The Role of Technology in Learning: Managing to Achieve a Vision

The paper explores the current context for uses of technology in education, including the nature of work, the capabilities required by employees, and developments in the technology itself. A vision for education is needed: how might students be learning in the future and what role might technology play in this? By making students’ learning needs the focus we can identify the support technology can offer. The issue of student access is discussed— both physical access to technology and the psychological confidence to use it. One major government initiative—the Teaching and Learning Technology Programme—shows the limits of what has been achieved to date. The paper ends by suggesting how changes necessary within the education sector might be better managed. Context The recent report “Technology for learning: where are we going?” (Lewis and Merton, 1996) points out that the evolution of a global economy and the intensification of competition are having a profound effect on the pattern and organisation of work. Private and public sector organisations are adopting flatter, more devolved structures that require employees to be more flexible, autonomous and responsive to change, capable of learning fast and making decisions independently yet within a corporate framework. The idea of spending the greater part of one’s working life employed in a single organisation has been rapidly superseded by the notion of adapting to new roles and responsibilities, moving between employers and changing one’s occupation. Hence the importance of independent learning. As well as developing open attitudes and behaviours, today’s employees need to acquire and enhance core capabilities, such as working in teams, communication and problem solving. They have to operate more remotely, yet at the same time communicate often and purposefully with others in their networks. The drive for competitiveness in the UK and the rest of Europe requires a modern workforce with graduate and vocational qualifications. Consequently recent years have seen a massive expansion in higher education but, because of constraints imposed on public expenditure, this has not been matched by an equivalent increase in funding. In these circumstances, providing traditional forms of teaching and learning while maintaining high standards is no longer an option. Teachers and learners will thus need to work in different ways and these will include the use of technological applications in the pursuit of learning, requiring the student to learn more independently and in the process acquire some of the habits of self-reliance that employers are looking for. Alongside the drive for greater efficiency, a new pedagogy more relevant to the twentyfirst century has been evolving. What is now sometimes referred to as “constructive learning” has become the core of recent education philosophy. Traditional teaching seeks to transmit fixed, well-structured knowledge with a firm external control of content, sequence and pace of learning; for many this continues to be of value because it is seen to confer rigour and respectability on the learning process. Constructive learning, on the other hand, stresses active, outcome-oriented and self-regulated learning, where meaning is negotiated, multiple perspectives are encouraged and learners map their way through an ever-changing information and knowledge landscape. The flexible and interactive characteristics of multimedia and telematics are enormously supportive of this. At the same time young people are being brought up in a culture where fast and direct feedback is becoming commonplace. They increasingly use different communications media simultaneously, expecting high levels of interactivity. They require sophisticated presentation modes, deploying pace, colour, movement and sound. They have clearer demands of the quality and outcomes of their learning: skills and knowledge which will give them a firm purchase on the job market. Meanwhile the technology itself is increasingly accessible, available, sophisticated and effective, putting unprecedented power in the hands of the user. The speed of processors doubles every eighteen months, the price of hardware and software is reduced, crossplatform compatibility is achieved, storage capacity is enhanced. As it does so, curricula and assessment will need to be reviewed; and there will have to be smoother transitions between schools, colleges and universities, with each being reconfigured to form virtual seats of learning. The very nature of knowledge is being affected by the increased availability of information as television, computers, cables, satellites and superhighways connect learners across the global village. Information is no longer structured only in a simple, linear, logical fashion; it is becoming fragmented, multi-channelled and simultaneous. Education must help the learner make sense of this new information age. It must be admitted that the context also presents significant difficulties. These include: • the pace of change, which can be disorientating both to individuals and to organisations 142 British Journal of Educational Technology Vol 30 No 2 1999 © British Educational Communications and Technology Agency, 1999. • the speed of technological development, leading to issues of obsolescence and replacement costs • the uneven spread of computer ownership • the particular needs of adults and other groups of learners who may lack confidence in using technology or appropriate resources and be apprehensive about learning independently • assessment arrangements that encourage students to “play the system” rather than engage in deep learning and that make the sensible application of technology difficult • the poor quality of some educational software • the information overload to which technology can contribute. Need for a vision In spite of these difficulties, technology is now so powerful and accessible that it is even more important than before to be clear about how it can help us respond to the challenges of the present context. At the University of Lincolnshire and Humberside workshops were held to encourage students and staff to visualise how learning will be undertaken in the future environment. Both academic staff and those working in learning centres were included in these workshops, representing a cross-section, not just the idealists and innovators. Participants were encouraged to create pen pictures of learners. The following extracts are taken from the report of the workshops (Healey, 1995), showing the learning lives of three students (of media, administrative management, and history, respectively): Charlotte is a media student. She enrolled at her university attracted by an electronic prospectus, allowing her to journey through a virtual ... landscape resembling a giant, educational themepark ... Now a third level student, she sits at her desk and types in her twelve-digit number. Her first task is to check her personalised timetable ... This afternoon her video crew will be in one of the multimedia studios ... rubbing shoulders with experienced, short-term contract producers and directors ... The projects have not only improved her production skills ... but have also provided her with much needed additional income. Li arrives home after a long day’s work as PA to the managing director of a highly successful telecommunications company in Singapore. She is completing her studies for an MA in Administrative Management as an off-campus, distant learner. After her meal, she logs on to her workstation, using her voice recognition password, and accesses the Business School’s interactive video library in the UK, via the satellite link. She completes the self-assessment exercise associated with the project management part of her current unit and is pleased to see that the learning system has not only marked her assignment but has authorised release of the next relevant case study task. Tonight Li sleeps comfortable in the knowledge that not only has she passed a crucial stage of her course but that the Internet search she has initiated before retiring will provide her with further research material to sift early next morning. The Sycorax is two hours out of Rotterdam and heading into a force nine gale on its trip across the North Sea. Angus, snug in the smoke-filled fug of the ship’s telecommunications centre, taps away at his 686 laptop ... His shift pattern ... allows him both to study at sea and attend regular tutorials on land ... Angus pushes his laptop to one side and turns to the Sycorax’s own computer. This ... gives him direct access to the Internet via the ship’s satlink. Not only can he access the School of History’s database but every other major history database throughout the world. These are diverse pictures, all showing that learning will increasingly take place offcampus and in dispersed environments. Students’ lives will increasingly be characterised The role of technology in learning: managing to achieve a vision 143 © British Educational Communications and Technology Agency, 1999. by the need to take many decisions over their learning, requiring the exercise of considerable initiative within an open environment. Contact and companionship are not eliminated, but sustained in the main by electronic means. The UK Joint Funding Councils Libraries Review Group report (1993) includes similar scenarios, focusing this time on a typical day in the lives of members of staff. The scenarios are realisable given management will to achieve them: the question is not whether or not the technology can perform but whether staff and systems can change quickly enough to take advantage of its power. Starting with the student’s learning needs One way of addressing technology’s role is to consider what needs to be in place for an individual to learn. These requirements include: • explicit information (for example, on content to be covered, skills to be learned, how performance will be measured, learning methods to be used) • recognition for existing achievement (for example, credit for previous qualifications or experience, opportunity to follow an individual route through the curriculum) • flexible access to resources and facilities (such as books, libraries, computers, multimedia software, audio and video tapes, discussion areas, work placements) • flexible access to on-course support (for example, encouragement and resolution of difficulties) • opportunities to practise skills and apply knowledge • feedback on practice, assessment of progress and the opportunity to respond through dialogue • choices over learning (for example, over content, method, medium, time, place, pace, mode of assessment) • an attractive and motivating learning experience and environment. Dearing suggests that we should be “led by educational imperative and not by technology” (Dearing, 1997, 13.2); in other words we should ask how technology can help students undertake the various processes involved in learning. Current activity at the University of Lincolnshire and Humberside suggests what this might mean. The University is developing a “learning system”: a suite of programs and facilities that will support all learning functions, across dispersed environments. The first area of the curriculum to use this integrally is the University’s Skills and Capabilities Curriculum, which occupies 20% of the students’ time (and assessment) at each of their three levels of study. Level 1 addresses learning skills; Level 2 develops employability and career planning; and Level 3 supports students as they embark upon an independent study of their own choice—a key stage on the route to lifelong learning. The Skills and Capabilities Curriculum is fully supported by the University’s intranet, which provides the following: • profiling tools (for self-diagnosis, feedback, action planning) • self-diagnostic tests for IT (again with built in feedback and leading the student to plan any necessary further study or practice) 144 British Journal of Educational Technology Vol 30 No 2 1999 © British Educational Communications and Technology Agency, 1999. • automated assessment for IT (summative assessment with feedback, and the opportunity, if necessary, to take the assessment again) • information on the skills curriculum (including information on content, learning outcomes, assessment, use of time, resources available) • electronic materials delivery (of a range of materials, including those that support open learning) • access to a range of databases and web-sites. Such systems benefit tutors as well as students. They offer information that enables tutors to manage their interactions with students. Subject departments can be encouraged to customise the electronic materials to suit their students and the nature of their subjects, offering considerable flexibility. Additional tutor notes can also be made available on the intranet for tutors who wish to use them. We need to remember that these facilities will increasingly be needed in a wide range of locations. A university needs to consider all the locations in and from which its students will learn. These may include: • its own campuses • the campuses of partners • student halls of residence • student homes • the workplace. Two aspects of student access need to be reviewed: physical and psychological; the latter includes building the confidence needed to take a proactive approach to using technology. The technical implications need to be followed through accordingly. Access to equipment is obviously an issue. Dearing discusses this in section 13 of his report and points out that there needs to be a period of managed change involving “subsidy and gradual migration to user provision” (Dearing, 1997, 13.39). Sections 13.43–13.49 of Dearing discusses the role of the student portable computer and the implications of this for the learning environment. The technology infrastructure of a university (including access from remote points) will increasingly influence students in their choice of institution. Some institutions show how, given management resolution, a great deal can be achieved. For example, the numbers of students using technology as an essential tool for learning on their Open University courses is growing dramatically year by year. This has extended even to foundation course level, with students on the Technology course required to have home access to computing technology, to enable them to communicate electronically with their tutors and peers and carry out other educational tasks essential to assessment. Technology thus potentially confers a number of benefits, including: • flexible access to suit the learner; • sensitivity and responsiveness to the profile of the individual learner; The role of technology in learning: managing to achieve a vision 145 © British Educational Communications and Technology Agency, 1999. • high learner control (for example the capacity to replay on demand, to re-administer tests, to vary the ways in which content is presented); • consistency and quality in presentation, developed using national and international experts, piloted, and not dependent on the local performance of a teacher who is “on form”; • the opportunity to practise in a safe context skills that would otherwise be sensitive or resource-intensive. The speed and flexibility of technology’s response to individual needs, combined with the attractiveness of its presentation, can create a powerful learning environment. The UK Teaching and Learning Technology Programme Unfortunately so far most work on applying technology to learning has been very limited. In particular, instead of taking a broad view of how technology can support learning, it has concentrated merely on the presentation of curriculum content. One example of this is the UK’s Teaching and Learning Technology Programme (TLTP). The evaluation report of this programme is particularly interesting, as it poses some serious questions about the processes involved in liberating the power of technology for use in learning (Coopers and Lybrand, 1996). Here are some of its key points (all references are to paragraphs in the Executive Summary): • the use of technology has to be appropriate: “the opportunity ... was exploited to computerise material that was being taught or could have been taught adequately in other ways” (para. 30) • some of the material produced was closed, “often lacking in imagination” (para. 5) • curriculum design tended to be “naive”; only “a small minority” of projects had “taken account of pedagogic issues in any systematic way”; those inspirational materials that did emerge resulted from a genuine team approach—“a synthesis of computing, subject discipline and educational expertise” (para. 7) • in the majority of cases evaluation was limited and “there was no framework or mechanism whereby project evaluations could inform the overall direction of the programme”; the “low profile” played by evaluation thus “represents a missed opportunity” to learn from what was a significant expenditure (paras. 25 and 26). The external evaluation of the Teaching and Learning Technology Programme also illuminates two key issues requiring resolution if technology is to play its proper role in learning: cost-effectiveness and the management of change.