Chris Bigum - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Uploads
Papers by Chris Bigum
This paper is about a slow hunch. A hunch that a modest interference in networked learning, that ... more This paper is about a slow hunch. A hunch that a modest interference in networked learning, that we have called public click pedagogy (PCP), may, in some instances, usefully open up a side of networked learning that is often glossed. Learning new material, developing new skills, making new discoveries can be complicated, and messy. Few of us go from inexperienced to skilled or novice to master in anything like a simple, tidy or routine manner. We often learn more from our mistakes than our successes. We sometimes find ourselves in blind alleys or chasing down rabbit holes that appear to take us nowhere. What learners actually do when they try to come to terms with a new domain via formal or informal means, tends to be secret learner business. What is commonly made visible is how successful they are in coming to terms with the domain, something which is judged by people who have demonstrated knowledge and expertise in the domain. Our hunch is that a modest exploration of secret learn...
Knowledge producing schools, participatory action research and transformative educational agendas... more Knowledge producing schools, participatory action research and transformative educational agendas for changed and changing times I look to the future because that's where I'm going to spend the rest of my life.-George Burns, 1983
RASE: Revista de la Asociación de Sociología de la Educación, 2017
International Journal of Actor-Network Theory and Technological Innovation, 2016
Academics and administrators in higher education contexts increasingly invest time, energy and mo... more Academics and administrators in higher education contexts increasingly invest time, energy and money in the creation and delivery of a positive “first year experience: (FYE)” a term commonly used to refer to a suite of initiatives intended to impact positively upon student satisfaction and maximise student retention. Various forms of technology feature prominently in the resultant programs: a situation which reflects a widespread belief that ‘flexible' and ‘online' learning environments have a major role to play in meeting the needs of contemporary students. Over the past 20 years decision making about how to create a ‘good' first year experience has been increasingly shaped by what is now a large body of scholarship. While this literature contains much that it is valuable it can also serve to limit research conducted in this area. Drawing upon insights from the sociology of translation this paper explores the hinterland of the FYE and the ways in which it might constrai...
Critical Perspectives on Technology and Education, 2015
Humans, unlike some species, have a blind spot that derives from an absence of photoreceptor cell... more Humans, unlike some species, have a blind spot that derives from an absence of photoreceptor cells in the retina. We usually don’t notice our blind spot because the other eye helps the brain fill in the missing information. This means, as Leonard Mlodinow (2012) suggests, that reality is a little less straightforward than we might imagine. He puts it this way: “senses plus mind equals reality.”
Australian Educational Computing, 1995
Australian Educational Computing, 1994
She has contributed fot many yeatr to the study ol infornation technology in se@ndary schools. I ... more She has contributed fot many yeatr to the study ol infornation technology in se@ndary schools. I n rccent years her research interests are in teleconnunications in education and is wo*ing closely wtth the lpswich City Council's Global lnfoLinks project.
Using Community Informatics to Transform Regions
Schools appear in some accounts of community informatics as part of community, one of a number of... more Schools appear in some accounts of community informatics as part of community, one of a number of organisations that need to be taken into account, perhaps on the basis of them being useful physical or human resources around which community informatics might be based. For their part, schools, at least in Australia, have been an important, early element in the broad take-up of computing and communication technologies (CCTs) by the community. Apart from the possibility of using school resources to support community access out of school time and based on what is published in both fields, schools and work in community informatics have tended to operate independently of one another. There are, nonetheless, interesting parallels in these two broad areas of activity which promote the use of CCTs. This chapter outlines a new research agenda in which schools produce knowledge for local community and in doing so develop new and productive community partnerships. The development provides inter...
Transformative Approaches to New Technologies and Student Diversity in Futures Oriented Classrooms, 2012
No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form ... more No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfi lming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifi cally for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.
Critical Perspectives on Technology and Education
The SAGE Handbook of Educational Action Research
Education, Social Justice and the Legacy of Deakin University, 2011
Transformative Approaches to New Technologies and Student Diversity in Futures Oriented Classrooms, 2012
Much is made of the need for schools to engage proactively with diverse computing and communicati... more Much is made of the need for schools to engage proactively with diverse computing and communication technologies in preparing children for unknowable futures. To this point, however, schools have been largely unable to move beyond narrow, limiting, 'schooled' engagements with ever changing forms of technology. This chapter traces the patterns associated with schools and computers and highlights the assumptions and beliefs that have sustained these patterns over so many years, leading to large scale investments which ultimately do little to prepare learners for life beyond the classroom. 1 I prefer the term computing, which is what these machines actually do over information. Information connotes more than data as Bateson (1999) suggests, information is the difference that makes a difference. But given the ubiquity of the acronym IT and ICT I will use these terms here. 2 An exabyte is a billion gigabytes. A gigbyte is 1000 megabytes. A small book is roughly 1.5 Megabytes. This makes a gigbyte about 6-700 books and an exbyte 6-700 billion books. 3 A study by IDC (Gantz et al., 2007) provides a detailed analysis of growth patterns and the methodology for doing the calculation. 4 A useful history can be found at: http://www.davesite.com/webstation/net-history.shtml. The tight association between the interests of the US military and the educational use of ICTs continues to this day (Noble, 1991).
Transformative Approaches to New Technologies and Student Diversity in Futures Oriented Classrooms, 2012
This chapter explores a range of perspectives on technology that can usefully inform attempts to ... more This chapter explores a range of perspectives on technology that can usefully inform attempts to move beyond traditional patterns concerning schools' engagement with computers and related technologies. After exploring some of the key features of contemporary life and highlight the need to develop more robust understandings of how technologies are (and are not) shaping contemporary life, the chapter explores the concept of education on the edge. This perspective is then illustrated through reference to a range ...
International Journal of Actor-Network Theory and Technological Innovation, 2009
Despite more than 30 years of gender reform in schools, the percentages of girls enrolled in info... more Despite more than 30 years of gender reform in schools, the percentages of girls enrolled in information technology subjects in the post-compulsory years of education has remained persistently low: often under 25%. This article investigates data collected during an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant project (2005-2007) focused on identifying the reasons for this under-representation, and ways in which the situation could be changed. The article looks beyond the official recommendations of the project to explore how the research experience and the data combine to raise important questions about the limits of research in this area. The authors discuss the difference between the researchers’ perception of the problem under consideration, and the participants’ perception of the same issue. They use the resources of actor-network to highlight the gaps, tensions and contradictions within the data and to ask key questions about the extent to which the enrolment of girls in IT is ind...
Educational Policy, 1998
Computer use in schools is framed by the beliefs of users about computers and schooling. These be... more Computer use in schools is framed by the beliefs of users about computers and schooling. These beliefs are reflected in the day-to-day practices in schools and derive from local experience, policy, opinion, and debates about computers, schools, and education. Many discourses that frame computer use in schools are based on a distinction between the human and nonhuman elements of computer use. Each of these discourses attributes essential properties to the computer, thereby broadly determining the role of the computer and consequently of the teacher and learner Actor network theory avoids the human-nonhuman dualism and makes explicit the negotiations and alliances that are employed in particular settings that give rise to particular groups speaking on behalf of computers in schools and provides a basis for moving from essentialist frameworks toward new possibilities for computers and schools.
This is a somewhat modified version of a short piece I wrote in 2003. It was hatched late one nig... more This is a somewhat modified version of a short piece I wrote in 2003. It was hatched late one night in 2003 at Burwood, in conversation with Alan Reid who was, at the time, a DEST Fellow and working on the question of national curriculum. I should point out that the crazy ideas expressed below are not attributable to Alan.☺
Unlike humans, cephalopods don't have blind spots, that is they don't have an absence o... more Unlike humans, cephalopods don't have blind spots, that is they don't have an absence of photoreceptor cells in the retina. Humans usually don't notice their blind spot because the other eye helps the brain fill in the missing information. We develop the notion of a blind spot in this chapter to examine some of the patterns of scholarship and research that can be found in the field broadly known as educational technology. Selwyn's (2010) account of the field points to a persistent focus on learning and on how best to deploy computing and ...
This paper is about a slow hunch. A hunch that a modest interference in networked learning, that ... more This paper is about a slow hunch. A hunch that a modest interference in networked learning, that we have called public click pedagogy (PCP), may, in some instances, usefully open up a side of networked learning that is often glossed. Learning new material, developing new skills, making new discoveries can be complicated, and messy. Few of us go from inexperienced to skilled or novice to master in anything like a simple, tidy or routine manner. We often learn more from our mistakes than our successes. We sometimes find ourselves in blind alleys or chasing down rabbit holes that appear to take us nowhere. What learners actually do when they try to come to terms with a new domain via formal or informal means, tends to be secret learner business. What is commonly made visible is how successful they are in coming to terms with the domain, something which is judged by people who have demonstrated knowledge and expertise in the domain. Our hunch is that a modest exploration of secret learn...
Knowledge producing schools, participatory action research and transformative educational agendas... more Knowledge producing schools, participatory action research and transformative educational agendas for changed and changing times I look to the future because that's where I'm going to spend the rest of my life.-George Burns, 1983
RASE: Revista de la Asociación de Sociología de la Educación, 2017
International Journal of Actor-Network Theory and Technological Innovation, 2016
Academics and administrators in higher education contexts increasingly invest time, energy and mo... more Academics and administrators in higher education contexts increasingly invest time, energy and money in the creation and delivery of a positive “first year experience: (FYE)” a term commonly used to refer to a suite of initiatives intended to impact positively upon student satisfaction and maximise student retention. Various forms of technology feature prominently in the resultant programs: a situation which reflects a widespread belief that ‘flexible' and ‘online' learning environments have a major role to play in meeting the needs of contemporary students. Over the past 20 years decision making about how to create a ‘good' first year experience has been increasingly shaped by what is now a large body of scholarship. While this literature contains much that it is valuable it can also serve to limit research conducted in this area. Drawing upon insights from the sociology of translation this paper explores the hinterland of the FYE and the ways in which it might constrai...
Critical Perspectives on Technology and Education, 2015
Humans, unlike some species, have a blind spot that derives from an absence of photoreceptor cell... more Humans, unlike some species, have a blind spot that derives from an absence of photoreceptor cells in the retina. We usually don’t notice our blind spot because the other eye helps the brain fill in the missing information. This means, as Leonard Mlodinow (2012) suggests, that reality is a little less straightforward than we might imagine. He puts it this way: “senses plus mind equals reality.”
Australian Educational Computing, 1995
Australian Educational Computing, 1994
She has contributed fot many yeatr to the study ol infornation technology in se@ndary schools. I ... more She has contributed fot many yeatr to the study ol infornation technology in se@ndary schools. I n rccent years her research interests are in teleconnunications in education and is wo*ing closely wtth the lpswich City Council's Global lnfoLinks project.
Using Community Informatics to Transform Regions
Schools appear in some accounts of community informatics as part of community, one of a number of... more Schools appear in some accounts of community informatics as part of community, one of a number of organisations that need to be taken into account, perhaps on the basis of them being useful physical or human resources around which community informatics might be based. For their part, schools, at least in Australia, have been an important, early element in the broad take-up of computing and communication technologies (CCTs) by the community. Apart from the possibility of using school resources to support community access out of school time and based on what is published in both fields, schools and work in community informatics have tended to operate independently of one another. There are, nonetheless, interesting parallels in these two broad areas of activity which promote the use of CCTs. This chapter outlines a new research agenda in which schools produce knowledge for local community and in doing so develop new and productive community partnerships. The development provides inter...
Transformative Approaches to New Technologies and Student Diversity in Futures Oriented Classrooms, 2012
No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form ... more No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfi lming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifi cally for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.
Critical Perspectives on Technology and Education
The SAGE Handbook of Educational Action Research
Education, Social Justice and the Legacy of Deakin University, 2011
Transformative Approaches to New Technologies and Student Diversity in Futures Oriented Classrooms, 2012
Much is made of the need for schools to engage proactively with diverse computing and communicati... more Much is made of the need for schools to engage proactively with diverse computing and communication technologies in preparing children for unknowable futures. To this point, however, schools have been largely unable to move beyond narrow, limiting, 'schooled' engagements with ever changing forms of technology. This chapter traces the patterns associated with schools and computers and highlights the assumptions and beliefs that have sustained these patterns over so many years, leading to large scale investments which ultimately do little to prepare learners for life beyond the classroom. 1 I prefer the term computing, which is what these machines actually do over information. Information connotes more than data as Bateson (1999) suggests, information is the difference that makes a difference. But given the ubiquity of the acronym IT and ICT I will use these terms here. 2 An exabyte is a billion gigabytes. A gigbyte is 1000 megabytes. A small book is roughly 1.5 Megabytes. This makes a gigbyte about 6-700 books and an exbyte 6-700 billion books. 3 A study by IDC (Gantz et al., 2007) provides a detailed analysis of growth patterns and the methodology for doing the calculation. 4 A useful history can be found at: http://www.davesite.com/webstation/net-history.shtml. The tight association between the interests of the US military and the educational use of ICTs continues to this day (Noble, 1991).
Transformative Approaches to New Technologies and Student Diversity in Futures Oriented Classrooms, 2012
This chapter explores a range of perspectives on technology that can usefully inform attempts to ... more This chapter explores a range of perspectives on technology that can usefully inform attempts to move beyond traditional patterns concerning schools' engagement with computers and related technologies. After exploring some of the key features of contemporary life and highlight the need to develop more robust understandings of how technologies are (and are not) shaping contemporary life, the chapter explores the concept of education on the edge. This perspective is then illustrated through reference to a range ...
International Journal of Actor-Network Theory and Technological Innovation, 2009
Despite more than 30 years of gender reform in schools, the percentages of girls enrolled in info... more Despite more than 30 years of gender reform in schools, the percentages of girls enrolled in information technology subjects in the post-compulsory years of education has remained persistently low: often under 25%. This article investigates data collected during an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant project (2005-2007) focused on identifying the reasons for this under-representation, and ways in which the situation could be changed. The article looks beyond the official recommendations of the project to explore how the research experience and the data combine to raise important questions about the limits of research in this area. The authors discuss the difference between the researchers’ perception of the problem under consideration, and the participants’ perception of the same issue. They use the resources of actor-network to highlight the gaps, tensions and contradictions within the data and to ask key questions about the extent to which the enrolment of girls in IT is ind...
Educational Policy, 1998
Computer use in schools is framed by the beliefs of users about computers and schooling. These be... more Computer use in schools is framed by the beliefs of users about computers and schooling. These beliefs are reflected in the day-to-day practices in schools and derive from local experience, policy, opinion, and debates about computers, schools, and education. Many discourses that frame computer use in schools are based on a distinction between the human and nonhuman elements of computer use. Each of these discourses attributes essential properties to the computer, thereby broadly determining the role of the computer and consequently of the teacher and learner Actor network theory avoids the human-nonhuman dualism and makes explicit the negotiations and alliances that are employed in particular settings that give rise to particular groups speaking on behalf of computers in schools and provides a basis for moving from essentialist frameworks toward new possibilities for computers and schools.
This is a somewhat modified version of a short piece I wrote in 2003. It was hatched late one nig... more This is a somewhat modified version of a short piece I wrote in 2003. It was hatched late one night in 2003 at Burwood, in conversation with Alan Reid who was, at the time, a DEST Fellow and working on the question of national curriculum. I should point out that the crazy ideas expressed below are not attributable to Alan.☺
Unlike humans, cephalopods don't have blind spots, that is they don't have an absence o... more Unlike humans, cephalopods don't have blind spots, that is they don't have an absence of photoreceptor cells in the retina. Humans usually don't notice their blind spot because the other eye helps the brain fill in the missing information. We develop the notion of a blind spot in this chapter to examine some of the patterns of scholarship and research that can be found in the field broadly known as educational technology. Selwyn's (2010) account of the field points to a persistent focus on learning and on how best to deploy computing and ...
In this book we outline an optimistic, aspirational and unashamedly ambitious agenda for schooli... more In this book we outline an optimistic, aspirational and unashamedly ambitious agenda for schooling. We make cautious use of the concept of 'future proofing' to signal the commitment of the various authors to re-thinking the purposes, content and processes of schooling with a view to ensuring that all children, from all backgrounds are prepared by their education to make a positive contribution to the futures that are ahead of them. The book focuses on issues relating to technology and social justice to re-examine the traditional relationship between schools and technology, between schools and diverse learners, and between schools, children and knowledge. Drawing from examples from around the world, the book explores practical ways that diverse schools have worked to celebrate diverse understandings of what it means to be a learner, a citizen, a worker in these changed and changing times and the ways different technologies can support this agenda.
Critical Perspectives on Technology and Education shows how researchers working in the area of te... more Critical Perspectives on Technology and Education shows how researchers working in the area of technology and education can use critical perspectives to broaden the "ed-tech" research imagination, opening up new topics, asking new questions, developing theory and articulating an agenda for informed action.
Academics and administrators in higher education contexts increasingly invest time, energy and mo... more Academics and administrators in higher education contexts increasingly invest time, energy and money in the creation and delivery of a positive “first year experience: (FYE)” a term commonly used to refer to a suite of initiatives intended to impact positively upon student satisfaction and maximise student retention. Various forms of technology feature prominently in the resultant programs: a situation which reflects a widespread belief that ‘flexible’ and ‘online’ learning environments have a major role to play in meeting the needs of contemporary students. Over the past 20 years decision making about how to create a ‘good’ first year experience has been increasingly shaped by what is now a large body of
scholarship. While this literature contains much that it is valuable it can also serve to limit research conducted in this area. Drawing upon insights from the sociology of translation this paper explores the hinterland of the FYE and the ways in which it might constrain the authors’ research in this field. From this basis the authors propose a case for re-imagining and reassembling their research in this area in response to key challenges provided by actor-network theory. With reference to a small scale research project conducted at a one Australian university, they highlight the different data sets—and different realities—that a reassembled FYE research agenda requires them to attend to, and outline, implications for future studies in this field.