Don Passey

This conceptual paper draws on a wide range of research and policy literature, providing a contemporary view of issues, factors and practices that affect education for digitally excluded populations. Concern for how education for digitally excluded populations can be supported is focal to this paper, with different sections offering key related perspectives. From an analysis of issues, factors and practices, actions for policy, practice and research are identified. Given a key finding that power issues can have major effects on plans, implementation processes and outcomes when addressing needs of education for digitally excluded populations, the paper concludes by offering frameworks to support and enable key discussions, to involve representatives from an excluded population as well as those from policy (government and industry), practitioners (teachers and learners) and researchers.

This paper reports research that investigated how digital technologies were used to develop and maintain home–school connections and develop positive relationships when children transition to nursery schools and schools. School case studies, comprising four purposively selected schools with nursery provision in Northern Ireland and four primary schools in New Zealand, provided the context and evidence to enable a small-scale comparative study of how digital technologies enabled the development of relationships between homes and schools over time. In this paper, the findings were analysed using a conceptual model and framework derived from earlier studies in this field. However, given the contemporary social and technological context, it was found that the framework could be reviewed and elaborated, enabling the creation of a new conceptual framework that is offered here. Our findings reveal methods of employing digital technologies to positively support parental engagement when children transition to nurseries and schools. From the analysis of our findings using the framework developed, points to consider for future practice, policy, and research are highlighted, with an emphasis on understanding and integrating parents’ aspirations into the transition process. Opportunities that use existing and emerging methods for home–school–community connections need to be made known to teachers and schools. While the digital technologies used must be capable of maintaining appropriate regular communication, additionally, supporting ways for involving parental voice in reviews of existing practices and exploring new opportunities should be shared with teachers and schools. Future research should explore how the use of digital technologies in developing wider and deeper engagement and participation of parents and carers with nurseries and schools might lead to a longer-term and positive engagement in later years beyond nursery schools and initial transition to school.

Parents and guardians were supporting their children's learning prior to Covid-19, but evidence has indicated that many were not prepared for what happened and what was required of them during the Covid-19 period. Uses of digital technologies to ensure continuity of learning was frequently and rapidly used and developed, and pertinent literature often indicated the challenges that parents and guardians found in supporting their children through uses of these media. In moving from the previous practices to those needed in the Covid-19 pandemic time, this paper asks why parents and guardians were not prepared: what features were missing, and how might parents and guardians be better supported during periods of future crisis?

Digital higher education has recently become a vital necessity rather than, as sometimes considered, a luxury or even a choice. This shift has been driven by a number of factors, but most recently in 2020, this was due to a rapid need to find ways to maintain higher education provision in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic situation. Teaching and learning in higher education has traditionally been considered an onsite activity; but initial digital developments in information technology led to increased resource access, while subsequent digital developments in communications technology led to increased social, communicative and collaborative access. International students can now often access higher education through digital means, yet there are additional factors that come into play that can affect modes and forms of teaching and learning. This chapter explores how digital higher education might provide appropriately for the international and inclusive practice that it seeks to support.

The Institute for Education’s Second Annual Symposium 2021 focuses on the topic of ‘Technology Enhanced & Remote Teaching & Learning’. In the current educational context, where we have grappled with issues and challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, this topic and Symposium are particularly timely and relevant. The papers presented here form an extremely valuable set of contributions that not only place and recognise the work that has been undertaken during the COVID-19 pandemic, but also identify important key features that are pertinent to a next phase, moving forward beyond this period of crisis. In considering this next phase, I believe it is important to consider features of the past (the potential for technology enhanced teaching and learning), as well as outcomes of the present (what has shifted and resulted during the COVID-19 pandemic) and needs for the future (how we can take forward lessons from our current understandings and experience).