Rebecca Eynon

Digital natives: where is the evidence?

Generational differences are seen as the cause of wide shifts in our ability to engage with technologies and the concept of the digital native has gained popularity in certain areas of policy and practice. This paper provides evidence, through the analysis of a nationally representative survey in the UK, that generation is only one of the predictors of advanced interaction with the Internet. Breadth of use, experience, gender and educational levels are also important, indeed in some cases more important than generational differences, in explaining the extent to which people can be defined as a digital native. The evidence provided suggests that it is possible for adults to become digital natives, especially in the area of learning, by acquiring skills and experience in interacting with information and communication technologies. This paper argues that we often erroneously presume a gap between educators and students and that if such a gap does exist, it is definitely possible to close it.

A typology of young people's Internet use: Implications for education

Using data from a nationally representative survey of over a 1000 young people in the UK this paper proposes a typology of the ways young people are using the Internet outside formal educational settings; and examines the individual and contextual factors that help to explain why young people are using the Internet in this way. Specifically, this paper addresses two research questions. First, can we distinguish coherent profiles of young peoples Internet use? Second, how do these usage profiles relate to individual and contextual factors associated with the Internet user? From the results of latent profile analysis and multinomial regression four types of Internet usage profiles are identified: the peripherals, normatives, all-rounders and active participators, which were differentiated by individual characteristics and contextual features. Such research enables practitioners, researchers and policy makers to better understand how young people are using the Internet in order to think in a more informed way about how new technologies could be used to enhance education and learning; and to develop initiatives that more specifically target and support different segments of the population.

Distinct skill pathways to digital engagement

Digital literacy and inclusion have been two important, largely separate, areas of study that examine the relationships between Internet skills and engagement. This article brings together these areas of research by testing a model that assumes specific pathways to inclusion: specific sociodemographic factors predict specific digital skills and specific digital skills predict related types of engagement with the Internet. Analyses of nationally representative survey data of Internet use in Britain highlight considerable measurement and conceptual challenges that complicate digital literacy research. The findings suggest that linking literacy and exclusion frameworks allows for a more nuanced understanding of digital engagement. Different groups lacked different skills, which related to how their engagement with the Internet varied.

The use of the world wide web in learning and teaching in higher education: reality and rhetoric

This article reports major themes emerging from 41 semi‐structured interviews conducted with staff from one ‘old’ and one ‘new’ university in England about the use of the web in teaching and learning for campus‐based students. The research set out to explore real‐life instances of the use of the web in teaching and learning to determine the relationship between this reality and the rhetoric surrounding the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in universities. The focus of this paper is the motivations and/or barriers to adopting the WWW in teaching and learning at the institutional and individual staff level. The paper concludes by stressing that while there may be great potential for the use of ICTs for some aspects of teaching and learning, adoption of these new technologies is not straightforward; and, in the cases studied here, the use of the web in teaching and learning neither appears to be radically transforming teaching and learning within the university, nor to be providing (or even regarded as) a ready solution to the problems the sector currently encounters.

The rise of Big Data: what does it mean for education, technology, and media research?

The interest in Big Data is growing exponentially. Research calls, commercial insights, and government initiatives all seem to be focused on exploiting the potential of technology to capture and analyse massive amounts of data in increasingly powerful ways. Big Data, that is, data that are too big for standard database software to process, or the more future-proof, ‘capacity to search, aggregate, and cross-reference large data sets’ (boyd and Crawford 2012, 663), is everywhere. For some, Big Data represents a paradigm shift in the ways that we understand and study our world, and at the very least it is seen as a way to better utilise and creatively analyse fine grained data for public and private benefit. In some ways, this is not a new phenomenon. Those working in the commercial sector have been collecting and combing large data sets to improve segmentation of goods to customers and better understand their market for many years (Manyika et al. 2011). Nor is it particularly big news to those working in certain fields in the natural sciences. Yet, in recent years, a far wider range of stakeholders have become more involved and more excited about the potential of Big Data. In the field of education, Big Data is still a relatively niche topic, but it is clearly beginning to grow. The areas of Educational Data Mining and Learning Analytics are both developing a number of identifiers characteristic of an established field of study (for a very useful overview see Romero and Ventura 2010; Ferguson 2012); and governments are beginning to produce reports on the potential of Big Data for education (see, for example, the 2012 consultation report by the US Office of Educational Technology, Department of Education). However, perhaps unsurprisingly, the pervading discourse around Big Data and education is increasingly one of efficiency and cost-effectiveness, both in terms of the use of the data to improve education ‘delivery’ and as a means of carrying out research in our field. While there is some merit in these claims, it is important that discussions of using data to enhance efficiency, increase transparency, support competiveness, and as a tool to evaluate performance (of schools and teachers) are tempered with considered academic debate. In times of austerity, commercial discourses become more significant in our debates about education. Thus, in some quarters Big Data is increasingly promoted as a form of ‘technical fix’ for education research and practice (Robins and Webster 1989), rather than a focus on using these same tools to empower, support, and facilitate practice and critical research.

Adults learning online: Digital choice and/or digital exclusion?:

Using a nationally representative British survey, this article explores the extent to which adults are using the internet for learning activities because they choose to (digital choice) or because of (involuntary) digital exclusion. Key findings suggest that reasons for (dis)engagement with the internet or the uptake of different kinds of online learning opportunities are somewhat varied for different groups, but that both digital choice and exclusion play a role. Thus, it is important for policy initiatives to better understand these groups and treat them differently. Furthermore, the more informal the learning activity, the more factors that play a significant role in explaining uptake. Policies designed to support individuals’ everyday interests, as opposed to more formal kinds of learning, are likely to be more effective in increasing people’s productive engagement with online learning opportunities.

Mapping the Digital Divide in Britain: Implications for Learning and Education.

The internet presents many potential opportunities for people to learn for both formal and informal purposes. However, not everyone is able to make the most of the internet for learning. This paper utilises quantitative nationally representative survey data of internet use in Britain in order to explore the digital divide in relation to learning activities online. The results from this analysis give a detailed picture of the digital divide in Britain; illustrating those who are non‐users and users of the internet and the reasons that are important in explaining the diversity in non‐use and use of the internet for learning (e.g., age, educational background, skills, attitudes and experience). The findings may assist in the development of policies that seek to support under‐served groups to make the most effective use of the internet for formal and informal learning opportunities.

Development and validation of the Internet Skills Scale (ISS)

ABSTRACT Although a number of instruments have been used to measure Internet skills in nationally representative surveys, there are several challenges with the measures available: incompleteness and over-simplification, conceptual ambiguity, and the use of self-reports. Here, we aim to overcome these challenges by developing a set of reliable measures for use in research, practice, and policy evaluations based on a strong conceptual framework. To achieve this goal, we carried out a literature review of skills-related studies to develop the initial Internet skills framework and associated instrument. After the development of this instrument, we used a three-fold approach to test the validity and reliability of the latent skill constructs and the corresponding items. The first step consisted of cognitive interviews held in both the UK and the Netherlands. Based on the cognitive interview results, we made several amendments to the proposed skill items to improve clarity. The second step consisted of a pilot survey of digital skills, both in the UK and in the Netherlands. During the final step, we examined the consistency of the five Internet skill scales and their characteristics when measured in a representative sample survey of Dutch Internet users. The result is a theoretical, empirically and cross-nationally consistent instrument consisting of five types of Internet skills: operational, navigation information, social, creative, and mobile.

Structural limitations of learning in a crowd: communication vulnerability and information diffusion in MOOCs

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) bring together a global crowd of thousands of learners for several weeks or months. In theory, the openness and scale of MOOCs can promote iterative dialogue that facilitates group cognition and knowledge construction. Using data from two successive instances of a popular business strategy MOOC, we filter observed communication patterns to arrive at the “significant” interaction networks between learners and use complex network analysis to explore the vulnerability and information diffusion potential of the discussion forums. We find that different discussion topics and pedagogical practices promote varying levels of 1) “significant” peer-to-peer engagement, 2) participant inclusiveness in dialogue, and ultimately, 3) modularity, which impacts information diffusion to prevent a truly “global” exchange of knowledge and learning. These results indicate the structural limitations of large-scale crowd-based learning and highlight the different ways that learners in MOOCs leverage, and learn within, social contexts. We conclude by exploring how these insights may inspire new developments in online education.

The use of the internet in higher education: Academics’ experiences of using ICTs for teaching and learning

Purpose – To explore academics’ experiences of using information and communication technologies (ICTs) for teaching and learning.Design/methodology/approach – Analysis of three discipline‐specific focus group discussions held with academics based in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) that use ICTs for teaching their students.Findings – The most common use of ICTs in all subjects was to provide students with access to a range of online resources. Academics’ motivations for using ICTs included: enhancing the educational experience for their students; to compensate for some of the changes occurring in higher education, such as the rise in student numbers and demand for flexible learning opportunities; and personal interest and enjoyment. The difficulties academics encountered when using these technologies for teaching included: a lack of time; dissatisfaction with the software available; and copyright.Research limitations/implications – This is a small scale, exploratory study. Further research is required...