Reflection and notes of "Mapping the digital divide in Britain: implications for learning and education"


We live in a convenient and hi-technology society; it is important implications for education and learning from an individual to the government. For example, in Taiwan, government policy encourages not only teachers to use "interactive whiteboard", but also pupils and high school students to use ''e-schoolbags" (only those selected schools can use interactive whiteboard and e-schoolbags because they are participants of the research). Even though this research has been conducted over 7 years, there are still have arguments. Of course, using technologies to assist learning is not a panacea. Not just policy-makers and academics have to promote policy for educational technology, everyone also needs to think about how we can use technologies properly to assist education and learning.

There are a lot of factors could influence people accessing the internet, such as socio-economic status, age and  life-stage. In Britain, according to the article, people who have positive attitudes towards ICTs entail higher education, higher income and being younger. Moreover, Adults who have children in the household used the internet are more than adults who don't have children. Today, more and more countries have "free wifi" service in the public, people might not have to be younger, have higher income and higher education, they still can access the internet.

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Reflection and notes of "New technology and Digital Worlds: analyzing evidence of equity in access, use and outcomes"


- When we are talking about out-of-school using digital media, we can divide the behaviour into two categories:  friendship-driven and interest-driven. In Taiwan, most people use facebook and line (similar to what's app) to contact and hang out with friends; the other group of people would hang out with friends via video games. Personally, when I contact and hang out with friends, I prefer using facebook and line to giving a phone call. To be more specific, it is for socialising and leisure activities.

Next, as for interest-driven activity, I thought it meant a group of people who have same interests and get together and hang out together, but it turned out it was not what I thought. To be more specific, there are two stages, messing around and geeking out, of interest-driven activity.

The term "messing around" means that people interesting in and focus on the technologies and eager to extend and explore the understanding of it. "Geeking out" means that people become obsessive in the technologies and have particular knowledge of technology that most people don't have.

Learning reflection and notes of "The Politics of Education and Technology: Conflicts, Controversies, and Connections"

As I remember, when I saw the term 'politics,' and I knew I wouldn't like it. I ask my friend, Lesly, why should I care about politics in educational technology; she said, "maybe you don't get use to look education as a big picture. When I studied history in the university, I need to look everything as a whole. When we talk about education, it is not just about language teaching and learning. If we don't look at politics, who else will invest more money or provide equipment in the education?"

Learning reflection of digital literacy

Here are my personal experiences:

Firstly, when I was teaching Chinese characters in the intermediate Mandarin class, students can speak Mandarin but they don't recognise Chinese characters, I was informed to use online resources to assist teaching in the class, and I needed to give the resources to them, in case them needed to review at home. Normally, I integrate online and textbook resources to create the handout. Because all the websites are Chinese-based; therefore, I needed to spend more time to teach them how to use the websites. I think before teachers or students dive into using technology in class, we should discuss why a digital literacy curriculum is necessary.

Secondly, when I was studying “Greek and Rome Mythology” in the university, my professor gave us a “Movie Project.”  We needed to choose one of the mythology and make short videos for the class. The group project requires that we perform sophisticated research (using both traditional and digital resources), incorporate a variety of media (image, video, sounds, etc), and use movie making software (moviemaker or iMovie) even though professor didn’t teach how to use them. Actually, new technology is not difficult to use because more and more people share the instructions with YouTube and online blogs, learners can easily teach themselves how to use them. Therefore, I believe promoting digital literacy is one of the ways to develop problem-solving skill.

Learning reflections and notes of 'what do we mean by education and technology'

What is education?

When I hear the term 'education,' I would probably say, "educators deliver their knowledge and students acquire new skills, knowledge from the educators." After reading the first chapter, I realise the before we talk about 'education,' we need to define 'learning' first. Therefore, learning and education cannot be discussed separately. Learning can be defined as a process of an individual's acquisition of new skills, or else new forms of knowledge and understanding. Moreover, Bloom's taxonomy which I have learnt from the pre-sessional is also one of the learning processes - that is, from the bottom 'remembering' to the top 'creating.' On the other hand, Bloom's Taxonomy can be categorised in three parts: (1) Cognitive domain (intellectual capability, ie., knowledge, or 'think'); (2) Affective domain (feelings, emotions and behaviour, ie., attitude, or 'feel'); (3) Psychomotor domain (manual and physical skills, ie., skills, or 'do'). Also, some researchers regard learning as a product.

As for education, I would think about schooling for the first expression. What we understand education is related to Roger's 'learning-conscious' or 'formalised'descriptions of learning - that is, learning is structured and often assessed and credentialised (Selwyn 2011, p 5). Simply to say, education can be divided into 'formal education' and 'informal education.'

The term 'formal education' includes:
(1) classroom-based learning, including distance education
(2) adult education institutions
(3) work-based training (adult formal education)
in other words, it is not only the schooling but also life-course

The term 'informal education' (Roger's notion of task-conscious) includes:
(1) not classroom-based
(2) work-based 'learning on the jobs'
(3) learning by interests, pursuits and hobbies outside of the workplace

Related info: according to the reading "Young people, new technologies and learning at home: taking context seriously," if you regard learning in the home as 'informal learning,' separating it from 'formal learning' (educational institution based), this simple distinction is misleading. The researchers argue that there are elements of 'informality' that can be occured inside the classroom just as there are strong elements of 'formality' that can occur in the home (Furlong, J. & Davies, C. 2012, p 52).

What is technology?

My first expressions of technology are 'electronic,' 'artificial' and 'hi-tech;' the purpose of it could be 'make people's life better.'

Different point of views:
(1) Volti (1992), technologies are developed and applied so that we can do things not otherwise possible, or so that we can do them cheaper, faster and easier.

(2) Nye suggests technologies are not just used to sustain forms of life but also to enhance  and improve existing forms of living. (Selwyn 2012, p. 7)

(3) Based on the origins of the word 'technology' in an ancient Greek 'technologia,' the Greek suffix '-logia' can be translated as the understanding of something, or as a branch of knowledge.

(4) Albert Teich (1997) indicates technology is more than just machines. Technology has referred to the processes and practices of doing things, understanding things and developing knowledge.

Overall, technology is not just tools that people use to do things better; most importantly, how people use them to achieve what they want and to achieve their goals.

One month later, reading is more and more interesting and easy to understand, which is good; however, unfortunately, more problems emerge. The major problem I want to talk about is keeping silence. As for me, it is not good to be silent in the class, and I do not want to keep silence at all.

Maybe I am narrow-minded; things I am interested in are language teaching and learning and how technology can improve students language learning after class. In other words, I know what I like and what I do not like. Hence, when we talk about something I am not interested in or I don't have any thought about it, the only thing I can do is sit there and listen to other students talking.

I cannot even swap one of the units with TESOL; feeling frustrated and disappoint anyway.

It is the third week of the whole postgraduate life. In these days, I have encountered a lot of learning difficulties which almost bring me down. Because of these difficulties, I started to question and doubt myself, should I choose other pathways? Maybe I should go to America; maybe I am too unintelligent to study the master degree, etc. Fortunately, I have kind and warm-hearted classmates and lecturers who have helped me a lot.

終於跑完所有的文件了，就等著Kiwibank的消息。