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Topic 4: Non-Western Contexts
ThisIn this topic you
People's beliefs and understandings, whether explicit or not, about the nature of knowledge and its application have a strong impact on the ways in which they organise their life, society or culture. Education also is affected by these fundamental beliefs. In Western society we can trace the origins of our rapidly disappearing liberal egalitarian model of education through J. S. Mill right back to Socrates and Plato. Other cultures have different origins, and their education systems reflect these in idiosyncratic ways.
Technology, on the other hand, is commonly seen as an entity all on its own, that somehow imposes its will on societies and cultures, imposing a very Western model of use and adoption. So, one of the questions to look at here related to culture, is how different cultures adapt to, or modify, the use of technology in education an training. Another is to ask how different philosophies and political systems affect the use of new technologies in educational contexts. China, for example, is quite concerned about Internet access destroying the essential 'harmony' of the Chinese State. Japan has a very low percentage uptake of computers in schools, while the Hong Kong Special Economic Zone (i.e. of China), and Singapore have extremely high usage of computer based technologies in schools.
very complex.
Our fourth focusIt is: How
How do different
The online databases have a rich collection of articles about the use of new technologies in non-Western countries (not specifically cultures) and you can search for particular settings and related aspects such as gender, equity etc. as well as getting a wider view on the global use of new technologies. However, be aware that a lot of non-Western practices in this area tend to mimic western efforts. Here is one example:
Bahrain - issues in relation to ICTs http://www.ibe.unesco.org/International/ICE47/English/Natreps/reports/bahrain_en_part_2.pdf
Topic 4 Task:
Identify what many research articles they are making?making.
2. Create a summary in a text form or as a concept map to organise your notes on technology practices to incorporate non-western perspectives for your position paper, Assignment 1.
on the TopiTopic 4 unit
4. Review and respond to at least two contributions from other students.

WeekTopic 1 Getting
Throughout this unit, you will be expected to develop an argument towards a professional position regarding the effective and appropriate use of New Technologies in Education and Training. This argument must reflect the complexities surrounding the infusion of new technologies into educational and training contexts. Your professional position will develop as we engage with the unit content. The direction you take and the resources that you choose to support your position will contribute to the development of your position paper (Assignment 1).
Our first focus is: Where we are now with regard to new technologies in educational and training contexts ?
We will start this unit by briefly reviewing some of the history of new technologies in educational contexts.
We will being by reading the blog by History of Technology Mediated Learning: David Jones (http://davidtjones.wordpress.com/2009/04/17/a-history-of-technology-mediated-learning). While you are reading try to identify some of the key issues or themes in it and consider their relevance for your current professional practice with new technologies ( ICTs). One reason for reading this is that we need to have a good understanding of the field's history to really understand what is informing our contemporary professional practice.
New Zealand. http://www.aare.edu.au/03pap/war03832.pdfhttp://www.aare.edu.au/03pap/war03832.pdf
A playlet by Wendy Warren - this is an excerpt from the larger paper above.
Setting the Scene
Johnson, J. M. (2003). From Lofty Beginnings to the Age of Accountability: A look at the past 30 years of educational software. Learning and Leading with Technology. 30(7) 6-13.
You might like to use Inspiration software or Microsoft Word's drawing tools or use the online tool http://bubbl.us to create a concept map of issues etc. you find.
WeekTopic 1 Task
1. Read and summarise the two main articles referred to in this page.
2. Using the Topic 1 discussion area, review and share your thoughts on on at least on of the three listed Readings.

Topic 4: Non-Western Contexts
This topic you will explore some of the issues faced by non-Western countries in their adoption of new technologies. Until the year 2000, Western countries were the dominant and majority users of the Internet. During 2000 that changed with non-Western countries taking over that role forever (given the combined populations of those countries). However, the use of new technologies in non-Western countries is highly variable, and the problems they face are quite different from those in the West.
People's beliefs and understandings, whether explicit or not, about the nature of knowledge and its application have a strong impact on the ways in which they organise their life, society or culture. Education also is affected by these fundamental beliefs. In Western society we can trace the origins of our rapidly disappearing liberal egalitarian model of education through J. S. Mill right back to Socrates and Plato. Other cultures have different origins, and their education systems reflect these in idiosyncratic ways.
Technology, on the other hand, is commonly seen as an entity all on its own, that somehow imposes its will on societies and cultures, imposing a very Western model of use and adoption. So, one of the questions to look at here related to culture, is how different cultures adapt to, or modify, the use of technology in education an training. Another is to ask how different philosophies and political systems affect the use of new technologies in educational contexts. China, for example, is quite concerned about Internet access destroying the essential 'harmony' of the Chinese State. Japan has a very low percentage uptake of computers in schools, while the Hong Kong Special Economic Zone (i.e. of China), and Singapore have extremely high usage of computer based technologies in schools.
The question we need to consider here is a very complex.
Our fourth focus is: How do different cultures, beliefs, philosophies, and political systems affect the use of technology and in what ways is the notions of 'good practice' perceived differently?
The online databases have a rich collection of articles about the use of new technologies in non-Western countries (not specifically cultures) and you can search for particular settings and related aspects such as gender, equity etc. as well as getting a wider view on the global use of new technologies. However, be aware that a lot of non-Western practices in this area tend to mimic western efforts. Here is one example:
Bahrain - issues in relation to ICTs http://www.ibe.unesco.org/International/ICE47/English/Natreps/reports/bahrain_en_part_2.pdf
Topic 4 Task:
1. Identify what many research articles are saying about this topic and what claims they are making?
2. Create a summary in a text form or as a concept map to organise your notes on technology practices to incorporate non-western perspectives for your position paper, Assignment 1.
3. Summarise your findings and post them on the Topi 4 unit discussion area.
4. Review and respond to at least two contributions from other students.

Topic 3: What constitutes 'Good Practice' in teaching with new technologies?
Historically, teachers were seen to need basic skills with new technologies so that they could pass these on to their students. The nature of these skills has changed over time. An example of this could be the initial use of computers for programming and a move to computers as a word processing tool and more recently web-page creation and multimedia and even more recently on online activity such as wikis, podcasts and Web 2.0. However, the use of new technologies to support and enhance pedagogies and learning experiences, to scaffold distributed learning and to provide learners with rich resources are some examples of a much broader role for computers in the education sphere. Unfortunately, at times, there is a perception that teachers, teacher educators and particularly Teacher Education institutions have done a poor job of developing these kinds of understandings in their graduates. This week we ask you to investigate what is being said more recently about 'good teaching' in relation to new technologies. One article that might be of interest:
Lustbader, P 2011, The Right Tool for the Job: Best Practices in Enhancing Teaching and Learning with Instructional Technology, Social Science Research Network, retrieved 3rd March 2013, <http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1861338>.
In the previous sessions you have examined a wide body of relevant research literature. In this session we will examine a third body of literature based around professional practice and curriculum to help prepare you for Assignment 1.
In this session our question is: What constitutes 'good practice' with new technologies in learning and teaching?
You will examine some claims in regard to 'good practice'. Use your personal (professional) experiences and ideas emerging from Week 1 and Week 2 to critique some of these claims of 'good practice'. If possible locate your critique in terms of your own workplace practices.
By the end of this session, we hope that you will be able to identify some aspects of practice which are perhaps sufficiently robust to be classified as 'good' in a specific culture and context.
There is an enormous literature regarding new technologies and teaching that is relevant to this weeks focus. We suggest two journals that should provide a useful starting point: Technology, Pedagogy and Education and the Journal of Technology and Teacher Education. You might also like to review some of the materials on the Edutopia (George Lucas Education Foundation) site that claim to be exemplary in their use of new technologies, addressing learning styles, multiple intelligences etc.
Topic 3 Task
1. Investigate what is being said more recently about 'good teaching' in relation to new technologies.
2. Identify what the articles are saying. What claims are they making?
3. What evidence do they use to support their contentions?
3. Do their findings make sense to you? Why or Why not?
4. Create a summary in a text form or as a concept map to organise your notes on relevant aspects of 'good practice' for use in your position paper (Assignment 1).
5. Share your summary with other students, using the Topic 3 discussion area.
6. Review and respond to at least two posts made by your fellow students.

Topic 2: What does current research tells us (or not?)
In this session you will engage with the second focus area that will contribute to the development of your position paper.
In this topic we ask: What does the educational research tells us about the use of new technologies?
There has been an enormous amount of research conducted into the use of new technologies in education, workplace and professional learning. However, much of this appears not to be widely known or applied to improve practice. This session consists of an exploration of the research literature, in regard to this focus, and past experience tells us that you will return to this focus regularly.
Exploring the research literature
The use of technology is so common that to compare its use to current non-technological practice would be equivalent to comparing instruction with books to the same amount of instruction without books twenty years ago (Berger et .al., Handbook of research on science teaching & learning, p. 486).
The quote above reminds us that we need to be very clear as to what we are trying to find out in regard to the use of new technologies in Education and Training, and whether it is a valid quest. For example, if we are trying to consider the impact of computers on school learning, then is it meaningful to consider the 'cost per student per Final Year score point', or the number of hours of use per student? Maybe! But there is a tension in the research literature regarding this. It can be argued (forever) that some research, while methodologically valid, misses the point by failing to recognise both the complexity of the issues involved, and the unaccounted for outcomes resulting from the infusion of new technologies into education and training. For example, think about issues such as engagement and collaborative learning - it is hard to account for these in assessment, but maybe helping students engage more with their studies and to benefit from collaborative learning might have long-term benefits that are not accounted for in many research studies.
The point here is that while there are many valid research studies regarding aspects of the use of New Technologies in Education, many of which adopt a qualitative methodology, and others which are quantitative studies (another source of tension), there is a need to 'unpack' them and to understand them in context. It is also worth thinking about the kinds of uses of new technologies which have not been implemented or studied: What are the possibilities?
Topic 2 task
1. Your task for this session is to investigate some current research findings and consider them in regard to your professional practice (where possible).
2. Relate these studies to others that support or refute their findings.
3. Out of this investigation, you should be able to identify some key issues, factors etc. that could contribute to your development of a personal position on the use of new technologies in education and training contexts (Assignment 1).
4. Create a summary in text form or as a concept map that lets you explore the relationships between the documents you selected.
5. Share your summary with other students in the topic 2 discussion space on this site.
6. Review and respond to at least two posts of your fellow students and provide constructive and critical responses.
Suggested approaches to find relevant articles:
Access the library database to search for journal articles about the use of new technologies or ICTs. This will give you a feel for these publications.
Choose an area/topic of personal interest and review two articles. What does the research say? What are the issues they identify and how do they relate to your experience and current practices with new technologies? In particular, what does the research say in regard to issues such as culture, gender, equity and access?
Conduct a Google or Google Scholar search specifically to find research articles in your area of interest or expertise, and then try to access these same articles through the Deakin library.
Using the journal titled 'Technology, Pedagogy and Education', browse for some research papers on new technologies within Teacher Education.
A guide to summarising and responding to the literature
Discuss the implications for your practice, and what, if anything needs to be addressed. Are there other articles that support and/or refute (disagree) the positions, findings etc. in these materials.
Specifically, identify one article that supports a position, and one that refutes it (in some way).
It is also important to consider what are NOT being addressed - new possibilities perhaps, or innovative practices etc. that might be just too hard to study.
Are there terms in the articles that can be interpreted in more than one way? How do we decide what the authors mean or how they are using that term. For example what does it meaning to be 'innovative'?

Week 1 Getting Started
Throughout this unit, you will be expected to develop an argument towards a professional position regarding the effective and appropriate use of New Technologies in Education and Training. This argument must reflect the complexities surrounding the infusion of new technologies into educational and training contexts. Your professional position will develop as we engage with the unit content. The direction you take and the resources that you choose to support your position will contribute to the development of your position paper (Assignment 1).
Our first focus is: Where we are now with regard to new technologies in educational and training contexts ?
Increasingly it is obvious that we need to have a better understanding of the past in order to make wiser decisions about current and future use of new technologies in teaching and learning.
We will start this unit by briefly reviewing some of the history of new technologies in educational contexts.
We will being by reading the blog by History of Technology Mediated Learning: David Jones (http://davidtjones.wordpress.com/2009/04/17/a-history-of-technology-mediated-learning). While you are reading try to identify some of the key issues or themes in it and consider their relevance for your current professional practice with new technologies ( ICTs). One reason for reading this is that we need to have a good understanding of the field's history to really understand what is informing our contemporary professional practice.
In contrast to this paper a very personal view of the use of new technologies in education and training is presented by Wendy Warren, Warren, W. 2003, Actor Network Theory goes to School, NZAARE Conference, PAPERCODE: WAR03832, Auckland, New Zealand. http://www.aare.edu.au/03pap/war03832.pdf
A playlet by Wendy Warren - this is an excerpt from the larger paper above.
Setting the Scene
Below is a list of readings (journal articles) for Week 1 as well as the tasks associated with Week 1, the readings present a rich historical picture. The journal articles should be accessed through the Deakin Library.
Note: The library has continued to develop its many resources and has improved how these resources are managed and searched. A quick review of how to find a journal article in the Library may be useful and is provided below (more details can be found in the 'Further Readings and Resources' section of this site).
To find a specific journal article:
1. To find a specific journal article, go to the Deakin library at www.deakin.edu.au/library,
Note: By logging into the Deakin library, rather than using an internet search such as 'Google', you will have free access to most journals - Deakin has paid for this access. (At times you might like to find articles in Google Scholar (see http://scholar.google.com.au/), but then use the Deakin library to actually access the journal and articles. The Deakin Library offer workshops, seminars and handouts, which offer excellent resources - check out http://www.deakin.edu.au/library/research/workshops-and-seminars.php for more information.
Readings
Charp, S. (1997). Some reflections. (the 30-year history of computers in education).T H E Journal (Technological Horizons In Education) 24 (11) 8-11.
Molnar, A. S., (1997). Computers in education: a brief history. T H E Journal (Technological Horizons In Education), 24(11) 63-69.
Johnson, J. M. (2003). From Lofty Beginnings to the Age of Accountability: A look at the past 30 years of educational software. Learning and Leading with Technology. 30(7) 6-13.
You might like to use Inspiration software or Microsoft Word's drawing tools or use the online tool http://bubbl.us to create a concept map of issues etc. you find.
Week 1 Task
1. Read and summarise the two main articles referred to in this page.
2. Using the Topic 1 discussion area, review and share your thoughts on on at least on of the three listed Readings.
3. Review and respond to at least two posts from your fellow students. (It is expected that you respond to other student posts on CloudDeakin. We are attempting to develop a 'community of learners'.)
The following points may help to guide your summaries, responses and/or interactions on the Topic 1 discussion space.
Discuss issues arising from the articles that you (a) agree with (b) disagree with and (c) relate to your current workplace practices.
Remember to be active listeners/readers and to show respect for the ideas of others. Not everyone will take the same perspective.
If you include the posts and, therefore, views of other students - please attribute them to the relevant person.
Keep a record of your thoughts and views as they develop and change throughout the weeks, this will be helpful when you are writing your position paper (Assignment 1). As you respond to other student posts, makes notes on how their contributions have lead you to modify your views etc. Some possible guiding questions are below. You are looking to identify some core aspects of the articles (some may not be relevant to your context):
What the major issues are (and why)?
What are the major disagreements (and why)?
What theoretical, practical or philosophical perspectives and positions that underpin the two previous items?
What are the implications for your professional practice?
You are encouraged to use EndNote to record your list of references (see the 'Using EndNote' page under the 'Further Readings and Resources' section of this site).
Throughout this unit we will progressively explore where we are now with regard to new technologies in educational and training contexts. You are expected to share and build on the rich ideas of the other class members as you learn with, and from, each other.
Your report for assignment 1 may incorporate your postings in the discussion area including your answers to questions, ideas and feedback from discussions, and responses to the tasks. So as you complete the tasks and post messages on CloudDeakin you are doing the groundwork for your assignment.

Unit aims
Overall, this unit aims to develop your capacity to:
understand major issues and controversies in the international research literature on new technologies in education and training;
consider how professional and community attitudes to new technologies may affect decisions related to curriculum and instruction;
critically examine approaches to new technologies in schools, adult education and training, business and industry, and relate these approaches to your own professional experience;
examine contemporary literature about culturally-different practices of new technology in a variety of contexts and situations inlcuidng your own;
consider what best practice in the use of new technologies in educational settings might look like;
understand the ways in which new technologies may be integrated into your current teaching and/or training practices;
reflect on the use of new technologies, associated pedagogical practices, and compare them to the context of your own professional work and
critique some common assumptions about the roles of teachers, trainers, and learners, and about the practices that are commonly employed when new technologies are infused into learning contexts.
Unit organisation
This unit consists of two related parts:
a core module with an associated individual task and
a group assessment task.
The core module requires you to individually engage with contemporary research and up to date professional literature about the use of new technologies in Education and Training. You are expected to communicate online with your fellow students, with activities designed to encourage debate, to stimulate reflection and discussion, and to challenge your thinking about the nature and purpose of new technologies in education and training.
In the second half of the unit, you have the opportunity to work in a group to identify and address a significant issue/problem that you identify as a consequence of your engagement with the literature and participation in the online discussions.
Unit materials
This unit was been designed as a fully online unit in an attempt to 'use educational technology to teach about educational technology'. You are required to use online databases to located recent journal articles about each topic to contribute to the online discussions.

Welcome to New Technologies in Education and Training
The Unit Chair is Muriel Wells (Geelong Campus) email: muriel.wells@deakin.edu.au.
We hope you find this an interesting learning experience and that you find it both a personally rewarding and professionally useful experience.
This is a fully online unit.
Background: The infusion of new technologies into everyday teaching and training practices is one of the most significant challenges to be faced by contemporary educators.
New technologies are constantly changing and accordingly there is an onging need for educators and trainers to keep up-to-date with technological advances. Currently there are many teachers around the world who are exploring the use of mobile technologies such as Android tablets and iPads and new generation read/write web (Web 2.0) technologies including podcasts, blogs, and wikis as well as other computer based technologies.
The use of new technologies to support teaching and learning has been growing rapidly in most countries for over 30+ years. For many mainstream educators their use in everyday learning spaces are now a reality.
The infusion of new technologies into educational institutions has been associated with constantly changing technologies which have been adopted in many different ways by different educators.
Some critics argue that these uses have not always been productive, with little real effect on learning or on transformation of teaching. Others argue that new technologies have had a positive impact, but that many of those impacts are not easily measured by standardised content-oriented testing regimes.
However, this does not mean that the use of new technologies should be, or can be, ignored. Nor should it be seen as providing teachers with utopian solutions for every educational problem or situation. It is our view that, as in many parts of life and work, we need to have a balanced approach.
New technologies in Education and Training can serve different kinds of social and political goals. In many countries, online learning has become a national priority and many schools and universities are putting their curriculum materials 'online'. These initiatives have been in part an effort to 'meet the needs of the people' who have difficulty in engaging in formal schooling for a variety of reasons. It is also a 'numbers game'. There is an enormous shortfall of university places, parsticularly in developing countries. For example in China ubiquitous access to online courses is seen as a partial solution. In China new technologies may also help to provide culturally adaptive learning materials to each of the 31 ethnic minorities, something that has the potential to help to provide some social cohesion while respecting diversity.
The western world has largely ignored these kinds of issues and proceeded as if new technologies, and particularly online learning (in its various genres), fits all western cultures and contexts. There is, of course, a significant debate surrounding this.
This unit, New Technologies in Education and Training, is designed to help you to explore the uses of new technologies in Education and Training contexts, the claims surrounding them, and perspectives about how to make more effective decisions about the use of new technologies in your professional contexts.
Throughout the core module, and in your first assignment, you will explore and identify issues in relation to the effective and appropriate selection and use of new technologies in educational and training contexts. You are expected to consider the complexities within which these issues reside. Some questions you might keep in mind as you engage with your readings for this unit include:
What are some these new forms of technologies?
How are they currently being used?
What are the major educational issues that relate to their use?
What sort of teaching practices are associated with this usage?
How might they be used more effectively to enhance learning?
In the first half of the unit you will be exploring the research and professional literature about the use of new technologies in education and training contexts. You will be reading, reviewing and publishing summaries in the discussion spaces - to develop your understandings of contemporary perspectives on how and why we use new technologies in education and training. These summaries and associated discussions will form the basis of assignment 1 and are part of the assessment for assignment 1.
In the second half of the unit you will work with a group of four students, to address a particular issue you will select about the use of new technologies in education and training. This part of the unit adopts a small group learning approach as you work in a similar way to a professional learning team. We believe that this is an important part of the learning outcomes for this unit because you will experience and therefore learn more about using online communications to work collaboratively with colleagues. This will be another instance of using technology to learn.