Research Reviews

DERN reports on an impressive professional development program that focuses on teacher learning of digital literacy skills. The project has recently reported on the results of their collaborative work and an impressive 21% increase in educational digital literacy skill and confidence has been noted.

Recent empirical research confirms the teacher acceptance model (TAM) which states that the user’s beliefs and attitudes determine, to a large extent, teachers’ adoption of technology, in teaching and learning. Those beliefs and attitudes are about the perceived usefulness of the technology and its ease of use both of which are part of the TAM model. However, new findings have isolated a number of emotional factors that are also critical.

A recent research publication examines the key trends, significant challenges, and emerging technologies for their impact on academic and research libraries. The role of libraries and librarians will change with the take up of technology for teaching and learning as new possibilities and technological affordances emerge.

Although self-discipline, motivation & self-regulation are known to be success factors for online teacher professional development, recent research identifies a significant new factor that is equally as important.

Research into two courses which were taught several years apart has identified a number of issues about student online presence. Student’s views towards online presence have changed recently and there is a greater appreciation by students of some of the online presence issues such as online relationships and privacy. This research is timely.

In a recently released research paper, two factors that relate to student satisfaction in online learning are explored in detail. This article brings together the major studies that have contributed to our understanding of student satisfaction in online courses.

A recently released research paper that focuses on the processes of the take up of digital technologies in teaching and learning has a different view about the drivers that motivate educators. The research paper reports on the examination of a student model of take up and then attempts to apply that model to lecturers in a university. Remarkably, the research method worked and uncovered a number of clear motivators that determined the adoption of digital technologies by educators.

Recent research about young people’s reading is indeed very timely in bringing to the fore the reading habits of children who are increasingly reading from different formats. The report is very informative and for busy school Principals, there is a two-page Executive Summary. However, the whole survey report of 15 pages is really worthwhile reading, particularly as it has been clearly written and illustrates the main points graphically. The report is then followed by a large number of tables which allows the reader to analyse the data for their own purposes.

A recently released report, The new digital learning playbook: understanding the spectrum of students’ activities and aspirations points out that there is a myriad of different ways K-12 students are using technology to support their learning. The report highlights the views of 325,279 K-12 representing over 9,000 schools across the United States.

A recently released report, commissioned by the UK Department for Education, describes the findings of a study into the opportunities from MOOCs for UK secondary-age learners (11-19 years old) drawing on three resources –a literature review, primary interviews, and a survey of teachers. A wide range of aspects are covered including terminology and origins of MOOCs, benefits afforded by MOOCs, how MOOCs can contribute to school-age learning as well as barriers and obstacles that hold back the deployment of MOOCs.