I'm not sure I should be posting because I have only just finished reading the TLRP-TEL 2008 Report and it has profoundly irritated me. Maybe I'm misreading it but it comes across as a sales pitch for educational software providers.
Some of the statements place the technology above or at least equal to the pedagogy in importance (For example: 'undertaking effective pedagogic design in virtual worlds involves recognising and selecting from the various offers of the particular application ...whilst bearing in mind the needs of the educational context..' Carr). This seems to me to be the wrong way round - if we design to fit the technology we take on board the assumptions and preferences of software designers (such as the idea that file structures are inevitable and necessary). This is a concern when none of the Web 2.0 technologies have been designed for education.
The report is also prone to sweeping statements unsuported by authority - the sort of thing that my students loose marks for. One example of this is the comment that there has been an increase in the 'sheer number of internet users' (with no reference to the time period of the increase in question or any reference). The UK statistics suggest that internet penetration has plateaued with no significant increase since 2004.
It also appears to accept the 'digital native' hypothesis without any real question - a brief nod to the doubters but no mention of the studies that suggest that only a relatively small percentage of students actually have the expertise and immersion in technologies that the authors appear to assume is universal.
Oh yes, and casual references to 'evolution' of technologies for education as if Web 2.0 were a natural, self regulating biological system instead of a nexus of commercial interests. There may be parallels but this analogy seems to conceal the social and political context.
Final grump -
Ways of developing ‘cultures of trust’ between learners and schools with regard to their use of technology should be encouraged. This could be achieved by allowing learners to negotiate the nature of their internet use in school
Have these guys ever been anywhere near an inner city secondary school?
The 'nature' of the internet use, if unrestricted, would be downloading hard core, playing games and on-line purchase of Viagra etc for re-sale. The rules are there for internet access for the same reasons that there are rules of class room conduct - if there were not there would be chaos dictated by the most disruptive.
Sorry - ranting but hopefully with some relevant points.
Vikki
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A parallel
Is there a theme here, have we put the cart before the horse entirely. Have we not also tailored education to fit the limited attention span and intellectuality of the lowest common denominator amongst our children's moods, rahter than inspiring them to excel in real terms, rather than on a basis of self-serving statistics?