Research for e-learning; research about e-learning

Richard Andrews

ticEDUCA2010 conference, Lisbon

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Contents

1 For and about e-learning

2 Existing research in the field

3 Working toward a new model for research

4 What does this mean for teachers and researchers?

5 Some examples

6 New thinking about e-learning

7 The future for teacher research: dissertations in the digital age

8 References and websites

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Research for e-learning, research about e-learningMost research for e-learning we don’t see; we use the applications,

software, hardware later, e.g. the development of word processing programs. This is research for e-learning.

• Another form of research for e-learning is the pattern-searching that goes on that subsequently affects social networking/patterning– “Research is the seeking of harmony that, once found, is rehearsed

and played in the piece afterwards” (18th century definition)• Research about e-learning is what most academics do: they evaluate

what has happened; they engage in ex post facto research; they look for effects, impacts and other after-the-event traces

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The Impact of ICT on Literacy Education (2004)A number of studies, using systematic research review techniques, of the impact of ICT on literacy education in the early 2000s• Most studies found a small positive effect• Controlled (let alone randomised) experimental studies were hard to find• More interesting were the gaps in research• More interesting still was the fact that we appeared to be asking the

wrong question: instead of ‘What effect or impact does ICT have on literacy development?’ we should have been asking ‘What is the relationship between the development of new technologies and the development of literacy or of learning in general?’

This model assumes the impact or effect on x on y. It assumes that, although y is affected by x, x remains unchanged.

x y

This model assumes there is some kind of dialogic relationship between x and y. In other words, although x may affect y, it may also be the case that y affects x – perhaps to the same degree, or perhaps to a lesser extent (or even possibly, to a greater extent). In studies in literacy development, the relationship has been described as ‘symbiotic’ by Haas (1996)

x y

ICT 1

ICT 2

Literacy 1

Literacy 2

ICT 1

ICT 2

Literacy 1

Literacy 2

ICT 3 Literacy 3

ICT 1

ICT 2

Literacy 1

Literacy 2

ICT 3 Literacy 3

ICT 1 Literacy 1

ICT 3 Literacy 3

What factors affect literacy development, irrespective of ICT?

How do individuals relate to communities of learning (family, school, street, clubs, societies etc)?

What factors affect the development of ICT?

What kinds of e-communities are created and how are they sustained?

What are the determinants of longitudinal growth?

What does this mean for teachers and researchers?We should move on from a notion that new information and

communication technologies are ‘causing’ change in the teaching and learning of literacy – or change in learning in general

Instead, we should think of learning and the development of ICT as reciprocal and co-evolutionary

For researchers, this means new questions, methodologies and methods

For teachers and lecturers: you are as much at the forefront of innovation and change as researchers, or indeed as ICT developers, because ‘the social is prior’

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An example of a web-based resource

Teacher Training Resource Bank: www.ttrb.ac.uk

Set up initally with government finance, this website:

was originally intended for teacher trainers

it now has a large number of hits per month from teachers, students, researchers et al.

is peer-reviewed

has an e-librarian service

See entry on ICT under ‘Curriculum’12

Another example

Every classroom in South Korea has a large high-definition TV screen

In the UK, pretty much every classroom has a smartboard or interactive whiteboard: flexible but low-definition.

Functionally, they are not much different; but in terms of display, readability, harmony with computer or phone screens, HD-TV screens in classrooms are a wonderful advance.

HD-TV screens also make the link between the world outside the classroom and the world inside the classroom very much closer

Bringing the world into the classroom; and making the classroom a space for exchange about the world…

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New thinking about e-learning 1

What I’ve just shown – large-size digital TV screens in classrooms – are controlled by laptop-size computers (managed by teachers and/or children) and are also accessible/compatible with hand-held phones

So learning is ubiquitous – everywhere

Schools no longer have the control over what is learnt/what is researched

Very young children can research online

Perhaps we, as teachers, need to help our students to be better researchers, thinkers, managers of information, designers...

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New thinking about e-learning 2

Multimodality and digitization (see Kress 2010)

Classrooms become social forums for exchange, discussion, presentation etc.

What seems important is to recognize is that new social networking, afforded by and in relation to new ICTs, changes the nature of teaching and research:

- social informatics

- co-creation of new knowledge

- learner as active agent

The whole nature of research is changing – cf. Handbook of Digital Dissertations and Theses

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Identifying gaps in research

Identifying gaps in transfer

Primary research: projects that generate new knowledge

Research review and synthesis: embracing a range of methods

Knowledge transfer: packaging of research for different audiences

Application: in practice and/or policy fields

Evaluation: testing and working out strengths and weaknesses of initiatives

Coming back to research for and research about...“Research is the seeking of harmony that, once found, is rehearsed and

played in the piece afterwards”

Research for will seek out new patterns of social engagement; new forms of software, hardware (media) that can facilitate communication; and new kinds of knowledge and theory.

Research about will continue to look, after the event, at the relationship of new ICTs to learning; it will need to be responsive to new activities and not depend on slow, traditional methods. The use of video, digital recording and storage and new forms of analysis will increase...

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Handbook of Digital Dissertations and ThesesThe result of a two-year seminar series on the topic

We are now editing a collection to help students, supervisors, examiners, universities, archivists, librarians et al. cope with the digital impact on advanced research

Joint project with British Library, the Centre for Electronic Arts (Middlesex University), typographers (Coventry University) and New York University

The case of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where digitization of the process has meant a rapid rise in the reading of dissertations and theses by students, teachers…

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Summary

Research is more than an ex post facto, ‘after the event’, ‘after the horse has bolted’ activity

It can operate before activity, in technological and in social, pedagogic innovation and pattern-seeking: research for learning

Research about learning is also changing to include new modes and media, new forms of recording and representation

Communities of learning – school, family, street, societies – need to be recognized and to be linked to each other

Learning then takes on a transformational identity: transforming minds, feeling, spirit, individual lives…with social and political implications

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References

Andrews, R. (ed.) (2004) The Impact of ICT on Literacy Education London: Routledge

Andrews, R. (forthcoming) ‘Does e-learning require a new theory of learning?’, submitted to Journal of Education Research Online, August 2010

Andrews, R. And Haythornthwaite, C (eds) (2007) The Sage Handbook of E-learning Research London: Sage

Andrews, R., Borg, E., Boyd Davis, S., Domingo, M. and England, J. (eds) (2011) The Sage Handbook of Digital Dissertations and Theses, London: Sage

Haythornthwaite, C. and Andrews, R. (2011) E-learning Theory and Practice London: Sage

Kress, G. (2010) Multimodality: a social semiotic approach to contemporary communication London: Routledge

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Websites

www.ttrb.ac.uk

www.eep.ac.uk

www.newdoctorates.blogspot.comhttp://eprints.ioe.ac.uk

http://eppi.ioe.ac.uk/

http://www.futurelab.org.uk/resources/publications-reports-articles/literature-reviews/

http://www.lkl.ac.uk/cms/index.php

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