THINKING ABOUT THE ROLE OF LEARNING TECHNOLOGY IN THE COURSE

… drawing on Review of Undergraduate Experience of Blended e-learning Full report, Executive summary, 4 briefing papers at htm htm JISC Effective practice & Learner Experience studies: Learner Scoping Study (Sharpe, Benfield, Lessner, De Cicco) Synthesis project (Sharpe et al) mes.html

… and work on digital literacy LliDA at ida/index.html SLiDA at

Various technology use studies

Landscape: social software ©BBC technology/ stm An ‘”underworld” of digital communication among learners’ (LEX, Creanor et al 2006) Google and Wikipedia preferred information search & retrieval tools (LXP, Conole et al 2006) “The concept of ‘time’ is changing – both in terms of expectation of information and results on demand. There is evidence of a fragmentation of the learning timetable” (LXP, Conole et al 2006)

Immersed in technology  “technologically adept and had integrated ICT into their lives (JISC 2007: 10)  “student respondents [are] immersed in technology ownership and use and impatient with instructors who don’t have adequate technical skills” (Salaway et al 2007: 5) ©BBC technology/ stm

The SLiDA Project How are institutions creating and enabling opportunities that promote the development of effective learning in a digital age? Teaching studio in use, University of Edinburgh

Key findings from SLiDA WHAT are institutions doing to support the development of learners for a digital age? 1.Preparing students for their experience of learning with technology 2.Enabling learners to use their own devices and services 3.Reconfiguring campus spaces for social learning 4.Listening to learner voices 5.A strategic emphasis on course design for blended learning

Digital literacies: Aspirations E.g. JISC Call for Projects in Developing Digital Literacies* “A vision for digital literacies” including  digitally literate graduates, who “are skilled users of digital information, whether scholarly or professional, public or personal. They move readily between virtual and face to face environments, and across boundaries of national and professional identity, when collaborating with others.”  digitally literate organisation(s) that “ treats the digital know-how of its members, staff and students alike, as a critical resource to be routinely audited, progressed, used in a range of multi-role teams, recognised and rewarded.” *

Brookes digital & information literacy* “The functional access, skills and practices necessary to become a confident, agile adopter of a range of technologies for personal, academic and professional use.” “To be able to use appropriate technology to search for high-quality information; critically to evaluate and engage with the information obtained; reflect on and record learning, and professional and personal development; and engage productively in relevant online communities.” *Strategy for Enhancing the Student Experience

A taxonomy: 7 categories  being confident, agile adopters of a range of technologies for personal, academic and professional use  confidently and competently analysing information needs (personal, academic, or professional)  devising effective strategies and choosing appropriate tools for locating information  evaluating information obtained and assessing its appropriateness for one’s needs  using digital tools to reflect on and record learning and professional and personal development  engaging productively in relevant online communities  integrating information obtained into one’s own personal, academic or professional understanding, managing and communicating it effectively and ethically

Question(s) Can you deliver a course on innovation without innovative (or at least up-to-date) use of digital technologies? If you do want to use up-to-date digital technologies, then why and how?

What sorts of tools/technologies are currently in the educational landscape? How are they being used?

Flexible engagement using VLE MA in Educational Research  Content, learning resources MSc Nursing Studies  Fully online distance learning

A reminder about assessment and feedback measurable impact Formative use of CAA stands out as a rare application of e-learning leading to measurable impact on student performance (Sharpe et al 2006)

Extended, technology-enhanced assignments E.g. student journals using blogs

…. or e-portfolios to assemble and present artifacts from extended tasks

Wikis for collaborative authoring and presentation Annotated bibliographies Student research journals (Geoverse) Collaborative student projects

Twitter (and other social media) Class twitter page to gather resources (Kate Varini, School of Business) Paper.li aggregates twitter feeds and presents them in newspaper format

Mobile services Mobile oxford JISC-funded project, led by University of Oxford, with Brookes partner

Benefits of cooperative learning Cooperation, compared with competitive and individualistic efforts, tends to result in  higher achievement  greater long-term retention  more frequent use of higher-level reasoning  more accurate and creative problem-solving  more willingness to take on and persist with difficult tasks  more intrinsic motivation  transfer of learning from one situation to another  greater time on task (Johnson, Johnson and Smith 2007, p 19)

Problems with cooperative learning  many students don’t like it  students may find group work assessment unfair  social loafing  free riding  lack of teamwork skills  group think, or avoiding conflict  lack of time to gel into an effective group  inappropriate group size and/or lack of sufficient heterogeneity in the group (Johnson & Johnson 1999)

Task In programme groups: Write down a rationale for the use of technology in the course Identify one (or more) key examples of how technology is/will be used in this way

References British Library and JISC. (2008). "Information behaviour of the researcher of the future." Ciber report [Online] Retrieved 8 July, 2008, from Conole, G., De Laat, M., Dillon, T. and Darby, J. (2006, November 2006). "JISC LXP: Student Experiences of Technologies Draft Final Report." November 2006.[Online] Retrieved 20 Nov, 2006, from Creanor, L., Trinder, K., Gowan, D. and Howells, C. (2006, August 2006). "LEX: The Learner Experience of e-Learning Final Project Report August 2006." [Online] Retrieved 2 November, 2006, from JISC (2004). Effective Practice with e-Learning: A good practice guide in designing for e-Learning. Bristol, JISC. Online at JISC (2005). Innovative Practice with e-Learning. Bristol, JISC. Online at JISC (2007). "Student Expectations Study: Key findings from online research and discussion evenings held in June 2007 for the Joint Information Systems Committee." [Online] Retrieved 10 September, 2007, from JISC. (2009). "Learner experiences of e-learning." [Online] Retrieved 9 April, 2009, from Johnson, D., Johnson, R. and Smith, K. (2007). "The State of Cooperative Learning in Postsecondary and Professional Settings." Educational Psychology Review 19(1): Johnson, D. W. and Johnson, R. T. (1999). Learning Together and Alone: Cooperative, Competitive and Individualistic Learning (Fifth Edition). Needham Heights, Ma: Allyn and Bacon. Salaway, G., Caruso, J. B. and Nelson, M. R. (2007). "The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2007." [Online] Retrieved 9 October, 2007, from Sharpe, R, Benfield, G, Roberts, G and Francis, R (2006). "The undergraduate experience of blended e-learning: a review of UK literature and practice undertaken for the Higher Education Academy." Retrieved 3 October, 2006, from