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2012: ASCILITE 2012 Conference Proceedings: FUTURE CHALLENGES | SUSTAINABLE FUTURES

 

 

 

 

The proceedings of the 2012 ASCILITE Conference

Brown, M., Hartnett, M. and Stewart, T. (Eds.), FUTURE CHALLENGES | SUSTAINABLE FUTURES Proceedings ASCILITE 2012: Wellington, New Zealand

Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand

November 25-28, 2012

ASCILITE2012 Conference Website - https://www.ascilite.org/conferences/Wellington12/2012/home.html

Published: 22 November 2012

ASCILITE Conference - Full Papers

  • Using technology to encourage self-directed learning: The Collaborative Lecture Annotation System (CLAS)

    Shane Dawson, Leah Macfadyen, Evan F. Risko, Tom Foulsham, Alan Kingstone

    The rapidly-developing 21st century world of work and knowledge calls for self-directed lifelong (SDL) learners. While higher education must embrace the types of pedagogies that foster SDL skills in graduates, the pace of change in education can be glacial. This paper describes a social annotation technology, the Collaborative Lecture Annotation System (CLAS), that can be used to leverage existing teaching and learning practices for acquisition of 21st Century SDL skills. CLAS was designed to build upon the artifacts of traditional didactic modes of teaching, create enriched opportunities for student engagement with peers and learning materials, and offer learners greater control and ownership of their individual learning strategies. Adoption of CLAS creates educational experiences that promote and foster SDL skills: motivation, self-management and self-monitoring. In addition, CLAS incorporates a suite of learning analytics for learners to evaluate their progress, and allow instructors to monitor the development of SDL skills and identify the need for learning support and guidance. CLAS stands as an example of a simple tool that can bridge the gap between traditional transmissive pedagogy and the creation of authentic and collaborative learning spaces.

    Read article: Using technology to encourage self-directed learning: The Collaborative Lecture Annotation System (CLAS)

  • Can Digital Natives Level-Up in a Gamified Curriculum?

    Penny de Byl

    The compulsion to include games and game related mechanism in education is great among educators who want to engage and motivate today?s students and the latest buzzword in this domain is gamification. However, without a thorough understanding of what a gamified curriculum looks like, how it can best be applied and why it might engross students, it cannot be effectively applied. This research examined a gamified course curriculum structure and evaluated its use in two university level subjects. The objective was to gauge student enjoyment and engagement with a heavily gamified curriculum and to understand the aspects that make the practice useful in education. Exploratory factor analysis of the dataset revealed the possibility of a six dimensional model of curriculum gamification worthy of future study.

    Read article: Can Digital Natives Level-Up in a Gamified Curriculum?

  • Building teacher educator TPACK: Developing leaders as a catalyst for change in ICT Education

    Helen Doyle, Christine Reading

    Teacher educators with TPACK are critical to the development of the ICT competence of the next generation of teachers. To effect real change in ICT education leaders must be developed amongst teacher educators as well as teachers. An Australian university implemented a supported program of professional development for teacher educators as they implemented innovative ICT-rich practice. This paper reports on data collected before, during and after the process to inform planning. Areas identified where teacher educator TPACK was lacking were used to inform the professional development process. For a variety of ICT competences teacher educators were generally convinced of the usefulness but not so convinced of their own confidence. Enablers of learning identified by teacher educators, who had engaged in innovative practice, showed that they were building TPACK that would equip them to be leaders and thus catalysts for change in ICT education.

    Read article: Building teacher educator TPACK: Developing leaders as a catalyst for change in ICT Education

  • Facilitating motivation through support for autonomy

    Maggie Hartnett

    With the increasing ubiquity of new technologies, many claims are being made about their potential to transform tertiary education. But in order for this transformation to be realised a range of issues need to be addressed. Research suggests that student motivation in technology-rich learning environments is one such challenge. This paper reports on one aspect of a larger study that investigates the nature of motivation to learn in online environments. Using self- determination theory (SDT) as an analytical framework, the focus here is on the underlying concept of autonomy. Ways in which certain social and contextual factors can foster perceptions of autonomy, and in turn motivation, are explored. These factors can have a supportive effect on learner motivation. Most prominent among these are the relevance of the learning activity, promotion of interest and active learning opportunities.

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  • Unsupervised Online Constructed-Response Tests: Maximising Student Learning and Results Integrity

    Genevieve Johnson, Sharon Davies

    This paper reports a case study in which the Blackboard essay test tool was used to evaluate e- student learning. To promote student learning as well as maintain the integrity of test results, constructed-response items were randomly selected from a large pool of study questions and the time available to complete the tests was limited. The e-lecturer maintained a reflective journal and the e-students were invited, via email, to provide feedback on their perception of the value of the testing approach used in their e-class. Overall, students evaluated the use of the online tests positively, although issues of technology difficulties presented challenges for some students. The e-lecturer was particularly positive about the benefits of such as approach to online assessment citing ease of test management including student test submission, provision of feedback and grading. Unsupervised online constructed-response tests have the potential to enhance student learning while providing valid test scores.

    Read article: Unsupervised Online Constructed-Response Tests: Maximising Student Learning and Results Integrity

  • The life and death of Webfuse: Principles for learning and leading into the future

    David Jones

    Drawing on the 14-year life and death of an integrated online learning environment used by tens of thousands of people, this paper argues that many of the principles and practices underpinning industrial e-learning – the current dominant institutional model – are inappropriate. The paper illustrates how industrial e-learning can limit outcomes of tertiary e-learning and limits the abilities of universities to respond to uncertainty and effectively explore the future of learning. It limits their ability to learn. The paper proposes one alternate set of successfully implemented principles and practices as being more appropriate for institutions seeking to learn for the future and lead in a climate of change.

    Read article: The life and death of Webfuse: Principles for learning and leading into the future

  • Teachers, and their opinions, matter: Analysing staff perceptions of the effectiveness of online discussion forums

    Hazel Jones

    This paper analyses a recent survey on staff perceptions of the effectiveness of discussion forums in a small private institution. The responses will inform future opportunities and strategies for professional development and student support within the College; setting of expectations and benchmarks for staff and students and increasing awareness of these as well as curriculum and learning design. The overall aim of the research is implementing practices that will be sustainable and address current challenges within the College of improving student retention, engagement and learning. Results indicate that while staff are generally inexperienced in the online environment they are comfortable with many aspects of online discussion forums. Main areas of concerns for staff are low levels of student engagement with each other and subject material. Staff are most interested in developing strategies to help with improving student engagement. Two profiles of staff from opposite ends of the spectrums of responses are developed and compared.

    Read article: Teachers, and their opinions, matter: Analysing staff perceptions of the effectiveness of online discussion forums

  • The Go/No Go Association Task as a New Technology for Teaching Anti-Prejudice

    Leah M. Kaufman

    Implicit measures of association have allowed researchers to study implicit prejudice based on the degree of association between representations of groups that are the target of prejudice and negative versus positive attributes. These implicit prejudice measures show that people find it more difficult to respond to a representation of the group (e.g., photo of an Aboriginal Australian) and a positive attribute (e.g., “HAPPY”) using the same key than to the same representation of the group and a negative attribute (e.g., “SILLY”). Using measures of implicit association as a technology for teaching anti-prejudice is highly useful because it allows people to experience their own implicit biases. Thus, this technology makes prejudice a personally relevant issue (i.e., not something that other people possess) and, consequently, facilitates the engagement with this topic that is so essential to prejudice reduction.

    Read article: The Go/No Go Association Task as a New Technology for Teaching Anti-Prejudice

  • Designing evaluation and research into educational initiatives: The Global Perspectives Program

    Jo-Anne Kelder, Juliet Sondermeyer, Rob Phillips, Anne Rothwell

    We describe the planning for evaluation research using a curriculum initiative project as a case study. The project was to design a generic Global Perspectives (GP) learning program to embed in first year units of study offered by the Faculty of Health Science. The pilot phase of the GP program delivery was used to explore and define an educational evaluation research (EER) plan that addresses, 1) the GP program design; 2) its implementation and ongoing refinement and, 3) the management of the project. The GP program is presented from an e-learning design perspective and its EER plan is based on the design framework in (Phillips, McNaught et al. 2012). The paper provides a high level view of the EER plan for the GP program over each stage of the design life cycle and for the evaluation of project management. The paper discusses the rationale for an EER plan, the book as a guide for research and practice in evaluating e-learning and the relationship of the GP program to learning, teaching and leading for the future.

    Read article: Designing evaluation and research into educational initiatives: The Global Perspectives Program

  • Data mining interactions in a 3D immersive environment for real-time feedback during simulated surgery

    Gregor Kennedy, Ioanna Ioannou, Yun Zhou, James Bailey, Stephen O’Leary

    The analysis and use of data generated by students‘ interactions with learning systems or programs – learning analytics – has recently gained widespread attention in the educational technology community. Part of the reason for this interest is based on the potential of learning analytic techniques such as data mining to find hidden patterns in students‘ online interactions that can be meaningfully interpreted and then fed back to students in a way that supports their learning. In this paper we present an investigation of how the digital data records of students‘ interactions within an immersive 3D environment can be mined, modeled and analysed in real-time, to provide formative feedback to students as they complete simulated surgical tasks. The issues that emerged in this investigation as well as areas for further research and development are discussed.

    Read article: Data mining interactions in a 3D immersive environment for real-time feedback during simulated surgery

  • The peripatetic learner: The role of mobility in the formation of collaborative learning spaces

    Judit Klein

    The earliest notion of a university came from people walking through the streets of Athens thinking about how the world works and trying to understand it. Apple Distinguished Educator Dr. William Rankin from Abilene Christian University (2012) reframes this notion of the peripatetic learner, originating from Aristotelian philosophy, to describe how mobile technologies have brought about a new way of thinking about education. The ability to be mobile has implications in reshaping future learning: to rethink the spatiotemporal structures of formal tertiary education means to understand both the affordances and challenges. The disruption of traditional pedagogies enables new forms of collaborative interactions to occur. This paper considers how to define a learning space that is no longer constrained by the physical classroom. By taking a technological perspective and a mixed methodology, it aims to evaluate practices of harnessing mobility and collaboration through existing or potential applications on the mobile platform.

    Read article: The peripatetic learner: The role of mobility in the formation of collaborative learning spaces

  • "Wherever, whenever" learning in Medicine: Evaluation of an interactive mobile case-based project

    Marianna Koulias, Gregory Leahy, Karen M. Scott, Megan Phelps, Dianne Campbell

    The increased availability of smartphones with Internet capabilities has led many educators to consider their potential for delivering mobile learning materials to students. In 2009 and 2010 three case-based scenarios were developed for mobile devices by staff at the University of Sydney and The Children's Hospital at Westmead. A trial of the pilot scenario was held with fourteen medical students in late 2009. The students were positive and made recommendations for improving the case scenarios. Their suggested changes were incorporated into phase two scenarios in 2010. Throughout 2011 evaluations were conducted with a total of 171 students and quantitative analysis of the data was performed. Results indicated that whilst students liked the mobile cases, they did not utilise them as mobile resources as anticipated. Some differences were also revealed between the digital immigrants' and digital natives' interactions with the case scenarios, as well as some variations between male and female students.

    Read article: "Wherever, whenever" learning in Medicine: Evaluation of an interactive mobile case-based project

  • A design-based research approach implementing a palette of educational technologies to foster 21st century skills

    Janette Kruger

    This paper discusses how a design-based research approach will be used to design and implement a palette of learning technologies as part of a multi-mode approach in open distance learning. A conceptual-theoretical framework is proposed consisting of the interrelationship between pedagogy and technology and content, design principles, criteria for excellence and higher level outcomes. The intention is to outline guidelines for supporting teacher-students in an open distance learning environment, not only to master knowledge relating to a specific subject area, but also to acquire skills such as self-regulated learning, critical thinking and lifelong learning. Supplementing teacher-students' knowledge and skills will enable them to prepare their twenty- first-century learners for the increasingly interconnected global society they will work and live in.

    Read article: A design-based research approach implementing a palette of educational technologies to foster 21st century skills

Showing 14–26 of 132 articles