Hi Alison,
I think this is a really interesting question and there are a lot of
hidden depths and dimensions to it. You could of course develop the
use of the technology to respond or notify students individually or
collectively. There are various ways you can do that and I'm sure
others on here will offer different examples.
The way I've gone at this issue - albeit in a particular context - is
to have a real re-think about what we're actually supporting. What
kind of relationship are we developing when we design support? By this
I mean, are we supporting individuals with their questions etc OR are
we supporting a participatory model of interaction amongst the
students and in a relationship with others and the institution?
All a bit woolley perhaps. But let me make it concrete by example. We
(at Glasgow and elsewhere) re-structured induction and transition. It
was previously a set of presentations. Socialisation was something
done outside elsewhere. We introduced handheld devices that allowed
students to work together and share individual concerns on arrival at
the university. We then used the handheld technology to bring together
a set of collective concerns into view on a screen. The whole-course
group worked together and interacted in a dialogue that communicated
the collective issues to themselves and to others. We facilitated that
and their activity gave a shape for us to respond and support them.
I'm hoping that you can see the difference beyond the use of
technology. What we are supporting is changed. We are supporting the
participation of students in the life of the course and the
university. We are much less focused on supporting the use of
technology to learn one perspective - that of the tutor or the tutor
as the filter of the institution.
This was my PhD work and I've implemented it at other universities as
part of the consultancy that has developed from this approach. I call
it Shared Thinking. To this I've added online support for thinking
alone and together. This facilitates cross-session thinking and
cross-group thinking. The key point again is that this is about
supporting participation rather than acquisition and its been applied
to support of staff and students - you can see some of the emerging
applications in the web site below.
The use of mobile devices can be used in the classroom. There are
other ways of using it when they are apart (texting to blogs etc etc).
I don't think the issue about what you can do with a particular
technology is the real heart of the matter. I think the *real* issue
is the nature of the relationship you are supporting.
Hope this helps thinking if not practice. ;-)
Best Wishes,
Nick
--------------------------------------
Nicholas Bowskill,
Faculty of Education,
University of Glasgow
Shared Thinking - Reflective Practice at the Collective Level
Web Site: http://www.sharedthinking.info
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