Snapchat 'selfies': The case of disappearing data
Little has been written about the impact of ephemeral messaging technologies such as Snapchat, Wickr and iDelete on learner identities. The authors explore how disappearing social media may enable young people to take up a range of discourses and demonstrate discursive agency in ways that support social mobility through shifting relationships with their peers. Much of this unfolds through the transmission of digital images that promote social flexibility. The visibility, of seeing and being seen, demonstrates a Foucauldian 'gaze' where power plays out through the capacity to be visible and recognisable to others and specific practices (e.g. selfies) become normalised. Social media technologies furnish emergent spaces for underlife activity that foster this gaze. Taking up the Foucault's concept of subjectivities as discursively constituted identity categories, the authors explore the relationship between disappearing media and youth identities.
Funds of Identity in Education: Acknowledging the Life Experiences of First Year Tertiary Students
Teacher education students bring diverse funds of knowledge to formal education. These funds of knowledge are particularly important for the successful transition of first year tertiary students into higher education. In preservice teacher education contexts, students draw knowledge from varied life contexts and their funds of knowledge become funds of identity when experiences associated with onto-epistemologies are used in the service of identity formation. This descriptive case study draws data from an online first year preservice teacher education unit (subject) to consider examples of funds of identity that can inform the work of practitioners in developing significant and contextualized learning experiences. Students' prior schooling experiences give meaning to their teacher education coursework and project potential teacher identities.
How are Australian higher education institutions contributing to change through innovative teaching and learning in virtual worlds?
Over the past decade, teaching and learning in virtual worlds has been at the forefront of many higher education institutions around the world. The DEHub Virtual Worlds Working Group (VWWG) consisting of Australian and New Zealand higher education academics was formed in 2009. These educators are investigating the role that virtual worlds play in the future of education and actively changing the direction of their own teaching practice and curricula. 47 academics reporting on 28 Australian higher education institutions present an overview of how they have changed directions through the effective use of virtual worlds for diverse teaching and learning activities such as business scenarios and virtual excursions, role-play simulations, experimentation and language development. The case studies offer insights into the ways in which institutions are continuing to change directions in their teaching to meet changing demands for innovative teaching, learning and research in virtual worlds. This paper highlights the ways in which the authors are using virtual worlds to create opportunities for rich, immersive and authentic activities that would be difficult or not possible to achieve through more traditional approaches.
Hands across the Ether: Preparing External Students for Professional Experience
Professional experience can be an emotional time for any pre-service teacher. For distance education students, the natural tension of working in an unfamiliar setting is exacerbated by the "tyranny of distance": they find their own placement, have rarely had face-to-face contact with any university personnel, are often without a peer support group, and have not had the advantage of preparatory lectures at university. In 2008, the Professional Experience Office at the University of New England began trialling a variety of measures to assist external students before and throughout their professional experience. This article describes the initial trial of an online support structure, using the Sakai Open Source Learning Management System, and begins to evaluate the efficacy of that trial. The support structure provided students with a variety of resources that had to be studied before professional experience began and with a structure that was designed to guide them through a reflective process for their teaching portfolio. There was also the opportunity for the students to be involved in electronic forums where they could ask for advice from university personnel and interact with their peers. Evaluation of this online approach revealed that the support and feedback accessed asynchronously by pre-service teachers before, when, and after they were in-the-field had the potential to strengthen and enhance their teaching during the professional experience placement. However, there were technical difficulties that sometimes caused more frustration rather than the structure providing assistance. It was also clear that greater assistance was required when students were engaged in professional experience placements.
Co-Principalship: Are Two Heads Better Than One?
The traditional model of school principal is of one individual vested with sole authority and accountability. This model has come under increasing scrutiny, particularly over the last two decades. Globally, accounts of principal attrition and a scarcity of applicants for principal vacancies have become more common resulting in an examination of alternative models of principalship as solutions to the leadership crisis. In Catholic secondary schools in Victoria, Australia, the model of co-principalship has been proposed as a possible solution to this reported crisis. In this article, the feasibility of co-principalship as a model of school leadership is examined, drawing on a research study into the tensions of principalship and possible reconceptualisations of the role. The article commences with an overview of the current educational milieu, reports on the views of current principals regarding their role and their view of co-principalship and concludes with a discussion of co-principalship as a panacea for imputed principal dissatisfaction.
Developing Resources for Pre-service Teachers to Promote Online Teaching Support
Over the last few decades there have been significant shifts in the ways students engage with both formal and informal learning. This has occurred through the improvements made in available technologies, the advent of new technologies and an increased popularity in the use of online learning spaces. Online learning spaces are particularly important for the distance education learning experience and the rise in virtual schools is a reflection of this. These schools and other online learning environments such as blended learning classrooms and School of the Air provide significant learning opportunities to deliver education opportunities to students who might otherwise be unable to pursue particular studies due to a range of factors such as isolation, mobility (such as with military families), health issues, disabilities, lack of qualified teachers in the area or emotional issues such as bullying (Roblyer, 2006; Toppin & Toppin, 2015; Vasquez & Straub, 2012).
As these changes in teaching and learning environments occur, it becomes increasingly important to reflect these new changes in teacher education courses. Teaching online presents the need for its own separate skillset in order to provide meaningful and rich learning experiences. This project was designed to support pre-service, as well as inservice, teachers in the development of this skillset.
The project, named Pre-Service Teachers Online, surveyed current pre-service teachers in 2015 about online teaching and found that they are, in the main, ill-prepared to meet the skill requirements of online teaching. While their teacher education programs assist them to use Information and Communication Technologies in the traditional classroom setting, solely online teaching is neither discussed nor practised. To assist in redressing this gap, the main output of the project is an open access website with a range of resources to foster learning about, and aid in, developing online teaching skills.
There are three main learning modules on the website (www.pstonline.info) exploring connecting with students and the provision of engaging and authentic learning experiences. The modules include short, informative videos from academics experienced in online teaching and its requirements. The videos are supplemented with a number of relevant readings and, where practicable, examples of applications that can be used to enhance online learning experiences.
This final project report provides an overview of the processes used to develop the website and also, in the appendices, examples of the surveys used which may benefit other institutions interested in replicating the project. There is also a more detailed report of the findings from these surveys.
Professional experience preparation: Does distance make a difference?
Professional experience (or practicum) is one aspect of teacher education that crosses several perceived boundaries including those between theory and practice, university and school. A further boundary in many institutions is believed to exist between on-campus and off-campus (distance education/external) study. Crossing these boundaries presents challenges with both preparation and support for professional experience. These challenges have been exacerbated as higher education institutions pursue new ways of delivering courses in an era of rapid change and increased accountability. Professional experience is regulated by state accreditation bodies and by the Commonwealth Government and new national teaching standards and national accreditation of teacher education courses are currently being implemented. This is resulting in further examination of how professional experience can be enhanced for all stakeholders. At a university where more than 75% of students study off-campus it is imperative that approaches to professional experience actively engage the students in a positive and productive manner. At the end of 2010, all teacher education students at the University of New England who had completed at least one school placement were invited to participate in a pilot survey. This survey was designed to explore their perceptions of the effectiveness of their preparation for placement and the support structures available during placement. The survey was also designed to ascertain whether there was any difference in perception not only between on- campus and off-campus students, but also across courses and across age groups. The discussions presented here focus on student perceptions of their preparedness for professional experience placements. In particular, the perceptions of off-campus students are compared and contrasted with those of the on-campus cohort. While there has been a general presumption that on-campus students would feel better prepared than off-campus students, the data show nuances in the perceptions based not predominantly on mode of study, but rather other determinants such as age. These data will provide directions for enhanced preparation for all students.
Snapchat at school - 'Now you see it...': Networked affect - cyber bullying, harassment and sexting
Snapchat is one of the most popular social media applications among Australian young people. Its global impact has grown rapidly in recent years. Reported is a mixed methods case study located in New South Wales schools. An online survey was conducted with education practitioners to enquire into their experiences of Snapchat in their school settings. The researchers used survey responses and comments from follow up interviews to consider how networked affect is enacted through Snapchat. Networked affect can be seen as a visceral movement of emotion through the intra-action of social media and human bodies. Both corporeal affect and Snapchat have received increased attention by researchers over the last five years although little has been written to link the two. We highlight the importance of reading the affective social impact of Snapchat use among young people and the potential of looking beyond its abuses to the affordances of the application.
VirtualPREX: Providing Virtual Professional Experience for Pre-Service Teachers
Professional experience (or practicum) is problematic within teacher education courses because preparation for, and the quality of, placements can be inconsistent. Preservice teachers can commence their first placement without some of the requisite skills and off-campus pre-service teachers do not always have opportunities to practise any ski lls at all pre-placement. VirtualPREX is an innovative approach to professional experience preparation, providing opportunities for practice in a virtual world such as Second Life . In this chapter the authors outline the rationale for this innovation and then report on the data from the pilot trials of the VirtualPREX role plays where pre-service teachers role-played the teacher and students in a Second Life virtual classroom. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the next steps in the project.
Is Co-Principalship a Panacea for Burn-out and Applicant Scarcity?
The traditional model of school principal is of one individual vested with sole authority and accountability. This model has come under increasing scrutiny, particularly over the last two decades. Globally, accounts of both principal attrition and scarcity of principal applicants have become more common, resulting in an examination of alternative models of principalship as solutions to the leadership crisis. In Catholic secondary schools in Victoria, Australia, co-principalship has been proposed as one possible solution. In this paper, the feasibility of co-principalship as a model of school leadership is examined, drawing on a research study into the tensions of principalship and possible reconceptualisations of the role. The paper commences with an overview of the current educational milieu, reports on the views of current principals regarding their role and their view of co-principalship and concludes with a discussion of co-principalship as a panacea for imputed principal dissatisfaction.
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