Day three of the ascilite 2008 conference offers a variety of interesting presentations commencing with a keynote presentation from Associate Professor Piet Kommers.
Please note that morning tea, afternoon tea and lunch are included in the registration fee.
Gregor Kennedy
Biomedical Multimedia Unit, The University of Melbourne
Barney Dalgarno
Faculty of Education, Charles Sturt University
Sue Bennett
Faculty of Education, University of Wollongong
Terry Judd, Kathleen Gray and Rosemary Chang
Biomedical Multimedia Unit, The University of Melbourne
The corollary of the 'Digital Native' – young, technologically avid and literate – is the 'Digital Immigrant' – older, less familiar and comfortable with technology. The accompanying rhetoric posits that in the higher education sector, staff and students are ensconced firmly on either side of a 'digital divide', with critical implications and consequences for teaching and learning. This proposition was tested by surveying 108 staff and 2588 first-year undergraduate students across three Australian Universities about their use of a large selection of common and emerging technologies. These technologies were grouped into eight coherent categories using factor analysis. A MANOVA was then used to analyse different uses of these technologies according to participants' role (staff or student), gender and age. Significant main effects were reported for each of these independent variables and differences were seen particularly for technologies related to mobile phone use and gaming. However, the absolute magnitudes of most differences between groups were small and, critically, there were no role, gender or age effects for technology-based activities associated with Web 2.0 technologies, and the overall use of these technologies was low. These findings support a growing evidence base that, while some differences exist, the 'digital divide' between students and staff is not nearly as large as some commentators would have us believe.
Keywords: digital natives, digital immigrants, net generation, web 2.0, higher education
Theresa McLennan
Lincoln University, New Zealand
Shirley Gibbs
Lincoln University, New Zealand
Computers have become ubiquitous. The perception is that they are used effectively and with authority by much of the younger population. Previous generations used computers to manipulate data, mainly in employment. The current generation considers use of computers to be part of their social life. This paper reports on the results of a longitudinal study of students in an introductory computing class at Lincoln University. Results from 1999 were compared with results from 2008 to see if there were any differences in the overall computing confidence reported by students from both cohorts. The computing activities of the 1999 and 2008 students have been compared. Results show that the current students are more likely to be computing online and their overall confidence is higher than in the earlier study. This confidence is not matched by increased skills in offline computing. There is some evidence that the 2008 students are less competent users of productivity software such as spreadsheets and databases than the 1999 students.
Keywords: first year students, computing competence, computing knowledge, online computer literacy, offline computer literacy, skills perception level
Julie Willems
School of Humanities, Communications and Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Monash University
Virtual learning, once the realm of science fiction, is now a reality. The informal learning multi-user virtual gaming environments of neomillennial learners are beginning to shape formal educational landscapes. Such informal environments as RuneScape and Second Life contain the key pedagogical elements of learner-centred environments: they are visually rich, immersive, nonlinear, allow for individual and collaborative learning, creativity, and allow for learner choice in activities, pathways and assessments. Learning style research in e-learning environments yielded some interesting discrepancies between the learning styles of novice undergraduate e-learners, and between graduate e-learners and educators teaching in, and designing for, e-learning environments. This in turn suggests considered approaches to accommodating both sequential and global learning preferences in e-learning environments. This paper uses the example of Second Life to suggest a balanced approach for sequential and global learners.
Keywords: sequential learners, global learners, neomillennial learners, e-learning, MUVEs
Birgit Loch
Faculty of Sciences, University of Southern Queensland
Shirley Reushle
Faculty of Education, University of Southern Queensland
The use of web conferencing tools to support learning and teaching and facilitate interaction and collaboration is common in many higher education environments as is the replacement of face-to-face meetings with virtual collaboration tools. This paper reports on Phase 3 of a trial of web conferencing conducted at a regional Australian university and further explores the use of web conferencing to support and enhance learning and teaching. Preliminary findings from Phases 1 and 2 of the trial have been reported on in a previous paper. The action research method which framed the initial trial has again been applied to Phase 3. In Phase 1, collaborative mathematical problem-solving in an undergraduate course was carried out using web conferencing and tablet PCs. In addition, students in postgraduate Education courses were linked across the globe to participate in interactive and collaborative web conference activity. In Phase 2, a university-wide trial across disciplines was conducted. Phase 3 represents an analysis of feedback received from teachers who were involved in Phases 1 and 2 and who have had some time to reflect on the impact web conferencing has had on their teaching practice. From this, and their own experience, the authors make further observations regarding the use of web conferencing to support learning and teaching and raise a number of questions and issues to guide future research.
Keywords: web conferencing; action research; evaluation; collaboration
Stephen Rowe and Allan Ellis
School of Commerce and Management, Southern Cross University, Lismore Campus, NSW
As educational technologies evolve and new technologies become available they create opportunities and challenges for university teaching staff. Once potential improvements are identified they often need to be implemented incrementally and carefully evaluated. The separate and specific benefits to teaching staff, enrolled students and the institution need to be recognised. Audiographics is an established teaching technology that has evolved with the spread of the Internet and improvements in compression technologies such as particular VoIP. This case study describes the central role of a current Web-Based Audiographic product (Elluminate Live!) in the evolving online structure for an undergraduate auditing course in a degree program at a regional Australian university. The ability for staff and students to engage with the rich suite of synchronous teaching and learning tools as well as the ability to record session interaction for later playback are presented as key benefits for improved flexibility in staff teaching and access to student learning opportunities.
Keywords: teaching, leaning, pedagogy, audiographics, Web-based audiographics, synchronous, asynchronous
David Parsons and Hokyoung Ryu
Institute of Information and Mathematical Sciences, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand
Software engineering practice supports the development of learning technologies, but we do not, perhaps, utilise these learning technologies as much as we could when teaching the practices of software engineering. One useful technique for both learning about and designing object oriented systems is the CRC (Class, Responsibility, Collaboration) card exercise. In this paper we describe an experiment based on a CRC card exercise to compare a learning task related to software design executed in three environments; classroom based, e-learning and mobile learning. Our results indicate that although the software engineering aspect of the task may be better executed in traditional classroom environment, some aspects of the learning process may be enhanced by a mobile solution.
Keywords: mobile learning, software design, email, SMS text messages.
Nauman Saeed and Yun Yang
Faculty of ICT, Swinburne University of Technology
Suku Sinnappan
Faculty of Higher Education, Swinburne University of Technology
Second Life is a 3-D multi user virtual environment and is used as a platform for education by many institutions around the world. It offers a variety of communication channels to perform academic activities for both distance and on-campus education. As such, Second Life provides an excellent platform to test the implications of media richness theory (MRT). This paper aims at examining the media richness of Second Life and its impact on the user acceptance. Media Richness Theory and Technology Acceptance Model have been used as its theoretical basis. PLS approach is used to test the hypothesised relationships. Our study results suggest that Second Life is highly rich medium and is capable of promoting effective communication among its users. We found that media richness has a direct positive effect on the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of Second Life which in turn leads to actual usage. Some implications of our findings are discussed and ideas for future research are also presented.
Keywords: Second Life, education, media richness theory, TAM, PLS
Ian Warren, Darren Palmer and Tanya King
School of History Heritage and Society, Deakin University
Stephen Segrave
Institute of Teaching and Learning, Deakin University
Regulation, governance and harms stemming from the use of virtual worlds and other Massive Multi Media Online Role Playing Games (MMMORPGs) in higher education, are poorly understood and under-researched issues. Second Life, developed by Linden Labs, provides users with a series of generic 'terms of service' and codes of conduct, yet place the bulk of responsibility on individual users or groups to report misbehaviour or develop their own behavioural codes, enforcement procedures and punishments suited to their particular needs. There is no guidebook to assist users in the processes of risk identification and management. As such, the various benefits of MMMORPG technologies could be offset by the risks to users and user-groups from a range of possible harms, including the impact of actual or perceived violence within teaching and learning settings. While cautioning against the direct translation of real-world regulatory principles into the governance of virtual worlds, this paper suggests theoretical and practical guidance on these issues can be taken from recent criminological developments. Using Lawrence Lessig's (1999) landmark work on cyber-regulation as a starting point, this paper examines the literature on video-game violence to illustrate the need for educators show awareness of both real and perceived risks in virtual worlds as a core element of an emerging educational pedagogy. We identify how the multiple roles of the virtual-world educator become useful in framing this pedagogy to improve student learning, to dispel myths about the risks of immersive technologies and advocate for their adoption and acceptance in the educational community.
Keywords: MMMORPGs, virtual worlds, Second Life, violence, regulation
Bill Genat
Onemda VicHealth Koori Health Unit, The University of Melbourne
Som Naidu
Educational Technology, The University of Melbourne
Patrick Fong
Educational Technology, The University of Melbourne
This paper describes the implementation of an online role-play that provides participants with the opportunity to immerse themselves in the socio-political context of public health on a Victorian Aboriginal settlement between the 1860's and the mid 1880's. A powerful innovation in the role-play is electronic access to primary historical sources that inform character development and interaction. Role-play provides strong instructional guidance complemented by exploration and discovery-based learning. Evaluation of the role-play indicated that students experienced the role-play as an efficient, effective and engaging way to learn about the subject matter. Overall, the role-play worked as a powerful learning vehicle to shift student perspectives on Aboriginal health and history.
Stuart Palmer, Dale Holt and Sharyn Bray
Institute of Teaching and Learning
Deakin University
Reflective thinking based on experiential learning is a key skill required for the lifelong learner and the socially mature professional. Following several semesters employing a written reflective journal as an assessable task, a fourth-year engineering management unit adopted an online reflective journal. During the initial semester of use, an evaluation was undertaken to investigate student perceptions of the online journal. A summary of this previous work is presented here. Following three semesters of use of the online journal, an analysis of the student use of the journal was undertaken to investigate its contribution to unit learning outcomes. Based on the evaluation of student perceptions of the online reflective journal, it was found that a majority of students understood the purpose of the journal, and valued the journal in their learning; a majority of students read the journal entries of other students, and indicated that this assisted their learning; and the two most frequently reported 'most useful' aspects of the journal were the 'enforced' continuous revision of course material, and the ability to compare their understanding of the course material with that of other students. Based on a regression analysis of the factors related to student usage of the online reflective journal, it was found that the significant contributors to final unit mark where: prior academic performance; number of journal postings; and mode of study. This research confirmed that the online reflective journal was fertile territory in the landscape of educational technology, both in terms of student perceptions and contribution to unit learning outcomes.
Keywords: reflective journal, engineering management, online journal, student evaluation, learning outcomes.
Graham Steventon
Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Coventry University
Paul Grove
E-Learning Unit, Coventry University
Mark Childs
The Centre for the Study of Higher Education, Coventry University This paper reflects on the tensions inherent in higher education between institutions taking advantage of the pedagogic opportunities afforded by new Web 2.0 technologies and yet remaining aware of the diverse e-needs of all students. The aim of this paper is to discuss how these tensions have informed the development of a virtual community in Second Life (R) for use by second year Criminology students on a community safety module. The module is currently run on a workshop basis in which students map on paper a physical neighbourhood environment on which they overlay social characteristics and problems intended to simulate a typical dysfunctional community. The virtual community in Second Life is currently being designed to provide a more immersive environment, in which students can explore issues in a simulated real-life context without the ethical dilemmas associated with field experience. However, since not all students are interested in, or competent with, the technologies involved in this type of e-learning, the virtual community is intended to complement these existing arrangements rather than replace them. Furthermore, the freedom of constraints afforded by the inherent lack of structure in Second Life may be disorientating for students, especially those used to more didactic methods of teaching and learning. Thus, scenarios are designed in stages of relatively simple and prescribed to increasingly free, complex and cognitively demanding as the module progresses and students become more confident and technologically able. In this way it is hoped to harness the opportunities of Web 2.0 technology whilst optimising the learning experience of the whole group.
Keywords: Web 2.0 technologies; Second Life; virtual community
Elaine Pearson, Steve Green, Voula Gkatzidou
Accessibility Research Centre, University of Teesside, UK
In the current landscape of technological and social change, the shape of learning technology is being influenced by forces which present significant challenges for the learning designer. The increasing demand for personalised approaches and pedagogies, together with an emphasis on the need to cater for the needs and preferences of the individual learner, are shifting the focus to the integration of adaptive and ubiquitous learning, to respond to the challenge of providing trulylearner- centred, accessible, personalised and flexible learning. This paper proposes a model for the development of a framework for an open source Adaptable Personal Learning Environment (APLE). It goes beyond current definitions of a Personal Learning Environment (PLE) that encompasses personal systems and tools. In our definition an APLE is also adaptable to the needs and preferences of the individual learner, and to the environment in which they are working. Taking an existing Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), known as the Portland VLE, as the starting point the framework is focused around the creation of individual interfaces for personal learning. Central to the development of this framework is engagement with and development of a community of practice (COP) comprising tutors, developers, researchers, students and administrators. Through the COP we aim to develop a set of anonymous personal profiles from which sample interfaces and learning objects will be produced. These sample interfaces and learning object templates will enable the definition of requirements that should meet the needs and preferences of all learners regardless of disability, environment or personal preference.
Keywords: Adaptable, personal, learning, environments, accessibility, inclusion
Robyn Philip
Humanities and Social Sciences, Macquarie University
Geraldine Lefoe
CEDIR, University of Wollongong
Meg O'Reilly
Teaching and Learning Centre, Southern Cross University
Dominique Parrish
Faculty of Education, University of Wollongong
The ALTC Exchange (formerly the Carrick Exchange), is a national repository and networking service for Australian higher education. The Exchange was designed to provide access to a repository of shared learning and teaching resources, work spaces for team members engaged in collaborative projects, and communication and networking services. The Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) established the Exchange for those who teach, manage and lead learning and teaching in higher education. As part of the research conducted to inform the development of the Exchange, models for peer review of educational resources were evaluated. For this, a design-based research approach was adopted. Findings from the literature and feedback from key practitioners and leaders within the sector are discussed in this paper.
Keywords: ALTC Exchange, Carrick Exchange, peer review, MERLOT
Terry Timberlake
Institute of Teaching and Learning
Deakin University
Casual academics play a major role in higher education in Australia today. In their roles as tutors, demonstrators and markers, casual academics need access to opportunities to develop as teachers. As such, Deakin University has developed an online academic development program designed to better equip new and inexperienced casual academics for their roles. This paper reports on the approach that has been taken to designing one module of an online academic development program for casual academics, considering the influence of information and communication technology (ICT) on this design, and discusses an analysis of the feedback on the module by the participants who completed it. A conclusion is drawn that aligning self paced online learning with induction into a community of practice via ICT presents particular challenges.
Keywords: academic development, casual academics, communities of practice, self-paced online learning
Belinda Allen, Giedre Kligyte, Mike Bogle and Rosalyn Pursey
Learning & Teaching @ UNSW
The University of New South Wales
An online learning and teaching exchange, integrating a range of communities of practice with a showcase of good practice, and the tools to develop sound teaching approaches - it sounds a fine venture, but what should it encompass? How will it be framed and contextualised? How will it be managed? And – most importantly – whom is it for, and how will it engage users in a meaningful way, embedded into the context of their current practice? This is not an untrodden path, there are numerous examples of exchanges, repositories and communities developed on a grander scale than the one planned for UNSW, most recently the ALTC (formerly Carrick) Exchange, designed and developed under the auspices of ascilite. The designers of the UNSW Learning & Teaching Exchange have learned from and built on these developments, with an intention to eventually complement those wider initiatives. Our Exchange will provide an environment for UNSW academics to share their learning and teaching practice and develop their academic career in a local context, aiming to integrate local activities with wider initiatives in learning and teaching research and practice nationally and internationally. This paper draws on the literature on communities of practice and the scholarship of teaching and learning, and reviews some recent online developments in higher education that informed the planning of the UNSW Learning & Teaching Exchange.
Keywords: learning and teaching exchange, online communities, communities of practice, scholarship of teaching and learning, learning object repositories