The Student Voice : Perceptions of autonomy and collaboration in learning with technology

Edith Cowan Unive r s i t y I n c re a s i n g l y, telecommunications and information technology are being used in distance education to p rovide education to students in ru r a l and remote schools. This paper re p o rts on the insights and re s p o n s e s of a group of students who accessed the gifted and talented program via telematics during 1996-1997, using audiographic conferencing. For these l e a rners, it was their first experience of l e a rning at distance. Students re p o rted a strong sense of autonomy and self-direction which was a result of having an ‘invisible teacher’. In addition, a great deal of feedback was obtained on students’ own learn i n g styles, the impact of technology on communication and the growth of cooperative learning across geographically separated classro o m s . The implications of these findings are analysed in terms of how distance l e a rning settings affect communication styles and how technology serv e s col laborative learning. It is recommended that recognising and eliciting the student voice as part of the planning process is important for educational contexts where technology is used to support learning.