Information and Communication Technology in Chinese Elementary and Secondary Education

This article provides an overview of the recent development of information and communication technology (ICT) utilized in Chinese elementary and secondary education. Specifically, the chapter discusses the positive impact ICT has on Chinese education, as well as the existing problems in the application of ICT. The potential for further developing education with ICT in schools is considered. In addition, challenges are discussed, and recommendations are made with regard to providing better learning experiences to every child with ICT.

The Dragon in the School’s Backyard

The introduction of technology into classrooms during the 1980s was heralded by many as the dawn of a new era in American education. Proponents argued that technology had the potential to fundamentally transform the nature of teaching and learning. However, over time, this dream became a nightmarish reality. Likewise, educators concerned about the chronic underachievement of urban learners often fell prey to the allure of technology as a tool for reversing the historical influences of poverty, discrimination, inequity, chronic underachievement, and lack of opportunity. However, twenty-five years after the introduction of the computer into the classroom, many of the expectations associated with technology in education remain unrealized. This chapter hopes to discuss some of the issues and trends associated with technology adoption and usage at urban schools.

Collaboration between Academia and Industry

In industry, up to 40% of an IS budget can be spent on Storage technology, making it the fastest growing segment of IT/IS. While industry has recognised the need to diffuse this technology, academia has been slow to respond to this diffusion need. Universities are not teaching courses in this area and a variety of reasons are presented ranging from lack of skills, to bureaucratic delays, to cost (the cost of installing a Storage system for use by students is a massive expenditure well beyond the budgets of most IS academic departments).This chapter concentrates on the lack of skills (knowledge barriers in the parlance of diffusion of innovation theory) and examines ways to overcome this. The knowledge skills are present in industry, so collaboration between industry and academia is a suggested solution. Collaboration between industry and academia, though, is fraught with problems. The aim of this research therefore is to examine how this collaboration can be effective. Interestingly, the result of this research suggests true collaboration is not the solution, but a win-win situation is still possible for all stakeholders.

Benchmarking Online Learning Practices in Higher Education

Colleges and Universities across the United States have experienced an unprecedented growth in the availability of and demand for online courses and degree programs in the recent years. However, this medium for instructing is still relatively new compared to other traditional forms of instruction. Therefore, an overall lack of research on the online medium exists. This study benchmarks the practices of colleges and universities in the tri-state area of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia on factors that contribute to the selection of Course Management Systems (CMS), the availability and/or requirements for instructor training, and the evaluation or lack thereof of online courses. A total of thirty institutions participated in this mixed methods study.

“Virtual Inquiry” in the Science Classroom

The article examines prior research on students’ difficulties with inquiry learning and outlines research-based decisions for the consideration of software-based scaffolds for inquiry teaching and learning. The objective is to detail research findings in a way that assists teachers in their development of pedagogical content knowledge as relevant to the selection and use of technological tools for classroom inquiry in the high school biology or college introductory biology classrooms. Employing a worked-out-example in the popular domain of DNA science, the article illustrates the research-based integration of instructional design decisions coordinated with the features of selected software tools. The coordination of software-design with instructional design has the potential of significantly enhancing students’ learning while also supporting the development of teachers’ technological pedagogical content knowledge.

Factors Influencing Students Intention to Take Web-Based Courses in a College Environment

The growing use of a web-based environment for college education is gradually replacing some aspects of the classroom in a University setting, and it is shifting the long accepted paradigm of understanding how students learn and introduces the question of what influences a student’s decision to learn in an online environment. In a web-based course, students gain a level of interaction with the material not possible in the classroom, yet lose other components that are only available in a physical environment. Educators struggle to determine what influences a student to take web-based college courses, and how they best learn in that environment. This study proposes that the student’s learning style, their self-efficacy and self-regulation when it comes to learning, and their expectations regarding online classes, are all factors in their choice to take web-based college courses. To validate this, students currently taking college level courses were surveyed and their responses analyzed. [Article copies are available for purchase from InfoSci-on-Demand.com]

Why Choose an Online Course?

OCICU is the Online Consortium of Independent Colleges and Universities and consists of five provider institutions which are located throughout the United States and Ireland. This consortium is the first of its kind to exist in distance education. The researchers wanted to understand why students choose to take courses through the consortium as well as why students opt for online learning instead of traditional face to face instruction. The research was limited courses that were completed in the Fall 2006, Spring 2007, and Fall 2007. The review of the literature revealed several factors of teaching online that affect why member schools recommend an OCICU course to their students and why these students succeed or fail in an online environment. The response rate of 25% diminishes the ability of this investigation to generalize to this population of 64 institutions.

Evolution by Evaluation

This paper describes the process of formally evaluating an E-Learning system that has been in use for several years. Professional usability evaluation offers deeper insight into user behaviour and needs than accidental feedback collection or introspection by system developers. A first analysis of the evaluation samples shows satisfaction of users with the general design of the system but also dissatisfaction with certain aspects of navigation that would otherwise have escaped our attention. State of the art formal evaluation turned out to be instrumental in making an existing system considerably more user-friendly. [Article copies are available for purchase from InfoSci-on-Demand.com]

Teaching Advanced Computer Networking

This chapter reports on the authors’ experiences of using miniproject-based learning (MPBL) as a key pedagogical method for teaching advanced computer networks within the context of a Master’s course in Net-centric computing at the Auckland University of Technology (AUT). A two-threaded delivery approach was adopted that comprised an MPBL thread and a lecture thread. The MPBL thread within the course allows the students to gain practical experience and a deeper understanding of the key concepts of network protocols and technologies. The lecture thread uses face-to-face teaching, group discussion and class presentations to allow students to develop better communication and presentation skills. The effectiveness of the MPBL approach was evaluated extensively - formally by students and by an external moderator, and informally in discussions within the teaching team. The implementation of the MPBL was judged to be successful because of the positive student and external moderator feedback. Therefore, the authors propose that MPBL is a suitable pedagogical tool for teaching advanced computer networks to graduate and postgraduate students.

ICT Integration Efforts in Higher Education in Developing Economies

A situational modified version of Tearle’s model (2004) is utilized in this study to understand the integration of ICTs in the educational process. The study evaluated self efficacy beliefs, institutional support and policy in the context of developing economies where challenges of inadequate resources and insufficient skills persist. We assess the state of affairs, and the challenges faced by teachers and management at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. The results show that educators are generally appreciative of ICTs role in the teaching/learning process. [Article copies are available for purchase from InfoSci-on-Demand.com]