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This paper describes the integration of the Conzilla concept browser and the Confolio portfolio management system with the FlashMeeting videoconferencing tool. The result of this integration is expected to produce a combined tool, CoCoFlash, which can support a powerful e-learning model.

Eight teachers were interviewed concerning how students verify conjectures. The study is a sequel to a previous study, “How Students Verify Conjectures” [Bergqvist, T. (2000). How students verify conjectures. Research reports in Mathematics Education 3]. Teachers’ expectations of students’ reasoning and performance are examined, and also how they wish students would work. The results indicate that the teachers tend to underestimate the students’ reasoning levels and that they believe that only a small group of students in each class can use higher level reasoning in mathematics.

This dissertation consists of four articles and a summary. The main focus of the studies is students' explorations in upper secondary school mathematics.

In the first study the central research question was to find out if the students could learn something difficult by using the graphing calculator. The students were working with questions connected to factorisation of quadratic polynomials, and the factor theorem. The results indicate that the students got a better understanding for the factor theorem, and for the connection between graphical and algebraical representations.

The second study focused on a the last part of an investigation, the verification of an idea or a conjecture. Students were given three conjectures and asked to decide if they were true or false, and also to explain why the conjectures were true or false. In this study I found that the students wanted to use rather abstract mathematics in order to verify the conjectures.

Since the results from the second study disagreed with other research in similar situations, I wanted to see what Swedish teachers had to say of the students' ways to verify the conjectures.

The third study is an interview study where some teachers were asked what expectations they had on students who were supposed to verify the three conjectures from the second study. The teachers were also confronted with examples from my second study, and asked to comment on how the students performed. The results indicate that teachers tend to underestimate students' mathematical reasoning.

A central focus to all my three studies is explorations in mathematics. My fourth study, a revised version of a pilot study performed 1998, concerns exactly that: how students in upper secondary school explore a mathematical concept. The results indicate that the students are able to perform explorations in mathematics, and that the graphing calculator has a potential as a pedagogical aid, it can be a support for the students' mathematical reasoning.

Upper secondary students’ task solving reasoning was analysed, with a focus on grounds for different strategy choices and implementations. The results indicate that mathematically well-founded considerations were rare. The dominating reasoning types were algorithmic reasoning, where students tried to remember a suitable algorithm, sometimes in a random way, and guided reasoning, where progress was possible only when essentially all important strategy choices were made by the interviewer.

A three phase model to support process documentation has been developed for use in online courses in the Department of Interactive Media and Learning at Umeå University since 2005. The aim of this model is to integrate the formative and summative purposes of assessment. The model focuses on students’ previous knowledge at the start of the course, reflections on their experience during the course and finally on their learning on completing the course. This paper reports on the analysis of data from the first phase of three phases with a purpose to highlight students’ learner autonomy. This is a part of a larger study on the development of process based assessment in nurse education in a university setting. The study was conducted during the autumn of 2007 in a 15 credit distance learning course. The aim of this research is to study how students engage with the pedagogical situation in distance education when process documents are used for capturing students’ reflections on their learning outcomes. Qualitative data for understanding phase one consists of interviews with two teachers and eight students, students’ process documents with teachers’ feedback and a student questionnaire. The data is analyzed with support of a hermeneutical approach and transcript analysis for understanding the teacher-student interaction. The theoretical work is underpinned by the concepts of transactional distance (Moore, 2007) the thinking of dialogue (Freire, 1970) and autonomous learner.  The result shows that dialogue suffers by the course criteria, too few open questions in teachers’ feedback and on the students’ engagement.

This article reports on an online workshop which was held in October 2006 on the topic of contemporary web 2.0 technologies. The workshop was a part of the European project eLene-Teacher Training. The workshop was organised by two teacher educators in Sweden and 33 participants was enrolled from eight countries in Europe. The workshop took place during one week on the Internet in a blog environment. The workshop is analysed from both a pedagogical and technical perspective. The workshop is evaluated with a questionnaire, analysis of blog posts and podcasts and through reflections from the teacher educators. The result indicates that the technical aims were reached i.e. the participants learned to create podcasts and learned to blog. The pedagogical aims suffered from difficulties to discuss for example attitudes to publishing content on the Internet. Instead pedagogical issues should be raised by the participants.

Two closely related and over-determining myths have shaped government inspired policy towards Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and education: the one is the irresistible power of globalisation, the other is the determining effect of technology. The result of both is to present the acceptance of e-learning throughout the education system as inevitable. The space left for practitioners in Higher Education is either to embrace the new media enthusiastically or to stand aside and watch its inevitable unfolding. In this paper we develop a critical stance towards the dominant discourse and suggest that the shape of new media in education can be, and is being contested. We argue against both technological determinism and the passive acceptance of the neo-liberal globalisation paradigm. No technologies are neutral. They are always the products of real historical social relations as well as the emergent technical capacities they provide. ICTs as artefacts and social processes are already inscribed with gendered assumptions and the accumulation strategies of their purveyors. Moreover, the conditions under which e-learning is being introduced into education are shaped by managerialist agendas. Placing pedagogy at the forefront is therefore to struggle over the terms and shape of the media adopted. We can see this at both the micro and macro level. Our paper exposes the emperor's new clothes while arguing that there is space for critical discourses that can more meaningfully engage with socially available technologies.

Vårt syfte med denna studie är att undersöka vad lärare som använder applikationen omdömeshanteraren i sitt arbete med att skriva omdömen anser och tycker om den. Våra frågeställningar syftar till att ta reda på och försöka få fram både positiva som negativa aspekter på omdömeshanteraren. Vidare vill vi se om faktorer som kön, ålder, ämnestillhörighet och datorvana hos respondenterna påverkar uppfattningen om applikationen.

För att kunna svara på våra frågeställningar har vi lämnat ut en enkät till lärare på två skolor i en större kommun i Norrland. Enkäten har sedan kompletterats med en intervju av en IT-pedagog som jobbar på en av skolorna där enkäten delades ut. Utifrån de enkätsvar vi fick in och den genomförda intervjun har vi kommit fram till att många av de lärare som använder applikationen upplever att arbetet med att skriva omdömen inte är lika tidskrävande som tidigare. De anser också att det är en stor fördel att man som lärare kan arbeta vart man vill och när man vill. Att arbetet också leder till bättre uppföljning och att man tydligare kan se hela bedömningsprocessen upplevs också som positivt. Det vissa lärare och även IT-pedagogen upplever som mindre positivt är att applikationen inte är tillräckligt heltäckande funktionsmässigt och att det är en brist att elever själva inte kan använda applikationen och på så sätt blir mer integrerade i bedömningen. Den faktor som vi kunde se hade påverkan på lärarnas uppfattning och upplevelse om applikationen var deras datorvana. De andra faktorerna har inte visat någon större betydelse.

This thesis deals with the following questions: What do children find negative on the Internet? What counter strategies do they use? How have they developed these strategies? The method used is one-to-one online interviews and the analyses are qualitative in nature. The sample is children in grade 6 of the Swedish compulsory school, aged between 11 and 13. 104 children, 52 girls and 52 boys, from different parts of Sweden were interviewed.

The media debate seems to display consensus regarding what threats the Internet poses to young people. The conclusion of this thesis is, however, that children’s views of the Internet in many ways differ from the media related adult view. The children of this study do not express a great deal of anxiety about the negative sides of the Internet. They are aware of, and can describe many downsides but these are not present in their everyday use of the Internet. Digging deeper it turns out that many children have in fact well-developed counter strategies. However, these strategies are not conscious in the sense that the children discuss them. Instead, they seem integrated in their online environment. The counter strategies have been developed by the children alone or together with peers. In some, but remarkably few, cases adults have been giving tips or teaching the children strategies. Nevertheless, the study does not paint a picture of naïve children, unable to see actual threats, but of responsible young citizens who are aware of the threats that exist in their online setting – sometimes from personal experience – and have developed methods to avoid such threats.

This paper presents the results of an interview study of 104 12‐year old children. The aim was to learn more about how children use the Internet, what they find negative on the Internet and what coping strategies they use. The media debate seems to display consensus regarding what threats the Internet poses to young people. However, this study shows a discrepancy between children's and adults' views on this subject. The children in the study handle the drawbacks of the Internet well, but they do not discuss this with adults. The study does not paint a picture of naïve children, unable to see actual threats, but of responsible people aware of the threats that exist in their digital environment and with developed methods to avoid such threats.

Syftet med artikeln är att belysa några frågor som rör barns och ungas nätkulturer. Det finns undersökningar som tyder på ett glapp mellan vuxnas och barns syn på de risker som är förknippade med Internet och mycket talar för att många barn är hänvisade till jämnåriga vid utvecklandet av motstrategier. Med utgångspunkt i fyra berättelser om unga medborgare diskuteras ungas nätanvändning och tänkbara förklaringar till att nätets infödda, de som vuxit upp med Internet som en väsentlig del av sin barndom, tycks tänka på ett sätt om datormedierad kommunikation och vuxna på ett annat.

This article points out some features of contemporary learning models, claiming that computers and the Internet have changed the conditions of learning and communicating for young citizens - the digital natives. Firstly, it draws attention to the fact that the Internet with its hypertext seems to promote natural learning. Secondly, it describes a tremendous amount of informal learning - learning that takes place outside the educational system - which computers and the Internet seem to encourage. It acknowledges the growth of collective learning - learning that is collaborative and draws on other people's work, constantly adding to our collection of knowledge. The article also calls attention to the surfacing of human behaviour that the Internet seems to promote, making it possible to act against negative behaviour such as bullying. Finally, it portrays the openness that makes users of net communities exhibit sides of their personalities that traditionally have been hidden from strangers. In respect of changes in society and the speed of technological changes it is vital that we find a way of listening to young people's views of knowledge and learning. The article concludes that we should discuss how we may integrate contemporary learning models in our educational systems, learn from what takes place anyway and exploit it.

Sweden has a large number of Internet users, and on a global scale only Iceland had more Internet users in 2002 (ITU, 2003). The European Union-funded project SAFT (2003a) found that 87% of Swedish children have access to the Internet at home. Today Scandinavian media focus on alleged serious problems caused by children being online. Despite these media reports, however, it appears that Scandinavian parents and children talk little about the Internet and its effects on life

The aim of this article is to outline an emerging research area, evolving around young people and contemporary digital arenas. The field is growing in size, shape and complexity and the need for study is urgent. The research area is also somewhat elusive and its outline is changing very quickly over time. In previous works the authors have focused on different parts of this area, and in this article bring ideas together to form a joint research base.

The first theme is identity; what factors influence young people's identity development and how do we interpret identity in a changing media landscape as well as in a changing society?

The second theme is learning; have contemporary media influenced the processes and outcomes of  learning and if so, how can the educational system benefit from and exploit this?

The third theme is what we in this context call abusive practices; how can we understand abusive behavior on the internet, among and towards young people?

The issues problematized in this article are to be seen as a probing for and a framing of a research base for further development.

The overall aim of the proposed area of study is to identify, analyze and problematise contemporary digital channels of communication and learning in particular, expressions of abusive behavior, and their influence on digital culture and digital native identity construction, with a specific emphasis on issues related to age, class, gender and ethnicity.

Most schools in today's Europe have a high percentage of immigrant students. This percentage has increased in typical immigration countries such as Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany, France and the UK. However, this is also true for countries such as Sweden or Spain. Aware of this multicultural picture, in this paper we present the methodological approach of a European Comenius project, "Eurokid", based on the template "Britkid" (see www.britkid.org), which addresses intercultural education and anti-racism. Three countries are involved in the project: the UK, Sweden and Spain. The project is an educational and innovative tool and a learning and teaching resource for students and teachers in secondary schools. How? Through websites where a group of adolescents (minorities and majorities) "meet" and "talk" about issues of acceptance, difference, racism, mixed cultures, (multiple) identitie, and integration. Their "talks" in the three websites--written in each country's language(s) and in English--as well as the characters, are based on original research (via interviews and questionnaires). The project's objectives, content, pedagogical approaches and authentic classroom material, created to facilitate and promote dialogue among minorities and majorities, form the basis of this paper.

This paper presents a study of three campuscourses of Swedish student teachers’ experiencesduring 2007 and 2008 when they used educa-tional blogs blending face-to-face and virtuallearning activities. In order to investigate theirexperiences and the circumstances that influ-enced their way of engaging in their blogs, 38narrative interviews were carried out.To illuminate how information and commu-nication technology (ICT) affordances andthe blended environments were perceived, thedata were analysed in light of Greeno’s theory ofaffordance. Furthermore, a socio-cultural theoryby Vygotsky was used to analyse students’ socialinteraction within their groups.The paper presents a discussion of the cir-cumstances in which students engage in theirblogs. The students’ experiences of affordancesin respect of blending face-to-face and virtual learning activities and the importance of socialinteraction within the groups are outlined

This paper is based on a study of the student learning experience in a particular module of an international Masters programme that included a large element of online learning. It builds on earlier work which highlighted the importance of design and development of social infrastructure for supporting the development of an online learning community by revisiting the data from the perspective of a didactical design framework. The overall aims of this study are to consider how, as teachers, we designed and developed teacher presence and how this was achieved in practice from the design of teaching-studying-learning processes through development to interaction in the online learning community.

This paper explores differences between traditions in relation to teaching and learning and aims to highlight the ways in which the study of the Central European and Northern European traditions of Didaktik has offered new dimensions to and fresh insights on the notion of reflective practice. In particular these traditions are seen to offer tools and ways of thinking that help to recognise and hold the complexity of teaching-studying-learning processes. A key tool for the analysis of the complex relations between teacher, student and content is the Didaktik triad. This provides a relational framework which places the teacher at the heart of teaching-studying-learning processes. Furthermore it provides a means for teachers’ thinking about the most basic how, what and why questions around their work.  Another key aspect of such traditions is the emphasis that is placed upon meaning and intentionality from the outset of the process of preparation for teaching. Connections are also made with current thinking in the field of scholarship in teaching and learning. Finally the paper aims to highlights ways in which such tools and ways of thinking can help to inform approaches to development in the didactical, pedagogical and technological uses of information and communications technology (ICT) for learning.

This article explores differences between traditions in relation to teaching and learning and aims to highlight the ways in which the study of the Central European and Northern European traditions of Didaktik has offered new dimensions to and fresh insights on the notion of reflective practice. In particular these traditions are seen to offer tools and ways of thinking that help to recognise and hold the complexity of teaching-studying-learning processes. A key tool for the analysis of the complex relations between teacher, student and content is the Didaktik triad. This provides a relational framework which places teaching and associated design issues at the heart of teaching-studying-learning processes. Furthermore, it provides a means for teachers' thinking about the most basic how, what and why questions around their work. Another key aspect of such traditions is the emphasis that is placed upon meaning and intentionality from the outset of the process of preparation for teaching. Connections are also made with current thinking in the field of scholarship in teaching and learning. Finally, the article aims to highlights ways in which such tools and ways of thinking can help to inform approaches to development in the didactical, pedagogical and technological uses of information and communications technology for student-centred learning.

This paper builds on earlier work which explored differences between traditions in relation to teaching and learning. It outlines the development of an approach to teaching and the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in particular to support learning based on the notion of Didactical Analysis. Central to this approach is the design of teaching situations, pedagogical activities and learning environments which aim to address the what, why and how of ICT use. The discussion focuses on the nature of design, a history of didactic design, the conception of teaching as a design profession and didactic design for ICT-supported learning. The nature of design research in particular is discussed at a range of levels from the macro to the micro, involving a consideration of its role at the course or curriculum level and in relation to the individual teacher and student. These ideas form the basis of an Integrative Didactical Design (IDD) framework, and examples of the application of this philosophy and approach to the development of ICT for learning are outlined.

This paper builds on earlier work which has explored differences between traditions in relation to teaching and learning. It outlines the development of an approach to the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to support learning and teaching based on the notion of Didaktik analysis. The focus is on the design of teaching situations, pedagogical activities and learning environments which aims to address the what, why and how of ICT use. Discussion focuses on the nature of design, the conception of teaching as a design profession, subject didactics as design science and Didaktik design for technology supported learning as a generic field of didactics which is applicable across the range of specific subject didactics. The role of research is discussed at a range of levels from the macro to the micro involving consideration of its role at the course or curriculum level, the conception of teacher as researcher and an inquiry based approach to student learning. These ideas form the basis of an Integrative Didaktik Design (IDD) framework, and an example of the application of this philosophy and approach to development of ICT for learning in the field of Teacher Education at a national level is presented.

This paper builds on earlier work which has explored differences between traditions in relation to teaching and learning. It outlines the development of an approach to the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to support learning and teaching based on the notion of Didaktik analysis. The focus is on the design of teaching situations, pedagogical activities and learning environments which aims to address the what, why and how of ICT use. Discussion focuses on the nature of design, the conception of teaching as a design profession, subject didactics as design science and Didaktik design for technology supported learning as a generic field of didactics which is applicable across the range of specific subject didactics. The role of research is discussed at a range of levels from the macro to the micro involving consideration of its role at the course or curriculum level. These ideas form the basis of an Integrative Didaktik Design (IDD) framework, and an example of the application of this philosophy and approach to development of ICT for learning in the field of teacher education at a national level is presented.

This chapter reports on a small-scale case study involving 15 -16 year old secondary school students participating in a vocational module under the General National Vocational Qualification (GNVQ) scheme that operated in England during the late 1990s. The development was a pilot study involving experience in the workplace in a small-scale light engineering context. An initial aim of the study was to explore the potential of the setting for the development of numeracy practices. The theoretical framework adopted is based on a social perspective on learning and a view of learning mathematically as social practice. Of particular interest were the differences between everyday and school mathematical practices. The analysis focuses on differences in the practices between the settings of workplace and school in particular. Finally issues to emerge from this study are discussed in relation to the wider context of policy and practice. These include issues of relevance, questions of purpose, learner confidence and approaches to assessment in mathematics.

This paper outlines an approach to research-based practice that has evolved in the context of developing an international online MSc programme, arising from institutional collaboration through the Thematic Network for Teacher Education in Europe (TNTEE). A strong emphasis has been placed on critical action research, team teaching and reflective practice which is conceptualised within an integrative model of design research that integrates the processes of research, evaluation and dissemination.  Also integral to this has been a process of networking that is seen both as and for knowledge transformation and innovation. Central to this process has been a problem solving approach that has been focused on the whole ‘instructional’ process with particular attention to the instructional or curriculum design process. This approach also underpins the research, dissemination and evaluation framework of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE)  Project ‘Active Learning – Active Citizenship’, supported under the Fund for the Development of Teaching and Learning (FDTL5) and the project supported by my National Teaching Fellowship. The latter supports the development of an open and flexible networked learning community at doctoral level in teaching and teacher education with additional support from the European Commission under the Erasmus Action (Higher Education) of the Socrates Programme.  Furthermore it informs the development of the recently established HEFCE funded Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning on ‘Promoting Learner Autonomy’. Our aim is to meet this challenge through the development of a widely shared scholarship of teaching and learning across a large and complex organisation.

This paper explores differences between traditions in relation to teaching and learning. Taking the Anglo/American curriculum tradition as my starting point, I seek to highlight the ways in which the Central and Northern European tradition of Didaktik has offered a new dimension and fresh insights to the notion of reflective practice. In particular the paper highlights the way in which the tradition of Didaktik offers tools for recognising and holding the complexity associated with teaching-studying learning processes. Furthermore it explores the potential of these tools for the analysis and evaluation of the teaching-studying-learning of mathematics by seeking to make connections with other frameworks for analysis in the field.

This project is a collaborative development between Umeå University, Karlstads University and Linköping Universitythat builds on an existing partnership and on current development work in relation to ICT and learning at all three partner institutions. It has been designed together with students and aims to strengthen ICT use as well as pedagogical communication between the campus and schools involved in VFU (verksamhetsförlagd utbildning or practice based education). The main aim of the project is to develop the use of process based assessment through which the students, supported by teacher educators, will negotiate individual learning goals within a wider framework of didactical course goals. This process is intended to support students in documenting, reflecting upon and evaluating their own learning processes. Thereby this process based model aims to develop the students' skills of critical reflection on their learning, promote their responsibility for self development and to prepare them for "life long learning". The project has been supported by the Swedish Agency for Networks and Co-operation in Higher Education (nshu) with funding of 2 million Kroner over 2007-09.