Key Competencies in the Knowledge Society

This paper reports on an investigation of the use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) to aid in the teaching of students with learning disabilities. The term ’learning difficulties’ is used in reference to a heterogeneous group of students who are seen to have significant difficulties in the acquisition of literacy and numeracy skills. Other terms sometimes used in this context are ’learning disabilities’ and ’special needs’. The study involved participant observation of the use of ICT in two outer suburban Melbourne Special Schools, and an investigation of the role and impact of Education Department policies on these school environments. Research at the two Special Schools revealed that use of ICT can have a very beneficial impact on these students by improving their self esteem and facilitating their acquisition of useful life skills. The study was framed by the use of actor-network theory.

Characteristics such as interactivity, mobility, reaching a higher number of people, learning in real contexts, among others, are considered advantages of using mobile devices in education. M-learning (mobile learning) can favor learning, not only in distance learning, but also in face to face and blended learning. This paper particularly focuses on mathematical learning, considering it can benefit from m-learning potential in several educational modalities. However, this requires structured actions and, in this sense, development of pedagogical models is important. Such models serve as base for the knowledge building process through organized actions, with defined objectives and established strategies to reach them. Within this context, this paper presents a pedagogical model that was built and applied in a pilot study for mathematical learning using Graph2Go in college students.

This paper reports the training of 56 Teachers in ICT and Education Course. This course included one week face-to-face and seven weeks in distance learning. Students developed several ICT competencies during theses weeks, reporting its use in their classes. A characterization of the subjects’ digital literacy is presented, as well as their participation in chat sessions and in the forum, which were not mandatory but highly recommended. The majority of students did not participate in the synchronous and asynchronous communication facilities. However, those that participated in the chat sessions and forum debates completed all tasks and assignments. The students recognized the importance of learning about ICT and how it changed their teaching methods.

This paper presents a recommender system for learning objects which uses a collaborative filtering mechanism based on competencies. The model enables students to receive recommendations of learning objects automatically, according to students’ interests but also according to competencies that have to be developed. The prototype implemented was able to recommend relevant contents to students, aiming at helping them in the development of competencies. The paper also presents a couple of experiments showing that the recommender system has a good level of accuracy for the suggestions made.

The author worked for some years as a coordinator, methodology consultant and supervisor of teaching practice of ICT student teachers at the Faculty of Education in Prague. In her paper she summarizes experiences and data collected by questionnaires during years 2004-2008 by student teachers within their teaching practice on subjects related to Computer Science, Informatics and ICT Education in Czech Basic and Secondary Schools. The results came out of evaluative questionnaires and comments published in on-line support. A video-record will form a part of the paper presentation.

This paper reports on a study of the IT career interests of 263 South African university students. Drawing primarily on social cognitive career theory, a number of variables were selected and their effects on student intentions to pursue an IT career and choice of major were examined. Results revealed very low IT career intentions amongst students. Occupational self-efficacy, computing experience, computer anxiety, computer self-efficacy, and perceived career rewards were found to be important factors. Student perceptions of the core introductory IS course are also strongly linked to their intentions. Demography (gender and race) had mostly indirect effects.

For classes in informatics it gets more and more important to develop a sustainable curriculum because computer technology and its related items are subject to frequent changes. This leads to the problem that the content of informatics courses suffers from fast decay time. And to make things worse: What we are teaching our pupils and students is far from sustainable knowledge. The scientific community has reacted on that by developing concepts like ”key skills” and ”competencies”. But what does this mean for a teacher or lecturer? How can those skills be acquired by courses? In which way has the course to be constructed to meet these means? This paper discusses the relationship between educational standards in informatics and the development of teaching units to meet them. The concept of ”context” will be introduced and used to show a way to plan courses by a context related approach on the one hand and to give an idea on how to find a different way to develop educational standards, how to improve and how to evaluate them on the other hand.

”Key competencies”, "key skills" and ”key qualifications” are buzz-words so prominently featured in contemporary scientific treatises that discussions have been prompted about an inflationary use of the terms and what they really should be taken to mean. A similar situation exists in the field of ICT and CS education: What meaning should we ascribe to terms such as ”skill”, ”competency” and ”qualification” and what should be taught as ”basic information technology”? These questions merit a closer look, especially since the idea of teaching competencies received a new updraft in Europe by the Bologna-Declaration, and the teaching of basic ICT and / or CS skills is still a difficult issue in the educational sciences. This paper wants to provide insight into the discussion on skills in Anglo-American and German scientific research and wants to act as a call for more clarity in definitions and concepts regarding IT skills.

Real world problems are complex and therefore between and beyond disciplines. To solve them requires expertise across several disciplines. This paper argues that we need to teach students transdisciplinary collaboration as a competency demanded in future work places. We describe two learning strategies, ”breadth-first” and ”Long Tail”, to help develop these competencies in graduate students. An implementation of these strategies in a computer science course with 48 graduate students from various disciplines is described. Finally, implications and future opportunities of our approach are discussed.

The use of microblogging applications (especially Twitter) is becoming increasingly commonplace in a variety of settings. Today, active conference participants can post messages on microblogging platforms to exchange information quickly and in real-time. Recent research work was based on quantitative analyses in terms of the number of tweets or active Twitter users within a specific time period. In this paper, we examine the content of the contributions and aim to analyze how useful posts are for the “listening” Internet auditorium. It can be shown that only a few microblogs are of interest for non-participants of the specific event and that meaningful usage of a microblogging application requires greater care than previously anticipated.

Since the emergence of computers in schools during the 1980’s, there have been considerable developments by education systems and schools to develop policies and expectations for the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to enhance learning and teaching. These have not always translated into practice, which has resulted in a focus on the need for improvements in preservice teacher education programs and professional development of practising teachers. This paper starts from the premise that most teacher education have been constrained by using Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) developed by Shulman [1] [2] prior to the dynamic technological changes enabled by the Internet. The authors present the case for the importance of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) [3] [4]. Subsequently, the paper provides guidance for auditing the TPACK capabilities of teacher education students through the presentation of an instrument developed, and provides a summary of some of the findings of a study undertaken using that instrument.

Over three years students at the University of Tasmania have participated in eExaminations where they have responded to examination questions using computers. Over these three years they have made the transition from using institutional computers in laboratories to using personally owned laptops in a traditional examination hall. This innovation and transition have been paralleled and enabled by the development of a modified live operating system which preserves the fairness of the assessment process. The technical developments depended upon social innovation engineering efforts necessitated by the range of adopters amongst students and faculty. National recognition was achieved for this method which is being adopted more widely worldwide. The technical materials are available for download from www.eExams.org.

Lifelong Learning (LLL) is the key concept of European Union (EU) and European Commission (EC) recommends Promoting Access and Participation in Lifelong Learning for All starting with 1996 European year of LLL and continuing with Feira (2000) and Lisbon (2000) European Council proceedings. With these principles in mind, the project Lifelong Learning for Active Citizenship and Capacity Building (LLLab) sets out to make the knowledge triangle (education, research and innovation) accessible to employed people to promote the concept to wider audiences and to build capacity of the employed in order for them to better respond to the new challenges of the EU standards in a developing intercultural knowledge-based society. LLLab is aimed to develop a culture of learning in the partner organizations to obtain a rise in skills levels, better employability, social inclusion, active citizenship and personal development which in the end will inevitably mean sustainable development of the European society.

The New National Curriculum in Norway from 2006 recommends that teachers and students acquire a high degree of digital literacy in school education. One way to foster digital literacy is to train teachers to design and critically evaluate digital learning resources (DLRs). However, little research has been done as to which design principles and evaluation criteria are suitable for DLRs. This work proposes a theoretical framework, along with a case study, for designing and evaluating DLRs. The article draws on research in learning theory, pedagogical usability criteria, and context of use. The paper reports on the implications of the framework for the design and evaluation of DLRs.

First programming courses often fail to motivate students to continue their software studies. Students find it hard to acquire the logic of computer programming. Especially students in multicultural, heterogeneous student groups are unable to apply logical thinking consistently or to follow instructions in a systematic fashion. Transfer of thinking skills from mathematics to programming does not take place as expected. Efforts to describe the thinking process in program authoring have failed, and process of problem solving in program design remains as evasive as heuristic processes in general. Evidently, it is based on accumulated expert knowledge that is not easily describable. Programming is an independent domain of expert knowledge that requires systematic practice and self-monitoring in construction of appropriate mental patterns.

Digital natives demand a more active approach to learning. Moreover, the acquisition and assessment of competencies, rather than the mere transmission of information, is becoming more relevant in the Knowledge Society. 3D virtual worlds are a promising environment to meet both of these requirements. In a 3D virtual world, learners are immersed in a rich environment that allows them to have an active experience through their avatars and interaction devices. The learning process in traditional learning management systems has been widely studied, but there is relatively little literature about the use of 3D virtual worlds for learning, although the expectations are high and the possibilities opened immense. This paper focuses on an important part of the teaching and learning process: the assessment. Our aim is to present a set of techniques adapted to this novel 3D medium that allows assessing knowledge, skills, and competencies by using the elements inherent to 3D virtual worlds (avatars, synthetic characters, smart objects) and take advantage of the new dimension introduced.

The International Professional Practice Partnership (IP3) was formed by the International Federation for Information processing (IFIP) in 2007 to fulfill the objective of creating a global ICT profession. This start of this programme were first presented at WCC 2008 in Milan and since then major advances have taken place – both in the collective understanding of the endeavour and also measured by actual achievements. This paper will contextualise the progress of IP3 by examining: why an ICT profession is needed and why it should be on a global basis; and the progress made by IP3 in establishing a global ICT profession.

This paper uses an hypothetical scenario to report on the use of ICT to enable students with a chronic illness to partly overcome prolonged absence for school. The focus is on the responses of teachers when one of their students can no longer attend school regularly as a consequence of a serious illness, but wants to continue their education. The special education needs of students participating in the Link ’n Learn project result from a desire to continue studying while absent from school for prolonged periods. It appears that this desire for continuity is misunderstood by many adults, including teachers. Discussion is centred around a hypothetical case study of two teachers as they work with students absent for an extended period.

Dynamic development of information & communication technologies determines the changes, which more and more often are taking place in all spheres of life of a contemporary human being, forcing him to lifelong learning process, which will allow him to acquire and develop social and professional competence, but first and foremost the most important ones – key competence. Synchronous and asynchronous tools of digital communication stimulate the globalization of processes and services, making people independent from time and place and Internet sources of dispersed and diversified in form information force into responsible autonomy. The following text tries to answer the questions: Does contemporary education take into consideration these determinants and needs of contemporary society? How should a didactic process look like so that university graduates can be prepared to responsible and creative social and professional activity?

There are a few hints (e.g. PISA) that today’s’ German school system could be improved to prepare students for their future (professional) lives in an adequate way. To meet the requirements of today’s society, education has to change to become a life-long learning process. E-Learning provides opportunities for this purpose. In this paper two studies at the University of Education Weingarten are presented, which investigate the impact of wikis and weblogs on students’ learning processes. While the first one investigates the impact of weblogs on students’ motivation and reflection processes, the second one concentrates on collaboration and knowledge sharing by utilizing wikis for mathematical projects.

People are living in a fast changing world today in both their business and personal lives. With the rate of change in technology continuing at Gordon Moore’s 1965 predictions [1], what competencies are needed to take full advantage of today’s Knowledge Society? The EU has recognised the need for digital literacy and has included this in the definition of eInclusion [2]. This paper defines digital literacy as a competence which is vital for all citizens, examines the changing definitions of digital literacy, looks at what the certification bodies are saying and proposes the competencies which are required and which define digital literacy today.

This article presents the results of two case studies undertaken within the project MoKoM funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). In this context, expert interviews were conducted in order to identify relevant competencies empirically concerning informatics comprehension and modelling. The interviews (N = 30) were based on typical scenarios of this domain and were conducted with different expert groups (experts of informatics, experts of didactics of informatics, expert informatics teachers). The goal of the interview analyses was to exemplarily examine the competence descriptions given by the different experts with regard to the categories of a theoretically derived competence model. The competence descriptions were also compared with reference to the different expert domains. Furthermore it was tried to identify recurring response patterns in the interviews with reference to the experts’ background.

This paper examines elements from Piaget’s and Scherer’s theories that are able to offer subsidies for the specification of the affective aspects involved in Virtual Learning Environments (VLE). The affective dimension is characterized by the moods manifested during interactions in virtual space by affective portion of psychological subject. To figure moods out is a way to personalize the pedagogical activities and to understand the student’s actions and competence.

This paper discusses learning under uncertainty

;

starting from a vision of how to support systems working within information systems, helping decision-making under uncertainty. The first results show the concept of learning under uncertainty. Then a change for a qualitative research approach was taken using Grounded Theory Methodology. The results are presented in a framework that represents a basic theory of learning under uncertainty process. This framework presents learning under uncertainty throw a tacit and operational learner capacities and a cognitive and impact on the learner. It also shows how uncertainty is sensed in order to start the learning process. Learning under uncertainty could be summarized through the use of a human approach, dialogue and interaction within social-actors in the uncertain context.

In this paper we describe pedagogic scenarios where the use of a video annotation tool could be of added value to the students’ overall learning process. Furthermore, we introduce ViLM, a platform-independent tool for annotating videos collaboratively or on its own and how we integrated the tool in our university’s LMS. Finally, we characterise potential research opportunities and learning scenarios where the tool may successfully be applied.

To meet the needs of contemporary society it is crucial that instructors strive to find and employ methodologies that enhance active learning. This paper presents a blended-learning model based on the Cognitive Flexibility Theory, called ”Multiple Perspectives Model”, and describes students’ reactions to its application in a course module of the undergraduate programme in Human Resources Management and Organizational Behaviour offered by the Management School of the Polytechnic Institute of Tomar.

The Short Message Service (SMS) technology is one of the most powerful mobile technologies in current usage. Most students own a mobile phone with free SMS which can be used for learning. In this paper we explain how we used SMS for teaching and learning languages (both native and foreign). The conducted experiment presented a range of opportunities for integrating text into teaching and learning strategies and for demystifying the use of SMS in educational contexts. Via SMS technology we can deliver several learning activities to students easily and immediately. The research findings showed that students had positive perceptions about the experiment and SMS use for learning improvement and the use of their own mobile phone as a learning tool. All groups showed interest in receiving educational content via SMS. Some students greatly improved their language learning performance.

Older adults are under increasing pressure to use information technologies, yet are reluctant to learn computer software due to difficulties with ways of teaching such skills. This paper argues that examining tutoring techniques in a community computer training centre is useful to discovering why they will persist with learning. Using a Grounded Theory study design, the theory that emerged that accounted for continuance was the tutoring practices and the relationships that were built between tutor and learner. Examples from the data are presented to support the findings that link certain ways of practicing computer tutoring with repeat lesson attendance. This paper contributes to understanding the types of tutoring practices that can encourage older learners to continue the learning journey in later life. In turn, this assists with overcoming the digital divide older learners not skilled in computer use experience and allows them to participate in an increasing technologically driven society.

The paradigm shift towards competency-based education in the Netherlands has a logical counterpart: the need for more flexibility in the curricula. After all, in competency-based education it is recognized that learning not only takes place in designated places (school, university), but may happen every time when the learner is confronted with a challenge. This observation leads to the necessity to incorporate the learning outcomes of formal and informal education in one curriculum. As a result, the educational process becomes more complex and must be better structured to control the individual learning outcomes.

In this paper we discuss this paradox: how more flexibility in the program creates the need for more control in the process. We also discuss what kind of IT-tools are helpful in controlling flexibility in curricula for higher professional education.

This paper describes a joint effort by two educational and scientific institutes, the HU University of Applied Sciences and Utrecht University, in designing a BPM course that not only transfers theoretical knowledge but lets students also experience real life BPM-systems and implementation issues. We also describe the implementation of the developed module with an indication of its success: it is now running for the fifth time, and although there continue to be points for improvement, over the years several scientific papers in the BPM domain resulted from the course, as well as a reasonable amount of students started their final thesis project in the BPM-domain.

Share everything.

Play fair.

Don’t hit people.

Put things back where you found them.

Clean up your own mess.

Don’t take things that aren’t yours.

Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.

Wash your hands before you eat.

Flush.

Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.

Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.

Take a nap every afternoon.

When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.

Be aware of wonder.

The use of computers in music education is investigated from a historical perspective that draws parallels to the use of computers in education generally. Drawing upon a study into the musical compositions of primary school children working in electronic environments this paper presents approaches to the use of ICT in music education that appear at odds with approaches in other education areas. The paper provides reasons for this and offers ways in which ICT can be used differently in music education research.

A possible strategy for training researchers is to provide integrated research cores with researchers-in-training under the guidance of a senior trained researcher. Information technology and communication have enabled the construction of virtual communities formed by individuals who may be far away physically but who are cognitively close, hence giving rise to collaborative research training models. In this context, this paper formulates an approach to identify the elements of the work space of a research group devoted to research training and to assess the technological feasibility of virtualization of such elements.

This paper shows a basic discussion about the human development process described under the context of the postmodern knowledge society of the 21st Century. The author presents the concept of ”the cycle of human development”, which is believed to offer the basis of informatics education. In accordance with that, the presumptions of the pedagogical design of informatics education and its essential contents are also proposed.

The Input aims to show the implications of Cloud Computing for learning and working and will discuss how schools’ ICT concepts and media competences might look like. But local, affordable solutions will be considered as well. Particularly in the absence of the financial means necessary to purchase expensive hardware and networks, local solutions could be favoured. For these purposes the School for Teacher Education at the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland has developed the ”Lernstick”.

State-of-the-art learning management systems provide their stake-holders with many features coming from Web 2.0 paradigm, but often ignore the need for personalization and adaptation during the learning. More, learning activities are often fragmented – a student needs to make a decision whether he or she wants to take questions or read explanatory materials. In addition, majority of current solutions do not provide a truly interactive environment, where students are allowed to participate in content creation and maintenance. In this paper, we address these issues by proposing and developing a framework for Adaptive Web-based Learning 2.0. We describe basic requirements for such a framework and provide an overview of all its important underlying models and functionality.

Today’s digital era, dynamic teaching and learning in higher education has moved from traditional class room, face-to face learning environments to more interactive and collaborative environments, due to a demand for online-distance learning from students, and the desire from academic institutes to promote and deliver courses across the globe. Advancement in open source virtual learning platforms technology, enables the development of flexible online learning environments to exist that can be accessed anywhere, anytime and in anyplace by students, hence enabling academics and academic institutes to teach and increase their market across the globe. Authors of this paper had the opportunity to work on the design and development of a flexible virtual learning environment within the dentistry sector part of the IVIDENT (virtual dental school) UK Higher Education Funding Council project at Kings College London. This paper will focus on the design and the development of virtual learning environment for the IVIDENT project, using advanced technological open source virtual world platforms.

While demands for large scale improvements in education systems increase worldwide, education system structures continuously fail to meet, or even make notable advancements, toward these demands. Inseparable from this problem is the very similar way in which education systems are managed. Educational managerial structures have become so universal, perpetual, and therefore, deeply ingrained in society, that they remain almost entirely unchallenged; this encourages the misleading, nearly unquestioned assumption that managers are not responsible for educational failures and that teachers are at fault. This paper argues that the core of most educational problems lie within current educational management structures. It calls for a complete rethinking and rebuilding of such structures in order to aid educational systems in reaching their full potential, therefore helping students within these systems fully develop 21

st

century skills and meet future global challenges.

This paper describes a research evidence-based practice model, TSOI Hybrid Learning Model as a viable alternative to support productive integration of Web 2.0-mediated collaboration for learning. The model is advanced from the Science learning cycle and the Kolb’s experiential learning cycle. An authentic example on understanding multimedia learning pedagogy for pre-service teachers in chemistry education is illustrated. The model guides the learning design involving Web 2.0-mediated collaborative activities. Outcomes in terms of richness of collaborative learning and reflections have been positive. Implications will be discussed in the context of blended learning in science education.

Organizational end-user information security end-user education is becoming increasingly more important in the current

information society

. Without the active co-operation of

knowledgeable

employees, organizations cannot effectively protect their valuable information resources. Most current information security educational programs lack a theoretical basis. This paper briefly examines the use of Bloom’s learning taxonomy to help address this lack of theoretical basis. The paper further investigates the applicability of the Cisco Networking Academy Program’s (CNAP) instructional model for the delivery of end-user information security instructional content, planned with the assistance of Bloom’s taxonomy.

This paper reports on one strand of a PhD study that examines newly qualified teachers’ use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) to support teaching and learning in Scottish primary classrooms during the first two years of their career. Preliminary data analysis indicates that some of the new teachers are creative, innovative users of new technologies who have embedded ICT effectively into their classroom practice while others remain reluctant users. This paper looks at some of the factors that differentiate the creative from the reluctant. Three levels of influence are discussed, and the interactions between them. They are the national/authority level, the school level and the individual or personal level. Some necessary, although not in themselves sufficient, conditions for creative use of ICT are identified as well as some desirable ones.

In recent years, mobility has become one of the most important goals inside the European Union (EU). Different projects and programs support the mobility of students, teachers and other employed persons. From program to program and project to project, goals are different. Through employment, companies have the need for different experts or the need to work with international teams. They can also offer jobs for placements and for young experts for their first employment (like the Leonardo da Vinci program), while for students and teachers, the main goals of mobility are learning and teaching in different environments (like the Erasmus program) as well as learning languages and benefiting from cross-cultural experiences. Both students and teachers come from different cultural environments and the host organisation has to take care of intercultural awareness in all levels of activities, from administration up to teaching and passing exams.

In this paper we discuss the role of new technologies, and computers in particular, in lives of families in Australia. We report on part of a project that provided children families with computers and connection to the Internet. There is an increasing awareness that living in the 21st century involves using and interacting with a range of new technologies, also referred to as information and communications technologies (ICT). However, for many children and their families this is not possible because they do not have the capacity to purchase them. The Tech Packs Project (The Smith Family, 2007) grew out of the Computer for Every Child Project which was an attempt to start to bridge the ‘digital divide’ by providing computers so that a group of families in the targeted locations of large metropolitan cities could participate in the Information Age. The families involved were those whose personal resources did not afford them the opportunity to purchase new technologies, especially computers We surveyed the families members to determine the extent of their use of any technologies before and after receiving the computer and initiated focus groups to find out the ways in which having a computer created contexts for them to become more proficient in the use of ICT In this paper we will present the findings from both the survey and focus group data that we have collected.

Students in primary schools have been asked to construct both written and multimodal texts for assessment purposes for many years. However these texts have been created on paper usually as individual project. This paper reports on a multiliteracies project involving students collaboratively creating a multimodal information report using the affordances of a wiki. Students found the experience very rewarding, rating the change to the process of learning, the content (Antarctica) and the use of technology as the best aspects. Working with wikis provided the opportunity for students to engage with 21

st

century literacy practices. It also provided a space in the classroom to trial changes to a conventional pedagogy, curriculum and assessment practices.