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2006: ASCILITE 2006 Conference Proceedings

The proceedings of the 2006 ASCILITE Conference.

L. Markauskaite, P. Goodyear, & P. Reimann (Eds.)  Who’s Learning? Whose Technology?                                                            University of Sydney, Australia

December 3-6, 2006.

Published: 30 November 2006

ASCILITE Conference - Full Papers

  • New students, new learning, new environments in higher education: Literacies in the digital age

    Dale Holt, Ian Smissen, Stephen Segrave

    Information literacy is developing new meanings and importance in the online age of teaching and learning in higher education. Information literacy, as a highly prized graduate attribute, is related to the development of lifelong learning capacities. Its strong re- emergence in the form of digital literacy in the context of major online developments at Deakin University is considered through four cases. In each case the reader is asked to consider how the teaching staff members have conceived critical discipline-based information and digital literacies, how these conceptions are related to desired learning outcomes, the types of digital and online environments designed to support the development of these literacies, and how each one contributes to the development of lifelong learning capacities. Information and digital literacy is enlivened through being situated in broader understandings of new generations of learners, new forms of learning and new e-supported learning environments. Educational design, evaluation, research and technology implications of these new types of digital and online-based teaching and learning environments are finally examined.

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  • Designing for disruption: Remodelling a blended course in technology in (language) teacher education

    Debra Hoven

    This study employs a case study model to documenting the evolution over three semesters of a Masters course in technology and language learning for in-service teachers using a social constructivist pedagogical approach (Felix, 2002) within an ecological framework, from completely face-to-face (f2f) to predominantly online. The focus is on teachers’ acceptance of change in the form of integration of technology into firstly their learning and secondly their teaching, as well as their adaptability to self-managing their learning. The design of the modified course took an experiential modelling approach in which all of the tools and processes that were taught in the course were modelled and experienced by students (teachers) during the semester. These tools include reflective and social computing tools such as chat, blogs, wikis and e-portfolios, as well as lesson and task templating software such as Swarthmore Makers®, Hot Potatoes®, and WebQuests®, and webpage creation software such as Dreamweaver®. Based on grounded research methods, techniques such as surveys, problem-based focus groups and short answer responses were used to ascertain the values of the changes. The information collected from these instruments is presented and compared to the reflective pieces produced by students in their blogs, and the projects they created.

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  • Learning, study and review methods 101: A fun way to learn and study complex theoretical content

    Cheryl Howard

    This paper examines the development and implementation of a collaborative/game-based study format in a university context and the benefits gained by the students involved. The research project compared the established delivery format of lectures and tutorials with an alternative delivery format involving collaborative learning and games-based study tools. It examined the differences that these formats had on student learning outcomes for the heavily theoretical content of the Human-Computer Interaction in Multimedia (HCI) unit, as part of the Multimedia Bachelor Degree at Monash University. A collaborative/game-based study format was developed to provide an interactive learning environment that allowed the students to explore the unit content using a variety of tools and resources, such as textbooks, internet, and discussion groups. To verify understanding, students contributed questions, based on the content researched, to the game-based study tools designed to enhance the study and review process. The treatment compared the results of students in each group (traditional vs collaborative) to their performance scores in a pre- test and post-test of the content area (short-term retention) and the results of the semester examination (long-term retention). Data gathered by survey was used to ascertain student opinions regarding both methods.

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  • Reflective practice in lesson design

    Chun Hu, Miriam Weinel

    This paper recounts our reflections on the design and delivery of a unit of study at masters level. Information Technology and Teaching-Learning Process was delivered in a blended approach with the combination of face-to-face meetings and online sessions. The paper describes how the instructors engaged in “reflection on action” advocated by Schön and their efforts in bridging the gap between the standpoints of the students and that of the instructors by elaborating the rationales behind the design, providing technical support, modelling, creating opportunities for reflection and constantly making adjustments to meet the students’ needs. Through continuous reflections, the instructors gained deeper understanding of the curriculum.

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  • Online facilitation: Strategies for gaining engagement in different OLEs

    Chris Hughes, Sophie di Corpo, Lindsay Hewson

    The strategies that some teachers use in online learning environments engage students, facilitate participation and, more importantly, promote interaction with content, teacher and peers. Following a detailed analysis of the contributions to a sample of online groups, and interviews with the teachers, we report on the strategies that led to the highest contribution rates. This paper focuses on two cases that achieved high contribution rates using two different software packages. We provide an analysis of the tasks set by teachers, class activity, the frequency of postings, the value of the software features and the overall structuring of online processes. While we could not identify clear impacts of the different interfaces on the contribution rates achieved, we do canvass some possibilities in this area.

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  • Analysing the efficacy of blended learning using Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) and m-learning delivery technologies

    Kevin Johnson, Cathal McHugo, Timothy Hall

    The developing ubiquitous nature of information communication technology (ICT) offers opportunities and benefits in the educational field when blended with more traditional approaches to learning and teaching, they include: monitoring of on-line activity, rich administrative support, repository of learning materials, multiplicity of assessment options and strong collaborative tools. Additionally, it is common for third level students to have excellent internet access on campus, in university residences, and at home. This technological strength coupled with the high level of ICT literacy of today’s student makes blended learning an attractive option. In order to obtain maximum benefit from such a blended approach students must log-on to the learning environment regularly to see new information and maintain their collaboration, a discipline they do not easily adopt. Two ways of encouraging such engagement, the first of which is tested in this paper, are technology enhanced learning notification methods and m-learning announcement means. The TEL notification method is discussed and tested through a student survey (COLLES) to determine the students’ perception and preference.

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  • Towards a reference model for the personal learning environment

    Mark Johnson, Paul Hollins, Scott Wilson, Oleg Liber

    The concept of ‘Personal Learning Environment’ (PLE) is fast emerging as a significant branch of learning technology. This paper describes the approach to this topic adopted by the Centre for Educational Technology and Interoperability Standards (CETIS) PLE project in the definition of a PLE Reference Model and in building a PLE prototype. In a domain that is typified by emerging technology, discursive differences and a lack of common terms of reference, we explain our approach in identifying three perspectives on the PLE for analysis: themes, patterns and categories. These three strands are viewed as different ‘strata’ to approach the topic, the interplay between which has led to a perspective on the PLE which has combined an analysis of current PLE-focused discourse (themes), an examination of current practice (patterns) and an attempt to define phenomenological categories of the ‘PLE experience’ from the philosophy of technology and cybernetics. We introduce our model as the focal point for these different investigations and discuss how the model can help in the effort to coordinate technological and discursive developments that will ensue in this area. We argue that the approach adopted in defining the model has allowed us to produce an effective tool for coordination of discourse and technological design, and that the identification of categories has contributed a powerful element to our analysis – one which may have application in other areas of e-learning.

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  • Who will own the new VLE? Sharing practice, problems and alternative solutions

    Chris Jones, Gráinne Conole

    This paper reports considerations being made by those responsible for introducing staff at a large distance university to the possibilities for developing new practices around the introduction of a new institution wide VLE. How can new or emergent practices be codified into sharable representations and shared by a large and dispersed workforce? The paper considers some current solutions such as patterns, learning design and the use of toolkits by applying a framing concept of boundary objects to understand some of the problems involved in sharing emerging practices.

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  • An activity theory approach to the exploration of tutors’ perceptions of effective online pedagogy

    Gordon Joyes

    The School of Education, University of Nottingham (UoN), UK and Beiwai:Online, Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) Beijing, China have been engaged on a collaborative project to develop a generic module for the training of online tutors as part of the eChina-UK programme. This has led to a learner centred approach to the training that provides trainee tutors with a tool that can be used to support them in taking a critical approach to the analysis of the online learning activities. Activity theory has been used as the basis for the development of this online Learning Activity Analysis Tool which supports tutors in analysing and then discussing with their peers the online activities. The online LAAT provides a rich source of data on the tutors’ perceptions of effective online pedagogy. This has the advantage over other approaches such as the use of interviews and/or scenarios in that the data is captured in context with the tutors’ underlying beliefs about effective teaching and learning being elicited through the use of the LAAT. The paper describes the LAAT, its use within the tutor training module and the ways it is being used to research tutors perceptions of teaching and learning.

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  • Reinventing and reinvigorating instructional design: A theory for emergent learning

    Elena Kays, Rod Sims

    This paper explores emergence theory as a means to interpret and redefine current approaches to and models of instructional design. Based on their extensive practical and research experience and through examples from multi-disciplinary perspectives, the authors discuss key factors from the discourse of science and architecture that are missing from contemporary instructional design approaches. Using this analysis, the authors elaborate a theory of emergent learning that transcends many existing approaches to the design and implementation of educational programs and resources. By applying this theory, it is proposed that learning can be understood from more complex and ‘chaotic’ perspectives, and consequently more amenable with and aligned to emergent social, recreational and educational networks.

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  • Questioning the net generation: A collaborative project in Australian higher education

    Gregor Kennedy, Kerri-Lee Krause, Kathleen Gray, Terry Judd, Susan Bennett, Karl Maton, Barney Dalgarno, Andrea Bishop

    This paper describes a project, which has been supported by the Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, that aims to identify how the technology- based tools of a new generation of students can be successfully used by higher education. Recent commentaries propose that Universities are ill-equipped to educate a new generation of learners whose sophisticated use of emerging technologies is incompatible with current teaching practice. This project will investigate this proposed gap between learners’ and teachers’ use of technologies and identify the implications for higher education. This paper presents the rationale of the project, highlighting its critical stance on current notions of the ‘Net Generation’. The three phases of the project – Investigation, Implementation and Dissemination – are then described. The project will be undertaken as a collaboration between staff at The University of Melbourne, the University of Wollongong and Charles Sturt University. In the final stages of the project, members of the ascilite community will be able to participate in practical workshops based on the lessons we have learned from questioning the ‘Net Generation’.

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  • A partnership for iPod pedagogy: Using the technology of millennial learners across educational contexts

    Lisa Kervin, Doug Reid, Jeff Vardy, Carroll Hindle

    This paper explores collaboration between researchers at the tertiary level, with primary school teachers and their students as iPods are integrated into learning experiences. Embarking on this partnership, it is our aim to weave value-added, mutually beneficial and collaborative relationships into our on-going professional interactions as we work towards the development of a pedagogical framework to support classroom teachers in using iPods and podcasting in their educational settings. Such collaborative relationships have been promoted as a way to foster professional relationships, provide learning opportunities for educators, encourage change and develop common understanding across contexts. Appropriate pedagogy and procedures to assist educators in the incorporation of this technology within their classroom context have begun to emerge through professional collaboration, observation of the students and interviews with both teachers and students. This study provides example for educators who collaborate with researchers to incorporate new technologies into their teaching. It also presents our experiences with team building and communication, which have proven valuable in the process of integrating iPods and podcasting into learning activities for children.

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  • The role of problematizing in online knowledge building

    Ming Lai

    This paper describes an international collaboration between two classes of grade five students through an online discussion platform with one group more experienced in online knowledge building activities than the other. Using the methods of problematizing move (Koschmann yet al., 2005) and level of social construction of knowledge (Gunawardena et al, 1997), the analyses suggest that the more experienced group is better at problematizing the discourse or discovering areas of disagreement in the discussion. With the joint-discussion with the more experienced group, the discourse of the students in the novice class changed from more information-centered towards advanced levels of knowledge building.

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Showing 40–52 of 121 articles