Research Reviews

Schools, training institutions and universities need to use computers and networks, especially the Internet, in today's world of prolific information and rapid connection. However, as time marches forward so too do the spammers who are the curse of modern day networks. There have been many estimates of the percentage of spam in email with some suggesting as high as 95% of email is spam. This is reassurance of the need for network security although the cost of network security is yet another burden that education faces. The Proceedings of IEEE Symposium on Security & Privacy 2011, Oakland, CA, USA, May 22-25, 2011, includes an amazing research paper that was the subject of a presentation under the heading Underground Economy/Malware.

There is a tendency in the educational literature to regard the introduction and use of ICTs in education as leading to a bright new future of improved learning and more actively engaged students. While that may well be the case, and DERN believes that it is, what about the education aid to developing countries donated by advanced countries, that includes ICTs? In a recent and thought provoking paper by Robert C. Aucoin titled Information and Communication Technologies in International Education: A Canadian Policy Analysis published in the quality open journal International Journal of Education Policy and Leadership a number of disturbing education issues are laid bare. As Aucoin states, 'With the emergence of global knowledge economies, the advent of information and communication technologies (ICTs), and the seemingly inevitable globalization of world economies, the threats, dangers, and opportunities for international education are greater than ever' (p. 1-2).

The National Education Technology Plan 2010 (NETP) published by the US Department of Education carries the title Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology. It is a bold and visionary plan grounded in substantial educational research which takes account of the nature of learning and the need for the transformation of education covering learning, assessment, infrastructure and productivity. A scan of the experts who contributed to the development of the NETP as part of the National Education Technology Plan Technical Working Group (p. vii) leaves no doubt for the reader that this is an important document in education. This week's research review reflects on assessment as one crucial aspect of the NETP by focussing on a paper The Nature of Assessment Systems to Support Effective Use of Evidence through Technology by Kathleen Scalise and Mark Wilson published in a Special Edition of the journal e-Learning and Digital Media devoted to a discussion of the NETP.

The Internet has been the catalyst for a range of new communication services and has become a platform for new forms of interaction. The interaction that occurs using the Internet can be quite different from face-to-face interaction which is an area that has been well researched. Online interaction can impose technological issues and restraints, and face-to-face cues such as body language, personal presentation, local context and spontaneous dialogue may not be present. Online interaction in education requires a new understanding of the domain and its effectiveness. A thought provoking concept paper Spontaneous Group Decision Making in Distributed Collaborative Learning: Toward a New Research Direction by Geoffrey Liu in the MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching identifies education's lack of research and knowledge about the decision making processes used in online collaborative distributed learning.

Education is constantly undergoing change although driven from very different ends of the value spectrum. In fact, only recently, we read in the UK Guardian that Education Secretary, Michael Gove, suggested that children over 11 years of age should read fifty books a year and that teacher education should move out of universities and into schools. In Australia, the development of the national curriculum is moving apace. So what is the educational vision behind these suggestions and activities? Project Tomorrow through its Speak Up National Research Project would ask about the vision for education and the skills that are required for young people to work in society. Speak Up have produced an interesting report of their 2010 online survey of K-12 students, teachers, parents, librarians, educational administrators and technology leaders in public and private schools.

The use of eportfolios for independent learning would appear to have been partially obscured by the discussion around the wisdom of using electronic and self-regulated systems for recording student achievements. In Europe and North America there has been significant research into the design and use of e-portfolios by experts such as Elizabeth Hartnell-Young, Darren Cambridge and others, especially through the work of the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) in the UK. In fact, two recent books on the topic of digital portfolios may summarise much of this work and provide a simple way forward. The first Digital Portfolios: Powerful Tools for promoting Professional Growth and Reflection by Hartnell-Young and Morriss (2010) (second edition) focusses on professional learning and the second Eportfolios for Lifelong Learning and Assessment by Darren Cambridge (2010) provides a framework for recording achievement and planning.

When technology for use in classroom learning programs and professional learning are discussed, the term ICT is often used. ICT refers to 'information and communications technology' and usually denotes the mainstream uses of the Internet and one of its services, the World Wide Web. ICT conjures up images of computers, connected services, networks and people sharing information. However, there are many other digital technologies that can operate independently of networks and can be used very successfully for learning. Take digital cameras and videos, for example. Late in 2010, DERN was privileged to receive a copy of a research document titled Critical documentary making: An action research to develop pedagogy for the 21st century. This research is refreshing because it is about documentary film making as a pedagogy utilising readily available technologies which students and teachers are mostly familiar with.

An online audit survey of district technology directors about the take up of interactive networking in the USA adds to the Australian findings (Lonsdale et al., 2009, p. 33) that teacher confidence is a major hurdle in the use of technologies in teaching and learning. A National Survey Report titled Digital Districts: Web 2.0 and Collaborative Technologies in U.S. Schools (Interactive Educational Systems Design, 2011), reported in The Journal, surveyed 388 school district technology directors about teacher and student generated interactive content, social and collaborative networking, teacher use, district plans and policies and barriers to teacher take up. There are approximately 14,500 school districts in the USA and the survey sample of 2.6% of district technology directors included small (62%, <2500 students), midsize (28%, >2500 and <9,999 students) and large districts (10%, >10,000 students).

DERN last week reported on the effective use of simple cell phones in developing countries with a framework for implementation in education. This review focusses on the use of Smartphones for learning mathematics. A Smartphone offers more complex computing power than a simple cell phone eg address book, calendar, notes, and usually has a touch-screen based on haptic (touch) technologies. The Project K-Nect in Onslow County in North Carolina conducted a pilot study of ninth grade students learning mathematics using Smartphones. In a short evaluation report (6 pages) by Project Tomorrow it is stated that, 'Students feel more successful in math and demonstrated higher levels of maths proficiency' (p. 3) and 'mobile devices within instruction ... increased student engagement in school and learning (56%)' (p. 2).

Learning programs that use mobile devices such as mobile/cell phones, tablets, Smartphones and the like are a topic of popular media and social discussion in the developed world. This is especially the case as new tablets and ereaders are being launched almost monthly with an accompanied media frenzy. However, with 69 million school children who do not have access to basic education and 759 million adults who have no formal education, cheap mobile devices may be able to overcome cost and accessibility barriers to traditional education in developing countries. Mobile devices may help to encourage innovation by enabling education for illiterate populations 80% of whom reside in developing countries (p. 5). An illuminating report, full of rich examples in a research-poor area of digital media and learning (DMAL), has been produced by the Development Fund of the GSMA or international mobile communications industry association. The delightful and instructive report mLearning: A Platform for Educational Opportunities at the Base of the Pyramid provides eight vignettes of mLearning trials in developing countries.