Research Reports

This paper explores a proposal for an off-line e-learning platform that will provide a bridge for digitally unconnected students and educators to join the contemporary information and communications technology (ICT) intensive world. Individual remote and unconnected learners face a chicken and egg problem for engagement with contemporary e-learning offerings. Without connectivity, remote learners have no way of engaging with now common ICT intensified learning materials that are intended to teach them how to engage in an ICT intensive world.

Newhouse, Cooper and Codery (2017) investigated ways young children interact with discrete programmable digital toys in a free play setting. Researchers worked with teachers to provide children with two types of digital toys, the Sphero and the Beebot. It was found that without some explicit scaffolding the children did not tend to demonstrate any actions that could be associated with an understanding of ‘algorithms’. However, they did demonstrate motivation, engagement, and increased proficiency and recognition with using the hardware and software

What are the educational implications of the ‘broadband society’ for the development of digital skills for life and work? The UNESCO Broadband Commission Working Group on Education asks what are the educational implications of the ‘broadband society’ for the development of digital skills for life and work? Their publication includes case studies from Africa, France, Malaysia, and Myanmar that address digital skills and competencies and future challenges.

Emerging lessons from the histories of national educational technology agencies to inform perspectives of decision makers considering how to create and support such an institution. Case studies include KERIS, Smart Schools, Becta, Enlaces, NaCET, Plan Ceiba); PUSTEKKOM, Omar Dengo Foundation, Schoolnet Thailand, and EdNA.

Evidence is mounting that new forms of technology-enhanced learning and instruction, such as personalised learning, open online courses, educational games and apps, and tools for learning analytics, tend to be used and accessed in unequal ways, and they may even exacerbate inequality. In February and May 2017, a group of researchers, educators, and technologists from the Digital Media and Learning Research Hub convened for in-depth working sessions to share challenges and solutions for how learning technologies can provide the greatest benefits for our most vulnerable learners.

Accessing and posting on social media has become a daily habit for many Australians. Social media is used by individuals to keep in touch with friends and family, by groups to inform their members of relevant information and by organisations to market their services and products. However, is there a role for social media in vocational education and training (VET)? This report looks at how social media is being used within the VET sector as a tool in teaching and learning. The researchers conducted interviews with teachers, students and employers across three different registered training organisations (RTOs) to determine the types of social media most useful in teaching and learning, how they are being used, and whether the outcomes for students are being improved.

Digital Rights in Australia explores questions about the nature of our rights now and into the future. The analysis covers rights issues in four areas: privacy, profiling and analytics; government data matching and surveillance; workplace change; and freedom of expression and speech regulation. It explores the ethical and legal challenges faced in using digital, networked technologies and debates about how to best manage their transformative impacts. 

Australian parents are anxious about screens in their children’s lives. In December 2015, the Australian Child Health Poll, a quarterly survey run by the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, listed excessive screen time as Australians’ number one concern affecting the health of children and teenagers. The author cites interviews with parents and concludes with a question as to "whether what schools need to be doing is teaching kids how to not use screens all the time". 

This study developed and pilot-tested an interview schedule that focuses on the Internet thinking and cyber-safety awareness of Australian children aged 4–5 years. The schedule shows potential to elicit children’s understandings of the Internet and cyber-safety awareness. Adjustments are required to allow more contextualised responses from children.

Through a mixed methods, collective case study approach, this research examines high school courses delivered by synchronous videoconference, and how high school students experience teacher presence in this environment. The researchers discuss the challenges of building of relationships and rapport between the teacher and students in synchronous online teaching. They focus on the skills and strategies required by a teacher to develop ‘presence’.