Education4site

Interesting research on youths’ circumvention of age restrictions on social networking sites

Posted on November 1, 2011 by admin

danah boyd, et al. have published an interesting paper on their research youths’ use of social networking. In light of evidence showing that youth routinely circumvent age restrictions for the use of social networking technologies, the researchers decided to examine parents’ views regarding their childrens’ use of Facebook in particular. They found that not only do youth routinely ignore age restrictions but they do so with the full knowledge of their parents (even though parents are aware of the restrictions). Furthermore, youth are often even assisted by their parents in circumventing restrictions.

Interestingly, a majority of parents stated that they are most likely to allow their children to circumvent age restrictions for “educational and school related purposes”. Given the reality presented in this paper and other related research, it raises questions as to whether parents currently think that being on Facebook somehow relates to their childrens’ education, and if so, how?

Posted in Education, ICTs, Information Society, Internet, Technology foresight | 2 Comments

What can we learn from Finnish education: A reaction to Diane Ravitch

Posted on October 12, 2011 by admin

This morning (Oct. 12, 2011) Diane Ravitch tweeted about an article on the “Bridging Differences” website that describes some of what she learned on her recent visit to Finland (anyone who follows Ravitch’s tweets will have known about this visit). I was pleased to see that Ravitch pointed out a distinct characteristic of Finnish education that is often overlooked, i.e. that not only do Finnish students fare well in international comparisons, but there is almost no variation between schools or regions. It’s been pointed out that although the US scores poorly on the PISA when examined at a national level, at a regional level certain parts of the US would be among the top scorers. But the case is different with the Finns – they score uniformly well.

Finnish students’ admirable achievements have sent many researchers and policymakers to the country looking for that specific ingredient in the secret sauce that, if implemented in their own countries, would produce the same results quickly. But, the fact that Finns are uniformly good suggests that there is no specific ingredient; rather that their educational outcomes are the result of systematic change that has been achieved over an extended period of time.
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Posted in Education, Information Society, Knowledge development, Technology foresight | 1 Comment

Are schools meeting tech-savvy learners’ needs: A very interesting article by an Icelandic upper-secondary student.

Posted on October 10, 2011 by admin

Ásgrímur Hermannsson, an Icelandic student in his last year of upper-secondary school (Icelandic upper-secondary school is years 10-14 – most students are aged 20 when they graduate), has written a particularly scathing critique of contemporary education (link goes to more-or-less useful Google translation – the original in Icelandic is here). Ásgrímur’s article is another indication of the growing awareness among youth that the educational systems that are meant to prepare them for the future are falling short.

In his article, titled “How school killed my ambition”, Ásgrímur describes in very direct “no-nonsense” terms his experience and disappointment of going through an educational system that he has increasingly become aware is out of touch with his generation and out of touch with the needs of 21st century society. Although Ásgrímur’s remarks are particularly directed toward education in Iceland, the points he makes can be equally applied to the Western ideal of education that informs educational policy in many countries worldwide.

Posted in Education, ICTs, Technology foresight | 1 Comment

What do we really mean by “technology integration”?

Posted on September 25, 2011 by admin

Technology integration is a critical issue in education and one that has received considerable scholarly attention over the past two decades, at least. However, we have to be careful when we toss around the term “integration” as if it refers to a specific issue. “Technology integration” has been used to refer to many different things in discourse on education and this has made it rather difficult to identify and address the real issues involved. Continue reading →

Posted in Education, ICTs, Information Society, Knowledge development, Technology foresight | 3 Comments

Youth and ICTs: Response to a criticism of Thai tablet PC program

Posted on September 21, 2011 by admin

Veena Thoopkrajae has an article on The Nation criticizing a plan to give all Thai grade 1 students a free tablet PC. Thoopkrajae claims that there are more pressing issues in Thai education and that the tablet PC program is simply a political ploy by the Prime Minister, Yingluck Shinawatra. That may be the case, but what concerns me are questions that Thoopkrajae raises about the usefulness of the tablet PC program in Thai education, stating that the tablet PCs “could be an additional useless weight in a kid’s schoolbag.” She justifies this statement with a number of assumptions about how young people interact with information and communication technology (ICT), ex. that they naturally gravitate toward games and entertainment “rather than … anything educational.” Her assumptions are highly questionable, at the least, and not consistent with research on young people’s interaction with ICTs.

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Posted in Development, Education, ICTs, Information Society, Technology foresight | Leave a comment

Past-term policies: When policies fail to address future contexts

Posted on September 20, 2011 by admin

An important aspect of educational policy making is the timespan that policies are expected to address. In general, there is an assumption that policies are directed toward the future and are expected to function as pathways going forward in time. I suggest that this is not always the case – that there are certain types of policies that, although they are intended to affect future action, they are essentially backward-looking and, thus, do not suggest any meaningful vision for future contexts. I call these types of policies “past-term policies”.