Edna News

Achieving fair access to technology for parents, young people and adult learners is likely to be a continuing challenge, says a report published by Becta in the United Kingdom. The 'Harnessing Technology Review 2008' brings together a range of research evidence and data to provide a picture of technology provision and practice in learning. 'This report highlights the good progress made by many schools, colleges and training providers implementing new ways of learning using technology. However, it also identifies challenges for the future in ensuring technology really is no longer optional within the education and skills sector,' Vanessa Pittard told Becta's research conference. Becta, 6 November 2008.

The World Internet project recently released its Australian report, providing a mid-2007 view on how Australians access and use the internet. The report indicates that, at August 2007, 72 percent of Australians used the internet (increasing to 86% when considering those in full employment), and highlights known divides in usage based on income and residential location. The study found that 68.5 percent of users regarded the internet as an 'important' or 'very important' source of information. In comparison only 32.6 percent gave the same indication for television, 46.6 percent for newspapers and 45.9 percent for radio. eGov au, 13 November 2008.

An EU-funded project, SELF, has created an online platform to develop and collaboratively distribute educational materials about free software. It was inspired by the community-driven development model that has led to such enormously successful initiatives as the contributor-edited online encyclopaedia Wikipedia. Teachers, software developers, researchers, IT managers and citizens in general can now find out about what free (also known as libre or open source) software is, how to use it and how to get the most benefit from it. ICT Results (Europe), 12 November 2008.

At last week's annual Educause conference in the US, Christine Borgman outlined what learning might look like in 2015, just seven years from now, if educators, teachers, researchers and policy makers systematically leverage emerging technology trends. Those trends include pervasive high-bandwidth wireless networks; cloud-based processing; and fast-growing repositories of digital information, including a rising tide of data from networked sensors and information analysis tools. Tech World, 3 November 2008.

A new report has confirmed that Australia faces significant challenges in boosting participation in science and mathematics studies in school education, university studies and in the teaching workforce. The report, 'Participation in Science, Mathematics and Technology in Australian Education', has been published by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) and authored by John Ainley, Julie Kos and Marina Nicholas. It is published as ACER Research Monograph 63 and the full report is available from the ACER website. ACER, 8 April 2008.

The Minister for Education, Julia Gillard, has paid tribute to teachers as school students, parents and communities from across Australia prepare to celebrate World Teachers' Day. The day was celebrated internationally on 5 October, but due to the timing of school holidays Australia celebrates the work of teachers on 31 October. Australian Labor Party, 30 October 2008.

According to a recently released OECD report, Australia's education system compares well in terms of PISA scores. Important challenges remain however in all education sectors, especially in early childhood education and care. A brief summary of the 'Economic Survey of Australia 2008' is available examining educational performance, covering early childhood, schools, higher education and the Vocational Education and Training sectors. OECD, 10 October 2009.

The average age of gamers has gone up to 30, renewing calls for video games to get the same ratings system as film. This finding could have repercussions for Australia's classifications system, which does not have an adult rating for games, as the highest possible classification is MA15+. The study found that 70 per cent of parents play video games and 92 per cent were aware of what games were being played in their household. The study, Interactive Australia 2009, was conducted by Bond University for the Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia (IEAA). news.com.au