This document discusses findings from a study on students' experiences using technology. It finds that students use a variety of technologies for different purposes like researching, communicating, and completing assignments. While comfortable with technology, students have sophisticated and varied usage of tools. Their actual technology usage does not always align with institutions' perceptions. The document advocates for understanding students' practice-based learning across boundaries to help inform institutional policies.

1. Taking the student perspective What is their actual experience of the use of technology? Gráinne Conole LEON 08 Please click on audio link on each slide to hear!

2. The macro and micro context Disruptive technologies or more of the same? Connecting progression with the learner experience The learner experience

3. The modern context Culturally rich and complex society with changing norms and values Unpredictable, constantly changing world Giddens Unintended consequences and manufactured risks Becks Virioli Increasing impact of technology Castells Networked society

4. Progression… What does it mean? Role of technology wrt progression? in a complex changing environment Key words… Monitoring, recording, sharing , aggregating, synthesising, evidencing, assessing, validation Stakeholders The student! Peers, tutors, course developers, Senior managers, QA bodies, Professional bodies, employers

5. From I to C in ICT Web 2.0: Social software: Wikipedia, Flickr, Del.i.cious, Blogs and wikis Interactive, social, collective Web 1.0: Personal/institutional Web sites, online resources Information focused, individual

6. Podcasting Create and upload audio Combine with RSS feeds Blogs Personal journal Expert filter Wikis Collective web pages Instant messenger Synchronous chat Presence indicator

7. Social software Collective media repositories Multiple sources of expertise New communities, collective build

8. Second life A whole new dimension to learning?

9. Learner Experiences Project LXP Student experiences Subject discipline differences Uses of technologies Effective e-learning strategies M. de Laat - Exeter, T. Dillon – Bristol, J. Darby – Open University Online survey Audio logs Interviews

10. Economics: 2 Languages: 3 Medicine: 5 Computing: 4 Total: 14 Economics: 3 Languages: 47 Medicine: 16 Computing: 19 Total: 85 Economics: 128 Languages: 92 Medicine: 31 Computing: 158 Other: 18 Total: 427 Interviews Audio logs Survey Phase 2 – in-depth case studies Phase 1 – context

11. What four technologies do you use most?

12. The first thing i do when given any piece of word is type it into a search engine! this gives me the opportunity to see how different people interpret the title. from there i can focus on one main idea and use the electronic resources to support my initial findings or indeed rule them out. e-mail is always vital with communicating with different mediums. teachers for support I use email to communicate with everyone, especially lecturers; arranging meetings, asking questions about work and queries over assignments etc I write all my assignments using Word and to sort through the information I find, make notes of what I still need to do and spell check my emails that I'm sending to lecturers. Search engines are used to find news articles I use them [technologies] to find out information for assignments, and also to help me clarify my notes on each subject area that I study. IM is used to discuss issues with friends if a topic is not understood My PDA is useful for reading things when I'm on the move Survey qualitative data

13. Learner voices Fabio: an individual learner (Economics) Samir: a social learner Annmarie: an active technology user (Medicine) Gary: learning through practice (Medicine) Jack: social/interactive learner (Computer Science) Finbar: an active blogger (Computer Science) Dzel: aTurkish student (Languages) Peizhi: a Chinese student (Languages)

14. Today I used my mobile phone to contact a friend from the same course to ask them where I could get my cover sheet for my essay to hand in today. I had to do this basically because I searched the university web site and I couldn’t find one and I didn’t have one on my computer so I had to ring my friend because I knew he had printed one out for himself earlier in the day… Well basically the mobile phone, … if I didn’t have one I wouldn’t have been able to do this ….I was able to contact XX and ask him where I could find one… I found one on another student’s home page who’d put it up there conveniently so that a lot of people could get it so that was pretty handy and I’ll remember that in the future. Jack: social/interactive learner (Computer Science)

15. Audio logs Internet sites for meanings and glossary Mobile phone find out about course work MSM chat to send coursework to friends Mobile to text class mates to get exam hints Blogs for personal reflection Internet/search engines to verify concepts Internet to research an essay Google using keywords/phrase Wikipedia and podcasts Voice recorder for collecting interview data USB stick to transfer data between home and uni Dictionary.com to check words Podcasts from English language sites Updating E-Portfolio from the hospital University VLE site to access lectures and check calendar

16. Learner voices: Laura

17. Patterns of use Researching and retrieving information Google, Wikipedia, subject-specific sites Communication Multiple tools, peers/tutors… Assignments Generic tools: Word, Excel, Powerpoint Integrated learning Mixed views on VLEs, personalised learning

18. Content Changing nature of content (more available, lower intrinsic value, higher interactivity and standards) Cost and value Materials and information freely available on the Internet Perceived worth of content Presentation Use of multimedia to improve presentation Expectations of good quality content Evaluation New skills for assessing content Skills to ensure work is authentic Communication Different tools for different things Internet to access expert knowledge “ With anyone about anything anytime” Collaboration New forms of collaboration – smart tools and web2.0 Distributed cognition Information Communication Information Communication

19. Environment Media Changing media – increase of USB pens, ipods, mps players, integrated phones, better screen displays for reading Motivation Gaming generation, used to highly, engaging and entertaining environment Interactivity Evidence of a shift from passive to interactive interactions across all aspects of their learning Near ubiquitous Many now have their own PCs and wireless internet access – becoming accustomed to being able to access information or contact people on demand, anywhere

20. Perceptions Comfortable with technology, see it as integral Critically aware of the pros and cons Sophisticated and varied use of different communication tools for different purposes Access to up to date and relevant information and resources vital Don’t see technology as anything special – another tool to support their learning Mismatch between institutions perceptions of student use of technology and actual use

21. Shifting sands…. Pervasive and integrated Extensive use of tools for everything Personalised Adapted to personal needs Social Networked peer community Interactive Content not fixed “ Underworld” and mismatch Using tools in unintended ways Time The ‘now’ culture

22. What does this mean? Progression Technology Education Society

23. PB-LXP: Practice-based learning How students learn using tools across different boundaries? Strategies they use to manage the process Barriers/enablers, key critical moments Relationship between student practice and institutional policy √ √ √ Software Reqs for Bus Systems √ √ √ Extending Professional Practice √ √ Applied Social Work Practice √ √ Social Work Practice √ √ Team Engineering √ √ Cisco Networking Wikis & Blogs Conferences E-Portfolios E-assessment Title

24. Further information JISC learner experiences projects – www.jisc.ac.uk/elp_learneroutcomes.html Conole, G. (forthcoming), ‘Describing learning activities: tools and resources to guide practice’ in Rethinking pedagogy for a digital age, H. Beetham and R. Sharpe (Eds), Oxford: RoutledgeFalmer. Conole, G. and Dyke, M. (2004) ‘What are the affordances of Information and Communication Technologies?’, ALT-J, 12(2): 113-124. Conole, G. and Fill, K. (2005) ‘A learning design toolkit to create pedagogically effective learning activities’, Journal of Interactive Multimedia Education, 8, http://www-jime.open.ac.uk/2005/08/ Conole, G. and Oliver, M. (eds.) (2007) Contemporary Perspectives in e-Learning Research: Themes, Tensions and Impact on Practice, Oxford: RoutledgeFalmer. Conole, G., Thorpe, M., Weller, M., Wilson, P., Nixon, S. and Grace, P. (2007), ‘Capturing practice and scaffolding learning design’ EDEN 2007, Naples. Conole, G. (forthcoming), ‘Capturing practice: the role of mediating artefacts in learning design’ in L. Lockyer, S. Bennett, S. Agostinho and B. Harper (Eds) Handbook of Research on Learning Design and Learning Objects: Issues, Applications and Technologies