"SoTEL: Towards a Scholarship of Technology Enhanced Learning"

Abstract

The publication of Ernest Boyer's innovative study, "Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate" (1990) sparked fifteen years of academic studies, high level conferences, and campus teaching reforms in a movement that has come be known as the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). During this same period, a rapidly developing study and practice of digital pedagogy, to be discussed here under the heading of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL), generated its own extensive theoretical and practice-oriented literature. This paper explores points of intersection between SoTL and TEL in order to lay the groundwork for the latter as "scholarship" in Boyer's sense of the term, that is, the Scholarship of Technology Enhanced Learning (SoTEL).

Note: Full text available in The Canadian Journal of University Continuing Education [CJUCE 33:1 Spring 2007]

Sample Website Initiatives

2007-09

Online proprietary Course Development Systems (CMS), Learning Management Systems (LMS) or Virtual Learning Environments (VLE) were introduced in the early 1990s and sold to universities and colleges for a set fee. These included such web-based systems as First Class, WebCT (Vista), Blackboard, and Desire2Learn. WebCT was bought by Blackboard Inc. in 2005 and has since released the Blackboard Vista Platform capable of hosting fully online, hybrid, or web-enhanced courses. The Faculty Support Centre (FSC) at York University continues to support WebCT (see link below).

The launch of the Open Source Initiative (OSI) in 1998, encouraged the development of free and innovative forms of CMS, LMS or VLE including Bodington, Moodle, and the Sakai Collaboration and Learning Environment (Sakai CLE). All three are a free and open source CMS. While Bodington has its dedicated following, you might find it helpful to know that it's the modular functionality of Moodle that is strongly promoted and supported through FSC at York (see link below). Sakai CLE has, to date, not received local institutional support; however, should you wish to experiment with Sakai CLE tools, conside downloading the demo released 13 February 2009.

In 2005, the formal acknowledgement of Web 2.0 promoted a second generation of interactive web design and development that is of particular interest to the broader field of eLearning. Committed to a participatory collective intelligence, Web 2.0 is, for example, opposed to packaged software and, instead, promotes vigorous explorations of how the power of the web might offer answers and solutions to questions yet to be asked. A recent report by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) argues that the impact of Web 2.0 technologies on higher education enables students to learn the necessary skills of contemporary culture: communication, collaboration, creativity, leadership, and technology proficiency.

See Go2web2.0 for a list of Web 2.0 tools and applications including social networking options such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, SecondLife, and YouTube.

Selected Resources

Journals, Websites and Other Publications

The following list is designed to provide a general overview of current materials dealing with the Scholarship of Technology Enhanced Learning (SoTEL). Given the lack of materials written specifically for post secondary learning technologies within the fine, performing, and new media arts, I have chosen resources that readily lend themselves to creative adaptation and interpretation by our innovative Faculty of Fine Arts.

This list is open ended so if you locate resources that you'd like to see included, please email full citations to rwickens.

Selected Journals

Many of the journals below offer free online access to archived articles. However, if a vendor's license is required, please go to eResources at Home Quick Sign-On provided for York University faculty through York Libraries or consult a librarian by exercising your chat reference option.

Selected Websites

Whether you're mounting a distance education course (a.k.a. fully online or internet) or contemplating a hybrid course (a.k.a. blended, distributed, or mixed-mode) or simply in the process of adding web resources to an existing face-to-face course (a.k.a. web-enhanced), you might want to consider the following websites:

Faculty Resources and Support

Infomrational Available Soon