Browsing by Subject "tieto- ja viestintäteknologia"
Now showing items 1-5 of 5
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(2016)Objectives. The purpose of this Master's thesis is to study how the elementary school teachers of Koulumestari school in Espoo, Finland are making use of Fronter, a data based learning platform, as part of their work. This case study investigates how the users of Fronter, the Koulumestari school's teachers, make use of the platform and what problems they have encountered while using it. Methods. The data for this qualitative case study was collected using questionnaires and theme-centered interviews. During the interviews, teachers were also videotaped while demonstrating, on a computer screen, how they use Fronter learning platform in their work. A total of 18 elementary school teachers took part in the questionnaire, while 8 of them were chosen to be interviewed based on their use of Fronter in their work. The theme-centered interviews were transcribed, followed by their analysis using conventional content analysis. The goal was to find, within the content of the interviews, the answers to the following two questions: In which ways do teachers make use of Fronter data based learning platform? And, what problems are included in the use of Fronter data based learning platform? Results and conclusions. The study shows that the teachers of Koulumestari school make use of Fronter learning platform in three different ways: pedagogical use, communicating information and uses within the school. The problems that made the use of Fronter challenging were described as technical problems, administrative problems and problems related to motivation. In the discussion section, the pedagogical use of Fronter learning platform was mirrored to attributes of meaningful learning, which are presented in the theory section of this study. Attributes of meaningful learning are active, constructive, intentional, collaborative, contextualized, conversational, reflective and transfer. All eight of these attributes were linked to pedagogical use, which the teachers of Koulumestari school followed in their day to day activities. This Master's thesis could also be continued in order to study elementary school teachers, as information and communications technology users, more broadly.
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(2015)Previous studies have confirmed that educational practices have not changed with the digitalization of society. The use of ICT in teaching is mainly low and there is an ongoing public debate regarding the Finnish students well-being. This study tried to find out is there a hypothesized gap between the technology-mediated practices of adolescents and school. The aim of this study was to investigate how and how much ICT is used for learning and what kind of technological attitudes and school well-being experiences students have. It was also examined how the use of technology, attitudes and well-being are interrelated and which factors of these phenomena can explain academic achievement, schoolwork engagement, school value, happiness and school burnout. Finally it was investigated what kind of profiles of ICT use and attitudes could be found among the participants. The study was part of the Mind the Gap -project. The data was collected by questionnaire in the 2013. The participants (n = 735) were sixth graders from Helsinki. The use of digital technology, technology attitudes and school well-being were examined by mean values and gender differences by t-test. Correlational analysis and stepwise regression analysis were carried out to find out the factors that were related to academic achievement, schoolwork engagement, school value, happiness and school burnout. Students were grouped into profiles that represented their technological attitudes and use of ICT using SPSS two-step cluster analysis. One-way ANOVA and cross-tabulations were used to examine group and gender differences. The results indicated that the technology is not used on a regular basis to support learning, even though the students felt quite high ICT enthusiasm (the use of technology was seen as a positive contribution to the schoolwork engagement). Information-orientated use was reported most common. Mechanical technology use (eg. writing) was the next most common, producing technology use (eg. projects, multimedia) came in the third. Communicative technology use (online discussion about schoolwork) was the least common. The majority of the sixth graders felt relatively high schoolwork engagement, happiness and school value. Further, students reacted positively towards the teacher's activity and the conditions of the school. ICT enthusiasm was associated with lower experience of school value, schoolwork engagement as well as negative experiences of teacher's activities. Technology-related problem-solving predicted schoolwork engagement positively. Information-orientated use, and fear of failure using technology were repeatedly negative predictors for school well-being and positive predictors for school burnout. Four different groups (actives, slackers, passives, enthusiastics) showed clear differences in the use of technology, attitudes, school well-being and the associations between these phenomena. To conclude, teacher's role and how the technology is used in schools appears essential. It's important to understand students' predispositions towards using digital technologies and support adolescents' natural ways of utilizing ICT. Students need guidance to understand the possibilities of digital technologies as collaborative and creative learning tools. This, however, does not happen by chance. Therefore, I argue, that there is a need in basic education to build new support systems for national, municipal, school and grade levels to minimize the gap between the technology-mediated practices of adolescents and school.
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(2016)Older adults' need for information and communication technology (ICT) skills is highlighted in many societal contexts. The benefits of learning ICT that are most commonly referred to are its ability to support the wellbeing, active agency and autonomy of the elderly. The aim of this study is to analyse the factors influencing older adults' use and learning of ICT. The socio-cultural theory utilised in this study offers a perspective to view learning in later life, the importance of social support and the use of information and communication technology as a learning context. The study examines the factors that promote and inhibit learning and the use of ICT, what kind of new learning challenges the digital environment poses and the specific questions and issues regarding ICT teaching. Nine employees were interviewed for this study. The workers had experience in teaching as well as supporting learning and participation of older adults in ICT. The interviews were conducted as individual theme interviews in early 2015. The content analysis method was used for data analysis. The main findings of this study suggest that social support, especially in the form of peer support, is the ideal way to promote older adults' ICT learning. Emotional factors and self-efficacy can have a negative affect on learning and therefore socially mediation is needed. Furthermore, new challenges are constantly being presented by the ever-changing digital landscape as well as the need for new skills such as critical reading and multiliteracy. The use of, and adaptation to, new cultural tools varies among the elderly while technology often times doesn't meet the needs of older generations or is not accessible to them. In conclusion, individuality and social factors need to be considered when promoting ICT learning for the elderly. Moreover, there is a need for learning spaces as well as adult centred media education that sustains lifelong learning opportunities.
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(2023)Continuing improvement of information and communication technology has an effect on all aspects of society and people’s everyday life. As a consequence of the corona pandemic and its effects, the role of technology as an enabler of operations became more emphasized. Therefore, we had to find new ways of giving home economic education and sharing home economic information. Information and communication technology was used in the operation. Some of the communication methods have already been replaced but some of them are still in use. This thesis studies how information and communication technology can be used in home economic information. It also studies how these methods can be used when creating virtual and informal learning environments for home economics education in the future. This thesis is written as a part of research project of University of Helsinki. The project focuses on distant and hybrid teaching methods of home economics. The research was conducted as a qualitative study. The research material was collected with half-structured interviews. There were seven participants in this study. The interviewees worked for companies or organizations, or as knowledge specialists. They all do home economic communication as a part of their jobs. Information and communication technology is utilized in a various ways in home economic information. Agents have different ways to use technology and multimedia tools and applications to produce content for various social media channels. The process from planning to filming is completed either alone or with colleagues or a team. The best experiences are from interactive, nonformal teaching sessions which were also humorous and instructive. Some of the methods that were studied in this research have already been used in home economic teaching. Instead, filming with a multi-camera system or co-working with a technology specialist are methods that are used among interviewees but not yet utilized in home economic teaching at schools. The use of these methods require further research before they can be extensively utilized in education.
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(2016)Aims. Previous studies have shown that most adolescents appear to use socio-digital technology mostly to hanging out with peers. It also appears that technology-mediated learning is not very intensively used in Finnish schools. However, there are not much qualitative studies examining this. This study focused on describing adolescents' ways of using digital technologies and examining dimensions of adolescents' socio-digital practices as well as networks related to these practices. By socio-digital participation we mean digital technologies mediating adolescents' activities, which, in this study is explored within the frameworks of socio-cultural psychology and learning ecologies. Methodology. This qualitative case study was part of the Mind the Gap project. The data were collected with semi-structured interviews. 24 8th graders took part in this interview. They were picked out from the questionnaire of 1350 students in Helsinki. The analysis procedure used in this study was qualitative data-driven and concept-driven content analysis. Results and conclusions. The results showed that most adolescents used their ICTs for friendship-driven hanging out with peers. Some participants, however, reported using their ICTs also for knowledge building activities, but only a relatively few reported using their ICTs for creative participation. Both knowledge building and creative participation were interpreted as mainly interest-driven activities. All the participants reported using ICTs for academic-oriented participation, which was not interpret as friendship-driven or interest-driven but a boundary-crossing activity bridging informal and formal learning practices. For instance, most participants reported that they had self-organized study activities not controlled by teachers and used technology to co-regulate their learning. The results of this study highlight that socio-digital technologies are able to connect interest-driven learning, peer-culture and academic-oriented participation. Thus, it enables learning and connects the youths' personal learning ecologies to wider ecosystems of learning and should be taken into account in developing school. Therefore, when making changes in school system and building new pedagogical practices, the heterogeneity of students' ways of using ICT should be acknowledged. Furthermore, the related learning possibilities should be incorporated in school activities.
Now showing items 1-5 of 5