 My name is Alex Wells, and I'm Head of Education and Quality at the National Union of Students. I've been asked to give a student perspective on the use of technology in the 21st century. I suppose I just wanted to start by reflecting on some of my own experiences. I went to university to study history for my undergraduate degree back in the mid 1990s. Even then I remember handwriting most of my essays not using the internet at all and actually barely knowing what email was, let alone using it to communicate with my tutor. Then comparing that to relatively technologically stone age experience to my current experience as a part-time student doing a masters at the Institute of Education only 15 years later I'm now able to download my weekly readings and other journals from my VLE at home, have online discussions with my classmates and even watch lectures from other universities on YouTube. ICT is now an integral part of the daily lives of most people. The percentage of UK householders with access to ICT is currently around 73% having risen from 51% only three years ago. The NUS HSBC student experience report shows that 96% of students use the internet as a source of information. 69% on a daily basis as part of their studies. I suppose if my own experience tells me anything about the pace of change within technology it's certainly no use trying to predict how technology will be used throughout the next centuries, let alone the next five years. But I just wanted to reflect on what students are currently thinking about it and provide some thoughts on how the use of technology could be better integrated. My talk is going to be based on the data from the annual NUS HSBC student experience report and I'll primarily be using data from last year's report although I will give you a sneak preview of some of the key findings from this year's report which will be releasing in November. In addition to the student experience report, NUS was commissioned earlier this year by Hefkey to undertake some research into student perspectives on technology as part of their high level online learning task force that Aaron Porter is a member of and as I've mentioned, unfortunately he can't be here today. But I'll use this research to add some flavour to some of the data and to highlight some of the key recommendations coming from that research and included a number of focus group surveys of both current and also prospective students and so it provides an interesting overview and this will also be released in the next couple of weeks. However, I suppose the first point that I wanted to make that the research emphasises is that ICT provision varies massively between institutions and therefore there's such a wide variation of the individual experiences of students and so whilst I hope what I say will resonate with most of you it probably won't be true of every student and every institution. My talk's going to be based around three main areas what students think about current ICT usage in higher education how students would like to see it used and thirdly the training needs of students but also of academics hopefully I'll leave some time at the end for any questions that you may have. So firstly looking at what students think of ICT usage in higher education as part of the HEFC funded research that we did we did a survey of prospective students and what was perhaps most interesting was sort of this underlying theme that the relationships between students and ICT was often quite conservative I suppose and ambiguous obviously there was a certain amount of students who are very innovative but there is a sort of underlying theme there. Almost 30% of students say that they preferred to have printed resources compared to a quarter saying that they preferred electronic 45% saying that they prefer both equally and I suppose perhaps rightly given the rigor of peer review 40% say that they're more willing to trust printed materials rather than 50% who say they're more likely to trust online information but I suppose one of the key areas within institutions relating to ICT usage is obviously the virtual learning environment again this reiterates the point of variability of student experiences with differences between institutions about how they use it but also more significantly the differences between and even within departments so whilst there was an expectation that the ICT wouldn't instantly replace either the lecture or sort of more formal forms of learning there was a quite widely held view that the VLE is underused and more often than not it's just a storage point for lecture notes rather than being actively using all the interactive features such as the chat rooms and so on. In terms of some of the wider discussions I suppose particularly raised by the previous government it's interesting to note that 41% of students strongly disagreed that the university had a right to monitor their internet usage but actually almost just over a third of them said that the institution did have a right to see what students were actually looking at on the internet. The NSHSVC student experience what gives a broad overview of what students think about ICT usage with 46% of students feeling that it has enhanced their studies although 34% neither agreeing or disagreeing and also 38% of students believing that ICT more generally has enhanced their time at university again with a third neither agreeing or disagreeing so that's sort of just a quick overview of some of the perceptions that students currently have but the second area I wanted to look at in a bit more detail was the way in which students would like to see ICT used within higher education. ICT is already highly integrated into the whole experience from the online searches for information by prospective students online application forms through UCAS putting prospective students in contact through Facebook that the near universal use of email from everything to contacting your tutor and finding out about changes of lecture schedules to being reminded about the access to financial support in the university careers service. Universities have invested heavily in ICT support whether through internet access points in halls of residence or indeed as we've seen in the times higher this morning increasing numbers of institutions with 24 hour access to computer suites. Using ICT for administration is certainly an area that students would like to see continually developed and expanded recognising that the use of ICT can lead to both greater efficiency and making it more convenient for students. The upcoming NUS charter on feedback and assessment calls for students to be able to submit assessments electronically and of course this won't be possible in every case you can't submit a work of art or various other sort of more practical forms of assessment but this increased flexibility will obviously support part time and distance learners but also will ultimately benefit all students. The charter also calls for greater innovation in assessment so how can technology be more used in the various different forms of assessment that there are? Anachronistic that students are still expected to go into an exam and hand write their answers in many cases probably the only time that they'll actually have to hand write anything is in university exams. The other area I suppose in terms of technology is the feedback that students get. Feedback has been one of the key issues coming out of the National Student Survey and one of the ways in which both the speed of feedback but also a way in which it can engage more students providing that through electronic means there are a number of projects looking at how that can be done more effectively. However whilst ICT has been very well integrated into the administration of universities there has been some suggestion that in terms of teaching and learning and the application of ICT still has quite a long way to go. In many ways it currently replicates existing practice so has a student that's used Google rather than the university library got any new information or have they just accessed it through a different medium. Similarly has a group of students discussing an issue via an online discussion forum developed their learning beyond a tutorial discussion. The use of ICT has the potential to truly enhance teaching and learning but I think we're still a long way from this being realised within higher education. Certainly the constructivist approach to learning highlighted by Bygotsky and others placed a greater emphasis on learning as an active process and emphasising the importance of learning through doing and actually I think this is where technology has a real opportunity being able to take advantage of some of the more interactive features of Web 2.0. I suppose perhaps it is unsurprising that we haven't developed this area as much as we could I suppose wide access to personal computers have only really been available for a quarter of a century or so worldwide Web only really for the last 15 years and Web 2.0 and social networking for about five years or so so the rate of technology is so rapid that universities haven't in many cases been able to take best advantage of this but there are beginning to we're beginning to see some quite interesting examples of that so things like an atomised which allows medical students to practice dissecting cadavers from the comfort of their own computers and learning through trial and error but also using gaming technology has yet to be effectively explored Certainly at NUS we would encourage institutions to appoint something like a senior fellow within university faculties to be responsible for new technologies and supporting integrating it into teaching and learning and by having a champion within each faculty this would hopefully result in a very real step change in the way in which technology and teaching and learning are integrated but I suppose it's also important to consider that the impact that ICT usage will have on students before they arrive at university there's already talk about students skimming for information looking at information in a more cursory and less detailed way rather than the traditional deep learning approach of immersing yourself in a subject but also young people growing up with computers use quite a different approach to learning they use trial and error so if you're playing a computer game you keep on at that level in the game until you succeed rather than the previous approaches so that has the potential to change the way in which people are learning I just wanted very briefly to show you a short clip from American Professor which emphasises this point The purpose of schooling is to take present-oriented little beasts and make them more future-oriented and some cultures make them more past-oriented In America a child drops out of school every nine seconds This is worse for kids from a minority background It is 5.30 I can hear it in the background Essentially what the clip would have shown was the way in which by the age of 21 young men have been playing on computer games and on the internet for 10,000 hours and the impact that that has in terms of almost rewiring their brain so I suppose the impact that that has is just sort of re-emphasising the point that that universities will need to consider the impact that that will have on the way in which people are learning I suppose one way in which learning can become more interactive is through using the technology that students already have in their pockets so things like mobile phones and PDAs More than a third of students, 37% of students think that mobile phones and PDAs should be used in their learning and there are actually a number of projects particularly funded by the HCE Academy that look into this I think there's one at the University of Bradford on mobile enhanced disabled students' meds which is looking at how mobile technology can be used to support learning and I think this has probably been a theme of your discussions over the last couple of days but I suppose there was also a certain resistance among students for there to be more teaching delivered online with three quarters of students disagreeing that they would like to see this in terms of the way in which it is delivered if it is going to be delivered online there was certainly a preference force of the podcast rather than the video cast as they were able to then listen to it wherever they want but particularly useful in terms of as an aid during revision but I suppose the key with that is whether ICT can ever really be a supplement to the teaching methods preeminence I suppose of the face-to-face teaching the magic being woven by teachers with little more than a voice enthusiasm and energy has been described but the main point is for students it can actually be both more enjoyable, more engaging and especially the increasing use of technology in the school sector it will both become more expected as they go into higher education but also with employers themselves demanding these skills there will be an expectation that higher education meets these needs so this moves us on to the training needs of students I suppose there are three key areas that I wanted to touch upon the basic computer skills for using some of the major packages things like Word, Excel, PowerPoint secondly the skills that students need to make the most of new technologies such as how to use the web for research as well as referencing and citing online materials and finally the more advanced technological technology training for those doing more specialised courses in reality this last group is probably the easiest group of students to support because the skills and equipment they are using are much more advanced and new to most students and so they recognise the importance of receiving training in that and also the institutions likely to provide it already but the provision of training for basic skills is an interesting area with many believing that these should already have been learnt within school this training at university was considered by some in the research to be either a bit patronising or too basic but there was also a perception that students themselves just won't bother to attend because they believe they already have the skills as one student responded to the survey I think 99% of students my age know how to use a computer very well indeed therefore I think there is no need for any teaching for students on computers but I suppose one of the interesting but perhaps unsurprising results of the research was that most students 81% say that their ICT skills are self-taught and I suppose this means that students both think that they already have the skills but more importantly they don't know what they don't know perhaps that's why 60% of students don't have proper training so I suppose happy in their almost Rumsfeldian unknown unknowns but for example I use words all the time and continually finding new features for it and so without proper training at a more advanced and more tailored level I'll never be able to make the most of this software and one of the things that we're recommending in the report is that institutions do more to help students make them aware of their training needs and perhaps even something as simple as that can provide students with an accurate gauge of their skill levels and therefore the possibility of tailoring training sessions more particularly to the individual needs of students regarding the area of skills relating to new technologies this is an area where students themselves would like additional training students want additional support whether it's something as basic as how to cite from web sources to how to research using the web but also how to identify useful and reliable material this final point came up a number of times with students wanting to know what material to trust and even something like Google Scholar which provides the number of citations for particular articles it can be a useful guide as one comment left by a student said just more tips and advice on how to use the internet more effectively to find out what you need and I for example often spend a huge amount of time scanning through material I don't need until I get to the useful and required information students also need more support for researching and referencing we're seeing increasing numbers of students being caught out for academic misconduct and I suppose one of the more worrying statistics in the research showed that 28% of students admitted to knowing other students that have used the web to plagiarise and whether this is through whether this is through intent or on a mistake is unclear it's also uncertain as to whether technology tools likes of cut and paste have made plagiarism more prevalent or whether actually just software such as turn it in has made it detection easier we certainly believe that it is important to use tools like turn it in as a way of improving awareness and this should be used as a training tools with students able to use the software particularly on formative assessment to check their work beforehand and get the support if they do actually need it I just wanted to touch on the training needs of academics which can be a particular delicate issue there are many academics in higher education that are at the forefront of integrating technology into teaching but equally there are a significant number of academics that are more hesitant is the way I should probably put that there has been much discussion around this nervousness amongst academics and they are not feeling that they may have the same level of skills as the web native students and the teacher not wanting to put themselves in a situation where the knowledge gap can be identified but the issue of training came through the research quite strongly with a small but vocal undercurrent of dissatisfaction with comments such as teachers use PowerPoint far too much but don't really know how to use computers for anything else and one student even saying some tutors are very good with computers are not very good with computers but I can usually help them this perhaps helps to explain the hesitancy amongst students for greater use of ICT in learning with 50% disagreeing but they can gain more when the shooter does integrate it but it's not about simply about shoehorning ICT usage into teaching learning but how they can do it well and in an appropriate way in conclusion then information and communication technologies offer many exciting opportunities to support, develop and even enrich teaching in higher education people learn in multi-dimensional ways and ICT is able to cater to all of these but there is still massive potential that needs to be developed to ensure that we get the best out of ICT however it's only when these opportunities for greater interactivity in learning are unlocked that ICT will truly enhance learning universities are well placed with their culture of research large budgets and access to technology as well as their expertise in their computing departments and so on to push the boundaries of integration of ICT in pedagogy and assessment and to fully explore the possibilities of learning but it's important to ensure that there are institutional approaches and strategies for ICT however it is essential that this also happens with teachers at the very centre of that process when developing teaching and learning pedagogies to ensure that what is developed is practical and implementable student expectations will continue to be the key driver for greater integration of ICT methods in higher education particularly as students start to contribute ever more of their own money in the cost of education as well as ICT through social networking and so on so their expectations will rise I suppose the very final point that I would like to add is that ICT should not be seen as a cost saver but should be done for the many other benefits to institutions such as added convenience, interactivity ease of access and I just wanted to end with a tweet that we got part of our research that I think sort of sums up the approach to technology in higher education ICT should create added value, not value for money thank you very much Thanks very much Alex there's been one question posed remotely which I'll just ask straight away which is and perhaps store the questions up and then answer them in a go because we're going to need to clear the room in five just a bit about the sample size whether or not post graduates were included and the spread of disciplines and subjects in the survey that you reported from so if you store that questions from the room there's one at the back is that Colin Addy I see Hi Alex Colin Addy University of Wolverhampton can I ask you to comment on a strategic support issue you've talked about students and staff needing more support needing more training and I'd agree with all that you've talked about wanting to see ICT used more more what shall I call it serious at a serious level so for things like e-submission assessments formative feedback and all that sort of thing and I'd agree with all that wholeheartedly what we are probably struggling with and I'd like your thoughts on is how we support that in the universities and that's got to be built in strategically so if I can give you a very quick example and unfortunately I don't have the figures to my head I'll be very quick to get there Seb if you look at a library and the amount of staff that are in a library that support the library side of academia and then compare that to the amount of staff you find in let's say staff development unit or the amount of staff in e-learning or something it's hugely disproportionate do we need to have a bit of a strategic realignment okay do you want to come back on those two Alex and I'm constantly looking for others who have probably one over here so just in terms of the sample size so there are two pieces of research that I was quoting the new SHSBC student experience report which is a piece of research funded by HSBC which we GFK conducts on our behalf there is a sample size this year of 3,800 it is it is entirely undergraduate but is representative of the whole of the UK of subject mix and so on the second one was the NUS research and this was a survey of prospective students so people who are going to go to university and this was the thousand students who are currently in FE and so it is a way of being able to sort of see what people about to go to university are going to be increasingly expecting from their experience in terms of the strategic support then absolutely this is an area that needs to be developed and I suppose particularly we've heard all about the cuts that are going to be facing higher education and the way in which the sector is going to protect front line teaching and learning I suppose one of the key points from the student perspective is that often the interaction that they will have with the whether it's departmental administrator whether the person in the library actually will have in many cases as much an impact on their experience and will help them as many of the people standing up in front of them so this is certainly an area that does need to be considered when we're going forward with these types of issues but yes there certainly does need to be a more strategic approach to the way in which it can be embedded Thanks Alex Hi my name is Abby Barcrame an e-resources librarian from University Campus Suffolk it kind of follows on from the previous question maybe more of a comment than a question everything that you mentioned helped with ICT helped with research helped with referencing we were already here with the library and when we are timetabled to see the students is over the next month we see them in the first week for an hour of a three or a four year course and they forget that we're here so maybe what the previous question was saying and that we realign things is that we then spend the next three years trying to get students through the door we're here we're willing to help we would love to boost that 1% of students who use e-journals for their research so the question might be how do we get the academics how do we get the students to point them in our direction I suppose there are two points that I'd like to come back on that I suppose the first one is the point I made around how much students know what they need to know in a sense and so something that is able to assess what their needs are would be very useful particularly in terms of some of the issues around particularly things like the regular use packages but also actually like referencing what I would say is actually that the student union itself is an under under tapped resource in terms of supporting information out to students around what courses are being provided certainly I know that York student union did a lot of work last year to make students aware of the whole menu of options available to students and certainly that would be something I would encourage institutions to do is work very closely with the student union to promote the opportunities available to students Thanks Alex Anybody else? We've got a question in the middle Just a very simple question Has the research on prospective students been published yet? Not yet It's going to be published Heather was here yesterday from Hefke I think it's going to be published within the next week or so but sort of very soon Anybody that's just on the edge of sticking their hand up going to be tempted to by me Sorry I was just going to ask actually use us perhaps you suggested that the one that was easy was in fact the support you gave three three areas of support for students and you suggested the third the support for learning technologies was in fact the easiest whereas my belthering and say that one's the hardest can we just do a straw poll and say from the people in the room here who is satisfied with the level of support for their students in relation to the learning technologies that they use and you just put up your hand if you're satisfied That's three, four What proportion is that then sir? Well you need to say who's dissatisfied I think to get the kind of because maybe a lot of people are sitting on their hands it's a nine or so in here which will be about a fifth of the audience I think it's 45 or 50 but do you want to ask the counter question? Yes Can we have dissatisfied? Two to one Interesting I just wanted to find out Thank you Any other last teeterers? Yep, it's amazing how if you say that Hi, I'm a learning technologist Marty Jacobs from University of Essex You talked about your use of word I agree with an empathise with that How much time should we spend on the basic stuff like word training for students and staff and PowerPoint and how much time should we spend on cutting and bleeding edge learning technology? That'll depend very much department to department so certainly for students for which essay writing is a core element then anything that makes it easier to unfortunately still haven't worked out how to use cut and paste that's the exception rather than the rule but there are still particularly essay based subjects where student knowledge of some basic packages could certainly be improved obviously the more technical the subject itself the more you'll then need to focus on the technology relevant to that discipline Question over here to be the last one Hi Alex so it was very hearten when you said about the students not not knowing what they don't know and you gave a personal example of you still finding out things about word and I think it's human nature we just don't realise we don't know so much so on your last ICT should create added value not value for money how do you think that ICT can create this added value what the students don't know and working towards the ICT with the faculty integrating that to do the added value side of things Yeah I suppose it depends very much on the example I use was as a student having studied to now essay based subjects it would be very useful to me to be able to use word very effectively so something where an online test where I'm able to just go through a series of questions which will then point out some of the areas that I don't know wouldn't naturally use and then being able to have the training that can then pinpoint where I am at the moment how I can then be taken to the next level in terms of that example I suppose it'll depend very much on the individual student and their discipline well Okay, thanks Alex for that presentation thanks audience for your questions thanks remote audience for participating and let's show our appreciation for Alex in the usual way