The use of emerging technologies for authentic learning: A South African study in higher education

It is now widely accepted that the transmission of disciplinary knowledge is insufficient to prepare students leaving higher education for the workplace. Authentic learning has been suggested as a way to bring the necessary complexity into learning to deal with challenges in professional practice after graduation. This study investigates how South African higher educators have used emerging technologies to achieve the characteristics of authentic learning. A survey was administered to a population of 265 higher educators in South Africa who self-identified as engaging with emerging technologies. From this survey, a sample of 21 respondents were selected to further investigate their practice through in-depth interviewing using Herrington, Reeves and Oliver’s nine characteristics of authentic learning as a framework. Interrater analysis undertaken by five members of the research team revealed both consistencies and differences among the twenty one cases across the nine elements of authentic learning. The highest levels of authenticity were found for the elements authentic context and task, and the lowest for articulation. Furthermore, there was a moderate correlation identified between levels of authenticity and the role played by emerging technologies in achieving the authenticity, showing a potentially symbiotic relationship between them. Introduction Despite efforts by higher education institutions (HEIs) to address the disjuncture between curriculum design and what is required of working professionals, students internationally and more particularly in South Africa, still graduate unprepared to confront the realities of the twenty-first century workplace (Herrington, Mantei, Herrington, Olney & Ferry, 2008; Lombardi, 2007). Herrington et al (2010) argue that higher education faces the challenge of a curriculum that remains largely decontextualised. Consequently, they call for incorporation of what they propose as the nine elements of authentic learning in this sector, in order to enable more contextually relevant learning. Using this model, we argue that emerging technologies, which Veletsianos (2010, p. 17) defines as the “tools, technologies, innovations, and advancements utilized in British Journal of Educational Technology Vol 44 No 4 2013 629–638 doi:10.1111/bjet.12046 © 2013 British Educational Research Association diverse educational settings to serve varied education-related purposes,” have the potential to support authentic learning. This definition and conceptualisation of emerging technologies regards context to be very important—what is regarded as emerging in one context may not be in another and vice versa. In South Africa, with the exception of Amory’s (2012) work, there is currently limited research regarding these intersections. This paper aims to contribute evidence for the potentially symbiotic relationship between emerging technologies and authentic learning. It reports on a research project conducted with selected South African higher educators to explore their teaching practices for evidence of what Herrington et al (2010) term the elements of authentic learning. Simultaneously, we investigated the contribution of emerging technologies to achieving this authenticity, by which we mean the level of authentic learning across Herrington et al’s (2010) nine elements. Literature review Over the past three decades, increasing international attention has been focused on the effectiveness of higher education in addressing graduate readiness for the workplace by developing relevant competences, capabilities and attributes through appropriate teaching practices (Billett, 2009; Department of Education, 2007). In part, this has been a reaction to the focus on imparting disciplinary knowledge in higher education, which has tended to decontextualise knowledge, leaving graduates unprepared to apply this knowledge in different contexts when the need arises (Brown, Collins & Duguid, 1989; Herrington et al, 2010; Lave & Wenger, 1991; Schön, 1983). As early as the late 1990s, a set of conditions termed authentic learning was coined by Herrington and Oliver (2000).They argued that the adoption of authentic learning as a pedagogical model can Practitioner Notes What is already known about this topic • Herrington, Reeves and Oliver (2010, p. 18) have identified nine elements that constitute authentic learning. • Technologies can be used to achieve the characteristics of authenticity in learning. • Technologies are most effective for enabling the creation of authentic contexts and tasks, accessing outside experts and the inclusion of collaborative work across geographical distances (Herrington et al, 2010; Lombardi, 2007). What this paper adds • Findings of the study showed a high level of correlation between use of emerging technologies and authentic learning, suggesting the importance of the interplay or symbiosis between emerging technologies and effective teaching and learning practices. • The study showed a moderate level of interrater reliability regarding authenticity and the role of emerging technologies, although there was slightly more divergence regarding the latter, reflecting the contextual nature of emerging technologies and the influence of researchers’ positionalities on the interpretation of data. Implications for practice and/or policy • Professional development which connects the potential of authentic learning with emerging technologies is a potentially fruitful strategy. • Reliability can be enhanced by using analysis by multiple researchers who are differently located to assess the achievement of Herrington et al’s (2010) authentic learning elements. 630 British Journal of Educational Technology Vol 44 No 4 2013 © 2013 British Educational Research Association help to better prepare students for professional practice. To this end, Herrington et al (2010, p. 18) identified nine elements, which they argue characterise authentic learning designs. They are: 1. Authentic context—for Herrington et al (2010), the curriculum should not be simplified and broken up into step-by-step processes, but should rather mirror real-world situations in order to reflect the way knowledge would be used in these situations. An authentic context leads to an intense feeling of engagement with the learning, where the learner experiences what Herrington et al (2010, p. 92) refer to as the “willing suspension of disbelief.” 2. Authentic task—the task should be ill-defined, complex, comprehensive and completed over an extended period of time, mirroring activities that are relevant to the kinds of problems to which knowledge is applied in the real world. 3. Access to expert thinking and modelling of processes—both students themselves who are more knowledgeable others (Vygotsky, 1978) and lecturers can enhance learning for others through sharing their different levels of expertise. 4. Provide multiple roles and perspectives—students should be enabled to examine problems from more than one point of view to ensure expertise in areas. 5. Support collaborative construction of knowledge—providing opportunities for students to work on a common task that is assessed collaboratively is important. 6. Promote reflection to enable abstractions to be formed—it is essential to provide opportunities for students to reflect in action, while completing their tasks and on action, after tasks have been completed (Schön, 1983). Reflection is seen in authentic learning as social and interdependent, working in collaborative groups, rather than individual process. In this way, students should be able to compare their ideas to more knowledgeable others, associating and integrating new knowledge into their conceptual frameworks. 7. Promote articulation to enable tacit knowledge to be made explicit—opportunities should be provided for students to speak and write about their growing understanding within communities of professional practice and in public fora. 8. Provide coaching and scaffolding by the teacher at critical times—the idea is that rather than transmitting knowledge, the teacher’s role is a supportive one, guiding and supporting students. 9. Provide for authentic assessment of learning within the tasks—the assessed task is the polished product at the end of the learning period that has taken a significant period to produce and is integrated with the learning tasks. The conceptual foundations of authentic learning are linked to Brown et al’s (1989) theory of “Situated Cognition,” which they based on the study of highly successful learning interactions. Key to the achievement of such learning interactions is the provision of apprenticeship-type learning in situations to “. . . reflect the way the knowledge will be useful in real life” (Collins, 1988, in Herrington et al, 2010, p. 14). Also important to their conception of learning for real-world application is an affirmation of the social embeddedness of practice. Emerging technologies and authentic learning In Herrington et al’s (2010) survey of the literature on the contribution of emerging technologies to enhance learning and Lombardi’s (2007) Educause paper, it is argued that emerging technologies are able to promote a number of the characteristics of authentic learning, such as collaboration across distance, sharing of results, communicating with experts and access to online research communities. Emerging technologies that seem to offer opportunities for authentic learning are those that promote collaboration (eg, digital databases, social networking tools and referencing tools), enable joint construction of knowledge (eg, role plays, problem-based activities, case-based learning, discussion forums and virtual communities of practice) and allow for individual or group articulation (eg, blogs, e-portfolios and video-capture devices) (Herrington Authentic learning 631 © 2013 British Educational Research Association et al, 2010; Lombardi, 2007). In particular, Herrington et al’s (2010) most recent research on mobile technologies, such as the use of podcasts and digital stories for authentic learning, is of interest to this study. The ubiquity of mobile technology in South Africa holds promise for a wider adoption of technology in teaching and learning (Donner, 2008). For example, a recently published South African example on the use of technologies for promoting authentic learning (Amory, 2012) describes developing an authentic intervention in postgraduate teacher education. In this intervention, mediated learning experiences were provided which transformed students’ worldviews and assisted them to engage with educational technologies as tools in order to construct collective knowledge. Methodology The two research questions guiding this study were: • Is there evidence that South African higher educators who were interviewed for this study were incorporating any of the nine elements of authentic learning as defined by Herrington et al (2010)? • To what extent have emerging technologies contributed to achieving the nine elements of authentic learning in these case studies? The reported findings in this paper form part of a larger study, conducted in 2011, which surveyed the use of emerging technologies among 262 South African higher educators (for further information on this study, see Bozalek, Ng’ambi, & Gachago, in press and the Emerging ICTs in Higher Education blog cf. http://www.emergingicts.blogspot.com). From the open-ended responses to the survey, 75 educators whose practices showed evidence of authentic learning were identified by one research team member, who is a coauthor on this paper. The researchers as a group then reviewed these survey responses and narrowed the identified 75 educators to 28 educators whose practice showed evidence of one or more dimensions of authentic learning. These educators were invited to participate in the next stage of this research: 21 of the 28 accepted. Prior to commencement of the study, ethical clearance was obtained by the principal investigator, participants gave informed consent and respondents were anonymised. Data were collected by five researchers, three of whom are coauthors on this paper, through semi-structured, face-to-face, telephonic or online interviews from April to May in 2012. As shown in Table 1, male and female respondents were evenly distributed, and ranged in teaching experience from 1 to more than 20 years. Most of the respondents in the sample were from the Applied Sciences, while Natural Sciences, Education, Humanities and Commerce were also Table 1: Demographics—higher educator cases Gender Discipline Years teaching experience Level of appointment Highest qualification HEI Female 11 Natural Sc. 4 1–5 years 6 Ass/Prof 6 Doctorate 11 UWC 10 Male 10 Applied Sc. 11 6–10 years 7 Snr lecturer 1 Masters 7 UJ 2 Humanities 2 11–20 years 4 Lecturer 10 Honours 2 Rhodes 3 Education 3 >20 years 4 Non-academic 4 Bachelor 1 UCT 2 Commerce 1 CPUT 2 SUN 1 DUT 1 Total 21 21 21 21 21 21 HEI, higher education institution; UWC, University of the Western Cape; UJ, University of Johannesburg; Rhodes, Rhodes University; UCT, University of Cape Town; CPUT, Cape Peninsular University of Technology; SUN, Stellenbosch University; DUT, Durban University of Technology. 632 British Journal of Educational Technology Vol 44 No 4 2013 © 2013 British Educational Research Association represented in small numbers. Educators came from seven differently placed HEIs in terms of geographical location, demographics and resource allocation (Bozalek & Boughey, 2012). Interviews were structured along the nine elements of authentic learning using questions suggested by Herrington in her online videos (cf. Herrington, 2011). From these interviews, cases were developed. In a similar fashion to Amory’s (2012) study, where students used a Likert scale to assess the course along authentic learning elements, the cases in this study were analysed by five members of the research team, four of whom are coauthors of this paper, to establish the extent to which each of Herrington et al’s (2010) elements were achieved by each educator. Using a scale ranging from 0 to 2, scores were assigned depending on the strength of evidence of authentic learning, with 0 (no evidence), 1 (weak evidence) and 2 (strong evidence). These data were captured into MS Excel (Microsoft, Redmond, WA, USA), and member checks were performed to verify the scores. Two sets of scores were calculated: 1. composite scores and percentages of authenticity per case to establish each case’s level of authenticity (composite score across all authentic elements per case, max score 90); 2. composite scores and percentages for each authentic learning element (composite score of each element across all 21 cases, max score 210). In relation to Research Question 2, five members of the team analysed the 21 cases in terms of the contribution of the educator’s use of emerging technologies to each specific authentic learning element (again scored using a scale ranging from 0 to 2). A statistical analysis and graphics software package NCSS 8 (NCSS, LCC, East Kaysville, UT, USA; see http://www.ncss.com) was used to create a scatterplot, establishing the correlation between the use of emerging technologies and the level of authentic learning of each individual case. To test for interrater reliability among the five researchers, Free-Marginal Multirater Kappa was calculated, which is used in fields of content analysis and meta-analysis when a researcher wants to determine how well raters agree on the coding of nominal variables, in particular for cases, in which raters’ distributions of cases into categories are not restricted (Randolph, 2005). This is the case when a rater is free to assign cases to categories with no limits on how many cases must go into each category (as opposed to, eg, Fleiss’ Multirater Kappa, see Brennan & Prediger, 1981).