USING DL TO SUPPORT TEACHING AND LEARNING IN HEDr Alison Hramiak

Sheffield Hallam University

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Overview• Types of virtual space• Mobile virtual spaces for teaching and learning• Blogs in HE• Wikis in HE• E-portfolios in HE• References and further reading

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Learning Outcomes• By the end of this session you should:• Be able to define what is meant by a virtual space• Be able to list the types of virtual spaces available for use

in HE• Be able to evaluate the merits of using digital literacy tools

in your own practice • Be able to integrate aspects of digital literacy into your

own practice using the tools covered in this session

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So What is a Virtual Space?• Activity 1:• Write down in a list or mind map or spider diagram just

what you think of when you think of a virtual space.

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According to some…

No physical presence – exists in the ‘ether’ as part of a virtual world. Also called ‘cyberspace’.

The space we use when we go online, when we use the internet to connect to others.

Infinite – and therefore so are it’s possibilities?

Embraced by students who value the freedom it offers, the convenience, the speed and so on.

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Where do you go to in space?• Activity 2:• What types of virtual space do you use?• List them and then do a comparative list of the types of

spaces you think your students use. How do the two lists compare?

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Social versus Academic Spaces• While students may use Facebook, YouTube,

MySpace, Twitter, and so on for social spaces…

• They would not necessarily use them for academic purposes.

• Never the twain shall meet?• Some research shows this to be true (Crook

and Cluley, 2009).• Something to be aware of despite the trend for

HEIs to reach out to students using such spaces as those mentioned above.

• They may contribute to a VLE but will rarely mix the two

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Mobile Virtual Spaces

• These can be viewed as more mobile than the spaces mentioned previously.

• Digital text that you can ‘do’ on the move using ‘Apps’ that enable you to access virtual spaces from your phone, iPOD, iPAD, Notebook, iPhone and so on.

• Social networking has never been easier and is likely to become more so.

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Some issues to think about• Activity 3: Think about the process of taking notes (pen

and paper) in a lecture as opposed accessing the content online to read later. How do these processes compare? Write down which process a student will get more from and why.

• Activity 4: In pairs, think about how easy it is for your students to cut and paste text from multiple sources to produce notes/essays. What are the disadvantages of doing so?

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What did you come up with?• The same text can look different depending on which

application it came from in the first place.• The internet as a haven for Chinese Whispers?• Difficult to differentiate where text came from and who

wrote it in the first place as boundaries disappear.• Text is also transient, and can soon end up at the bottom

of a long list of entries in an email or blog• We may need a different approach in HE

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A Different Approach• ‘Slippery text’ – text which mutates and evolves across

different media (Mackey, 2007) can be handed in as part of an assignment.

• Changing literacies may not necessarily be something that we are familiar with.

• Academics may have to learn new ways and new vocabulary in order to keep up – before we get left behind

• For example, ways to assess ‘patchwork’ texts (also called intertextuality) (Wolverhampton University, 2011)

• Moving with not against the tide.

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Activity 5:• In groups, discuss your own teaching practices, what you

teach and how you teach it. Then address the following questions…

• How could you integrate aspects of patchwork texts into your own practice (be it through teaching, learning or assessment) to improve it? Think about how you might utilise the positive aspects of such texts to enhance what you do.

• Create a short presentation to illustrate your ideas and present back to group.

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Blogs in Teaching and Learning• An easily created, easily updateable web site that allows

one or many people to contribute multi modal formats to it, such as text, video, images, voice and so on - instantly.

• Accessible. • Shareable. • Auditable.• Private or public.• Individual or communal.• Wide variety of uses then in HE, reflective blogs,

assessment blogs, collaborative working blogs and so on.

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Activity 6:• In groups, discuss how could you utilise blogs in your own

practice. What could you and your students do with blogs?

• Create a short presentation to illustrate your ideas and present back to group.

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Wikis in Teaching and Learning• An easily created, easily updateable authoring tool.• Accessible. • Shareable. • Auditable.• Learners become publishers rather than just consumers

of information (Cole, 2009).• Wide variety of uses then in HE, resource areas,

communal sharing of ideas and team work, online collaborative working spaces.

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Activity 7:• In groups, discuss how could you utilise wikis in your own

practice. What could you and your students do with them? Get creative and try to think outside the normal wiki box.

• Create a short presentation to illustrate your ideas and present back to group.

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E-portfolios in Teaching and Learning• Paper based portfolios have been around for many years

in HE, e.g. teacher training, or for CPD activities.• E-portfolios (JISC, 2008) are gradually replacing these.• Provide students with an opportunity to have their own

‘virtual space’ where they can develop their profile and chose whether or not to share it.

• An evolving tool – in terns of technology and in terms of the way it can be used to allow reflection and evaluation of development in students.

• Lots of different types and ways they can be used in HE, e.g. personal development portfolios, training portfolios, reflective portfolios and so on (Roberts, 2009).

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Activity 8:• Have you ever produced an e-portfolio for yourself? If so,

what was good/bad about it?• In groups, discuss how could you utilise e-portfolios with

your students. What could you and your students do with them? Once again, get creative and try to think outside the norm.

• Create a short presentation to illustrate your ideas and present back to group.

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What we have looked at:• Types of virtual space – what it is and what it is used for• Social versus academic spaces• Mobile virtual spaces for teaching and learning – the rise

of mobile technology in HE• Issues and approaches• Blogs in HE – definitions and uses• Wikis in HE - definitions and use• E-portfolios in HE - definitions and uses• References and further reading

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References and further reading

• Boulton, H. (2011). The Portability of ePortfolios in Teacher Education. Paper presented at the European Conference on Educational Research, Berlin.

• Churchill, D. (2009). Educational applications of Web 2.0: Using blogs to support teaching and learning. British Journal of Educational Technology, 40(1), 179-183.

• Cole, M. (2009). Using Wiki technology to support student engagement: Lessons from the trenches. Computers and Education, 52, 141-146.

• Crook, C., & Cluley, R. (2009). The teaching voice on the learning platform: seeking classroom climates within a virtual learning environment. Learning, Media and Technology, 34(3), 199-213.

• Ebner, M., Kickmeier-Rust, M., & Holzinger, A. (2008). Utilizing Wiki-Systems in higher education classes: a chance for universal access? . Univ Access Inf Soc, 7, 199-207.

• Hramiak, A., Boulton, H., & Irwin, B. (2009). Trainee teachers' use of blogs as private reflections for professional development. Learning, Media and Technology, 34(3), 259-269.

• JISC. (2008, accessed 12.12.11). Effective Practice with ePortfolios Retrieved 12.12.11, 2011, from jisc.ac.uk• Kerawalla, L., Minocha, S., Kirkup, G., & Conole, G. (2008). An empirically grounded framework to guide blogging in higher education.

Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 25(1), 31-42. • Mackey, M. (2007). Slippery Texts and Evolving Literacies. E-Learning, 4(3), 319-328. • Ravid, G., Kalman, Y., & Rafaeli, S. (2008). Wikibooks in higher education:Empowerment through online distributed collaboration.

Computers in Human Behavior 24, 1913-1928. • Rettberg, J. W. (2008). Blogging: Digital Media and Society Series. Cambridge: Polity Press.• Richardson, W. (2010 ). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and other powerful tools for classrooms. London Sage.• Roberts, A. (2009). Encouraging reflective practice in periods of professional workplace experience: the development of a conceptual

model. Reflective Practice, 10(5), 633-644. • Rocco, S. (2010). Making reflection public: using interactive online discussion board to enhance student learning. Reflective Practice,

11(3), 307-317. • Sharma, P. (2010). Enhancing student reflection using Weblogs: lessons learned from two• implementation studies. Reflective Practice, 11(2), 127-141. • Wolverhampton. (2011). Digitally Enhanced Patchwork Text Assessment (DPTA) Retrieved June 21st 2011, from http://

www.wlv.ac.uk/default.aspx?page=24876

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Any questions?

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