Simon B. Heilesen

What is the academic efficacy of podcasting

Podcasting may be an answer to some of the challenges to higher education to modernize, to open up, and to develop a competitive edge. However, over the years there have been many high claims for new technology, and not all of them have been redeemed. In terms of academic performance, it may therefore be asked if podcasting really is worth the investment? Looking for at least a tentative answer, the present paper reviews an extensive body of scholarly literature published 2004-2009 on experiences with podcasting in higher education. It is concluded that purely in terms of assessing student performance, indications of the efficacy of podcasting are as yet fairly weak - admitting for a general lack of longitudinal studies. Still, podcasting does seem to have a general positive impact on the academic environment. One such effect is opening up for experimentation with known forms of teaching. Another effect is that many students experience podcasts as a genuine improvement to the study environment, and that they use the new tool rationally as a supplement to their study activities.

Supporting problem-based learning in groups in a net environment

Since 1996 the Communication Studies programme at Roskilde University (Denmark) has been offered as distance education. During the four years, we have improved our means to achieve a functioning CSCL pedagogy, developing from initially a somewhat naive translation of face-to-face and group organized PBL to an online context, into a now rather reflected CSCL learning concept, with intensive facilitator/supervisor involvement.In this paper we seek to identify ways of supporting PBL in groups in a net environment. This exercise is based upon four years of continually refining the conversion of pedagogical principles from face-to-face teaching at Roskilde University to Open University activities using WWW technology. In this process we have been looking for a software concept that could help implement our ideas by supporting students and teachers in their efforts.While smart technologies may make it easier to transfer messages of all kinds (including multimedia components) and to co-operate on distance, pedagogical insights and competencies cannot easily be replaced.

E-learning: Between augmentation and disruption?

Based on a framework for analysis combining diffusion theory, content layer analysis and sense making, this paper discusses the theme of e-learning as augmentation or disruption from the point of view of technological innovation. Two cases of on-campus blended learning at Roskilde University, Denmark, are introduced to illustrate the discussion. They summarize experiences with three courses in Chemistry and Communication Studies, each of which has been taught over a period of three years or more. It is concluded that adoption of information and communication technology in education depends both on systemic factors and factors involving the world view and sense making of the individual. These various factors operate at different speeds, and the difference in time frame is likely to be one of the causes for the current apparently growing disillusionment with e-learning. However, focus on the absence of demonstrable disruptive effects tends to obscure the fact that more or less unobtrusive changes occurring over time do add up to an effect that eventually may well lead beyond simple augmentation of conventional practices.

Distributed CSCL/T in a groupware environment

Using FLE2 groupware (Future Learning Environment 2, http://fle2.uiah.fi) we have tried to integrate a distance education course into the regular academic programme at Roskilde University, Denmark. The course was offered jointly by two universities, attracting students and involving teachers from both institutions. The practical and pedagogical problems encountered are discussed, and it is suggested that while net-based teaching may be suitable only under certain circumstances in a normal academic programme, skills of communicating and working in an online environment are important qualifications that should be introduced broadly into academic life.

Designing for Networked Communications: Strategies and Development

Designing for Networked Communications: Strategies and Development explains how to plan, use, and understand the products and the dynamic social processes and tasks some of the most vital innovations in the knowledge society depend upon social as well as technological. Focusing on various forms of design, implementation and integration of computer mediated communication, this book bridges the academic fields of computer science and communication studies. Designing for Networked Communications: Strategies and Development uses an interdisciplinary approach, and presents results from recent and important research in a variety of forms for networked communications. A constructive and critical view of the interplay between the new electronic and the more conventional modes of communication are utilized, while studies of organizational work practices demonstrate that the use of new technologies and media is best understood and integrated into work practices. In this process of merging, both are remodelled and rearranged while being adapted to the practices and activities for which they were designed.

Introducing ICT-Services in a University Environment

This case discusses the development and management of ICT-services at a Danish university. A special characteristic of the case is that the development has taken place on the basis of participatory design and voluntary adoption. On the one hand, this approach furthers the adoption of ICT-services. On the other hand, it may hamper the development of a uniform and universally accepted set of services. Some concrete examples of ICT-services are discussed from the point of view of factors favorable to the adoption of technological innovations. These include services for administration, communication, education, and integration. One lesson learned is that developing services for education is a cultural challenge as much as it is a technological one, and that the rate of adoption tends to be slower.