Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Approximately two thirds of the students in the
class engaged in field education for the first time
used this at different stages during their placement.
Some students continued to use this as a method
of communication with peers after placements
finished. This discussion board has now become
an integral, albeit fairly informal, component of
the field program, a method for sharing and de-
briefing as well as social networking.
By providing students during international
placement access to on-line discussion, we ob-
serve that students benefit from sharing issues
and concerns. Other outcomes of the discussions
as observed by field education staff at Deakin
University, a rurally located university in Victoria,
Australia, may be input from each other regarding
different projects and stimulation and feedback
about potentially publishable ideas (Maidment,
2006). As coordinator of international field
education for distance mode students at Deakin
University (2005-2007), Pattanayak tailored ICT
to the needs of the students developing innovative
approaches to cater to this population. In lieu of
face to face pre-placement workshops, teaching
material was electronically forwarded to a group
of distance education students followed by three
half day teleconference sessions. However, often
the practical exercises become a casualty in this
process no matter what effort is put in by the field
educators to incorporate these in the on-line ap-
proaches. ICT inputs are as good as participants
adherence to its requirements. As the choice
for distance education was governed by factors
other than acquiring a qualification, the presence
of students for a teleconference itself indicated
a high level of commitment to learning. It was
also found that ICTs were increasingly used in
discussions with potential supervisors and liaison
persons internationally to clarify the expectations
of students and universities, the curriculum, prac-
tice standards and codes of ethics.
The use of the university's electronic Dis-
tributed Learning System (DLS) was found to
be extremely valuable. The structured direction,
which involved specific thematic questions and
case studies being posted, provided to the dis-
cussions on DLS at the University meant that
some students participated more than others. One
student who did not contribute to the discussion
on-line reported:
I found the discussion extremely useful….
mostly I agreed with the comments/ critiques of
others and had little to add, but it has helped me
clarify and conceptualize better….therefore I make
it a point to review all the postings each week.
The unintended benefits can be far greater than
anticipated in this mode of learning.
ict anD international
fielD eDucation
What motivates students is a key to understanding
the desire for international placements. Globaliza-
tion, the interconnectedness of communities and
societies leading to the blurring of boundaries,
and the compression of time and space has meant
that there is a greater demand for international
placements. Students consider the ability to criti-
cally analyze and compare and contrast different
elements of theory and practice that is context
specific as giving them an edge over others in this
highly competitive global marketplace.
It is in this context that a partnership has
emerged between anAustralian University (RMIT
University) and an Institution in India, the Cen-
turion School of Rural Enterprise Management
(CSREM) which has been to the mutual benefit
of all partners and has been in many cases a test
for the ICT technologies in field education. Over
the past six years several groups of students from
three universities (part of the CSSW network) have
been in field placement arrangements in India,
initially in a very ad hoc manner. With the pas-
sage of time more structure has been provided to
the program. Pattanayak's collaboration with the
CSSW network, in various capacities, eventuated
in placements for students in Orissa, India.
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