Volume 4 - issue 2 2008

Vol. 8 - Issue 1 2012 - ISSN 1504-4831

Volume 4 - issue 2 - 2008

Guest editorial - Networked collaboration, sharing and response

This issue of Seminar.net contains three articles that were written in connection with a Norwegian e-learning conference titled “Networked collaboration, sharing and response”. The conference was held in Mars 2008 in Trondheim, and the presentations from the conference is available (in norwegian language) at http://www.nvu.no.
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Cooperative Online Education

Dr. Morten Flate Paulsen is Professor of Online Education at NITH and Director of Development at NKI Distance Education (www.nki.no) in Norway. In the article he presents his theory of “Cooperative learning”. The article describes how he developed a virtual learning environment that allows students to have optimal individual freedom within online learning communities. This article demonstrates that cooperative learning can be implemented successfully through a set of instruments or means. Paulsen reports positive results from surveys and experiences with cooperative learning, and relate these to issues like web 2.0, transparency, learning partners and individual progression plans.

(The cartoon used in Paulsen's presentation is also available here.)

"… it is a major challenge to guide pupils in a field they believe they master."

– student teachers on dealing with pupils' digital everyday

Carl F. Dons is an associate professor in pedagogy at Sør-Trøndelag University College, Department for Teacher and Interpreter Education. This article aims at answering the following research question: How can we prepare student teachers to deal with pupils who have a wide range of day-to-day experiences of the digital world? Dons argues that today's student-teacher training does not realize the potential for learning found in the rich media environments youth exist within. The article points out some perspectives on how the technological culture of children and young people should influence the professional training of student teachers. The article concludes by summarizing some findings from a research project in general teacher education, which demonstrates how this might be done.

Survival of the -net-est?

Experiences with electronic test tools – reduced teacher hours?

Dr. Kristin Dale is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Agder (UiA) in Norway. Her paper deals with methods for giving more feedback to students in order to improve educational quality. Given that individual feedback is a time-demanding task teachers might find electronic tools for assistance with student feedback helpful in order to reduce teacher workload. The article reports from dr. Dales experiences with electronic multiple – choice tests in giving mid-term feed-back to students in undergraduate studies. The aim of the article is that it will provide advice to teachers who consider using electronic test-tools.

Rune Krumsvik
University of Bergen
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

There is a need to develop a broader view of knowledge for dealing with the way in which new digital trends influence the underlying conditions for schools, pedagogy and subjects. This short commentary article, based on my paper at the NVU-conference 2008, will therefore highlight whether a broader view of knowledge - situated learning, digital literacy and the digital revolution can generate new ways of how we perceive pedagogy within the new educational reform in Norway in particular and the digitized school in general. The focus is particularly angled towards the implications this may have for developing new practises for teachers and students.

Article list vol 8. - issue 1

1. Thommy Eriksson & Inge Ejbye Sørensen - Reflections on academic video

2. Theo Hug - Storytelling – EDU: Educational - Digital – Unlimited?

3. Alexander Porshnev & Hartmut Giest - University Students’ Use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Russia: A Focus on Learning and Everyday Life *

4. Edda Johansen, Thomas Harding & Tone Marte Ljosaa - Norwegian Nurses’ Experiences with Blended Learning: An Evaluation Study

5. Heidi Philipsen - Scaffolded filmmaking in PlayOFF: A playground for worldwide film experiments

Call for papers

Seminar.net welcomes papers and reviews for upcoming issues, and you find guidelines for authors here. Our scope is to publish refereed articles dealing with research into theoretical or practical aspects related to the learning of adolescents, adults and elderly. A vital field of interest for seminar.net is the use of media technology in lifelong learning.

Digital Storytelling, Mediatized Stories: Self-Representations in New Media

Knut Lundby (red.)

Publisher: Peter Lang Publishing, New York, 2008.

Reviewed by
Jill Walker Rettberg
Associate Professor of Digital Culture
University of Bergen
http://jilltxt.net

We live in an age in which more and more of us are creating our own "digital stories". In 2008, 18% of Norwegian 16-24 year olds were recorded as being active bloggers over the previous three months (Statistics Norway, "ICT in households", 2^nd quarter 2008) while more than 2/3 of American teenagers have uploaded self-produced material to the Internet, in the form of YouTube videos, photographs, blogs, stories, remixes etc. (Pew Internet). The numbers of these "user-made" cultural productions are growing year by year and spreading from the younger generation to us adults, who are now the group most increasingly represented on Facebook. In blogs and on Facebook the distinction between amateur and professional is largely meaningless.

John Hartley and Kelly McWilliam (eds.)

Publisher: Malden, Mass.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009

Reviewed by
Birte Hatlehol
PhD student in Media Education
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Email: birthe.hatlehol@svt.ntnu.no

The anthology Story Circle is an international study of digital storytelling that discusses the phenomenon in a global context. The book contains 20 articles with contributions from a number of key specialists with wide-ranging experience in the field of DST.

Edited by Heidi Philipsen and Lars Qvortrup

Publisher: Samfundslitteratur Press: Frederiksberg Press, 2007.

Reviewed by
Stephen Dobson
Professor
Lillehammer University College
Email: stephen.dobson@hil.no

Introduction
Two questions can be asked: firstly, not do we need another book on remediation, but why? And secondly, if this is the case, what kind of book should it be? This review spirals around these questions.

Global perspectives on E-learning.

Rhetoric and reality by A. A. Carr-Chellman (Ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2005

Reviewed by

Dr. J. Ola Lindberg

Department of Education, Mid Sweden University
Email: Ola.Lindberg@miun.se

Dr. Anders D. Olofsson
Department of Education, Umeå University
Email: Anders.D.Olofsson@educ.umu.se

It seems suitable to begin this review by giving a brief description of the context in which the texts of this book are produced. If it fails to be regarded as a description, then we hope at least it can be regarded as one possible understanding of the context. When contextualizing a book, a good idea seems to be to start with a few words about the editor, Alison A. Carr-Chellman.

by George Lakoff, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006

Reviewed by
Geir Haugsbakk
Ph.D.-candidate in Education
Lillehammer University College

Email: Geir.Haugsbakk@hil.no

“To lose freedom is awful; to lose the idea of freedom is even worse.” This statement by George Lakoff is at the core of his attention in his last book. And his opinion is that the loss of the concept of freedom is a tragic incident that has struck a large part of the American people, not least since September 11, 2001.

Reviewed by Stephen Dobson, professor, Lillehammer University College.

7 years have passed since the publication of Jay Bolter and Richard Grusin’s Remediation. Understanding New Media (1999). It has already in the space of this short time attained the status of a classic.

Adult Learning in the Digital Age

Information Technology and the Learning Society by Selwyn, N., Gorard, S. and Furlong, J. London: Routledge, 2006.

Reviewed by Stephen Dobson, Senior lecturer in Education, Lillehammer University College, Norway.

Published by Routledge (London), 2003, p196.

Reviewed by Stephen Dobson, Senior lecturer in education, Lillehammer University College.