Getting started on a PhD is harder that I thought. Not least the distractions of my work commitments with Core Education, but just in trying to hone in on the exact nature of my topic. I have now fairly well settled on the following working title, although it might need some further tidying as I progress with the lit review:
Learners and Emerging Technologies: An investigation into whether the nature of learning process are changing
In particular I am looking at two central questions:
- Are young people today, learning in a different way due to the emergence of new tools?
- Are teachers becoming more facilitators of learning as a result?
Source of Data? Well, I recently had a meeting with the team at EuroLink – Virtual International School, or known for short as ‘ELvis’ who have agreed to have me on board as a researcher. In the picture below you can see me explaining my research to them, remotely from Yorkshire. The picture itself demonstrates the new learning environment we are increasingly finding ourselves in.
Explaining my research to the ELvis mob
ELvis uses new and emerging technologies, which challenge the traditional approaches to education. The group intends to research new approaches to teaching, learning and assessment and this dovetails very well with my own research interests.
The second project is still being confirmed but is equally exciting, yet slightly different to ELvis – using immersive technologies rather than a community learning platform.
Tags: pedagogy · research4 Comments
Hi Sarah. This work (brief synopsis and links to project below) may of use in your PhD - “The Net Generation Encountering eLearning at University Project”…”The overall aim of the research is to provide an empirically based understanding of the Net Generation as they first engage with e-learning in tertiary education.”
http://coeducate.bolton.ac.uk/2009/10/22/the-net-generation-encountering-elearning-at-university-project/
That’s great … many thanks Stephen. The points that you have highlighted there such as:
the extent to which technology use and adoption is a result of users need and life circumstances rather than being explained by Prensky like notions of Digital Natives and Immigrants, there was no evidence of a strong schism between cohorts of learners (already a damaged idea but with increasing evidence based research now debunking many of the ideas;
are indeed interesting and although I will be looking at a younger age group, I wonder to what extent this is still true.
I am reminded of a young friend of mine who has made a conscious decision to learn a piece of work for an AS level exam, off by heart, rather than to understand the work BUT has chosen to do this because of the way the assessment process has been set up. I wonder how much we do both as educators and as learners, is in fact driven by this assessment process.
Hi Sarah!
Nice blog. However, I wondered about your thesis title:
“Learners and Emerging Technologies: An investigation into whether the nature of learning process are changing”
Might it be better for the subtitle to be, An investigation into whether the nature of learning process IS changing”?
Just a thought.
Good luck
Lindsay
Hi Lindsay, many thanks for your comment - funnily enough, my thesis title has changed about 15 times! Currently it stands at this, “Learners and Emerging Technologies: An investigation into the nature of learning processes” but who knows what it will be by the end …