The ways in which some technolgoies are being used for teaching and learning at Middlesex University

The Digital Literacy group at Middlesex University carried out a survey to scope awareness and development needs of staff. Sixty nine responses were received. Below is a summary of one of the questions concerning ways in which technologies are currently being used.

Participants were asked to describe the way in which they use the 10 most popular Web 2.0 tools (Top 1oo tools for Learning as identified by Jane Hart) to enhance students' learning.

Responses were coded and grouped under three broad headings:

• Teaching 
• Research
• Dissemination

Described uses of technologies for teaching can be sub-divided into use of tools as a repository of teaching content and uses that require student interaction. An example of repository use is the storage of PowerPoints for teachers and students to access later. Other techniques, which require more student interaction, where given. For example, in Media Production:

"Students use Photoshop and InDesign to create flyers and submit to Moodle assignment tool. Students make videos and submit to online platform of their choosing and provide link. Students create blogs. Facebook group with interesting links. MS Office for general use."

The example talks about use of discipline specific technologies, Photoshop and InDesign, as well as Moodle and social media as complimentary and integral to the learning design. Video appears to be adopted across disciplines with references to YouTube, Khan Academy and TED common to many responses:

•  In Sport video is used “in slides to show good/bad sporting techniques.”
• In Criminology YouTube is used to “reinforce discussion points [and to] introduce complex concepts through visual representation”.
• And in other areas (not specified) Khan Academy videos are used to “summarize anatomy and physiology learning”. 

These instances need to be explored further to reveal how they are operationalised within the curriculum and how they may be transferred to other areas.

Social media, such as Facebook, Twitter and linkedIn, are used in a variety of ways. Within Business modules, responses suggest these tools are being used for progress monitoring, project management and system deployment. Other technologies and ways in which they are used include the Moodle Assignment, Turnitin and Quiz tools to facilitate electronic assessment.

Ways in which technologies are being used for research include examples of interdisciplinary collaboration between the library and academic schools with references to electronic reading lists. In Law there is a YouTube library induction and the use of search engines is taught to all staff and students. The library also uses Facebook to promote its services and maintains a Blog.

Dissemination captures the content outputs that are a result of the ways in which technologies are used for teaching and research but some examples do mention tools such as “Twitter to publicise events”.