Back to the future: What a project of the 1990s can tell us about today's digital divide

This is a first-hand account of a head teacher's quest to bridge the digital divide in a school catchment of considerable disadvantage in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It describes the Microsoft Anytime Anywhere Learning project (AAL), which the school helped to pioneer in the UK. From this, the paper aims to provide some fresh perspectives on the deficit of IT provision which has inhibited home learning during the Covid-19 pandemic 'lockdown'. Through referencing the AAL project, the author also calls into question the notion that bridging the digital divide is the great educational panacea, a view which has become the received wisdom among certain politicians and educationalists.

Pengembangan Video Pembelajaran Pada Materi Ikatan Kimia Untuk Mendukung Pembelajaran Daring Berbasis Advance Organizer

The policy of learning from home due to the Covid 19 virus encourages teachers to create innovative learning media that can be accessed by students anywhere. Learning media is developed in accordance with learning objectives and student needs. The purpose of this research is to make learning videos to support advance organizer distance learning and to measure the attractiveness of learning videos that have been developed using the Dick and Carey model. The test subjects in this study were 39 students of class X of laboratory test analytical competence. Research instruments include observation sheets and interviews and attractiveness test questionnaires. The results of the attractiveness test showed a value of 3.45 from a scale of 4.00. The conclusion of this research is that this learning video is attractive to use by students and support advance organizer distance learning.

Distance Learners’ Use of Handheld Technologies

This study investigates how and where distance learners use handheld devices and the impact this has on learning habits, access to learning content and quality of work. It analyses the spatial dimension of anytime-anywhere learning and, with a focus on anywhere learning, it explores students’ ongoing negotiation of the flow between and across study locations. The study concludes by proposing two new concepts: the flow of places and place of space. These should help direct the framing of future studies into the places, spaces, and mobility of formal and informal seamless learning. A dataset comprising 446 responses from undergraduate students enrolled at the UK’s largest distance learning university was analysed in respect to three research questions. All age groups, study levels, and disciplines were represented. Five key findings are: most students now use handheld devices for study-related learning; the distribution of study-related learning tasks was similar in all seven study places; there is a strong, statistically-significant correlation between the number of study places in which handheld devices are used and the number of study task types performed; two fifths of students using a handheld device for learning have noticed a change in study habit and benefit to learning; and multiple regression analysis shows three variables (number of study places, number of study tasks, and change in study habits) are predictors of finding it easier to access learning materials and improved quality of learners’ work.

“Personalized learning: Lessons taken from healthcare."

Both education and healthcare are going through rapid changes in their delivery. Adapting the concepts from the TED talk, “Health care should be a team sport”, by Eric Dishman, this presentation focuses on his bold and creative ideas in reinventing healthcare and applies them to education. Adapting Dishman’s concepts would lead to a world of “learning anywhere; learning networking; and learning customization”, with a focused role of the responsible student at the center. The learning technologies of today can make this a reality. Participants can use these concepts and will be shown practical steps to integrate these strategies in to their own courses, and/or reflect upon and shape their own teaching philosophy.

E-learning

E-learning as a term and its application in the support of learning has evolved considerably over the last ten or more years. This evolution comes from a noticeably different approach to learning by early adopters, as dictated by the technology of the time.In order to bring the reader up to date with the role and use of e-learning and its associated technologies this article will review the meaning of e-learning as it evolved from little more than reading electronic books to today's concept of 'anytime anywhere' learning supported by the Web. It will attempt to clarify some of the confusing terminology surrounding e-learning and provide a basic introduction to some types of technology used to support learning. In addition some examples of the use of e-learning within the physical sciences will also be reviewed along with some pointers to current publications and national initiatives for up to date information about how e-learning is being used in higher education.