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Literacies and Technologies in Online Education

Dr Mary R LeaInstitute of Educational Technology

Open University, UKm.r.lea@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

• Ivanič R (1998) Writing as Identity: The discoursal construction of identity in academic writing, Amsterdam: John Benjamin’s

• 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