Learning Technology: the context

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Learning Technology the context

• Stephen Bostock
• with thanks to other ELT courses
• Teaching and Learning with TechnologyKeele
  University

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Teaching and Learning with Technology- The
ContextSummary

• National global context
• Institutional contexts
• Personal contexts
• Programme context

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1. National global context

• for the use of CIT in HE learning are
• Government agendas
• lifelong learning,
• widening participation (including disability),
• key skills and employability
• Reduced unit of resource
• Increasing, global competition slowly but
  surely
• Cheaper, better technology, improving access to
  it
• Market demands students are more IT literate

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Market threat

• As one industry after another looks at itself
  in the mirror and asks about its future in a
  digital world, that future is driven almost 100
  percent by the ability of that companys products
  or services to be rendered in digital form
• (Nicholas Negroponte 1996)Can higher
  education be wholly digital?

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Dearing report

• Key recommendations included
• LT strategies required of all institutions
• Widening participation
• Staff training to exploit uses of CIT
• Lifelong learning (so flexibility in courses)
• Embedding key skills in curricula
• Benchmarks for degree standards
• Professionalization of teaching - ILT

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Dearing report on IT

• the innovative exploitation of CIT holds out
  for improving the quality, flexibility and
  effectiveness of higher education
• for the majority of students, over the next ten
  years the delivery of some course materials and
  much of the organization and communication of
  course arrangements will be conducted by
  computer
• CIT will overcome the barriers to higher
  education, providing improved access and
  increased effectiveness

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Some national milestones

• Fund for the Development of Teaching and Learning
  (1995-)
• Dearing Report (1997) and government response
• Green paper on Lifelong Learning (1998)
• Quality Assurance Agency, standards for degrees
  HE1-HE5 and benchmarking. Subject Review and now
• Institute for Learning and Teaching ILT (1999)
• Teaching Quality Enhancement Fund (2000)
• Learning and Teaching Strategies
• LTSNs, G-LTSN, JISC Technologies Centre
• National Teaching Fellowships Scheme
• SEDA (1992), Professional Development Framework
  (2002)
• White Paper 2003 the Academy, widening
  participation, SENDA, student fees, course
  experience questionnaire

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IT Responses alphabet soup

• CTI Computers in Teaching Initiative 1989, and
  various dissemination initiatives (e.g. LTDI)
• TLTP Teaching and Learning Technology Programme
  2 phases from 1992 on development with phase 3 on
  integration then evaluation
• JISC Joint Information Systems Committee
• Joint Academic Network JANET
• JCALT (Committee for Awareness, Liaison and
  Training) addressing the human and
  organisational issues of deploying CIT
• JISC Technologies Centre

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Staff development responses

• SEDA - Staff and Educational Development
  Association 1993
• ALT - Association for Learning Technology 1993
• HESDA - HE staff development agency, part of
  Universities UK
• ILT - Institute for Learning and Teaching,
  government pump-primed. Considering CPD
  requirement. Merging into the Academy.
• LTSNs workshops and web resources
• G-LTSN regional groups on CIT
• JISC Committee for Awareness, Liaison and
  Training (JCALT)

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2. Institutional context HA ?

• Increased competition for students
• Research-led university versus teaching
  cultureresearch-teaching nexus
• Promotion criteria improved for teaching
• Internal audits and the QA office
• Staff Development has grown
• Learning and Teaching Strategy, LT Committee,
  and departmental ones developing
• Some bottom-up enthusiasm being met with some
  top-down policy and resources

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Keele staff support available to HA

• Learning and Teaching Series of workshops run by
  Staff Development
• MA in HE
• TL in HE Programme
• Teaching and Learning with Technology
• Action Research/dissertation
• Web sites
• Support for the Scholarship of Learning and
  Teaching
• Staff Development and Training
• Learning Technology

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Keele infrastructureHA?

• Hallsnet
• Learning Web Server, www.learn.keele.ac.uk
• BSCW discussion server bscw.keele.ac.uk
• QuestionMark Perception
• Innovation Project funding
• Project funded staff for learning support,
  disability, and work related learning

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3. Personal context
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Personal responses

• Career decisions
• Concern for learning/teaching
• Needs of departments
• Technical resources and support?
• Staff development support
• Change agents for learning technology, and
  learning and teaching in general

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4. Programme response

• National TLTP EFFECTS project provided framework
  and shared resources
• flexible implementation in institutions
• curriculum development, embedding CIT (versus
  bolt-on/fall-off in past projects)
• New the SEDA PDF-ELT award and network
• Keele Postgraduate Certificate in TaLwT
• 7 learning outcomes, 6 values
• Certificate 60 credits M level
• Module in MA in Learning and Teaching in HE
• Annual intakes from Jan 2001

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Conclusion - forces at work

• Context political, economic, social new
  requirements of employability wider
  participation but standards, audit, resources
• Technology pushtechnology developments make
  possible improved efficiency and innovations
• Pedagogy pull a shift from teaching to learning
  instructivist to constructivist, student centred
  approaches
• We have to embed technology in the curriculum
  for better learning and/or less cost