The transformative nature of emerging technologies

Lecturers experiences at a University of Technology in South Africa »
Daniela Gachago

The disruptive nature of emerging technologies
Research
Problem?
Emerging Technologies
lecturers experiences at CPUT
Conclusion
technology is radically chancing the way we teach
is there something special about emerging technologies? 
2010 CPUT ICT access and usage study
Daniela Gachago, Eunice Ivala, Agnes Chigona
Laurillard's
conversational framework
Findings: usage
…when ICTs are adopted by majority of teaching staff, it is mostly used to support and improve existing practices, rather than to radically change them (Kirkup and Kirkwood 2005)

….lecturers and students use a limited range of technologies for both learning and in social life…(Margyaran and Littlejohn 2011, Czerniewicz and Brown 2005)

Emerging technologies may or may not be new technologies
Emerging technologies are evolving organism that exist in a state of “coming into being”
Emerging technologies go through hype cycles
Emerging technologies are not yet fully understood and not yet fully researched
Emerging technologies are potentially disruptive but their potential is mostly unfulfilled (Veletsianos 2010)
control?
Personal ownership of technologies coupled with access to social software means that all kinds of learning-related activity can potentially be e-enabled; e-learning can no longer be viewed as a purely institutionally based or narrowly defined set of activities....
Disruption...
what does this mean?
....technologies that allow students and lecturers to do things that could not be done before, changing relationships between students and lecturers in fundamental ways. 
(Maddux and Johnson 2005)
creativity?
Hard vs soft technologies: “Soft technologies need skill and artistry. It ain’t just what you do, it’s the way that you do it. A bad technology, used well, can work brilliantly, while a good technology, used badly, can be useless. Most learning technology research concentrates on technology (including methods and pedagogies) not the talent and skill with which it is applied that is frequently more significant.”                                (Jon Dron 2011)

what technologies are lecturers using at CPUT?
how are they using these technologies?
does using emerging technologies make any difference in how lecturers teach?
105 responses
quantitative reserach using SPSS
statistical tests: correlations, Fisher Exact tests
....complex learning requires a continuing iterative dialogue between teacher and student, which reveals the participants’ conceptions and the variations between them… There is no escape from the need for dialogue, no room for mere telling, nor for practice without description, nor for experimentation without reflection, nor for student action without feedback... (Laurillard, 2002)

“We have begun at last to play with digital technologies as a way of meeting the demands of the digital age, but with an approach still born in the transmission model….. There is no progress, therefore, in how we teach, despite what might be possible with the new technology.” (Laurillard 2002, 141)

?
Mapping Learning experiences with media forms
Czerniewicz and Browns adaptation (2005)
blogs, wikis, social networking, instant messaging, YouTube, twitter...
Survey tool
"Effective and appropriate pedagogical practice is achieved by offering students a wide variety of media forms balanced for their pedagogical value rather than chosen for their novelty or entertainment factor"

others: computer based gaming, online collaboration
“I mean Twitter...how long had Twitter been out? What’s going to happen at the end of the year? There is going to be another programme...so we can’t say we have reached the end of it. We’ve never. So there will be a new technology, it may be...I mean Whatsapp...all of a sudden they are all on Whatsapp...they actually asked me the other day please can I Whatsapp you? I said no, no, no...I also got a life. But I will have to use Whatsapp as well. That’s what they want to do...”

The course really takes over their life; it’s a very demanding programme. ...They can go on Facebook – .... They can get an answer, not from us, we deliberately try and step back, so the students could answer them. It’s not as if they’re posing us a question and we have to respond. Sometimes I actually have to restrain myself and say I’m not going to respond to this somebody in the class should. I mean, questions about where to print or what time the class starts, or about this assignment or that – there’s a lot of communication that’s happening. I think that’s actually empowering students to feel that they -. You know, you need that reassurance I’m not the only one or I am doing the right thing – all of those things.
“It takes hours of preparation…you can ask my husband, you know I used to have a life but my job ate it…I spend hours and weekends at preparing lessons like this. But the thing is once I’ve used it now, that lesson I can use next year again…but then each year there’s something new so then, I change it…”

...I would say it’s free and available resources that you almost stumble on – like social media, it’s things that are out there that you discover ...something that students have easy access to but maybe that they already use and that they’re familiar with ....ja, that’s accessible. It’s often something that you don’t go look for; you discover it and you see some potential use for it in teaching and learning. And because its not something you have to pay for, it’s worth exploring....

Confirming previous findings we established that majority of lecturers use a very limited range of learning events
BUT: use of emerging technologies seem to broaden the range of learning events lecturers engage with…especially when it comes to dialogical and collaborative learning events
Evidence of disruptive nature of emerging technologies: focus on opening up boundaries, transferring control and responsibility towards students, providing exciting learning opportunities, enthusiasm!

WHAT?
giving up control...
enthusiam...
student-led
“We’ve never needed support...you press the help button or you Google it!”

independence...
Recognize champions who use ICTs creatively and widen application of technology in T&L
Create a space to engage in a discussion around the use of institutional and non-institutional technologies to advocate comprehensive of use of ICTs in teaching and learning 
Open question: structure vs agency

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