Wk12, A2: Follow-up

Further to my inarticulate ramblings yesterday, I remembered the point I was trying to get to. I was talking about how I thought that student’s perceived value of activities might impact on their performance, but I think it will also have an impact on the choices they make in choosing technologies to support their learning. From my own experience, I think the best example of this has been in my work on e-portfolios in art, design and media subject disciplines.

In our findings, we identified that the numerous drivers for e-portfolio use were misaligned between what the education sector understood an e-portfolio to be for, and what ADM students, lecturers and (probably most importantly) employers thought they were for. It comes back to subject culture, expectations and demand. No surprise then that ADM students don’t like using their portfolios for written reflection, because they see it as creative tool for getting a job – and if you’re a graphic designer, the ability to write about your weaknesses isn’t so high up on the agenda for employers. So, this raises the quesiton, would that student use an institutionally oriented technology that could support reflexive learning?

Basically, I think that student’s beliefs about what they need to do to be successful in their chosen subject have an impact on the choices they make in using technologies.

NB I realise that I am off topic on this activity somewhat, but I also feel as though it has provided me with the basis to form some useful learning for myself.