Links to four papers I presented in the 1990s at the excellent Teaching Learning Forum in Perth which remind me that subjectivity and discourse are crucial terms which remain of great relevance to understanding why and how education works. Apologies for the archival publication! Click to read more
Facebook occupies a significant amount of attention in thinking about the proliferation of digital networking in everyday life and this attention now also extend to universities which have, for some years, been wrestling with the appropriateness of using Facebook (in various ways), to improve student learning. In this paper I do two things. First, I try to present a comprehensive summary of Facebook’s principal features, noting that its underlying function is to permit reciprocal exchanges of attention. Second, I review the way several academics have written about their experiences of using Facebook ‘in education’ to discern the tensions between norms of university education and this everpresent system. The main conclusions concern the way Facebook blurs boundaries between traditionally separated spaces of formal and informal education, while noting the risks involved in academic becoming part of the attention-oriented norms of contemporary social networking. Click to read more
Sparked in part by the increasing enthusiasm of academics for the possibilities of Facebook and online learning, as well as the ready embrace of the use of this system by students in Internet Studies, I have begun thinking of Facebook as a site for analysis of the relationship between students and academics in society. The results, entitled provisionally, ‘An Education “in” Facebook’, are presented here (full paper attached as pdf) Click to read more
I spoke recently at the Media140 Perth Conference, on the digitalfamily day, presenting some views on the now and future state of education, in which social media and digital media devices will make a big difference to the way that we think about learning. My presentation is a visual evocation of both the similarities between school education in the past and the differences which new connective technologies are bringing. Slides, with full notes, are available. Click to read more
Elaine Tay (Murdoch University) and I have recently published a second article on the use of wikis in higher education for developing better student learning. This article, in International Journal of ICT Education, presents research into the attitudes and behaviours of students using wikis for individual writing tasks. The wiki-based assignment differs from the use of wikis normally researched because it was an individual task, not involving collaborative writing. We conclude that using wikis for individual writing tasks can, where appropriate active instructions are given to support development of cognitive abilities, lead to improved outcomes for students. Click to read more
Elaine Tay (Murdoch University) and I have just had published the first article on research we conducted into the use of wikis in a unit at Curtin University. Our paper shows how social media might be used effectively in higher education. We place into question the assumption that such technologies necessarily engage students in constructivist learning; we argue that the affordances of social media must be complemented by social affordances, designed into the learning experience, which thereby generate the necessary connection between students’ motivations to study and their motivations to exploit social media. We demonstrate, via the example given, how assessment structures and strategies are the most effective focus when attempting to create the pedagogical affordances that might lead to collaborative learning. Click to read more
In 2009 I ran a series of workshops as the first main component of my ALTC Fellowship to group brainstorm and analyse ideas about online learning and web 2.0 technologies. During these workshops, so many good ideas were raised that I felt compelled to write up a report distilling the wisdom of more than 200 participants at 7 locations so that it might provide something of a guide for others. At the same time, as I reflected on the workshops and what happened within them, I realised that they gave me an insight into the discourse of e-learning and Web 2.0 versions thereof in contemporary Australian higher education. Thus, I have also reported my responses to and analysis of those workshops. It’s one reason why the report has taken a while to produce and finalise. Finally, then, here is the report Innovative Education Online: Ideas for the future of learning & the Internet My thanks again to everyone who attended and helped organise these events.
An extended introduction to the workshop I will be running soon on the Edgeless University, focusing on the question: what exactly should a modern comprehensive university do that will unleash the creativity of students and staff and maximise the potential of distributed, edgeless learning while, at the same time, also making the most of the physical spaces which will remain critical markers of ‘a university’?. In other words, how can we utilise digital technologies and networks to fashion ‘new’ edges — temporary boundaries, if you like — that assist us in making education a collaborative, collective experience? Click to read more
In March 2011, I present a paper at the Centre for Studies in Higher Education University of Melbourne which lays out an argument that we should no longer be identifying e-learning as something different to learning. All learning is now, or will soon become ‘e’, in the sense that it is mediated by computer networks, digital media devices and so on. Click to read more
Here are links to and embedded presentations that I gave as part of the Learning in Networks of Knowledge project for the ALTC Fellowship I received in 2008. Click to read more
