<div class="gmail_quote"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">Dear all:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">
I would like to add few more things to this conversation, basically point out some critical views about technology and education that could help us. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">I hope these sources allow us to analyse things from a different perspective. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">
Even if you are sceptical to those that provide the following results (EU, OECD), </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">I urge you to exchange ideas about the following question:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><i><span style="font-size:large">What if we are using thechnologies in the wrong way?</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><b><br></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">
<b><br></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><b><font color="#C0C0C0">[Source]</font><span style="font-weight:normal"> </span><a href="http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-programme/doc/sec2629.pdf" style="font-weight:normal" target="_blank">The use of </a><a href="http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-programme/doc/sec2629.pdf" style="font-weight:normal" target="_blank">ICT </a><a href="http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-programme/doc/sec2629.pdf" style="font-weight:normal" target="_blank">to support innovation and lifelong learning for all - A report on </a><a href="http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-programme/doc/sec2629.pdf" style="font-weight:normal" target="_blank">progress</a><span style="font-weight:normal">. </span></b>European Commission Staff Working Document (2008)<br>
<br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><b>“ </b>The <b>impact of ICT on education </b>and training has <b>not yet been as great as had been expected </b>despite wide political and social endorsement. In particular, the transformation of business and public services through <b>ICT has not yet reached teaching and learning processes...”</b><br>
<font color="#C0C0C0"><b><br></b></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><i><a href="http://ictlogy.net/bibciter/reports/contacts.php?idc=108" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-style:normal"><b><font color="#C0C0C0">[Source] </font></b></span>OECD</a> (2006). <a href="http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/28/4/35995145.pdf" target="_blank">Are Students Ready for a Technology-Rich World?: What PISA Studies Tell Us</a>. Paris: OECD.</i></p>
<ol start="1" type="1" style="margin-top:0cm"><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">Governments have pursued <b>policies to increase equity of access </b>to computers at school, while the <b>proportion</b> of homes with <b>computers has also grown</b>.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">The PISA evidence confirms previous studies showing the particularly <b>strong association of performance with home access and usage</b>.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">“[T]he key issue raised here is the comparatively <b>low performance among those without home computers</b>.”</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">
Only a <b>minority</b> of students reported frequent use of specific <b>educational software</b>....<br><font color="#C0C0C0"><b><br></b></font></li></ol><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">
<i><span style="font-style:normal"><i><span style="font-style:normal"><b><font color="#C0C0C0">[Source] </font></b></span>OECD (2008). <u><a href="http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/39/51/40554230.pdf" target="_blank">New Millennium Learners. Initial findings on the effects of digital technologies on school-age learners</a></u>. OECD/CERI.</i></span></i></p>
<ol start="1" type="1" style="margin-top:0cm"><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">In the school sector, the <b>rhythm of investments in technology</b>, intended to facilitate its adoption, has generally <b>been impressive </b>in OECD countries.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">“The <b>impact of computer </b>availability at <b>home</b> upon academic attainment is clearly higher, in most countries”.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">“A <b>second digital divide </b>emerges: it is no longer about access, but about <b>differences in use</b>”.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">
“Despite thousands of studies about the impact of technology use on student attainment [...] there is <b>no conclusive evidence </b>about the benefits of technology in school performance”.<br><font color="#C0C0C0"><b><br>
</b></font></li></ol><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><i><span style="font-style:normal"><i><span style="font-style:normal"><b><font color="#C0C0C0">[Source] </font></b></span></i></span>OECD (2010) <a href="http://browse.oecdbookshop.org/oecd/pdfs/browseit/9609101E.PDF" target="_blank">Educational Research and Innovation: Are the New Millennium Learners Making the Grade?: Technology Use and Educational Performance in PISA 2006</a>.</i></p>
<ol start="1" type="1" style="margin-top:0cm"><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">[PISA 2006].. one of the limitations of many educational ICT policies is that most countries have <b>not developed holistic policies</b> for educational use of ICT.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">There is evidence of a <b>second “digital divide” </b>emerging [...] between those students <b>who have the skills </b>to benefit from computer use and those <b>who don’t</b>. Although the data <b>do not prove a causal connection </b>between <b>familiarity with computers and performance</b>, they show that better-performing students are more familiar with computers.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><b>Frequency of computer use at home </b>makes more of a <b>difference</b> in <b>performance</b> on the PISA tests than <b>frequency</b> of computer use at <b>school</b>.</li>
</ol><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><i><span style="font-style:normal"><i><span style="font-style:normal"><b><font color="#C0C0C0">[Source]</font></b></span></i></span></i> Francesc Pedró. <a href="http://consortium.teach-advanced-online.org/file.php/1/resources/PISA_Technology_Use.pdf" target="_blank">Is technology use related to educational performance? Evidence from PISA</a> </p>
<ol start="1" type="1" style="margin-top:0cm"><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">One of ICT's main strengths is its capacity to <b>support informal learning. Self-learning </b>and informal peer-learning are by far the two most important mechanisms for obtaining skills and competences (EU, 2008).</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">Students using <b>computers at home </b>are likely to be more interested in ICT, have more scope for <b>experimental</b> and self-learning, and can search and <b>discover the resources </b>that are <b>best suited to their needs </b>(OECD, 2010).</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><b>ICT familiarity matters for educational performance</b>: higher performers have a lengthier experience of computer use, also <b>when accounted for ESCS differences </b>(OECD, 2010).</li>
</ol><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">Before end, please let me add two last questions</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">
<br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><b><font color="#000066">Don´t we need more evidence and less utopia?<br><span style="font-weight:normal"><em><b><span style="font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-style:normal">Are We Looking in the Wrong Place</span></b></em><span><span style="font-family:Arial, sans-serif">?</span></span></span> </font></b><br>
<font face="Arial, sans-serif"><b><br></b></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:36pt"><span style="font-family:Arial, sans-serif"><span>•<span> </span></span></span><b>ICT by itself shouldn´t<span> </span>be consider (anymore) a driving force in education</b>.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:36pt"><span style="font-family:Arial, sans-serif"><span>•<span> </span></span></span>The results show the need for more <b>micro-studies</b>.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:36pt"><span style="font-family:Arial, sans-serif"><span>•<span> </span></span></span>This call for <b>stronger links between school-works </b>and what students do at home.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><em><b><span style="font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:black;font-style:normal"><br></span></b></em></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">
<font color="#000099" face="Arial, sans-serif"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: 15px; "><em style="font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; ">We may need to learn how to:</em></span></b></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><b><br></b></p><ol start="1" type="1" style="margin-top:0cm">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">Raise <b>awareness</b> among educators, parents and policy makers of the consequences of increasing <b>ICT familiarity</b>.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">Identify and <b>foster</b> the <b>development</b> of 21st century <b>skills and competences </b>addressing<span> </span>the <b>second digital </b>divide.</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">Adopt <b>holistic approaches </b>to ICT in education.</li></ol><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">
I look forward to hearing from you</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">
Best</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">
Cristobal Cobo</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><a href="http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/people/?id=189">http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/people/?id=189</a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">
<br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">
<br></p><br><div class="gmail_quote">El 22 de octubre de 2010 15:45, Ismael Peña-López <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ictlogist@ictlogy.net" target="_blank">ictlogist@ictlogy.net</a>></span> escribió:<div><div></div>
<div class="h5"><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<p>Hi everyone,</p>
<p>Not all of you may not know me as I am relatively new to the list. My<br>name is Ismael Peña-López.<br>Many thanks to Trebor Scholz for inviting me to share my thoughts on<br>learning on the iDC!!</p>
<p>I am a lecturer at the Open University of Catalonia in Spain where I<br>work about the digital divide, specifically questions of empowerment. My<br>research asks how educational institutions change because of digital<br>
media.<br><a href="http://ictlogy.net/" target="_blank">http://ictlogy.net</a></p>
<p>Along those lines, I would like to introduce some topics on the<br>de-institutionalization of learning that have been enabled by ICTs. How<br>is this de-institutionalization being used to reach collectives that<br>dropped out of the educational system or actually never even entered it?</p>
<p>Some of my reflections will be based on the "2010 Horizon Report:<br>Iberoamerican Edition" (<a href="http://www.nmc.org/news/nmc/8050" target="_blank">http://www.nmc.org/news/nmc/8050</a>), which I<br>co-authored with Cristóbal Cobo (<a href="http://ergonomic.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">http://ergonomic.wordpress.com/</a>) and<br>
Diego Leal (<a href="http://www.diegoleal.org/" target="_blank">http://www.diegoleal.org/</a>) who will join me in this iDC<br>discussion.</p>
<p>Let's start like this:</p>
<p>In many places of the world (especially in rural areas and in lower<br>income countries, but not only) the educational system is deficient.<br>Today, many claim against the industrialization of education, the<br>"Fordization" of learning, the failure of one-size-fits-all, the<br>
devaluation of knowledge, or the creation of workers instead of<br>citizens.</p>
<p>But the truth is that, in most cases, the industrialization of education<br>democratized access to knowledge, even at the risk of a certain level of<br>commodification. The problem is that education, especially quality<br>
education is increasingly difficult to scale<br>(<a href="http://ictlogy.net/?p=3405" target="_blank">http://ictlogy.net/?p=3405</a>).</p>
<p>Notwithstanding, digitization of content and communications have caused<br>a dire "revolution" that is transforming our society into an Information<br>Society. This digital revolution has lowered the costs of creating,<br>
accessing and distributing knowledge-based goods and services, and has<br>also lowered the costs of interaction, intermediation and transaction.<br><a href="http://ictlogy.net/bibciter/reports/projects.php?idp=640" target="_blank">http://ictlogy.net/bibciter/reports/projects.php?idp=640</a><br>
<a href="http://ictlogy.net/bibciter/reports/projects.php?idp=1332" target="_blank">http://ictlogy.net/bibciter/reports/projects.php?idp=1332</a></p>
<p>Some find this revolution a threat to educational institutions -- it<br>will now be easier to circumvent them to access knowledge and experts<br>around the globe at lowest costs. Some think that it can be leveraged to<br>
reach the unreached, to bring education to those that, because of time,<br>space or financial constraints, could not attend formal education in an<br>educational institution (ie. schools, universities...).</p>
<p>Open educational resources allow for that quality content to reach<br>people everywhere in the world. The MIT's OpenCourseWare project has,<br>for instance, been replicated for the Spanish speaking community at<br>
Universia OCW (<a href="http://ocw.universia.net/" target="_blank">http://ocw.universia.net</a>), in Chinese by CORE<br>(<a href="http://www.core.org.cn/cn/opencou/" target="_blank">http://www.core.org.cn/cn/opencou/</a>), in Japanese by the Japan OCW<br>
Consortium (<a href="http://www.jocw.jp/" target="_blank">http://www.jocw.jp/</a>) or the ParisTech OpenCourseWare project<br>for French.</p>
<p>The good news is that not only institutions can produce such materials<br>as Khan Academy has shown.<br><a href="http://www.khanacademy.org/" target="_blank">http://www.khanacademy.org</a></p>
<p>Mobility solutions have also enabled people to learn anywhere anytime<br>and with the most simple devices. The Tecnológico de Monterrey or the<br>Open of Catalonia are mobile devices. And cellphones (mind you: not<br>
smartphones) are being used<br>for many learning purposes and stand for mobile and immersive learning<br>for literacy in emerging economies (ie. Sub-Saharan Africa).<br><a href="http://www.ccm.itesm.mx/tecmovil/" target="_blank">http://www.ccm.itesm.mx/tecmovil/</a><br>
<a href="http://myway.blogs.uoc.edu/" target="_blank">http://myway.blogs.uoc.edu/</a><br>MILLEE <a href="http://www.millee.org/" target="_blank">http://www.millee.org/</a><br><a href="http://ictlogy.net/?p=3556" target="_blank">http://ictlogy.net/?p=3556</a></p>
<p>The m4lit project in South Africa Kenya is also worth mentioning<br>(<a href="http://m4lit.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">http://m4lit.wordpress.com</a>).</p>
<p>Peer to peer learning has been definitely boosted by the Internet, that<br>has been able to create communities of practice and communities of<br>learning despite their members being scattered on wide geographic areas.<br>
Red Social UIMP 2.0 (<a href="http://redsocial.uimp20.es/" target="_blank">http://redsocial.uimp20.es/</a>) to explore the new<br>potentials of ICTs in Education in SpainSpanish speaking countries, Stephen Downes' page (<a href="http://www.downes.ca/" target="_blank">http://www.downes.ca</a>)<br>
on education, based in Canada but with participants all over the world,<br>or the community around Uruguay's Plan Ceibal<br>(<a href="http://www.ceibal.edu.uy/" target="_blank">http://www.ceibal.edu.uy/</a>) are just some examples of social networks<br>
empowered by ICTs.</p>
<p>Even autonomous learning has its chance after the development of<br>Personal Learning Environments, a combination of the aforementioned<br>approaches centered on and managed by the learner.<br><a href="http://ictlogy.net/bibciter/reports/projects_list.php?filter_tag_project=ple" target="_blank">http://ictlogy.net/bibciter/reports/projects_list.php?filter_tag_project=ple</a></p>
<p>And augmented reality, artificial intelligence and the semantic web<br>will, in a near future, add up to the toolbox learners can use outside<br>of educational institutions for their own benefit and learning.</p>
<p>There are, of course, some dichotomies that need being addressed but the<br>gates are wide open and the possibilities many.<br><a href="http://ictlogy.net/?p=3430" target="_blank">http://ictlogy.net/?p=3430</a></p>
<p>best,<br>Ismael</p>
<p>-- <br>Ismael Peña-López<br>Department of Law and Political Science<br>Open University of Catalonia</p>
<p><a href="http://ictlogy.net/" target="_blank">http://ictlogy.net</a><br>Av. Tibidabo 39-43<br>08035 Barcelona</p>
</blockquote></div></div></div><br><br clear="all"><div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>-- <br>Cristóbal Cobo [PhD]<br><a href="http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk" target="_blank"><font color="#666666"><font face="'courier new', monospace">http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk</font></font></a><font color="#666666"><font face="'courier new', monospace"><br>
</font></font><a href="http://grou.ps/knetworks" target="_blank"><font color="#666666"><font face="'courier new', monospace">http://grou.ps/knetworks</font></font></a><br>
</div></div></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Cristóbal Cobo [PhD]<br><a href="http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk" target="_blank"><font color="#666666"><font face="'courier new', monospace">http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk</font></font></a><font color="#666666"><font face="'courier new', monospace"><br>
</font></font><a href="http://grou.ps/knetworks" target="_blank"><font color="#666666"><font face="'courier new', monospace">http://grou.ps/knetworks</font></font></a><br>