The evolving landscape of learning technology

This paper provides an overview of the current and emerging issues in learning technology research, concentrating on structural issues such as infrastructure, policy and organizational context. It updates the vision of technology outlined by Squires’ (1999) concept of peripatetic electronic teachers (PETs) where Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) provide an enabling medium to allow teachers to act as freelance agents in a virtual world and reflects to what extent this vision has been realized The paper begins with a survey of some of the key areas of ICT development and provides a contextualizing framework for the area in terms of external agendas and policy drivers. It then focuses upon learning technology developments which have occurred in the last five years in the UK and offers a number of alternative taxonomies to describe this. The paper concludes with a discussion of the issues which arise from this work

Editorial ‐ Time for an experiment

This issue of the journal contains six very different papers exploring the issues around the use of learning technologies, which reflect the growing diversity of research interests and activities in this area. Oliver, Bradley and Boyle describe a project that is concerned with the development of online courses as part of a pan-European virtual university. The issues raised by the paper are timely given the current national initiative to develop a UK euniversity. McSporran and Young consider the impact of gender issues on online learning and contend that there is evidence to suggest that women achieve better results than men and that it is the loner male that is disadvantaged by distance learning. Condron reports on a TLTP (Teaching and Learning Technology Programme) 3 project and in particular on the use of electronic resources to support dialogue in small-group teaching. Campbell, Littlejohn and Duncan also look at resources but from the perspective of encouraging the reuse of academic resources as part of an initiative to develop a Scottish electronic staff development library. Shaikh and Macaulay report on a study of the use of groupware to support collaborative learning. Finally, Davies and Denning identify six conceptual areas which they suggest are of relevance and significance for online behaviour

Los MOOC como tecnologías disruptivas: estrategias para mejorar la experiencia de aprendizaje y la calidad de los MOOC

This chapter considers the pedagogies associated with different types of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). It argues that the current discourse around the concept of xMOOCs (primarily based around interaction with content and essentially adopting a behaviourist learning approach), and cMOOCs (which focus on harnessing the power of social media and interaction with peers, adopting a connectivist learning approach), is an inadequate way of describing the variety of MOOCs and the ways in which learners engage with them. It will provide a brief history of the emergence of MOOCs and the key stakeholders. It will introduce an alternative means of categorising MOOCs, based on their key characteristics. It will then describe the 7Cs of Learning Design framework, which can be used to design more pedagogically informed MOOCs, which enhances the learner experience and ensure quality assurance.Este trabajo estudia las pedagogías asociadas con los diferentes tipos de Cursos Online Masivos y Abiertos (MOOCs por sus siglas en inglés: Massive Open Online Courses). Se argumenta que el discurso actual sobre el concepto de xMOOCs (basado principalmente en torno a la interacción con el contenido y la adopción esencialmente de un enfoque de aprendizaje conductista) y cMOOCs (que se centran en aprovechar el poder de los medios sociales y la interacción con los compañeros, con la adopción de un enfoque de aprendizaje conectivista), es una forma inadecuada de describir los tipos de MOOCs y las modalidades en las que los estudiantes se involucran con ellos. Se proporcionará una breve historia de la aparición de los MOOCs y la descripción de los actores principales. Se introducirá una forma alternativa de categorizar los MOOCs, en función de sus características clave. Luego, se describirá el modelo de las 7Cs para el diseño de aprendizaje, que puede ser utilizado para diseñar MOOCs con criterios más pedagógicos, lo que mejorará la experiencia del estudiante y asegurará la garantía de calidad