publishing

Exploring the postdigital

/ Rachel Buchanan / Leave a comment

In working to unpick the complex dynamics at play in the way that digital technologies have been taken up (or not) by schools, I have been exploring the concept of the ‘postdigital’ as a way to theorise what is going on.

On the one hand, there is much discourse suggesting that schools are not doing enough to equip students to work in a globalised highly-technological economy and that they need to do a better job of embedding educational technologies in schools. On the other hand, schools make a great deal of use of highly technological administrative systems, and are increasingly using educational technologies such as learning analytics, adaptive computer testing, administration packages and learning management systems. So are schools digital enough yet? Continue reading →

‘The internet is all around us’ what children think of the internet

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Recently, Tiana Murray (an early career primary school teacher) and I had an article published in the journal, Digital Culture and Education, which examines what 10-12 year old children think of the internet. We published it in an online open access journal which I think is a fantastic venue for this research as it allowed us to publish a sample of the children’s artwork about the internet. These beautifully demonstrate the children’s ambivalence; the internet is depicted as both being a joyous place and a place of danger. The article can be accessed here and the abstract and selected children’s artworks appear below.

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The researcher’s digital footprint

/ Rachel Buchanan / 2 Comments

Today I gave an information session on building an online presence for PhD students at the School of Education, University of Newcastle. The although the session was informal and I talked through the possibilities and how to’s of building an online presence, I did prepare some materials that pulls together research and advice. I also asked twitter and got some great responses which were added to the presentation. The latter exercise neatly demonstrated the power of twitter in terms of the usefulness and power of having an online network.

Capture

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Equity and Disability in Higher Education

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In the past 2 or 3 decades universities in Australia (and elsewhere) have opened their doors to a wider variety of students than in the past. Universities are accountable to the government for their level of success in widening participation and making higher education more accessible. Research has shown that the widening participation agenda has resulted in many more non-traditional students being able to access a university education. The  number of women, Indigenous students, students from a low SES background, first-in-family to attend university, and students with a disability are equity groups whose numbers have grown, particularly in the last 10 years.

However, the equity group that we know least about is students with a disability. Many such students choose not to disclose their disability to their institution which makes it difficult to determine how many such students there are, and to provide assistance to this group. Continue reading →

Lazy blogging ~ reposting a previous effort

/ Rachel Buchanan / 1 Comment

child on loungeWired and tired: why parents should take technology out of their kid’s bedroom

Australian children are among the youngest users of the internet in the world, starting as young as eight years old.

Whether they’re using mobile phones, iPads or the TV, most children and teenagers will use their devices daily to chat to their friends or to access entertainment and education.

But when children use these devices in the evening, they can struggle to sleep, leaving them wired and tired. Continue reading →