Teaching the "Other" : Curriculum "Outcomes" and digital technology in the out-of-school lives of young people
- Authors: Auld, Glenn , Johnson, Nicola
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Critical perspectives on technology and education p. 163-181
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- Description: The research on sociocultural approaches to pedagogy is full of teachers who attempt to draw on "historically accumulated and culturally developed bodies of knowledge and skills" (Moll, Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez, 1992, p.133) to engage their students in learning in the classroom. In the field of educational technology, research examining young people's lives largely focuses on school contexts, and tends to ignore the value of informal learning outside of the school gate. In this chapter, the "other" (Lévinas, 1979) concerns the formal curriculum outcomes performed in the out-of-school lives of young people's practices with digital technologies.
Connecting literacy learning outside of school to the Australian Curriculum in the middle years
- Authors: Auld, Glenn , Johnson, Nicola
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Literacy Learning : the Middle Years Vol. 22, no. 2 (2014), p. 22-27
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- Description: The complexity of teacher's work is manifest in the divergent use of digital technologies in and out of school. This article explores the logical step of connecting students' out-of-school mediated literacy learning to the content descriptors of the Australian Curriculum. The study uses published evidence from four previous studies of young people to demonstrate the diverse ways that out-of-school practices can be linked to literacy learning in the Australian Curriculum. The authors frame this linking of informal literacy learning to the Australian Curriculum by highlighting the 'funds of knowledge' children bring through the school gate. [Author abstract]
Validation of a follow-through developmental sequence for the overarm throw for force in university students
- Authors: Beseler, Bradley , Mesagno, Christopher , Spittle, Michael , Johnson, Nicola , Harvey, Jack , Talpey, Scott , Plumb, Mandy
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Motor Learning and Development Vol. 10, no. 2 (2022), p. 309-327
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- Description: Background: The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of the follow-through on thrown ball velocity, potentially justifying inclusion of the follow-through in Roberton’s five critical components. Method: Seventy-eight University students participated in the overarm, dominant hand, throwing task, which involved throwing a standard tennis ball with maximum force three times. Each throw was filmed by two cameras placed behind and to the open side of the thrower to assess the throwing technique. The velocity of the throws was recorded with a radar gun. Results: Results indicated that, after accounting for the effects of gender, age, and throwing experience, there was a significant effect of follow-through level on throw velocity. Analysis of covariance also revealed a significant gender effect, with males throwing significantly faster than females. Results indicated the follow-through had the second largest impact on thrown ball velocity of all six components. Discussion: These findings provide preliminary support that the follow-through should be added to Roberton’s developmental levels. The inclusion of the follow-through component could assist teachers and coaches to facilitate learner and athlete development and could also improve the accuracy of throwing development assessment. © 2022 Human Kinetics, Inc.
Critical is something others (don't) do : Mapping the imaginative of educational technology
- Authors: Bigum, Chris , Bulfin, Scott , Johnson, Nicola
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Critical perspectives on technology and educaiton p. 1-14
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- Description: This book is an outcome of a provocation paper prepared by Neil Selwyn (2012) for a conference concerned with critical perspectives on learning with new media.
Children's images of identity : Drawing the self and the other
- Authors: Brown, Jill , Johnson, Nicola
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Book
- Relation: Transgressions : Cultural studies and education No. 109
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- Description: The understandings which children have of Indigenous identity provide means by which to explore the ways in which Indigenous identity is both projected and constructed in society. These understandings play a powerful part in the ways in which Indigenous peoples are positioned in the mainstream society with which they are connected. The research presented in this edited collection uses children’s drawings to illuminate and explore the images children, both mainstream and Indigenous, have of Indigenous peoples. The data generated by this process allows exploration of the ways in which Indigenous identity is understood globally, through a series of locally focussed studies connected by theme and approach. The data serves to illuminate both the space made available by mainstream groups, and aspects of modernity accommodated within the Indigenous sense of self. Our aim within this project has been to analyse and discuss the ways in which children construct identity, both their own and that of others. Children were asked to share their thoughts through drawings which were then used as the basis for conversation with the researchers. In this way the interaction between mainstream modernity and traditional Indigenous identity is made available for discussion and the connection between children’s lived experiences of identity and the wider global discussion is both immediately enacted and located within broader international understandings of Indigenous cultures and their place in the world.
Examining the use of theory within educational technology and media research
- Authors: Bulfin, Scott , Henderson, Michael , Johnson, Nicola
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Learning, Media and Technology Vol. 38, no. 3 (2013 2013), p. 337-344
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- Description: Academic research in the areas of educational technology and media is often portrayed to be limited in terms of its use of theory. This short paper reports on data collected from a survey of 462 ‘research active’ academic researchers working in the broad area of educational technology and educational media. The paper explores their use (and non-use) of theory
Methodological capacity within the field of "educational technology" research : an initial investigation
- Authors: Bulfin, Scott , Henderson, Michael , Johnson, Nicola , Selwyn, Neil
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: British Journal of Educational Technology Vol. 45, no. 3 (2014), p. 403-414
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- Description: The academic study of educational technology is often characterised by critics as methodologically limited. In order to test this assumption, the present paper reports on data collected from a survey of 462 "research active" academic researchers working in the broad areas of educational technology and educational media. The paper explores their familiarity and expertise with various methods of data collection and analysis. Data from the survey highlight a preference for relatively basic forms of descriptive research, coupled with a lack of capacity in advanced quantitative data collection and analysis. The paper concludes with some directions for "methodological capacity building" to broaden the use of methods in educational technology research.
Nagging, noobs and new tricks - students' perceptions of school as a context for digital technology use
- Authors: Bulfin, Scott , Johnson, Nicola , Nemorin, Selena , Selwyn, Neil
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Educational Studies Vol. 42, no. 3 (Jul 2016), p. 239-251
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- Description: While digital technology is an integral feature of contemporary education, schools are often presumed to constrain and compromise students' uses of technology. This paper investigates students' experiences of school as a context for digital technology use. Drawing upon survey data from three Australian secondary schools (n=1174), this paper considers the various ways in which students use digital devices and applications in school and for school. After highlighting trends and differences across a range of digital devices and practices, the paper explores the ways in which students perceive school as a limiting and/or enabling setting for technology use. The findings point to a number of ways that schools act to extend as well as curtail student engagement with technology. This paper concludes by considering the possible ways that schools might work to further support and/or enhance students' technology experiences.
Critical perspectives on technology and education
- Authors: Bulfin, Scott , Johnson, Nicola , Bigum, Chris
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Book
- Relation: Digital Education and Learning
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- Description: Critical perspectives on technology and education
Return of the hacker as hero: Fictions and realities of teenage technological experts
- Authors: Dudek, Debra , Johnson, Nicola
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Children's Literature in Education Vol. 42, no. 3 (2011), p. 184-195
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- Description: When critics consider young people’s practices within cyberspace, the focus is often on negative aspects, namely cyber-bullying, obsessive behaviour, and the lack of a balanced life. Such analyses, however, may miss the agency and empowerment young people experience not only to make decisions but to have some degree of control over their lives through their engagement with and use of technology, which often includes sharing it with others in cyberspace. This was a finding of research conducted by Nicola Johnson, which also informs the two novels considered in this article, Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother and Brian Falkner’s Brainjack. The article draws on Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of acts of resistance (Acts of Resistance: Against the New Myths of our Time, 1998) to demonstrate how these fictional representations of hacker heroes make a direct address to their readers to use their technological expertise to achieve social justice. Rather than hacking primarily to “see if they can do it,” the protagonists of these novels acknowledge the moral ambiguity of hacking and encourage its responsible use.
Silences of ethical practice: dilemmas for researchers using social media
- Authors: Henderson, Michael , Johnson, Nicola , Auld, Glenn
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Educational Research and Evaluation Vol. 19, no. 6 (2013), p. 546-560
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- Description: Social media, such as social network sites and blogs, are increasingly being used as core or ancillary components of educational research, from recruitment to observation and interaction with researchers. However, this article reveals complex ethical dilemmas surrounding consent, traceability, working with children, and illicit activity that we have faced as education researchers for which there is little specific guidance in the literature. We believe that ethical research committees cannot, and should not, be relied upon as our ethical compass as they also struggle to deal with emerging technologies and their implications. Consequently, we call for researchers to report on the ethical dilemmas in their practice to serve as a guide for those who follow. We also recommend considering research ethics as an ongoing dialogical process in which the researcher, participants, and ethics committee work together in identifying potential problems as well as finding ways forward.
The potential affordances of enterprise wikis for creating community in research networks
- Authors: Johnson, Nicola , Clarke, Rodney , Herrington, Jan
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
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- Description: In this paper, we describe some of the affordance, the (specific enabling features or characteristics) of an enterprise wiki to meet the needs of a developing community of practice. The Social Innovation Network (SInet) is a nascent research network that spans the social sciences, education and commerce at the University of Wollongong. It will use the enterprise wiki software Confluence to assist in the development of communities of practice across its groups and sub-groups. This paper, describes some of the features of the software and how it might be used to perform some of the common activties identified by Wenger (nd) as contributing to development of community.
Using an instructional design model to evaluate a blended learning subject in a pre-service teacher education degree
- Authors: Johnson, Nicola
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: The International Journal of Learning Vol. 17, no. 2 (2010 2010), p. 65-80
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- Description: Over 2007-2008, a pedagogy subject in a pre-service teacher education degree was (re)designed to help students develop their understandings and skills and a wider, more critical appreciation of the work of teachers and approaches to curriculum. The rationale for designing and including the online modules in the subject was to develop information and communication technology (ICT) skills, and to deliver a blended learning approach, argued by some to be more effective, that is, have more advantages than traditional approaches. In this paper, the face-to-face teaching alongside the eLearning that occurred in the blended learning approach is analysed using Tom Reeves and John Hedberg's model (2003) for evaluating interactive learning systems. Arguably, this evaluation model can be usefully applied to higher education teaching that is not fully online, and can help to comprise an integral part of an action research approach. This paper is a 'proof of concept' piece, demonstrating the applicability of the model to a blended learning course. Demonstrating the application of Reeves and Hedberg's model fills a knowledge void on the literature surrounding blended learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Contesting binaries: Teenage girls as technological experts
- Authors: Johnson, Nicola
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Gender, technology and development Vol. 13, no. 3 (2009), p. 365-383
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- Description: Historically, the positioning of technology and expertise has been an antithesis to girls and women. Much literature has focused on understanding and responding to the perceived differences between boys’ and girls’ access to, use of, and understanding of various forms of technology. In a recent qualitative study I conducted, eight teenaged technological experts (three of whom were girls) were observed and interviewed about their use of home computers and understanding of technological expertise. In regard to this heterogeneous New Zealand group, the data suggested that, although the trajectories toward technological expertise were gendered, gender did not limit the teenage girls in their acquisition of expertise. This article explores and challenges dichotomous debates about technology, gender, expertise, and then focuses on the understandings of computers as a subject in schools and as a future career. Through this discussion, the article demonstrates that the participants were aware of the gendered stereotypes surrounding girls and technology, yet dismissed them.
Secondary teachers' use of new media in an age of accountability
- Authors: Johnson, Nicola , Bulfin, Scott
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Global Learn Asia Pacific: Global Conference on Learning and Technology 28 March 2011 to 1 April 2011 p. 1-5
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- Description: This pilot study comprises an initial exploration of secondary teachers’ use of ICTs within the current climate of testing and accountability. The project seeks to understand how teachers are coping with and negotiating the competing and complex demands of their work within these current policies. It explores how a small group of teachers’ professional practice has changed in the last few years as a result of externally imposed testing regimes and as a result of the nation-wide Digital Education Revolution. This paper will explain the rationale for this pilot project and highlight some initial findings resulting from policy analysis and preliminary investigation.
Generational differences in beliefs about technological expertise
- Authors: Johnson, Nicola
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: New Zealand journal of educational studies Vol. 44, no. 1 (2009), p. 31-45
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- Description: Drawing on Bourdieu's (1990, 1998, 2000) socio-cultural theories, this article explores the construction of technological expertise amongst a heterogenous group of New Zealand teenagers, specifically in regard to their home computer use, which for many of them is their primary site of leisure. The qualitative study involved observations and interviews with eight teenagers aged 13 to 17. All the participants considered themselves to be technological experts, and their peers and/or their family supported this self-description. This article examines differences between the concepts and value of learning, expertise and technology, and how they are valued differently between generations. After discussing the habitus (dispositions) prevalent in the field of out-of-school leisure of teenage experts, the notion that the participants are addicted to their computers is explored. This article highlights a tension regarding how practice in the field is conceptualised differently by digital insiders and digital newcomers, and discusses some implications for educators.
Exchanging online narratives for leisure : A legitimate learning space
- Authors: Johnson, Nicola
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: The International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Society Vol. 7, no. 1 (2009 2009), p. 15-27
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- Description: Abstract: The Story Exchange section of the Sims 2 website offers Sims 2 players a forum to read and review other players' original stories which they have written while playing The Sims 2. This article draws on interview data from Sarah, a 15-year-old female involved in reading and evaluating these online stories. Analysis of Sarah's experiences in playing The Sims 2 and using the Story Exchange website suggest that players who engage with these particular online narratives determine quality indicators of the stories, without guidance or instruction from external structures or authorities. Following this point, this Story Exchange is presented not only as an avenue of leisure, pleasure and informal learning, but one that is out of alignment with structures and institutions of formal schooling. This article argues that sites such as these should be read as legitimate learning spaces.
Rage against the machine? Symbolic violence in E-learning supported tertiary education
- Authors: Johnson, Nicola , MacDonald, David , Brabazon, Tara
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: E-Learning and Digital Media Vol. 5, no. 3 (2008 2008), p. 275-283
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- Description: The move toward online course facilitation in tertiary education has the intent of providing education at any time in any place to any person. However, the advent of blended learning and e-learning innovations has ostracised, marginalised or ignored those who cannot afford or who are unable to access the latest hardware and software to take advantage of these opportunities. The Web 2.0 age is an era of assumptions: assumptions of participation, literacy and democracy. Yet such inferences are based on the need for high-speed Internet connections, and the latest computers are standard requirements. Those without the ability to access these necessities are being indirectly marginalised by the universities, which is particularly ironic in an era of ‘widening participation’. This article reveals a few tears in the fabric of wiki-enabled democratic education. The authors argue that there is a community of students that are subjected to what Bourdieu termed symbolic violence. Digitisation in tertiary education is reinforcing what it has always been through its history – a haven of the wealthy and the advantaged.
Symbolic instruments and the internet mediation of knowledge and expertise
- Authors: Johnson, Nicola
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Continuum Vol. 28, no. 3 (2014), p. 371-382
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- Description: In this article, I demonstrate how Bourdieu's notion of symbolic instruments, that is structured and structuring structures (Bourdieu 1991), can be applied to the Internet to demonstrate the mediation and construction of knowledge and validation of expertise. This qualitative, pilot study explored the online language and interrelationship between expertise, authority and constructions of knowledge. The structuring structures of five technology-focused websites are mapped in order to convey how the structured structures of online discourse mediate knowledge and expertise. The portrayal and authorization of experts within these online forums help to shape the way that knowledge is constructed, contested and shared in the twenty-first century. This article extends Bourdieu's theory of practice in two ways: (1) arguing that the Internet is a field comprised of many sub-fields and (2) identifying some of the symbolic instruments that structure and are structuring knowledge and expertise via social media available on the Internet. © 2014 Taylor and Francis.
Understanding teenager technological expertise in out-of-school settings
- Authors: Johnson, Nicola
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: AARE 2007 International Educational Research Conference
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- Description: Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of practice, this study explored the construction of technological expertise of eight teenagers (five boys and three girls) aged 13 – 17. The qualitative study specifically employed observations and interviews and focused on home computer use, which for many of the participants was their primary site of leisure. All of the participants considered themselves to be technological experts, and their peers and/or their family supported this premise. This paper outlines findings that identify the participants’ multiple (and contradictory) understandings of expertise and the ways the participants perceive they have attained expertise and perform as experts in out-of-school settings. Traditional views of expertise are contrasted with what the teenagers think about their development of expertise, predominantly using Bourdieu’s framework for analysis. As almost all of the experts in this study gained their expertise through independent means, with minimal input from their schooling, discussion focuses on the trajectories to expertise inherent within these sites of informal learning, and what this might mean for pedagogy and formal learning.