Presentation Transcript

1. Student teams in learning:Can technology (really) getthem to work?

   Carl Senior c.senior@aston.ac.uk
2. Student teams and technology ? Past The virtual pedagogy initiative and the effects of technology on teams Present Mobile telephony and the nature of the classroom and formation of teams Future The ‘Nelly’ Project and a possible way to facilitate the formation of teams will also diverge off on tangents when I can
3. Technological development is so rapid in the HE sector that we sometimes struggle to evaluate before implementation…
4. …I simply need to work ... being a student here had better be good … Anonymous Feedback : open day applicant
5. Source : http://nases.org.uk/files/nases-report_web_.pdf
6. Source : http://nases.org.uk/files/nases-report_web_.pdf
7. Theoretical Perspective A community of practice is a group of people that share a craft and/or profession. The group can evolve naturally because of a common interest or be created specifically with the goal of gaining knowledge related to a particular field. The process of affiliating within that group drives learning Seely Brown, J. & Duguid P. (1991) Organizational Learning and Communities-of-Practice: Toward a Unified View of Working, Learning, and Innovation Organization Science , 2(1). p. 40-57
8. I just want them [the lecturers] to acknowledge how hard I work – rather than just grunt at me in the corridors I spend most of my time in ABS [Aston Business School] – they have better rooms, people and coffee …I don’t know that many people in Psychology [Anonymous First Year Feedback]
9. Can the use of technology drive group affiliation ?
10. Virtual Pedagogy Initiative Podcasts VsVodcastsVsPowerpoint Minipods – Second Life and other MORPGs - Campus Cam etc etc…
11. A small divergence
12. A snap shot story of student attitudes Level 4 students (N=115) enrolled in a Psychology practicals course were randomly allocated to either podcast, vodcastor PPT group. They were invited to stay within their allocated group but not restricted in any way. A series of questionnaires, focus groups were carried out after the module to explore student experiences of such technology
13. broadcasts of lectures a good idea? (1) Pedagogic convenience If we do end up missing a lecture, this is a VERY helpful way to catch up. Also, it is a much better way to revise. If we don’t remember a certain part, or if we did go to the lecture but didn’t feel too well, therefore couldn’t concentrate, we can go back to it later.... I wish I could watch all my lectures again. (2) Educational benefit If I missed something in my lecture or need visual revision for certain procedures then having this facility really helps (3) Pride in their course If someone in another country can broaden their knowledge by watching ourlectures then this can only be a good thing. (4) Sense of community Our lectures are brilliant I love to show them to my friends on other courses
14. affiliation is very strong…
15. I think PY1125 really brought us together. I would share [..a lecture recording..] in the library with some one that I would not have spoken to before. [Anonymous First Year Feedback]
16. summary The Virtual Pedagogy Initiative was a grass roots initiative that was designed to facilitate flexible learning. Evaluated each development as and when developed Drove positive attitudes towards four main themes i) pedagogic convenience, educational benefit, programme pride and a sense of community
17. Student teams and technology ? Past The virtual pedagogy initiative and the effects of technology on teams Present Mobile telephonyand the nature of the classroom and formation of teams Future The ‘Nelly’ Project and a possible way to facilitate the formation of teams will also diverge off on tangents when I can
18. Can the use of technology be used to measure group affiliation ?
19. Mobile telephony The MIT Sociometer Jailbroken IPods
20. A snap shot methodology Students were trained with a response code (0-10) to reply to 4 Qs with each txt before the module began. Scheduled txts sent out 30 mins after a lecture, 4 days after a lecture and then 30 mins before a lecture. Throughout the module different assessments were recorded to derive a measure of performance.
21. SMS training ? All participants were trained to respond to the four statements that would be sent out in each SMS message. In each of these text broadcasts the students were asked to indicate: (1) how many times they have met with colleagues to discuss the lecture? (2) of these meetings how many of them had a clear objective? (3) of these meetings how many times did you have the opportunity to reflect on progress towards your objectives? (4) in these meetings how many times did all people work closely together to achieve the objectives? While questions 1–3 are often taken to be diagnostic of real team behaviors the fourth item was also included to obtain a measure of team quality. Due to the obvious space limitations associated with SMS messaging, these statements were provided to the students via the initial information and instruction sheet, and the actual text that they received consisted of the four key words relevant to each question: e.g. ‘meetings?’ ii. ‘objectives?’ iii. ‘reflection ?’ and iv. ’together?’ The students were asked to consider each statement and respond via a 0–10 rating scale, with 10 being the highest, and so the responses would be a string of four numbers. e.g., 10, 8, 8, 8
22. The eight lectures were video recorded from two different angles and edited, along with the PPT slides to form a single video file which was rated by three independent observers along a series of of items designed to capture its standard, structure and presentation.
23. Low Student Centered Lectures vs High Student Centered Scores
24. summary SMS function of mobile phones may be used as a cost effective and relatively unobtrusive measure. The cultural penetration of this technology ensured that participants had free access to mobile phones and required no formal training on their use. Further work utilizing qualitative methods to examine the nature of such social behaviour would be informative. Taken together these findings suggest that collecting naturalistic behavioural data via mobile telephony is both a viable and valid technique.
25. Student teams and technology ? Past The virtual pedagogy initiative and the effects of technology on teams Present Mobile telephonyand the nature of the classroom and formation of teams Future The ‘Nelly’ Project and a possible way to facilitate the formation of teams will also diverge off on tangents when I can
26. Can the use of technology independently drive effective learning groups ?
27. What Does It Look Like? Having received an email the student opens it and is presented with this screen. The student clicks on the link to access the question The student is presented with a random question and the timer (set by the client) starts counting down. The questions are easy, medium or hard and the frequency of the emails varies depending on the students independent progress. Potential for a totally independent learning based on a particular students understanding of a topic and facilitated by email Will be examining the potential for the such adaptive email in the formation of the student learning groups across three different HEIs –Aston, Worcester and Derby next year.
28. Student teams and technology ? Past The virtual pedagogy initiative and the effects of technology on teams Present Mobile telephonyand the nature of the classroom and formation of teams Future The ‘Nelly’ Project and a possible way to facilitate the formation of teams will also diverge off on tangents when I can
29. summary Interacting with technology leads to the facilitation of student team behaviours (not just a Hawthorne type effect !) Using technology that is fully embedded within the student population (mobile telephones) it is possible to carry out naturalistic observations as to the nature of student teams. Using adaptive email software it may be possible to independently facilitate student teams (watch this space)
30. Thank you