The Implications of Technologies for Learning

and Teaching: Students and Staff Perspectives

Maree Gosper
Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
Mittwoch, 18. Mai 2011, 17.15 – 18.45, A5, 6, Raum B 317

Universities are investing substantial resources in sophisticated fully integrated campus-wide IT

infrastructure to meet existing educational requirements and to provide opportunities for innovation in
learning and teaching. In doing so, it is not unusual for the focus of activity to be on ensuring the smooth
running of the technology in secure and interoperable environments, at the expense of gaining an
understanding of the implications of the technologies for learning and teaching. This presentation will
discuss two studies undertaken at Australian Universities which set about to redress this situation by
exploring the perspectives of students and staff on their experiences of using technologies for learning
and teaching.
The first study is on Web-based Lecture Technologies - technologies which record face-to-face lectures
for delivery in streaming media formats to students on demand. Their uptake is widespread and set to
continue. While students have responded positively, and for many their use has transformed learning,
staff on the whole are more sceptical about their use. Changing attendance patterns and disquiet about
the quality of learning are amongst some of their concerns. One the themes arising from the study was a
miss-match between student and staff perceptions of the value of the technologies and more broadly
expectations of studying at university.
Following on from this, the second study aimed to gain a better understanding of students’ experiences
and expectations of technologies. Twenty six technologies were surveyed ranging the established ones
(email, discussion forums, the learning management systems) to the newer social networking
technologies (blogs, wikis, twitter and virtual worlds). Their use in everyday life as well as for learning and
teaching was explored. On the whole the findings indicated that students would like more use made of
technologies, with easy access, efficiency and connectedness being high priorities. This has implications
for the design of learning for the future and also for the provision of technologies and services by the
University.