Volume 5, Number 2 1999
Contents
The Information Superhighway: A Comparative Look At the Growth of Informational Technology in Australia and India
Travis S. Plowman 93Abstracts
The Information Superhighway: A Comparative Look At the Growth of Informational Technology in Australia and India
Travis S. Plowman
Hampton University 148 LaSalle Ave. Hampton, VA 23661, USAplowman@visi.net
The development of the information superhighway presents a problem that will affect every person globally. This study explores how cultural and historical differences in countries influenced by British imperialism affect their integration into the global information infrastructure. Hofstede’s model of cultural differences that define teaching and learning within an international culture are used as a theoretical framework to analyze data. The research strategy sampled electronically, explored, observed, and drew conclusions in the light of the country’s history and culture. As information technology expands into a culture, elementary schools would be the last to be integrated. Forty-one of 156 elementary web sites formed the Australian sample population. In India, the search reached the technical school and college level before encountering the infrastructure. Historical and cultural explanations were explored for answers to the great disparity between the “haves” and “have-nots” in this country. There was evidence of a correlation between Hofstede’s model of cultural differences and the growth of informational technology within Australia and India. Future implications of this framework would be to test whether Hofstede’s model consistently correlates to integrating informational technology in other countries. Integrating technology worldwide might be improved by considering differences in cultural learning characteristics within a country.
Shwu-Ching Young
Office of Instruction and Research on Educational Media and Computing Technology Center for General Education National Tsing Hua University 101, Section 2, Kuang-fu Road, Hsin-chu, Taiwan 30043, R.O.C.scy@faculty.nthu.edu.tw
Ever since Taiwan’s launch of National Information Infrastructure (NII) in 1994, more university-level courses are offered via telecommunications technologies. This study investigated and documented the process and instruction of a synchronous distance course offered at a northern national university as a broadcasting proximate site with five distant sites. Results indicated that most learners had positive attitudes to the distance course and revealed high interest in taking more courses of this kind. However, the novelty effect of the technologies affected learner perceptions of distance learning. In fact, overall instructional quality of the remote sites was lowered. Social presence was not fully perceived by the learners so that most learners preferred a proximate site, if given a choice. The findings of this study suggest that studio teacher training is desirable and appropriate pedagogical strategies and learner evaluation techniques should be developed. Moreover, some critical issues in distance learning in Taiwan were identified and suggestions were made for further study.
Judith P. Blanchette
Department of Educational Policy Studies 7-104 Education North University of Alberta Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2G5judith.blanchette@ualberta.ca
The purpose of this exploratory study was to determine whether variations existed in the number and length, as well as register and thematic differences, in messages posted by participants in a distance delivered undergraduate program using the FirstClass™ computer conferencing system. This paper focuses on the communicative dimension of the messages—the conversations that took place between and among the participants. Before analysing the data, a method of objectively determining the degree of formality or informality was developed. Messages were coded according to role, gender, and markers of informal speech and dominant theme. There was no significant difference in either message length or the number of words per marker of informal speech that were used in short and long messages. Participants chose to use different registers in different thematic areas, and both males and females used substantively similar registers for the same topics. Women made a significantly greater total contribution to the discussion in two of the thematic areas.
Teacher Training and Distance Education: The Effect of On-line Education and Teacher Attitudes
Paula D. Nisan-Nelson
Instructional Technology Lav Glenville State College Clark Hall M-5 Glenville, WV 263551-1292nelson@glenville.wvnet.edu
One of the newest learning environments with possibly the greatest potential for reaching inservice teachers is that which is offered by on-line education. This research was conducted in an effort to evaluate the effectiveness of a media for teacher training. After an intensive two-week course on using the Internet was held during the summer, teachers participated in two on-line courses designed to further their knowledge in using the Internet. This ethnographic study performed with three of those teachers suggests that even though instruction on using technology can change teachers’ attitudes toward their profession, certain teaching strategies can make a difference in the actual success of on-line education for teachers.
Meaning in E-Discourse
Jan Perkins and Kenneth Newman
Program in Physical Therapy Central Michigan University Mount Pleasant, MI 48859, USAjan.perkins@cmich.edu
E-discourse is the production, transmission, and consumption of electronic text. This paper attempts a synthesis of several different approaches to meaning, relating them to electronic text. It makes use of concepts from a number of fields, including philosophy of language, sociolinguistics, and communication theory. Postmodernist and poststructuralist theory are also of value. It is suggested that e-discourse is best understood when examined with an interdisciplinary approach. Practical suggestions, based on an understanding of meaning, for improving communicative competence in e-discourse are included.