Group Admins
Description
This presentation will present research undertaken for my MSC in Technology-enhanced Learning which addressed the question:
What are the key factors that motivate staff engagement with Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) in a further education (FE) college?
This will fit within the conference theme of Empowerment in Learning Technology as it will look at how we can support staff engagement with TEL by identifying and maximising the factors that motivate them to use new technologies. It will also link to the overall theme of the conference as it will look at how we support the ‘diffusion’ (Rogers, 1995) of TEL use from the early adopters to the majority of staff. This presentation also consider the similarities and differences between the experiences of further and higher education teachers through comparison with Bennett (2014) ’s Digital Practitioner framework) and the particular barriers found in the resource-constrained environment of further education.
Technology-enhanced learning has become a prominent issue in further education since the publication of the FELTAG report in 2014 but many initiatives have concentrated on digital competence without investigating the role of staff attitudes and motivation in extending their use of new technologies. My research investigated whether there are common factors that encourage staff to overcome any potential barriers and become confident “digital practitioners” (Ecclesfield et al, 2013) and if awareness of such factors could assist the college in supporting teachers in understanding the value of TEL and using it effectively. This presentation will consider the rationale behind using a mixed-methods approach to my research and the extent to which that provided a more reliable view of attitudes within my college. It will summarise the findings of my review of previous research, both local and international, into staff engagement with TEL from FE, HE and school sectors, which focused on investigations into staff values, motivation and attitudes and the impact of factors such as confidence, risk taking, perceived value and perceived barriers on staff engagement with TEL.
This session will evaluate and reflect on the factors identified through my MSc project as likely to influence staff engagement with TEL and the potential barriers to be addressed within my college. It will provide particpants with the opportunity to discuss the extent to which they feel these motivating factors exist within their own institution and to share experiences of how these could be addressed.
Bennett, L. (2014). Learning from the early adopters: Developing the digital practitioner. Research in Learning Technology, 22, 1-13. doi:10.3402/rlt.v22.21453
Ecclesfield, N., Rebbeck, G., & Garnett, F. (2013). The Case Of The Curious And The Confident – The Untold Story Of Changing Teacher Attitudes To E-Learning And “Technology In Action” In The FE Sector. Compass: Journal of Learning and Teaching, 3(5). doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.21100/compass.v3i5.71
Rogers, E.M. (1995) Diffusion of innovations. 4th edn. New York; London: Free Press.
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My prezi is available here – https://goo.gl/7iZirA or follow me on Twitter – @ejarmstrong
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Also, activities to support the session:
Menti.com and enter 58 91 15
https://padlet.com/ejarmstrong/altc
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