by Peter Reed
Although there are a range of blogs and websites discussing and promoting the use of Twitter in education, there is little published research into how Social Media is being used to support learning, learners and the student experience (Junco, Heiberger, & Loken, 2011).
Many sources cite student’s increasing use of Social Networking sites as their preferred communication channel, and often in favour of email. Pew suggest 60% of teens using Social Networks use it to discuss their education, and 50% talk about specific work.
Furthermore, many suggest learners are forming their own Personal Learning Environments constituting of tools and services such as Twitter and other social media (Dabbagh & Kitsantas, 2011) (Hall, 2009). Hall also suggests these tools can impact upon the ‘blurring of the boundaries between personal, social spaces and formal learning contexts’ (p29).
Of the few academic articles researching the impact of Twitter in HE, Junco, Heiberger & Loken (2011) suggest their structured use of Twitter has positively impacted on both student engagement and achievement.
With this in mind, I set out to investigate student’s attitudes, perceptions and activity toward the use of Twitter in supporting learning, teaching and assessment. In so-doing, this research touches on a number of current debates in Higher Education.
This presentation will share the experiences of the teaching staff and students, using Twitter as a voluntary communication platform, and suggests the ‘3C’s of Twitter’ (TC3) in Education - Community, Communication, and Casual (informal) Learning,
Two lecturers from different disciplines (Healthcare Science and Computing) encouraged students to sign up and use Twitter, as a potential solution to help encourage communication between students, provide a backchannel throughout teaching activities, and to aid the communication channels between students and teaching staff.
by Aiden Boal
Opinions of Edge Hill Design and Technology students on their learning experience using Technology Enhanced Learning whilst under taking a degree module
by Peter Reed
This research investigates the current awareness of, and participation in, the Open Content Movement at one UK Higher Education Institution.
The Open Content Movement and Open Educational Resources (OER) can be seen as a potential method for reducing time and cost of Technology Enhanced Learning developments, however it’s sustainability, and to some degree, it’s success, is dependent upon a critical mass and large-scale participation. Teaching staff were invited to participate in a questionnaire. Respondents (n=59) were open to the idea of sharing their own content, and similar to other studies, demonstrated existing practices of sharing resources locally, amongst colleagues, however there was little formal, large-scale sharing using suitable licenses. The data gathered concurs with other research suggesting a lack of awareness to the Creative Commons licenses as well as a lack of participation with large Learning Object Repositories.
The actual abstract is in the conference schedule, so this is a more informal description of my paper/ research.
I am not a technologist! Feels a little like I should make that clear - what I AM is extremely interested and excited in the possibilities technology make possible in learning and teaching. This paper explores a case study based on my own ICT learning and teaching module, part of a second year module on a BA Education Studies programme. We have changed the module in the last 18 months to try and give creative opportunity for students to develop their own uses of technology, it's potential and it's affordances.
The students are NOT expected to have any technology expertise, but are asked to come to the project with an open mind, be willing to research what technology can do to enhance learning experiences, and to use an blended online and class based collaboration to make their projects come to life.
Why University of the Forest? We started the project with a partnership with a charity that is based in a forest based residential educational facility in Lancashire, England. This proved an exciting venue to hold our first few sessions to explore how we could use technology to enhance what could happen in a clearly 'non-tech' environment. The students used this basis to think what they could do, and the research followed the decisions they made, and the ways in which their ideas and visions were shaped, promoted (and thwarted!) by technology and their uses of it.
It is hoped that this presentation will offer an appraisal of how those charged with taking forward the agenda of change (the students generally hope to work as teachers/ educationalists) experience the uses of technology when designing, creating and delivering learning opportunities.
the abstract for this session can be found on the conference program on the website. This short intro aims to give a little more background on the rationale for the research and a feel for how the session will run.
My reasons for following this line of research were based on a growing retention agenda within the our institution, something I'm sure many are familiar with. Tasked with improving retention rates, I felt before we focus on how to keep students attending, it might be important to understand what makes them attend in the first place and their expectations of higher education. Equally I wanted to find out reasons for why they might not be turning up to class in the hope that findings might help us, as tutors, to better understand our students and meet or possibly alter their expectations.
I'd like for the session to be fairly interactive and whilst I'll be presenting results of my findings, I'm hoping to generate some discussion around your expectations of student's and your experiences in your own settings with regards to student attendance.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope you are all looking forward to what will surely be another great conference.
13th–14th June 2012