Edited by Matthew Moran, Sunday, 9 May 2010, 15:42
What are the implications for how students should be taught etc?
The overwhelming question I've taken from the these readings is this – why should institutions adopt technology in delivering learning at all? Are they doing it because the curriculum is best served by technology, or simply because students are using technology? If it's the latter, caution is needed as these reports suggest that students may not always value it or even want it. Or are institutions taking it upon themselves to train students in using technology? If so, it needs to be asked if academic institutions are obliged to do this, and then if they are best placed to do it. (It might be better to get the students to do the teaching here!)
Interestingly, Salaway et al. suggest that the students with most facility with technology, students identified as early adopters, are students in engineering and related disciplines who regularly use discipline-related tools and software. Presumably, these tools are integrated with the students' professional training in authentic, vocational, real-world ways. Unless the discipline requires technology skills, it needs to be asked if such training is needed at all in most western countries, as the digital divide slowly closes.
I recently attended a meeting with a course team, and we discussed a proposed activity in which the student is asked to make an electronic image (of a collage) to upload to the web. Simple enough, you might have thought. But such was the teachers' (lack of) facility with the technology, the proposed activity has now spawned a subsidiary 'skills' activity for students who might require help in making and uploading an image. Now, I'm not saying that such support should not be available. Not for a moment. I mention it since it occurred to me then that the 'skills' activity was primarily for the teachers' benefit, and that it represents a record of the teachers' own learning achievement. It was a vivid glimpse into the academic digital divide, and how it, too, may be slowly closing.
Week 13 Activity 1 (Part 4)
What are the implications for how students should be taught etc?
The overwhelming question I've taken from the these readings is this – why should institutions adopt technology in delivering learning at all? Are they doing it because the curriculum is best served by technology, or simply because students are using technology? If it's the latter, caution is needed as these reports suggest that students may not always value it or even want it. Or are institutions taking it upon themselves to train students in using technology? If so, it needs to be asked if academic institutions are obliged to do this, and then if they are best placed to do it. (It might be better to get the students to do the teaching here!)
Interestingly, Salaway et al. suggest that the students with most facility with technology, students identified as early adopters, are students in engineering and related disciplines who regularly use discipline-related tools and software. Presumably, these tools are integrated with the students' professional training in authentic, vocational, real-world ways. Unless the discipline requires technology skills, it needs to be asked if such training is needed at all in most western countries, as the digital divide slowly closes.
I recently attended a meeting with a course team, and we discussed a proposed activity in which the student is asked to make an electronic image (of a collage) to upload to the web. Simple enough, you might have thought. But such was the teachers' (lack of) facility with the technology, the proposed activity has now spawned a subsidiary 'skills' activity for students who might require help in making and uploading an image. Now, I'm not saying that such support should not be available. Not for a moment. I mention it since it occurred to me then that the 'skills' activity was primarily for the teachers' benefit, and that it represents a record of the teachers' own learning achievement. It was a vivid glimpse into the academic digital divide, and how it, too, may be slowly closing.