Digital technologies are increasingly used by children and adults in their everyday lives and these practices have attracted researchers' and practitioners' attention. However, everyday digital literacy practices are difficult to examine. They require appropriate research methods and visual methods have potential here. Although some visual methods…

This paper explores the design, development and evaluation of an early childhood literacy iPad application, focusing on the English Alphabet, called "A to Z Safari" trialled in Australian classrooms. A to Z Safari was designed to assist students in the early years of schooling with learning the alphabet and building on their knowledge of…

Hip-hop has exploded around the world among youth. It is not simply an American source of entertainment; it is a global cultural movement that provides a voice for youth worldwide who have not been able to express their "cultural world" through mainstream media. The emerging field of critical hip-hop pedagogy has produced little…

Wiki technology has been promoted as a collaborative software platform. This study investigates interactions that occur in a wiki-based collaborative learning project. The study draws on interaction literature and investigates the types of interactions with which students are engaged in wiki-based group projects, clusters that reflect online…

This paper reports on a study that sought to explore the pedagogical reasoning behind the use of ICT in secondary teachers' classes. In particular, it explored the question of whether their use of ICT was driven by pedagogical ideals for meaningful learning or whether they were using technology for other purposes. Eighteen teachers from two…

It's time to prepare teachers to take the plunge to teach in virtual worlds. Students are already there and their teachers need to follow. Unfortunately, teachers are often resistant to change their teaching practice, especially regarding the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) such as virtual worlds. The authors report on the…

This article presents the results of a study into the provision of Internet training for adult public library clients. The study, which was completed in 2008, forms part of a larger investigation into the characteristics, preferences and needs of adult public library clients in New South Wales. The aim of this section of the investigation is to…

This paper addresses the practice of professional development within the Vocational Education and Training (VET) arena. The study object was to gain the perceptions held by a selected group of VET educators in the tourism and hospitality sector of the professional teaching/training competencies required for effective practice. The study was…

Australia wide, all school systems are in the process of providing teachers with computers and there is an expectation that new teachers will possess the expertise to use them in their teaching. In addition to using computers for basic word processing and data manipulation, early-career science teachers need to be able to use a range of…

Influencing government policy in adult learning areas requires consistent efforts in having findings noticed by educational policymakers. Submissions by Adult Learning Australia and researchers have called for unified educational policies and practices across Australia. This paper argues that, whilst it is important to address macro issues of…

New electronic technologies provide powerful tools for managing and processing the rapidly increasing amounts of information available for learning; teachers, however, have often been slow in integrating computers into the curriculum. This study addresses the question of how prospective teachers construct affective and cognitive models about…

This paper discusses the design and implementation of a task-oriented collaborative learning (and training) experimental project that was carried out with future language teachers. More specifically, a class of sixteen French students enrolled in a Masters of Education course were asked to create multimedia resources for a group of Australian…

Professional development for teachers in information and communication technology (ICT) is currently a major priority for school systems in Australia and internationally. The metacognitive and reflective approach to professional development described in this paper is a response to the limitations of directive approaches to ICT learning within a…