Page 243 - Educational Technology A Primer for the 21st Century

13.3 Issues Involving in Emerging Technologies 237

Example 3: Standards Development Organizations (SDOs)
SDOs are standards development organizations which work to formulate
health and safety standards. The term “standard’ includes a wide variety of
technical works that prescribe rules, guidelines, best practices, specifications,
test methods, design or installation procedures and the like. The size, scope,
and subject matter of standards vary widely, ranging from lengthy model
building or electrical codes to narrowly scoped test methods or product
specifications.
(See https://www.nfpa.org/codes-and-standards/standards-development-pr
ocess/the-value-of-standards-development-organizations)

For sustainability, once the resources cooperation and sharing process have been
fully implemented, efforts must turn to greater efficiency in programme delivery and
to maintaining stakeholder engagement, and also political support for widescale
realignment of budgets and resources. Even initially effective, resources coopera-
tion, and sharing interventions may change in their effects over time. Therefore,
interventions must adapt to changing circumstances and contexts over time to
continue to be effective and relevant to stakeholders and intended target groups.

13.3.3 Culture and Regional Issues

The utilization of technology has a close relationship to specific regions and cul-
tures. Culture and region may affect the transfer of technology. New groups of
students from different backgrounds should be considered. Some are digital natives
(persons who understand the value of digital technology and seek out every
opportunity to use it), whereas some may be digital immigrants (late, recent, and
perhaps even reluctant adopters of the new technology; Prensky, 2001). The dif-
ferent generations with different cultural and regional backgrounds may have a
different understanding of technology and its use in a lesson.
Culture and regional differences affect human behavior patterns (O’Neil, 2006),
and these differences are always reflected in the way people study, share knowledge
and skills with others, and so on. Some researchers hold the view that cultural
differences can have a negative effect on students’ participation in online courses
(Shattuck, 2005).

Example 4: What Effect Does Culture Have on Learning? BBC News
How important are schools? That is the question posed by John Jerrim, a
researcher at the Institute of Education. To answer it, he looks at Australian
families of Chinese heritage. They go to Australian schools, and yet they do
not seem to absorb teaching like other Australians.