Session 3: Citizenship, Technology and Education
Chair: Kirti Menon

Education, Democracy and Citizenship
Annukka Hulkko
University of Tampere, Finland

The purpose of the presentation, which is mainly based on my doctor’s thesis to be completed in the fall 2006, is to explore the concepts of democracy and citizenship from the viewpoint of existential phenomenology. Furthermore these ideas of democracy and citizenship are indisputable factors of the European educational space. However, because of globalisation, education itself is been defined by supranational policymakers. Thus the questions of supranational democracy and global citizenship are essentials to the consideration of the conditions of education.
I am focusing on the philosophy of Martin Heidegger, Simone de Beauvoir, Emmanuel Levinas and Luce Irigaray. My intention is to establish an existential-phenomenological conception of being which will be the ground for the theoretical and critical attitude towards the ideas of democracy, welfare state and citizenship. From a viewpoint of education, the questions of mass society, value subjectivism, consumism, instrumentality and technology are also essential.
Basically the problems of education have developed from the paradox of welfare state, from the demands of both efficiency and equity. However the overpower of economy and the attitude of new liberalism are constantly challenging both welfare state and its’ democratic management. As a result states are unable to assure diversity and difference – humane imparity – in the society. People are seen as commodities to be used in the favour of the society. Overcomed by usefulness and efficiency, social being is signified through its purpose and function of use; being has a kind of “so that or in order to” -relation to society.
Even educational politics has been taken over by the “real politics of economy”. The welfare agenda, with the virtues of the middle-class, has created a new reality, where all the educational decisions are made. The educational thinking itself has been submitted to the materialized aims of the welfare society. In other words, being is been wiped out of sight. In this situation Being – as a Da-sein – is reduced to a thing, an object and commodity. As a result, relations to other Beings become instrumental as well. These relations are part of the global consumism and as such they are vulnerable to the manipulative interventions of economy. In education, these virtues of efficiency, competence and usefulness terminate the importance of ethically justified values – that is truth – and the needs of the being itself. Education becomes unjustified use of power, where Beings are submitted to the authority. This value subjectivism, when considering the whole society, is a condition of meaninglessness – of mass society – where being is taken over by outsiders – the everyday being as das Man, the they – and as such it overlooks the ethical ground and the ontological imperative of being.
The condition of citizenship – plural and democratic state and free and open civil society – is a matter of free, critical and ethical agency. The task of education is thus to ensure individuated subjectivity, responsible citizenship; to ensure the possibility of democratic action within diverse society.

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Teaching and Learning Online: Developing a Theoretical Perspective
Inna Geoghegan
Graduate School of Business, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Western Australia

The rapid development of educational technologies and the internet have led to dramatic changes in higher education, with online learning firmly taking its place in the educational arena. Many institutions of higher education already offer fully online programs of study, and many more are planning to do so in the near future. As geographic barriers cease to matter, a new and potentially immense online education market emerges, beckoning the universities with the prospects of vast new revenue streams.
There exists a long tradition of teaching in a face-to-face environment, supported by a well established mature body of knowledge. Teaching and learning online is an emergent discipline, and often is not understood fully. It is becoming increasingly important to build a robust theoretical foundation for online teaching and learning and investigate its nature and guiding principles. Once the hype of the new medium has settled down, it is time to re-examine the issue of online learning from the point of view of its unique characteristics and quality.
This paper brings together the wealth of research on adult learning and the limited existing literature on educational technology and online learning. This synthesis results in a framework from which to view a potential design for online courses in higher education. Given the widespread popularity of online teaching and learning and its growth potential, research in this area is both timely and necessary.

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E-Learning, An Approach to Enhance Teaching and Learning in a South African Context
Sonya Rahimi
Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa

The environment of change in South Africa has had a major impact on its educational system.  In an effort to establish world class standards, new methods are being adopted to achieve this goal.  This study examines such an effort made to introduce e-learning as a complementary approach to teaching and learning at Tshwane University of Technology, a residential institution.   The Department of Telematic Education of the Tshwane University of Technology, embarked in a training program to enable a selected number of lecturers in development of e-learning material.  The program included exposure to WebCT MLE, and other application programs to enhance the knowledge of the trainees and to enable them to design, develop and implement online courses.
The researcher was provided the opportunity to develop material for a group of third year students.  The course “Information Administration” which is a computer course in nature covers practical and theoretical aspects. It has been conducted by the researcher since 2002. The moderate pass rate of students has been a concern.  The e-course was initially developed in 2004 to be implemented in January 2005.  The aim was to enable repeaters to get access to the course without having to be present in class, thus encouraging them to continue with their studies. The absence of the repeaters would then result in reducing the number of students and improving lecturer-student ratio, which in turn was hoped to have an impact on the pass rate. 
The study will discuss the logistical problems together with students’ response to the program, their willingness to adopt new approaches to learning, ease of use of the material developed and ability to experiment in an online environment. Further studies can be conducted to examine the impact of the virtual course on the pass rate and throughput of students involved with the subject.

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