Nicola is a former leader of LNM and is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education and Arts of Federation University Australia. In November, 2014, she became the inaugural Higher Degrees by Research (HDR) Director in the Faculty of Education and Arts at FedUni. She is currently the Deputy Head in the School of Education at the Gippsland campus.
Nicola’s research concerns Internet over-use, the social phenomena of Internet usage, technological expertise, and the use of information and communication technologies to enhance teaching and learning. Nicola supervises a range of part-time and full-time HDR students. She is the author of two books, The Multiplicities of Internet Addiction: The Misrecognition of Leisure and Learning (Ashgate, 2009) and Publishing from your PhD: Negotiating a Crowded Jungle (Gower, 2011).
Nicola’s research builds upon the foundation set in her doctoral studies whereby she explored young people’s learning and engagement with digital technologies. These teenagers were positioned as technological experts, and some of them were also happy to claim they were Internet addicts. These themes have informed her research agenda about technological expertise and pathological Internet use. Nicola has drawn on theorists such as Bourdieu and De Certeau in her work and she is now establishing research collaboration with other scholars concerning schools, curriculum and technologies, at-risk regional students, as well as informal learning practices.
My research is focused on the pedagogies associated with Internet use, social media within informal and formal settings, as well as what appears to be Internet ‘over-use’. Topics I have written about include the ‘performance of school’, the ‘misrecognition of learning’, ‘pedagogies of informal learning’, the ‘links between technological expertise and social media’, and ‘legitimate learning spaces’. Learning that occurs within informal settings is under-researched and I believe there is value and innovation in acknowledging the legitimacy of individuals’ pursuits of knowledge, and mapping practices to curriculum. My research is concerned with investigating current techno-cultural contexts and their nexus with learning and expertise.
While my research broadly fits in the area of digital technology and education, I am critical of the notion that ‘technology is better’. I believe quality teaching can stand alone without technology, but digital resources can provide opportunities not available without technologies. I am interested in the ways learning shapes technologies (and vice versa) and how technologies shape society (and vice versa).
Recent Projects
~~~~
2015 – 2016
Investigators: Neil Selwyn, Nicola Johnson
Title: Going online on behalf of others – an investigation of ‘proxy’ internet consumers
Source: Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN)
Amount: $14,572
~~~~
2014 – 2016
Investigators: Neil Selwyn, Nicola Johnson, Scott Bulfin
Title: Making a digital difference? An investigation of new technologies in secondary schools
Source: Australian Research Council Discovery Project DP140101258
Amount: $325,000
This project addresses the long-standing question of why digital technologies have largely failed to have a consistent impact on the core processes of schools and schooling. The overarching aim of the project, therefore, is to identify the socio-technical adjustments that might be made within schools to facilitate ‘better’ uses of digital technology. Using an innovative combination of large-scale surveying, in-depth ethnographic study and critical participatory design, the project will: (i) provide rich insights into why digital technologies are often not being used to their full potential in schools; and (ii) actively collaborate with school communities in experimenting and constructing alternatives.
~~~
Publications:
Books
Johnson, N. F. (2009). The Multiplicities of Internet Addiction: The Misrecognition of Leisure and Learning. Surrey, UK: Ashgate.
Johnson, N. F. (2011). Publishing from your PhD: Negotiating a Crowded Jungle. Surrey, UK: Gower
Edited Books
Bulfin, S., Johnson, N. F. & Bigum, C. (Eds.,) (2015). Critical perspectives on technology and education. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
Brown, J. & Johnson, N. F. (Eds.,) (2015). Children’s images of identity: Drawing the self and the other. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense.
Refereed Journal Articles
Selwyn, N., Nemorin, S., Bulfin, S. & Johnson, N. F. (in press). Left to their own devices: the everyday realities of ‘one-to-one’ classrooms. Oxford Review of Education (date accepted 1/2/2017).
Selwyn, N., Nemorin, S., & Johnson, N. F. (2017). High-tech, hard work: An investigation of teachers’ work in the digital age. Learning, Media & Technology, available online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2016.1252770
Bulfin, S., Johnson, N. F., Nemorin, S. & Selwyn, N. (2016). Nagging, noobs and new tricks – student perceptions of school as a context for digital technology use. Educational Studies, 42(3), 239-251.
Johnson, N. F. & Keane, H. (2016). Internet addiction? Temporality and life online in the networked society, Time & Society, 1-19, DOI: 10.1177/0961463X15577279.
Auld, G. & Johnson, N. F. (2014). Connecting literacy learning outside of school to the Australian Curriculum in the middle years. Literacy Learning: the Middle Years, 22(2), 22-27.
Johnson, N. F. (2013, published June 2014). What’s wrong with labeling experts? Information Technology, Education & Society, 14(1), 51-60. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7459/ites/14.1.05
Johnson, N. F. (2014). Arguing the need for qualitative exploration in the field of emerging digital pathologies. Studia Psychologica, 14(1), date accepted 12 August, 2012.
Johnson, N. F. (2014). Symbolic instruments and the Internet-mediation of knowledge and expertise, Continuum, 28(3), 371-382.
Bulfin, S., Henderson, M., Johnson, N. F. & Selwyn, N., (2014). Methodological capacity within the field of ‘educational technology’: an initial investigation. British Journal of Educational Technology, 45(3), 403-414, DOI: 10.1111/bjet.12145.
Henderson, M., Johnson, N. F., & Auld, G. (2013). Silences of ethical practice: Dilemmas for researchers using social media. Educational Research and Evaluation, 19(6), 546-560.
Bulfin, S., Henderson, M., & Johnson, N. F. (2013). Examining the use of theory within educational technology and media research.Learning, Media & Technology, 38(3), 337-344.
Johnson, N. F. & Humphry, N. (2012). The Teenage Expertise Network (TEN): An online ethnographic approach. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 25(6), 723-739.
Johnson, N. F. (2011). “No, they’re not digital natives and they’re not addicted”: An essay critiquing contestable labels. Fast Capitalism, 8(2),http://www.fastcapitalism.com.
Dudek, D. & Johnson, N. F. (2011). Return of the hacker as hero: Fictions and realities of teenage technological experts. Children’s Literature in Education, 42(3), 184-195.
Tindall-Ford, S., Waters, K., & Johnson, N. F. (2010). An evaluation of a web-based ePortfolio system in an Australian pre-service teacher education program, International Journal of Learning, 17(4), 297-308.
Johnson, N. F. (2010). Using an instructional design model to evaluate a blended learning subject in a pre-service teacher education degree,International Journal of Learning, 17(2), 65-80.
Johnson, N. F. (2009). Contesting binaries: Teenage girls as technological experts. Gender, Technology and Development, 13(3), 365-383 [published in 2010].
Johnson, N. F. (2009). The Teenage Expertise Network: The online availability of expertise. International Journal of Learning, 16(5), 211-220.
Johnson, N. F. (2009). Generational differences in beliefs about technological expertise. New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies, 44(1),31-46.
Johnson, N. F. (2009). Cyber-relations in the field of home computer use for leisure: Bourdieu and teenage technological experts. E-Learning, 6(2), 187-197, available http://www.wwwords.co.uk/elea/content/pdfs/6/issue6_2.asp#4.
Johnson, N. F. (2009). Exchanging online narratives for leisure: A legitimate learning space. International Journal of Emerging Technologies & Society, 7(1), 15-27, available: http://www.swinburne.edu.au/hosting/ijets/journal/V7N1/vol7num1-article2.html
Johnson, N. F. (2009). Teenage technological experts’ views of schooling, Australian Educational Researcher, 36(1), 59-72.
Johnson, N. F., Macdonald, D. C. & Brabazon, T. (2008). Rage against the machine? Symbolic violence in e-learning supported tertiary education. E-Learning, 5(3), 275-283, available: http://www.wwwords.co.uk/elea/content/pdfs/5/issue5_3.asp.
Johnson, N. F. (2007). Framing the integration of computers in beginning teacher professional development. Computers in New Zealand Schools, 19(3), 25-32, 44, available: http://ro.uow.edu.au/edupapers/26.
Johnson, N. F., Rowan, L. & Lynch, J. (2006). Constructions of gender in computer magazine advertisements: confronting the literature.Studies in Media and Information Literacy Education, 6(1), available: http://ro.uow.edu.au/edupapers/19.
Johnson, N. F. (2006). Boys and girls are the same: Gender perceptions in using computers in the classroom. Computers in New Zealand Schools, 18(3), 5-11, 33, 41, available: http://ro.uow.edu.au/edupapers/15.
Johnson, N. F. (2005). Technological efficacy: A new identity category. Redress – Journal of the Association of Women Educators, 14(3), 8-13, available: http://ro.uow.edu.au/edupapers/17.
Book Chapters
Selwyn, N., Nemorin, S., Bulfin, S. & Johnson, N. F. (2016). ‘Toward a digital sociology of school’. in Daniels, J., Gregory, K. and McMillan Cotton, T. (eds) Digital Sociologies. Bristol, Polity (pp. 143-158).
Johnson, N. F. (2017). ‘Using information and communication technologies in humanities and social sciences’. In Gilbert, R. & Hoepper, B. (Eds) Teaching Humanities and Social Sciences (6th ed). South Melbourne, VIC: Cengage Learning (chapter 8, pp. 178-198).
Johnson, N. F. (2016). ‘Digital natives and other myths’. In Henderson, M. & Romeo, G. (Eds.,) Teaching and Digital Technologies: Big Issues and Critical Questions. Cambridge University Press (chapter 2, pp. 11-21).
Johnson, N. F. (2016). ‘Teaching with Information and Communication Technologies’ in Teaching: Making a Difference (3rd). Milton, QLD: John Wiley & Sons, (chapter 10, pp. 330-361).
Johnson, N. F. (2015). ‘The work of theory in ed-tech research’. In Bulfin, S., Johnson, N. F. & Bigum, C. (Eds.,) Critical perspectives on technology and education (chapter 3, pp. 35-50). New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
Auld, G. & Johnson, N. F. (2015). Teaching the ‘other’: Curriculum ‘outcomes’ and digital technology in the out-of-school lives of young people. In Bulfin, S., Johnson, N. F. & Bigum, C. (Eds.,) Critical perspectives on technology and education (chapter 10, pp. 163-181). New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
Bigum, C., Bulfin, S. & Johnson, N. F. (2015). ‘Critical is something others (don’t) do: Mapping the imaginative of educational technology’. In Bulfin, S., Johnson, N. F. & Bigum, C. (Eds.,) Critical perspectives on technology and education (chapter 1, pp. 1-13). New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
Johnson, N. F. (2015). ‘The past is in the present: Images of New Zealand Maori identity’ In Brown, J. & Johnson, N. F. (Eds.,) Children’s images of identity: Drawing the self and the other (chapter 7, pp. 89-101). Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense.
Johnson, N. F. (2014). ‘Symbolic instruments and the Internet-mediation of knowledge and expertise’. In James, J.D. (Ed.). The Internet and the Google age: Prospects and perils (chapter 4). Invited contribution from journal article published as Johnson, N. F. (2014). Symbolic instruments and the Internet-mediation of knowledge and expertise, Continuum, 28(3), 371-382.
Johnson, N. F. (2014). ‘Evaluating Blended Learning’ in Westover, J.H. & Westover, J.P. (Eds.). Engaging Hybrid and Blended Learning in Higher Education (chapter 8). Common Ground Publishing. Invited contribution from journal article published as Johnson, N. F. (2010). Using an instructional design model to evaluate a blended learning subject in a pre-service teacher education degree, International Journal of Learning, 17(2), 65-80.
Johnson, N. F. & Gilbert, R. (2014). ‘Using information and communication technologies in humanities and social sciences’. In Gilbert, R. & Hoepper, B. (Eds) Teaching Humanities and Social Sciences: History, Geography, Economics & Citizenship in the Australian Curriculum (5thed). South Melbourne, VIC: Cengage Learning, pp. 156-174 (chapter 8).
Johnson, N. F. (2013). ‘Teaching with Information and Communication Technologies’ in Teaching: Making a Difference (2nd ed.). Milton, QLD: John Wiley & Sons, pp. 324-355 (chapter 10).
Johnson, N. F. (2011). ‘Teaching with Information and Communication Technologies’ in Teaching: Making a Difference. Milton, QLD: John Wiley & Sons, pp. 306-335 (chapter 10).
Johnson, N. F. & Gilbert, R. (2011). ‘Learning and Teaching with Information and Communication Technologies in SOSE’. In Gilbert, R. & Hoepper, B. (Eds) Teaching Society and Environment (4th ed). South Melbourne, VIC: Cengage Learning, pp. 179-196 (chapter 10).
Supervision:
I am the main supervisor for each of the following students whose projects fit within the LNM research group:
* John Bellavance (PT PhD) – Values in the cyber age (commenced 2010, confirmed candidature).
* Farah Deeba (FT PhD) – Engaging secondary science students using digital games in the classroom (commenced 2011, confirmed candidature) [published sole-authored C1 in 2012].
* Sandeep Kaur Sandhu (FT PhD) – A comparative study of Australian and Indian undergraduate education students’ attitudes towards the use of the Internet in their learning experiences (commenced 2012, confirmed candidature).
* Zbych Trofimiuk (PT Masters in Education by Research) – English Language Instruction Online: Co-creating Flexible Learning Environments (commenced 2009, confirmed candidature).
* Bee Peng (Diana) Toh (PT PhD) – Using epistemological beliefs, learning conceptions and learning approaches to explore effective technology integration in a Singapore Polytechnic (commenced 2011, confirmed candidature).
* Anthony Vella (FT PhD) – Intersecting Fields: Online Youth Cultures and Education (commenced 2012, confirmed candidature) [published sole-authored C1 in 2013].
* Brenton Groves (FT Masters by Research, FedUni), The Psychology of MOOCs (commenced June, 2014).
Higher Degree by Research Supervision (completed)
University of Wollongong
* Patricia Rose – Schools, hegemony and children’s agency: A sociological study with children on their schooling experiences (PhD, 2011).
* Jocelyn Brewer – Young males, the Internet and on-line gaming: exploring the impacts (School Counselor in Training, 2009).
* Yolande Jury – Engaging the Disengaged in Outdoor Education (BEd Honours, 2009).
Monash
* Suzanne Lanzon – Does Brain Training Software Improve Memory? (Minor thesis, M.Ed., 2010).
* Leong Fengzhi – Asian International Students and their Negotiation of Cultural Identity (Honours, 2011).
* Samantha Richardson – Increasing Aboriginal Attendance in Gippsland Primary Schools (Honours, 2011).
* Fahad Alenezi – A Case Study and Comparison of ICT Use in Higher Education between a Saudi Arabian Context and Australia (Minor thesis, M.Ed., 2012).
* Ian (George) Hamilton (PT Masters in Education by Research) – Exploring and Sharing Australian Indigenous Narratives (commenced late 2008, submitted April 2013) [published sole-authored E1 in 2010 and C1 in 2011].
