Literacies and Technologies in Online Education

1. Literacies and Technologies in Online Education Dr Mary R LeaInstitute of Educational TechnologyOpen University, UKm.r.lea@open.ac.ukhttp://iet.open.ac.uk/pp/m.r.lea/

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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.

9. 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?

10. eWrite Site

11. Related Article • Goodfellow ,R & Lea, M (forthcoming)‘Supporting Writing for Assessment in Online Learning’ in Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education