MA Digital Technologies, Communication and Education / Course details
Year of entry: 2025
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Course unit details:
Educational Technology and Communication
| Unit code | EDUC70141 |
|---|---|
| Credit rating | 30 |
| Unit level | FHEQ level 7 – master's degree or fourth year of an integrated master's degree |
| Teaching period(s) | Semester 1 |
| Available as a free choice unit? | Yes |
Overview
Educational Technology and Communication (hereafter ETC) is a core unit for the MA: Digital Technologies, Communication and Education (DTCE) and is fundamental to it. It is the unit in which key theoretical and practical concepts are explored and then applied by the students, in a self-reflective way, to their own current and future work with the design of learning environments. Students are directed throughout towards the evaluation of a portfolio of work accumulated either through their activity on other DTCE course units, or their professional activity. The fundamental principle of the ETC unit is reflective practice, and its application to the evaluation of educational technologies and, more broadly, educational texts and utterances. Students are expected to explore the more generic principles and frameworks for analysing educational environments within specific, personally-relevant contexts.
There are several ways in which students can apply the general principles they are investigating, including assessed discussion activities with their peers and a field trip to a museum (either in Manchester or their own locality).
Aims
Develop in learners who complete it a personal framework for the study and use of digital technologies and communications techniques in a broad range of educational settings. The framework will be based on reflective practice, evaluation and techniques to help students develop knowledge of their own specific context.
It also aims to induct students into the learning community of the MA: DTCE and, particularly, to make connections between new on-campus and new distance learners.
Learning outcomes
The assessed online group discussions are key to the learning outcomes. It is in these discussions that students learn to work together, to make and articulate judgments about educational technology, based on their prior experience – their reflective practice – and their reading and active discussion of the literature. ‘Cosmetic citation’ – that is, citation of work in the final self-evaluation document where there is no evidence that the student has actually read the work – is not accepted: instead, students must actively engage with ideas in the literature as the course proceeds, and based on their posts on the discussion boards, learning analytics will be generated that give ongoing, formative feedback to students (and tutors) about how well each student is engaging with this task.
In these online discussions students must also demonstrate other transferable skills such as self-organisation of work, sticking to deadlines, taking on different roles in group work, using online media to co-ordinate group work.
The concluding self-evaluation document then obliges individual students to reflect on this process and what the various technologies in use (see below) have contributed to the work. The reflection must be based on ideas from the literature that have been discussed throughout the course.
Syllabus
Content of the unit includes the following:
+ Historical development of educational technology, starting with the book and then investigating developments in ICT from the 1940s to the present day;
+ Reflective practice and the professional development of teachers, educators and learning designers;
+ Pedagogical techniques and methodologies for the design and evaluation of learning environments including instructional design, participatory design, connectivism, learner-generated contexts;
+ Digital divides, appropriate and assistive technology;
+ The social shaping of technology, political and organisational issues arising from ICT and educational technology
Teaching and learning methods
On-campus students: 36 hours on-campus classes (17 x 2 hour sessions, each comprising lecture elements and interactive workshop elements in varying proportion, then also the final 2-hour ‘poster day’ session that concludes the second assessed discussion activity) + 4 x 1 hour tutorials = 40 hours teaching.
Distance learners: 8 hours synchronous online sessions + 32 hours engaging with podcasts, web pages and self-guided activities = 40 hours teaching All students: 3 asynchronous collaboration/discussion activities (2 assessed, one unassessed but with formative feedback) @ 20 hours each = 60 hours. Written assignment prep = 75 hours + 5 hours for field trip = 80 hours Additional private study time, reading papers, reflection, etc.: 10 hours/week for 12 teaching weeks = 120 hours
Knowledge and understanding
...Understand significant frameworks for the analysis and evaluation of educational technology, particularly including:
+ Laurillard’s Conversational Framework;
+ Wenger et al’s ‘digital habitats’
+ Luckin’s Ecology of Resources model;
+ and models influenced by the Social Shaping of Technology thesis.
and
understand the history of educational technology and how it has been shaped by a range of forces operating at personal, organisational and structural levels, and be able to use this understanding to understand how decisions are made about technology in, and for, educational institutions
Intellectual skills
- Evaluate the impact of educational technologies and, more broadly, educational texts and utterances, on their own practice and that of others, by applying one or more of the frameworks mentioned above.
- Engage in discussion and analysis of relevant academic literature
Practical skills
- Take decisions as part of a team and arrange an appropriate division of labour.
- Communicate ideas through posts in online fora and a poster presentation.
Transferable skills and personal qualities
Students will develop the following transferrable skills and personal qualities:
- actively engage with reflective practice and demonstrate its fundamental importance for the professional practice of educators and learning technologists
- organise their work effectively.
Assessment methods
| Method | Weight |
|---|---|
| Written assignment (inc essay) | 50% |
| Oral assessment/presentation | 50% |
Feedback methods
Blackboard
Recommended reading
Laurillard, D. (2002) Rethinking University Teaching, Routledge, London
Laurillard, D. (2012) Teaching as a Design Science, Routledge, London.
Luckin, R. (2010) Redesigning Learning Contexts, Sage, London.
Veletsianos, G. (Ed.). (2010). Emerging technologies in distance education. Athabasca University Press, Edmonton.
Benson, A. and A. Whitworth (eds). (2014) Research into Course Management Systems in Higher Education. IAP, Charlotte.
For Information and advice on Link2Lists reading list software, see:
Study hours
| Scheduled activity hours | |
|---|---|
| Assessment written exam | 60 |
| Fieldwork | 3 |
| Lectures | 45 |
| Practical classes & workshops | 45 |
| Tutorials | 2 |
| Independent study hours | |
|---|---|
| Independent study | 120 |
Teaching staff
| Staff member | Role |
|---|---|
| Andrew Whitworth | Unit coordinator |