The New Technologies - some issues

I presented with Graham Hart at the 1999 Anglia Polytechnic University Staff Conference '99

When	Sep 15, 1999
Where	Cambridge

We presented some slides and also ran a workshop which raised the following issues:

Learning as a social not a purely technical activity?
On-line demands on the teaching staff - response time, hours?
Exclusion for the information-poor - what is the university's role and mission?
Some learning outcomes demand collaborative working - how with technology?
What does attendance mean for learners? Need for clarity about expectations?
Widening access is not synonymous with lifelong learning
Synchronous meetings help keep deadlines and manage learning and time-demands
Face-to-face can make a good basis for subsequent online learning
Training for staff expectation
Students expecting flexibility
Minimum specification for the technology
Frequently asked questions important
More flexible administrative processes for assessement
Courses intensive or totally open-ended should be options
University should exploit its stand-alone modules
Series of incremental expansion, not 'big-bang'
Don't lose sight of other technologies - local broadcast etc
Technology overload for staff - no real way of knowing whats on offer - do we need an Intranet for sharing knowledge between staff?
Must not lose the message in the medium
Need for staff development - resource implications - how would central services communicate courses on offer
Do not go overboard on technology - it should be appropriate and work sensibly with other resources
Tension between administrative convenience and student experience
Timescales - should we allow flexibility for the student
Tension between student expectation and what can be delivered - need for technical support for students
Need for a general policy statement about technology expectations - potential mismatch between students' technology and centrally determined standards?

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