Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Home
  • Home
Chapter
  • This chapter is unavailable for purchase
  • Cited by 3
  • Print publication year: 2012
  • Online publication date: October 2012

Chapter 8 - Information and communication technologies in the classroom

Export citation

Summary

Growing up, I moved around a lot. Soon after I was born the family moved from Tamworth to Western Sydney, to live with my extended family. We lived in Seven Hills, Mt Druitt and Colyton. My uncles, who were very close to me in age, treated me like their brother. They taught me how to be street smart. I did not really enjoy school, primarily because I changed schools regularly. Having attended four primary schools and three high schools, I left school in Year 10 and became a tradesman. I feel like I have never really settled in anywhere.

It was at home that my interest in technology developed. My father always had a fascination with electronics. Some of my earliest memories are of sitting at the kitchen table with my father, soldering something to a circuit board. His passion turned to citizen band radios and eventually computers. My father bought an ATARI games system, then the VZ2000 computer and a Commodore 64. The latter had a programming language that I was able to understand and my father and I would write short programs, usually very rudimentary games. Then, in 1981, my father purchased his first IBM-compatible computer. I have no idea how my parents could afford it, because at the time my mother did not have a paid job and my father was a tradesman on a very low wage. Working with my father on these projects was a very special time in my life; we shared a passion for computers.

That passion for computers remained with me into adulthood, and I completed both a Bachelor and Masters of Information Technology as a mature-aged student. Later, when I was the Deputy Chairperson of the ACT Indigenous Education Consultative Body, I ran a Certificate II in Information Technology for the local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community and was shocked at how few people had access to a computer at home. This led me to undertake my PhD, looking at the adoption of information and communication technology in Australian Indigenous households.

Related content

Powered by UNSILO
References
ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) 2004 http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4715.0
Adesina, A.A.Baidu–Forson, J. 1995 Farmers’ perceptions and adoption of new agricultural technology: Evidence from analysis in Burkina Faso and Guinea, West AfricaAgricultural Economics 13 1
Allyn, M. R.Yun, S. 2005 Computers and human capital potentiationJournal of Business and Economic Studies 11 34
Alston, R. 2003 http://www.dbcde.gov.au/Article/0,,0_4-2_4008-4_114516,00.html
Alston, R.Williams, D.Ruddock, P. 2003 Indigenous Communities to Get New Protection for Creative WorksCanberraDepartment of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts.http://www.dbcde.gov.au/Article/0,,0_4-2_4008-4_114525,00.html
Arocena, R.Senker, P. 2003 Technology, inequality and underdevelopment: The case of Latin AmericaScience, Technology, & Human Values 28 15
Auld, G.Holkner, B.Fernando, A.Henderson, M.Romeo, G.Russell, G. 2008 Australian Computers in Education Conference(ACEC), CanberraAustralia
Baker, L. 2001 Internet “brings families together”, says studyANU Reporter32
Barlass, T. 2011 Cut-and-paste generation takes on suspect websitesSydney Morning HeraldSydneyFairfax Ltd
Bate, F. 2010 A bridge too far? Explaining beginning teachers’ use of ICT in Australian schoolsAustralasian Journal of Educational Technology 26 1042
Foundation, Benton 1998 Losing Ground Bit by Bit: Low–income communities in the information ageWashingtonBenton Foundation
Clark, E. 2004
Curtin, J. 2001 A Digital Divide in Rural and Regional Australia?CanberraCommonwealth of Australia (Parliamentary Library)
Daly, A.E. 2006 Information Technology and Indigenous PeopleDyson, L.E.Hendriks, M.Grant, S.Hershey, PAIdea Group Inc
Daly, A.E. 2005 Bridging the Digital Divide: The role of community online access centres in Indigenous communitiesCanberraAustralian National University
DBCDE (Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy) 2009 Australia’s Digital Economy: Future directionsCanberraCommonwealth of Australia
DEEWR (Department of Education Employment and Workplace Relations) 2008 Success through Partnership, Achieving a National Vision for ICT in Schools: Strategic plan to guide implementation of the digital education revolution initiative and related initiatives (the DER Strategic Plan)CanberraCommonwealth of Australia
DETE (Department of Education, Training and Employment, Qld) 2012 http://education.qld.gov.au/smartclassrooms/pdframework/dp-licence.html
Donovan, M. 2007 Information Technology and Indigenous PeopleDyson, L.Hendriks, M.Grant, S.MelbourneInformation Science Publishing
Drexler, W. 2010 The networked student model for construction of personal learning environments: Balancing teacher control and student autonomyAustralasian Journal of Educational Technology 26 369
Fink, C.Kenny, C. J. 2003 http://www.itu.int/wsis/docs/background/themes/digital_divide/fink-kenny.pdf
Fullan, M. 1993 Why teachers must become change agentsEducational Leadership 50 12
Goos, M. 2005 A sociocultural analysis of the development of pre-service and beginning teachers’ pedagogical indentities as users of technologyJournal of Mathematics Teacher Education 8 35
Green, F.Gallie, D.Felstead, A.Zhou, Y. 2007 Computers and payNational Institute Economic Review 201 63
Larochelle, M.Bednarz, N.Garrison, J. 1998 Constructivism and EducationCambridgeCambridge University Press
Levin, T.Wadmany, R. 2008 Teachers’ views on factors affecting effective integration of Information Technology in the classroom: Developmental sceneryJournal of Technology and Teacher Education 16 233
Lloyd, R.Hellwig, O. 2000 Barriers to the Take–up of New TechnologyCanberraUniversity of Canberra
Loch, B.Galligan, L. 2010 http://www.google.com.au/url?q=http://www.monash.edu.au/eeducation/assets/documents/atiec2010/thursday-linda-galligan-carola-hobohm.pptx
Oliver, R. 1999 Exploring strategies for online teaching and learningDistance Education 20 240
Patty, A. 2011 http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/facebook-opened-up-to-school-teachers-20110428-1dyxa.html
Pearlman, B. 2010 21st Century Skills: Rethinking How Students LearnBellanca, J.Brandt, R.Bloomington, INSolution Tree Press
Pietro, G.D. 2007 The effect of computer use on earnings in ItalyEmpirical Economics 33 245
Prensky, M. 2008 The role of technology in teaching and the classroomEducational Technology 48 http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky-The_Role_of_Technology-ET-11-12-08.pdf
Prensky, M. 2001 Digital natives, digital immigrantsOn the Horizon 9 1
Radoll, P. 2010
Radoll, P. 2006 Assessing the Evidence on Indigenous Socioeconomic Outcomes: A focus on the 2002 NATSISSHunter, B.CanberraAustralian National University
Sangrà, A.González-Sanmamed, M. 2010 The role of information and communication technologies in improving teaching and learning processes in primary and secondary schoolsResearch in Learning Technology 18 207
Siemens, G. 2008 http://elearningspace.org/Articles/HistoryofNetworkLearning.rtf
Somekh, B. 2007 Pedagogy and Learning with ICT: Researching the art of innovationLondonRoutledge