Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences

5 (2010) 271-281 www.world-education-center.org/index.php/cjes

Walking in two worlds: From e-learning paradise to technologically locked-in

Nazime Tuncay a *, Huseyin Uzunboylu b
a

Ph.D. Candidate, Near East University, North Nicosia, Cyprus b Prof. Dr. Near East University, North Nicosia, Cyprus
Received July 08, 2010; revised September 21, 2010; accepted December 03, 2010

Abstract This paper presents an in-depth comparison of the impact of digital technologies on the educational experiences of students within two disparate schools: Havering College (HC), England and Cengiz Topel Industrial Vocational High School (CTIVHS), Cyprus Evidence was collected through unstructured field observations, interviews were carried out. Twenty teachers and 120 students, in total, contributed to the evidence base. Some interesting results include CTIVHS teachers took students assignments as paper work (%90) however HC teachers took students assignments as emails from Blackboard. Recommendations on how to bridge this e-learning gap are presented. Keywords: E-Learning; Action Plan; Secondary School Education. 2010 Academic World Education & Research Center. All rights reserved.

1. INTRODUCTION Future of world is a technological utopia in which everything is smaller, faster and easier. However, it seems that most of the developing countries are still living in the past; where most of the developed countries are fast-runners towards future. Kahiigi, et.al (2008) asserted that two problems emanate from the emerging issues of e-Learning implementation within the higher education context: First one is the limited uptake of technology as an instructional delivery method and the second one is the ineffective use of technology to support learning. Schools in developing contexts often lack the necessary resources to produce or improve such school performance (Samoff, 1996; Fuller and Clarke, 1994; Heyneman, 1990).
* Nazime Tuncay. E-mail address: nazime.tuncay@gmail.com

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This resource scarcity leads to cumulative results of severe financial austerity and crisis, civil unrest and conflict, expansion of schooling, population growth, and the inefficient management of resources (Harber, 2002; Harber and Davies, 1997; Lewin, 1996; Harber and Dadey, 1993; Lockheed and Levin, 1993; Samoff, 1993, 1999; Fuller and Heyneman, 1989; Lungu, 1983). On the other hand, zdeners (2008) study revealed that the problems of teaching courses in traditional, cooperative, or vocational education programs are mostly related to the materials used or the techniques implemented during instruction. Lack of resources and infrastructure equalizes the playing field between themselves and their competitors. Hence, to better understand the underlying factors contributing to school performance in developing countries and in developed countries, school observations play a crucial road. A critical factor in students use of technology is their teachers technological knowledge and skills (International Society of Technology in Education, ISTE, 2000). It is commonly agreed that in the absence of ability, technology turns out to be useless in education. There are lots of schools all around the world, who are technologically locked-in. The lock-in is due to the existence of significant increasing returns to adoption of energy technologies, produced by economies of scale, learning and networks, arising out of the integrated and systemic nature of these technologies (Carrillo-Hermosilla, 2006). In this article the unavailability of the necessary instructional technology and not having access to the internet or intranet will be referred as technological lock-in. 1.1. Havering College (HC) & Cengiz Topel Industrial Vocational High School (CTIVHS) HC, which is in Essex, located approximately 30 minutes from the centre of the London. It has three campuses: Ardleigh Green, Quarles and Center of Vocational Excellence. It offers further, higher education courses besides foundation degree courses. HC supports progression from age 14 to degree level. There are students in HC coming from all walks of life, ranging from business people and corporations aiming to train their employees, to school leavers, professionals, adults returning to study and international visitors. That is to say, it has a group of students of coming from various age groups and backgrounds. An important point here is that, of the most of the schools, which are located in the same country with CTIVHS, the official web page of HC can only be accessed from accessibility, low graphics version. This is one of the most important differences observed between a developed and a developing country. CTIVHS is located in Lefke in North Cyprus. It has a limited number of technical and industrial resources. CTIVHS provides only full-time education for high-school students. The duration of education is four academic years. First year students in CTIVHS are enrolled in preparatory class. The following year, CTIVHS students choose one of the following departments to pursue their education: ElectronicElectric, Information Technology, Machine Technology, Motor Vehicles, Child Care and Growth. While both schools have a vocational focus and work with students of secondary age, they sit within very different economic and cultural environments. 1.2. Related Studies There are previous researches, in which has examined the relationship between school performance and organizational resources (Fuller and Heyneman, 1989; Heyneman, 1990). Goodman (2001), Pittman (2003), Goos et al. (2003); Ng and Gunstone, (2003), Taylor et al. (2004), Gimbert and Cristol (2004), Caftori and Paprzycki (1997); Strauss,et.al. (1988); Zittleman and Sadker (2002) have carried out several

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studies about using the computers and technology in classroom and gender bias of technology in classroom. Mooij and Smeets (2001) carried out a study in 10 secondary schools by interviewing the school board, school leader, ICT co-coordinator, some teachers, pupils and some parents. They examined students who liked ICT and who did not. In addition, relevant school documents were analyzed and lesson practice was observed. Sue (2007) has carried out a study about vocational education training (VET) experiences of Indigenous adults in Victoria, Australia. zdener (2008) has carried out a study with students from the two vocational high schools and two departments of the Faculty of Education in Istanbul. The foundations of the study were that: Computer education and instructional education departments have the same observed misconceptions, while mathematics education students are better at interpreting the misconceptions (zdener, 2008).There were also several researches about the education of developing countries. For example, Deardorff (2000) has carried out a study about developing country growth and developed country response to this. On the other hand, Baldacci, et. al (2008) have carried out a study about social spending, human capital, and growth in developing countries. Other authors (Wyse & Brewer 2001) have carried out studies about the lack of appropriate teaching and the lack of the learning support resources. They have noted that a range of resources is needed to support the understanding of language, literacy and numeracy in vocational education and training targeted appropriately and including examples of good practice. 1.3. Purpose The purpose of the study is to determine the differences in the e-learning opportunities between a developed country vocational high school (HC) and a developing country vocational high school (CTIVHS) and to develop an action plan correspondingly. 2. METHOD During, the five days (18.02.2008-22.02.2008), HC was visited by the researchers. During, the five days (7.04.2008-11.04.2008), researchers visited CTIVHS. Where, researchers took campus tours in guide of the schools teachers. The Technology department teams in two schools had organized several meetings with the researchers about intranet; LMS; student support; e-learning; portfolios; assessment reports of the students and staff, internal and external verification; and internal and external assessment. Researchers conducted interviews with 20 teachers (10 HC and 10CTIVHS) and 120 students whom fall into 14-18 age (60 CTIVHS and 60 HC students) groups? As a follow up study, teachers were asked to rate their e-learning applications via a questionnaire consisting of 15 items: The questions were related to having access to technological opportunities and to the possible effects felt as a result of making use of limited technological opportunities or constraints (for example How you access to the internet (at home; at school; nowhere)?; Do you have access to school intranet?; Do you have technological tools like: computers, projectors, printers and so on? Do you have necessary e-learning tools for your courses Have you ever prepared an offline video-conference; Do you use e-board (ex. Smart board), blackboard or whiteboard?; How would you describe your ability of preparing vocational power point presentations?; How would you describe your knowledge about preparing web-based courses? and How would you describe your skill of preparing e-quizzes? The data obtained from these items were evaluated as e-learning application level of teachers. As it was found out to be necessary by the researchers, a questionnaire consisting of 15 items was developed for 273

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CTIVHS teachers (since CTIVHS was observed to be technologically locked-in) to find out if there was any significance in relation with the teachers e-learning application skills, whether be technologically locked-in situation or technologically competent. Students were also asked the following questions: Why are you studying in a vocational school?; To what extend do you use the vocational e-learning equipments?; Do you have a computer or a laptop in your home? There were clear resource differences between the two schools and there were clear impacts of the technology on the way the two schools operated. 2.1. Analysis of the Data In the analysis of quantitative the data, SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences 16) was used. Each item in the questionnaire was coded. Teachers and Students perceptions and views were revealed through percent and frequency values. As a further analysis, independent sample t-test was used to interpret the data. 3. RESULTS HC and CTIVH were observed by the researchers and differences in technological opportunities and corresponding differences among teachers, students were found. The differences are narrated in this article and the observation results were supported by the interview results. 3.1. Observations HC was observed to be a systematic, a disciplined and a well equipped school. HCs structure consist of: Principal, Deputy Principal, Vice Principal, Director of Finance, Academy GCSEs A Levels, East (Employment and Skills Training), Business Care and Service Sectors, Technology Engineering Construction, Creative Arts, Centre Social Work, Teacher Training, Accounts, Business, Hair and Beauty, Sports, Tourism and Leisure, Centre of Engineering and Manufacturing Excellence. HC provides a multitude of education courses and programs that can help students to obtain a certification or a degree to take place in today's competitive job market. All types of education was available for the students, who are interested in specialized technical training and/or who wants to change their career route via enrolling a program provided at HC. To be a part time student or a full-time student was up-to students. As for the academic activities, computer labs were equipped with updated tools and programs in HC: Computer networking and multimedia were provided in each computer. The setting of the lab was also charming. All labs and classrooms had spacious air conditioning Whats more; all the classes in HC had Smart Boards, printers, speakers, even extra monitors on the walls to make the usage of computers easier. What is more, HC used LMS (CTIVHS has not a LMS), which can be access by all HC students and HC teachers through the internet via a password. The lessons, assignments were put on the LMS; the exams were done on the LMS via intranet. In other words students, teachers and even the parents used LMS greatly. It was observed that through this system that waste of paper was prevented and e-learning was integrated to the whole components of learning and integration oriented activities. This also had a positive reflection on students confidence. Some students using this portal were observed to be more relaxed than CTIVHS students, since they did not have to submit their projects on paper. Unfortunately, LMS appeared to be lacking at vocational high schools in most of the developing countries. In HC, the tracks of evidences of student work (printouts of the print screens of the programs, marked papers) were all kept in student portfolios. This was found out to be a useful way of regulation, which needed

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special care and tidiness. The school staff was able to keep track of student portfolios for one semester and then gave it back to their students. In CTIVHS, keeping the portfolios was not compulsory. So, its usage was not common. In other words, HC had lots of technological advantages as well as regulations which CTIVHS did not have. With the aid of these technological advantages, the HC students had more e-learning opportunities than the CTIVHS students. While one of these schools was in e-learning paradise, the other school was not able to deliver most of the e-learning applications: It was technologically locked-in. On the other hand, both HC and CTIVHS were involving their students at all stages of the industrial visits motivating them and helping them to take the full advantage of all learning opportunities presented. This was something good that brought a different dimension to students' education. In five different classes, CTIVHS teachers and HC teachers were investigated. HC teachers were observed to be using the following effective strategies. CTIVHS teachers do not even have an intranet or an internet access in their classes. As a school policy students in HC did not wear uniforms whereas students in CTIVHS students had to wear uniforms. Wearing hats and using mobile phones in the classrooms were not allowed, in both of the schools. At both schools students fall into the age range of 14 and 99 (There was both further education and foundation education students). On the other hand, the oldest student in CTIVHS (There was only secondary education students) was 19 years old, and the youngest student was 14 years old. In HC, there were a minimum 12 and a maximum 19 students in a class which was a fairly small amount for teachers dealing with each student individually. On the other hand, in CTIVHS there were a minimum of 9 students and a maximum of 27 students in a classroom. That is to say, some classes were very good for individual explanations and some classes were very crowded. In HC students were graded on a scale ranged as Failed, Pass, Merit or Distinction at the end of their modules. On the other hand, in CTIVHS, students were graded on a scale from ranging from 1 to 10 depending on their module assessment results. Students studying at CTIVHS were in a technologically locked-in situation. Sometimes three students in CTIVHS have to use the same computer. The lack of the educational resources affected the quality of the education. 3.2. Interviews The questions directed to the teachers and the percentages of the most common answers can be summarized as: 80% of the teachers in CTIVHS stated that they do not have necessary vocational equipments in their schools; on the other hand 100% of the teachers in HC were happy about their sources. Therefore, %70 of the CTIVHS teachers answered the question of To what extend do you use of the vocational e-learning equipments? as as much as we can. Where, this affected CTIVHS teachers preparing vocational presentations (50%) and the technological lock-in affected their being able to prepare video-conferences (100%). While CTIVHS teachers and HC teachers were both happy about being a vocational school teacher; CTIVHS teachers took students assignments as paper work (%90); do not have online e-quizzes (90%). While CTIVHS teachers said that they had never prepared a video-conference before; 80% of the HC teachers said that they had used video conference in their courses. In addition to this, while HC teachers stated that they take electronic attendance every morning; CTIVHS teachers said that they have never used such a system before. While all of the HC teachers used e-books in their classes; 60 per cent of the teachers had used e-books before. However, it may be because of the availability of 3 Smart Boards in CTIVHS, that 90 per cent of the teachers said that they had used an e-board. Since, there were Smart Boards in every class in HC; all the HC teachers said that they had used a Smart Board before.

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The questions directed to the students and the percentages of the most common answers are as following: 120 students; 60 from CTIVHS and 60 from HC were found out to have similar attitudes towards their teachers; the vocational education and to the given assignments. The HC students and CTIVHS students were also found out to have similar perspectives among various other issues. 80 per cent of the students, in both of the schools, said that; they wanted to pursue their careers at a vocational school because they wanted to have a less demanding education compared to other types of high schools. They also indicated that their schools were adequate for reaching their objectives and they were happy with the communication and the interaction established with the teachers. All of students, in both of the schools, stated that they want to have a higher school diploma. More than 80 per cent of the students, in both of the schools, claimed that they were not loaded with unnecessary assignments. Sixty per cent of the HC students and CTIVHS students stated that they did not often have collaborative assignments. While all of the HC students said that they had a laptop or a computer at home; 50 per cent of the students said that they did not have any. On the other hand, students in HC claimed that their teachers were more flexible in giving additional time to submit their assignments, when necessary. 3.3. E-Learning Application Scores The teachers in which are helpless in technology are expressed as technologically locked-in. In case of where there is an observed technological lock-in situation among teachers, the e-learning application scores (M = 9.92, SD = 1.32) were lower than the teachers who were not technologically lock-in (M =12.14, SD = 1.82). This difference was determined to be significally meaningful as a result of an independent sample t-test conducted between groups (p<0.05) (see Table 3). Table 3. Descriptive Statistics of Lock-in Issue
Technological lock-in e-learning application Exists Do Not Exist Std. Deviation 1,32 1,82 Std. Error Mean 0,37 0,40

N 13 21

Mean 9,92 12,14

4. DISCUSSIONS Availability of technological devices is the main issue for expecting any use of it. If developing countries had more technological opportunities; its sure that they would have more chance of delivering up-to-date courses. They would not be so technologically locked-in. Vocational schools generally have focused, practical programs and courses to prepare for in-demand careers while their flexible and accelerated schedules accommodate individuals busy and demanding lifestyle. However, there must be put more emphasize on the reform of vocational schools. Vocational Education should not be seen as an alternative path in education for students, who have lower expectancies. Vocational schools should not be perceived as having easier access for a diploma. The reform plan is demonstrated by the researchers in Figure 1. The root of the e-education is the availability of e-tools. There could not be any e-education without e-tools. Getting help from the private sector can be the first step in order to make more e-tools available in schools. For advertising purposes, instead of giving so many advertisements in newspapers, each company can give a free product (and an

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e-tool like Smart Board) in two or three schools. However, making e-tools available do not mean that teachers have the ability to use them. The second step, after making the necessary the e-tools available for teachers use should be explaining the usage of these tools. For this, researchers suggest two pathways: Cooperation in the schools and cooperation within schools. For example, ICT teachers can take this role of delivering e-learning application to the teachers within the school. Cooperation within the schools, especially in different countries would be very good. School partnership or e-twin school cooperation may be the names given to this kind of relationships among schools. In the light of these findings, vocational schools in developing countries should improve their curriculum, self assessment reports, internal verification systems, assessment and verification methods, lesson plans and scheme of work. For all of these, of course action plans should be prepared. Teachers and administrators who work in partnership reap greater returns in student achievement (Cantwell, 2003; Southern Regional Education Board, 2001). Administrators in effective middle schools prioritize collaboration and shared decision-making. In addition, a high level of collaboration among teachers enhances the learning environment (Whitmore, 1997).

Figure 1. E-learning Reform Tree The teacher's role should be a supporter and facilitator of the students' new learning experiences. The teacher must provide activities such as stimulating students with ideas, commenting on and praising the work being done, suggesting alternatives or better methods of handling details are common to all creative learning. However, without the necessary instructional technologies teachers found themselves in a desperate situation as in the case of CTIVHS. Besides the political, social and economic imperatives for reforming our learning and teaching practices, we need to be very clear about the educational imperatives for adopting e-learning (Naidu, 2004). This could be followed in a harmonious manner through considering the importance of the three following agendas: Cooperation in the schools, cooperation within the schools and teacher e-learning training activities.

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5. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS The researchers here questioned whether technology would wider the gap between the two schools or indeed whether it would help reduce the impact of the discrepancies apparent in the wider community. As a consequence of technological challenges, quality of instruction has become a central topic in the discussion between educators, researchers, and policymakers. Existence of gaps among vocational schools in developing countries and in developed countries was known for years (Chinn & Fairlie, 2004; Hargittai, 2003). However, the nature and the intensity of the gap were not clear and well defined. There had been a need for in depth studies to securitize this unanswered question. This study is expected to give answer to this problem to a certain extent. Two vocational schools, selected from a developed country and from a developing country were put into closer examination for this purpose. It is believed that this study brings a unique perspective through comparing the students and teachers perspectives at HC and CTIVHS. It was found in the study that CTIVHS suffers from the lack of the necessary equipment in their classes. On the other hand, HC teachers do not have any worries about the same issues. The main concern of the HC teachers was the assurance of their performance. In CTIVHS and in HC, students were found to have similar reasons for having an education in a vocational school, in which gave an important global hint about students vision of vocational schools, which was asserted through a general agreement on the following item: Easier than other schools. Teachers in HC had more e-learning opportunities than the CTIVHS teachers. Hence, every school must have a LMS for surviving in this technology age. Differences were also observed between teaching activities with and without technology and student behavior with and without technology. HC was in an e-learning paradise. With the growing emphasis of educational decentralization, head teachers (for example, headmasters, area heads, and headmaster assistants) may have a greater effect on the improvement of school performance than never before. Head teachers among schools should work more collaboratively for more success. The limitation of this study is its being restricted with 5 day observations in HC and CTIVHS. It was assumed that HCs technological opportunities were similar to the other developing countries technological opportunities. Also, it was assumed that CTIVHSs technological opportunities were similar to the other developing countries. Cross cultural studies could be implemented to examine and compare schools in various economically and sociologically diverse settings.

Figure 2 World of E-learning

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World is a whole with both developed and developing countries. Global thought involves widening eapplications all over the world. Each component of e-learning should be given special emphasis to maintain better education. It is evident that teachers affect schools, schools affect the educational system and education affects a countrys well being and development. In sum, global e-learning reform could be maintained only through global movement (See Figure 2). On the other hand students and teachers both from HC CTIVHS presented a positive attitude towards their schools. They all agreed that they were happy with the education provided at their schools. This study brings a unique perspective by revealing the constraints experienced in technologically locked in schools in comparison with the technologically advantaged schools. Further studies focuses on technologically locked in schools could bring new directions to e-learning in an era of globalization. Advances in the technology, increased the demand for e-learning and it was observed that the vocational education is more effective, more enjoyable whats more, more easy to learn in HC. Since, HC was a well-equipped, well organized college with good internal and external assessment procedures. It can even be a distinction school, if it includes distance education or mobile education in their education system. And CTIVHS should search ways to lock out from its current technological status. When schools are resource poor, one has to seek ways to access organizational resources from their external environments to improve school performance. However, there were not many researches on this. Further researches should be conducted to find ways to lock out the schools in developing countries. REFERENCES Baldacci, E., Clements, B., Gupta, S. and Cui, Q. (2008). Social Spending, Human Capital, and Growth in Developing Countries. World Development, 36(8): 13171341. Caftori, N., Paprzycki, M. (1997). The Design, Evaluation and Usage of Educational Software. Technology and Teacher Education Annual. Charlottesville, VA: Association for the Advancement in Computer Education. Cantwell, J. G., Jr. (2003). A Study of the Relationship of Principal Leadership, Teacher Interaction, and School Climate on Three Years of Pennsylvania System of School, Assessment Test Data. Dissertation Abstracts International, 65(5):1601 Carrillo-Hermosilla, J. (2006). A Policy Approach to the Environmental Impacts of Technological Lockin, Ecological Economics, 58(4):717-742. Cengiz Topel Industrial Vocational High School (CTIVHS). (2008) (in Turkish: Cengiz Topel Endstri Meslek Lisesi (CTEML). [online] at http://cteml.mebnet.net Chinn, M., Fairlie, R. (2004). The Determinants of the Global Digital Divide: A Cross- Country Analysis of Computer and Internet Penetration. National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Deardorff, A.V. (2000). Developing Country Growth and Developed Country Response, Discussion Paper No. 462.Paper Prepared For The Conference (Research Seminar in International Economics). Dynamics, Economic Growth, And International Trade, V, [online] http://www.Spp.Umich.Edu/Rsie/Workingpapers/wp.html. Fuller, B., Clarke, P. (1994). Raising School Effects While Ignoring Culture? Local Conditions and the Influence of Classroom Tools, Rules and Pedagogy. Review of Educational Research, 64(1): 119 157. Fuller, B., Heyneman, S.P. (1989). Third World School Quality: Current Collapse, Future Potential. Educational Researcher. 18(2):1219.

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