Technology of Education

Ripropongo, con poche modifiche, il testo di un editoriale pubblicato nel fascicolo 5-6 di "Cadmo" (1994). È una prima risposta alle molte richieste che mi pervengono di chiarimenti circa un progetto sperimentale di individualizzazione didattica sviluppato agli inizi degli anni Novanta con Mauro La Torre e Emma Nardi. A distanza di tanti anni ho l'impressione che la direzione allora individuata meriti ancora di essere seguita.

Focusing on the challenges of innovative education development in Nigeria, the paper examines the nexus between expectations and realities in the area of Basic education as well as science and technology. It is established that since independence in 1960, all education systems that were introduced were considered innovative since they were all successful from where they were copied or adapted except for how implementation is handled in Nigeria. Of all factors queried for their failures, poor implementation was seen as the pillar. A number of other factors are tied to the poor implementation. Examples were drawn from the current Universal Basic Education system in Nigeria and Federal Ministry of Education strategic plan in conjunction with UNESCO for 2007/08 to 2015/16, a period of 10 years.  Consequently, poor financing, over dependence on foreign aids for funding, inequality in the country, not emphasising on appropriate technology as well as corruption are identified as the huddles that must be pushed aside. It is recommended among others that Nigeria should have a paradigm shift from being wasteful country, over dependence on foreign sponsorship, and so on to be able to effectively implement her educational programmes.

Within education, concepts such as distance learning, and open universities, are now becoming more widely used for teaching and learning. However, due to the nature of the subject domain, the teaching of Science, Technology, and Engineering are still relatively behind when using new technological approaches (particularly for online distance learning). The reason for this discrepancy lies in the fact that these fields often require laboratory exercises to provide effective skill acquisition and hands-on experience. Often it is difficult to make these laboratories accessible for online access. Either the real lab needs to be enabled for remote access or it needs to be replicated as a fully software-based virtual lab. We argue for the latter concept since it offers some advantages over remotely controlled real labs, which will be elaborated further in this paper. We are now seeing new emerging technologies that can overcome some of the potential difficulties in this area. These include: computer graphics, augmented reality, computational dynamics, and virtual worlds. This paper summarizes the state of the art in virtual laboratories and virtual worlds in the fields of science, technology, and engineering. The main research activity in these fields is discussed but special emphasis is put on the field of robotics due to the maturity of this area within the virtual-education community. This is not a coincidence; starting from its widely multidisciplinary character, robotics is a perfect example where all the other fields of engineering and physics can contribute. Thus, the use of virtual labs for other scientific and non-robotic engineering uses can be seen to share many of the same learning processes. This can include supporting the introduction of new concepts as part of learning about science and technology, and introducing more general engineering knowledge, through to supporting more constructive (and collaborative) education and training activities in a more complex engineering topic such as robotics. The objective of this paper is to outline this problem space in more detail and to create a valuable source of information that can help to define the starting position for future research.

This study investigated into the administrative challenges and strategies of managing school community relationship in secondary schools in Zamfara State. The population of the study consisted of all the principals, vice principals, teachers and Parent Teachers Association officials of the 89 senior secondary schools in Zamfara state. The research design adopted was descriptive survey and questionnaire was used in collecting data.  Among the findings of the study was that the major challenges of school community relationship faced by Zamfara State Senior Secondary Schools include: Lack of initiative among school administrators; Poor value on education; and Attitude of depending on government. It was also found that the strategies used for managing school community relationship in Senior Secondary Schools in Zamfara State include:  Visitation Days; Field Trips; Print media communications; and Television and radio programmes. It was therefore concluded that the challenges which hinder school community relationship in Zamfara State are very serious that they must be tackled or handled with care if good school community relationship is to be ensured. And that the strategies used by most principals are old-fashioned and ineffective in maintaining good school community relationship. The strategies used by most principals are old fashioned and ineffective. There is lack of proper use of complaint and suggestion box, sign writing, hotlines, internet facilities as well as GSM facilities in most of these secondary schools.  It is recommended that principals should use their initiatives to develop an effective means of communicating with the community to promote spirit of cooperation between schools and community. This is necessary because community cooperation will help teachers become devoted to community progress. Also principals should encourage use of complaints/suggestions box, use of sign writings and creation of hotlines. Most importantly, principals should make good use of current GSM facilities more especially text messages.

Rad predstavlja pokušaj da se ukaže na savremene probleme koji postoje na relaciji kvaliteta i praticipacije u obrazovanju, kao i u odnosu aktivnog učenja i participacije u obrazovanju. Pokušali
smo da postavimo relevantna pitanja i rasvetlimo deo postojeće nesjedinjenosti u odnosima koji postoje između navedenih ključnih komponenti procesa obrazovanja i učenja. Neki od
pojedinih ,,sivih tačaka“ obrazovanja jesu nedovoljna konceptualna utemeljenost kvaliteta obrazovanja,
kao i njegova nerazgraničenost u odnosu na problematiku pristupa aktivnog učenja i participacije. Takođe, u postojećoj obrazovnoj politici i praksi postoji ozbiljna prepreka uspostavljanja veze između navedenih pojmova, tim pre, što se neki uobičajeno mere kvantitativno dok se drugi ocenjuju kvalitativno. Nije retkost da kreatori obrazovnih politika definišući participaciju misle i na kvalitet, ocenjujući pri tome uspešnost politike samo na osnovu numeričkih podataka o broju osoba koje su završile proces obrazovanja bez ulaska u problematiku kvaliteta dostignutog obrazovanja, ali i samog procesa učenja. Smatramo da i uzimanje u obzir kvaliteta obrazovanja usmerenog samo na ishode obrazovanja može ugroziti napore za uspostavljanjem aktivnih procesa učenja koji kreiraju tanane i statistički nemerljive potencijale za buduće učenje.
Svedenost na ,,obrazovne minimume“ redukuje politike obrazovanja koje posledično redukuju procese u kojima se ličnost svodi na vidljivo i objektivizirajuće. Naša je želja da ukažemo na opasnost da kreirajući takve standarde u obrazovanju možemo upasti u zamku proizvodnje minimuma,
ostavljajući tako nezadovoljene različite obrazovne potrebe ali i negativne stavove o obrazovanju za sobom, koje ostavljaju tragove na daljem razvoju ličnosti i društva.

La incorporación de las netbooks en las escuelas plantea nuevos desafíos a los bibliotecarios escolares. Con este cuadernillo proponemos brindar herramientas conceptuales y metodológicas para trabajar con el modelo 1 a 1 desde la biblioteca, jerarquizando su función en el cambio cultural que implica la introducción de computadoras en las aulas.

This chapter addresses the social critique of technology with a specific focus on how students become critical. How and why do students become skeptical or critical of specific technologies or more generally D&T? The chapter begins with a premise that social critique was explicit and inherent in D&T education from its formal inclusion in educational systems in the nineteenth century. The first section explores initial purposes of D&T education and a brief history of the crit. Neither peripheral nor secondary to other purposes, such as making and remaking, critique requires practice. The chapter proceeds to address the problem of transfer from the crit, which is integral to learning within D&T, to social critique. On one level, this is a problem of transferring activity to activism, from D&T’s internal school facilities to life after or external to schools. The chapter raises critical questions for pragmatists. As Schön (1983) concludes, a detached or distanced social critique of D&T “cannot substitute for (though it may provoke) the qualified professional’s [or student’s] critical self-reflection” (p. 290). Schön attended to practices moving students “from technical rationality to reflection-in-action” (p. vii); this chapter attends to processes moving students from critical self-reflection to social critique.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new approach for assessing learning outcomes from collaborative work in 3D virtual environments. It represents a novel computational framework that improves recording and observing collaborative activities between students to evaluate learning outcomes. The framework includes a virtual observation model that maps observing learners in classrooms with observing and assessing the students in 3D spaces. This can be accomplished by applying a mechanism that combines natural agents and software agents to support collecting learning evidences from virtual activities and simulate the educators' observation(s). Such a novel framework will solve issues that could develop from evaluating students' performance, interaction, skill and knowledge in collaborative virtual learning environments.

Scuole in azione tra equità e qualità. Pratiche di ricerca in Sociologia dell'Educazione - "Introduzione"

Benadusi Luciano, Giancola Orazio, Viteritti Assunta

Quanto le riforme fanno migliori gli studenti e i docenti? Quanto i cambiamenti istituzionali migliorano la qualità dei processi educativi? Tali processi sono anche espressione di equità? Nella scuola gli studenti apprendono efficacemente? Questo libro, alla luce di un confronto con le più recenti indagini internazionali e di un'ampia e articolata ricerca in molte scuole italiane, vuole porre tali domande e proporre alcune risposte.

Sono perplesso. Mi sono occupato di istruzione a distanza quando tutti esibivano atteggiamenti di rifiuto. Con sufficienza, e generalmente senza saper bene che cosa fosse, come avesse avuto origine, quali esigenze aveva potuto soddisfare, in quali paesi e in quali contesti si fosse originariamente sviluppata, come si collegava a un modello strutturale dell'istruzione (quello di tradizione europea) caratterizzato dall'unicità di tempo e di luogo, e via seguitando in esibizioni di sapienza pedagogica che sarebbe stato meglio evitare, si esprimevano giudizi sulla povertà di proposte educative che rendevano del tutto marginali le interazioni orizzontali (fra uguali) e verticali (degli allievi con gli insegnanti). Proprio perché identificata con una soluzione povera, pochi si sono chiesti quali scelte fossero necessarie per superare, oltre alle difficoltà che si ritrovano in qualunque attività didattica, le difficoltà aggiuntive derivanti dalle particolari condizioni nelle quali si sarebbe dovuto operare.

پیشینه و اهداف: امروزه آموزش حرفه‌ای یا شغلی، آن قسمت از برنامه مدرسه است که بیشتر به آماده کردن دانش‌آموزان برای زندگی و اشتغال در جامعه مربوط می‌شود. این آموزش می‌تواند قسمت اصلی برنامه درسی با بخشی از دوره فارغ‌التحصیلی و یا قسمتی از سایر دروس باشد. این نوع آموزش می‌بایست جزء لاینفک تمامی مراحل تعلیم و تربیت بوده و از طریق یک برنامه سازمان‌یافته و درجه‌بندی‌شده ارائه بشود. در این راستا دسته‌بندی‌های عمده­ای از کار که به‌طور خاص بر آن‌ها تأکید می‌شوند عبارت‌اند از: کار مربوط به نیازهای فردی، کار در خانه، کار در کلاس، مدرسه و فعالیت‌های خارج از مدرسه و یکپارچه‌شده بازندگی مدرسه، کار به‌عنوآن‌یک تجربه یادگیری، کار در جامعه با تمرکز بر خدمات نوع‌پرستی و فداکارانه، و کارهای مربوط به رشد حرفه‌ای، تولید، سودمندی اجتماعی و کشف فرصت‌ها و راه‌های مراقبت.  علاوه بر مهارت‌های کسب‌وکار، در دنیای مدرن امروزی دسترسی به اطلاعات ودانش و کسب بینش و نگرش در این زمینه، امری مهم قلمداد می­شود لذا مهارت کسب دانش و اطلاعات معتبر و موثق می­تواند عاملی در جهت رشد و بالندگی جوامع باشد. و هر طرح، ابتکار، ابزار و وسیله‌ای که تعامل میان مربی و متربی را در جهت کسب شایستگی‌ها در کانون توجه داشته باشد مصداق فناوری آموزشی است. هدف پژوهش حاضر تعیین مهارت‌های اساسی برنامه درسی کار و فناوری دوره اول متوسطه است. روش‌ها: این تحقیق به شکل کیفی با استفاده از روش پدیدارشناسانه صورت گرفته است. جامعه پژوهش، شامل معلمان سرگروه درس کار و فناوری بود که برای نمونه‌گیری آن از روش هدفمند از نوع معیاری استفاده شد و با مصاحبه عمیق با 13 نفر از شرکت‌کنندگان در پژوهش مصاحبه‌ها تا حد اشباع انجام شد. سپس برای تجزیه‌وتحلیل داده‌ها از روش کدگذاری سه مرحله‌ای (باز، محوری و گزینشی) استفاده شد. یافته‌ها: یافته‌ها نشان داد که مهارت‌های اساسی برنامه درسی کار و فناوری دوره اول متوسطه مستلزم یک سری مقوله‌ها در بخش‌های: ادراکی (11 زیر مقوله)، ارتباطی (5 زیر مقوله)، اخلاقی (5 زیر مقوله)، فنی (6 زیرمقوله) و فناورانه (3 زیرمقوله) است. نتیجه‌گیری: امروزه بدیهی است آموزش و یادگیری دانش‌آموزان در حوزه کار و فناوری تنها به مدرسه و دوران تحصیل در مقطع متوسطه خلاصه نمی‌شود، بلکه نیاز است که دانش‌آموزان در کل زندگی از آموزش‌های رسمی گرفته تا غیررسمی نسبت به یادگیری مادام‌العمر تمایل داشته باشند. دراین‌بین یکی از ابزارهای مهم یادگیری مادام‌العمر که منجر به رشد و پیشرفت دانش‌آموزان می‌شود، کسب مهارت سواد اطلاعاتی و فناوانه است، بدین‌صورت که سواد از اطلاعاتی برای دانش‌آموزان باعث افزایش توانایی دانش‌آموزان در تشخیص نیاز به اطلاعات، تشخیص ناقص بودن اطلاعات، توانایی دسترسی و کشف اطلاعات، توانایی ارزیابی اطلاعات و انتخاب اطلاعات معتبر می‌شود. سواد فناورانه نیز باعث افزایش نوآوری دانش‌آموزان در عمل و نیز توانایی استفاده، مدیریت، ارزیابی و درک فناوری و به دنبال آن یادگیری مادام‌العمر می‌شود. به‌طورکلی صرف‌نظر از این‌که آیا دانش‌آموز، مقطع متوسطه را با موفقیت پشت سر می‌گذراند یا نه، آموختن مهارت‌های اساسی می‌تواند او را برای آینده آماده کند. آموختن مهارت‌های اساسی کار و فناوری باید به‌گونه‌ای باشد که دانش‌آموز پس از گذراندن مقطع متوسطه یا به‌طورکلی پس از رفتن از مدرسه به توانایی‌ها و مهارت‌ها و تجارب و آمال و آرزوهایی مجهز شود که منجر به موفقیت در زندگی شود. بر این اساس ضروری است که برنامه درسی کار و فناوری دوره اول متوسطه با توجه به مهارت‌های اساسی استخراج‌شده در این پژوهش موردبازنگری قرار گیرد.

In order to adapt to the modernization of education and the development of education in colleges and universities, it is necessary to reform and explore the course system, organization and clinical practice of animal physiology curriculum, and to strengthen the software and hardware construction of the course. Focusing on the student-centered principle, we plan to maximize the effective use of modern information technology and improve the outcome of teaching process. We aim to help students grasp the knowledge, at the same time, pay attention to the cultivation of students' comprehensive capabilities.

In this article, we investigated how craft curriculum enacted in 2016 was reflected in the current discussions of the stakeholders, that is, the craft teachers, the craft student teachers, the craft teacher educators, and the government employees. In the curriculum, textile craft and technical craft, previously perceived mainly as separate entities, were conjoined as an approach in which "multiple materials are used, and activities are based on craft expression, design, and technology" (FNBE, 2014). This caused confusion in the field about the goals and arrangements of craft education. The data consisted of craft teachers' professional magazines, curriculum blog, and written statements. The discussions concerning the undertaking of the new craft curriculum were analysed by document analysis. Three emerging themes were found to be central in the debates: lesson hour distribution, multi-materiality, and technology education. The analysis revealed that there was a shared understanding about the lesson hour distribution not being enough to enable the proper fulfilment of the craft curriculum. Conflicting views were expressed about the implementation of multi-materiality and technology education. In general, many textile craft stakeholders were open to adapt a more multi-material approach, seeing it as bringing new opportunities to craft education. Many technical craft stakeholders believed that multi-materiality is an artificially-constructed concept, and they saw technology education as already being an essential part of technical craft teaching. Consequently, the curriculum reform has caused turbulence that is dividing the craft stakeholders and especially the craft teachers.

The globalisation of the dismantling of public education is evident through the privatisation of collective assets and service provision, and the entry of new providers with a for-profit motive. Hence, schools are either being reformed as ‘ready for sale’ or declared as failing as ‘ready for replacement’, where high-stakes testing is used to generate data that measure the performance of children, staff, and schools. At the heart of the shift is a right wing anti-state set of discourses and practices promoted by powerful interests where the family and not the state is the location of educational activity as a private matter (Chubb and Moe 1990, Tooley 2000). As a conservative restoration ‘project’ of limiting and even removing the state, there have been waves of reforms that have made radical changes to the purposes and provision of educational services. Such reforms show patterns around the world with new forms of schools (Academies, Charter, Free), new alliances between providers (see Ball and Junemann 2012), and modernisation through new forms of organisation with an emphasis on entrepreneurial leadership (Gunter 2012). Apple (2001) argues that there are four main groups that have associated and allied in order to generate the change imperative necessary to deliver such reforms: first, neoliberals who are ‘deeply committed to markets and to freedom as “individual choice”’; second, neoconservatives who ‘have a vision of an Edenic past and wants a return to discipline and traditional knowledge’; third, authoritarian populists who are ‘religious fundamentalists and conservative evangelicals who want a return to (their) God in all our institutions’; and, fourth, professional managers who work on delivery and so are ‘the mapmakers and experts on whether we got there’ (p. 11). In our call for papers for this Themed Issue, we focus on the first group regarding the historical location of markets in national education systems, and globalised trade in ideas and strategies for educational administration. Hence, we are concerned to examine neoliberalism through a series of articles that report research from Australia, Canada, Chile, and England. Neoliberalism continues to be an important focus of research and conceptual critique in regard to public services in general (Harvey 2007, Plant 2010) and education in particular (Ward 2012). The economising of what it means to be human – individual conduct and relationships with others – is a product of

Esse plano de trabalho é associado ao projeto de pesquisa “A ecomotricidade no estado de Sergipe”, iniciado no ano de 2014. Ecomotricidade é compreendida como a intencionalidade do ser em suas inter-ações com a natureza, desde que essa inter-ação seja lúdica e ecológica. A relação é lúdica quando o que traz significação para a experiência é a alegria ou o prazer circunscritos à própria experiência. A relação é ecológica quando se satisfazem os preceitos (ecosomaestéticos-ambientalmente éticos-ecopolíticos) da justiça ambiental. Com isso, esse plano de trabalho compreende a construção, o desenvolvimento e a atualização de uma plataforma virtual para a divulgação contínua dos resultados da pesquisa, além da comunicação direta com interessados no tema. A construção da plataforma virtual envolve a criação de padrões linguísticos e de estratégias de apresentação para que os conteúdos/dados coletados na pesquisa sejam inseridos, acessados e compreendidos por toda sociedade. O desenvolvimento da plataforma digital é um meio de divulgação científica, mas também para o contínuo desenvolvimento da pesquisa, uma vez que permite o diálogo constante com novos atores.

The article presents the basic assumptions of philosophies constitutive points of reference for the idea of cyborgization (new eugenics and transhumanism). It also highlights how education might be perceived in relation to these ideas. Such a presentation is important because the concept of cyborgization revolutionizes our thinking about the core of humanity. On the other hand, it is the foundation for another idea: the twilight of education, or irrelevance of traditionally understood education in the technoworld. Twilight of education is a certain regularity of reflection about the role of education in human technological progress. It is an orderly method of looking at the future of the relation between humans and education. This regularity and order are rarely expressed explicitly; instead, we encounter them implicitly. Explicitly means here that some texts in the field of new eugenics and transhumanism speak directly about how certain technological activities replace education as more effective measures. Implicitly, in turn, means that such texts present detailed strategies for stimulation of human progress but completely ignore educational influences. All types of stimulants are of technical nature. Analyses of the concept of cyborgization result in a prediction for the future: the traditionally educational activities shall somehow disappear from the ‘cyborgized society’, even though such a society still remains only a hypothesis. Thus the twilight of education mentioned in the title of this paper will become true.

Social inclusion is the process that will enable every person in society to participate in normal activities of societies they live in, including education, employment, public services and social recreational activities. For the development of an inclusive society, preparation of younger generation also needs to be inclusive. Our schools must become breeding grounds of members of such a prospective society. Younger generation will form the inclusive only in an environment that includes them all. Such an environment will be available in only those schools which provide opportunity for full participation for every student. Opportunity for full participation means opportunity to take part and to get developed through all the resources at the disposal of the school-personnel, academic, and socio-cultural. These include teachers, assigned works, information sources, and physical infrastructure, academic and social and cultural gatherings arranged by the school. All these need to be provided to all, irrespective of ability, gender, locality, home background and income, and social class. Such a school, which ensures development of all children, regardless of ability, gender, locality, home background and income, and social class by planning and providing equitable opportunity for teacher support, assigned works, social life of school, information access, and the innumerous programmes conducted by the school can only be called an inclusive school. This paper raises reservation on whether our schools are moving in this direction. It makes some specific suggestions of how to make all resources in school available to every student.

Full article available at
http://www.lindenwood.edu/ela/

Title Ethical Practices of Educational Administrators: A Nepalese Experience, 2(1)
Prakash C Bhattarai
prakash@kusoed.edu.np

Abstract
Ethics is an important part of administrative behavior for a head schoolteacher. A school often proceeds in the path of success if it is led by an ethically sound leader. However, professional ethics are largely thought to emerge from the conscience of the administrator. This article is based on a study undertaken with the purpose of identifying how the ethics of educational administrators are practiced in public secondary schools in Nepal. The study was carried out using a humanistic paradigm with a series of in-depth interviews and focus group discussion through a phenomenological approach.

The study found that professional codes of conduct for school administrators need to be well defined, well internalized, and focused on the culture and context in question. One way to do this is to require representatives of all of the school’s stakeholders to discuss and develop the professional codes of school administrators. This sensitive and participatory approach in the development and adoption of the ethical rules generates a “feeling of ownership,” responsibility, and commitment among all school stakeholders. However, at present, there are no such provisions to understand social interaction in particular social settings to ensure participation of all the stakeholders in the formation of ethical codes of educational administrators

This study investigated the roles of school community relationship in the development of secondary education in Zamfara State. The population of the study consisted of all the principals, vice principals, teachers and PTA officials of the 89 senior secondary schools in Zamfara state. The research design adopted was descriptive survey and questionnaire was used in collecting data. Among the major findings of the study is that school community relationship is very significant in the development of secondary education in Zamfara State because it helps in the discipline of students, welfare of teachers, the planning of curriculum, information sharing and dissemination, provision of school facilities, finance, policies, security, management decision and in monitoring students' progress. It is also found resources which Zamfara State Senior Secondary classrooms, halls and lecture theatres, playgrounds, libraries, business centres, restaurants and/or canteens, furniture, parks and gard...