Augmenting Student Learning

1

• Augmenting Student Learning
• through the use of
• Web 2.0 Technologies,
• an introductory study.
• Mike John.
• Computer Based Teaching and Learning Research
  Unit
• Faculty of Advanced Technology
• University of Glamorgan
• wmjohn_at_glam.ac.uk
• Onahill.blogspot.com

2
QUESTIONS

• What?
• So what?
• What next?

3
Three Concepts.
4
Three Concepts.

• Digital Natives

5
Three Concepts.

• Digital Natives
• Transformation of the Web

6
Three Concepts.

• Digital Natives
• Transformation of the Web
• Importance of Reflection

7
Reflective Practice
Kolb Schon Entwistle Moon Wenger Lave Dearing
(PDP?)
8
The Methodology

• Internet Application Development students(138)
• Weekly blog entry reflecting on lecture
• 10 of module mark.
• 138 students monitored via RSS, observations made
  recording when blog entries were written, posted,
  or edited.
• All work archived and assessed
• Interviews and questionnaires used to obtain
  information relating to student digital
  experience, use of social software and the
  blogging assignment.

9
Before we started
10
Before we started
11
Before we started

• What if?

12
Before we started

• What if?
• You know what sort of students we have here .

13
Before we started

• What if?
• You know what sort of students we have here .
• It will be on the web!

14
(No Transcript)
15
(No Transcript)
16
(No Transcript)
17
Students said positive things

• 70 thought it was a useful activity
• kept them engaged
• concentrate in lectures,
• made them think, revisit notes,
• make links

18
Students said positive things

• 60 thought it helped their learning
• had to go over lecture material,
• straighten out thoughts,
• think about my subject
• blogging was interesting made me think
• Note . ESL students

19
Students said negative things

• it seemed pointless
• just rewriting my notes
• spewing my thoughts on a blog no way helps my
  learning

20
Students said negative things

• it seemed pointless
• just rewriting my notes
• spewing my thoughts on a blog no way helps my
  learning
• This tells us more about some students
  understanding of the learning process than a
  response to Web 2.0 technology.

21
We thought that

• Blogging had positive outcomes

22
We thought that

• Blogging had positive outcomes
• for the student (s)
• for the lecturer (s)
• for the Faculty / University

23
Benefits for Students.

• Regular practice in writing, for an audience, for
  a purpose
• A medium for reflection
• A reason for note taking!
• A place to ask questions
• Revisit notes, order their thoughts, respond to
  lectures
• Medium of communication

24
Benefits for Lecturers

• Information about students collectively
• Information about individual students
• Feedback about lecture
• Channel of communication
• Information about the course
• Digital competencies
• Being connected (RSS)

25
Benefits for the Faculty

• Improved presence in search engines
• Student retention (?)
• Lecture attendance
• Improved communication
• Improved feeling of community
• Meeting pastoral responsibilities (?)
• Organisational stuff

26
Changes this year ..

• Embedded the blogging activity
• Two terms / higher mark
• Scaffolding of the activity
• Deadlines / Linking / Commenting

27
The Bottom Line!

• The keeping of reflective, online learning
  journals has a positive influence upon the
  quality of teaching and learning resulting in
  desirable outcomes for -
• The student
• The lecturer
• The faculty and the university

28
What Next?

• Production of pedagogical guidelines
• Enforced linking / reading of peer blogs
• Comments by lecturer
• Integrating blogs with PDP and development of
  ePortfolios
• Blogging of practical activities
• Collaborative blogs
• Live blogging of lectures / tutorials
• Hosting of blogs (?) cf Warick
• Integrating mobile learning technologies
• Work with students / staff from other faculties

29
Simba on Flash.
30
Simba on Flash.

• The tutorial was my chance to show off, what I
  spent the last 2 sleepless nights practicing. I
  was proud of my works, making words bounce around
  in the screen, making two sentences rotate in a
  uniform manner, I felt like a father seeing his
  first born son, going off to college, until I
  looked over my shoulder to see Will my
  arch-rival, making words flash around on the
  screen, popping up like flowers in spring time,
  kind of made my son look like a disappointment.
• BUT I still love my flash program...I will keep
  changing and advancing it day by day, until Will
  admits mine is better than his.