...an independent inquiry into the strategic and policy implications for
higher education of the experience and expectations of learners in the
light of their increasing use of the newest technologies.
Essentially, these are Web 2.0 or Social Web technologies,
technologies that enable communication, collaboration, participation
and sharing.
Web 2.0 – the Social Web: Software that supports group interaction’
Shirky C, 2003
As we began our work, the online lifestyle of young people going
into higher education was inescapable, and those working in it had
sensed a clear change in their students’ pre-entry experience. The time
was ripe for an informed, impartial assessment of this and what it
might herald for higher education policy and strategy. This was our
remit. Since they represent the future, we took young learners as our
baseline. We have, however, been concerned with learners of all ages.
We reviewed the findings of completed and, where they were
available, ongoing studies related to our remit; took oral evidence
from a range of practising academics and researchers; and commissioned
briefings and studies, including one substantial piece of work on
current and developing international practice in the use of Web 2.0 in
higher education. We met six times in full session and held one event
dedicated to hearing evidence.
We structured our Inquiry into a consideration of the prior
experience of higher education learners, their expectations, and
international practice in the use of Web 2.0 in higher education. From
our findings in these three areas, we identified a number of critical
issues, the exploration of which then informed our conclusions and
recommendations.
Key findings
Prior experience of higher education learners
Today’s learners exist in a digital age. This implies access to, and
use of, a range of Social Web tools and software that provide gateways
to a multiplicity of interactive resources for information,
entertainment and, not least, communication. We looked at access to
digital technologies and their use from the point of view of level and
pattern, purpose, approach and consequences. Our key findings were that:
- 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
YouTube1) - 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
Learner expectation
We looked at expectation from the perspectives of nature and level
prior to entry to higher education and then response to the actuality
on course. Our key findings were that:
- 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
Web 2.0 use in higher education now
We looked at the nature and extent of current deployment of Web 2.0
technologies in higher education and sought, in the process, to gauge
the UK’s position relative to that of other countries. Here we found
that institutions of higher education in the UK are presently as
advanced as any internationally in their developing adoption of Web
2.0,
and that the UK is generally well served at present in the
infrastructure – specifically broadband width – that is necessary to
support Web 2.0 technologies. Other key findings were:
- Web 2.0 technologies are being deployed across a broad spectrum of
university activities and in similar ways in the UK and overseas
- Deployment is in no way systematic and the drive is principally
bottom up, coming from the professional interest and enthusiasm of
individual members of staff
- In learning and teaching, usage is patchy but a considerable
working base exists, as it does in other areas of university business,
including administration, student support and advertising and marketing
- On the basis of the strength and reach of its broadband
infrastructure at least, the UK is presently well placed to be at the
forefront of future development
- Advice and guidance is available to institutions, but there is no
blueprint for implementation of Web 2.0 technologies, and each is
currently deciding its own path
Critical issues
The critical issues we have identified fall into three groups:
immediate and fundamental; ongoing drivers to change; and fundamental
over time. We believe addressing those in the first group to be key to
capitalising on the momentum that exists in those in the second and
realising the significant opportunity that lies in that in the third.
Immediate and fundamental
The issues here concern the digital divide and information literacies, and they are relevant to both staff and students.
The digital divide
Addressing the digital divide from the student perspective means
ensuring access to technology for all and the development of practical
skills in its use. This is a basic entitlement. For staff it means
ensuring technical proficiency, reflection on approaches to learning
and teaching, and the development of practice, and skills in practice,
of e-pedagogy – learning with and/or through technology – so that when
they choose to use technology, they can do so effectively.
Information literacies
Tackling information literacies from the student point of view means
ensuring they possess the skills and understanding to search,
authenticate and critically evaluate material from the range of
appropriate sources, and attribute it as necessary. Allied to this is
providing for the development of web-awareness so that students operate
as informed users of web-based services, able to avoid unintended
consequences. For staff, the requirement is to maintain the currency of
skills in the face of the development of web-based information sources.
Ongoing drivers to change
This group comprises issues with ongoing momentum.
Tradition
Students are looking for traditional approaches, notably personal
contact, in a modern setting, ie web-supported. The bridge between Web
2.0 in social use and in learning is as yet only dimly perceived by
students, and only a little more clearly by staff. The fact that it is
perceived, however, is likely to act as a spur to its construction.
Environmental factors
These are digitisation of learning materials, a receptive audience
of learners and a cadre of teaching staff connecting the two through
their interest in experimentation and innovation in approaches to
learning and teaching.
Diversity in the learner population
e-Learning incorporating Web 2.0 offers the sense of being a
contributing member of a learning community, which is one of the
hallmarks of higher education. For learners unable to participate in an
actual community for some, or even all, of the time – notably
part-time, distance and, increasingly, work-based – Web 2.0 may be a
reasonable
proxy.
A richer educational experience
Learning that is active – by doing – undertaken within a community
and based on individual’s interests, is widely considered to be the
most effective. Driven by process rather than content, such an approach
helps students become self-directed and independent learners. Web 2.0
is well suited to serving and supporting this type of learning.
Practice in schools
Practice is variable, but the type of approach to learning outlined
above – project- and group-based supported by technology – appears to
be in the ascendancy and so likely to condition expectation in higher
education.
Open source materials and online universities
The growth in both open source materials and online universities
increases the choice available to students of all ages and in all
locations. Adoption of approaches to learning and teaching that take
account of the disposition and attitudes of the student population are
more likely to ensure UK higher education remains an attractive choice.
Skills development
There is a match between what are seen as 21st-century learning
skills, 21st-century employability skills and those engendered by
engagement with Web 2.0 – communication, participation, networking,
sharing. Employability skills, already high on higher education’s
agenda, are also being pursued vigorously through the changes to the 14
to 19 curriculum underway in all parts of the country.
Fundamental over time
The single issue here is the role of the tutor. Tutors are central
to development of approaches to learning and teaching in higher
education. They have much to keep up with, their subject for example,
and developments in their craft – learning and teaching or pedagogy. To
practise effectively, they have also to stay attuned to the disposition
of their students. This is being changed demonstrably by the nature of
the experience of growing up in a digital world. The time would seem to
be right seriously and systematically to begin the process of
renegotiating the relationship between tutor and student to bring about
a situation where each recognises and values the other’s expertise and
capability and works together to capitalise on it. This implies drawing
students into the development of approaches to teaching and learning.
Conclusions
Web 2.0, the Social Web, has had a profound effect on behaviours,
particularly those of young people whose medium and metier it is. They
inhabit it with ease and it has led them to a strong sense of
communities of interest linked in their own web spaces, and to a
disposition to share and participate. It has also led them to
impatience – a
preference for quick answers – and to a casual
approach to evaluating information and attributing it and also to
copyright and legal constraints.
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. The two worlds are currently co-existing, with present-day
students effectively occupying a position on the cusp of change. 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. The next
generation is unlikely to be so accommodating and some rapprochement
will be necessary if higher education is to continue to provide a
learning experience that is recognised as stimulating, challenging and
relevant.
The impetus for change will come from students themselves as the
behaviours and approaches apparent now become more deeply embedded in
subsequent cohorts of entrants and the most positive of them – the
experimentation, networking and collaboration, for example – are
encouraged and reinforced through a school system seeking, in a
reformed curriculum, to place greater emphasis on such dispositions. It
will also come from policy imperatives in relation to skills
development, specifically development of employability skills. These
are backed by employer demands and include a range of ‘soft skills’
such as networking, teamwork, collaboration and self-direction, which
are among those fostered by students’ engagement with Social Web
technologies.
Higher education has a key role in helping students refine, extend
and articulate the diverse range of skills they have developed through
their experience of Web 2.0 technologies. It not only can, but should,
fulfil this role, and it should do so through a partnership with
students to develop approaches to learning and teaching. This does not
necessarily mean wholesale incorporation of ICT into teaching and
learning. 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. The role of institutions of higher education is to enable informed
choice in the matter of those tools, and to support them and their
effective deployment.
Recommendations
We are making recommendations in four main areas: learner skills;
staff skills; infrastructure; and inter-sectoral relationships. We look
to each HEI individually to give consideration to the recommendations,
especially those in the areas of learner and staff skills, and to act
locally in others that have a wider dimension and are directed to
national bodies. Paragraph references are to the main body of the text.
We recommend that:
Area 1: Learner skills
- HEIs take steps to keep abreast of the prior experience and expectations of their student body (paragraphs 48–49; 69; 83)
- HEIs ensure access to appropriate technology for all students and
continue to provide for the development of their technical skills
(paragraphs 34–35; 69)
- HEIs, colleges and schools treat information literacies as a
priority area and support all students so that they are able, amongst
other things, to identify, search, locate, retrieve and, especially,
critically evaluate information from the range of appropriate sources –
web-based and other – and organise and use it effectively, attributed
as necessary, in an appropriate medium (paragraphs 39–40; 42; 73)
- HEIs, colleges and schools also treat web awareness as a priority
area and support all students so that they are able to participate in
web-based activities and use web-based services on an informed basis
(paragraphs 73; 75)
- JISC develops an ongoing research and support programme for
institutions in best practice in developing information literacies and
web awareness (paragraphs 73; 75)
- Becta increases its support for colleges and schools in developing
all aspects of information literacy and web awareness (paragraphs 73;
75)
Area 2: Staff skills
- HEIs support staff to continue to reflect on research into learning
so that they are able to make fully informed choices about their
teaching and assessment methods (paragraphs 86; 88; 98)
- HEIs support staff to become proficient users of an appropriate
range of technologies and skilled practitioners of e-pedagogy,
incorporating both into initial staff training and CPD programmes
(paragraphs 51–53; 70–71)
- HEIs explore ways in which the tutor/student relationship might be
developed based on the Web 2.0 skills and attitudes of students
(paragraphs 52; 89)
- HEIs provide ongoing support for staff to maintain the currency of their information literacies (paragraph 74)
- JISC uses its Regional Support Centres2 to assist colleges in the development of staff in the use of Web 2.0 technologies (paragraphs 51–53; 70–71)
- HEA develops a targeted staff support and CPD programme,
cross-cutting its subject centres, aimed at identifying and spreading
best practice in the use of Web 2.0 tools in pedagogy (paragraphs
51–53; 70–71)
- The Leadership Foundation3
considers the best way to include awareness of the full range of new
technologies in their senior management development
programmes(paragraphs 86; 98)
- JISC and Becta4 continue to support research into teaching and learning using Web 2.0 tools (paragraphs 86; 88; 98)
- TDA5 and LLUK6 consider ways in which Web 2.0 technologies are embedded into training programmes for new staff (paragraphs 51–53; 70–71)
- HEA works with Universities UK7, Guild HE8
and the HE funding bodies to review the UK Professional Standards
Framework for Teaching and Supporting Learning in Higher Education to
ensure that it pays due regard to awareness of new and developing
technologies, their capacities and impact on students and learning and
teaching (paragraphs 51–53; 70–71;74; 80–81; 86; 98)
Area 3: Infrastructure
- JISC continues to ensure the availability of advice and guidance on
the legal and regulatory and other considerations involved in
engagement with Web 2.0 is widely publicised, including, and
especially, to senior management in institutions (paragraph 66)
- JISC continues to develop a research and support programme into the
use of Web 2.0 for all aspects of university business (paragraphs 56;
59; 62–65)
- HEA9
and JISC establish and maintain forums to provide for the sharing and
development of ideas and practice in Web 2.0 technology in all spheres
of university business (paragraphs 56; 59; 62–65)
- JISC works with the HE funding bodies and Universities UK to
explore issues and practice in the development of new business models
that exploit Web 2.0 technologies (paragraph 79)
- The HE funding bodies ensure that funding for investment in
physical infrastructure and research at the national level is
maintained and strengthened with a particular view to enabling and
embedding the flexible use of technology and supporting the research
and development programmes recommended in this report (paragraph 91)
Area 4: Inter-sectoral relationships
- JISC and Becta take the lead in establishing, with other sectoral
bodies, forums for discussion and embedding of close working
relationships between the schools, colleges and university sectors
(paragraphs 48; 69; 83)
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/documents/heweb2.aspxFull report : Higher Education in a Web 2.0 World
