We argue that the availability and penetration of mobile technology in society in general, and among young persons in particular, have consequences for how students employ IT in educational settings. This paper is an exploration of what it means empirically, analytically and for design to take the use of technology introduced by students, rather than by teachers, in their learning activities, as a starting point for research on IT and learning.
Introduction At the moment we see how ownership of mobile and networked devices is increasing. As a consequence, this increases the potential for students to bring their own IT to educational settings. The possibility of bringing your own smartphone or laptop greatly increases the possibilities to personally define and design the use. We argue that the availability and penetration of mobile technology in society in general, and among young persons in particular, have consequences for how students employ IT in educational settings.
The proposed focus contrasts a large body of research on the use and design of IT
for educational purposes. Instead of putting learning at the focus of attention, we pay
interest in the technology in action
“… it may be termed a technology-in-practice, to refer to the specific structure
routinely enacted as we use the specific machine, technique, appliance, device, or gadget
in recurrent ways in our everyday situated activities.“
Substantial efforts have been made during the past decades to push IT into
educational settings. The reasons given for designing, or employing new technologies are
often to enhance and support students’ learning. Multi billion dollar projects in North
America, Europe and parts of Asia have been initiated and developed
The motivations for such investments can be debated. The arguments are often based
on that IT “... is equated with the modern world, economic success and the future; so
schools must embrace the technology”
As a result, also the methods for studying mobile-IT-practices have to be adapted.
Historically studies have focused on field experiments where one new technology has
been introduced by the researcher. Such experiments where new technologies are
introduced and evaluated with the purpose of changing the future practice also become
an easy target for criticism. Evaluations of experimental initiatives introducing IT point
to a very limited transformation of educational practices
This perspective demands understanding students as practitioners. This means recognizing “being a student“ as a sustained practice in its own right. What we are talking about here are students in the academic sense. Quite understandably studies investigating aspects of education as a social practice have been emphasizing, and highlighting, potential, or lacking, connections between educational practices and work practices. .
Attempts at changing education with IT and developing educational practices with
IT has proven challenging to developers and researchers, and the results of the efforts
are rarely impressive. We propose that one plausible explanation for the distance
between vision and outcome is that in studies with focus on technology and learning,
students rarely are described or understood as participants within a community of
practice. In summary, research exploring the design and understanding of IT and
technological change within social settings emphasize the importance of understanding the
technology as part of a practice, and focus on that practice in efforts of change. At the
same time research repeatedly disqualify the practice of being a student as an authentic
practice in its own right
Copyright © 2016 for the individual papers by the papers' authors. Copying permitted for private and academic purposes. This volume is published and copyrighted by its editors.
In this paper we argue that research on IT in education mainly have disregarded and
ignored the fact that students themselves introduce and employ IT in their educational
activities. Alternatively, we suggest a focus on the student educational activities as a
practice in its own right. Investigating the particulars of how students include mobile
and ubiquitous hardware and software in their educational activities. We are not
exclusively interested in what is taught or learned with IT, but rather in how the students
employ these tools in practice. The proposed point of departure also removes teachers
from the main focus and brings to front the students as co-producers of educational
practice
Methodologically, we suggest that the collection of empirical material on students’ IT in use should be based on first hand studies of what they actually do. In the examples we have demonstrated the value of an interest in students’ social practices, to be able to understand IT in higher education. When engaging in research on technology use in higher education, what we might interest ourselves in, find, see and change, will be inherently dependent on what practice we are investigating, the practice of teachers, or that of students.
Looking at the practice of students, rather than at the practice of teachers, or teaching, affects what is interesting, how it should be studied, and the design of IT support. Instead of defining the study by the technologies implemented by the teachers, for learning purposes, we look at which digital resources the students mobilize to get the job done. Consequently, it will be possible to explore how this use of IT might be connected to educational activities, and further more interestingly, how it relates to and shape learning. This can then be the starting point for discussions on the presence of particular technologies in educational settings. It could also feed a debate on the forms for engaging in lectures, examinations, group work, and other academic genres.
One way framing the suggested attempts of focusing students’ technologies in action
is to understand this as an attempt of taking the perspective of the students using
different methods for collecting and analyzing data. Almost trivial might seem the very
physical placement in the studied settings, placing the researcher in the back among the
students and at the coffee-tables. Viewing the settings from the angle of the students
However, methodologically, the main challenge is the change in analytical perspective. The mere statement that being a student is a practice in its own right, and the skills developed are not only (or even mainly) connected to future work, is provoking to some. Taking the student perspective mean to investigate what it takes to successfully complete the work of students. This is not only about learning, but also about getting good grades, having en pleasant time, enjoying the respect of co-students, i.e. all the aspects part of being a participant in a practice. It essentially would also mean to look at how bullying, cheating, and other less desirable aspects of being a student. Collecting empirical data on such activities might be difficult. Students know that they are supposed to be engaged in particular activities, which means that self-reporting or interviews might be quite misleading. However, there are numerous ways for collecting data that are not dependent on relying on users own understanding of what they actually do with their tools.
The shift could also possibly change the design of new tools for student work. If we Proc. of Fourth International Workshop on Cultures of Participation in the Digital Age - CoPDA 2016 Gothenburg (Sweden), October 23, 2016 (published at http://ceur-ws.org).
Copyright © 2016 for the individual papers by the papers' authors. Copying permitted for private and academic purposes. This volume is published and copyrighted by its editors.
pay less interest in supporting teachers, and use less effort in building catalysts for learning, then more efforts can be put into supporting the work of students. As in all design activities the judgment of the designer will play a crucial part. If we are to decide what activities of the practice to support we might want to compare how such a support would align or conflict with the efforts of teachers, and the goals for learning. For example, are we willing to build systems where students will be more successful in higher education, but learn less? In other words, would it be suitable to make it easier, more convenient, or more efficient to succeed in higher education, without regarding what students are learning. Such a system would certainly raise more fundamental questions of the depth and authenticity of learning and knowing, as well as how knowledge are tested and assessed in education, which are beyond the scope of this paper.
In the table below we present some of the design paradoxes which we have been dealing with in our design work, attempting to engage in design aligned with the practice of being a student, rather than of being a teacher.
support framed by education
for causality between teaching, technology and learning
Support for the job of displaying something learned Supporting for dealing with and consuming instruction Making the work of learning and displaying learning more efficient Design aligned with values and norms of being a student
dents and teachers
The paradoxes presented in the table could be criticized for giving an overly cynical picture of the two practices. Of course students care about learning, but ultimately only those who are able to produce valued externalizations of learning are successful as students. And of course teachers are not naïve to the extent that they don’t understand that some of the important work of a student is to display valued externalizations of learning. However, the polarization is useful when trying to explore one whose behalf the designer is working, and push articulation of the values underlying the design work.
Finally, we want to stress that even though we propose the design for student practice design attempts should not be carried out on the expense of the teachers’ practices. Proc. of Fourth International Workshop on Cultures of Participation in the Digital Age - CoPDA 2016 Gothenburg (Sweden), October 23, 2016 (published at http://ceur-ws.org).
Copyright © 2016 for the individual papers by the papers' authors. Copying permitted for private and academic purposes. This volume is published and copyrighted by its editors.
Building IT support for students could even possibly allow for teachers to not become
experts in the same components of IT use as the students. The “disharmony” in
knowledge of, and interest in, how to use IT is often understood as one of the factors
contributing to the failures of engagingly introducing IT in education