E-Learning and Digital Media |
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Volume 5 Number 3 2008 |
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Other issues available | Journal home page | Publisher home page | |||
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CONTENTS [click on author's name for abstract and full text] | |||
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Editorial, page 237
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Editorial |
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doi:10.2304/elea.2008.5.3.237 |
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E-Learning aims to tap the discursive richness and variety characteristic of e-learning in theory and in practice. It welcomes submissions from diverse conceptual and theoretical approaches and perspectives, and is interested in papers addressing practical, theoretical, and critical or normative issues germane to contemporary developments in the field. Submissions on topics pertaining to formal, semi-formal or non-formal settings, whether ‘fully e’ or ‘partly e’, are invited. The journal’s Reviews section publishes full-length book and games reviews, as well as running a regular e-review links column. Just as we solicit articles for publication, so we solicit reviews for publication. The journal has adopted two options. In one we send books out for review to people interested in reviewing them. The second option invites reviews of books from anyone who has read a book they would like to review for publication. As always, we invite publishers to send us books for review. Equally, we invite readers to submit their proactive reviewing work for consideration. Rather than adopting a particular party line, E-Learning aims to champion such diversity and encourage conversations within and across positions and viewpoints. The present issue features articles that address topics ranging from the use of participatory simulations within informal education to a discussion of procedures for graphically mapping electronic discussions, via a critique of global campaign promises instantiated by the One Laptop per Child initiative and a discussion of on-screen essay marking. Other themes include the narrative turn and e-learning research, the impact of Web 2.0 – the Read/Write Web – on learner agency, ‘Mode Neutral’ as a constructivist pedagogical perspective, and an analysis of symbolic violence within tertiary education supported by e-learning. The book reviews section features three books that bring queer theory to bear on new media and popular culture, and a full-length games review discusses CD Projekt RED’s game, The Witcher. The issue concludes with the regular e-Review Links portal and a call for papers for a forthcoming issue on globalising higher education across the disciplines. We thank our past and continuing authors for their contributions, and hope you will continue to see the journal as an attractive venue for your work. We also encourage new authors to send us work for consideration. The continuing growth in submissions rates has been very heartening, but there is still scope for growth. E-Learning seeks to balance scholarly academic criteria and virtues with responsiveness to user needs and interests. For this reason we keep communications channels open and welcome suggestions for new features, occasional features, and ideas for enhancement generally. Above all, if you have an idea for a guest issue, or an extraordinary issue, or if you have a conference or symposium you think would be appropriate for E-Learning, please contact us. One of the great advantages of electronic publishing is that quality does not have to be sacrificed at the altar of economic cost. If the quality is there we will publish it, running to extraordinary issues as and when required. Colin Lankshear & Michele Knobel, for the Editorial Team |
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A Participatory Simulation for Informal Education in Restoration Ecology |
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doi:10.2304/elea.2008.5.3.238 |
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Constructivist pedagogical approaches have become common in many science curricula. However, while sciences such as physics and chemistry lend themselves to compelling opportunities for interaction (explosions, reactions, objects in motion), certain systems sciences are more challenging for learners to engage with on a short time scale. Applying constructivist, discovery-based methods to the teaching of restoration ecology presents a number of difficulties, including the large amount of time and space over which ecological processes occur, limitations on experiments that can be performed in classroom contexts, and limited access to certain ecological settings. To address these difficulties, a team of computer scientists, ecologists, and educators created the EcoRaft project, a participatory simulation that allows children to learn about restoration ecology by playing the role of ecologists collaborating to restore a virtual rain forest ecosystem. Through qualitative evaluations of the EcoRaft project in multiple contexts, this article explores (1) how to design simulated environments more effectively as a means of promoting collaborative, discovery-based learning of scientific concepts, and (2) how to do so in ways that balance the need for integrating content area knowledge with interactive paradigms that engage young participants. |
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Essay Marking On-Screen: implications for assessment validity |
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STUART SHAW University of Cambridge International Examinations, Cambridge Assessment, Cambridge, United Kingdom |
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doi:10.2304/elea.2008.5.3.256 |
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Computer-assisted assessment offers many benefits over traditional paper methods. However, in transferring from one medium to another, it is crucial to ascertain the extent to which the new medium may alter the nature of traditional assessment practice or affect marking reliability. Whilst there is a substantial body of research comparing marking and marker behaviour on-screen and on paper, only a paucity of the available literature relates to the marking of extended responses. Research into on-screen assessment of continuous writing and its impact upon markers’ judgements is, therefore, both timely and important. This article reports on the insights drawn from a series of on-screen marking trials at Cambridge Assessment which attempt to investigate marker reliability of extended responses, construct validity and whether factors such as annotation and navigation differentially influence marker performance across marking modes. The findings described here seek to ascertain whether markers make qualitatively different assessments when marking the same piece of writing but through a different medium. The article explains how the trial influenced the decision to move to on-screen marking of Checkpoint English and highlights the challenge of maximising ease of marking without compromising assessment validity. |
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Rage against the Machine? Symbolic Violence in E-learning Supported Tertiary Education |
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doi:10.2304/elea.2008.5.3.275 |
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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. |
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The Impact of the Read/Write Web on Learner Agency |
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doi:10.2304/elea.2008.5.3.284 |
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This article scopes some of the key political elements in the higher educational use of the read/write web, or Web2.0 as it is commonly known. It investigates ways in which these tools can be used to enhance deliberative democracy, the associations between individuals and their capability for decision-making. The structuring of spaces in which individual users can come together to make decisions and act is a critical theme, and one which impacts upon the agency, access and participation, and associations that are afforded by those contexts. Where differences exist between students and/or their tutor(s), the read/write web affords tools for representing such variation. Herewith the voices of both learners and tutors are evaluated, in order to argue that the read/write web can be used positively to acknowledge difference and promote agency. |
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Chronicles of Change: the narrative turn and e-learning research |
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doi:10.2304/elea.2008.5.3.297 |
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Narrative case research has been widely utilized in educational inquiry to investigate different and changing positions and perspectives on questions of identity, curriculum and classroom practice. Despite the fact that case-study research of this kind is well suited to the investigation of changing technologies and their interpretation in different classroom settings, narrative methods have been little utilized in e-learning research. This article addresses this situation first of all by presenting psychologist Jerome Bruner’s understanding of narrative as both a pervasive mode of cognition and a formal mode of inquiry – a dual emphasis that is central to understanding narrative as a research method. It then describes the elicitation of an individual teacher’s narrative in an ‘active interview’ context, and presents her account of the adaptation of blog technology in a writing class. The article examines the ways in which teacher and technology are presented as agents of change in this narrative, and compares this to other, more common but less explicitly ‘narrative’ accounts in e-learning research. In doing so, the article makes significant reference to Jean-Francois Lyotard’s notion of ‘meta-narratives’, arguing that that the overarching meta-narrative of technological progress still informs a great deal of research in e-learning. It concludes by making the case that the influence of this particular meta-narrative should be balanced by attention to multiple ‘micro-narratives’, which tend to tell rather different stories. |
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A New Age of Constructivism: ‘Mode Neutral’ |
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doi:10.2304/elea.2008.5.3.310 |
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This article presents work in progress exploring social constructivism within Mode Neutral, and how various conditions impact upon the student experience. Mode Neutral’s three dimensions – curriculum design, the role of the tutor and communication for learning – are affected by the conditions that can vary in any given context. The authors realise that both students’ and tutors’ expectations may be different, thus creating a different learning experience for each individual. The article also proposes a model for teaching and learning that identifies some (but not all) of the conditions that have been resident in their (and others’) research into the use of social constructivism within the learning experience. The consideration of these conditions directly affects the three key dimensions, and ultimately shapes the learning and teaching experience for all participants. |
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Graphically Mapping Electronic Discussions: understanding online conversational dynamics |
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doi:10.2304/elea.2008.5.3.323 |
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Transcripts of electronic discussions have traditionally been examined via the use of conversational analysis techniques. Coding such transcripts provides rich data regarding the content and nature of the discussions that take place. However, understanding the content of a message is not limited to the actual message itself. An electronic message is sent either in response to or to start a discussion thread. Examining the entry point of a new message can help to clarify the dynamics of the community discussion. Electronic discussions do not appear to follow traditional conversational norms. New messages may be immediate responses or they can be responses to messages posted over a longer period of time in the past. However, by graphically mapping electronic discussions, a clearer understanding of the dynamics of electronic discussions can be achieved. This article presents the findings of a study that was conducted on three online communities for teachers. The transcripts of electronic discussions were collected and examined via conversational analysis. These messages were then analysed via graphical mapping and the findings concluded that three distinct patterns exist which electronic discussions may follow. It was further discovered that each of these patterns was indicative of a distinct type of electronic discussion. The findings from this study offer further insight into the nature of online discussions and help us to understand online conversational dynamics. |
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A Chicken in Every Pot; One Laptop per Child: the trouble with global campaign promises |
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doi:10.2304/elea.2008.5.3.337 |
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The object of this article is to analyse the possible viability of the global education project One Laptop per Child (OLPC), and to trace some of the recent events impacting the project. The XO laptop, a unique machine, has itself become an iconic symbol. Its impact as a cultural product in a global market that targets the transformation of primary education in the developing world is examined. This article also looks at the larger issue of information and communication technology and its use in development (ICT4D). Intellectual property rights in the global context, the workings of global governance structures, the future of Net neutrality, and the use of open source software vs. proprietary software could each have a lasting impact on this project. This article also takes a view of the project from an educational policy perspective, looking at issues of global convergence of policies and practice. |
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