Tools for survival in a changing educational technology environment

This conference provides a unique opportunity to capture a snapshot in time of where we are in the educational technology landscape. Landscape denotes static, a snapshot in time. However, the educational technology environment is dynamic and constantly changing. While at times the technological change and demands for technological change can be overwhelming, change needs to become an accepted, integral and well managed part of our educational environment. Concepts presented here have been taken from the environment management discipline and are used as metaphors for understanding change and transformations in technology enhanced learning environments. The strong environmental metaphor and associated language has been deliberately chosen because it helps us to focus on our key role as educators which is to create the best possible learning environment for our students. This paper introduces a social ecological systems analysis approach to understanding changes in organisations and the impact of outside factors on our learning environment. The Adaptive Cycle Framework is introduced as a predictive tool for understanding changes and transformations in our educational technology environment, and to thus determine a pathway to maximise opportunities afforded by change. This paper draws on an ongoing PhD study in which the focus is on managing change in technology enhanced learning environments. The Adaptive Cycle Framework is illustrated within the context of a case study of a regional university’s changing educational technology environment as a means to better manage for the long term

‘Involvement’ and ‘Fun’ as Potential for Deep Learning: Unusual Suspects in a Higher Education Economics Programme

While games have much potential as pedagogical tools, there is limited empirical evidence that indicates the extent to which they might be successful in a higher education Economics programme. This prompted an investigation in the form of a qualitative case study at the Durban University of Technology (DUT), utilising a sample of first-year Economics students who had participated in a series of games incorporating key micro-economics topics.Northcutt & McCoy’s Interactive Qualitative Analysis (IQA), a unique, structured and rigorous methodological approach that advocates strong participant involvement in the research process, provided the foundation for the research. Focus group discussions, individual semi-structured interviews and reflective journals provided the data for the study, which revealed that the use of games was a key catalyst in stimulating learning. Of note is that students firmly placed ‘involvement and fun’ at the core of the learning process, which resulted in deeper learning of economic concepts. This has implications for education in re-evaluating what is meant by the terms ‘involvement’ and ‘fun’ with regard to an enhanced learning experience within the classroom.The findings highlight the potential for learning that judiciously selected economics games might have for student learning in a re-imagined teaching and learning space

Learning flexibility: the environment and a case study

This paper outlines the flexible student learning environment in the Faculty of Engineering and Surveying, before concentrating on evaluating one online learning option. This Faculty provides a variety of high quality on-campus, distance education and on-line academic programmes and various learning strategies for the heterogeneous student cohort (national and international). By accessing appropriate flexible learning and different learning experiences, students are empowered to determine learning opportunities and methodologies to suit their personal needs. The off-campus mode study may disadvantage students since they don’t have the benefit of face-to-face instructions or to participate in formative assessments delivered informally in lectures. This may lead to feelings of remoteness and isolation leading to poorer learning, lower results in assessments, and may also contribute to drop-out rates, particularly in first year courses. To overcome this inequity, the usual training materials presented for a first year course in 2005 were supplemented with PowerPoint lectures, enhanced with synchronous audio, and a series of quizzes to be used as formative assessments. The lectures and quizzes were presented online via a course web site and were designed to become an integral part of the learning experience. An evaluation of the effectiveness of these strategy demonstrated improved students' learning, a positive contribution to the learning experience, increased enjoyment of the course, and a strong learning motivator. Students reported feeling less disenfranchised with the university and having a greater affinity with the lecturer

Fostering Open Sensemaking Communities by Combining Knowledge Maps and Videoconferencing

In this paper, our aim is to investigate the role of Compendium maps for both learners and educators to share and debate interpretations in FlashMeetingTM (FM) videoconferences in the context of OpenLearn, an online environment for open learning. This work is based on a qualitative study of knowledge maps and web videoconferencing interactions, and quantitative data presented in diagnostic reports about both tools. Our theoretical approach is based on the sensemaking concept and an existing framework for three learning scenarios. Our findings describe four applications of knowledge maps in videoconferencing: (i) Mind Maps for a FM virtual lecture (transmission scenario); (ii) Learning Path Map which integrates a FM conference (studio scenario); (iii) Concept Maps during a peer-to-peer event (negotiation scenario) and (iv) Web Maps for a FM replay (assessment scenario)

Impact of online training in a first year undergraduate course

Students studying university courses in the off-campus (distance education or external) mode may be at a disadvantage to on-campus students since they don’t have the benefit of face-to-face instructions. Furthermore, they don’t have the opportunity to participate in formative assessments that are often delivered informally in lectures. This may lead to feelings of remoteness and isolation leading to poorer learning, lower results in assessments, and may also contribute to drop out rates, particularly in first year courses. To overcome this inequity, the usual training materials presented for a first year course in 2005 were supplemented with PowerPoint lectures, enhanced with synchronous audio, and a series of quizzes to be used as formative assessments. The lectures and quizzes were presented online via a course web site and were designed to become an integral part of the learning experience. The effectiveness of these enhanced materials was evaluated by surveying the users. Outcomes of the survey indicate that the enhancements to materials facilitated improved students’ learning, contributed positively to the learning experience, increased enjoyment of the course, and were a strong motivator. Off-campus students reported feeling less disenfranchised with the university and having a greater affinity with the lecturer, both of which should help increase first year retention rates. The information presented in this paper will be of benefit to others designing online teaching and learning activities

Reflecting on the development of a new school subject: the development of technology education in New Zealand.

The last 10 years have seen the production of curricula in Australia, the United Kingdom, USA, Canada, Hong Kong and New Zealand that emphasise the importance of students developing technological literacy. This paper traces the development of a new subject - technology education - in the New Zealand curriculum and explores the politics of development of a new subject as well as the theoretical stances and research that contributed to its development from 1992 until 2005. This paper outlines the various stages of development including curriculum development, teacher development, and the move to creating a classroom research agenda to enhance the teaching and learning in technology education. The paper reinforces the notion that significant gains can be made in curriculum, teaching, learning and assessment when research and development are conducted in an ongoing manner

Is technology enhanced learning an interdisciplinary activity?

This paper describes an approach to working in educational technology informed by the recognition of the subject as a major current site for interdisciplinary activity. Currently the most popular term for educational technology embraced in the UK and in the EU is Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL). We draw on the literature on interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary working, contemporary rationales for interdisciplinarity as an imperative for meeting the challenges of knotty real world problems, and the experience of working in interdisciplinary teams in TEL. The purpose is to establish the particular features of this collaborative research effort. This perspective from literature and contemporary rhetoric around practice is supplemented with reference to several interview studies of TEL project teams. These studies outlined the advantages in terms of growth, multiple perspectives and design methodologies but also the challenges in terms of sustainability, career progression and publication, the benefits of technologies for communication within teams and distinctive working practices (Jordan et al. 2012, Conole et al., 2010, Scanlon et al, 2013)

Creating Technology-enhanced Practice: A University-Home Care-Corporate Alliance

Insuring full benefit of consumer health informatics innovations requires integrating the technology into nursing practice, yet many valuable innovations are developed in research projects and never reach full integration. To avoid this outcome, a team of researchers partnered with a home care agency’s staff and patients and their corporate parent’s Information Systems and Research group to create a Technology-Enhanced Practice (TEP) designed to enhance care of home bound patients and their family care givers. The technology core of TEP, the HeartCare2 web site, was built in a collaborative process and deployed within the existing patient portal of the clinical partner. This paper describes the innovation and the experience of bringing it into full operation

Promoting transfer and an integrated understanding for pre-service teachers of technology education

The ability of pre-service teachers (PSTs) to transfer learning between subjects and contexts when problem solving is critical for developing their capability as technologists and teachers of technology. However, a growing body of literature suggests this ability is often assumed or over-estimated, and rarely developed explicitly within courses or degree programmes. The nature of the problems tackled within technology are such that solutions draw upon knowledge from a wide range of contexts and subjects, however, the internal organization and structure of institutions and schools tends to compartmentalize rather integrate these. Providing a knowledge base and strategies to enhance PSTs’ awareness of and skills in transferring knowledge may allow for a more integrated understanding to develop. The importance of developing this ability to transfer knowledge is heightened as PSTs will, in turn, be responsible for developing the similar capabilities of their future students. This paper begins by considering problem solving in technology education and some of the issues associated with learning transfer. Thereafter, a framework and strategy for better integrating learning between courses is described and forms the basis for developments in an initial teacher education degree programme for technology education. Provisional data from evaluations and PSTs’ work indicated a positive effect in enhancing their thinking and additional data collected in the form of questionnaires, interviews and course work further illuminate this finding. It is argued that the development framework and approach enhances PSTs’ mental models of teaching technology and offers a significant step forward in promoting skills in the transfer of future learning between subjects; something increasingly critical for 21st century STEM Education