{"id":261,"date":"2018-07-16T09:20:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-16T08:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nualadavis\/?p=261"},"modified":"2022-01-04T09:24:10","modified_gmt":"2022-01-04T09:24:10","slug":"technology-enhanced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nualadavis\/2018\/07\/16\/technology-enhanced\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Technology Enhanced&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>If I want to write,, I can use a pen or type it in some form using computer\/tablet\/phone \u2013 is this technology enhanced writing?&nbsp; Or is it just writing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In my view technology is something to be adopted if it is right, fitting and appropriate to the task.&nbsp; If that is the case then it just becomes the way we do things.&nbsp; Say I want to \u201cshare photos\u201d \u2013 in 1983 I would get them developed at Boots, put them in a sticky album and inflict them on unsuspecting family and visitors.&nbsp; The thought of doing this in 2018 is laughable.&nbsp; Sharing photos is something you do digitally.&nbsp; I still use the same language &nbsp;\u201csharing photos\u201d but what we now understand by that phrase has changed.&nbsp; I wouldn\u2019t dream about talking about \u201ctechnology enhanced photo sharing\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You\u2019ll imagine from this that I really dislike the term \u201cTechnology Enhanced Learning\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>If the tech-way is the best way the technology becomes invisible. At some point in the future &nbsp;\u2013 e-submission is just going to be the way we do \u201csubmission\u201d and e-marking is just going to become marking.&nbsp; (Forcing the adoption of immature tech creates agro.)<\/li><li>If you\u2019ve worked in education for any time, there is a good chance you\u2019ve had some form of post-traumatic stress from badly behaving technology that has ruined a session, it\u2019s all too easy to jump on \u201cshiny\u201d and force it into the classroom (or VLE).&nbsp; We need to be more critical about whether the technology *will* add or detract.<\/li><li>Lots of the so called TEL is actually e-administration. Take a tool like WebPA \u2013 it gives group members on-line forms to evaluate each other and works out a peer score. Here all the tech tool is doing is the drudgery of collating, counting and presenting the scores.&nbsp; It\u2019s doing the background admin for the peer assessment task.&nbsp; In my view this is a sensible way to administer the process.&nbsp; The clever bit comes in how you frame the group task, how you introduce it to students, how you interpret the results and whether it is a good fit for your programme aims.&nbsp; Doing this well is all about the skill of the academic lead, WebPA is the administrative enabler.<\/li><li>We need to think about the investment and payback. Technology (apps, devices, systems) have learning curves. It\u2019s all too easy to be hijacked by this learning curve and lose sight of the actual learning that is our focus.&nbsp; Tools and tech needs to be \u201cfrictionless\u201d or easy enough to learn so that there is a real payback.&nbsp; Talk to any academics involved in teaching \u2013 time is not something they have in abundance.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Critical quadrants<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, neatly sidestepping the debate on \u201clearning gain\u201d let\u2019s imagine we could graph \u201cimproved learning\u201d (for students) against academic time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td>&nbsp;<\/td><td>More academic time<\/td><td>Less academic time<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Enhanced learning<\/td><td>A&nbsp;<\/td><td>B<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Diminished learning<\/td><td>C<\/td><td>D&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>We get 4 quadrants \u2013 C is the one to avoid at all costs \u2013 and sadly it\u2019s easy to come up with a scenario that fits here.&nbsp; Prof Smith spends weeks developing an online simulation exercise that bombs with the students.&nbsp; Dr Jones runs a one off webinar and the time is taken up with \u201ccan you hear me?\u201d Result: It\u2019s mothballed, never to return.&nbsp;&nbsp; I\u2019ve used tech examples here, but let\u2019s face it this grid is tech neutral.&nbsp; You could get in this quadrant just as easily by developing lecture materials pitched at completely the wrong level or by having to work with bad systems that gobble up time and leave your creative energies depleted!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If we leave technology in the mix B is perhaps the only one that could potentially qualify as being \u201ctechnology enhanced\u201d\u2026 students learn extra stuff and the academic gains time.&nbsp; You may get here after you\u2019ve been through a learning curve with online marking.&nbsp; You spend less time, but students get richer feedback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Living in quadrant A is only something you can do for a short time. It\u2019s easy to see how you could be here \u2013 you could have more meetings with students, smaller group sizes in seminars (more seminars), you could make short supplemental videos, you could develop a multi-choice quiz that helps students revise key topics. &nbsp;You need to be selective about what you do in here, and may want to venture in for short sprints if you can make gains elsewhere.&nbsp; Notice that my examples aren\u2019t all about Tech.&nbsp; Any redevelopment or redesign work can bring you here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Technology and automation in the extreme can take us into sector D \u2013 standard or no responses, little chance for interaction, impoverished experiences.&nbsp; A mentor-free MOOC won\u2019t deliver a campus based experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Where Tech is e-administration it sits somewhere along the x-axis \u2013 depending on whether it is students or faculty doing the processes.&nbsp; Online Module choices e-administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My point \u2013 let\u2019s drop TEL as a phrase.&nbsp; It\u2019s meaningless.&nbsp; Instead let\u2019s consider what works, what is effective teaching \u2013 let\u2019s use technology if it helps.&nbsp; But please don\u2019t call it TEL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This post provoked by:Sian Bayne&nbsp;(2015)&nbsp;What\u2019s the matter with \u2018technology-enhanced learning\u2019?,&nbsp;Learning, Media and Technology,&nbsp;40:1,&nbsp;5-20,&nbsp;DOI:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/17439884.2014.915851\">10.1080\/17439884.2014.915851<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/oro.open.ac.uk\/view\/person\/atk3.html\">Kirkwood, Adrian<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/oro.open.ac.uk\/view\/person\/mlc7.html\">Price, Linda<\/a>&nbsp;(2014).&nbsp;Technology-enhanced learning and teaching in higher education: what is \u2018enhanced\u2019 and how do we know? A critical literature review.&nbsp;<em>Learning, Media and Technology<\/em>, 39(1) pp. 6\u201336.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If I want to write,, I can use a pen or type it in some form using computer\/tablet\/phone \u2013 is this technology enhanced writing?&nbsp; Or is it just writing? In my view technology is something to be adopted if it is right, fitting and appropriate to the task.&nbsp; If that is the case then it &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nualadavis\/2018\/07\/16\/technology-enhanced\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;&#8220;Technology Enhanced&#8221;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1008,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nualadavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nualadavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nualadavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nualadavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nualadavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nualadavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":262,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nualadavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261\/revisions\/262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nualadavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nualadavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nualadavis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}