1. What do you think is the likely impact of this technology on the student's perceptions of the quality of their courses, their approaches to studying and their academic performance?
I chose the electronic whiteboard as my example. I think that students perceive this tool as being modern and are likely to see flip charts, whiteboards and OHP's as old fashioned. An 'old fashioned' method of teaching may be less well regarded by students than one that is seen to be 'modern'.
The use of the e-board to demonstrate skills such as on-line research in real time using the actual data-base in question is more likely to be understood than a description - even illustrated with a handout of screen shots. This is more likely to lead to the students understanding the tool and skill which may lead to a better recall.
The ability to save pages of notes and recall them enables the tutor to link themes throughout the tutorial - which in turn may lead to the students making better connections between parts of the course.
However the e-board is unlikely, I would have thought, to facilitate 'deep' approaches among students who are 'surface' learners. Unlike a VLE based course which is problem or reflection based or involves project work it does not have built into it a pre-disposition to 'deep' approaches - perhaps the reverse (see below)
2. What do you think is the likely impact of this technology on the teacher's perceptions of their teaching context and their approaches to teaching?
They often cause practical problems - they can go out of focus or fail to boot and this can lead to them being regarded negatively by tutors. This is turn may lead to their more interesting capabilities not being used. Further many colleges have allowed web access to only a limited number of sites so this can lead to problems in using web tours etc.
If the tutor is not student- focused then the board can be used simply as a replica of the old style whiteboard for giving notes etc. If the tutor is student- focused then it can be used to record the outcomes of collaborative exercises or to give an aide-memoire for the steps of a task or the outline of a problem, give a video demonstration of a skill etc.
The issue is that the e-board does not encourage or require a student- focus.
3. Do you think this technology embodies particular assumptions about the nature of teaching and learning in higher education?
The assumption embodied is tutor control of the resource and it's uses - unlike the whiteboard in Elluminate which can (assuming the moderator has allowed this) be used collaboratively by the students. This assumption is not necessarily opposed to a student- focused approach but it may encourage the reverse.
4. Are these assumptions likely to promote more positive perceptions, more desirable approaches to studying and better performance on the part of the students?
It would be possible to use the electronic white board to facilitate student- focused activities and thus in turn 'deep' learning approaches. However because of the tutor-controlled nature of the resource and the lack of immediate collaboration or interactivity there is a likelihood that it is more tutor-focused and thus 'surface' learning will be encouraged.