[this text is under continuous reconstruction]
→ Aims of ICTs in Education
The desirability of ICT use in education is largely taken for granted in Norway and many other countries. Yet, aims are rarely discussed beyond the instrumental. This project resarches aims for ICT use in education and methodology for working with aims beyond increased use.
An aim of this part of the project is to contribute to discussions among teachers, young students, parents, legislators, etc by engaging points of view at a level of the greater purposes of eduction. Thus, for example, one paper (Beck & Jamissen 2011) presents work we did with 30 schools to ensure teachers got to reflect over changes resulting from their increased use of ICTs with the young students. Thus we insisted that such semi-structured and open-ended, inter-collegial discussion on evolving practices were and remain a key aspect of increasing ICT use. (For examples of the kinds of challenges faced by Primary and Secondary Education teachers in the earlier stages, see working papers Øgrim & Beck 2004 and Beck & Øgrim 2005. For challenges faced by Higher Education when social aims are not included with computing courses, see example in Beck et al, forthcoming/2015.)
Collaborators and co-authors:
The project is partly done by Eevi on her own, partly in collaboration with some experienced researchers-cum-practitioners of ICT in teacher education at Oslo and Akershus Univ. College (HiOA); currently Prof Leikny Øgrim. Previously also Grete Jamissen, Monica Johannesen (PhD co-supervision), and Laurence Habib. The collaborators are not responsible for each other's points of view.
Publications and conference presentations include (see list below for details and links; here they are ):
To help accessibility, the following collects publications and papers relating to this topic. The information is extracted from the complete list of publications on the main page, where they are ordered differently. For the full bibliographical details and links to downloadable versions where available, see main page list.
- Facilitating teachers' collective, critical reflection on ICT use (Beck & Jamissen: journal paper 2011)
- 'Bruke, forstå, forandre' (Beck & Øgrim: book chapter on aims of young student use of ICT, 2009/10)
- 'Computers in Education - What For?' (Beck: journal paper 2011)
- 'Teknologier i samfunnet: Hvordan kan utdanning styrke kritisk bevissthet' (Beck: journal paper on the need for education to strengthen critical awareness of technologies, 2006)
- (Beck & Øgrim: conf. presentation 2005)
- (Beck, Øgrim & Sandvik: conf. presentation 2005)
- (Øgrim & Beck: conf. presentation 2004)
Other dissemination ('formidling') by Beck includes:
- live group interview for TV news magazine (NRK Aktuelt 27th Oct 2014)
- interview for TV news magazine (NRK ), on computer use among the young
- interviewed for Steinerskolen magazine (twice)
- memo for newsletters (Utdanningsforbundet, Steinerskolen)
→ Can technologies have a 'moral order' or are they neutral?
Can we speak of a 'moral order' of Information and communication technologies (ICTs)? This project explores discussions (or lack therof) about the development, deployment, and use of ICTs in education, in particular some of the underlying ideas about social life. Ideas about ICTs in education and in society are in this aspect of the project viewed as co-constitutive of the role certain technologies get to play, and of society. The approach combines critical studies of science and technology and awareness of silenced voices: Whose views get to dominate?
This aspect of the research project underlies and motivates much of the work, and has been touched in some of the publications listed above.
→ Fields drawn on include:
Critical (in the positive sense) computing is not an established category of research within Education Sciences, Computer Science, or the Sociology of Science and Technology, though it draws on all three. The following indicates some of the influences (keywords relate to interests of other colleagues):
- Learning, in particular experiential learning within higher education and among scientists
- Learning Cultures (technology related) of teachers and students
- Emancipatory reflection, participatory approaches, and critiques of these
- Curriculum (technology related)
- Organisational Learning about technology among teachers in school and in Higher Education (thus relating to School Development)
- Critical studies of LMS's (Learning Management Systems/Virtual Learning Environments) and distance education
- Normative questions in education, such as why use computers in school
- Limitations of "scientific" approaches (incl areas where systematic and improvisational ways of coming to know interlace)
Theories drawn on include:
- Emancipatory/"critical" approaches to education and to Computer Science (known as Participatory Design)
- Gender theory, specifically feminist analyses of technology in society and of scientific knowledge
- Sociology of Technology, Social Studies of Science.
- Theories of the Information Society