Well, it’s been an interesting week, thinking about students’ and teachers’ approaches to learning, what affects their attitudes and choices and what consequences this, in its turn, has for the use of technology as a learning tool. These are just some thoughts – nothing really worked out at all, so I’m hoping someone reads this and feels able to add some thoughts of their own.
I think I’ll start with the following from Richardson (2009) which kind of sums up a particular view:
‘three factors … [determine] the quality of the students’ experience: communication and support from tutors and other students …. the time available to be devoted to the course …. and the students’ own level of experience and expertise with information and communication technologies’
My own experience (both as a learner and teacher) would suggest that the first two have at least as much influence as the third and that therefore the medium (electronic or face-to-face) is of less importance than the way it is used. Having said that, if ICT is going to be integral to the learning package, then we have a duty to ensure that students have the appropriate expertise and that we don’t just leave them floundering and feeling inadequate if they don’t.
Students' choices
Richardson (2005) referred to five conceptions of learning:
1. Learning as the increase of knowledge
2. Learning as memorising
3. Learning as the acquisition of facts or procedures
4. Learning as the abstraction of meaning
5. Learning as an interpretative process aimed at the understanding of reality.
I can’t see that any of these imply that one mode of learning is better than another. However, his suggestion that demographic factors influence students’ conception of learning, probably does mean that students’ expectations make a difference to how they take to different kinds of media.
Teachers' choices
He also mentions the tendency for teachers to ‘drift’ towards more didactic, teacher-centred methods. I’m sure most teachers would recognize this but I’m not sure I agree with the reasons Richardson identifies. I think it’s less to do with senior staff and student pressure (though a little of the latter) and more to do with assessment pressures and a sense of the need to get through the curriculum. Both online and face-to-face, but particularly online, student-centred approaches are perceived as more time-consuming. (I say ‘perceived as’ because it may be that they in fact achieve more.
Next ....
Anyway, I’ll finish this entry with a resolution – to see if I can follow up some of these points in the literature in order to give some firm grounding to my idle speculation!
