaborative activity. We examine all possible operations with common and private characters of a participant from the collaboration point of view. Our goals in this research and development are to:

Most of all, however, we want to motivate the endeavour to overcome all obstacles connected with the integration of on-line cooperation into children’s learning.

Keywords On-line collaboration - Imagine Logo microworlds - Framework for development

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Ola Erstad¹

Ola Erstad Email: ola.erstad@ped.uio.no

Published online: 5 October 2006

Abstract Digital literacy is now defined as a key area of competence in the new national curriculum for schools in Norway. For policy makers the terms ‘information society’ and ‘knowledge society’ has been used to argue for implementing new technologies in education, and for improving learning. These views have been highly problematic, partly because they do not take into consideration how new technologies are used by young people, or how schools work as social practices. This article will focus on how we conceptualize a student perspective in schools related to the use of digital technologies. Combining an increased focus on digital literacy in school curricula with an increased focus on student participation challenges our conception of the school-aged learner. In discussing these issues I will draw on results from a number of school-based ICT projects that I have been involved in since 1998.

Keywords Digital literacy - Student-centred - ICT-rich learning environments - Curriculum reform

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Stephanie L. Moore¹

Stephanie L. Moore Email: Stephanie.Moore@unco.edu

Published online: 17 August 2007

A brief history/some background

In the 1950s, the idea of “universal design” first emerged. At the time it was articulated as barrier-free design, an idea growing in concept in Europe, Japan and the US. It is best described in the early stages as a growing global awareness of the necessity for and benefits of building environments that were obstacle-free. The early emphasis was on removing obstacles for people with physical disabilities—when a building was designed for “universal” access, it would by design accommodate users with disabilities. By the 1970s, the idea had matured and gained political strength. During the ‘70s, US architect Michael Bednar described universal design as an awareness that everyone’s functional capacity is enhanced when environmental barriers are removed. The best example to date remains the curb cut—a city planning feature designed to benefit individuals in wheelchairs, but that turned out to benefit many others such as joggers, parents pushing strollers, etc. That awareness would soon become a cornerstone for design practices in fields such as architecture, civil engineering, and human factors engineering. The political strength especially came from the disability rights movement, focusing on the rights of individuals with disabilities.

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