Creativity for learner voice

Creativity - a keyword coming out from last weeks’ FutureLab Conference (Seen & Heard – Young people creating digital media) on how different kinds of digital media can be used in to get learners’ voice heard. 

If we are to truly hear what our learners are experiencing and thinking, different speakers pointed out the essential steps for success: Enagagement.  Our learners are more likely to be engaged, if they find what they’re doing interesting and relevant.  Technology, without any doubts, has a key role to play here.  E.g. colleagues from imitating the dog have demostrated how simple video making and editing techniques can facilitate students’ expression of their ideas and emotions.  They even invited all participants to give it a go, so to see how “accessible” these creative technological tools can be in a school setting.

So what role does creativity play in other context?  Every so often we try to collect students’ “feedback” by methods such as survey and focus group, there is also a question of “why should I bother?” in the air!  While these methods are valid and very useful, a more communicative and ”cross-discipline” approach would be needed if we would like to shed light on what our learners really want to share with us.  By combining “consultation” with other activities (such as curriculum-based tasks), not only can learners be more naturally “engaged” in the process, they are also more likely to relate to the topic.  A good idea from Oaklands College demostrates it well - Combining learner voice activities with citizenship education. 

So is there a room to borrow this idea for ICT policy consultation?  Safety and well-being in the online environment are so crucial in our daily lives, but often learners are not well-equipped with the knowledge, or supported in reflecting their own habits and behaviours.  So why can’t we have some learning activities around these issues, so that students can acquire new skills on one hand, and we can listen to their voice on the other?  At the moment, it is not very common for currculum development, ICT professionals and student support services to work together.  Gathering effort and expertise up from all parties is definitely the way forward.  Are you ready?

Embedding learner voice

Throughout the last months, we have talked about how different technological tools can facilitate learner engagement and participation.  Today I’d like to take a step back and reflect on how we can embed learner voice in our institutional ICT development and implementation.

Why is learner voice important?

As the “navigator” of the learning journey, learners play a crucial role in the process – Sir Andrew Foster has spelt out the importance of learner voice  in the report Realising the Potential in 2005.  By having learners’ input in shaping the provision, their learning needs will be better met, hence education quality can be enhanced.  When learners have a say and truly get heard, they’d also feel a sense of ownership, which is beneficial for both the learners and the institutions.  This’s particularly relevant to technological development, as emerging technology is simply part of their lives.

Many might think learners would put forth demands which are not feasible or pragmatic.  From my personal observations, however, this doesn’t necessary be the case.  Learners, ranging from 17 year-old doing their A-Levels or apprenticeship, to adult learners doing their basic skills courses, do understand the dilemma institutions facing.  Embedding learner voice is about maintaining the ongoing dialogue, and having learners as co-partners in the process.

How to involve learners?

Traditionally, learners’ view is mainly collected through survey.  It’s an effective way to take stock of the current situation and generate ideas for improvement.  Lots of colleges now have the “you-say-we-do” response to learners’ feedback, which is a good practice to encourage continued participation (who want to see their opinions sinking into the deep ocean?).  At the national level, LSC has been collecting learner satisfaction, which briefly touches on technology access; Becta also conducts FE survey specifically looking at learner experience, and the last survey can be found here.  These surveys give us a good overview on what learners think about their ICT experience.  In the last four years, JISC has also carried a series of research studies on learner experience, covering 200 learners in FE and HE sector.  Their recent publication, Responding to Learners Pack, is a very informative package for those of you who are looking at learner voice development at your institution.  Some of the suggested research methods, such as Interview Plus and Technology Prompt Cards, are very helpful to mix with traditional focus group method.

What’s next? Empowering learners!

While it’s encouraging to see learners’ view is taken into consideration, our effort to embed learner voice can’t stop here.  For example, when you receive a figure saying “80% of our students think that they have sufficient access to computers”, what does the figure actually mean?  When you talk to your learners and they don’t come back with negative feedbacks, does it necessary mean the current experience is excellent? 

To truly embed learner voice and empower learners to shape their own learning experience, we’ve to go beyond feedback collection, dig deeper on various issues together with our learners.  This, however, doesn’t come easy.  Besides issues such as cultural change and resources limitation, we also need to put much effort in supporting our learners as co-partners!  Support with appropriate channels, information and training is essential for their participation in the process.  It is true that not every learner is interested in talking about technology, but it could also be the case where they’re not conscious about how much difference they can make with their participation.  If we believe learner voice is important, empowerment is the key to move forward!

Next time I’d like to share some initial thoughts on how learners can contribute to the institutional ICT development and implementation.  As for now, it’s your turn for sharing:  Do you have experience, ideas or tips on engaging your learners at your institutions?  If so please do let us know, your comments are welcomed, as always.

New ideas? Opportunities from FutureLab!

Are you having innovative ideas on how technology can make learning enjoyable, fruitful and flexible, but not having enough funding or expertise to push the ideas forward?  Now you’ve a golden opportunity!

FutureLab, a non-profit organisation working acorss the whole education system with different partners, aims to develop ways to transform learning.  They’re now calling for ideas of gaming for learning.  Successful applications will receive supports of expertise and funding, as well as research and publication opportunities.  Click here to check it out.

The deadline is 8 October 2009, so you better start racking your brains now!

Engaging adult learners

A little ago, JISC Regional Support Centre Yorkshire & Humber has published a case study on how Facebook can be used to engage learners and improve retention.  Many people tend to link Facebook, or technology in general to young people studying at colleges or universities, but Theresa Rowland from the Hull City Council Adult and Community Learning Service (Hull ACL) has shared her experience with us and said it was not necessary the case.

Technology is also part of adults’ lives

According to Theresa, technological tools such as Facebook and texting are really useful to help them stay in touch with their learners.  They use Facebook instant message function, in a specific timeslot in the evening, to support learners who are undertaking NVQ courses.  Most of these learners are in their 20s and 30s, they have their own Facebook profiles.  It is, therefore, easy for tutors to answer learners’ questions, discuss their learning progress, etc. outside the “normal learning hours”.  It’s really helpful for learners with family and other obligations, as it gives them timely support without them juggling to meet their tutors face-to-face. 

Is technology only for younger people?  Theresa does not think so: their learners, who are aged 60 or 70, also use tools such as Skype to keep in touch with their grandchildren in Australia or New Zealand.  Therefore technology does have a role to play to support learners in all ages, when the right tools are chosen – tools that can be easily accessed by learners. 

Adult learners’ access to technology

Accessibility is one of the key criteria for choosing “the right tools”.  As not all adult learners have time to sit in front of the computers, Theresa pointed out the potentials of mobile technology, as most of their learners use mobiles everyday.  Not only can learners access to internet via their mobiles (therefore contacting their tutors via Facebook, for example, is possible), they can also keep them informed and collect feedback through texting. 

Besides mobiles, she also believes that access to computers and internet service is no longer a problem, as learners can get access in their local libraries, BBC Learning Centre, or their children’s schools which make their facilities available.  To maximise the benefit of the reosurce sharing, Hull ACL also actively listens to learners’ need, e.g. to open their own learning facilities in the evenings besides normal day time opening hours, so that learners can drop-in and use their computers.

Listening to learners

Hull ACL’s experience once again reminds us the importance of listening to our learners – it’s wonderful to make e-learning and other technological facilities available; to truly benefit our learners, however, it’s essential to plan according to the learners’ needs.  We’ve to consider how they access to computers, when it fits their daily engagement the best, or which tools they find most user-friendly.  With the improvement of technology accessibility and our increasing awareness of learners’ needs, together with some creativity and flexibility, we can for sure harness technology and make better learning experience for our learners.

Reference: LSIS Excellence Gateway – Hull City Council Adult and Community Learning: Facebook your learners for engagement and retention
Special thanks to: Theresa Rowland, Learning Development Officer and e-CPD Advisor

Digital literacy

After our series of training and consultation events with college students, I am now working on the footage and data collection from the raw materials.  One initial and common response from students, when we asked them how they used technology for college work, was to “research with tools such as Google and Wikipedia”.  While this is understandable and most of us do that to quickly retrieve information, is it good enough for more serious academic pursuit?

A student from Ireland conducted an “experiment” by putting a faked quota onto Wikipedia (News article can be found here) and tested whether the public would be able to identify it.  A number of media organisations, including Guardians (Their response can be found here), failed to verify the validity of the information. While this incident shows the worrying practices of media or the public as a whole, we also need to ask the question on whether our students are aware of the issues of information validity and reliability on the internet.

When we discussed about the needs of ICT guidance and support with our students, they often associated the knowledge and skills with application and usage of hardwares and softwares. Transferrable skills such as criticial thinking do not seem to come across their minds as something related to the technological world. Some of them also believed that the “digital literacy” we referred to was more or less like “common sense” and was taught many times during schools.  Bearing this kind of students’ feedback in mind, what do we need to do to raise the awareness, as well as equip our students with the necessary skills which they wrongly believe they master well?

This experiment done by the Irish student is a timely call for a reflection on what and how we should support our students in the technological era!