RE-BOOT LEARNING: PROVIDING AN E-TIVITY SCAFFOLD FOR ENGAGEMENT FOR EARLY RESEARCH ACTIVITY THROUGH BLOG TECHNOLOGY EMBEDDED WITHIN TEACHING AND LEARNING

Increasing student numbers in higher education over the last decade has challenged educational environments [1] and prompted educators to re-think learning environments and delivery methods such that a student-educator partnership approach is adopted [2]. Such a partnership approach can result in deep-learning and debate rather than the delivery of a service, thereby invalidating the viewpoint that a degree is a commodity rather than a skills-set. The Community of Inquiry framework draws upon ideas that computer-mediated teaching and learning require the existence of three interdependent presences (social, teaching and cognitive) [3]. However, the inclusion of technology in pedagogy can further complicate teaching and learning. Given that digital technologies are ever-changing, not always predictable, and can take on many forms supports the view that both developers and end-users of digital technologies do not always know nor can they always predict trends and applications of said technologies [4]. “Efforts to guide educators and researchers in their technology integration has resulted in developed standards, frameworks, models, and theories that may be used to inform research and practice”. As an example, the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) (2015) standards have been developed “to support students/educators/leaders with guidelines for the skills, knowledge and approaches they need to succeed in the digital age” thereby addressing how learners can benefit from the effective use of technology [5] [6]. The use of frameworks (such as Technology, Pedagogy, and Content Knowledge (TPACK)) facilitates the integration and effectiveness of technology in teaching and student engagement [7]. The authors assert that the use of an e-tivity (i.e. a framework which supports active and interactive online learning), based on the TPACK framework, which structures research based student learning activities can act as a scaffold to encourage students to spend enriched learning time in the liminal space in the mastery of the related threshold concept (how to engage in early research activity related to the module content). In this paper, the authors present this e-tivity scaffold. In order to assess its effectiveness, 93 Postgraduate and Undergraduate students are surveyed.