WHITHER COMMUNICATIONS?

Professor Trevor Barr
Swinburne University of Technology
tbarr@swin.edu.au

Powerpoint Presentation (1.2 MB)
pdf Version (315K)

Keynote Abstract: This presentation will argue that so much of our attention in educational technology focuses on means and techniques and consequently little consideration is given to the understanding of the key conceptual frameworks. Trevor will present an overview of the major schools of thought about critical issues in contemporary communications and the associated vexed issues for the next decade. This will be a multi -disciplinary analysis drawing upon social, behavioural and business literature and experiences. His call will be that we need not only to use the new communication technologies in our teaching and learning but we need to teach about the new communication environment. Particular attention will be paid to debates about the future of the Internet from the perspective of end users. Only limited investigation has been undertaken into the nature of Internet audiences or participants in their different contexts. Questions that have not been systematically researched are about what motivates people to go onto the Net, and their sense of expectation of what it might be able to provide. There are also some critical user ‘bottlenecks’ that need to be understood before key initiatives, such as e- commerce, can succeed on a major scale. While technologists do valuable work on new security systems related to transactions so many users still fundamentally lack trust in trading on the Net. So where does this lack of trust come from, and how can we build greater confidence on the part of end users? An overriding theme in Trevor’s address will be that the critical issues for us in the next decade will be not only what the technologies are going to be like but also understanding what we are going to be like.

HOW TO EVALUATE THE IMPACT OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY: THEORETICAL PROMISES AND PRACTICAL EXPERIENCES

Professor Erno Lehtinen
University of Turku, Finland
erno.lehtinen@utu.fi

Powerpoint Presentation (210K)

Bio: Erno Lehtinen is professor of education at the University of Turku in Finland. He has worked as a teacher and researcher in several universities including the Universities of Turku and Joensuu (Finland) University of Bern (Switzerland) and the Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh (USA). His scientific work is aimed at combining basic research on cognition and motivation with the practical development of diagnostic tools and technology based learning environments. Lehtinen has 180 scientific publications covering various fields of education, educational psychology and educational technology. In the mid-1980s he established The Centre for Learning Research with his colleagues at the University of Turku and in 1988, the Research and Development Center for Information Technology in Education at the University of Joensuu. Currently he is leading the Educational Technology Unit of the University of Turku and coordinating a multidisciplinary national doctoral program on R&D of learning environments. He chaired an expert group carrying out a large evaluation for the Finnish Parliament on the impact of information technology on teaching and learning in Finland and has been a member of the research expert team in OECD carrying out a large international evaluation study on the effects of ICT based learning environments. He has been organizer and invited speaker in several international conferences and acted as an expert in various projects of international organizations. He is the president of European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI).

Keynote Abstract: In the public information society discourse, the arguments for the use of ICT in education are typically based on various self-evident benefits of information and communication technology. One source of the expectations of ICT's impact originates in the current learning research. The adaptation of constructivist epistemological principles, in particular, has encouraged learning scientists to analyse how technology-based environments would provide learners with new opportunities for exploratory activities which are beneficial for knowledge construction. Many learning scientists have assumed that information technology can be used to mediate real life problems for schools in a form that makes it possible to connect the practical problem solving with the learning of theoretical ideas and general thinking skills. Most of the recent research on the use of information and communication technology in education is more or less explicitly considering technology's possibilities to facilitate social interaction between teacher and students and among students. Thousands of experimental studies on the educational impact of ICT have been carried out since the first attempts to assess the educational use of information technology in the early 1970's. All together, the reviews and meta-analyses of the experiments show that ICT students have learned more and faster than students in control groups. It is, however, an open question how much the optimistic desires are based on general enthusiasm or limited experimental evidence. Large evaluation studies in everyday classroom situations do not fully support the positive conclusion rising from theoretical considerations of laboratory type experiments. In this paper I summarise some findings of the recent research on the impact of ICT, give explanations for observed obstacles in applying ICT in regular classrooms, and present some ideas of effective implementation of ICT tools in regular classrooms.

EDUCATION AND SKILLS DEVELOPMENT IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Dr Michelle Selinger
Cisco Systems
mselinge@cisco.com

Keynote Abstract: If Africa is to compete in the Knowledge Economy and is to see real economic growth then developments in the use of technology in education are imperative. Therefore, the UK Prime Minister set up a millennium initiative, Imfundo Partnership for IT in Education, to consider ways in which technology could be used to support education, particularly teacher education, in developing countries, with aspecific focuson sub-Saharan Africa. The view taken was that technology extends knowledge and education to poor and marginalised people, but it should not be seen as a panacea to the challenges facing education, but as a tool to deliver better education outcomes more efficiently. Secondees from the private sector including Cisco Systems, worked on the first phase of this initiative based at the UK Department for International Development (DFID). Imfundo’s unique contribution is the way in which it combines the skills and contributions of a wide range of different partners to help African governments achieve the international development targets of gender equality and universal primary education. With DFID funding, the hardware, software and management expertise of the private sector, the research skills of universities, and the local expertise and involvement of civil society organisations, Imfundo is helping to create innovative and sustainable solutions.

This keynote will explore the challenges in providing appropriate and sustainable solutions for improving education and skills that will support development.

MAXIMIZING EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE THROUGH EDUCATION AND TRAINING

Mr Ray Price
Ford Motor Company, Australia

UNTANGLING THE CONFERENCE!

Ms Carol Daunt
Managing Director, LearnTel
cdaunt@learntel.com.au

Carol's Summary (100K PDF)