One question that arises from this video is whether and to what extent we will continue to rely on institutions to change the status of situations in the world.
by Karen Keffer
A., & Cartwright, V. (2004, April 1). Transforming what they read: helping eleven-year-olds engage with Internet information. Literacy, 38(1), 26-31.
Abstract
The purpose of this work is to investigate children’s use of the Internet and the way that they use the information that they find. The scope of this study encompasses the information available on the Internet in the area of the history of bikes. The research design and methodology of this study was a case study. The findings of this work showed that while some students did benefit from the activity, others needed additional guidance. Individual differences are bound to occur in any setting. The limitations of the study include the assumption that the experience of one person can apply to another, universals are predictable and by way of specific examples, general conclusions can be reached. The physical limitation is the size of the group studied, which is 54 students in all from one school in central England. The study is significant; it builds on the existing research that links the use of the Internet and ICT to high levels of pupil motivation.
Critique
The authors of this study are looking at how students use the information that they find on the Internet or through the use of other Information and Communications Technology. They found that the use of the available technologies were embraced by some students but were more of a distraction to others. Many of the students were able to personalize the information by applying their own experiences to the information gathered from the available technologies. Other students were overwhelmed or distracted by the sheer amount of information that was available to them.
One concern was the amount of time that was spent on what was coined as “distraction activities” such as following a myriad of links, wandering off to sites that were not part of the topic, and spending too much time on minutiae and not on the overall concepts. Additionally, many of the students had technical problems navigating the web, losing their way, and their losing the information that they tried to cut and paste.
Many of the students, though working, were not truly engaged. This is the area where the role of the teacher is key. The teacher is the guide to help assist in the necessary engagement. A starting point could be to discuss and consider previous knowledge. Students realize that they already know a great deal about the subject and can use the available technologies to build on what they already know. They also need to find out what they still want to learn to guide their inquiry. If the field is too broad, students will lose their way. A narrowing of the focus will help to keep students on the right path and will assist in avoiding some of the distractions.
Engagement is an important aspect of learning using the available technologies. Teachers need to find the models that work with their students to foster this engagement rather than just completing the assignment. Our students are not automatons, so different students will benefit from varying approaches. The big questions are what methods must be employed to benefit all students? How do we determine these methods? What is the teacher’s role in using the available technologies?
Pritchard, A., & Cartwright, V. (2004, April 1). Transforming what they read: helping eleven-year-olds engage with Internet information. Literacy, 38(1), 26-31.
by Katina Isele
In the drop-out prevention program in my school in the United States, only a selected number of students are allowed to take computer classes. Computer class is counted as an elective. The class is designed an in intervention. The students who are selected to attend computer class instead of art, language exclamation, or learning strategies are placed on a software program the district paid for, and they do lessons from this software the majority of the time they are in computer lab everyday. Also, the school district blocks students’ access to certain websites. Students are not allowed to network with other students. Students are not allowed to surf the internet unless they have been told to go to a particular website by their teacher. If students are caught on a website they were not assigned to go to, they are banned from the use of the computer for a certain period of time. They work on worksheets or in the workbook while they are in the computer lab, or they may have to return to class with their regular teacher.
In addition, many of the teachers do not have access to computers or the internet in their classrooms, and the majority of the computers that are in the classrooms do not work. Interested? Follow the Read More link
The following was originally published as:
Banerji, Ashok and Basu, Saswata (2005). ICT Aided Education for People’s Empowerment. Chapter in Encyclopedia of Developing Regional Communities with Information and Communication Technology, Edited by Stewart Marshall, Wal Taylor and Xinghuo Yu, Idea Group Reference, pp. 331-336.
The article has been updated here.
ICT Aided Education for People’s Empowerment
Dr. Ashok Banerji and Mr. Saswata Basu
Monisha Electronic Education Trust, India
INTRODUCTION
It is widely recognized that knowledge and education are the key factors that needs attention for eradicating poverty. Yet poorest sections of the community have the least access to conventional means of gaining knowledge and education. Thus we are witnessing a polarized world where on the one side we would find an “information elite” and on the other, the digitally illiterates or excluded. Such a position is very apparent from the world map of the Internet users (Zookinc, 2003). This paradox is common in the developing countries across the globe. The gap between population groups and accessibility to knowledge resources is widening as the awareness, information, as well as education and skill development efforts fail to reach the right target. The major reason for this lies with the present system of knowledge dissemination and not with knowledge resources. India, where literacy is still very low, cannot simply rely on printed books for effective education and knowledge dissemination.
Therefore to bridge the gap between the target disadvantaged population and the knowledge resource, appropriate methods of communication re needed so that the shortcomings of the print and audio-visual media, especially lack of participation, are mitigated. In this regard the digital media and information and communication technology (ICT) have immense potential. This is one of the primary concerns of practice of Community Informatics (Marshall, et.al., 2003). Community Informatics emphasizes that the method of its deployment is particularly important rather than the technology itself. In this article we will describe a model for the community informatics approach that we followed in order to harness the digital media for education, health awareness and development in a specific location in India.
HOW THE PROJECT STARTED
A low cost participatory model of ICT mediated human network empowering people for sustainable development
Author : Dr. Ashok Banerji and Mr. Saswata Basu
Date added : 2003-09-26
Brief Project Background
It is widely recognised that knowledge and education are the key factors that needs attention for eradicating poverty. Yet poorest section of the community has the least access to conventional means of gaining knowledge and education. This paradox is common in the developing countries across the globe. The gap between target group and knowledge resources is widening as the awareness, information, as well as education and skill development efforts are not reaching the right target. The major reason for this lies with the present system of knowledge dissemination and not with knowledge resources. We reckon this is because of the inappropriate use of the communication channel and media. In this story we will describe how we are harnessing the digital media in a novel way for education, awareness and development.
Why digital media?
Information dissemination conventionally uses (a) the print media like books, posters, leaflet, newspaper etc. and (b) the audio-visual media like oral lectures, video documentary, movie, drama etc. The problems with print media component are - (1) a person with poor literacy cannot comprehend easily a book however well written, (2) print media involves repetitive printing cost in case of new version and (3) colourful and attractive printing involves high cost. The shortcomings of audiovisual media component are - (1) long time to produce, (2) it is comparatively expensive and (3) production of audio-visuals require skilled personnel from various disciplines. However the common shortcoming with both print and audio-visual media is that generally the audience are not involved in their preparation. Thereby the ownership factor is missing. Hence the user commitment is less leading to reduce spontaneous urge in the learning process.
Interested? Follow the Read More link.....
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