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One notable "disruptive" impact of massive open online courses (MOOCs) has been an increased public discussion of online education. While much debate over the potential and challenges of MOOCs has taken place online confined largely to niche communities of practitioners and advocates, the rise of corporate "xMOOC" ventures such as Coursera, edX and Udacity has prompted popular mass media interest at levels not seen with previous educational innovations. This article addresses this important societal outcome of the recent emergence of MOOCs as an educational form by examining the popular discursive construction of MOOCs over the past 24 months within mainstream news media sources in United States, Australia and the UK. In particular, we provide a critical account of what has been an important phase in the history of educational technology--detailing a period when popular discussion of MOOCs has far outweighed actual use/participation. We argue that a critical analysis of MOOC discourse throughout the past two years highlights broader societal struggles over education and digital technology--capturing a significant moment before these debates subside with the anticipated normalization and assimilation of MOOCs into educational practice. This analysis also sheds light on the influences underpinning how many people perceive MOOCs thereby leading to a better understanding of acceptance/adoption and rejection/resistance amongst various professional and popular publics.

This article reviews two recent books on the rising use of digital data in schools and university education, reflecting on areas of further research, analysis, and action. The books discussed are: (1) "The datafication of primary and early years education: playing with numbers," by A. Bradbury and G. Roberts-Holmes, London, Routledge, 2017, 158 pp., £84.23 (hardback), ISBN 978-1-13-824217-3; and (2) "Big data in education: the digital future of learning, policy and practice," by B. Williamson, London, Sage, 2017, 256 pp., £85.00 (hardback), ISBN 978-1-47-394800-6.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have been a prominent topic of recent educational discussion and debate. MOOCs are, in essence, university-affiliated courses offered to large groups of online learners for little or no cost and are seen by many as a bellwether for change and reform across higher education systems. This study uses content and discourse analysis methods to examine how understandings of MOOC-related "change" were presented in US, UK and Australian newspapers. Drawing on detailed analysis of 457 newspaper articles published between 2011 and 2013, the findings point to a predominant portrayal of MOOCs in relation to the massification, marketization and monetization of higher education, rather than engaging in debate of either "technological" or "educational" issues such as online learning and pedagogy, instructional design or student experience. The article then considers the reasons underpinning this restricted framing of what many commentators have touted as a radical educational form--not least the apparently close association between MOOCs and the economics of higher education.

From the mid-1970s to the early 1980s, schools micro-computing in the UK developed from being a niche "hobbyist" activity to a prominent, officially mandated element of the national education system. Drawing on in-depth interviews with key actors of the time, this paper outlines the initial varied interpretations of schools micro-computing in the UK, identifying the social groups that were involved in pursuing these interpretations, and then considering which meanings and values gained dominance over others. This "social shaping" analysis highlights the processes that underpinned the gradual stabilisation of the meaning(s) around the micro-computer in an educational context. The paper concludes by considering how the eventually dominant interpretations of schools micro-computing can be explained in terms of the technological frames of relevant social groups--not least the differing determinist assumptions of groups hoping to encourage the radical computer-led transformation of schools and schooling, as opposed to those seeking the continuation of established interests.

While it is generally acknowledged that being "historically informed" lies at the heart of critical accounts of education policy-making, the use of historically focused retrospective research methods within the field is rare. This paper makes the case for retrospective research at a time when some of the most significant episodes of post-war educational policy-making are fast passing into the realms of not-so-recent history. In particular, it is argued that current policy scholars now have an opportunity to revisit the issues and concerns regarding the formation of the "New Right" education policy reforms 30?years ago. Drawing on the experiences of a recently completed study of educational policy-making during the 1979-1983 Thatcher administration, it is argued that retrospective methods offer a surprisingly rich opportunity to collect primary data from the policy elites of the 1980s. It is concluded that the time is right for the production of a useful addendum to the founding studies of educational policy sociology that were conducted at the time.

This paper examines the emergence of schools "micro-computing" in the UK between 1977 and 1984--a period of significant educational, technological and political change. During this time, computing developed rapidly from a niche activity in a few select schools to the state subsidized purchasing of a "computer in every school" and the nationwide promotion of computers as a feature of curriculum and pedagogy. Through a series of in-depth retrospective interviews with key policy actors (n = 20) this paper develops a detailed "policy historiography" of this period--shedding light on the complex power relations and interests that underpinned these developments. In particular, the paper highlights the origins of these policy interventions in earlier activities, and examines the negotiations and conflicts between and within the two government departments involved in the mass introduction of computing into the UK school system.

Covering a decade during which the "digital divide" came to popular and political attention, and written at a time when the Internet continues to be championed as a means of widening access to educational opportunities, this paper presents an analysis of the social, economic and educational characteristics associated with using the Internet for educational purposes. The research was conducted using nationally-representative, individual-level, repeated cross-sectional data (n = 47,001) collected in annual surveys of adults in the UK between 2002 and 2010. The results of multivariate analyses show that although there was a substantial increase in both Internet access and non-educational use of the Internet during this period, there was comparatively little growth in "educational" Internet use. As with participation in adult learning more generally, educational Internet use was structured by age, occupational class and educational engagement. The growth in the availability of Internet access and the development of new technologies appears to have neither increased nor widened participation in adult learning. This growth does not appear to have impacted on the social characteristics of those who use the Internet for educational purposes, nor led to any substantial uptake in Internet-based learning among already educationally-active groups. (Contains 10 tables and 3 notes.)

This article considers the uses and non-uses of digital technology by international distance learners. It draws upon data from in-depth interviews with 60 learners from around the world following distance education degree courses provided by a large UK federal university. The article focuses firstly on learners' descriptions of technology's role in the processes and practices of their studying. The article then goes on to consider how the process of studying with technology fitted with learners' perceptions and understandings of distance learning and higher education in general--as well as temporal constraints of work and domestic commitments. The article concludes by considering how the ambivalences and contradictions that appear to characterise student (non)use of technology during their studies serve to reinforce, rather than overcome, a traditional didactic "grammar" of university education. (Contains 1 table and 1 note.)

Schools' use of digital technology has so far proved to be a peripheral feature of the Conservative-Liberal education agenda. Through a series of reductions to previously extensive bureaucratic and funding structures, the Coalition administration has presided over a swift but sustained withdrawal of state support for digital technology use in schools. Many commentators have been quick to decry these actions as signalling an ill-informed "absence of ambition" for what could be seen as an integral area of twenty-first century educational provision. However, this paper contends that the Coalition's apparent technological indifference instead marks a deliberate "ambition of absence". Thus as well as contributing to immediate reductions in central government spending, the apparent shunning of educational technology policy-making has been driven by the Coalition's long-term ambitions for localised and largely privatised forms of public sector governance. With this in mind, the paper considers the intended influence of the Coalition's policy reversals on the future use of digital technology in UK schools. It is suggested that rather than constituting an irreversible crisis, the current withdrawal of state support is perhaps best understood as a continuation of the fluctuating cycle of government (dis)interest in educational technology over the past 30 years. (Contains 1 note.)

The concept of "flexibility" lies at the heart of contemporary post-compulsory education. Educational institutions are now expected to take a flexible approach to their provision of courses, as well as staffing, curriculum and assessment arrangements. Similarly, individual learners are expected to take an increasingly pragmatic, adaptable and reflexive approach to their studies. While a number of academic critiques have focused on the implications of these shifts from the point of view of educational institutions and those who work within them, less attention has been paid to how individual learners encounter and act upon the presumed flexibilities of their educational engagement. This paper examines how notions of flexibility were present within the individual "learner experience" of a varied sample of distance learners (n=60) from around the world, all taking UK-provided degree courses. Drawing on in-depth interview data, the paper highlights a set of recurring tensions between individual agency and social structure that appear to underpin the distance learner experience. In particular, the paper discusses how most learners managed to sustain only a limited "strategic flexibility" towards their learning--especially in terms of negotiating issues of time, space, place and existing familial and employment roles. Moreover, the extent to which individuals were able to "conduct" the nature of their studies appears to be influenced significantly by gender, lifestage and employment/occupational status. The paper therefore concludes by discussing the need to adjust academic and policy assumptions of the "freedoms" of globalised distance education. (Contains 1 note and 1 table.)

Social networking sites such as "Facebook" and "MySpace" have been subject to much recent debate within the educational community. Whilst growing numbers of educators celebrate the potential of social networking to (re)engage learners with their studies, others fear that such applications compromise and disrupt young people's engagement with "traditional" education provision. With these ongoing debates in mind, the current paper presents an in-depth qualitative analysis of the "Facebook" "wall" activity of 909 undergraduate students in a UK university. Analysis of these data shows how much of students' education-related use of this social networking application was based around either the "post-hoc" critiquing of learning experiences and events, the exchange of logistical or factual information about teaching and assessment requirements, instances of supplication and moral support with regards to assessment or learning, or the promotion of oneself as academically incompetent and/or disengaged. With these themes in mind, the paper concludes that rather than necessarily enhancing or eroding students' "front-stage" engagement with their formal studies, "Facebook" use must be seen as being situated within the "identity politics" of being a student. In particular, "Facebook" appears to provide a ready space where the "role conflict" that students often experience in their relationships with university work, teaching staff, academic conventions and expectations can be worked through in a relatively closed "backstage" area. (Contains 1 note.)

"Realising the potential of new technology" was one of the central educational themes of New Labour's 1997 election manifesto, with "information and communications technology" (ICT) established subsequently as a prominent feature of the Blair administration policy portfolio. As such New Labour can claim rightly to have made an unprecedented and sustained political commitment to technology in education, directing over 5 billion British Pounds of funding towards educational ICT during the 1997 to 2007 period. Yet the fact remains that the New Labour ICT agenda has failed to achieve the much promised technological "transformation" of the UK education system. With this in mind the present paper develops the argument that New Labour's concern with educational ICT was driven primarily by concerns over enhancing competitiveness in a globalising economy, creating a lifelong learning system fit for a successful knowledge economy and modernising the formal education sector. Thus whilst New Labour's ICT agenda may well have had the short term impact of increasing the physical presence of ICT resources in all education institutions, its longer-term educational legacy was compromised by the wider macro-level issues it purported to address. As such the legacy of this high-profile segment of policy-making should be seen primarily in terms of establishing ICT as an ideological presence in the UK education system.

Whilst the copying, falsification and plagiarism of essays and assignments has long been a prevalent form of academic misconduct amongst undergraduate students, the increasing use of the internet in higher education has raised concern over enhanced levels of online plagiarism and new types of "cyber-cheating". Based on a self-report study of 1222 undergraduate students, this paper explores the nature and patterning of online plagiarism amongst students in UK higher educational institutions. The data find around three-fifths of students self-reporting at least a moderate level of internet-based plagiarism during the past 12 months, with significant differences in terms of gender, educational background and--most notably--subject discipline. Students' online plagiarism was also found to correlate strongly with their self-reported levels of offline plagiarism. The data therefore highlight the need to contextualize online plagiarism in relation to the wider "life-world" of the contemporary university student and, in particular, the role of the internet in their everyday non-academic lives. The paper concludes by discussing how university authorities may go about addressing internet-based plagiarism in the contemporary university setting. (Contains 5 tables.)

Although there is a growing interest in the victimisation of university students, the issue of student offending has been largely overlooked in the criminology and education literatures. Based on a self-report study of 1215 undergraduate students at UK higher education institutions, this article explores the level and nature of student perpetration of criminal acts whilst at university, as well as students' understandings and rationalisations of their criminal behaviours. Whilst the data show the majority of students to be involved in what can be classed as minor, and often anti-social, offending rather than more serious crime, there was also a sense from respondents that such offences were often an accepted and sometimes expected part of the everyday "student experience". The article, therefore, goes on to discuss the extent to which student offending is part of a distinct "undergraduate habitus", rather than being merely symptomatic of general societal trends of young people and crime. The article concludes by considering what implications this analysis may have for future attempts to address student offending by universities and crime enforcement authorities. (Contains 7 tables.)

Based on survey data from 1222 undergraduate students studying at UK higher education institutions, this article addresses students' engagement with the internet as a source of academic information for their studies. In particular the article explores how academic use of the internet is patterned by a range of potential influences such as students' wider internet use, access and expertise, their year of study, gender, age, ethnic and educational background. Analysis of these data suggests that students' academic internet use is most strongly patterned along the lines of gender and subject-specialism rather than other individual characteristics or differences in technology access or expertise. The article therefore considers how these differences can be addressed by those seeking to encourage ICT-based learning across all sectors of the undergraduate population. (Contains 3 tables.)

Government support for the production and consumption of educational software is now a key element of New Labour's education technology drive. At present much attention is being directed towards marketing "digital learning" to an educational sector traditionally wary of technological innovation. In an effort to understand the social shaping of this current phase of policy-making, the present paper examines the political and commercial discourses surrounding digital learning and associated initiatives such as "Curriculum Online" and the "Digital Curriculum." After analysing a range of political and commercial texts produced from 2000 to 2005, the paper explores the dominant themes emerging from these discursive constructions--considering in particular the limitations of the often ambiguous yet structured ways in which digital learning is being shaped by its key actors. (Contains 2 tables and 4 figures.)

Educational commentators have long feared a "digital disconnection" between emerging generations of technology-rich students accustomed to high levels of Internet use and their technology-poor schools. Yet few studies have empirically examined the existence and potential implications of such a disconnect from the students' perspective. The present paper replicates Levin and Arafeh's (2002) US study which solicited online stories from students detailing how they used the Internet for school. Responses from 84 UK secondary school students show that just over half felt restricted in their Internet use at school. Unlike the original US study, the primary disconnect between UK Internet-using students and their schools was not one of physical access but the restriction of their Internet use through school rules and content filters, firewalls and other technologies of control. Whilst some students displayed frustration and disenchantment, most gave measured and sometimes sympathetic views of their schools' less-than-perfect information technology provision. As such, many of our students were well aware of a digital disconnect but displayed a pragmatic acceptance rather than the outright alienation from school that some commentators would suggest. (Contains 1 note and 1 table.)

This paper is based on 1001 home-based interviews with UK adults. It describes their varying patterns of participation in lifelong learning and their use of technology for learning and leisure. It finds that 37% of all adults report no further education of any kind after reaching compulsory school leaving age. This proportion declines with each age cohort, but is largely replaced by a pattern of lengthening initial education and still reporting no later education. These patterns of participation are predictable to a large extent from regression analysis using a life-order model of determining variables--all of which are set very early in life. This suggests that universal theories to describe participation, such as human capital theory, are incorrect in several respects. Where individuals create, for themselves and through their early experiences, a 'learner identity' inimicable to further study, then the prospect of learning can become a burden rather than an investment for them. This has implications for the now widespread and extensively funded notion of overcoming barriers to access via technology.

Within the hyperbole surrounding information and communications technologies (ICTs) and lifelong learning, our understanding of what learning activities ICTs are actually being used for throughout the adult population remains under-developed. Based on a household survey of 1001 adults in the west of England and South Wales, this article considers who amongst the adult population is using ICTs and what they are using them for. Moreover, the article also takes time to consider who is not using ICTs for learning given the widespread claims made about ICTs' potential for social inclusion. The survey data show that within adults' use of computers and the Internet, education and learning are minority activities, most commonly taking the form of informal learning at home. Moreover, any educative use of ICTs appears to be patterned by a number of social factors. In particular, logistic regression analysis shows that whether or not an individual uses ICTs for educative purposes can be predicted (with 82% accuracy) by the five variables of age, gender, educational background, occupational class and area of residence. The article concludes by discussing these findings in relation to the United Kingdom Government's present lifelong learning agenda. (Contains 13 tables and 4 notes.)

Analysis of British survey data on 5,885 adults showed that 42% reported learning participation in the last 3 years; 36% reported none since leaving school. Access to information/communications technology was associated with age, class, and educational attainment. Technology did not itself increase participation among those already inclined not to participate. (Contains 35 references.) (SK)

Policy discourse about lifelong learning has shifted from economic imperative to social and moral pursuit and intrinsic good. Despite this, the emphasis on technological solutions in Information Age discourse subjugates social, civic, and political concerns to an economic competitiveness rationale. (Contains 66 references.) (SK)

Discussion of information and communications technology in the United Kingdom focuses on contrasting government rhetoric concerning post-compulsory electronic learning with an analysis of data from the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education survey. Results suggest that access to ICT does not in itself make people more likely to participate in education. (Author/LRW)

The costly National Grid for Learning initiative embodies the fast-growing influence of both market and technological forces in UK education. An initial study reveals that the NGFL does not represent a radical shift toward business-dominated educational policy-making, but reflects New Labour's "healthy pragmatism" toward policy borrowing. (Contains 61 references.) (MLH)

Discusses educational computer advertising developed by information and communications technology (ICT) firms in the United Kingdom, arguing that such advertisements present a disempowering view of teachers, which may well impact teacher use of instructional technology. The paper highlights four dominant themes: ICT as problematic and problem solving for teachers and ICT as futuristic and traditional forms of education. (SM)

Investigated British teachers' use of an online discussion group over 2 years. Results indicate that, although the online forum was widely used as both an information and empathetic exchange resource, many claims of establishing collectively- focused virtual communities of teachers remain exaggerated, as the forum was limited by various caveats associated with computer mediated communications groups in general. (SM)

Reports on a study of secondary students in the United Kingdom that examined the gender and social competency of frequent and infrequent computer users. Results suggest that frequent users are just as likely to be female and no less sociable, contrary to persistent stereotyping of computer users as antisocial males. (Author/LRW)

England's 1.6 billion-pound National Grid for Learning initiative represents an unprecedented government commitment to educational use of information and communications technology (ICT). NGfL will integrate ICT into all schooling areas via increased funding, teacher training, and simulation of a systemwide "ICT culture." Implications and challenges abound. (Contains 27 references.) (MLH)

Noting the emerging global policyscape toward creating global information networks, this article analyzes policymaking across Europe, the United States, and East Asia. Employing a political-economy perspective, it compares seven countries' networks, highlighting the state's role and varying relationships among education, economy, and society, and outlines a research agenda. (Contains 68 references.) (MLH)

Creation of technologically based "virtual education" has been portrayed as a means of widening access to lifelong-learning opportunities for those currently excluded. An examination of these claims in light of UK nonparticipants' characteristics and common barriers reveals that technological fixes will solve some problems, create others, and leave many unaffected. (Contains 67 references.) (MLH)

Examined the depiction and positioning of teachers, technology, students, and information technology (IT) firms in educational information and communications technology advertisements, discussing the paucity of teacher representation within advertisements and the recurring representation of teachers and technology on a dream/nightmare basis, where technology and IT firms enable the dream of individualized learning free from the nightmare of teacher involvement. (SM)

The factors influencing students' decisions not to use computers during their education are explored, using focus-group interviews with 96 secondary and college students in the United Kingdom. Three main constructs underlying students' rejection of educational computing are defined, and how educational computing can be reconstructed is discussed. (SLD)

Massive Open Online Courses ( MOOCs) have been a prominent topic of recent educational discussion and debate. MOOCs are, in essence, university-affiliated courses offered to large groups of online learners for little or no cost and are seen by many as a bellwether for change and reform across higher education systems. This study uses content and discourse analysis methods to examine how understandings of MOOC-related 'change' were presented in US, UK and Australian newspapers. Drawing on detailed analysis of 457 newspaper articles published between 2011 and 2013, the findings point to a predominant portrayal of MOOCs in relation to the massification, marketization and monetization of higher education, rather than engaging in debate of either 'technological' or 'educational' issues such as online learning and pedagogy, instructional design or student experience. The article then considers the reasons underpinning this restricted framing of what many commentators have touted as a radical educational form-not least the apparently close association between MOOCs and the economics of higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The academic study of educational technology is often characterised by critics as methodologically limited. In order to test this assumption, the present paper reports on data collected from a survey of 462 'research active' academic researchers working in the broad areas of educational technology and educational media. The paper explores their familiarity and expertise with various methods of data collection and analysis. Data from the survey highlight a preference for relatively basic forms of descriptive research, coupled with a lack of capacity in advanced quantitative data collection and analysis. The paper concludes with some directions for 'methodological capacity building' to broaden the use of methods in educational technology research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the mid-1970s to the early 1980s, schools micro-computing in the UK developed from being a niche ‘hobbyist’ activity to a prominent, officially mandated element of the national education system. Drawing on in-depth interviews with key actors of the time, this paper outlines the initial varied interpretations of schools micro-computing in the UK, identifying the social groups that were involved in pursuing these interpretations, and then considering which meanings and values gained dominance over others. This ‘social shaping’ analysis highlights the processes that underpinned the gradual stabilisation of the meaning(s) around the micro-computer in an educational context. The paper concludes by considering how the eventually dominant interpretations of schools micro-computing can be explained in terms of the technological frames of relevant social groups—not least the differing determinist assumptions of groups hoping to encourage the radical computer-led transformation of schools and schooling, as opposed to those seeking the continuation of established interests. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the emergence of schools ‘micro-computing’ in the UK between 1977 and 1984 – a period of significant educational, technological and political change. During this time, computing developed rapidly from a niche activity in a few select schools to the state subsidized purchasing of a ‘computer in every school’ and the nationwide promotion of computers as a feature of curriculum and pedagogy. Through a series of in-depth retrospective interviews with key policy actors (n=20) this paper develops a detailed ‘policy historiography’ of this period - shedding light on the complex power relations and interests that underpinned these developments. In particular, the paper highlights the origins of these policy interventions in earlier activities, and examines the negotiations and conflicts between and within the two government departments involved in the mass introduction of computing into the UK school system. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While it is generally acknowledged that being ‘historically informed’ lies at the heart of critical accounts of education policy-making, the use of historically focused retrospective research methods within the field is rare. This paper makes the case for retrospective research at a time when some of the most significant episodes of post-war educational policy-making are fast passing into the realms of not-so-recent history. In particular, it is argued that current policy scholars now have an opportunity to revisit the issues and concerns regarding the formation of the ‘New Right’ education policy reforms 30 years ago. Drawing on the experiences of a recently completed study of educational policy-making during the 1979–1983 Thatcher administration, it is argued that retrospective methods offer a surprisingly rich opportunity to collect primary data from the policy elites of the 1980s. It is concluded that the time is right for the production of a useful addendum to the founding studies of educational policy sociology that were conducted at the time. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents the results of multi-variate analyses of the social, economic and educational characteristics associated with reporting both access to the Internet and using the Internet for four key purposes: banking and finance, purchasing goods or services, accessing government or official services and looking for work or employment. The research was conducted using nationally representative, individual-level, repeated cross-sectional data (n = 47,001) collected in annual surveys in the UK between 2002 and 2010. The results of the analyses show that although Internet access and use have increased over the period studied, both continue to be structured according to occupational class, educational background and, to some extent, age. The sex and ethnicity of respondents had little impact on the probability of reporting Internet access and were only strongly related to using the Internet for purchasing goods or services. Additionally, the presence of children in a household was unimportant in relation to both Internet access or use. While the findings differ slightly from previous studies they confirm that both Internet access and use remain structured along socio-economic and educational lines that work against already disadvantaged groups. This has remained the case in the UK throughout the 2000s despite considerable technological change and policy interventions specifically targeting marginalized sections of society. The paper concludes that policy interventions aimed at both increasing and widening Internet access and use will be ineffective unless the social, rather than technological, basis of inequalities in access and use are recognized. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Covering a decade during which the “digital divide” came to popular and political attention, and written at a time when the Internet continues to be championed as a means of widening access to educational opportunities, this paper presents an analysis of the social, economic and educational characteristics associated with using the Internet for educational purposes. The research was conducted using nationally-representative, individual-level, repeated cross-sectional data (n = 47,001) collected in annual surveys of adults in the UK between 2002 and 2010. The results of multivariate analyses show that although there was a substantial increase in both Internet access and non-educational use of the Internet during this period, there was comparatively little growth in “educational” Internet use. As with participation in adult learning more generally, educational Internet use was structured by age, occupational class and educational engagement. The growth in the availability of Internet access and the development of new technologies appears to have neither increased nor widened participation in adult learning. This growth does not appear to have impacted on the social characteristics of those who use the Internet for educational purposes, nor led to any substantial uptake in Internet-based learning among already educationally-active groups. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Schools’ use of digital technology has so far proved to be a peripheral feature of the Conservative-Liberal education agenda. Through a series of reductions to previously extensive bureaucratic and funding structures, the Coalition administration has presided over a swift but sustained withdrawal of state support for digital technology use in schools. Many commentators have been quick to decry these actions as signalling an ill-informed “absence of ambition” for what could be seen as an integral area of twenty-first century educational provision. However, this paper contends that the Coalition’s apparent technological indifference instead marks a deliberate “ambition of absence”. Thus as well as contributing to immediate reductions in central government spending, the apparent shunning of educational technology policy-making has been driven by the Coalition’s long-term ambitions for localised and largely privatised forms of public sector governance. With this in mind, the paper considers the intended influence of the Coalition’s policy reversals on the future use of digital technology in UK schools. It is suggested that rather than constituting an irreversible crisis, the current withdrawal of state support is perhaps best understood as a continuation of the fluctuating cycle of government (dis)interest in educational technology over the past 30 years. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The concept of 'flexibility' lies at the heart of contemporary post-compulsory education. Educational institutions are now expected to take a flexible approach to their provision of courses, as well as staffing, curriculum and assessment arrangements. Similarly, individual learners are expected to take an increasingly pragmatic, adaptable and reflexive approach to their studies. While a number of academic critiques have focused on the implications of these shifts from the point of view of educational institutions and those who work within them, less attention has been paid to how individual learners encounter and act upon the presumed flexibilities of their educational engagement. This paper examines how notions of flexibility were present within the individual 'learner experience' of a varied sample of distance learners (n=60) from around the world, all taking UK-provided degree courses. Drawing on in-depth interview data, the paper highlights a set of recurring tensions between individual agency and social structure that appear to underpin the distance learner experience. In particular, the paper discusses how most learners managed to sustain only a limited 'strategic flexibility' towards their learning-especially in terms of negotiating issues of time, space, place and existing familial and employment roles. Moreover, the extent to which individuals were able to 'conduct' the nature of their studies appears to be influenced significantly by gender, lifestage and employment/occupational status. The paper therefore concludes by discussing the need to adjust academic and policy assumptions of the 'freedoms' of globalised distance education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the uses and non-uses of digital technology by international distance learners. It draws upon data from in-depth interviews with 60 learners from around the world following distance education degree courses provided by a large UK federal university. The article focuses firstly on learners' descriptions of technology's role in the processes and practices of their studying. The article then goes on to consider how the process of studying with technology fitted with learners' perceptions and understandings of distance learning and higher education in general - as well as temporal constraints of work and domestic commitments. The article concludes by considering how the ambivalences and contradictions that appear to characterise student (non)use of technology during their studies serve to reinforce, rather than overcome, a traditional didactic 'grammar' of university education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace have been subject to much recent debate within the educational community. Whilst growing numbers of educators celebrate the potential of social networking to (re)engage learners with their studies, others fear that such applications compromise and disrupt young people's engagement with 'traditional' education provision. With these ongoing debates in mind, the current paper presents an in-depth qualitative analysis of the Facebook 'wall' activity of 909 undergraduate students in a UK university. Analysis of these data shows how much of students' education-related use of this social networking application was based around either the post-hoc critiquing of learning experiences and events, the exchange of logistical or factual information about teaching and assessment requirements, instances of supplication and moral support with regards to assessment or learning, or the promotion of oneself as academically incompetent and/or disengaged. With these themes in mind, the paper concludes that rather than necessarily enhancing or eroding students' 'front-stage' engagement with their formal studies, Facebook use must be seen as being situated within the 'identity politics' of being a student. In particular, Facebook appears to provide a ready space where the 'role conflict' that students often experience in their relationships with university work, teaching staff, academic conventions and expectations can be worked through in a relatively closed 'backstage' area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whilst the area of young people and crime has been the focus of much academic research, the specific issue of the victimisation of university students has remained relatively under-examined. Based on a survey of 1,215 undergraduate students studying in UK higher education institutions, this paper examines the levels and nature of student victimisation alongside students' rationalisations for falling victim to crime whilst at university. These data reflect a sense that crime is an underlying feature of undergraduate student life in the UK, with just under a third of the surveyed students reporting being a victim of crime during their previous three-month term at university. Moreover, the qualitative data from the survey showed victimisation to be an often accepted element of student life. Whilst the data highlight some obvious practical opportunities for university and crime reduction organisations to address these patterns of victimisation, any significant amelioration will not be achieved without fundamentally changing undergraduates' expectations and understandings of the student lifestyle as well as the prevailing routine activities and 'student cultures' which underpin their often submissive responses to being victims of crime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Realising the potential of new technology' was one of the central educational themes of New Labour's 1997 election manifesto, with 'information and communications technology' (ICT) established subsequently as a prominent feature of the Blair administration policy portfolio. As such New Labour can claim rightly to have made an unprecedented and sustained political commitment to technology in education, directing over £5 billion of funding towards educational ICT during the 1997 to 2007 period. Yet the fact remains that the New Labour ICT agenda has failed to achieve the much promised technological 'transformation' of the UK education system. With this in mind the present paper develops the argument that New Labour's concern with educational ICT was driven primarily by concerns over enhancing competitiveness in a globalising economy, creating a lifelong learning system fit for a successful knowledge economy and modernising the formal education sector. Thus whilst New Labour's ICT agenda may well have had the short term impact of increasing the physical presence of ICT resources in all education institutions, its longer-term educational legacy was compromised by the wider macro-level issues it purported to address. As such the legacy of this high-profile segment of policy-making should be seen primarily in terms of establishing ICT as an ideological presence in the UK education system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Based on survey data from 1222 undergraduate students studying at UK higher education institutions, this article addresses students' engagement with the internet as a source of academic information for their studies. In particular the article explores how academic use of the internet is patterned by a range of potential influences such as students' wider internet use, access and expertise, their year of study, gender, age, ethnic and educational background. Analysis of these data suggests that students' academic internet use is most strongly patterned along the lines of gender and subject-specialism rather than other individual characteristics or differences in technology access or expertise. The article therefore considers how these differences can be addressed by those seeking to encourage ICT-based learning across all sectors of the undergraduate population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]