Appropriate and Practical Technologies for Students, Teachers, Administrators and Researchers
Sarah Sherman, Caroline Bell
Royal Veterinary College, United Kingdom
Background:Next generation web technologies present exciting opportunities to enrich teaching, learning and research. However, this potential has not yet been fully realised and there is a need to get the majority of users "signed up". In this context, this paper summarises the experience of a JISC-funded project to explore the development and implementation of simple Appropriate and Practical Technologies (APT).Description of Approach:The APT project involved implementing a simple step-by-step approach to the introduction of new technologies at the Bloomsbury Colleges (Birkbeck, Institute of Education, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Royal Veterinary College, School of Pharmacy and SOAS). We worked closely with both staff and students to encourage them to adopt collaborative web-based tools, such as Google Docs, to support their work. Demonstrator projects were identified across the Colleges, which involved a diverse range of stakeholders including students, teachers, researchers and administrators.The project, which consisted of five principle phases (research, development, implementation, evaluation and dissemination) was designed to ensure a rapid and agile development process in a relatively short time-scale.Specifically, the project set out to address four key issues:• Identifying existing constraints to the collaborative use of web 2.0 technologies;• Developing appropriate and practical technical solutions based on collaboration;• Embedding the use of collaborative technologies in a range of different institutional settings;• Empowering staff and students to exploit the true potential of web technologies in their work.Results of Work DoneThe project reviewed the impact and benefit of web-based technologies using a number of research and evaluation tools. After a year, it was clear that not only had the demonstrators successfully adopted the technologies but they had also gone on to apply the approaches in different ways to support their work, spawning a range of unpredicted new initiatives.ConclusionsIn summary, this small scale project has demonstrated the benefit of a progressive introduction of appropriate technologies to day-to-day teaching and learning practice. The involvement of a number of different stakeholders working together has also helped nurture better understanding and cooperation across all the institutions involved in the project.Fowler, C. & Scott, J (2007). The User Innovation and Development Model Guide. University of Essex.