Learners’ experiences of blended learning environments in a practice-based context (PB-LXP)
see http://kn.open.ac.uk/public/workspace.cfm?wpid=7174 ,
and
Student attitudes towards and use of ICT in course study, work and social activity: a technology acceptance model approach
For anyone this you can ask subject specific question to your OU community on 'OU Platform'
For MAODERs sign up through the 'Your Subject' link and then Education - OU Community Online
Picking up on the 2007 presentation by Grainne Conole of research carried out by the Institute of Educational Technology (OU) I was keen to learn of outcomes from the follow up research they promised on practice-based learning.
Like anyone with an insatiable curiosity the desire to chase several references or to pursue a topic to the Nth degree doing so online can be overwhelming; it is too easy to find references, even more so when they have a URL.
Time was as an undergraduate such searches meant a walk or bike road across town, the nature of Geography (in the first year at least) touching on both human and physical topics, ranging from zoology, politics and history on the one hand to geology and climatology on the other keep me on my feet and toes.
Studying online the only part of your body that is exercised are your fingers and you’re always a click away from a maelstrom of information.
Increasingly I find I want to stick to a brand I know and a name I know.
The brand might be an institution or publisher (often the same thing): Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Open University presses … and the authors whose writing I can trust, both for the quality of the content and how it is expressed:
Gráinne Conole – uber e-learning
Martin Weller - e-learning professor
Gilly Salmon - all things 'e'
Denise Kirkpatrick - OU Pro-Vice Chancellor
Chris Pegler - In open resources
Agnes Kukulska-Hulme - Master of the M-Learning Universe
For example …
Do add MAODE names I ought to add here (this is just a starting list from the top of my head).