Paul Bartholomew - Böcker

Technology-EnhancedLearning in Higher Education is an anthology produced by theinternational association, Learning in Higher Education (LiHE).  LiHE, whose scope includes the activitiesof colleges, universities and other institutions of higher education, has beenone of the leading organisations supporting a shift in the education processfrom a transmission-based philosophy to a student-centred, learning-basedapproach. Traditionally education has been envisaged as a processin which the teacher disseminates knowledge and information to the student,and directs them to perform – instructing, cajoling, encouraging them asappropriate –  despite differentstudents’ abilities. Yet higher education is currently experiencing rapidtransformation, with the introduction of a broad range of technologies whichhave the potential to enhance student learning. This anthology draws upon theexperiences of those practitioners who have been pioneering new applicationsof technology in higher education, highlighting not only the technologiesthemselves but also the impact which they have had on student learning.The anthology illustrates how new technologies – whichare increasingly well-known and accepted by today’s ‘digital natives’undertaking higher education – can be adopted and incorporated. One keyconclusion is that learning remains a social process even intechnology-enhanced learning contexts. So the technology-based proxies weconstruct need to retain and reflect the agency of the teacher.Technology-EnhancedLearning in Higher Education showcases some of the latest pedagogicaltechnologies and their most creative, state-of-the-art applications tolearning in higher education from around the world.  Each of the chapters explorestechnology-enhanced learning in higher education in terms of either policy orpractice. They contain detailed descriptions of approaches taken in verydifferent curriculum areas, and demonstrate clearly that technology may andcan enhance learning only if it is designed with the learning process ofstudents at its core. So the use of technology in education is more linked topedagogy than it is to bits and bytes.

Assessing Learning in Higher Education addresses whatis probably the most time-consuming part of the work of staff in highereducation, and something to the complexity of which many of the recentdevelopments in higher education have added. Getting assessment ‘right’– thatis, designing and implementing appropriate models and methods, can determinethe future lives and careers of students. But, as Professor Phil Race commentsin his excellent and thought-provoking foreword, students entering highereducation often have little idea about how exactly assessment will work, andoften find that the process is very different from anything they havepreviously encountered. Assessing Learning in Higher Education containsinnovative approaches to assessment drawn from many different cultures anddisciplines. The chapter authors argue the need for changing assessment andfeedback processes so that they embrace online collaboration and discussionbetween students as well as between ‘students’ and ‘faculty’.The chaptersdemonstrate that at some points there is a need to be able to measureindividual achievement, and to do this in ways that are valid, transparent,authentic – and above all fair. Assessment and feedback processes need toensure that students are well prepared for this individual assessment, but alsoto take account of collaboration and interaction. The respective chapters of Assessing Learning in Higher Education allof which are complete in themselves, but with very useful links to ideas inother chapters, provide numerous illustrations of how this can beachieved.

Thislatest volume in the Learning in Higher Education series, New Innovations inTeaching and Learning in Higher Educationpresents primary examples of innovative teaching and learning practicesin higher education. The authors – scholars of teaching and learning fromuniversities across the globe – all share the ambition to develop educationalprovisions to become much more learning-centred. Such learning-centredness iskey to quality enhancement of contemporary higher education and may be achievedwith a variety of methods. The chapters document innovative teaching andlearning practices within six areas:Engaging Students through Practice – Student-Centred e-Learning –Technology for Learning – Simulation – Effective Transformation – CurriculumInnovationsThe book is trulyinternational, containing contributions from Australia, Denmark, England, HongKong, Switzerland, Qatar, Scotland, South Africa, Tasmania, Vietnam, and theUSA. Although the educational contexts are very different across thesecountries, there appears to be a striking similarity in the approach toinnovative teaching and learning – a similarity which also runs through the sixareas of the book. Whether scholars of teaching and learning engage insimulations, e-learning, transformation or use of modern technologies, theywork to empower students.