The long anticipated ubiquity of digital technologies is now established in the developed world. The manifestations and consequences are not entirely as predicted, perhaps nowhere more so than in the classroom. Amid a clamour for the banning of mobile phone use in school, it is timely to reflect upon the Utopian dream of an enriched experience of education mediated by computers and consider where it all went wrong. Computer-mediated instruction was supposed to free learners from the constraints which were preventing them from achieving their full potential. The barriers erected by inadequate teaching, impoverished curricula and limited assessment systems would be removed through the introduction of intelligent tutoring systems, worldwide access to information and comprehensive assessment protocols. In reality, the majority of OECD countries are still struggling to ensure that all school leavers have an adequate level of numeracy and literacy to serve their own and the national economy's needs. This paper considers policy and practice in the introduction of digital technologies in schools as recorded in the available research evidence. The data sources are predominantly from the UK with some US examples. What emerges goes to the heart of what is meant by a good education. Anticipated contribution to the Special Issue themeThis paper will address the theme Government policy: national visions for educational experience through the lens of government-led innovation in curriculum definition and high-stakes assessment as a device to manage school accountability. The data sources will be predominantly from the UK with some US examples. It will draw heavily on recent desk research supported through an award from the Nuffield Foundation.

Searching online is one of the most powerful resources today’s students have for accessing information. Searching in groups is a daily practice across multiple contexts; however, the tools we use for searching online do not enable collaborative practices and traditional search models consider a single user navigating online in solitary. This paper presents a three level conceptual model, called the Collaborative Search Procedural Model, which enables the implementation of collaborative search classroom activities based on multi-user collaborative search scripts. A software solution, CollSearch, which follows the Collaborative Search Procedural Model and offers a unified tool to enable collaborative searching computer-supported classroom activities, is also presented. Empirical evaluation of the tool with high school students as part of an English as a second language course shows that students’ outcomes improve when compared to non-scripted group search. Results show that by following the Collaborative Search Procedural Model students better appropriate the work they build together with their group. The OECD has highlighted the importance of collaborative work by the fact that PISA 2015 will assess collaborative problem solving; collaborative search is a fertile field for fostering better group work interactions. This paper shows that new tools that enable collaborative work dynamics in searching for information must be developed in order to address the educational challenges that today’s students are facing.

Despite the supposed inroads of feminism, gender equality and new ‘democratic’ means of technological communication, adult women and teenage girls in the UK continue to emphasise what Valerie Walkerdine has termed the ‘habitual “feminine” position of incompetence’ (2006, 526). This article draws on two complimentary research projects in order to investigate the cross-generational gender constructions women and teenagers articulate. Drawing on Negra's notion of a ‘cover story’ (2009, 44), this article suggests that we can read the claims and practices of the women and teenagers in terms of how they frame new ideologies of femininity. Further, the continual recourse to an essential feminine position of exclusion is detrimentally shaping not only technological use, but also the wider operationalization of gender in public and private arenas. Focussing specifically on the female populations of the research projects, we demonstrate how gender continues to emerge and be produced by women and girls in negotiated, but highly problematic ways. Rather than considering gender as a determining force, it emerges here as a carefully constructed tool for engagement, and as a distancing device facilitating a claim of, and towards, disinterest. The two projects suggest implications for future mediations and relations with new media technology; they also suggest that across generations, women are detrimentally fixing and restricting potential and actual performances of gender through the evocation of a more traditional femininity.

This article emerges from a long-term project investigating the BBC initiative ‘Blast’ – an on- and offline creative resource for teenagers. Designed to ‘inspire and equip’ young people to be creative, the research interrogates the assumptions behind such a resource, particularly in terms of the so-called ‘digital native’, and tests such assumptions against the populations actually using and engaging with it. It finds that the conception of a ‘digital native’ – a technologically enthusiastic, if not technologically literate – teenage population, which is operationalized through the workshop structure of BBC Blast, rarely filters down to the teenagers themselves. Teenage delegates to the Blast workshops rarely validate interest based on technological facilities, enthusiasm or competency. Instead, it is peer groups and social alignments which shape declarations and, more importantly, enactments of interest. This suggests that while the concept of the ‘digital native’ may be pertinent for generational comparisons of technological use, or is a useful concept for the operationalization of creative media workshops, it is simply not recognized by teenagers to whom it refers, nor does it adequately define use. Further, technological competency and enthusiasm sits uneasily with social and cultural peer group norms, where certain (and very specific) technological competency is socially permitted. This means that the concept of the ‘digital native’ is problematic, if not entirely inadequate. Focusing on the BBC Blast workshops therefore raises some critical questions around teenage motivations to become technologically literate, and the pleasures teenagers articulate in such engagements per se.

This article emerges from a long-term project investigating the BBC initiative ‘Blast’ – an onand offline creative resource for teenagers. Designed to ‘inspire and equip’ young people to be creative, the research interrogates the assumptions behind such a resource, particularly in terms of the so-called ‘digital native’, and tests such assumptions against the populations actually using and engaging with it. It finds that the conception of a ‘digital native’ – a technologically enthusiastic, if not technologically literate – teenage population, which is operationalized through the workshop structure of BBC Blast, rarely filters down to the teenagers themselves. Teenage delegates to the Blast workshops rarely validate interest based on technological facilities, enthusiasm or competency. Instead, it is peer groups and social alignments which shape declarations and, more importantly, enactments of interest. This suggests that while the concept of the ‘digital native’ may be pertinent for generational comparisons of technological use, or is a useful concept for the operationalization of creative media workshops, it is simply not recognized by teenagers to whom it refers, nor does it adequately define use. Further, technological competency and enthusiasm sits uneasily with social and cultural peer group norms, where certain (and very specific) technological competency is socially permitted. This means that the concept of the ‘digital native’ is problematic, if not entirely inadequate. Focusing on the BBC Blast workshops therefore raises some critical questions around teenage motivations to become technologically literate, and the pleasures teenagers articulate in such engagements per se.

This paper addresses some issues concerning online task type. Using categories, namely, Scaffolding, Feedback on Performance, Cognitive Structuring, Modelling, Contingency Management, Instructing and Questioning to analyze message transactions, or means of assistance in CMC ‘Discussion Board’, this study involved a total of 48 participants consisting of 36 students and 12 tutors in a Masters programme. Here, the CMC was used as a communication tool, extending face-to-face (or classroom) discussion. CMC was used in an adjunct mode. It was found that open tasks are more likely to generate more open modes of discussion. When there is ‘assistance seeking’, ‘assistance giving’ should always follow. In addition, open mode discussions also seemed to offer the students more opportunities to raise their concerns about their learning compared to the closed mode. Using these findings, a simple approach to distinguish discussion modes is proposed.

There is a wealth of evidence that collaboration between learners can enhance the outcomes for all concerned. This supports the theorization of learning as a socio-cultural practice, framed by Vygotsky and developed by other researchers such as Rogoff, Lave and Wenger. However, there is also evidence that working collaboratively may not be a spontaneous response to working in a group, and that teaching learners how to collaborate, and in particular how to work together to negotiate meaning, is a necessary part of the process of learning collaboratively which can enhance outcomes further. A question for the computer supported collaborative learning community then arises as to whether learning to collaborate can be scaffolded through the use of digital tools, and what such tools might look like. This paper reports on the design of a digital system that aims to support the practice of face-to-face collaboration on open-ended tasks. Findings from trials of the system in classrooms in the UK and Chile show that the model is welcomed both by teachers and pupils, and met its objectives of ensuring greater interaction between class members who did not normally work together, and involvement of all individuals in discussion based activities.

This paper proposes a novel theoretical perspective on the nature of online learning. Taking a socio-cultural perspective, an argument is offered for the theorisation of peer to peer learning as a variety of 'assisted performance'. Using this theoretical lens, a case study is then offered which uses this model to frame an analysis of the nature and occurrences of online exchanges between students, and with tutors. The case study looks at two years of online discussion in a Master's programme in a United Kingdom university. The results suggest that looking for examples of assisted performance in the online exchanges can offer insights into the learning that can take place in online discussion and offers one way of recognising meaningful online interaction, and therefore point to ways of promoting such exchanges.

This paper reports some of the findings from the science subject design initiative team in the ESRC Interactive Education Project at the University of Bristol. The subject culture of secondary school science, characterised by a content‐laden curriculum and assessment, but also with a tradition and requirement for practical work, is briefly described to give a picture of the environment in which the use of ICT was planned. Six science teachers, working in UK comprehensive schools, with between 2 and 18 years experience in the classroom planned subject design initiatives (SDI) in which practical work was simulated by software. Team discussions and individual interviews following the SDIs are summarised and early conclusions presented about the resulting shift in pedagogic approach and subject culture.

This review is intended as a timely introduction to current thinking about the role of computer games in supporting children's learning inside and out of school. It highlights the key areas of research in the field, in particular the increasing interest in pleasurable learning, learning through doing and learning through collaboration, that games seem to offer. At the same time, the review takes a measured tone in acknowledging some of the obstacles and challenges to using games within our current education system and models of learning.

In order to evaluate the potential of Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) or handheld computers to support initial teacher training (ITT), 14 science teacher trainees at the Graduate School of Education in the University of Bristol were given PDAs with mobile phone connectivity to use throughout the academic year. The following areas were identified by the ITT students as definitely being of support during their course; the calendar or diary scheduler for organising themselves, the spreadsheet of attendance or mark book for organising their pupils and the use of a word processor to make notes on information and events immediately they are encountered. However, Internet access via the portable device was the application that the students considered to be most helpful to both teaching and learning. It was concluded that having the Internet literally ‘in the hand’ affords access to tools and information in a way that does indeed function as distributed intelligence. It also appeared to be a particular benefit that the PDAs could be kept hidden in a pocket or handbag, at the student teacher’s side instantly when needed and returned to the pocket once the need was gone, unlike other information and communications technology (ICT) hardware that sits looming large in the classroom and demanding attention.

ABSTRACT This article describes,the evaluation,of the BioEthics Education,Project (http://www. beep.ac.uk), a web-based science-teaching resource with associated,online discussion boards. The BEEP website,was,produced,in an Engaging Science project designed,to support the changing,UK science,curriculum,with its increased,emphasis,on socio-scientific issues. Feedback,from the 22 biology teachers and 112 students,who,took part in the evaluation was,very supportive. Students and teachers really liked the design,and ease of use of the main site, yet most were unwilling or unable to take the time to find out how,to make,the most of the opportunities,for online discussion. Two teachers who,did use the online discussion,were very positive,about the results of the activity. A sea change is occurring in the content of science teaching within the UK. Millar and Osborne (1998) first highlighted the requirement that, in a healthy and vibrant democracy, the public needs to have a broad understanding of major scientific ideas and to be able to engage critically with issues and arguments that involve scientific knowledge. The shifts in the

The two separate projects described have examined how teachers exploit computer-based technologies in supporting learning of science at secondary level. This paper examines how pedagogical approaches associated with these technological tools are adapted to both the cognitive and structuring resources available in the classroom setting. Four teachers participated in the first study, undertaken as part of the InterActive Education project in Bristol; all of them used multimedia simulations in their lessons. The second study presented was part of the wider SET-IT project in Cambridge; 11 teachers in eight schools were observed using multimedia simulations, data logging tools and interactive whiteboards. Teachers were interviewed in all cases to elicit their pedagogical thinking about their classroom use of ICT.The findings suggest that teachers are moving away from only using ‘real’ experiments in their practice. They are exploring the use of technologies to encourage students to engage in “What If” explorations where the outcomes of ‘virtual’ experiments can be immediately accessed, for example through using a simulation. However, this type of activity can serve just as a mechanism for revealing – and indeed reinforcing – students’ informal conceptions if cognitive conflict is not generated or remains unresolved. The teachers in our studies used simulations, data logging, projected animations and other dynamic digital resources as tools to encourage and support prediction and to demonstrate scientific concepts and physical processes – thereby ‘bridging the gap’ between scientific and informal knowledge. They also integrated technology carefully with other practical activities so as to support stepwise knowledge building, consolidation and application.Research of this kind has design implications for both curriculum-related activities and emerging computer-based learning technologies, in terms of helping us to understand how teachers capitalise upon the technology available in supporting students to construct links between scientific theory and empirical evidence.

Sudden cardiac death (SCD) in younger people is rarely due to ischaemic or hypertensive heart disease, but more commonly is a consequence of congenital heart defects, genetic abnormalities affecting the myocardium and other rare non-ischaemic causes. The potentially hereditary causes include cardiomyopathies, primary arrhythmogenic disorders (e.g. channelopathies) and some storage disorders. Here we describe a pragmatic approach to autopsies that may represent SCD due to a potentially hereditary condition. We consider briefly non-cardiac and cardiac causes of sudden death that should be excluded as part of a detailed autopsy investigation. We discuss the circumstances in which genetic analysis of material preserved at autopsy, followed by family screening, should be undertaken. We then describe the recently instigated UK Cardiac Pathology Network that aims to improve and maintain standards of autopsy investigation and to encourage subsequent genetic analysis of relevant material and family screening, in addition to setting up and maintaining a database of SCD due to these rare potentially hereditary conditions in the UK.

This paper documents an exploratory study of the range of digital literacies involved in the playing of a fantasy role play game and in the fan production it inspires. For this study, the game was theorised as a multimodal text, and game play as a social activity. A brief review of the literature relevant to this theorisation is followed by a consideration of the range and variety of associated fan production published on a fan website related to a chosen game. Interviews conducted online with six active producers and consumers of this fan production explore the motivation behind this creative activity. Outcomes are then related to the little available research into fan production in Anglophone game communities, and the implications of such activity for creative production in formal learning contexts are considered.