Browsing by Author "Pallitt, Nicola"

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    A checklist for successful ePortfolios
    (2014-09-18) Pallitt, Nicola
    ePortfolios are digital spaces fpr profiling one's personal and academic accomplishments. This resource provides a list of important points for students to consider as they go about creating a digital profile for their future professional development. The checklist is useful for students looking to sculpt or improve their online portfolios.
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    Children's discourse and software use in a Western Cape primary school
    (2008) Pallitt, Nicola; Walton
    Children's discourse and software use were studied during computer lab sessions in a primary school in Athlone, South Africa. Conversation analysis and multimodal discourse analysis are used to study variations in children's discourse as they used email, a search engine and numeracy software . The children's limited range of discursive roles suggest a 'schooled' use of the software, since most of their activities are framed within the Initiation, Response, Feedback (IRF) pattern dominant in 'conventional' classroom discourse. Observations suggest that software is used in socially situated ways, thus challenging assumptions about the 'digital divide' and the determining power of technology. Software use is nonetheless associated with variations in discourse, marked by different configurations of an IRF discourse structure. Computer labs are unconventional classrooms, but not necessarily in ways that fulfill the radical claims of those who imagine that computers are a straightforward channel that allows children direct access to 'content' or 'the curriculum'. Consequently, 'ordinary' software applications such as search engines, browsers and email acquire different meanings in this context of use, marked by the power differentials implicit in South African educational practices, resourcing, and local classroom discourse. Transcribed video recordings of children's interactions in the computer lab allow a nuanced analysis of the nature of the work of schooling and learning in this context. These recordings reveal social negotiation, institutional and other power relations, and a marked scarcity of resources for communication via this channel. The observations suggest that teachers and children engage in complex discursive interactions around school, learning, and play as they use computers. Power relations established through these discourses are significant features of the children's experiences. Notions of 'access' are central to discussions of social equity and ICTs. This study reformulates 'access' to draw attention to the importance of children's limited access to certain discursive roles, and to the complex patterns of conflict and collaboration in the use of semiotic and other communicative resources in the computer lab. This study argues that the 'rules' of particular genres curtail children's access to particular discursive roles. The institutional 'rules' of classroom discourse play a central role, as do the algorithmic rules of the software. The analysis presented in the study will help teachers to understand the linguistic and semiotic processes central to children's learning in such environments. Workplace and consumer applications take on a particular discursive character in classroom use. The communicative possibilities of these applications are limited unless the children are initiated into the social groupings and discursive practices associated with their use. Although children often display creativity in exploiting the affordances of different types of software, there is an additional tension between the discourses they are assumed to be accessing (such as knowledge as inquiry or mathematical register) and the interplay of discourses suggested by the children's actual software use.
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    Gender identities at play : children's digital gaming in two settings in Cape Town.
    (2013) Pallitt, Nicola; Walton, Marion; Prinsloo, Mastin
    This thesis investigates children's gaming relationships with peers in out-of-school settings, and explores their interpretation of digital games as gendered media texts. As an interdisciplinary study, it combines insights from Childhood Studies, Cultural Studies, Game Studies, domestication and performance theory. The concept ludic gendering is developed in order to explain how gender "works" in games, as designed semiotic and ludic artefacts. Ludic gendering also helps to explain the appropriation of games through gameplay, and the interpretation of gendered rules and representations. The study expands on audience reception research to account for children's "readings" of digital games. Social Network Analysis (SNA) is used to study gaming relationships. Combining SNA with broadly ethnographic methods provided a systematic way of investigating children's peer relationships and gendered play.
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    “I am trying to practice good teaching”: Reconceptualizing eportfolios for professional development in vocational higher education
    (British Journal of Educational Technology, 2016-03-23) Pallitt, Nicola; Winberg, Christine
    Teaching portfolios have become increasingly important to university teachers. Portfolio requirements for the appointment or promotion of academic staff recognize that the assessment of teaching practice requires more depth and detail than a candidate's academic CV generally affords. The focus of this study is the electronic teaching portfolios, developed for purposes of promotion, in a vocational higher education context. Data were obtained from candidates' eportfolios, from precourse and end-of-course surveys, as well as from eportfolio assessors' formative and summative feedback. The analysis of the data reveals tensions arising from portfolio building in the particular context of vocational higher education. The nature of the vocational field impacts not only on teaching and learning practice, but on how academic staff choose to present their practice in an eportfolio. The paper argues that the constraints and enablements of context, including the disciplinary context, as well as the possibilities and limitations of agency, will strongly influence the purposes of eportfolio development and the extent to which university teachers can exercise agency in the creation of an eportfolio in a “high stakes” context. The findings can help university appointments and promotions committees, as well as educational developers, to better understand these enablements and constraints in order to inform policy and implementation. This is the postprint of an article that first appeared in the British Journal of Educational Technology.
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    Position Paper: Personal Mobile Devices and Laptops as Learning Tools
    (2015) Brown, Cheryl; Pallitt, Nicola
    This document was originally co-authored as a position paper for Higher Education South Africa (HESA). It discusses the usefulness of personal mobile devices and laptops as learning tools in higher education learning environments, examining the affordances of these devices both in and beyond the classroom. It provides an overview of current uses in South African universities (where laptop and tablet initiatives are still relatively novel) and offers recommendations for the successful implementation of such projects.
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    Position Paper: ePortfolios
    (2015) Pallitt, Nicola; Strydom, Sonja; Evala, Eunice
    This document was co-authored as a position paper for Higher Education South Africa. It offers a broad overview of the current ePortfolio landscape. It discusses various definitions and characteristics of ePortfolios, forms of online showcasing often confused with ePortfolios, challenges and opportunities associated with ePortfolio integration, current international trends and presents a regional perspective on local uptake of ePortfolios across Higher Education Institutions in the Western Cape.
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    Student Video Production: Assignment to Assessment
    (2013-07-05) Pallitt, Nicola; Chetty, Rulisha;
    The value of student video productions in higher education is often understated in discussions related to ICTs in education, where the topic of lecture recording dominates. This concerns students’ consumption of video rather than production. We would like to shift from the notion of video as just a resource to focus on video as a teaching and learning strategy/task where the end product is as important as the filmmaking process. This guide takes you through the process of setting up the assignment and preparing students for it, video editing software, ethical and legal issues to consider as well as how to assess student video projects. It is published under a Creative Commons license. Download the PDF or view on ISSUU.