Literacies and Technologies in Online Education

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Literacies and Technologies in Online Education

• Dr Mary R LeaInstitute of Educational
  TechnologyOpen University, UKm.r.lea_at_open.ac.uk
  http//iet.open.ac.uk/pp/m.r.lea/

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Outline of Session

• Exploring a language-based approach to online
  learning
• Drawing on writing research from UK higher
  education
• Looking at new environments for assessment in
  online courses
• Supporting students and faculty in writing for
  assessment

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Language-based Approach to Online Learning

• Complementary perspective to constructivism and
  collaborative learning
• Focus on language and learning
• Online writing is not just transparent medium
  carrying along content knowledge
• Focus on writing, e.g.message postings, computer
  conference debates, responses to online
  activities

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Writing and Learning in a Tertiary Context

• Learning and writing are integrally related
• Disciplinary knowledge is constructed through the
  act of writing
• Need to focus upon writing as learning
• Writing is the dominant mode of communication in
  online learning

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Writing as Social Practice

• Research paradigm from UK tertiary education
• Writing is more than an individual cognitive
  skill
• Writing is a contextualised social practice
• Meaning is constructed through the act of writing

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Meaning making

• Meanings are contested through writing
• Writing is concerned with issues of power and
  authority
• Student identities are implicated in their
  writing (both on and off line)
• Faculty staff determine the rules for written
  assessment
• Writing constructs disciplinary bodies of
  knowledge

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Research into Writing as Social Practice in
Tertiary Education

• Lea, M Street (1998) Student Writing in Higher
  Education an academic literacies approach in
  Studies in Higher Education Vol 23 No.2. pp
  157-172
• Ivanic R (1998) Writing as Identity The
  discoursal construction of identity in academic
  writing, Amsterdam John Benjamins
• Lea Stierer eds. ( 2000) Student Writing in
  Higher Education New Contexts, Buckingham Open
  University Press
• Lillis T (2001) Student Writing Access,
  Regulation and Desire, London Routledge
• Goodfellow, R. (2004) Online Literacies and
  Learning Operational, Cultural and Critical
  Dimensions. Language Education 18,5
• Lea, M Nicoll K eds. (2002) Distributed
  Learning Social and cultural approaches to
  practice, Open University/Routledge Falmer
• Snyder Beavis eds. (2004) Doing Literacy
  Online Teaching, Learning and Playing in an
  Electronic World, New Jersey Hampton Press

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Writing and Online Learning

• Application of writing research to online
  learning
• Writing is dominant medium of communication in
  online learning at tertiary level
• Integration of online discussion into assessment,
  e.g use of message postings in assignments
• New assessment practices create new kinds of
  written text
• Hybrid genres merging online discussion with
  traditional assignments, e.g reports, essays.

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Implications

• What are the implications of writing as social
  practice for online learning?
• Rhetorical complexity of these new forms of
  writing
• Students and faculty staff need to understand the
  complexity of these new environments
• What can be done?

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eWrite Site
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Related Article

• Goodfellow ,R Lea, M (forthcoming)Supporting
  Writing for Assessment in Online Learning in
  Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education