Students using their own devices – e-learning stuff podcast

~ davefoord

My last blog post was about changing attitudes about using learner owned devices, which then prompted an e-learning stuff podcast with James Clay, Lilian Soon, and Ron Mitchell, where we discussed this basic idea further, with James playing devils advocate, and Lilian, Ron and Myself making sense of the some of the issues (barriers) that are often presented when this issue is addressed.

Some of the key messages are about giving the learners choice, looking at the teaching activities not the technologies, and the idea is not to completely replace organisation owned computers, but allow learners to use their own instead, thus liberating other computers for students who may not be able to afford their own ipad or similar.

I made a point towards the end, about how letting learners use their own devices offers wonderful accessibility benefits for disabled learners, and I think these benefits outweigh the problems of the digital divide issues, which can be managed through sensible financial investment, good management and decision making.

A point was also made about the cultural change required to make this work, but one thing that is in our favour in this area, is we are not looking for a wholesale and sudden shift in attitude from our staff – but instead if we allow those that want to work this way to do so, once others see the benefits, and students identify which ideas they like and don’t like, it is then easier for other staff to follow suit over a period of time, and I think this shift can happen gradually over a period of time, allowing the infra-structure to upgrade sufficiently, and the cost associated can be offset against savings in not replacing as many organisation computers as they naturally reach the end of their lifetime.

Taken from http://farm5.static.flickr.com/7037/6868878321_1f659890d3_b.jpg on 2012-3-06
Original URL – http://www.flickr.com/27214509@N00/6868878321/ created on 2011-12-24 17:38:57
April RinneCC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Published by davefoord

Dave is an experienced FE and HE lecturer, who during his years of teaching (at Loughborough College), developed and perfected many techniques for providing high quality, innovative, and differentiated learning. Some of his best known work is in the area of ILT (e-learning) - using technology to enhance the learning experience. It is in this area that he has considerable experience and knowledge, and has received National recognition for his practical understanding and skills in this area of work. Dave has run over 1000 staff development sessions on over 100 different learning and teaching topics at Loughborough College, The University of Derby and since going free-lance. All of his sessions are very active, engaging sessions using a variety of different techniques.

One thought on “Students using their own devices – e-learning stuff podcast”

  1. why is a school like an aeroplane? Because you switch off all the useful stuff as you walk in through the door.

    In an industry/sector that should be encouraging education and learning inside (timetabled), outside (self study) and beyond the classroom (life long learning), far too often we have the “deploy and protect” IT led culture. The equivalent of our home Internet Service Provider deciding that we can only use XYZ brand/specification of device/operating system/application set when connecting to their infrastructure.

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