Megan Poore's List: reports and studies

• My Review is about the needs of children and young people. It is about preserving their right to take the risks that form an inherent part of their development by enabling them to play video games and surf the net in a safe and informed way.

• In this paper we argue that the digital divide continues to present a serious and significant threat to the establishment of the UK as a successful digital society. There is overwhelming evidence that as ICT becomes woven into the fabric of everyday life then the divisions in ICT use are strengthening rather than diminishing. At the same time, individuals from all sectors of society can be considered as being digitally disadvantaged – not just those who are socially excluded in general.

• • The digital divide, the division between the digital ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’, has not been entirely overcome and persists in several dimensions: in access to, and engagement with, technology; the capability of the technology; and in individual competence  
  • Use of Web 2.0 technologies is nevertheless high and pervasive across all age groups from 11 to 15 upwards  
  • Using Web 2.0 technologies leads to development of a new sense of communities of interest and networks, and also of a clear notion of boundaries in web space – for example personal space (messages), group space (social networking sites such as Facebook) and publishing space (blogs and social media sites such as
    YouTube⁴)  
  • There is an area within the boundaries of the so-called group space that could be developed to support learning and teaching  
  • The processes of engaging with Web 2.0 technologies develop a skill set that matches both to views on 21st-century learning skills and to those on 21st-century employability skills – communication, collaboration, creativity, leadership and technology proficiency  
  • Information literacies, including searching, retrieving, critically evaluating information from a range of appropriate sources and also attributing it – represent a significant and growing deficit area
• • Present-day students are heavily influenced by school methods of delivery so that shifts in educational practice there can be expected to impact on expectations of approaches in higher education  
  • Face to face contact with staff – the personal element in study – matters to students  
  • Imagining technology used for social purposes in a study context presents conceptual difficulties to learners as well as a challenge to their notions of space. They need demonstration, persuasion and room to experiment in this context  
  • Staff capability with ICT is a further dimension of the digital divide, and effective use of technology, ie to enhance learning, is as much of an issue as practical operation, ie getting it to work  
  • Students’ practical skills with ICT can be harnessed by staff to good effect in both domains – operation and effective use in delivery
• The world they encounter in higher education has been constructed on a wholly different set of norms. Characterised broadly, it is hierarchical, substantially introvert, guarded, careful, precise and measured.
• They aren’t demanding different approaches; rather they are making such adaptations as are necessary for the time it takes to gain their qualifications. Effectively, they are managing a disjuncture, and the situation is feeding the natural inertia of any established system. It is, however, unlikely to be sustainable in the long term.
• Rather it means adapting to and capitalising on evolving and intensifying behaviours that are being shaped by the experience of the newest technologies. In practice it means building on and steering the positive aspects of those behaviours such as experimentation, collaboration and teamwork, while addressing the negatives such as a casual and insufficiently critical attitude to information. The means to these ends should be the best tools for the job, whatever they may be.

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• 6.4 Challenges in a social software initiative
  How does the social software fit within the learning and teaching context?
  *Integrating the activities involving tool(s) with the learning outcomes of the course
  *Situating the tool(s) within the context of the course
  What are the concerns of students regarding the use of social software tools?
  *Concerns about unequal participation in group activities
  *Negative comments or non-constructive feedback by fellow students
  *Lack of socialisation
  *Selective commenting
  *Lack of trust of peer feedback
  *Ownership issues about contributions in a shared space in a group-activity
  *Being forced to comment
  *Lack of student engagement
  *Resistance to sharing artefacts in the public or collaborative space
  *Student enthusiasm or non-interest
  *Collaboration perceived as onerous in flexible part-time distance education
  *Privacy vs. community building
  *Personal (social) and academic boundaries
  
  What are the training needs for students and educators?
  *Assumptions about students’ skills with tools and impact on development of training
  materials
  *Training the educators
  *Health and safety guidance
  *Administering users who register for themselves
  *Code of practice and group working norms
  *Copyright and intellectual property issues
  
  What are the technological obstacles or specific technological requirements?
  *Poor usability
  *Changes in the software in the public domain
  *Lack of control of tools in the public domain
  *Lack of technical support for tools in the public domain
  *Lack of technical support towards the initiative inside the institution
  *Firewalls:
  *Technology mismatches
  *Feature-rich tools in the public domain
  
  What are the concerns of institutions, educators and students of using tools in the public domain?
  *Students want to remain anonymous in the public domain
  *Data protection and privacy concerns
  *Concerns about the public nature of the social networking group
  *Lack of control over social software tools in the public domain
  *Reliability of the service
  *Concerns about support from external companies
  *Concerns about resources and tools in the public domain
  *Public vs. private spaces within the tools
  *Checking the legitimacy of usage and resource implications for an institution:
  *Delays in decision making at organisational level
  *Appropriateness of the content that is posted in the public domain or in the collaborative space of the initiative
  *‘Policing’ the content
  *Adapting publically available tools
  *Controlling spam
  *Keeping the social networking ‘private’
  *Moderation of discussions
  *Position of the institution regarding endorsement of the tools in the public domain
  *
  * - Megan Poore on 2009-06-24
• 6.5 Issues that need to be considered for a social software
  initiative
  *Workload issues for both staff and students
  
  How does an educator’s role change when social software is used?
  *Changing role of the educator:
  *Moderation of the discussions
  *Monitoring the usage of the tools
  
  Are there any accessibility issues with these tools?
  
  Are there issues of assessment in courses, which use social software?
  *Assessment of the activities
  *Group size - Megan Poore on 2009-06-24
• 7.1 Benefits to the organisations
  *Student retention
  *Image-building
  *Alumni community building
  
  7.2 Challenges to the organisations
  *The tension between social software tools in the pubic domain and the VLE
  *Policies about the usage of social software tools for both educators and students
  *Firewalls and access to tools in the public domain
  
  7.3 Benefits to the educators
  *Being able to track student’s process and intervene early
  *Being able to review students’ contributions
  *Being able to teach interactively rather than broadcast
  
  7.4 Challenges to the educators
  *Changing the way they teach
  *Diverse needs of students
  *Designing and assessing learning activities
  *Workload issues
  *Perceived role of the educator
  
  7.5 Benefits to the students
  *Collaborative and peer-to-peer learning
  *Gaining transferable skills for work environments
  *Developing an e-portfolio for future employment
  *Collation of resources
  
  7.6 Challenges to the students
  *Group working in collaborative authoring spaces
  *Deriving value from the tools
  *Learning new tools
  *Pedagogy vs. technology
  *Concerns about their materials in the public domain
  *Invasion of students’ social spaces
  *Preference for individualistic learning rather than collaborative learning - Megan Poore on 2009-06-24
• 9 Recommendations
  9.1 Be learner-centred
  9.2 Consider the impact on staff
  9.3 Identify your key stakeholders
  9.4 Be convinced yourself
  9.5 Be prepared to spend time
  9.6 Do not hesitate to learn from others
  9.7 Keep a log of the experiences
  9.8 Be willing to disseminate
  9.9 Be prepared to monitor and intervene
  9.10 Evaluate the initiative
  9.11 Be prepared to adapt and change
  
  
  
  
  
  - Megan Poore on 2009-06-24

• "(85% of resondents used SNSs], ad an amazing 95% of those 18-19 years old), and we also found that students are neither obsessed with them nor careless in the way they share information about themselves.
  
  Most of our respondents spent 5 hours or less per week on SNSs, and lmost 9 in 10 place access restrictions on their profiles." (5-6) - Megan Poore on 2009-07-09
• "respondents consider themselves quite Internet savvy. A full 79.5% give themselves glowing reports about their ability ..." (11)
  
  "Many educators believe that students' perceptions about their IT skill levels and Internet savvy are questionable, characteriing their approach to information literacy as do-it-yourself and often relying too heavily on peers rather than on library staff or faculty." (11)
  
  "This potential gap between actual and perceived skills and literacy is important to understand and factor into strategies for teaching and learning" (11) - Megan Poore on 2009-07-09
• "Although respondents are generally enthusiastic about IT, most say they prefer only a 'moderate' amount of IT in their courses (59.3%)." (11) - Megan Poore on 2009-07-09
• "Four themes emerged -- that the lack of face-to-face interaction detracts from learning, that online courses facilitate teaching, that technical problems still exist, and that online courses require students to 'teach themselves,' making the courses more demanding." (12) - Megan Poore on 2009-07-09
• "ECAR finds that fewer than half of students think that most of their instructors use IT effectively in courses." (13) - Megan Poore on 2009-07-09
• "Convenience is the clear front-runner" when it comes to using a CMS. (13) - Megan Poore on 2009-07-09
• "SNSs do not seem to be so much about making friends of people students have never met" (15). - Megan Poore on 2009-07-09
• "Why this lack of strong concern? One possibility is that students who say they are less concerned may just be unaware of the risks inherent in SNSs. Alternatively, since SNSs have capabilities for protecting personal information, it is likely that respondents who do actively place restrictions and/or take care in what they put on SNSs factor that into their answers and express less concern. In fact, most respondents using SNSs do put restrictions on who can access their profiles (87.4%), and nearly half (45.4%) say they put a lot of restrictions on them. Females are more likely to place restrictions and to place more restrictions than males. Younger respondents are somewhat more likely to do so than older respondents. However, older respondents are less likely to reveal personal information in the first place." (16) - Megan Poore on 2009-07-09

• "When designing your inclusive institution, consider the following objectives. This is not an exhaustive list but rather a starting point:
  *foster a sense of community
  *develop universally-designed assessment processes
  *let learners take ownership
  *provide authentic and meaningful learning experiences
  *encourage collaborative teaching
  *encourage cooperative learning
  *develop collaborative problem-solving." (15) - Megan Poore on 2009-06-24
• "A growing body of evidence from Becta shows that the impact of ICT on intermediate learning outcomes – such as motivation, engagement and independence in learning – can be significant. The benefits include increased collaboration, greater engagement and persistence, more on-task behaviour and better conceptual understanding (Becta 2007).
  
  ICT has also been shown to be effective in re-engaging disaffected young people, particularly when used to enhance creativity (Becta 2007a). It improved learners’ motivation and they
  learned to take responsibility for their own learning. It also helped them build relationships with others.
  
  In particular, technologies with strong visual elements – such as digital video, drama-oriented software and multimedia
  presentations – can be effective ways of engaging learners. Also, mobile technologies have been shown to be effective in supporting
  learning for disaffected and ‘hard-to-reach’ pupils, where attending school is problematic for personal or family/cultural reasons (Becta
  2007). Online learning can also be of benefit to learners who do not do well in a formal learning context (Becta 2008)" (13) - Megan Poore on 2009-06-24
• 3.2 Benefits of using digital technology (36)
  *Making connections
  *Fostering collaboration
  *Encouraging communication
  *Providing a dynamic repository
  - Megan Poore on 2009-06-24

• Wikis are one of the newest features of Web 2.0. This article describes the implementation of a project in a marketing course in which students created an interactive textbook using wiki software. Several surprises encountered along the way are described, and the unique problem of grading individual contributions to a wiki is discussed. The author concludes that the wiki work improved the collaboration skills of students, but effects on learning could not be assessed. Strategies are provided that other instructors interested in using a wiki in the classroom can use to make the experience fulfilling for both instructor and students. The article ends with a call for the development of better grading methods and for assessment of the impact of wikis on learning.

• Planning for sustainable success (7)
  *Support a vision for sustainable technology
  *Encourage schools to manage information better and more securely
  *Work to establish technology standards and specifications
  *Develop appropriate learning environments
  *Meet best prctice in technical reliability - Megan Poore on 2009-06-24
• Contents
  *Improve schools
  *Plan sustainable success
  *Achieve best value
  *Safeguard learners online
  *Inspire parental engagement
  *Make learning personal
  *Support the future of learning today - Megan Poore on 2009-06-24