Innovative Learning and the 21st Century Student

Professor Amanda Jefferies

University of Hertfordshire, UK
Two questions?

• Do we think our students are digitally literate?

• How do we support their learning and online engagement so they

develop graduate skills including critical thinking?

And…
What does recent literature say about current students’ approaches to
their use of technology?

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Innovative learning for 21st century students

Who are our students?

In post-16 education 
•Digital natives/digital residents? (Prensky/White)
- How they grew up
•The iPod/iPad generation?
- What they use
•The Millennials or Google Gen?
- Where they find out information
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/resourcediscovery/googlegen

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Our current generation of students – growing up with technology

Born in 1997?
iPod from age 4 (2003)
MySpace and Youtube since they were 8 (2005)
Twitter from age 9 (2006)
Facebook from age 10 (2007)
iPhone from age 10 (2007)
iPad – touchscreen tablets from age 13 (2010)

"Myspace Homepage" by Source. Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia - https:/

"Twitter bird logo 2012" by Source. Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Twitter_bird_logo_2012.svg#/media/File:Twitter_bird_logo_2012.svg
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/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Myspace_Homepage.PNG
Immersed in technology since birth- almost

• They are the generation who cannot remember life before digital
technology

• Their social life may be more online than face to face

• They own lots of technology

• But how does this impact their learning in HE?

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Student Voices on the importance of technology

‘Technology is a big part of

my life… the first thing I do in
the morning when I wake up
is turn my computer on. I’ve
got to check my Facebook,
my emails and my Twitter… I
don’t buy a newspaper, I only
ever read news online’
(STROLL participant in 2008)
I will read 8 books this
year, 2300 web pages
and 1281 Facebook
profiles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o
Source: Wetsch

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Technology Ownership @ UQ - headlines
• Engineers owned on average 9 items of technology –(cf Educause surveys)
• Non-Engineers owned fewer items
• Average over 25 students = 8+ items of technology
• All owned a laptop/netbook and a usb stick/drive
• They (n=25) owned 35 mobile phones between them
• They owned 19 iPods but only 6 iPads
• Higher ownership of gaming devices among all Engineers (66%) and low
among female non-Engineers (23%)
• 13 Females owned a webcam – only 3 Males
All Students Own
Laptop Computer/Netbook 25
USB thumbdrive/portable hard drive 25
iPod 19
Webcam 16
iPhone 14
Digital point and shoot camera
12
DVD Player 12
Stationary gaming device (eg Xbox, Sony Playstation)
10
Android Phone (eg Droid, Galaxy, EVO,)
8
Desktop Computer 8
HD TV/ set top box 7
Other mobile phone 6
Blu-ray Player 6
iPad 6
Mp3 player/music device other than iPod 5
Blackberry 4
Digital Video camera 4
Digital SLR camera 3
Handheld/portable gaming device (eg Sony PSP, Nintendo DS Lite) 3
Other smartphone 2
3D TV 2
Windows OS Phone(eg HTC) 1
Other tablet(eg Galaxy Tab, Xoom) not iPad 1
E-reader (eg Kindle) 1
 Summarising the student view @UQ
• The students do not challenge the use of technology, they want more and
want it better organised
• Facebook has taken over from Bb for organising their course interaction
• Bb was not seen as generally reliable, accessible or an easy space for locating
materials by many students
• They definitely like the blended approach of ‘both /and i.e. both face-to-face
and online’ but they are wary of an approach which appears to be ‘online
instead of face to face’
• Their perception of university was still largely the stereotype of a place where
they are taught in classes not as a research institution.
Technology and software use trends in Berlin study (n=275)

• Lower overall ownership of technology but all using

computers daily
• Very high daily use of MLE and Facebook to support studies
and socially
• Regular engagement with downloading YouTube videos (62%
weekly)
… but fewer than 5% were uploading self-generated
material
• Low use of Twitter (16% sporadically)
• Less than 8% contributing weekly to a blog
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Innovative learning and 21st C students

‘The current context [an Australian University in the global top 100]…
is one where student ownership of multiple technologies is widespread.
The results of the inquiry into their software use identified that they
frequently accessed online material through YouTube and similar sources, but
rarely posted any self-generated material to these sites or the MLE.’

(Jefferies, 2013)

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The changing student learning environment

Photo©ALJefferies
Source Microsoft

Photo©ALJefferies

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©University Of Hertfordshire
Digital Literacy for all?

‘Digital literacy is the skills required to achieve digital competence, the

confident and critical use of ICT for work, leisure, learning and
communication.

Digital Competence was included as one of the eight essential skills, in

the Recommendation on Key Competences for Lifelong learning.’

European Commission
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/eeurope/i2010/docs/digital_literacy/digital_literacy_review.pdf

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Digital literacy and 21st century students
'By digital literacy we mean those capabilities which fit an individual for living,
learning and working in a digital society. For example, the use of digital tools
to undertake academic research, writing and critical thinking… producing,
sharing and critically evaluating information (Jisc, 2013)

Beetham & Sharpe (2014) suggest that: ‘digital literacy looks beyond
functional IT skills to describe a richer set of digital behaviours, practices and
identities.’

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However…

‘Students rarely use technology for advanced knowledge-

related activities or problem-solving unless they have
been required to do so by their course or tutor’.

White and Beetham (2013:3)

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Innovative learning for 21st century students?

‘In contrast to the myth of the ‘Digital Native’ and the ubiquity of Facebook
use, we have found that students’ digital identities are predominantly social
with their online activity beyond Facebook limited to being social media
consumers rather than producers.

(Cochrane &Antonczak, 2015)

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Defining digital literacies

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Developing technology enhanced learning
• Not just being ‘digitally savvy’ but developing a richer
set of digital behaviours among all students

• Supporting academic staff who are less confident with

technology
‘We just know how to adapt to
any sort of technology’
‘Our parents’ and grandparents’
generations struggle with it
[technology].’
University of Queensland,
Humanities students 2012

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A shifting focus in the classroom
from this 

Chemistry_seminar_roomPhotos©ALJefferies
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Developing a learner-centred pedagogy

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Supporting digital learners in HE

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Topics from the NMC Horizon Report 2015 Higher Education Edition 24
The challenges impeding technology adoption
Solvable Challenges: Those that we understand and know how to solve
• Blending Formal and Informal Learning
• Improving Digital Literacy
Difficult Challenges: Those we understand but for which solutions are elusive
• Personalizing Learning
• Teaching Complex Thinking
Wicked Challenges: Those that are complex to even define, much less address
• Competing Models of Education
• Rewarding Teaching

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©http://cdn.nmc.org/media/2015-nmc-horizon-report-HE-EN.pdf
Summary of the studies in Australia and Germany

Students were questioned about digital ownership and their technology use in HE.
Their use of technology for learning tended to be personally focussed, lacking evidence
of active contribution to producing and critically evaluating material.

In short, their contribution to sharing knowledge could be termed as ‘passive and

consumerist’ (Cochrane and Antonczak, 2015) instead of pro-active and collaborative.

(Jefferies, SRHE 2015)

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Food for thought?
• The future of learning will be full of technology because it is now
ubiquitous in all our lives

• Is there an issue with students being passive and consumerist in their

attitudes to digital content?

• Our students are starting off on a journey of lifelong learning and need
the right skills to equip them to go on learning – how can we support
them?

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All too often we are giving young people cut flowers
when we should be teaching them to grow their own.
- John W Gardner

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Thank you for listening!

Amanda Jefferies
University of Hertfordshire, UK

a.l.jefferies@herts.ac.uk

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References

• Beetham, H. & Sharpe, R. (2014) Developing Digital Literacies. Available online at: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/full-guide/18655.
• Cochrane, T. & Antonczak, L. (2015) Developing students' professional digital identity. Paper presented at 11th International
Conference on Mobile Learning, Madeira, Portugal, Volume: 978-989-8533-36-4 2015
• Jefferies, A. (2013). ‘It’s not the university experience we were expecting’: digitally literate undergraduate students reflect
on changing pedagogy’ In M. Gosper, J. Hedberg, H. Carter (Eds.) Electric Dreams, Proceedings of ascilite, Sydney, Australia
2013 http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/sydney13/procs/filename.pdf
• Jefferies, A. (2015) ‘Digitally literate or merely digitally competent? Exploring technology ownership and use among HE
students in two non-UK environments’ forthcoming in Proceedings for SRHE 2015
• Jisc (2013) Developing Digital Literacies Overview 2011-2013 at The Design Studio. Available online at: http://
jiscdesignstudio.pbworks.com/w/page/46421608/Developing%20digital%20literacies
• White, D. & Beetham, H. (2013) Students’ Expectations and Experiences of the Digital Environment. Available online at:
http://jiscdesignstudio.pbworks.com/w/page/69725309/students%27%20expectations%20and%20experiences%20of%20t
he%20digital%20environment

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