Policy Futures in Education

ISSN 1478-2103

Volume 7 Number 6 2009

CONTENTS [click on author's name for abstract and full text]

SPECIAL ISSUE
When the Virtual Meets Virtue: from e-learning to e-education
Guest Editors: AHARON AVIRAM & IGAL DOTAN


Aharon Aviram & Igal Dotan. Introduction, pages 581‑586 doi:10.2304/pfie.2009.7.6.581 VIEW FULL TEXT
Langdon Winner. Information Technology and Educational Amnesia, pages 587‑591
Aharon Aviram. The Need for Strategic Thinking on ICT and Education, pages 592‑600
Yair Amichai-Hamburger. E-learning: is technology the lighthouse?, pages 601‑606
Michael Heim. Shifting Focus: from books to laptops to face-to-face discussion, pages 607‑614
Michael A. Peters. Personalisation, Personalised Learning and the Reform of Social Policy: the prospect of molecular governance in the digitized society, pages 615‑627
Ariel Sarid. Habermasian Reflections on the Question of Educational Technology, pages 628‑635
D. Verpoorten. Adaptivity and Autonomy Development in a Learning Personalization Process, pages 636‑644
Christina M. Steiner, Alexander Nussbaumer & Dietrich Albert. Supporting Self-Regulated Personalised Learning through Competence-based Knowledge Space Theory, pages 645‑661
Avi Assor. Enhancing Teachers’ Motivation to Apply Humanist Information Technology Innovations, pages 662‑669
James E. Marcia. Education, Identity, and i-class: from education to psychosocial development, pages 670‑677

OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS
Henry A. Giroux. Children of the Recession: learning from Manchild in the Promised Land, pages 678‑680 doi:10.2304/pfie.2009.7.6.678 VIEW FULL TEXT
Henry A. Giroux. Judge Sonia Sotomayor and the New Racism: getting beyond the politics of denial, pages 681‑684 doi:10.2304/pfie.2009.7.6.681 VIEW FULL TEXT

Information Technology and Educational Amnesia

LANGDON WINNER Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, USA

doi:10.2304/pfie.2009.7.6.587

Waves of enthusiasm for technological innovations that promise to revitalize teaching and learning are at least a century old. Unfortunately, the record of accomplishment for the many varieties of hardware and software introduced into schools over the decades is remarkably thin. Today’s promoters of technology in education tend to forget similar efforts in the past, launching forth with initiatives that use the latest hardware and software, as if such projects were unprecedented. While initiatives like the iClass network in Europe show considerable promise, their development would benefit from recalling the history of earlier attempts to develop and market sophisticated technical instruments for the schools. Reflection up basic philosophical questions about teaching and learning can help us decide which technical devices are of genuine value and which are not.

The Need for Strategic Thinking on ICT and Education

AHARON AVIRAM Department of Education, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel

doi:10.2304/pfie.2009.7.6.592

Despite the absence of sufficiently systematic and comprehensive studies concluding that information and communications technology (ICT) can significantly improve learning, the assumption that it can has been mostly taken for granted throughout the history of the computerization of education. This article briefly presents three moments in this short history of uncritical adoption of ICT into the educational system. It then outlines a fourth desired moment which is about mindfully controlling technology in the service of educational change and strategically harnessing it to the enhancement of desired educational and social humanistic goals. The guiding questions facilitating such strategic thinking are outlined in a three-step process: formation of ‘framework knowledge’; summary of past experiences; and policy formation.

E-learning: is technology the lighthouse?

YAIR AMICHAI-HAMBURGER The Research Center for Internet Psychology (CIP), Sammy Ofer School of Communications, The Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, Israel

doi:10.2304/pfie.2009.7.6.601

E-learning is becoming increasingly prevalent in educational institutions throughout the world. There is a growing awareness of the need to assess the impact of this new type of learning on the educational system and on the students who participate in these programs. In May 2008, following 4 years of research, iClass held a conference to discuss their conclusions and work on future directions. In the opening panel, several leading scholars analyzed the negative impact computers and the Internet may have on learners. In his role as a commentator on this panel, the author raised a wider challenge – that of the relationship between technology and society. In the article below, he describes his ideas.

Shifting Focus: from books to laptops to face-to-face discussion

MICHAEL HEIM University of California, Irvine, USA

doi:10.2304/pfie.2009.7.6.607

Contemporary innovations in education tend to be information based or computer driven. A complete curriculum, however, needs flexibility in order to foster skills for shifting from one context to another. Face-to-face skills play an important role in the governance of democratic societies, and ‘having a good understanding’ of something involves the ability to communicate what is known. The dominant cognitive model of information (information and communications technology) should not weaken the human skills that belong to a full education. Computers need to be seen in a broad educational context. The iClass project and the No-Laptop policy described in this article show two different but related ways of acknowledging the limitations of the modern information paradigm. These two postmodern approaches share a critical distance from computers so as to customize information for specific learning situations. While engaging with computers, educators should weigh specific practices and ask how, and under what circumstances, computers actually contribute to a learning situation.

Personalization, Personalized Learning and the Reform of Social Policy: the prospect of molecular governance in the digitized society

MICHAEL A. PETERS University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

doi:10.2304/pfie.2009.7.6.615

This article argues that personalized learning has emerged in the last decade as a special instance of a more generalized response to the problem of the reorganization of the State in response to globalization and the end of the effectiveness of the industrial mass production model in the delivery of public services. The article examines personalization as one of a number of strategies for overcoming the bureaucratic State and then provides a discussion of ‘mass customization’ as the discourse from which personalization emerged. Finally, there is an analysis of the policy discourse of personalization in the United Kingdom, including a focus on personalizing learning as the model of future public sector reform.

Habermasian Reflections on the Question of Educational Technology

ARIEL SARID Center for Futurism in Education, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva,Israel

doi:10.2304/pfie.2009.7.6.628

The aim of this article is to provide a Habermasian-inspired approach to the application of educational technologies. Such an approach is advocated here in order to counter voices that are critical of the idea of applying technology in the classroom, as well as current (instrumentalist) views that uncritically and unreflectively embrace technology. The author claims, based on Habermas’s analytic division between lifeworld and system, that the circular process between social values and technological development must be maintained if the malaises of instrumentalism can be confronted. The author also shows that applying educational technologies towards the development of autonomous communicative competences reinstates this circular process and supports the development of a vibrant democratic culture.

Adaptivity and Autonomy Development in a Learning Personalization Process

D. VERPOORTEN Open University Netherlands, Heerlen, Netherlands/ University of Liège, Belgium (previous affiliation)

doi:10.2304/pfie.2009.7.6.636

Within the iClass (Integrated Project 507922) and Enhanced Learning Experience and Knowledge Transfer (ELEKTRA; Specific Targeted Research or Innovation Project 027986) European projects, the author was requested to harness his pedagogical knowledge to the production of educational adaptive systems. The article identifies and documents the pitfalls of such interdisciplinary joint work. It suggests that the pedagogical added value of adaptive tools is more likely to be found in the support of human decision making regarding personalization strategies, autonomy development and metacognitive training than in the provision of highly technical automatic customization devices.

Supporting Self-Regulated Personalised Learning through Competence-Based Knowledge Space Theory

CHRISTINA M. STEINER, ALEXANDER NUSSBAUMER & DIETRICH ALBERT Cognitive Science Section, Department of Psychology, University of Graz, Austria

doi:10.2304/pfie.2009.7.6.645

This article presents two current research trends in e-learning that at first sight appear to compete. Competence-Based Knowledge Space Theory (CBKST) provides a knowledge representation framework which, since its invention by Doignon & Falmagne, has been successfully applied in various e-learning systems (for example, Adaptive Learning with Knowledge Spaces [ALEKS] and Enhanced Learning Experience and Knowledge Transfer [ELEKTRA]), providing automated personalisation to learners’ current knowledge and competence levels. Principles of self-regulated learning (SRL), pioneered by, for example, Zimmerman, however, argue for increased learner control, thus resulting in giving learners greater responsibility over their e-learning. The research presented in this article shows that skill-based visualisations in the tradition of CBKST and SRL-based autonomy are in no way conflicting but rather complement each other towards an integrated approach of self-regulated personalised learning. The research has been carried out and technologically translated into a set of visual tools for supporting the whole learning cycle within the scope of the iClass project.

Enhancing Teachers’ Motivation to Apply Humanist Information Technology Innovations

AVI ASSOR Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel

doi:10.2304/pfie.2009.7.6.662

This article focuses on the following issue: How can we build a training and support system that would enhance the motivation and capacity of teachers for high-quality implementation of information technology innovations guided by humanist ideas? That is, a system that would not only increase teachers' motivation to apply Humanist Information Technology Innovations (HITI), but would also enhance their capacity and will to apply the program in a way that is true to its spirit and does not neglect its more challenging and complex goals. First, the author presents basic obstacles that are likely to undermine the motivation of many teachers to learn and apply HITI. Second, the author presents two principles of interventions addressing these obstacles. Third, the author presents the actual plan and structure of a training and support system that would enhance the motivation and capacity of teachers for high-quality implementation of HITI. Fourth, the author presents evidence from an intervention utilizing the training and support system described above. The article ends with some thoughts on the type of relationship the author develops with teachers during his work with them. This part is mainly descriptive, but also has some normative implications.

Education, Identity and iClass: from education to psychosocial development

JAMES E. MARCIA Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada

doi:10.2304/pfie.2009.7.6.670

At first consideration, the worlds of the classroom, the psychotherapy office and the experimental psychology laboratory may seem disparate settings with no obvious connection among them. In this article, the author would like to draw such a connection and to suggest the relevance of psychosocial developmental theory and research to self-regulated personalized learning in general and to iClass in particular. The foundation for this connection lies in Erik Erikson’s theory of ego development. Psychosocial development will occur for all persons within a school setting, whether or not that setting takes such development into consideration or furnishes optimal conditions for it. It is better to consciously structure the school environment to provide optimal conditions than to ignore the inevitability of such development and, by default, provide a non-optimal or even inhibitory environment. The author first describes Erikson’s theory, then discusses its relevance to the school setting, and moves on to a focus on identity development in late adolescence. In particular, the author emphasizes a kind of truncated identity formation known as ‘foreclosure’. The article concludes with a discussion of the relevance of iClass to identity development in particular and psychosocial development in general.

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