AISHE-J - The All Ireland Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
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Utilising a Social Networking Site as an academic tool in an Academic Environment: Student Development from Information-Sharing to Collaboration and Innovation (ICI)
No full textThere is a scarcity of research regarding the possible academic uses of Social Networking Sites (SNSs), such as Facebook (FB). Much research focuses on the social or information student use. This paper demonstrates how a SNS, in this case Facebook, can help increase a student’s academic engagement and develop synergistic knowledge. Engagement is understood as the effort and time a student invests in educational activities in or out of class, which are empirically related to college outcomes (Kuh, 2009). Engagement encompasses various aspects including interactions with faculty, involvement in co-curricular activities and peer interaction. Building Pollara and Zhu’s (2011) observations that students believe online collaboration assists learning, this paper demonstrates synergistic knowledge development by students as a result of Facebook use on UCD’s ‘Business Information Systems Management’ module during one semester. Data was collected using student surveys, archival Facebook information and interviews with students. This student group are a less researched cohort regarding SNS usage: they are post-experience, part-time postgraduates. This study’s findings support Junco’s (2012) observation that some Facebook usage can be academically advantageous to students. The benefits here to using Facebook in teaching and learning also included the development of educational micro-communities as suggested by Bosch (2009). In our study, Facebook stimulated critical thinking and engagement in academic debate regarding the module material. The evidence here suggests that this SNS can allow for student engagement in a way that traditional educational environment cannot. This module promoted student engagement beyond just information-sharing, demonstrating high levels of student collaboration and synergistic knowledge development, and ultimately theoretical innovation with the module concepts. It also provides an insight into post-experience, postgraduate usage of SNSs. The research questions were: - Can Facebook be used as a learning tool to academically engage student? - Can Facebook as an eLearning tool improve students’ learning experience
Teaching Italian with the Virtual Reality of Video
No full textToday’s technology allows the teacher to create a more realistic learning environment with the classroom using film. In this paper the theoretical basis and the methodology for application is presented for teaching Italian, or any other foreign language, using feature films, both classic and modern, and special interest documentary type videos, such as Jamie Oliver’s Great Italian Escape. Using the film is perceived as entertainment by the students, and as reality by the brain, making these both fun and more useful than books. Organization and flexibility are emphasized as it is better to involve students in creating their own learning environment whenever possible. The students enjoy and take ownership of the learning, thus increasing efficacy. It is more work than using a book, but the benefits are many. Students carry the learning into their daily lives and integrate it with their other activities and they learn faster when they are deeply engaged
New Possibilities for People Experiencing Disadvantage: Insights from Clemente Australia
No full textClemente is a community embedded university humanities course providing higher education opportunity in collaboration with social agencies for people experiencing multiple disadvantage. It has set out a vision for confronting the reality of disadvantage, especially multigenerational poverty through studying the humanities. The program had its origins in the United States of America in the 1990s when Earl Shorris, a journalist and social commentator, was researching a book on poverty. The insight that the Humanities empower people to think about and reflect upon the world in which they live. which promotes a broader re-engagement with society allowing the disadvantaged learn to see themselves, not as victims, but as agents of change led Shorris to devise a humanities program for the poor. Clemente was first offered in New York City in 1995 at the Roberto Clemente Family Guidance Centre In 2003 the first Clemente university program in Australia was initiated with eight people experiencing homelessness and disadvantage. It is now operated by many partnerships across Australia.  
Writing relationships: Collaboration in a faculty writing group
No full textOur faculty writing group began in 2009 and over the past three years it has grown into a successfully publishing community of practice. When we’ve presented papers on the writing group at conferences, we’ve found that the first question asked tends to be: How did you get the writing group to work? It’s a deceptively simple question but the answer taps into many issues surrounding the difficulty of faculty writing and publishing in academic contexts. For many academics, the challenge of navigating the competitive discourse demands of conducting research and publishing journal articles while at the same time navigating teaching and administrative loads often leads to anxiety and stress. The purpose of this paper is to explore why members of this group continue to participate and why we have been able to successfully write and publish individually and as a group. This study used ‘the self as data’, a qualitative methodology. The data collected consisted of weekly written reflections, additional written narratives by each group member, and recordings of meeting discussions. We analysed the data qualitatively using Merriam’s (2009) constant comparison method to generate themes. Results indicate that members attended the group because they were looking for a place to 1) get support for research and writing; and 2) to cope with negotiating academic cultures. We argue that the ethos of ‘no-competition’ and ‘relationships-first’ were crucial in fostering collaboration and productivity despite diverse individual differences. We offer this analysis of our experiences, not only in terms of practicalities but also as an alternative way of working in the academy
A balancing act: Mature students’ experiences of risk and capability expansion in Irish higher education
No full textAbstract This paper presents a case arguing for lifelong learning from a social justice perspective through increased participation of mature students in higher education from the perspective of social and democratic as well as individual economic benefit. This has placed a number of challenges on the role of the individual mature student in higher education and the role of higher education and lifelong learning for the mature student. This is the challenge between the growing emphasis on the need for lifelong learning in order to actively participate in economic, social and democratic life, while at the same time creating a greater need to address the concerns and difficulties facing mature students in higher education. Therefore, on the one hand mature students may be expanding their capabilities, while on the other they are taking risks; economic, social and personal. For example, gaining a qualification may increase the likelihood of getting a job but on the other hand social and personal relationships may have changed. This implies that higher education does not automatically provide straightforward benefits for all. Education and its benefits do not affect all equally, it is mediated by individual biographies and circumstances. Drawing on data from a narrative study of fourteen first year mature students at an outreach centre of an Institute of Technology in Ireland this paper uses the capability approach of Sen (1995) and Nussbaum (2000) as a conceptual framework which allows the focus of access to education to move from an economic argument only to one that concerns individual well being. This benefits the social capital and culture of a community, together with personal growth, development and freedom, of the individual. However, higher education for mature students, in particular, involves facing a number of risks to the individual in terms of personal and social identity, social and economic inclusion/ exclusion as well as institutional factors, all of which may help or hinder mature student participation in higher education. This potential expansion of capabilities and risks that students face in higher education is based on a unique set of individual experiences. National strategies and policies tend to place emphasis on the benefits of higher education in terms of human capital expansion. However, higher education and lifelong learning for mature students can often be about more than development of human capital. Therefore this notion neglects some of the benefits of higher education for individual mature students. In order to begin to understand the needs of the mature students this paper proposes that higher education strategy and policy needs to refocus and develop a bottom up approach, firstly addressing the needs of the individual. In order to do this educational research needs to interrogate concepts of risk and capability expansion that occur through higher educational experience.  
Self-efficacy in academic reading and writing, authorial identity and learning strategies in first-year students.
No full textIncreasingly evidence indicates that students' engagement with academic writing and their wider approaches to study are influenced by their beliefs about themselves as writers. To provide effective support for academic writing, an understanding of these beliefs, particularly in the first year, is essential. This study sought to examine beliefs about writing held by first year students in a department of Nursing, midwifery & Health Studies, the relationships between these beliefs and their associations with learning strategies. First- year students were surveyed at 3 points over the first-year. They completed measures of academic reading and writing self-efficacy, authorial identity, learning strategies and the extent to which they saw themselves as novice writers. Findings revealed that, typically, our students had fairly positive beliefs about their writing, although there was considerable variability. Beliefs were associated with student characteristics: mature students and Nursing & Midwifery students reported higher levels of writing self-efficacy,. First-generation students were also significantly more likely to see themselves as novice writers. There were strong positive correlations between all the measures of writing beliefs and in particular between reading and writing self-efficacies. Beliefs about writing were positively associated with deep learning, and, to a lesser extent strategic learning. Only a minority of students could be compared at different points in the year. Where this was possible the beliefs were stable with the exception that positioning as a novice writer showed a significant increase. The implications are discussed. 
Developing Quantitative Research Skills and Conceptualising an Integrated Approach to Teaching Research Methods to Education Students
No full textIncreasingly, research methods in a core component of many undergraduate social science programmes. Education is no exception. Engaging students and developing their research skills, particularly in the area of quantitative methods, is challenging. This paper presents the redesign and reconceptualisation of a compulsory research methods in education module for 2nd year undergraduates. It highlights the approach taken and provides the results of a small exploratory study that was used to assess the student’s attitudes towards the module. The results of the study indicate that overall the students had a positive attitude towards the new research methods module and that they exhibited confidence in their quantitative research skills