TECHNOLOGY-ENHANCED LEARNING – A BOX OF DELIGHTS
– ABSTRACT
Mark Gamble, Andrea Raiker, David Pike (University of Bedfordshire, United Kingdom)
Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) enables learning anytime, anywhere, any place. Its roots lie in
the burgeoning skills, knowledge and understanding of TEL achieved by students emerging from
secondary education, and the corresponding e-expertise required by tutors and educationalists. In their
pre-University lives, most of our students will have used the internet to research their own interests;
set up their own web pages through sites such as Myspace; will have bought and sold online; used email and SMS extensively; created and contributed to blogs and wikis; and have produced and edited
music and visuals electronically. In doing so, students will have acquired from their diverse
backgrounds the potential for entering a shared ‘field’, a term denoting the location of interactions
between socio-cultural selves or individuals according to rules specific to that location. The field of
the University of Bedfordshire’s (UoB) virtual learning environment BREO has been developed to
support student’s academic and personal development by acknowledging students’ different aptitudes
and abilities, their emotional needs and the university’s and employers’ requirements for sociocognitive learning and team skills. Whereas traditional teaching has tended to promote closed
individual study reflecting the operant instrumental approach to teaching and learning, TEL at UoB
positively encourages socio-cognitive learning through interaction and group learning, talking, multitasking, and the engagement of prior formal and informal life experiences.
Technology can significantly enhance the learning experience of our students, providing mechanisms
for extending and developing material covered in classroom settings, opportunities for structured
reflection and analysis and for recording and reviewing progress. In this context we see technology as
a facilitator whose role is to enable the individual to take responsibility for their own learning. We will
continue to explore how technology can assist with this agenda. Large lectures will become
increasingly rare: delivery of content will predominantly be via BREO, enabling staff time to be used
for direct interaction with students. Interactions will be captured online in a range of styles such as
discussion boards, voice files, wikis and blogs. Students will increasingly maintain their own online
sites using integrated wiki and blog tools, pulling together content from a broad range of sources and
integrating these with their electronic repository, MyStuff, and publishing evidence of development
and learning for internal and external audiences via e-portfolios. Student learning and support will be
structured through the on-line environment enabling students to undertake greater formative
assessment to support their learning.
In designing a scheme to support TEL various opportunities exist: training; advice and guidance;
disseminating sector wide good practice; and creating knowledge networks within the institution.
Using informative demonstrations and providing resources enables lecturers to take ownership of
technology in the classroom; students see the integration into the curriculum as seamless. For example
we have published case studies that deal with the formative use of Turnitin for developing referencing
skills and how electronic voting has been used to improve students’ ability to interact in the classroom.
In order to deliver TEL effectively we need to demonstrate exemplars to improve understanding: our
case studies deal with real situations and implementations. For example, how Turnitin can be used to
manage plagiarism and improve referencing skills; how electronic voting can improve the interaction
between a lecturer and class; why students' revision can be enhanced using podcasting. Our lecturers
are our most important focal point for development, and by using TEL tools with them we can
demonstrate the improved value and accessibility to other staff; thus we have generated communities
of lecturers who support and develop the use of TEL. When considering the development of TEL we
have a number of strategies available: using workshops to train staff; one-to-one training and needs
analysis; and working directly with lecturers to deliver new technologies. Realistically, none of these
alone are the answer; our approach is a mix of long term strategy and all three methodologies. Our aim
is to provide technological solutions to lecturers’ challenges, but at the same time we understand the
need for lecturers to engage and further develop technologies within the classroom.
This presentation will illustrate our approach to progressing the take-up of the Technology-Enhanced
Learning approach throughout the University of Bedfordshire.
Keywords: technology,learning,response,development
Author:
Mark Gamble
University of Bedfordshire
Park Square
Luton
LU1 3JU
United Kingdom
Phone +44 7720068605
E-Mail: mark.gamble@beds.ac.uk