Learner support technologies
3 papers in a mixed session
288 Students and Mobile Devices: Choosing which Dream (Research Paper)
John Traxler
The world is awash with personal digital connective devices.
Technologies constantly consuming knowledge. This is connected to learning. Connected to communities generating and discussing ‘learning’.
Citizen journalism. Individuals creating and reporting on and consuming news without the mass media.
Modern technology lets us cut out the middle-men. e.g. Stephen Fry using twitter cuts out the need for a press officer or even a need for the press, he communicates right to his ‘fans’.
Opportunity for physical and virtual to merge.
Mobile devices have become so ubiquitous and ‘vital’ they are seen as another limb, part of us.
Inside institutions, they still buy the hardware of learning. But that technology may not be the expectation of the students.
A few years ago was this notion of digital convergence. Taken from PCs all being fairly standardised. As a platform it is stable.
With mobile devices they still haven’t converged into a single platform. Students may have different devices from each other today, and then they all again different different devices tomorrow.
161 A Taxonomy of Podcasts and its Application to Higher Education (Proceedings Paper)
Ana Carvalho, Cristina Aguiar, Romana Maciel
Audio in learning.
Podcasts, a renaissance of audio for learning?
podcasts as a way to change classroom practices
listening is instintive, opposed to reading which has to be taught
comprehension enhanced by spoken word, adds clarity and meaning
- podcasts let lecturers emphasise information lecturers feel is critical for students
- enables flexible learning
- reaches wider audience
podcasts let you offer advanced extra content for advanced learners or for remediation of weaker learners
two types of podcast:
- authentic content
- teaching materials
Taxonomy of podcasts
following assumptions
- not for use in classroom
- not lectures recorded face-2-face
- should be reusable
type/medium/length/author/style/purpose
informative/audiocast/1-5mins/lecturer/formal/inform
feedback/enhanced podcast/6-15mins/??/informal/analyse
guidelines/vodcast vidcast/>15mins/experts, local community, reports, etc/informal/develop motivate
authentic materials/screencast/>15mins/??/informal/mediate for reflective learning
76 User technologies and the future mixed economy of education (short paper)
Tony Toole, Haydn Blackey
Exploring future possibilities of delivery of education. Mobile computing is changing the way we access information. Open courseware – massification of information.
Impact on education: be transformed and global, require new business models
JISC eTutor project.
Exploring two ideas about the future of elearning:
- resources sourced from the web
- delivery through web 2.0 services
They created 2 web2.0 learning environments, with 2 different styles, created visual gateways, the trialed with students.
first one used wetpaint
- learner-side technologies will be provided by the learner
- learning environments wll be constructed from web services
- learning resources will be sourced globally from the web
In a future mixed economy of education
- what is role of institution?
- what is role for state? fund students wherever they go rather than institutions?
- is globalisation a win-win situation? cheaper for both student and state?
distance learning is the growth area of higher education