Christopher Paul Newhouse

• PhD, BSc, DipEd, Dip Comp, Dip Bus, MEd
• Research Director at Edith Cowan University

In this article we describe a three-year study that was conducted in three phases to evaluate the feasibility of assessing digitized portfolios of student creative work for high-stakes purposes. The first two phases suggested that creative work could be digitized with adequate fidelity, and that students could submit their own work from schools to...

Assessing the performance of a student involves some form of judgement, and where more than one assessor is involved this usually requires some form of moderation to ensure consistent and fair results. Often this involves meetings or communication between assessors, which is referred to as social moderation. This paper reports on a study that inves...

The well-being of modern economies and societies is increasingly requiring citizens to possess capabilities in integrating knowledge and skills in science, technology, engineering and science to solve problems. However, by the end of schooling, the majority of Australian students show little interest in these discipline areas and have no plans to c...

In this paper we argue that comparative judgement delivered by online technologies is a viable, valid and highly reliable alternative to traditional analytical marking. In the past, comparative judgement has been underused in educational assessment and measurement, particularly in large-scale testing, mainly due to the lack of supporting technologi...

This chapter discusses the critical roles digital technologies can play in improving assessment outcomes, and thus teaching in schools. It argues that because teaching in schools is driven by summative assessment, to meet twenty-first-century learning demands, this needs to be refocused toward measuring deep conceptual understanding and authentic p...

Traditional moderation of student assessments is often carried out with groups of teachers working face-to-face in a specified location making judgements concerning the quality of representations of achievement. This traditional model has relied little on modern information communications technologies and has been logistically challenging. We argue...

Increasingly teachers and school leaders need to be sure that the investment in information and communications technologies (ICT) maximises the positive impact on learning. There has been much debate on how this impact on learning should be measured. As a result, a group of researchers developed a framework that can be used to describe and evaluate...

Teaching and Digital Technologies: Big Issues and Critical Questions helps both pre-service and in-service teachers to critically question and evaluate the reasons for using digital technology in the classroom. Unlike other resources that show how to use specific technologies – and quickly become outdated, this text empowers the reader to understan...

Teaching and Digital Technologies: Big Issues and Critical Questions helps both pre-service and in-service teachers to critically question and evaluate the reasons for using digital technology in the classroom. Unlike other resources that show how to use specific technologies – and quickly become outdated, this text empowers the reader to understan...

In this paper, we report on research and initiatives designed to lead our teacher education school towards a ‘Bring Your Own Digital Device’ policy for our students. The initial investigation built on components of three research projects while adding the comprehensive testing of representative potential hardware and software platforms. We began by...

This decade has seen unprecedented pressure on higher education institutions to deliver more instruction using online technologies, to the extent of some courses being entirely online. In this paper I address the question of how should instructors of undergraduate teacher education courses in Australia respond to this pressure. I present a rational...

This article reports on an investigation to advise a teacher education institution on the feasibility of having a “Bring Your Own Digital Device” policy for students. The investigation built on components of two research projects while adding the comprehensive testing of representative potential hardware and software platforms. The initial emphasis...

High-stakes external assessment for practical courses is fraught with problems impacting on the manageability, validity and reliability of scoring. Alternative approaches to assessment using digital technologies have the potential to address these problems. This paper describes a study that investigated the use of these technologies to create and s...

Portable computing technologies such as laptops, tablets, smartphones, wireless networking, voice/stylus input, and plug and play peripheral devices, appear to offer the means of finally realising much of the long heralded vision for computers to support learning in schools. There is the possibility for the technology to finally become a ubiquitous...

This paper presents the findings of the first phase of a three-year study investigating the efficacy of the digitisation of creative practical work as digital portfolios for the purposes of high-stakes summative assessment. At the same time the paired comparisons method of scoring was tried as an alternative to analytical rubric-based marking becau...

This paper reports on the outcomes of a three-year study investigating the use of digital technologies to increase the authenticity of high-stakes summative assessment in four Western Australian senior secondary courses. The study involved 82 teachers and 1015 students and a range of digital forms of assessment using computer-based exams, digital p...

In 1993 the first WA private school adopted a 1 to 1 computing strategy and then ten years later the first government school did so. With the advent of the Digital Education Revolution initiative many schools in WA commenced 1 to 1 strategies and it has almost become an expectation in secondary schools. Our Snapshots studies involved two new govern...

The collection and scoring of student artwork, for high-stakes assessment, across a large jurisdiction such as Western Australia is challenging. An alternative approach would be to submit digital representations of the artworks online for assessing. However, to give a valid and reliable measure the representations would need to be of adequate quali...

In this paper we report on one component of a three-year study into the use of digital technologies for summative performance assessment in senior secondary courses in Western Australia. One of the courses was Italian Studies, which had an oral communication outcome externally assessed with an oral performance for which students travelled to a cent...

It was the belief that assessment is the driving force of curriculum that motivated the authors of this monograph to embark on a program of research and development into the use of digital technologies to support more authentic forms of assessment. They perceived that in responding to the educational needs of children in the 21st Century, curriculu...

In this chapter the results for the Applied Information Technology (AIT) course are presented starting with a discussion of the nature of the course, the assessment problem and the form and nature of the assessment tasks implemented through the project. This is followed with a discussion of the implementation of the task and the technologies employ...

As schools increase their use of Information and Communications Technologies (JCT) to support teaching and learning, critical analysis is needed on how the technologies are applied to the curriculum. This chapter outlines the development and implementation of a key dimension of a comprehensive framework designed to describe, evaluate and promote th...

Over the last three decades many models explain the processes involved in the adoption and use of ICT in education. Based on this literature, a three-tiered framework and associated instruments were developed to use with Western Australian teachers to measure and support change in using ICT. This framework can be used to support, describe and promo...

Research on Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) use in schools is increasingly finding that the impact on learning outcomes is not directly causal but depends on how the technologies are used within learning environments. This paper presents one key dimension, the ‘Learning Environment Attributes’ dimension, of a complete literature-b...

Worldwide, fewer and fewer work tasks are done using paper and pen, yet most high-stakes assessment in schools continues to use this primitive technology. This paper reports on one component of a project investigating the use of digital technologies to facilitate assessment tasks for high-stakes summative purposes in senior secondary courses. It re...

The collection and marking of student artwork across a large jurisdiction such as Western Australia is challenging where the work is submitted to a central location to be marked by experts and returned to students. An alternative approach would be to submit digital representations of the artworks online for marking. However, to give a valid and rel...

Background: The Digital Forms of Assessment project is a three-year Australian Research Council Linkage research project being conducted by Edith Cowan University's Centre for Schooling and Learning Technologies (CSaLT) in partnership with the Curriculum Council of Western Australia. The project is investigating the potential for a digital format e...

An applied Information Technology (IT) course that is assessed using pen and paper may sound incongruous but it is symptomatic of the state of high-stakes assessment in jurisdictions such as Western Australia. Whereas technology has permeated most aspects of modern life, including schooling, and more has been demanded of education systems in terms...

This paper discusses a range of issues around 1:1 student to computing devices programs in schools and reports on the critical factors that will contribute to the success of this approach. The researcher was privileged to evaluate one of the early adopter laptop programs and then follow-up by evaluating the first program in a Western Australian gov...

This chapter draws on research that has explored the use of digital technologies in the context of examination-based assessment in senior secondary physical education in Western Australia (WA). It discusses the potential that digital technologies present to enhance pedagogy in senior physical education teaching and extends learning opportunities in...

This study utilizes a school-improvement perspective to examine the role of curriculum coordination in the integration of information and communication technologies (ICT) into primary schools. The nature and impact of this role is examined in seven primary schools in Australia. These seven schools were drawn from a longitudinal intervention that pr...

There is a critical need for research into the use of digital technologies to support the assessment of performance on complex tasks in schools. This paper reports on a component of a pilot study aimed at investigating the use of digital forms of performance assessment, manageable within schools, with high levels of reliability and capable of being...

This paper reports on one part of the first year of a three-year study into the feasibility of using digital technologies to represent the output from practical assessment tasks in senior secondary courses. The aim was to improve the alignment of assessment with pedagogy and curriculum. Students in seven classes studying the Applied Information Tec...

In the developed world a very small proportion of work tasks are done using paper and pen and yet most high-stakes assessment in schools continue to use this primitive technology. While employers and community leaders call for schools to produce students with 21st Century skills and deep conceptual understanding of content the main driver of curric...

For over two decades educators have hailed the possibility of harnessing the capabilities of portable computing to transform Australian schools into places where students experience powerful learning environments, relevant to the 21st Century. For some schools in Australia this journey is well into its second decade with the use of networkable port...

This paper reports on the perceptions of teacher education student of the value of using digital tools to analyse video-based information on the practice of teachers in classrooms. This strategy was employed to address a dilemma in providing sufficient exposure to real examples of good classroom teaching to link theory with practice. The use of vid...

Mobile computing devices are increasingly finding a place in universities, putting the pressure on teacher education to consider how best to incorporate the use of these technologies. At the same time there is pressure from the requirement for teacher education students to develop skills and experience in using digital technologies to support their...

This paper reports on clinical research into the use of a Tablet PC with a 4-year-old child to support learning. The study was designed to begin to investigate the value in using Tablet PCs with young children and in particular to determine when the technology may be appropriate to use. Some educators and other stakeholders have suggested benefits...

To improve the level of integration of ICT within learning programmes In schools will, among other things, need school-based professional learning programmes and support structures for teachers. This paper reports on a model that has been developed and implemented by the Centre for Schooling and Learning Technologies at Edith Cowan University with...

The Internet has provided distance education with a new delivery opportunity that tertiary institutions are rapidly deploying. However, little is known of the characteristics of effective human tutors to exploit this opportunity and what capabilities they require for particular online learning environments. This paper reports on an in-depth study e...

For more than a decade, Australian educational systems have been trying to implement curriculum based on an outcomes approach to teaching and learning. A major difficulty in this process has been in applying the approach to the assessment of students’ learning. It has been recognized that teachers require considerably more support in access to info...

This paper considers the use of Tablet PCs with young children with a view to determining when the technology may be appropriate to use. Some literature has suggested benefits for the learning of children when they use Tablet PCs but much of it comes from manufacturers. To investigate these benefits a series of clinical trials were conducted with a...

Since the nineteen-eighties emerging computer technologies have shown the potential to support the processes required to deliver high quality education to more students. Developments in ICT have led to the emergence of low-cost high-powered portable computers, and improvements in the capabilities and operation of computer networks that may unlock m...

Over the past decade developments in computer technology have led to the emergence of low-cost high-powered portable computing devices, and improvements in the capabilities and operation of computer networks. A number of these developments should address some technical obstacles widely viewed as limiting the realization of the potential for compute...

Over the past decade there has been an explosion in the provision of computing facilities in schools for student use. However, there is concern that the development of these facilities has often given little regard to the ergonomics of the design for use by children, particularly adolescents. This paper reports on a study that investigated the ergo...

This paper addresses questions concerning the use of portable computer devices in schools by proposing a framework within which to address the questions, presenting an example, and synthesising the findings of research. The benefits and barriers to implementing portable technologies are discussed leading to some recommendations.

Abstract This research focused on the ,prediction that children in their school setting would ,learn more ,from ,educational multimedia ,when critical information was presented as spoken ,instead of textual ,cues. Analyses of a study (n = 42) showed ,that 12-year-olds did not learn any more,from temporal speech cueing than from temporal text cueing...

This research focused on the prediction that children in their school setting would learn more from educational multimedia when critical information was presented as spoken instead of textual cues. Analyses of a study (n = 42) showed that 12-year-olds did not learn any more from temporal speech cueing than from temporal text cueing. The findings su...

This article begins by constructing an argument from the literature to support the view that research into the use of computers in classrooms must consider the overall learning environment. This provides the rationale for the development and use of the New Classroom Environment Instrument (NCEI) in research conducted into the use of portable comput...

During the 1990s a significant development in computer technology has been the emergence of low-cost, high-powered portable computers. This has encouraged a number of schools to experiment with providing students with portable computers for use at both school and home. The arguments for using portable computers in schools are compelling but the fie...

This paper reports on the findings of a 1999 study that set out to investigate the current perceptions of students and teachers towards the use of portable computers at a secondary school. The aim was to compare these with the findings of a 1995 study carried out by the researcher at the same school. Data were collected from 102 Year Twelve student...

The use of wireless networking with the latest portable computers may provide the solution to many technical and logistical problems faced by schools in facilitating the use of computers by students. This paper reports on an ethnographic action research study with the aim to investigate the potential of wireless networking in primary (elementary) s...

This paper reports on recent research to investigate effective practice and develop a definition of quality technology education in Australian primary and secondary schools. In Australia technology education encompasses a range of practical subject disciplines including working with materials, fabrics, food and media, and the provision of computer...

Over the past decade developments in computer technology have led to the emergence of low-cost high-powered portable computers, and improvements in the capabilities and operation of computer networks (e.g. Intranets and the accessibility of the Internet). While these developments should be welcomed by schools it is not clear that they will have any...

The concerns-based adoption model (CBAM) was used to analyze results of a study examining the use of student-owned portable computers at a secondary school. CBAM was found to be very useful in explaining the actions of teachers and in providing a basis on which to develop a theoretical model for the implementation of portable computers in schools....

Design features and principles for school-based computer-supported learning environments were derived from personal research involving student perceptions of classroom environments. This study spans 10 years of classroom-based research beginning with one computer per class and finishing with one computer per student. From this a set of implementati...

In the 1990s, a significant development in computer technology has been the emergence of low-cost, high-powered portable computers which some schools have introduced into classrooms. A three year study was conducted at a school to address issues concerning the impacts of student-owned, portable computers on students, teachers, the curriculum, and t...

The portable computer alternative is attractive to schools and education systems from both an educational and promotional point of view. This paper discusses the findings of an initial three-year evaluation of the use of portable computers in a Perth secondary school in Western Australia and from a second follow-up study. In particular the percepti...

This study used interpretive research techniques to investigate the factors which affect the computer literacy of secondary students. The necessity that students to be prepared for life and work in a computer technology based society is widely acknowledged and has highlighted the importance of computer literacy in the high school curriculum. While...

The last two decades has produced a series of educational policy documents designed to initiate major changes in educational practice in K to 12 schooling in Western Australia. There was the Achievement Certificate, changes to the TEE aggregate calculation, Unit Curriculum, Better Schools and now the National Profiles and Student Outcome Statements...

The purpose of this study was to examine the online learning milieu to identify what capabilities are required of online tutors. To do this, it was necessary to determine what environmental factors affect online tutor capabilities and what the relationship was between the capabilities and the factors. This was accomplished by using an ethnographic...

Over the past decade I have been conducting research into the implementation of computer support for learning in schools. This has included classroom-based action research and surveys of teachers. From this research I have developed models for such implementation which I have termed, creating computer supported learning environments. Over the past...

The ways in which various aspects of senior physical education courses should be assessed and whether some can, or indeed should be incorporated in external examinations, are matters of longstanding professional debate across Australia and internationally. Differences in current practice across Australasia reflect an ongoing lack of consensus about...

There are convincing arguments for the integration of computer applications into school programmes to support the learning of students. After more than 30 years of increasing investment in educational computing researchers are concerned that there has been very little impact on the experiences of students in schools. In the 1990s, a significant dev...

This paper reports on a pilot project, conducted by the Centre for Schooling and Learning Technologies at Edith Cowan University, that aimed to support schools seeking to improve the integration of ICT through a school-based model of professional learning. The model built on long-term partnerships between the schools and the University to include t...

Over the past three years students in the School of Education at Edith Cowan University have been involved in a number of exploratory projects involving the use of notebook style computers. This paper reports on the results of these projects. While generally the outcomes have been positive it is not clear that this is the preferred solution compare...

The increasing use of mobile computing devices in Universities and the requirement for teacher education students to develop skills and experience in using digital technologies to support their teaching is putting the pressure on teacher education school and faculties to consider how best to incorporate the use of these technologies. Over the past...