How can educational technology contribute to academic development? Shaheeda Jaffer 31 August 2005

Outline Introduction Introduction Challenges Challenges Role of ET in education Role of ET in education Simulation tutorials Simulation tutorials Communication tools Communication tools Role of CET Role of CET Conclusion Conclusion

Introduction Academic development is concerned with: providing support to under-prepared students providing support to under-prepared students student throughput student throughput curriculum development curriculum development teaching and learning teaching and learning

student diversity throughput communication large class sizes learning styles Under preparedness feedback Some current challenges language

I would argue that the main deficiency in most contemporary university teaching involves instruction that is too didactic, a lack of personal contact between teachers and students and among students, assessment methods that are inadequate to measure sophisticated learning goals and too little opportunity for students to integrate knowledge from different fields and apply what they learn to the solution of real-world problems. (Knapper, 2001: 94)

Teaching activity Learning activity ICT-based resource Show, demonstrate, explain Attending, listening Multimedia (video, audio clips, animations) Create, set up, guide through discovery spaces Investigating, exploring, browsing, searching CD, DVD, or Web resources including hypertext & information gateways Guide through scaffolding Experimenting, practising, repeating, feedback Drill & practice, tutorials, simulations, virtual environments Enable making Articulating, synthesising, making Existing tools & created programmable software Adapted from Laurillard (2001) Role of ET in education

ET and its role in education curriculum objectives curriculum objectives teaching approach teaching approach learning styles learning styles curriculum content curriculum content

Simulation tutorials

managed in a lab setting with teacher and tutor support managed in a lab setting with teacher and tutor support deals with specific course objectives deals with specific course objectives integrated into course through integrated into course through supporting lectures supporting lectures supporting readings supporting readings formal assessment formal assessment links theory and practice links theory and practice provides feedback to student provides feedback to student

Communication tools discussion forums discussion forums chats chats dfaq dfaq mobile technology mobile technology

Collaborative Mobile Glossaries

Collaborative learning discussion forums discussion forums chats chats wikis wikis blogs blogs

Role of CET CET’s mission is to promote, enable and investigate the integration of learning technologies into teaching and learning at UCT, and in higher education.

Challenges general issues of academic development general issues of academic development fear of technology fear of technology lack of knowledge of ET potential lack of knowledge of ET potential infrastructure infrastructure

Principles integration integration context context pedagogically driven pedagogically driven pedagogic choice pedagogic choice

Conclusion […] technology may be a good solution for some instructional problems, and in some cases it may be a partial solution. But in other instances technology does little to address the fundamental teaching and learning issue or – even worse – provides a glitzy but inappropriate solution to a problem that has simply been misconstrued. (Knapper, 2001: 94)

technology + human capital = success (Chaplin, WWW2005 conference) Is there an equivalent model for educational success?