Technology in learning

An Association for Learning Technology and Technology Enhanced Learning Research Programme response to some questions from the Department of Business Innovation and Skills, with a foreword by John Cook and Richard Noss

A participatory approach for digital documentation of Egyptian Bedouins intangible cultural heritage

The Bedouins of Egypt hold a unique intangible cultural heritage (ICH), with distinct cultural values and social practices that are rapidly changing as a consequence of having settled after having been nomadic for centuries. We present our attempt to develop a bottom-up approach to document Bedouin ICH. Grounded in participatory design practices, the project purpose was two-fold: engaging Egyptian Engineering undergraduates with culturally-distant technology users and introducing digital self-documentation of ICH to the Bedouin community. We report the design of a didactic model that deployed the students as research partners to co-design four prototypes of ICH documentation mobile applications with the community. The prototypes reflected an advanced understanding for the values to the Bedouins brought by digital documentation practices. Drawing from our experience, three recommendations were elicited for similar ICH projects. Namely, focusing on the community benefits; promoting motivation ownership, and authenticity; and pursuing a shared identity between designers and community members. These guidelines hold a strong value as they have been tested against local challenges that could have been detrimental to the project

Improving graduate attributes within the Egyptian university sector.

Throughout the years universities have attempted to foster graduate attributes in undergraduate degree courses. Despite the initiatives and funds put in place, attempts have been met with limited success causing what is known as the skills gap. This study sets out to understand the causes underpinning the skills gap by examining the specific nature of graduate attributes through using complexity theory. It builds on earlier work into graduate attributes by investigating the reasons influencing the variation in their interpretation thus providing an analysis of their contextual nature. Rather than determining key factors, this paper examines the multi factor causalities that affect the teaching and learning of graduate attributes in their educational context which requires to be acknowledged in higher education policies and practices. The study was explored in the Egyptian computer engineering undergraduate context. Using semi-structured interviews, a number of questions were posed to a purposive sample of academics and graduates belonging to two different computer engineering undergraduate programmes; one that is private and another that is public. To ensure the validity of data, more data were collected from Egyptian employers as well as the documents that represent the different educational policies and practices implemented in both private and public programmes of study. This research could be of interest to higher education authorities including: universities, deans of faculties, and heads of academic programmes, academics teaching undergraduate bachelor degrees, and course designers and reviewers for undergraduate bachelor degrees