Technology and Education Futures

Module title	Technology and Education Futures
Module code	EFPM294
Academic year	2023/4
Credits	30
Module staff	Dr Judith Kleine Staarman (Convenor)

Duration: Term	1	2	3
Duration: Weeks		10

Number students taking module (anticipated)	80

Description - summary of the module content

Module description

In this module you will explore issues around digital technology in education practice and develop a critical understanding of the role of technology for your own education future.

You will interrogate key concepts such as play and gamification, immersion (AR/ VR) and personalisation (AI) and use these to critically consider the relationship between new technologies, pedagogy and educational practice. You will explore and experiment with practical ways in which new technologies might be used in teaching and learning. And you will reflect on debates around some of the key issues that have emerged in the networked age, such as mis/disinformation, ethical AI and automation, and how to bring these into educational practice.

Using a variety of digital tools, face-to-face seminars, hands-on and online activities, and drawing on a range of literature from educational technology, digital sociology and psychology, you will not only develop your critical understanding of issues around technology in education, you will also discuss, theorise and imagine, with other students, what probable, possible and preferable digital futures of education may look like.

Module aims - intentions of the module

Through exploration and discussion of theoretical, professional and practical applications of new technology in education, you will learn about the affordances and challenges of a variety of technologies for teaching and learning. You will be encouraged to reflect on and link back your ideas to your own practice and experiences.

Specifically the module will enable you to:

develop a conceptual, critical and experiential understanding of the social and creative nature of learning with digital and networked technologies;
identify possible affordances of digital tools for teaching and learning;
identify and interpret educational theory and research and relate this to educational practice and educational futures with digital networked technologies;
identify and interpret evidence and discuss this in the context of academic and professional reading work independently and with originality;
develop a critical understanding of ethical issues involved in teaching and learning with new technologies

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

1. demonstrate a systematic understanding of theoretical perspectives and practical concerns in the area of educational technology;
2. demonstrate a critical understanding of the nature of learning processes around new technologies, with a specific focus on social and digital aspects of teaching and learning and around possible educational futures;
3. demonstrate an ability to critically reflect on the affordances of technological tools for teaching and learning;

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

4. identify systematically and evaluate insightfully current research and advanced scholarship relevant to the field of educational technology;
5. explore critically the multiple lenses through which the role of educational technologies for education, teaching and learning can be interpreted and developed;
6. demonstrate the ability to identify and critically discuss current issues related to educational technologies and education;

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

7. Critically reflect on your experiences of educational practices and discuss the implications for future practice;
8. present and communicate ideas clearly, reflectively and critically, in oral, written and multimodal formats
9. demonstrate effective use of technology, including the use of electronic databases, word processing, multimedia, and other educational technologies

Syllabus plan

The precise structure of the module varies year by year, but in general, we will focus on a variety of pedagogic approaches underpinned by various technologies. We will engage with these approaches through a range of digital tools, hands-on workshops and seminars, as appropriate for the module.

It is envisaged that the syllabus will cover at least some of the following topics:

1. Technology in classrooms

2. Play-based learning and gamification

3. Computer support for collaborative learning

4. Adaptive technologies for learning (AI)

5. Teaching and learning with language generative AI (e.g. ChatGPT)

6. Immersive technologies for learning (VR/ AR)

7. Coding

8. Critical data literacies

9. Technology and creativity

10. Future pedagogies for digital education

This module is organised for both full and part-time students and the modes of delivery might differ for each of these groups.

Learning and teaching

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	Guided independent study	Placement / study abroad
30	270	0

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	30	The teaching sessions will take on a variety of forms, including 30 hours of face to face and/or online seminars (1-3 hours)
Guided Independent Study	120	Engagement with specific online materials, videos, preparations for academic tutorials, preparing for seminar activities, responding to seminar, online activities and collaborative group tasks
Guided Independent Study	100	Preparation for assignments
Guided Independent Study	50	Set readings

Assessment

Formative assessment

Form of assessment	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Written assignment	500 words	1-9	Written tutor feedback

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Coursework	Written exams	Practical exams
100	0	0

Details of summative assessment

Form of assessment	% of credit	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Educational resource and reflection	50	2,500 words	1-9	Written summative feedback
Digital presentation	50	2,500 words equivalent	1-9	Written summative feedback

Re-assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Original form of assessment	Form of re-assessment	ILOs re-assessed	Timescale for re-assessment
Educational resource and reflection	Educational resource and reflection (2500 words)	1-9	6 weeks
Digital Presentation	Digital presentation (2500 words equivalent)	1-9	6 weeks

Resources

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Aiello, P., D’elia, F., Di Tore, S. & Sibilio, M. (2012). A Constructivist Approach to Virtual Reality for Experiential Learning. E–Learning and Digital Media, 9(3). PP.317-324.

Albion P.R., Tondeur J. (2018) Information and Communication Technology and Education: Meaningful Change through Teacher Agency. In: Voogt J., Knezek G., Christensen R., Lai KW. (eds) Handbook of Information Technology in Primary and Secondary Education. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53803-7_25-1

Burnett, C. & Merchant, G. (2018). New Media in the Classroom. SAGE Publications. Craft, A. (2011). Creativity and Educational Futures. Stoke on Trent: Trentham Books

DeFreitas, S. (2018). Are Games Effective Learning Tools? A Review of Educational Games. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 21(2), pp. 74-84.

Facer, K., Craft, A., Jewitt, C., Mauger, S., Sandford, R., Sharples, M. (2011). Building Agency in the Face of Uncertainty. Outcome of ESRC Seminar Series on Educational Futures http://richardsandford.net/edfutures/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Building-Agency-in-the-Face-of-Uncertainty-Thinking-Tool.pdf

Gee, J. P., & Hayes, E. R. (2011). Language and learning in the digital age. Routledge.https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/

Gillen, J. & Barton, D. (2010). Digital literacies. London Knowledge Lab, London. https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/id/eprint/33471/1/DigitalLiteracies.pdf

Gilliard, C. (2017) Pedagogy and the logic of platforms. Educause Review, July/August 2017. http://er.educause.edu/articles/2017/7/pedagogy-and-the-logic-of-platforms

Granger, C. A., Morbey, M. L., Lotherington, H., Owston, R. D., & Wideman, H. H. (2002). Factors contributing to teachers' successful implementation of IT. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 18(4), 480-488.

Hillman, T., Bergviken Rensfeldt, A. & Ivarsson, J. (2020). Brave new platforms: a possible platform future for highly decentralised schooling. Learning, Media and Technology, 45(1), pp. 7-16. DOI: 10.1080/17439884.2020.1683748

Inayatullah, S. (2008). Mapping Educational Futures. In Bussey, M., Inayatullah, S., Milosevic, I. (eds). (2008). Alternative Educational Futures: pedagogies for emergent worlds. Rotterdam/Taipei: Sense Publishers

Kukulska-Hulme, A.; Bossu, C.; Coughlan, T.; Ferguson, R.; et al. (2021). Innovating Pedagogy 2021: Open University Innovation Report 9. The Open University, Milton Keynes.

Lanchester, J. (2017). You are the Product. London Review of Books, 30(16): 3-10.

Pangrazio, L. & Selwyn, N. (2019). ‘Personal data literacies’: a critical literacies approach to enhancing understandings of personal digital data, New media & society, 21(2). pp. 419-437, doi: 10.1177/1461444818799523.

Pegrum, M. (2019) Mobile lenses on Learning: Languages and Literacies on the move. Singapore, Springer.

Provost, F., & Fawcett, T. (2013). Data science and its relationship to big data and data-driven decision making. Big data, 1(1), 51-59.

Reimers, F. M., Schleicher, A. & Anash, G. A (2020). Schooling disrupted, schooling rethought. How the Covid-19 pandemic is changing education. OECD.

Selwyn, N. (2019). Should robots replace teachers? : AI and the future of education. Cambridge, Polity Press

Shaffer, D. W. (2007) How computer games help children to learn. New York: Palgrave/MacMillan

Sinclair, N., Haspekian, M., Robutti, O., Clark-Wilson, A. (2022). Revisiting Theories That Frame Research on Teaching Mathematics with Digital Technology. In: Clark-Wilson, A., Robutti, O., Sinclair, N. (eds) The Mathematics Teacher in the Digital Era. Mathematics Education in the Digital Era, vol 16. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05254-5_15

Slade, S. and Prinsloo, P. (2013) Learning Analytics: ethical issues and dilemmas. American Behavioral Scientist, 57(10): 1510-1529

Teräs, M., Suoranta, J., Teräs, H., & Curcher, M. (2020). Post-Covid-19 Education and Education Technology ‘Solutionism’: a Seller’s Market. Postdigital Science and Education, 1 - 16.

Zawacki-Richter et al. (2019). Systematic review of research on artificial intelligence applications in higher education – where are the educators? Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education 16:39 https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-019-0171-0

Module has an active ELE page

Key words search

ICT, Educational Technology, Education Futures, Dialogic teaching and learning

Credit value	30
Module ECTS	15
Module pre-requisites	None
Module co-requisites	None
NQF level (module)	7
Available as distance learning?	No
Origin date	2018
Last revision date	24/04/2023