The tutor encouraged the class groups to produce a driving question early and was instrumental in encouraging this group to use a timeline format and divide its sections. The task description and instructions were consulted regularly during the project.
In the week 11 tutorial, groups were asked to fill in a worksheet outlining their progress. On reading the sheet, Finley asked Ellis what sources Ellis had for the timeline. Ellis replied, “Some are web links and some are journal articles. I think I've had two journal articles—I want more ((shows examples of entries from journals and the article link)).” After a short time, Ellis asked Finley, “What are you planning to do for your present? ((humorously)) Your present” which stimulated talk about the high school laptop scheme. The worksheet asking for progress prompt Ellis and Finley to talk about the approaches each was taking to the project.
4.1.4 Primary infrastructure
The digital artefact incorporated mostly individual work: construction compartmentalised along divided responsibilities. Discussion of concepts and educational technologies was limited, mostly occurring in the week 11 tutorial, partly because of the in-class progress report that prompted them to find more information sources. While Ellis’ interest in facilitating problem-based learning showed a framing of the task as an opportunity for professional learning, there was little conjecture over the course of the project about what teaching might be like in their professional futures, although they contextualised technological developments through their personal experience as students.
Thirteen of the events from Ellis’ ‘Past’ section of the timeline chronicled advances in technology from the development of radio through computing, satellites and the creation of the internet. For example, the 1957 event, entitled “TIME SHARING IS DEVELOPED” described how multiple users could share “the processing power of one computer.” A further ten events described the start of several universities’ distance education programs, the radio “school of the air” and the
establishment of an Australasian organisation. In the week 11 tutorial, Ellis noted that there were 19 events at that stage, but that “I’ll probably add a few more.” The notes on each event related facts, with little contextual comment. For example, the text for 2002:
THE AUSTRALASIAN COUNCIL OF OPEN, DISTANCE AND E-LEARNING IS FORMED
The Australasian Council of open, distance and E-learning is formed in 2002 to support distance and e- learning students studying in universities throughout Australia and New Zealand
_________________________________________________________________________________ Realach. S, Cassidy. V, Averbeck. C. (2012). “The Evolution of distance education in Australia: past, present, future”. Quarterly Review of Distance Education. 13(4) p 247.
In the week 11 tutorial the students briefly discussed research; Jamie was “thinking of using actually journal articles” and tried an online search from the university library home page, and while finding an article, was concerned with its currency, “it is from 2002, so I don’t know.” Jamie agreed to “give it a read” on encouragement from the other two students. The article, about individualised
computer tutoring, was included in the timeline and given the date of 2002. While it was a difficult task for the students to speculate on what a virtual school of the future might be—a task that daunts even experienced educationalists—they generally remained reliant on finding the answer, rather than thinking laterally or speculatively on the trajectory of schooling. That Ellis repeated a search result and found an article that had already been accessed also points to an opportunity in design of the task to support more expansive search/research strategies.
The most animated discussions occurred when the students referred to their experiences and knowledge of technology in their high school classrooms and personal study—school laptops, the change from whiteboards to interactive boards, and video channels were discussed from personal experience and use. Finley and Ellis shared and explored video channels:
Finley: ((To Ellis)) When I'm doing present education, can I put in, they’re not like clips of actual, you know ((pauses with repeated hand gesture out from mouth, as if trying to waft out words)) videos describing virtual education, but they are videos that I like to follow, but they are not lectures because they are not made by the university.
Ellis: Yeah, that's great, it's how you interpret the present, you can do what you want. You can go crazy with it. ((Finley reacts with jazz hands))
((They go on to name and look at sites such as Khan Academy, Maths Online, and Crash Course, which Finley finds interesting because the writer of the novel The Fault in Our Stars is one of the
presenters.))
Finley described the materials as “videos that I like to follow, but they are not lectures because they are not made by the university,” which indicates a distinction between formal and informal learning, between authorised “lectures” and subsidiary material that is “liked,” “loved,” and “followed.” The two group members became visibly energised in their conversation as they showed examples on screen. Finley explained the enthusiasm for the found video objects for the timeline, “because I was working on the present, so I was thinking about the kind of things that I use right now that is kind of like virtual education, which is like YouTube videos, which I like, and stuff like that” (interview). The proximity to their lived experience and the affective nature of the materials that they had found, animated the conversation.
Ellis then brought the discussion into context for the project with a suggestion for Finley’s ‘Present’ section,
Ellis: In your part, you can write how the internet has opened up learning for everyone. You don't need money anymore to go somewhere to learn.
Jamie: ((leans forward to join the conversation)) Cause that's online education now, isn't it? I just realised.
Finley: ((laughing)) Just realised
Jamie: ((smiling)) Just realised. So there won't be like textbooks anymore, you'll just be like Ellis: Yeah, yeah. Even like our library, we don't even go to the library.
Jamie: I haven't been in the library, like, all year. Ellis: I know, right? ((laughing))
Finley: ((laughing)) I've never been into the library.
The conversation extrapolated ideas on future education from technology-related activities, but the sense of “open[ing] up learning for everyone” and changes in activity were not conveyed in the timeline.
Finley’s ‘Present’ section included seven items on YouTube or YouTube channels. It also included ten items covering the introduction of the school laptop scheme and its ‘bring your own device’
replacement, the move to tablets and smartphones, and robotics in education. Compared to the ‘Past’ section, it introduced more contextual comment from the source material to the timeline items, for example:
The idea of learning through game styled education seems a little controversial, though at the University of New South Wales, its already become a reality. Medical students are now able to learn though virtual patients where they would diagnose apply their clinical skills through online scenarios. It helps by reinforcing the concept of "Learn by doing", the student would essentially be doing everything they've learnt in a virtual scenario. Creating online scenarios helps students to apply what they have learnt and using this kind of technology within the majority of modern education could revolutionize the way students gain experience.
________________________________________________________________________________ Ben-Naim, D. (2012) Virtual Campus: Online universities are the future of higher education. The Conversation.
This item summarised benefits of virtual learning, as outlined in the article from the referenced website (Ben-Naim, 2012), where authors are university academics.
The students touched on the scheme that the Australian government introduced to schools in which year nine students received laptops. Finley commented that “Those laptops didn't do much, I got too distracted” to which Ellis replied, “Yeah, people were playing games” (week 11 tutorial). The
timeline event did not, however, comment on the educational worth of the scheme, framing it in the referenced article’s terms of an economic decision, with the choice of image reinforcing the text:
GOVERNMENT QUIETLY ENDS THE LAPTOP SCHEME
As there have been around 1 million laptops issued to students since the beginning of the scheme. Unfortunately by this stage, the government ran out of funding for this scheme and had to
discontinue this scheme. The students of year 9 of 2013, were the last batch of student s to receive a laptop.
_________________________________________________________________________________ Barrett, R. (2013, March). “Government set to end school laptops scheme”. Retrieved from
http://www.abc.net.au/news
Jamie’s ‘Future’ section had only two items, one of which used an image from the film The Matrix to accompany text on “Complete virtual reality” at the (then current) year 2014 that seems to predict the total immersion and “unlimited possibilities” portrayed in that movie, and another the image from the television animated series Futurama to accompany text on ‘The Year 3000’—the year in which that television series is set:
COMPLETE VIRTUAL REALITY.
Having complete virtual realities are a concept that have been played with in the past. Essentially, the idea of being connected to technology and being introduced into a complete virtual world. If this theoretical technological advancement were applied to education, it would essentially keep all current methods of schools and education, but be run in a world with unlimited possibilities. Though this technology is currently being applied to gaming and is just the beginning of future advancements.
- Link to youtube video ‘Hands-On: Sony’s ‘Project Morpheus’ Playstation 4 Virtual Reality Headset’ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7Q4Vf-HwEU (14 mins)
THE YEAR 3000
Of course, it's impossible to predict how the future in edcation will be in 1000 years time, but there are always a broad range of fictional movies and television shows that give us hope.
The “Complete Virtual Reality” item combined information on a current technology with the idea of a “complete virtual world” as represented in the Matrix movies, showing some synthesis of ideas from multiple sources. In the video to which the item was linked (Tested, 2014), the presenter of the virtual reality headset talked about total immersion, an experience that felt as if the player was there. The view presented is change, but not radical change for how people will learn, as the post outlines, “it would essentially keep all methods of schools and education.” Linking an image from the satirical animated series to “shows that give us hope” may, or may not, have been an intentionally satirical comment on the difficult task of predicting the future.
In the timeline event texts, the sense is of reporting the content of the linked source. The concept “learning by doing” used in the “Virtual Campus” item appeared in the source article commentary. The ABC news article cited for the end of the laptop scheme wrote about the funding aspect rather than the educational worth of the scheme, a focus echoed in the timeline item. The students’ personal experiences of the laptop scheme, in tutorial discussion, were not recorded as commentary in the timeline. While the article cited for ‘The Australasian Council of Open, Distance and E-Learning is Formed’ contains some history of distance education in Australia, the item uses the date of the council formation as the main hook into the timeline—a natural tendency, since the idea of the timeline format is to place events within a chronology.
The timeline format lent a shape to knowledge as the group worked on it: discrete, chronologically- ordered items, each reporting a single information source. The timeline format facilitated more volume of information than other groups who produced video, but not a conceptually purposeful answer to their driving question, “What would Australia be like if Education was completely virtual?” (final wording used in the Timeline). Their discussed experiences of not setting foot in a library at university and of laptops as a distraction in high school were not recorded as part of their developing product. There was no obvious place, and no place made, in the timeline for integrating the personal with reported information.
Students in the Timeline group decided on division of labour and used a format that supported that style of work. Next, a group that wanted to collaborate more closely.
4.2 VideoGames group
(KC2 - Whole group shared knowledge creation)
The VideoGames group had four members: Frankie, Rory, Jordan—and Lennox, who joined a week later than the others. They scripted and acted in a video advertisement, “Violence in video games is desensitising our children to acts of cruelty.” The video was founded on a personal understanding of the message and issues, followed up, rather than led, by research.
The initial discussions and planned actions showed an intention to collaborate and to research the subject. The group is therefore classified under ‘whole group shared knowledge creation,’ but exploration of issues and concepts to answer the driving question was limited and they experienced difficulties in progressing their video production. The group considered a potentially innovative topic, but quickly rejected it for something more familiar, anticipating a lack of information resources. Rather than using knowledge sources collaboratively, students independently found articles on their selected subject for individual reports10 that contributed 30% to the final mark for
the project.
The data set for this case was incomplete, missing the two video creation sessions outside tutorials. The initial discussion by the group was also not recorded, although student accounts were available from online communications and individual written reports. The recorded tutorial sessions and online posts were sufficient to illustrate the group’s pattern of work and activity infrastructure.
10 Students in all groups completed individual reports. I focussed on this group’s individual reports to see the
perspective they presented on the project for an assessor’s eyes. The research-based argument of the issues in several of the individual reports contrasted with the group process that did not use any information sources.
4.2.1 Object diagram
The VideoGames shared epistemic object had fewer concepts and connections between them compared to other groups in the education task (Figure 12). They started with promising intentions (weeks 8 and 9) but did not explore the problem collaboratively. In both weeks 8 and 9 they attempted to find a time that all group members could meet outside tutorials, coming to the compromise of three group members attending, with Rory taking the job of editing the video. They did not discuss alternatives such as phone or Skype to include Rory in extra-tutorial meetings. Their Facebook Group was used primarily as a coordination and communication tool rather than to discuss concepts. The week 9 tutorial was a key point conceptually, as students suggested different themes for their driving question. In this discussion, Lennox spiritedly spoke about racism in games. They did not pursue this idea and settled on violence in games, coming up with their slogan, ‘Violence in video games in Australia is desensitising our children to acts of cruelty’ and format, an advertisement, in week 10. The group had difficulties producing the video, with an unproductive recording session between weeks 10 and 11, followed by a recording session after the week 11 tutorial, at which they had attempted writing a script, which was eventually completed during the recording session. This left Rory, not involved in writing or recording the script, less than two days to edit the video into its final form. Only Jordan and Rory presented the final video in class, after a mix-up on the
presentation date.