The Pressure to Engage with Technology Enhanced Learning

Tim GoodchildSenior Lecturer, UCS

Lives are laced with technology. Approach it unreflectively?

Technology is progress.

Progress - fits with our aim for nurse education… high quality, cost effective education in a time of rapid change.

However …

Proponents of TEL long claimed of technologies enhancement qualities. (Spector, 2012; Coffait, 2012; Kitching & Wheeler, 2013; OU 2013)

The use of emerging technologies in nurse education is sporadic at best. (Lahti, Hatonen & Valimaki 2014; Hall 2009; HEA 2009; Bond & Goodchild 2013)

There is a dearth of systematic evidence to support the enhancement role of technologies.

So why does the call to TEL persist?

Epochs of Learning Technology

Behaviourism & broadcast

media

Computers & multimedia

Networks, social & mobile

PRE 1980 1980-2000 POST 2000

- “Books will soon be obsolete in schools.” Edison (1910) - Behaviourism and Teaching Machines. B.F. Skinner- Open University and Television in schools.

Early evidence of contrasting models of pedagogy, a line of difference is drawn between the established orthodoxy and the promise of the new technologies that will fundamentally change the task of teaching.

This line of difference functions to create a perceived need for new technologies.

PC’s, multimedia, CD-ROMs….“put a microcomputer into every secondary school in the country by the end of 1982”, “a personal teacher with infinite patience.”

Thatcher (1982)

Again, a line of difference is drawn between the established orthodoxy and the promise of the new technologies. Evolution of pedagogical approach?

“without question computers have failed to deliver the transformation in learning that has been promised and promoted over the past fifteen years”

Rogers (2000)

Line of difference being drawn again with the promise of online, mobile and virtual learning, the need to engage is established.

Fear, Risk, Safety.The need to be ‘good’.‘Inner voice’.Doubts over TEL.What is best?

TEL in nurse education today

Evidence is ‘what if’s’ & best case examples “often producing persuasive evidence of educational potential” . Selwyn, 2013

We are good at discussing how learning technology could and should be used.Less so in how and why educational technologies are actually being used.

“an honest appraisal of any new technology, or of progress in general, requires a sensitivity to what’s lost as well as what’s gained. We shouldn’t allow the glories of technology to blind our inner watchdog.”

Carr, N. (2010) The Shallows: How the internet is changing the way we think, read and remember. Atlantic Books. London.

Logics of Critical ExplanationGlynos & Howarth 2007

Fantasmatic Logics: The fantasy - How we are “gripped”.Cover up social contingency or possibilities sustaining the logic.

Beatific Logic: a fullness-to-comeHorrific Logic: possibility of disaster

TEL Support Teams

“technologies to provide more flexible opportunities…”“harness the latest technology”“modern approach to learning”

“innovative technologies to enhance”“enhancements on the student learning experience”

“enhance your teaching….”“enhance current assessment…”

“make more time…”“Harnessing the power…”

“enhance your teaching through technology”“infuse technology”

“back to basics” (with technology)“Follow us…”

Beatific Logic: a fullness-to-comeHorrific Logic: possibility of disaster

Beatific LogicHorrific Logic

Beatific Logic: a fullness-to-comeHorrific Logic: possibility of disaster

“Biggest names in post secondary education.”“Growing faster than Facebook.”“This is the year everyone wants in.”

Scaremongering: a promise of the horrific.Political: means of generating legitimacy for reform and exerting control.

“There is no pent up demand for change in pedagogy.” HEA (2009)

Nursing students continue to value traditional approaches.Nurse educators feel traditional approaches are ‘better’.

A continued focus on technological ‘solutions’ will continue “without clear improvements in learning processes or outcomes for students.”

(Hall, 2009)

Systematic literature review on effectiveness of e-learning in nurse education.

Lahti, Hatonen and Valimaki (2014)

• A “lack of evidence” of the impact of technology in nurse education.

• “E-learning is not a superior learning method to traditional learning methods“.

• No evidence that e-learning improves students’ skills more than traditional methods.

But it is a given…

COMMON SENSEa hegemony

Technology Enhances Learning

NB. no mention of teaching…

You NEED to engage with TEL

Imagine the possibilities if you do....and if you don't...

A greater ‘critical stance’ to TEL.

Recognise the pressure to acquiesce to TEL.

That technology does not inherently transform teaching & learning.

Bond, E. & Goodchild, T. (2013) Paradigms, Paradoxes and Professionalism: An exploration of lecturers’ perspectives on technology enhanced learning. Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education. Vol 5, Issue 1.

Callahan, J.L. & Sandlin, J.A. (2007) The Tyranny of Technology: A Critical Assessment of the Social Arena of Online Learning. New Horizons in Adult Education and Human Resource Development. 21 (3) 5-15

Ehrmann, S. C.(2000) "Technology and Revolution in Education: Ending the Cycle of Failure," Liberal Education, Fall, pp. 40-49.

Glynos, J. and Howarth, D. (2007) Logics of Critical Explanation in Social and Political Theory. Abingdon: Routledge.

Selwyn, N. (2007) The use of computer technology in university teaching and learning: a critical perspective. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning. 23. 83-94

Selwyn, N. (2011) In praise of pessimism- the need for negativity in educational technology. British Journal of Educational Technology. 42 (5) 713-718 Spector, M.J. (2012) Foundations of Educational Technology: Integrative Approaches and Interdisciplinary Perspectives. London. Routledge.