Gráinne Conole Eden Conference, Naples 15 th June 2007 The student experience How does it align with policy directives?

Mismatch between policy and practice Societal trends, policy, practice Learner voices

Culturally rich and complex society with changing norms and values Unpredictable, constantly changing world Unintended consequences and manufactured risks Increasing impact of technology Networked society

Work Education Technology Globalisation Cultures Economy Values Boundaries Changing society Personalisation Lifelong learning Policy directives Good practice Innovation Initiatives Practice society->policy->impactimpact<-policy<-society

Context Globalised, networked and information rich environment, changing social norms and values Drivers Widening participation, e-learning, accessibility, democratisation, economic development, lifelong learning PolicyPractice UK: Let 1000 flowers bloom Range of funding initiatives, e-Learning strategy China: Government directed, massification Sino-UK programme Education for all Impact Local culture vs. global hegemony, changing roles and structures, new educational and funding models

The net generation Oblinger, Prensky, Kennedy… Multi-tasking Technology-rich environment Multiple representations Group activities Task orientated Experiential Fast responses Digitally literate Connected Environment Learning approach Process

JISC Learner Experience programme Phase one: Review (Sharpe et al) LEX (Creanor et al) LXP (Conole et al) Phase two: Longitudinal study STROLL Six institutional projects Discipline differences, disability, practice-based, transitions between sectors

LXP Student experiences Subject discipline differences Uses of technologies Effective e-learning strategies Online survey Audio logsInterviews Learner Experiences Project M. de Laat - Exeter, T. Dillon – Bristol, J. Darby – Open University

PB-LXP In-depth study of practice-based students Title E-assessmentE-PortfoliosConferencesWikis & Blogs Cisco Networking Team Engineering Social Work Practice Applied Social Work Practice Extending Professional Practice Software Reqs for Bus Systems Learning across different boundaries? Strategies used Barriers/enablers, key critical moments Student practice vs. institutional policy Mary Thorpe, Rob Edmunds, Pam Shakespeare, M. de Laat - Exeter Learning design and outcomes

LXP: Data collection Phase 1 – contextPhase 2 – in-depth case studies SurveyAudio logsInterviews Economics:128 Languages:92 Medicine:31 Computing:158 Other:18 Total:427 Economics: 3 Languages: 47 Medicine: 16 Computing:19 Total:85 Economics: 2 Languages: 3 Medicine: 5 Computing:4 Total:14

Learner voices Fabio: an individual learner (Economics) Samir: a social learner Annmarie: an active technology user (Medicine) Gary: learning through practice (Medicine) Jack: social/interactive learner (Computer Science) Finbar: an active blogger (Computer Science) Dzel: aTurkish student (Languages) Peizhi: a Chinese student (Languages)

Internet sites for meanings and glossary Mobile phone find out about course work MSM chat to send coursework to friends Mobile to text class mates to get exam hints Blogs for personal reflection Internet/search engines to verify concepts Internet to research an essay Google using keywords/phrase Wikipedia and podcasts Voice recorder for collecting interview data USB stick to transfer data between home and uni Dictionary.com to check words Podcasts from English language sites Updating E-Portfolio from the hospital University VLE site to access lectures and check calendar Audio logs In situ, emotive responses

Today I used my mobile phone to contact a friend from the same course to ask them where I could get my cover sheet for my essay to hand in today. I had to do this basically because I searched the university web site and I couldnt find one and I didnt have one on my computer so I had to ring my friend because I knew he had printed one out for himself earlier in the day… Well basically the mobile phone, … if I didnt have one I wouldnt have been able to do this ….I was able to contact XX and ask him where I could find one… I found one on another students home page whod put it up there conveniently so that a lot of people could get it so that was pretty handy and Ill remember that in the future. Jack: social/interactive learner (Computer Science) Audio logs

Video clips Reflective summaries Encapsulate key findings from Across the studies Highlight range of learners and their appropriation Laura: techno savvy Emma and Jenny: practice application

Patterns of use Researching and retrieving information Google, Wikipedia, subject-specific sites Communication Multiple tools, peers/tutors… Assignments Generic tools: Word, Excel, Powerpoint Integrated learning Mixed views on institutional systems, bias towards personalised learning

InformationCommunication Content Changing nature of content (more available, lower intrinsic value, higher interactivity and standards) Cost and value Materials and information freely available on the Internet Perceived worth of content Presentation Use of multimedia to improve presentation Expectations of good quality content Evaluation New skills for assessing content Skills to ensure work is authentic Communication Different tools for different things Internet to access expert knowledge With anyone about anything anytime Collaboration New forms of collaboration – smart tools and web2.0 Distributed cognition InformationCommunication

Information Communication Passive Interactive Individual Social Technologies for learning Technologies for life

Implications…. Pervasive and integrated Extensive use of tools for everything Personalised Adapted to personal needs Social Networked peer community Interactive Content not fixed Underworld and mismatch Using tools in unintended ways Policy directives? Lifelong learning, widening participation, digital divide, knowledge economy

The macro and micro context How can we maximising the potential of the technologies? Role of policy? Can we let go?? How can we best scaffold this new net generation? How can we exploit the social dimensions: for collaborative design and in how students engage with activities?

Further information JISC learner experiences programme – (phase one) – learnerexperience.aspx (phase two) learnerexperience.aspx Conole, G. (forthcoming), Relationship between policy and practice – the gap between rhetoric and reality, in The Sage Handbook of e-Learning Research, E-learning Research Handbook, pp , R. Andrews and C. Haythornthwaite (eds), London: Sage Beetham, H., and Sharpe, R. (2007), Rethinking pedagogy for a digital age, H. Beetham and R. Sharpe (Eds), Oxford: RoutledgeFalmer. Conole, G. and Oliver, M. (eds.) (2007) Contemporary Perspectives in e-Learning Research: Themes, Tensions and Impact on Practice, Oxford: RoutledgeFalmer Oblinger, D. and Oblinger, J. (2005), Educating the Net Generation, Educause e-book