Pacific Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning
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The Perceptions of digital technology at a New Zealand tertiary institution.
Get PDFThe way educational institutions view certain technology has changed dramatically over the years, especially with the world lockdown in 2020. Understanding how digital technology is seen in an educational institution is the path to finding out how to improve and enhance the learning experience for students. A study by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) showed “digitalisation has been one of the main drivers of innovation in educational practices in the classroom in the past decade.” (Vlies, 2020)
The study examined how different members of a New Zealand tertiary education institution perceive digital technology in their respective areas of study. It examined how technology is viewed by students from differing degrees and levels, as well as how these views differ within the undergraduate and postgraduate levels of study. The perception of educators was also examined to see how different departments view the tools they use in their respective programmes and how it differs from both past and present students. The methodology behind the research was using a mixed-method research approach to gain both qualitative and quantitative data. This method would allow for the Sequential Explanatory Strategy (Terrell, 2012) to interpret the study. The strategy is done via the collection and analysis of quantitative data followed by the collection and analysis of qualitative data. The quantitative data collection used an online survey to collect a large, population of anonymous participants.
The online survey was conducted using the Qualtrics software and was administered amongst the population of the university. A particular focus was put on the undergraduate population, being the largest group of students, given their reliance on distance learning as a result of the lockdowns in New Zealand in 2020/21. The survey featured a multitude of questions to collect a mix of quantitative and qualitative data.
The findings from the initial survey highlighted departments at the institution that have a stronger positive outlook towards using a higher amount digital technology in their curriculum. There was a subgroup that still preferred a more practical, face-to-face approach. In response to a question regarding whether digital technology adoption may be lagging in certain programmes/disciplines, the majority of participants gave the unknown response with the second-highest group saying it was likely. The main reason participants gave for the lag of adoption of digital technology was the underfunding of programmes, with some participants further suggesting a possible correlation between underfunding, understaffing and inadequate training. The latter coheres with the OECD study, with training being one of two key aspects of education policies: “First, teachers need sufficient training to deploy and teach about digital technologies. Second, countries need a standard for digital skills and literacy for students.” (Vlies, 2020)
Ongoing follow-up interviews are currently being conducted to supplement the data from the online survey results. This study will be of interest to curriculum developers, decision-makers, policymakers, future students, educators, technologists, and other educational institution staff
Reflective practice and the element of surprise in technology enhanced learning
Get PDFThis is a concept paper which draws attention to the element of ‘surprise’ when it comes to educators’ self-reflections and which I apply to my own experience of implementing new forms of pedagogy in relation to technology and enhanced learning. The idea that the experience of “surprise” or “encounter with strangeness” leads us to a conversation with the ‘other’, that in turn forces a change of habits, is an essential part of self-reflective practice according to Pollard (2008:402). In citing Charles Sanders Peirce (1955) and his notion that “experience is not personally owned but rather a conversation between the self and that which is not-yet known”, Pollard suggests that this can result in “different techniques of teaching, which are then open to further interpretation” (2008:403).
My own experience involving an element of surprise occurred in 2021 when I tasked a class of my second-year undergraduate students with the assignment of creating a digital artefact of their choice. My objective was to help students develop their digital skills and to become more aware of the multiple modes of communication available to them. The artefacts could be a short 5 minute YouTube video, a podcast, a pecha kucha presentation, or an online game, and the students were asked to communicate a message on a topic that was important to them. Examples I suggested were climate change, sustainability, the #metoo or #BlackLivesMatters movements, or the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, two unexpected outcomes occurred where I encountered ‘surprise’ (Pollard, 2008) which led me to a conversation with the ‘other’ – sometimes referred to as a “strange intruder” (Peirce, 1960: 38). First, rather than highlighting world problems or social issues on a large scale, many of the students chose to relate their own, very personally-revealing stories dealing with topics such as depression, anxiety, suicide, health issues and toxic relationships. Second, in providing feedback on their experience of this assignment, several students further surprised me by stating that while they were unsure about creating a digital artefact – something they had not done previously. Telling their own stories in a creative way, particularly when they learned they did not need to present it to the rest of the class, they found to be cathartic and personally beneficial.
As a result of being surprised, and in conversation with this “strange intruder” that challenged my teaching, I realised that the response to this assignment was illustrative to me and to other educators that technology-enhanced learning goes far beyond the technology in what it can achieve, and in meeting the needs of students. Noting this experience assists me in understanding how students themselves can be instrumental and collaborative in the on-going development of a paper. It also reinforces that self-reflection should always be an essential practice for educators in developing their teaching practice, no matter their level of experience.
References
Peirce, C.S. (1955). Philosophical writings of C.S. Peirce. New York:, Dover Publications.
Pollard, V. (2008). Ethics and reflective practice: continuing the conversation, Reflective Practice, 9:4, 399-407, DOI: 10.1080/1462394080243178
Pedagogy of uncertainty: Laying down a path in walking with STEAM
Get PDFEducators around the world are facing the challenges and opportunities of 21st Century education, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, STEAM education, and the rise of digital immersive technologies presenting a promising field for the development of new ways to maximize the learning experience (Bakker, Cai & Zenger, 2021) The integration of science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics (STEAM) offers an approach to educational design based on curricular integration and learning by doing with analog and virtual technologies (Quigley et al., 2020). In turn, STEAM promotes important pedagogical changes that encourage the development of new skills focused on collaborative work, inquiry and creativity in the face of a challenge or problem to be solved, as well as optimal sensorimotor deployment through haptic and visual perception when using emerging digital immersion technologies such as virtual and augmented reality (Videla-Reyes, Aguayo & Veloz, 2021). All these changes lead to a new framework of pedagogical action based on uncertainty, since they are unfamiliar or unknown in the field of traditional education.
Based on the above, we propose here the idea of a ’pedagogy of uncertainty’, which can be read in light of the latest and unpredictable changes that 21st Century education is experiencing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the emergence of technological tools and unfamiliar virtual and online platforms that teachers and students had to learn and use during the march of the virus. The approach that we suggest here is based on the potential of STEAM educational environment design that focuses on providing signs or patterns of an emerging world, unlike traditional teaching methods in which the path to which students should arrive is already laid down in advance. From a STEAM educational design approach, the teacher and her/his students lay down a path in walking together, a motto used by the enactive approach to cognition that considers "cognition as embodied action that is always oriented towards something absent: on the one hand, there is always a next step for the system in its perceptually guided action; for the rest, the acts of the system are always directed towards situations that are not yet in act” (Varela, Thompson & Rosch, 1991, p.238). In this presentation, we explore the notion of pedagogy of uncertainty in the light of enactivism, based on theoretical and empirical evidence about how teachers and students deal with an uncertain world by actively participating in integrated educational environments based on learning by doing approaches (Abrahamson, Dutton & Bakker, 2021). In particular, we make special reference to how teachers can make their students learn from clues, impoverished traces, or traces of information available within their learning environments to solve a challenge or problem, to the extent that they investigate, create, manufacture and/or actively participate in technology inside and beyond the classroom
Supporting Online Paramedic Education within a Covid-19 Era
Get PDFCovid-19 has impacted many areas of New Zealand’s higher education system, with most universities forced to transfer activities away from the traditional campus-based learning toward online platforms. This has resulted in a transformation from face-to-face teacher centred (objectivist) methods to online digital hybrid programs that aim to enhance the constructivist, learner-centred pedagogy.
Prior to Covid-19 a change of approach within higher education would usually take several years to develop but was now required within a limited number of days (Strielkowski, 2020). This had the potential to impact the educational experience and motivation by providing content without flexibility or an understanding of different learning styles. The absence of a thoughtful design and development process has therefore resulted in some recent online education being seen as ‘crisis education’ (Bozkurt & Sharma, 2020; Hodges et al., 2020; Vlachopoulos, 2020).
Whilst it was impossible to anticipate the shift to online learning, the instructional achievement of online education is often questioned due to a lack of face-to-face student community (Joshi et al., 2020). An additional challenge is that online education is not suited to all aspects of clinical learning. The reason for this is that online learning is not compatible with the kinaesthetic (hands-on) activities that are required for clinical practice (Leszczynski et al., 2018).
Effective higher education must have a comprehensive understanding of the limitations and benefits of both asynchronous and synchronous online learning (Omotayo & Haliru, 2020). To address the complexity of online learning and digital competency in this evolving environment it is important that students feel relevancy and motivation (Omotayo & Haliru, 2020). The current situation has led to investigation and implementation of content to support the online clinical student to promote engagement and offer a flexible learning experience. In addition, it was important that the system was designed to support different student learning styles and provide a community of learning.
The content was developed using Spark Adobe software to provide a range of asynchronous visual content with a flipped classroom approach. The content also had a strong lean toward the auditory learner by offering the material in a podcast listening form. In conjunction with this, each weekly topic was later ‘flipped’ as a synchronous case study group discussion forum.
Universities and their social role within the pandemic are recognised as important support mechanisms for the online student (Wang & Zha, 2018). The findings for our work were that students felt engaged with the content and the subsequent group forum provided a sense of inclusion and community. In addition, and similar to other authors, positive factors such as flexibility (Smedley, 2010), interactivity (Leszczynski et al., 2018), and self-pacing (Amer, 2007) were found.
Whilst it is likely that online learning will be sustained and education will become more hybrid, it is also important to develop an understanding of the complexity of online learning within paramedic clinical education. The implementation of both synchronous and asynchronous online content offers a flexible, supportive learning environment despite the challenges faced within the Covid-19 era
Using digital technology to help identify children with brain based visual issues
Get PDFBrain based, or cerebral visual impairments (CVI) are the most common cause of vision impairment affecting children in the economically developed world, with a prevalence rate of 3.4% of children in mainstream education (Williams et al., 2021). However, many of these children are going unrecognized or misdiagnosed due to the challenges of identifying the visual issues commonly associated with CVI. CVI has recently been defined as a verifiable visual dysfunction which cannot be attributed to disorders of the anterior visual pathways of any potentially co-occurring ocular impairment (Sakki et al., 2018). CVI can affect the basic visual functions, such as visual acuity, visual fields and contrast sensitivity and also, the higher visual functions or visual perceptual abilities. Currently, children with issues with their basic visual functions are more often being identified as having CVI. Whereas, children with issues with their higher visual functions are often going undiagnosed, due to having normal or near normal visual acuity (Chandna et al., 2021).
This has highlighted the need for a novel, yet simple way to screen for higher visual function issues in children. As part of her doctoral research, the author developed the Austin Assessment for this purpose. Following the success of the initial research, which used playing cards in real time, the Austin Assessment was made into an App for iPads. The Austin Assessment is a simple activity of matching cards over five levels, with each level increasing the number of cards and pairs. The shapes on the cards on the App have been developed to for intrinsic crowding and visual crowding as the numbers of cards is increased. This allows the App to measure the key features of higher visual function issues, including: random search pattern using darting eye movements, increased search times (especially as the complexity increases) and decreases in performance when the numbers of objects increases (Bennett et al., 2018; Zihl & Dutton, 2015).
The Austin Assessment App has been developed for the latest iPad with the TrueDepth camera, as this allows the child’s eyes to be tracked as they are completing the assessment and provides real time data on eye movement in the results section of the App. The App also measures time taken and accuracy in matching the pairs, as the initial research showed that children with higher visual function issues took twice as long as children without visual issues to match the pairs and also, that they were less accurate.
In terms of helping to identify children with CVI, the App has the potential to be used as a screening tool to identify any children that warrant further assessment. Research is currently being undertaken to validate the Austin Assessment and also, to create a database of normative ranges by age group. Although developed as an assessment, the Austin Assessment can also be used as a training tool to improve visual abilities and different themes will be included in the App in future versions. 
XR technologies and experience-based learning: A new tech for education?
Get PDFSince the first industrial revolution, a specific mechanical paradigm of teaching and learning has dominated western education tradition, known as concept-based teaching and learning. This paradigm has reverberated and affected research, curriculum design, and teaching practices since the early 1960s, as well as nourishing important ideas for current discussions on the importance of factual information in curricula (Medwell et al., 2019). One of the issues with this type of knowledge transfer is that it has a reductionist and linear mindset which leads to disconnected knowledge generation, and additionally, misses on transferring tacit knowledge and any knowledge with ‘qualia’ (i.e. ‘subjective’) quality on it (Crane, 2012; Jackson, 1982, 1986). The conventional roles of the student, the instructor, the learning environment, and the learning tools and technologies must be rethought in the twenty-first century. On the other hand, cognitive philosophers such as Andy Clark and David Chalmers describe technology as a kind of scaffolding of the mind, with technology operating as instruments that we use to extend our mind (Clark & Chalmers, 1998). They are a part of us, in the same way, a spider's web is a part of the spider. We are tool-making animals that have been in a symbiotic/reciprocal feedback loop with technology since the beginning of stone tools. If technology is the real skin of our species and the extension of our nervous system and human cognition, then it should work for us and help us grow and have a better understanding of the world around us. Yet the tendency in education today under the concept-based teaching paradigm is rather the opposite, where technology can easily make learners more distracted and less aware of the surrounding subjective and experiential world (Kurniawan et al., 2021).
If we want to react to today's calls for a better future, we not only need to focus on integrated and transversal knowledge development and transfer, but also on the real role, potential and opportunities that new immersive technologies, such as mixed reality (XR), can and should have in education. In this context, education ought to once again become interdisciplinary, founded on strong critical ethics and philosophical study of new alternative educational paradigms, with new epistemologies and technologies reflecting humanity's process of change and transition while reconnecting with old and ancient knowledge and methods of doing (Taheri & Aguayo, 2021). In the past, knowledge was seen to be a 'whole' obtained via journeys throughout people's lives, where individuals learned by doing and experiencing every facet of knowledge (Yazdi, 1992). Not all knowledge was thought to be transferable by teaching concepts; profound understanding of the world was only conceivable if one embarked on a long journey in life while learning (Netton, 2013).
In this presentation, we suggest that education ought to embrace experience-based learning as a reacting paradigm to the dominant reductionist concept-based teaching paradigm. We see XR technologies in education having the potential to facilitate experience-based learning, where learners and XR technologies can become ‘one entity’ together, to explore, understand, and experience the learning process in self-determined ways. Such an approach requires new educational design epistemologies centred on the body and the embodiment of the experience within real-to-virtual learning environments. Here, the epistemology from the Santiago school of cognition (Aguayo, 2021; Maturana & Varela, 1980), which includes concepts like embodiment, embodied cognition, and enaction, may inform and drive the development of an experience-based type of immersive learning design based on an enactive, self-led user experience. As the philosopher, Marshall McLuhan famously said: "We shape our tools and thereafter they shape us" (Culkin, 1967, p. 53)
Digital transformation and its impact on our digital wellbeing
Get PDFThe pandemic has transformed how we engage with digital technologies. Technology is now used to support all facets of our daily lives, including work, learning, and enjoyment (Schleicher, 2020). While the pandemic may have accelerated our adoption, this upward trend has been happening for many years, and we are no longer in a world where the digital, virtual or online can be viewed as separate from our everyday life (Myers, Erikson & Small 2013). The effects of digitalisation have been felt at all levels, including education. As educators we can be optimistic, pessimistic or pragmatic about many of these changes, but they cannot be ignored (Gluckman & Allen, 2018).
The influence of digital transformation has highlighted the critical need to better manage our students' and our wellbeing. Wellbeing, as a concept has been challenging to define due to its complex and multi-faceted nature. More recent approaches have shifted towards ideas around the quality of life and the notion of flourishing in the positive psychology movement (Dodge et al 2012). In an endeavour to explain wellbeing which moves from the binary positive versus negative wellbeing, Dodge et al (2012), proposed that wellbeing is “the balance point between an individual’s resource pool and the challenges faced” (p. 230). In other words, people's wellbeing can be positively influenced if they are given the resources to address and overcome the adversities they face. Using their balance metaphor, a person's feeling of wellbeing can be stabilized when they feel that they have the psychological, social and physical resources and skills necessary to meet a particular psychological, social and/or physical challenge. This approach, therefore, acknowledges the see-saw effect of wellbeing but also that individuals have agency over their wellbeing.
So what does this mean for student wellbeing in the context of learning technologies? As highlighted by Gluckman and Allen, (2018) “to understand wellbeing in the 21st century requires an understanding of transformative digital technologies as drivers of change not just in human material circumstances, but also in human values and organisational systems that support wellbeing.” (p. 10). Therefore, when considering digital wellbeing we need to acknowledge the transformative power of digital technology to drive both positive and negative outcomes and ask how we can tip the balance by leveraging the positives of this transformation.
The presentation will explore the challenges that digital transformation brings to education and how as educators we can tip the balance to leverage technology to support our student’s and our digital wellbeing. The presentation will also focus on ways as educators we can use learning technologies to support students with the resources and skills to enhance their digital wellbeing
Practitioner Review and Personalised Feedback
Get PDFPreparing students for the expectations of the modern business world is a daunting task. For students, it involves developing critical thinking and analytical skills to reach valid conclusions for specific problems. Such skills are recognised graduate attributes, essential for complex professional business judgements and advice provided to clients (Camp & Schadner, 2010). For educators, the multifaceted nature of critical thinking and associated analytical skills are often poorly demonstrated and conveyed to students (Moore, 2013).
Critical thinking is the product of self-direction, self-discipline, self-monitoring and self-correction through objectively assessing relevant information, openly considering alternative views and seeking feedback (Paul & Elder, 2008). By using the combination of technology enhanced feedback, relevant assignment scenarios that explore messy business world issues influential professionals face, experience of working with and feedback from practitioners, the assignment in a 2nd year undergraduate financial reporting unit was transformed into an authentic, collaborative, and self-regulated learning experience.
In consultation with a professional accounting firm, the assignment scenario and open ended questions were written about financial reporting implications associated with sustainability and industry change challenges many companies encounter. Working in self-selected groups, students considered the assignment’s questions and prepared a draft written response that was shared with the firm’s practitioner review team for feedback. A past students voice video, available on the unit’s LMS, guided current students on how to adopt and implement this feedback. Subsequently a final written response was submitted for grading.
Student were introduced to the practitioner review team via a video that explained importance of teamwork, seeking formative feedback, reflecting on it and how this information is used in the workplace. Utilizing the Student Relationship Engagement System (SRES) and the assignment’s marking rubric criteria as a framework, the practitioner review team provided individual formative feedback, suggestions for improvement and overall direction comments to each student through a personalised email. The SRES data metrics were also used to track and manage student engagement. Used in these ways, SRES was a highly effective learning platform that resulted in deeper student learning and relationships with educators.
The presentation will discuss the significant impact on student learning and experience measured by overall assignment performance, change in performance between draft and final responses, and qualitative feedback from practitioner, peer and student perspectives.
References:
Camp, M. J., & Schnader, A. L., (2010). Using debate to Enhance Critical Thinking in the Accounting Classroom: The Sarbanes-Oxley Act and U.S. Tax Policy. Issues in Accounting Education, Vol 25, No., 2010, 655-675.
Moore, T. (2013). Critical thinking: seven definitions in search of a concept. Studies in Higher Education, 2013, Vol. 28, No 4, 506-522.
Paul, R., & Elder, L., (2008). The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools, Foundation for Critical Thinking, 2008, CA Dillon Beach
Somaesthetics and the non-digital in mixed reality XR education design
Get PDFIn the past 5-10 years, there has been a move to integrate different digital and immersive learning technologies around a particular context or setting following what is known as mixed reality (MR, also known as XR). XR involves the fusing of real and virtual worlds along an immersion continuum, to create integrated environments that incorporate physical and digital elements, tools, and objects (Milgram & Kishino, 1994; Speicher et al., 2019). These environments can be especially beneficial within learning contexts as they can connect learners and communities to locations, and provide opportunities for genuine investigations in the real world (Liu et al., 2017).
Although digital technologies provide many unique and powerful affordances for education, the non-digital and handmade have much potential that the digital currently does not have. They can also enhance the meaningfulness of XR experiences (Sharma et al., 2017; Smith, 2018). Despite this, within XR education, the role of the non-digital and handmade has been previously dismissed, and there has been a lack of attention paid to developing and designing the ‘real environment’ (RE) end of the reality continuum within XR (Aguayo, 2017). Non-digital materials can engage learners in authentic and rich haptic sensory experiences in ways that digital technology currently cannot achieve in affordable and immediate ways. The non-digital and handmade within XR can also provide learners with deeper and more evocative experiences with materials/materiality, and provide more connection to handmade and human centered concepts through the aesthetics of craft and artisanal processes. Furthermore, when considered in a continuum of different types of experiences, handmade materials in XR can be fused with digital tools, complementing and merging the real and virtual around educational experiences and practice (Aguayo et al., 2020). This can enhance overall learning, allowing learners to benefit from the merging of different types of affordances that non-digital and digital both offer, along an experiential XR continuum.
This presentation posits some ways forward for the non-digital and handmade to be designed for and engaged with in XR education. We also open up a discussion around the potential of the non-digital and handmade to develop a deeper sense of ‘authenticity’ and meaningfulness in XR education design. This discussion is framed through some theories and interpretations of philosopher Walter Benjamin (Benjamin, 2010; Leslie, 1998; Zoran & Buechley, 2013), indigenous perspectives and worldviews, and current discourse in design around the importance of handmade processes. Through the inclusion of handmade elements, a more ‘human’, ‘organic’ and somaesthetic sensibility can be fostered in XR education (Smith-Harvey & Aguayo, 2021). We postulate that enhancing this sense of the ‘organic’, as well as handmade and craft based aesthetics can be of especial benefit within XR education design which looks to connect learners to the natural world, indigenous epistemologies, and human centered concepts, memories and experiences. We also put forth an argument for considering the non-digital, haptic and handmade within other forms of digital learning environments. This is especially pertinent given the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the resulting move towards online and blended learning environments across Aoteraoa New Zealand and the rest of the world
Blended Synchronous Learning Case Study: Veterinary Science
Get PDFThis article describes a blended synchronous learning (BSL) case study program in veterinary science, including the physical space for the program. The student cohort in this program was diverse with students from more than ten countries and four continents. Traditionally, the program was only provided in a face-to-face (F2F) format, before moving to completely on-line during the early COVID pandemic and then to the current BSL format with most learners located in the F2F location. The 145 students in the program were broken into two classes with groups of up to eight students working together in each class with some students online and some F2F in each group. Tools used to aid the integration of the blended class included Canvas learning management system (LMS), Zoom, Padlet, Peerwise, 4D Virtual Farm and Poll Everywhere. Students were instructed on the use of the technologies on the LMS platform and in the initial case study as part of the cohort getting to know each other. The use of the BSL environment allowed all students to participate in each case study irrespective of their physical location and allowed production of review material. The technology allowed students to interact within and between groups well, albeit there were challenges with audio in small group Zoom breakouts, depending on the device being used