Yesterday (Tue. 2nd Dec ’08) saw the publication of the JISC sponsored Guardian Supplement – Digital Student highlighting the experiences and expectations of students in and entering higher education. This particular area has received a lot of recent interest with a number of projects funded by the JISC Learner experiences of e-learning: phase 2, and the Denham reports on Teaching and the student experience and World leader in e-learning.
In particular I’m looking forward to the final report of The Committee of Inquiry into the Changing Learner Experience. This committee, chaired by Professor Sir David Melville CBE, aims to bring ‘focus and coherence’ to this area, pulling together research to inform policy and strategy for national agencies, universities and colleges. Their remit is to "consider the impact of the newest technologies such as social networking and mobile devices on the behaviour and attitudes of students coming up to and just entered higher education and the issues this poses for universities and colleges".
I was a little disappointed so see that the Committee have decided to only focus on Web 2.0 technologies (mobile appears to have been dropped according to the Committee’s emerging findings), particularly as the inquiry state they are "looking to draw the big picture and to interpret it clearly and concisely". Even when just considering the impact of ICT I would argue there is a whole raft of other influencing factors which effect the learner experience such as the provision/ownership of hardware, or the effectiveness of existing systems (i.e. student email, Virtual Learning Environments, network access). You could also argue that while the majority of students use Web 2.0 in their social life, it is still only a minority who experience this technology as part of formal structured learning. My concern being that emphasis is being placed on a particular technology and not the learning experience as a whole.
While I wrestle with my thoughts on this one some of you might like to read a report commissioned by the Committee on the "Review of current and developing international practice in the use of social networking (Web 2.0) in higher education" (Warning: 141 pages). The Committee also highlight the following relevant activities:
- Web 2.0 technologies for learning: the current landscape –opportunities, challenges and tensions, BECTA
- Learners’ use of Web 2.0 technology in and out of school at KS3 and 4, BECTA
- Student expectations study: Findings from preliminary research, JISC
- Great Expectations of ICT, JISC
- Information behaviour of the researcher of the future, JISC
- Effective use of social software by further and higher education in the UK, Open University (Funded by JISC)
- Learning Literacies for a Digital Age, Glasgow Caledonian University (Funded by JISC)
