Mobility, collaboration and research into practice

This special issue of the journal Learning media and technology is devoted to papers presented at the Twenty‐Fifth Anniversary Conference of the Computers and Learning Research Group of the Open University, an interdisciplinary research group which was formed in 1979. Its main objective is to conduct research into all aspects of the application of computers to the enhancement of teaching and learning. Speakers at the conference were drawn mainly from the Open University, but also involved former group members from the Universities of Bath, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Nottingham and University College, London.

This group was founded to bring together researchers and practitioners from across the University who had an interest in studying the effect of computers on learning in the University. From the beginning the group has interpreted this broad mission statement even more broadly, not restricting research to investigating applications of computing for adult or even distance learners or to the implications of research on the development of Open University policies and practices. Both research with direct links to OU practice and more blue skies research is represented here, ranging from evaluations of ICT in the secondary music curriculum, evaluations of VLEs and of ICT use in the FE sector, through the development of software and applications for use in schools and universities, to research into students’ learning and problem‐solving in different domains and theoretically based analyses.

We have a wide range of research areas including computer supported collaborative learning, evaluation, mobile computing, social processes of learning with computers and web‐based learning. The group aims to serve as a focal point for computers and learning research, to support and maintain interdisciplinary collaborations and to provide a source of information and expertise relating to the effective use of learning technologies in primary secondary higher and further education and the research methodologies used within relevant fields of study.

Research work within the CALRG has included theory development, empirical investigation, evaluation studies and the development of innovative computer‐based learning applications. This varied research work has meant that projects relating to the group have employed a variety of both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies: experimental work, program development and evaluation, structured observational work and ethnographic studies in situ. Accordingly, members of the CALRG have an interest in the different kinds of methodologies that can be use in the field of computers and learning.

For this special issue a call was issued at the Twenty‐Fifth Anniversary Conference in 2004. The aim was not to reflect the full content of the conference but to collect together some representative papers presented at the conference by members of staff and students. The selected papers do characterize some of the main themes in the group’s current work: collaborative learning, research related to teaching and mobile learning.

In conjunction with the papers produced for this special issue, another collection was produced for a special issue of the International journal of learning technologies. On the third day of the conference some eminent researchers from both the UK and US were invited to speak and this allowed some of those associated with the history of the CALRG (or with the CALRG over a number of years) to provide detailed papers representing their current work and some of the background they bring from a common root in CALRG. Many members of the CALRG have teamed up with colleagues elsewhere in writing the papers in this issue in order to reflect different perspectives on their research and these serve as a complement to the work of the group presented in this issue.

The twenty‐fifth anniversary was an occasion to celebrate the research of the group over a number of years but it was also focused on the new directions to be developed in the group in the future. The research in the group is now incorporated in a new centre of excellence developed at the Open University, bringing together one of the largest groups of educational researchers in the UK: the Centre for Education and Educational Technology.

The special issue

Researchers in the group study computers and learning at all levels of education. However this special issue is mainly focused on research applicable to learners and teachers in higher education. In this special issue we look at a linked series of papers which represent the themes of mobility, collaborative learning and research into practice.

Mobile learning

The mobile learning theme (see also Sharples, 2000) in the special issue is represented by two papers. Both papers are concerned with evaluation. Waycott et al. report on the application of an activity theory approach to the evaluation of personal digital assistants (PDAs) for mobile learners. This analysis highlights the way in which new tools such as PDAs change learners’ and workers’ everyday practices—and in turn, learners appropriate these tools. They make them their own by using them in ways that the designers have not envisaged—both to overcome barriers of use and in order to make them serve their own objectives. Whilst activity theory is increasingly being used to investigate new technologies in education, what is novel and illuminating about this approach is that the tools used—the PDAs—are themselves considered as the objective of the activity: i.e., integration of the tools into the learners’ activities and practice is the goal of the activity.

In the second paper on mobile learning, Taylor and Evans describe the approach they took to the evaluation and development of a pedagogically sound mobile learning environment. They describe the use of scenarios as a method of coping with the difficulties inherent in getting potential users to envision the possible use of as yet unfinished designs of technology.

Collaboration

The group has conducted influential research on the topic of computer supported collaborative learning for more than 20 years. The collaboration theme in the special issue is represented by two papers: Littleton and Whitelock on asynchronous conferencing and Scanlon et al. on synchronous collaboration.

The importance of interaction for learning is widely acknowledged and there is an increasing literature on both the benefits of computer conferencing to learners in practice and on the processes involved in online discussion and the part this plays in the joint creation of common knowledge (Mercer, 1995). Mercer’s categorization of talk has most often been applied to classroom situations. In this paper Littleton and Whitelock apply this approach to an examination of the collaborative working in the MA in Online and Distance Learning hosted by the Institute of Educational Technology at the Open University. They illustrate how this approach differs from other approaches to discourse such as conversational analysis and show how this approach to the online discussions allows for an understanding of how students use conferencing as a tool for thinking together.

This is followed by a paper by Scanlon et al. on the virtual space created by shared simulations and video communication tools for supporting collaborative work between people at a distance. This example of synchronous collaboration is examined to establish the influence of such spaces on problem‐solving, using a statistics simulation as an example. The virtual space created by shared simulations and video communication tools help to support collaborative work between people at a distance. They report on an experiment where subjects use a virtual space to work on a difficult statistics problem, establishing that the virtual space is effective and report on the subjects’ understanding of statistical and experimental concepts which they display while working in the distributed environment.

Research into practice in the Open University

Research into our own practice in the Open University has a long and important history. Some investigations are very practical and might for example, focus on problems that students may have in using and accessing ICT and how best to support them. Some of these investigations are ‘commissioned’ by university course teams and committees and their scope and interest is limited to these audiences. However, research into our practice also extends well beyond this: it is also often theoretically grounded and informed by the relevant literature in the area and therefore whilst the location of the case study may be limited to the Open University, the findings apply more widely and are relevant to a wide audience. The theme of researching into learning is represented by three papers in this special issue: Kirkup and Kirkwood, Colwell et al. and Brasher and McAndrew.

There have been discussions in the Open University about the balance between the University’s openness and the requirement for access to ICT on courses over a very long period. Such debates are not, of course, limited to the OU but part of a much wider and global debate on how technology can support learning for all rather than just for particular sectors of society. Two papers in this section contribute to this debate.

Kirkup and Kirkwood use activity theory (Engström, 1987) and Roger’s theory of the diffusion of innovation (1995) to provide a new perspective on the long‐term development of tutors’ use of new technologies at the Open University. This allows them to identify tensions and contradictions in the use of these technologies. In the second paper Colwell et al. consider the use of a particular technology to support learners with disabilities in the use of video material. This is an example of a study at the practical rather than theoretical end of the spectrum. Such studies are important as a contribution to understanding how technologies can support learners with particular disabilities. The in‐depth studies with users conducted by Colwell et al. illustrate how these disabled students’ needs vary and thus the need for flexible approaches to support them and enable them to make the best use of their course materials.

The final paper in this section, by Brasher and McAndrew, concerns metadata. Whilst e‐learning systems have the potential to offer resources to learners that are appropriate to their needs and take account of their previous experience, in practice doing this requires metadata descriptions of both the e‐learning resources and of individuals. Brasher and McAndrew describe a model to facilitate the production of accurate and consistent human created metadata descriptors by communities through developing and using structured vocabularies. They illustrate how the process could work with examples of course materials that use learning objects as their components.

  Eileen Scanlon and Ann Jones

  The Open University, UK