UCL Knowledge Lab

This paper looks at the cross-currents, the conflicts and the contradictions which exist when promoting modernisation and education reform programmes in the Middle East. Taking ICT-related reform programmes in three states in the Arabian Peninsula the study looks at the inherent problems, in government schools, of reconciling the promotion of 21st Century learning skills with the views of the traditionalists and their beliefs about the role of schools in society and the nature of learning. The paper considers the policy aspirations of the reform programmes and compares these with the realities of day to day life in schools as reported by independent inspection, review and evaluation agencies.

""The essay provides an account of government policy making in respect of educational technology in different countries throughout the world. It highlights the remarkable similarity of these policies and goes on to identify the major factors which are influencing the policy making.
One important factor is the increasing role of the private sector in the promotion of the use of educational technology in the classroom. A second factor is the way in which educational technology has become seamlessly linked to what has become known as the 21st Century Skills agenda.
Each of these facets can be seen as evidence of the education sector, in common with many public services, being carried along upon the rising tide of neo-liberalism since the 1980s, with an increasing private sector involvement in the provision of services (Ball 2007) which, hitherto had been the exclusive preserve of elected governments; and a trend in education away from the aims of nation building, providing moral purpose and responsible citizenship to a become a process of human capital formation (Schultz 1961). A detailed narrative of the development of educational technology policy making in the UK is contrasted with the policies in the USA and Singapore.
The role of Supra National Organisations (SNOs), such as the World Bank, is discussed in respect of its promotion of Information and communication technology for development , taking the Middle East as an example.
The essay then considers the ways in which educational technology has become so closely linked to the personalised learning, future schooling, the 21st Century Skills agenda and the rise of the individual. The account concludes with a reflection upon the outcomes in relation to the four policy drivers which are found common to all educational technology policies worldwide, namely, i) stimulating economic growth; ii) promoting social development; iii) supporting education reform; and iv) improving education management.
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This chapter takes the twin phenomena of globalisation and the growth of the knowledge economy and shows how they impact upon education in the Middle East, particularly in the light of the involvement of supra-national organisations and global corporations. The arguments centre upon the development of a globalised knowledge economy within a world which is dominated by a post-Washington Consensus (Williamson 1993). This neo-liberal construct has significant consequences for state-mandated education systems since it has had the effect of further commodifying knowledge and its acquisition beyond an endeavour to satisfy a thirst for learning (Race 1998) to something which feeds a lust for earning (Gibbs 1989).

This paper aims to highlight the issues associated with the implementation of education reform policies relating to ‘future schools’ in a small state in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The study points to the consistency with which global corporations and the supranational organisations (SNO), such as UNESCO and the World Bank promote a 21st Century skill agenda as an essential component for educational renewal and innovation; but, with equal consistency, it highlights the difficulties which school practitioners face in trying to enact this agenda by way of the reformist  policies. Through focus group discussions supplemented by interviews with senior school leaders and government officers a complex web unfolds related to the enactment of education reforms in a fragile Arab state, to such an extent that the ‘future schools’ narrative is seen to have little or no importance in the wider reform process.  Arising from interview data, three main themes emerge related to: organizational culture, technology and tradition. Far from promoting, amongst students, the development of 21st Century skills, the strength of local traditions and epistemology are of much greater importance than the neoliberal imaginary with which policies from the Global North are imbued. Whilst avoiding essentialist arguments, the study contributes to the growing body of literature, in the wake of the Arab Spring, that questions the boiler-plate implementation of western ideals upon countries with very different  cultural and epistemological traditions.

This book chapter looks at the rise of digital social capital as a concept derived from Bourdieu's theories. It demonstrates how online communities of practice are developing amongst school teachers as an example of how continuous professional development can be made more meaningful, impacting and long-lasting

This article looks at the information and communication technology (ICT)–related education reform programs in three countries in the Middle East. It indicates the evident policy linkage between the implementation of school-based ICT programs and the development of pupils’ 21st-century skills to address the knowledge economy. The policy aspirations are put in the context of the history of education in the region and the Islamic traditions and beliefs about the nature of knowledge. The impact of the reforms is evaluated on the basis of realities of day-to-day life in schools as reported by independent inspection, review, and evaluation agencies. It concludes that much deeper institutional reform is necessary to fulfill the policy aspirations rather than speculating over progress through technology-enriched futures.

This case study aims to identify relevant policies and practices for digital and online learning (DOL) in vocational education and training (VET) in Serbia, with a focus on initial VET (IVET). The study was commissioned by the ETF with the following specific objectives: (i) gather information and analyse DOL provision in VET; and (ii) provide a set of recommendations. The data-gathering component of this research consisted of field visits to eight secondary VET (SVET) schools in major cities in Serbia selected on the basis of their good practice in respect of DOL. The analysis is structured around the six cross-cutting elements of the European Framework for Digitally-Competent Educational Organisations (DigCompOrg), a European Commission initiative. The subsequent paragraphs provide key findings, grouped by the cross-cutting elements of the DigCompOrg framework, and a set of recommendations.

Synchronous audiographic conferencing (SAC) refers to a combination of technologies for real-time communication and interaction using multiple media and modes. With an increasing institutional uptake of SAC, users require an understanding of the complex interrelations of multiple media in learning scenarios in order to support pedagogic-driven planning and effective use of the tool. This paper provides a review of recent literature that explores the pedagogic strategies used to underpin practical uses of SAC for the benefit of learners especially in non-standard contexts such as distance education. The paper reports on approaches from practitioner-oriented perspectives as well as approaches based on educational theory, notably the community of inquiry model, task design and multimodal models of cognition, meaning and interaction. The main features of these models were extracted to provide both a synthesis for future work on dedicated pedagogic models for SAC and a resource for practitioners wanting to link SAC with educational theory.

This paper explores the use of ePortfolio tools to support teaching, learning and the personal and professional development of postgraduate students at the Institute of Education, University of London (IOE). The needs of tutors and students are considered alongside the affordances and limitations of specific tools in relation to these needs.

The study involved five areas of postgraduate study at the IOE, one at PhD level, two at Masters level (MA in ICT in Education and MTeach) and two PGCE courses (PGCE in ICT and Post-Compulsory PGCE). Preliminary discussions with IOE staff revealed five common themes relating to the perceived purpose of an ePortfolio: model, ownership, collaboration, accessibility and support. The first theme relates to the definition of the ePortfolio, whilst the remaining themes address questions relating to ownership, control, use and user needs/development. In this paper, each of the themes and the questions raised within those areas are addressed in detail and a cross-comparative table of responses across each of five teaching scenarios is provided with levels of importance measured on a scale of 1 (low) to 4 (high).

Key issues arising at this stage of the study focussed on whether the ePortfolio should be student-owned and generated or institutionally-owned and controlled. Issues of access to, and sharing of data inside and outside of the institutional context ranged high in importance, as did identification of the ePortfolio with a particular course or community of practice and ways of implementing this. Levels of access related to Registry staff, external mentors, Course Tutors, Course Leaders, etc. In addition, perceptions of the purposes of an ePortfolio tool emerging at this stage suggested four key foci: assessment, content management, repository/reflexive, and professional development.

Following this preliminary stage, three test scenarios (PhD, MA in ICT in Education, and PGCE in ICT) were selected and evaluated using three alternative ePortfolio tools: the Blackboard internal ePortfolio, Mahara and the BLE Expo. These tools were selected as being tools which could be adapted by the institution and incorporated within existing learning environments. This is in contrast to, for example, commercially available professional development ePortfolio solutions such as BlueSky which are maintained externally to the institution and ostensibly “owned” by the user (although such ownership is usually facilitated by the host institution).

The evaluation and testing of the three ePortfolio tools confirmed the points of importance raised in preliminary discussions with staff, revealing a complex web of user needs and technical features which need to be considered if an effective and appropriate selection of ePortfolio tools which best fit user needs is to be made. Blackboard represented the easiest option to configure within courses, Mahara was 2aesthetically pleasing and easy to use but lacked extended functionality and was more suited to individual than institutional ownership. The BLE Expo tool, when used with pre-configured templates offered the highest level of functionality/flexibility for individual, group and institutional use.

Overall, the study revealed that use of these ePortfolio tools to support teaching, learning and professional development is complex and requires considered pedagogical planning and preparation if they are to be usefully appropriated as a support for postgraduate study and development.

Foundations of Science Education is a core module in the Masters in Science Education course. The main purpose of this module is to promote critical reflection in the main aspects of science education incorporating teaching, learning, philosophy and policy. This paper reports on the purpose and development of a mixed-mode (blended) course in which online discussions and tasks complement and extend face to face teaching and discussions. It discusses how the re-structured module is designed to support the construction of knowledge and critical review of that knowledge through the dimensions of shared practice. Most of the course participants are science educators, mainly London-based but with some international students, and the course draws on their growing theoretical knowledge in combination with shared experiences. In this paper we discuss the possibilities and constraints of the course design.

Researchers do not normally trouble themselves with ‘vision statements’. A vision for a field of research is more likely to be an evanescent and emergent property of its intellectual clashes, than something that can be represented as a joint communiqué. There was some debate within the Kaleidoscope Network over the wisdom of developing an agreed statement on where we believe our research is heading. There is too wide a range of ambitions, too many uncertainties about the intellectual foundations of the field, too little agreement about the most fruitful pathways to pursue.

Against that reluctance stood the sense that, nonetheless, there is something shared by the researchers in this field. Technology enhanced learning is expanding throughout the developed economies, and global education will extend this to the developing economies as well. Researchers believe that innovation in a system will be more effective if it is informed by a scientific approach to understanding that system, in this case: technology enhanced learning. If educational leaders and policy-makers are to envisage a future role for technology in education, then the research community should have something coherent to offer that helps to shape that vision.

The Kaleidoscope Network therefore embarked on the difficult process of agreeing a vision for our research. It was a highly collaborative and iterative process, conducted through face-to-face meetings and an online collaborative document development environment. The result is published here as our first expression of the ambitions of the research and the issues it raises. For researchers, sharing a common understanding of similarities and differences is an ongoing process. In Kaleidoscope we have now have reached the point where our vision statement is likely to be stable at a general level but within that researchers will continue to argue about what precisely ought to be done, with what priorities and how. Although the statement has aimed for stability in its broad outlines, it will evolve to its next versions by elaborating the detail that will contribute to the realization of our broad vision.

On 21st March 2006 Diana Laurillard from the London Knowledge Lab (LKL) interacted with more than 450 learners at 41 university campus locations in Australia and New Zealand via a multinational live webinar. The event used Synchronous Audiographic web Conferencing (SAC) to provide simultaneous communication and interaction opportunities using multiple media and modes. The event was produced by the University of Adelaide in cooperation with the LKL, as a Multiple Venue Production (MVP). This case study discusses the organisational and pedagogical opportunities and challenges experienced in planning and implementing this ‘mass collaboration’ event.

This paper reports on the early adoption phase of Google Docs as a web-based collaborative tool across six institutions in a concerted effort. The adoption approach was based on a custom framework in order to focus on users and their actual needs, and the adoption was driven by a small project team as opposed to institutional managers. This study therefore reports on suitability and value of the custom framework and on issues of innovation adoption originating from the institutional periphery.

Users were reporting a high satisfaction with the tool, and findings show that the use of the tool enhanced collaboration significantly, in turn improving the quality of student learning. The main concern of this paper, though, is the evaluation of the custom adoption framework. This framework is based on the idea of not overwhelming users, instead introducing small, gradual steps with a technological innovation that is appropriate for their needs. Based on a review of existing adoption models, we attempted to address common issues of individual-based adoption models in our given context.

Overall, the framework was successful but needs adaptation. Concepts such as technological gaps do not always align to user perceptions. With some suggested adaptations, though, this framework can be used in similar scenarios.

Keywords: changing tools, collaboration, Web2.0, uptake, adoption, innovation spread

Repeating something that another speaker has just said is an important resource in everyday interaction. For example, repetition can be used to acknowledge or to repair prior talk. Although repetitions produced by individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) have been extensively researched, only a few studies have examined in detail how these individuals respond to repetitions produced by another speaker. Conversation Analysis (CA) is used to analyse sequences of talk in which the child responds to repetitions produced by her teacher. We show how the child orients to the timing and prosodic features of certain repetitions and responds selectively to either acknowledge or to repair the teacher’s talk. We discuss how CA can contribute to a better understanding of the use of repeated talk in autism.

Children with autism have characteristic difficulties with joint attention. In educational settings, this can present a challenge when directing a child’s attention to new objects and activities. Drawing on videotaped interactions between teachers and two children with autism recorded in Finland, we use conversation analysis to examine how teachers manage such transitions during one-to-one teaching.We show how adjusting material objects can be used to manage the child’s engagement and how these adjustments can escalate into more conspicuous actions so as to direct the child’s attention. Rather than examining participants’ use of communi- cational objects, we are instead concerned with practices that use task-related objects. We thereby offer an empirically grounded account of the interactional practices involved in achieving joint attention through the objects themselves.

Background
One of the most central collaborative tasks during surgical operations is the passing of objects, including instruments. Little is known about how nurses and surgeons achieve this. The aim of the present study was to explore what factors affect this routine-like task, resulting in fast or slow transfer of objects.

Methods
A qualitative video study, informed by an observational ethnographic approach, was conducted in a major teaching hospital in the UK. A total of 20 general surgical operations were observed. In total, approximately 68h of video data have been reviewed. A subsample of 225min has been analysed in detail using interactional video-analysis developed within the social sciences.

Results
Two factors affecting object transfer were observed: (1) relative instrument trolley position and (2) alignment. The scrub nurse's instrument trolley position (close to vs. further back from the surgeon) and alignment (gaze direction) impacts on the communication with the surgeon, and consequently, on the speed of object transfer. When the scrub nurse was standing close to the surgeon, and “converged” to follow the surgeon's movements, the transfer occurred more seamlessly and faster (<1.0s) than when the scrub nurse was standing further back from the surgeon and did not follow the surgeon's movements (>1.0s).

Conclusions
The smoothness of object transfer can be improved by adjusting the scrub nurse's instrument trolley position, enabling a better monitoring of surgeon's bodily conduct and affording early orientation (awareness) to an upcoming request (changing situation). Object transfer is facilitated by the surgeon's embodied practices, which can elicit the nurse's attention to the request and, as a response, maximise a faster object transfer. A simple intervention to highlight the significance of these factors could improve communication in the operating theatre.