Left to their own devices : The everyday realities of one-to-one classrooms
- Authors: Selwyn, Neil , Nemorin, Selena , Bulfin, Scott , Johnson, Nicola
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Oxford Review of Education Vol. 43, no. 3 (2017), p. 289-310
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- Description: The past decade has seen the expansion of personal digital technologies into schools. With many students and teachers now possessing smartphones, tablets, and laptops, schools are initiating one-to-one and ‘Bring Your Own Device’ (BYOD) policies aiming to make use of these ‘personal devices’ in classrooms. While often discussed in terms of possible educational benefits and/or organisational risks, the actual presence of personal devices in schools tends to be more mundane in nature and effect. Drawing upon ethnographic studies of three Australian high schools, this paper details ways in which the proliferation of digital devices has come to bear upon everyday experiences of school. In particular, the paper highlights the ways in which staff and students negotiate (in)appropriate technology engagement; the ordinary (rather than extraordinary) ways that students make use of their devices in classrooms; and the device-related tensions now beginning to arise in schools. Rather than constituting a radically ‘transformational’ form of schooling, the paper considers how the heightened presence of personal technologies is becoming subsumed into existing micro-politics of school organisation and control. © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
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.
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.
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]
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.