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2007: ASCILITE 2007 Conference Proceedings

 

 

 

 

The proceedings of the 2007 ASCILITE Conference.

R. J. Atkinson, C. McBeath, S. K. A. Soong, & C. Cheers (Eds) (2007).

ICT: Providing choices for learners and learning.

Proceedings ASCILITE 2007.

Centre for Educational Development, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

December 2-5, 2007.

Published: 30 November 2007

ASCILITE Conference - Full Papers

  • The net generation are not big users of Web 2.0 technologies: Preliminary findings

    Gregor Kennedy, Barney Dalgarno, Kathleen Gray, Terry Judd, Jenny Waycott, Susan Bennett, Karl Maton, Kerri-Lee Krause, Andrea Bishop, Rosemary Chang, Anna Churchward

    A great deal has been written over the past few years about the characteristics of a new generation of students and the implications for teaching and learning. This generation, which has variously been referred to as the ‘Net Generation’, ‘Digital Natives’ and ‘Generation Y’ are claimed to be very different to their predecessors in their familiarity with technologies and the regularity with which they use them. Additionally, some commentators have claimed that their immersion in technology during their developmental years has changed the way that they learn and perhaps even the physiology of their brains. This paper reports on some preliminary results from a large cross-institutional study of the implications for University teaching of the characteristics of this generation of students. This paper focuses in particular on the results of a survey of the frequency with which 2588 first year students at the University of Melbourne, the University of Wollongong and Charles Sturt University, use 41 different applications of new technologies in their study and personal lives. The results indicate that there is greater diversity in frequency of use of technology than many commentators have suggested. Importantly, the use of collaborative and self-publishing ‘Web 2.0’ technologies that have often been associated with this generation is quite low. The results of this large survey suggest that to accept the claims of some of the commentators on the changes needed in universities to cater for this generation of students without undertaking further research is likely to be a substantial mistake.

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  • Graphic organisers as scaffolding for students’ revision in the prewriting stage

    Chien-Ching Lee

    Writing is a complex process. Scardamalia and Bereiter (1987) categorise poor and expert writers according to the type of writing they do. Poor writers are likely to use the knowledge telling strategy where students think and write whatever comes to their mind. Their writing reflects their train of thought rather than an understanding of the train of thought of the reader. Expert writers however, use the knowledge transforming strategy. They show an awareness of an overall plan or goal which they develop within the problem constraints given to meet their readers’ needs. Graphic organisers have often been used to help students plan their writing but not to revise their writing in the pre-writing stage. Based on the premise that students can revise better if they can see better what they are revising, this paper provides the theoretical underpinnings to show that graphic organisers could be useful revising tools in the pre-writing stage and guidelines on the effective use of graphic organisers as revision tools in multi-draft pre-writing.

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  • Closing the gap: Pre-service teachers' perceptions of an ICT based, student centred learning curriculum

    Chwee Beng Lee, Timothy Teo, Ching Sing Chai, Doris Choy, Ashley Tan, Jimmy Seah

    As technology continues to influence many aspects of our social and work lives, it is important that school experiences equip students the skills and knowledge that will enable them to develop into effective independent, creative, and lifelong learners to cope with the influx of changes. Given that teachers play a key role in the effective use of technology in education, there is a need to ensure that teacher education programs prepare teachers for the effective integration of ICT in the classrooms. We believe that there is a need to adopt a student-centered learning framework to design our ICT based Student-Centred Learning (SCL) curriculum for all pre-service teachers. In this paper, we presents parts of the findings from a curriculum review which evaluated 483 pre-service teachers’ overall satisfaction level towards an ICT based SCL course. We also provide some recommendations to the ICT curriculum based on the results found.

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  • GetReal: Building and managing essential academic learning from the academic periphery

    Tim Lever, Mary Jane Mahony, Helen Wozniak

    Operating from the margins of the formal curriculum and with relatively limited resources, student orientation faces unique teaching and learning challenges in representing the ideas and values of the academic world in a form that is relevant and engaging for prospective students in the non-academic world outside. Online learning adds a further layer of complexity in the technical medium through which the ideas and values must flow. GetReal, a web-based orientation program for independent use by prospective online/distance students, tackles these challenges with a strategy that moves away from information-based orientation to focus more on the kind of border-crossing practices that enable students to operate at a genuinely independent level among the overlapping contexts of study, technology and personal life. Practices of reality-checking, confidence-building, choosing and self-motivating are enabled through a relatively simple technical concept: the online interactive checklist expanded and elaborated to the point of forming the framework of a whole orientation website and the whole orientation experience. From first moment of contact, the student user stands within a framework that not only assumes active participation in the orientation process but makes it difficult to avoid. The conceptual framework of the GetReal site is outlined and its practical implementation described in relation to content architecture and use of technology. The conceptual vision embodied in the GetReal site provides a framework for discussion on the construction and delivery of student orientation in online and distance learning environments.

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  • Directions for m-learning research to enhance active learning

    Andrew Litchfield, Laurel Evelyn Dyson, Elaine Lawrence, Agnieszka Zmijewska

    This paper aims to inform readers of suggested directions for researching how mobile technology can enhance active student learning. These directions are informed by an online survey of our students in early 2007 and a contemporary literature search. We present the findings of our search of global best-practice in m-learning, gaps in the current literature are identified and five directions are suggested for 2007 m-learning research and development. We start discussing how to investigate these suggested directions. Our five suggested action research directions are all significant issues in m-learning and all need to be better investigated. If we are interested in enhancing student learning, a priority is to design m- learning and teaching strategies that involve active experiential learning. These strategies need to effectively support our learners’ development of attitudes, understandings and skills in identified graduate attributes, curriculum objectives and stated learning outcomes. The development of wide support for an online body of knowledge of m-learning and teaching principles, strategies and effective, practical case-studies across all disciplines – an m-portal – is needed and can support and inform emerging national and international approaches to using mobile technologies to enhance learning. Guided by our findings and suggested research suggestions the authors hope to discuss, extend and develop collaborative partnerships for future action research, development and sponsorship at our ascilite 2007 conference workshop.

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  • The attitudes of teacher educators to the use of problem based learning: The video triggers approach

    Angela Ma Kit Fong, John Mitchell O'Toole, Mike Keppell

    The approach of problem-based learning (PBL) possesses numerous differences when compared with the conventional ways of learning. However, few of the studies seem to tackle the underlying assumptions of PBL and relate it to the local context when it applies to different groups of learners in a particular discipline, such as education professionals in Hong Kong. This paper will, therefore, analyse the teacher educators’ attitudes to the five newly developed video triggers on PBL, which were developed by education professionals at the Hong Kong Institute of Education to serve as exemplars for the teaching staff who are not familiar with the problem-based approach. The study intends to find out the teacher educators’ perceptions of the use of media-based educational triggers in this teacher education institute, and what their attitudes are to this particular educational product’s potential technological development in fostering student-centred learning in general and problem-based learning in particular, with the ultimate goal of enhancing and improving the quality of teacher training. The results show that pre-requisite training can exert a significant influence on the adoption of PBL by the Chinese teachers and students.

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  • The cognitive and social processes of university students’ online learning

    Dorit Maor

    Online learning courses in higher education have increased steadily in popularity in recent years, with many higher education students and educators wondering about their direct value in terms of social and cognitive gains. This study reports on a careful examination of educational processes in an exclusively online asynchronous discussion of a university course in three consecutive years. The researcher used NVivo software as a tool for the qualitative analysis and as a way to establish performance profiles. The study first establishes a framework to identify social and cognitive aspects of online learning based on three models of interaction and then refines the framework to better understand these processes of interaction. The themes that emerged as social processes were categorised as affective, cohesive or interactive. The cognitive processes were categorised into five types of interaction: sharing/comparing information, experiencing cognitive conflict, negotiating meaning, testing/modifying and applying knowledge. This paper focuses on the type of social and cognitive processes that learners experience in a semester long asynchronous discussion environment. The qualitative and quantitative analyses (performance profile) derived from the frequency of responses suggest that students tend to use more lower-level cognitive processes and fewer higher-level cognitive processes in spite of the fact that the course was designed to maximise the opportunities to establish higher-level learning in a socially interactive community of learners. However, the data revealed that when the higher-level cognitive processes were achieved, these were powerful and significant for a small but passionate number of learners.

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  • Communities at cross-purposes: Contradictions in the views of stakeholders of learning object repository systems

    Anoush Margaryan, Allison Littlejohn

    The increase in the number of online, educational communities necessitates a good interplay between digital communities and repository tools. However, there are contradictions in the views of those setting up repositories and the users of these systems. This may potentially lead to limitations in the usefulness of repository systems. This study aims to address this problem through identification of conflicting views of stakeholders within a number of educational communities. Three repositories are analysed as activity systems in order to identify how communities use these tools. These activity systems are used to identify contradictions between the views of users and curators. The paper ends with a framework that can help address the key issues arising from these contradictions and guide implementation of repository systems during the initial development stage.

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  • Designing for active learning online with learning design templates

    Iain McAlpine, Belinda Allen

    Online course templates based on specific learning designs were developed to support course enhancement at the University of New South Wales. Course designs are based on constructivist theory and activity theory with an emphasis on promoting active learning. Collaborative learning and problem-based learning models were used to design templates based on successful online and blended courses. A simplified template with a learning activity focus was used in staff training programs and as a basis for school templates. Templates were developed in Blackboard Vista, but could be applied in other learning management systems. This paper outlines development, implementation and evaluation of the templates and discusses the barriers and potentialities in dissemination of learning design templates.

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  • Social software and participatory learning: Pedagogical choices with technology affordances in the Web 2.0 era

    Catherine McLoughlin, Mark J. W. Lee

    The two-way Web has arrived, accompanied by a raft of affordances that expand how we teach, communicate, learn and create knowledge. New trends are emerging in the way information is distributed and consumed. Emerging “Web 2.0” services such as blogs, wikis and social bookmarking applications, as well as social networking sites like MySpace, Friendster and Facebook, are seen as more social and personal, and based on “microcontent”, i.e., digital content in small fragments that may be combined and recombined by individuals to produce new patterns, images and interpretations. This paper investigates the affordances of Web 2.0 and social software and the choices and constraints they offer to tertiary teachers and learners. A discussion of emerging pedagogical models is presented to demonstrate that we now have access to an enabling suite of tools to support greater learner choice and self-direction.

    Read article: Social software and participatory learning: Pedagogical choices with technology affordances in the Web 2.0 era

  • Explorations in metacognition: The design, development, and implementation of an online teamwork tracking environment

    Mark McMahon, Joe Luca

    Research shows that both metacognitive and cognitive strategies are needed for successful learning. In this study, an online tool was developed with a view to help students working in teams reflect on their learning strategies through a process of planning, monitoring and evaluation. An evaluation of the tool was administered at the end of the semester that showed the students valued the tool for tracking their teamwork, but weren’t so convinced it help them plan, monitor and evaluate their learning. These results are discussed, and recommendations are made for improvement using a design-based research approach.

    Read article: Explorations in metacognition: The design, development, and implementation of an online teamwork tracking environment

  • A conceptual model for game based intelligent tutoring systems

    Chris Mills, Barney Dalgarno

    In order to build intelligent tutoring agents within games-based learning environments, practitioners must understand the three conceptual models used within Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS): the expert or domain model, the student model, and the instructional model. This paper investigates the inter-relationship between these models and how they combine to provide the expected behaviour of intelligent tutoring agents by representing and managing domain knowledge, applying techniques for monitoring the progress of human learning, and the appropriate selection of instructional strategies for individualised tuition. From understanding the application of these concepts, this paper proposes bi-directional human and machine learning as necessary for effective game-based intelligent tutoring systems. A conceptual architecture for game-based learning ITS implementations using multi-agent and machine learning technologies is then outlined, and the design of Stunt Robot a system for learning Newtonian Physics concepts is presented as a case-study.

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  • Online communities of practice: Are they principled and how do they work?

    Marylou Molphy, Catherine Pocknee, Terry Young

    In 2006 the Academic Development and Support (AD&S) Unit at a Melbourne university was faced with the dilemma of providing support to an academic member of staff relocating to Brunei. This paper looks at how AD&S worked with the academic to establish an online community of practice to meet her learning and teaching needs. All three members gained invaluable knowledge and experience from participating in this venture and Wenger’s seven principles of design for establishing successful communities of practice naturally evolved throughout the project. Their shared interest in online technologies allowed them to safely explore new strategies for teaching online and gave them an opportunity to come up to speed with tools such as Skype, blogs, wikis, video clips, and mp3 sound bites. The skills gained from participating in this community, and the sharing of experiences, allowed each member to confidently look beyond the group to trial and share their new knowledge and experience in a variety of new educational contexts.

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Showing 40–52 of 127 articles