A Cyber-Apple for the Teacher

Author(s):  
Mark Federman ◽  
Marilyn Laiken

In an age seemingly defined by near-ubiquitous access to Internet-based communication, there is little wonder that adult educators are turning to online, distance education as a means to reach their participants. In the traditional academy, post-secondary institutions increasingly include online courses and programs as elements, or comprising the entirety, of both undergraduate and graduate degrees (Allen & Seaman, 2006). Even in the realm of non-formal adult education, “hacktivism1” has become one of the most effective mechanisms through which engagement for social change – especially on a global scale – occurs (Day, 2004; Ganesh, Zoller & Cheney, 2005). Ironically, rather than truly integrating the philosophy of emancipatory and transformative adult education, cyber-education environments as typically implemented throughout the academy, overwhelmingly – if unwittingly – reproduce and reinforce the hegemony of traditional teacher-pupil power relations. By examining the mechanism of hegemony, and its pervasive presence in contemporary pedagogical technologies, this chapter will demonstrate how organized power is maintained through these mechanisms. In contrast, a case will be offered that demonstrates how engaged intellectuals can reconstruct the cyber-education environment in order to challenge the pretensions of entrenched academic power, and manifest adult education principles. In particular, the case will explore how the many years of research on how adults learn can be applied with the use of technology, so that the cyber learning milieu is as dynamic, personal and collaborative as the physical presence classroom context can be in the hands of a skilled adult educator.

Author(s):  
Anita Minh ◽  
Ute Bültmann ◽  
Sijmen A. Reijneveld ◽  
Sander K. R. van Zon ◽  
Christopher B. McLeod

Adolescent depressive symptoms are risk factors for lower education and unemployment in early adulthood. This study examines how the course of symptoms from ages 16–25 influences early adult education and employment in Canada and the USA. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (n = 2348) and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 79 Child/Young Adult (n = 3961), four trajectories (low-stable; increasing; decreasing; and increasing then decreasing, i.e., mid-peak) were linked to five outcomes (working with a post-secondary degree; a high school degree; no degree; in school; and NEET, i.e., not in employment, education, or training). In both countries, increasing, decreasing, and mid-peak trajectories were associated with higher odds of working with low educational credentials, and/or NEET relative to low-stable trajectories. In Canada, however, all trajectories had a higher predicted probability of either being in school or working with a post-secondary degree than the other outcomes; in the USA, all trajectory groups were most likely to be working with a high school degree. Higher depressive symptom levels at various points between adolescent and adulthood are associated with working with low education and NEET in Canada and the USA, but Canadians are more likely to have better education and employment outcomes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-68
Author(s):  
Matthew Kabel ◽  
Jiyung Hwang ◽  
Jiwon Hwang

As the use of technology has become more prevalent within the educational environment over the past decade, the emergence of the use of virtual manipulatives to support student learning in math has made transitioning to technology-infused math instruction unavoidable. Students in rural areas, however, have tended to receive far less technology-infused instruction due to the many challenges faced by rural schools that can adversely affect academic opportunities and disrupt equity in learning and teaching. In the current paper, we report on a classroom study conducted to examine whether the previously proven effects of concrete manipulatives can carry over into those of virtual manipulatives when teaching math fact fluency in multiplication and explored the potential for virtual manipulatives in rural classrooms from the teacher’s perspective.  Quantitative and qualitative results both indicated a promising potential for usage of virtual manipulatives, with meaningful implications for practitioners. The educational implications for designing and planning effective instruction incorporating virtual manipulatives are discussed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (05) ◽  
pp. A02
Author(s):  
Lisa Smith ◽  
Kimberly Arcand ◽  
Randall Smith ◽  
Jay Bookbinder ◽  
Jeffrey Smith

This study explored how different presentations of an object in deep space affect understanding, engagement, and aesthetic appreciation. A total of n = 2,502 respondents to an online survey were randomly assigned to one of 11 versions of Cassiopeia A, comprising 6 images and 5 videos ranging from 3s to approximately 1min. Participants responded to intial items regarding what the image looked like, the aesthetic appeal of the image, perceptions of understanding, and how much the participant wanted to learn more. After the image was identified, participants indicated the extent to which the label increased understanding and how well the image represented the object. A final item asked for questions about the image for an atronomer. Results suggest that alternative types of images can and should be used, provided they are accompanied by explanations. Qualitative data indicated that explanations should include information about colors used, size, scale, and location of the object. The results are discussed in terms of science communication to the public in the face of increasing use of technology.


2009 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-81
Author(s):  
Susan Whitmer

Key drivers that influence space design in today's higher education environment are technology, changing demographics, increased focus on student engagement, and carbon footprint. Just as important, but not typically on the list, is the growing population of students with Learning Disabilities (LD) for which the physical environment plays an increasingly important role in successful learning outcomes. The research goal was to examine the role of “place” as a component of academic success for those students with LD. Methodology included both literature review and the development of a case study analysis of three post-secondary institutions in the United States. The universities were chosen based on the size of the university, the campus setting, and the mission of the Disabilities Services team. The conclusion of the research surfaced three specific components of the physical environment that hold an increased value for a student with LD. These components are wayfinding, formal learning spaces, and disability services spaces. The key to integrating a sense of place with the needs of students with LD is moving beyond meeting the minimum standards of the legal mandates and bridging the principles of universal design to the built environment.


With thirty-nine original chapters from internationally prominent scholars, The Oxford Handbook of Virginia Woolf is designed for post-secondary students, scholars, and common readers. Feminist to the core, each chapter offers an overview that is at once fresh and thoroughly grounded in prior scholarship. Six parts focus on Woolf’s life, her texts, her experiments, her as a professional, her contexts, and her afterlife. Opening chapters on Woolf’s life address the powerful influences of family, friends, and home. Part II on her works moves chronologically, emphasizing Woolf’s practice of writing essays and reviews alongside her fiction. Chapters on Woolf’s experimentalism pay special attention to the literariness of Woolf’s writing, with opportunity to trace its distinctive watermark while ‘Professions of Writing’, invites readers to consider how Woolf worked in cultural fields including and extending beyond the Hogarth Press and the Times Literary Supplement. Part V on ‘Contexts’ moves beyond writing to depict her engagement with the natural world as well as the political, artistic, and popular culture of her time. The final part, ‘Afterlives’, demonstrates the many ways Woolf’s reputation continues to grow. Of particular note, chapters explore three distinct Woolfian traditions in fiction: the novel of manners, magical realism, and the feminist novel.


Author(s):  
Paul Breen

This chapter reports on a study of teachers in transition, developing their practice and their cognitions regarding the integration of learning technologies with traditional approaches to the teaching of English for Academic Purposes (EAP). Taking a case study approach, it examines developments in the practice of three teachers during and after a teacher education programme on the use of technology in the EAP classroom. This is a study of cognition, teaching philosophy, and the relationship between pedagogy, technology, and content, and how teachers situate these within their own practice. The setting is the rapidly changing UK higher education environment, where the speed of change is such that today's latest fashions and gadgets may well be yesterday's news tomorrow. Thus, this is not a tale of individual technologies or tools to make teachers' lives better. This is a story of people, of pedagogy's traditional values intersecting with technology, and the issues arising from this, alongside the evolution of strategies for dealing with these issues.


Author(s):  
Ahmet Naci Çoklar ◽  
Erkan Efilti ◽  
Yusuf Levent Şahin

The use of ICTs has become an obligation rather than an option for teachers. This intense pressure leads to a modern adaptation disorder expressed as technostress. Technostress is one of the many problems experienced particularly by beginning teachers, and the technostress levels of these teachers were investigated. For this purpose, in the 2015-2016 academic years, data were collected from 83 teachers having a professional seniority of 0-5 years. It was concluded that the general levels of technostress of the teachers were moderate, which they had a moderate-level technostress at the learning-teaching process-oriented, technical-issue-oriented, and social-oriented technostress factors, and they had a low-level of technostress at the profession-oriented and personal-oriented technostress factors. When examined in terms of the variables, while the general level of technostress does not vary by gender and branch group, it varies by the variable of average use of the internet. Finally, the solution proposals for technostress were examined.


Author(s):  
Maria Northcote ◽  
Kevin P. Gosselin ◽  
Daniel Reynaud ◽  
Peter Kilgour ◽  
Malcolm Anderson ◽  
...  

In today's higher education environment, online education has become a rich and nuanced medium characterized by a dynamic and progressive use of technology. These technological advancements require research-informed guidelines and practices to facilitate understanding of how they can be used to foster positive outcomes in distance education contexts. By employing a mixed-methods multiphase design case study at Avondale College of Higher Education, the authors examine the challenges, self-confidence and threshold concepts, or transformative, conceptual understandings that academic faculty staff experience while engaging in distance education course design. The authors examine how these threshold concepts, attitudes and skills can be used to inform the design of professional development programs for academic staff who teach in online contexts. The results and associated recommendations of the six-year investigation are presented to inform professional development programs that aim to improve the quality of online teaching, course design and learning experiences of students.


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