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2009: ASCILITE 2009 Conference Proceedings

 

The proceedings of the 2009 ASCILITE Conference

R. J. Atkinson, & C. McBeath (Eds.) (2009), Same places, different spaces. Proceedings ASCILITE 2009. Auckland.

University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.

December 6-9 2009

ASCILITE2009 Conference Website  https://www.ascilite.org/conferences/auckland09/

Published: 1 December 2009

ASCILITE Conference - Full Papers

  • Supporting ways of learning for Indigenous Australian pre-undergraduate students using Moodle

    Thomas Duggan

    This paper discusses the way in which the ways of learning and learning strengths of Indigenous Australian university students can be supported by the Moodle learning management system (LMS). Moodle is currently undergoing a pilot phase at CQUniversity before it fully replaces Blackboard and Webfuse as the sole university LMS. Several courses from Nulloo Yumbah, CQUniversity’s Indigenous Learning, Research and Spirituality Centre, are participating in this pilot phase. The literature highlights the way that information communication technologies (ICTs) align with Indigenous ways of learning when learning materials are designed and presented in a way that is culturally relevant. The paper outlines Indigenous learning styles and presents a discussion based around what Moodle does and does not offer to benefit Indigenous learners. From this, a number of the potential benefits and constraints of Moodle are presented and future research directions identified.

    Read article: Supporting ways of learning for Indigenous Australian pre-undergraduate students using Moodle

  • Interactive classroom mLearning and the experiential transactions between students and lecturer

    Laurel Evelyn Dyson, Andrew Litchfield, Ryszard Raban, Jonathan Tyler

    This paper seeks to address a major deficit in understandings of mobile learning, that is, its lack of a solid theoretical foundation. An overview of existing theoretical concepts of mobile learning is presented, followed by an analysis of interactive classroom systems and the learning that they provide. The implementation of a specific interactive system mInteract in the lectures of a large accounting subject is described. mInteract is a Web- based system using no-to-low cost data-packet technology and provides for interactions from students’ own Internet-enabled mobile devices. The paper examines, by means of reflections from the lecturer and students, the learning which took place during the implementation. The analysis demonstrates that interactive mobile learning can be interpreted using experiential learning theory, and that both students and lecturers engage in experiential learning. Furthermore, they enter into transactions of knowledge which are facilitated by the mobile learning system.

    Read article: Interactive classroom mLearning and the experiential transactions between students and lecturer

  • Capacity constraints in developing countries: A need for more e-learning space? The case of Nigeria

    Moyosore Samuel Ekundayo, John Moyo Ekundayo

    More often than not, economic growth and social development demands educational expansion. However, capacity building for higher education in developing countries is being thwarted by seemingly long-lived constraints of brain drain, political unrest, access, finance, quality, governance, efficiency, human capital and so on. It is becoming apparent that higher education reform cannot take place without paying attention to Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) in support of teaching, research, and lifelong learning. This paper reviewed potential constraints affecting the capacity of the Nigerian higher education system to accommodate more students. Given the several opportunities and promises of ICTs in addressing some of these challenges; it suggested the strategic use of ICT in Nigerian higher education to increase its capacity.

    Read article: Capacity constraints in developing countries: A need for more e-learning space? The case of Nigeria

  • Designing an educational sim environment: Critical success factors

    Allan Ellis, Amanda Hassett, Steve Rowe

    Few educators ever have the chance to design and manage an online environment that replicates the educational, social, support and administrative elements of their University. Recent developments in virtual world platforms such as Second Life now makes this possible. Designing and building a virtual university demands knowledge of a new range of concepts, issues and skills specifically relevant to virtual environments and immersive learning settings. A case study of the vision, strategies and processes used to design, build and commence operation of a virtual campus is presented. A checklist of critical success factors is presented as a guide to others attempting to use this powerful technology to extend the reach and effectiveness of their university. The conference presentation will include an in-world tour of the features of the virtual campus and a demonstration of its interactive features.

    Read article: Designing an educational sim environment: Critical success factors

  • Tug-o-where: Practising mobilities of learning (t)here

    Judith Guevarra Enriquez

    This paper explores ‘mobilities’ as a research framework for learning not so much in terms of what has to be done to enhance learning using mobile technologies. Instead it focuses on our ways of knowing and learning by ‘being mobile’. It suggests a practice perspective for learning by ‘setting in motion’ not just technologies, but also bodies and spaces. It seeks to understand what is being done - the re-configurations of bodies, spaces and technologies through the increasingly dialectic links between absence and presence, proximity and distance, and individualism and community. More importantly, such relations are merged in the consumption of mobile devices, producing ambivalent realities of absent presence, public privacy and isolated connectivity, which would commonly be considered oxymorons. To move educational research, this paper turns to the mobilities paradigm for a practice perspective to circulate bodies and spaces in motion and articulate other possible metaphors for framing learning in this mobile age.

    Read article: Tug-o-where: Practising mobilities of learning (t)here

  • A quest for the Holy Grail: Tactile precision, natural movement and haptic feedback in 3D virtual spaces

    Helen Farley, Caroline Steel

    Three-dimensional immersive spaces such as those provided by virtual worlds, give unparalleled opportunities for learners to practically engage with simulated authentic settings that may be too expensive or too dangerous to experience in the real world. The potential afforded by these environments is severely constrained by the use of a keyboard and mouse moving in two dimensions. While most technologies have evolved rapidly in the early 21st century, the mouse and keyboard as standard navigation and interaction tools have not. However, talented teams from a range of disciplines are on serious quests to address this limitation. Their Holy Grail is to develop ways to interact with 3D immersive spaces using more natural human movements with haptic feedback. Applications would include the training of surgeons and musical conductors, training elite sports people and even physical rehabilitation. This paper reports on the cutting-edge technology projects that look most likely to provide a solution for this complex problem, including the Wiimote and the Microsoft’s Project Natal.

    Read article: A quest for the Holy Grail: Tactile precision, natural movement and haptic feedback in 3D virtual spaces

  • Virtual spaces: Delineating the private and public spaces in online discussions

    Santha Fernandez

    This paper outlines an effective and pedagogically sound approach to designing the virtual space of an assessable online discussion forum. Through an innovative use of Blackboard’s ‘Journal’ tool I outline how to design a two-phased time-driven virtual forum to scaffold students’ learning and to enhance their learning experience. There are pedagogically sound reasons for such an instructional design. In the first private phase, students are provided privacy and freedom to reflect upon, draft and post their own work. This phase potentially assures students that their peers cannot see their work and consequently are not in a position to ‘plagiarise’ their creative thoughts and ideas. The second public space enables students to read and learn from each others’ postings and to participate in further discussions and collaborations. Implicit in this assessment design is the need for the online instructor to intervene twice during the discussion to reset the forum’s system switches.

    Read article: Virtual spaces: Delineating the private and public spaces in online discussions

  • Performance pedagogy through research in ‘real’ and ‘virtual’ spaces

    Russell Fewster, Denise Wood

    This paper explores strategies for incorporating practice-led research into the undergraduate performing arts curriculum at the University of South Australia. There has been considerable interest in strategies for integrating teaching and research in the undergraduate curriculum as evidenced by the growing body of literature documenting the potential benefits of engaging students in research activities designed to foster active learning and problem-solving. However, studies reporting strategies for incorporating research in undergraduate programs with an applied focus, and performing arts courses in particular, are more difficult to find. This paper presents a case study of a second-year visual theatre course in which students undertook practice-led research activities involving the design and implementation of a performance in the physical space of a theatre and 3D virtual environment. Students, tutors and researchers as well as technical staff were drawn together as a research community in which students engaged in critical reflection in the company of scholars. Students were encouraged to act on the feedback they received from their peers and staff. Through these varying research activities, the course aimed to engage students in practice-led research activities involving collaboration and reflective practice within the disciplinary field of performing arts.

    Read article: Performance pedagogy through research in ‘real’ and ‘virtual’ spaces

  • Identifying the characteristics of e-learning environments used to support large units

    Kathie Goldsworthy, Lynnae Rankine

    The AUTC Large Classes Project articulates specific strategies aimed at improving student learning in large classes. Successful teaching involves good practice in the design of learning activities and assessment, the provision of feedback and support materials for learners. These practices apply to small and large classes, however in large classes the expanding student numbers increase the complexity of teaching these students. At the University of Western Sydney there are 40 units that have student enrolments exceeding 400 students up to over 2000 which all utilise the e-learning environment to support a range of blended learning and teaching activities. This paper will present an institutional case study of how the online environment is used with large classes using the strategies outlined in the AUTC Report.

    Read article: Identifying the characteristics of e-learning environments used to support large units

  • Developing competence portfolios in engineering undergraduates

    Jane Goodyer, John Milne

    This evaluation aimed to identify the student view of activities based around engineering graduate attributes and the presentation of these to potential employers. This included the introduction of an ePortfolio, activities to identify students’ strengths and a reflection framework to help students analyse their strengths. Students are required to do work experience throughout this degree. It was thought that this would motivate the students to collect evidence of their strengths so they could present them to potential employers. Overall the ePortfolio activities had a limited impact. The evaluation collected evidence about the ePortfolio aided activities and the barriers and enablers to students learning. The questionnaire had a section to identify the level of student reflective thinking. Students who were straight from school had a similar level of reflective thinking to older students.

    Read article: Developing competence portfolios in engineering undergraduates

  • Introducing Jass Easterman: My Second Life learning space

    Sue Gregory, Belinda Tynan

    Virtual worlds are an emerging technology being used by an increasing number of educational institutions around the world. It is a technology, environment, medium, learning (or elearning) and teaching tool (ie a shared social space). A pilot study was conducted in Second Life with postgraduate education students to ascertain student perceptions of learning in a virtual world. Results and methodology of this study will be discussed and the implications and impact for students learning in a virtual world from the perspective of the student will be explored. A number of themes have emerged from the study. There have been a variety of studies undertaken on virtual worlds with very little on their implications for the academic who is teaching in this environment. The implications of these findings will be the foundation for future research.

    Read article: Introducing Jass Easterman: My Second Life learning space

  • Adding value to first year student learning with embedded library pod/vodcasts

    Julia Gross, Eva Dobozy

    We begin with the premise that pod/vodcasts add an engaging and innovative mix to the university learning environment; they put the control of when and where to access information in the hands of the student and can be delivered through the university’s learning management system (LMS). In this paper, we describe a semester-long trial in which library pod/vodcasts were provided to first-year teacher education students in the belief that basic library skills development is vital for academic success and an essential component of good information literacy practice. The pod/vodcasts were offered to support students at point of need in their learning and were optional. We used the learning activity management system (LAMS) developed by Macquarie University to deliver the library modules alongside the existing academic unit podcasts. The paper reports on students’ usage and perception of the library pod/vodcasts and how they responded to this new approach.

    Read article: Adding value to first year student learning with embedded library pod/vodcasts

  • Blending technologies in ESL courses: A reflexive enquiry

    Paul Gruba, Cameron Clark, Kellyn Ng, Marisa Wells

    Despite persistent calls for a fuller integration of technologies in second and foreign language teaching, particularly in English as a Second Language (ESL) courses, pathways that lead to the effective blending digital resources remain both unclear and complex. The aim of this paper, then, is to explore the blending of technology in second language teaching contexts. To achieve this aim, we undertook a longitudinal and reflective action research project. As part of a self-styled 'community of innovation' involved in reflexive action research, we collectively produced and made use of podcasts in two different ESL settings for one year. The podcasts served as emblematic digital resources in a 'case study' of new technologies to focus our efforts. During the year, we met to discuss our experiences with relation to professional development, classroom use and curriculum change. Starting with a brief review of the literature, we then present our work these themes and set out a research agenda focused on the blending of technologies in second language programs.

    Read article: Blending technologies in ESL courses: A reflexive enquiry

Showing 14–26 of 141 articles