Delegate interview: Karen Lawson, Stevenson College, Edinburgh

As everyone piled into the exhibitor hall to get their afternoon coffee jag, I spoke to Karen Lawson to find out what she thought of the day so far.

“I’m a teacher fellow of the college, so I’ve got responsibility for developing teaching and learning and the use of technology in pedagogy across the board.  I was looking for some ideas around social networking tools, what research is saying about how learners use technology in particular, and how institutions can think about how they respond to that,” she said.

“I found all the sessions I’ve been to incredibly useful, with a lot of the same issues coming up from many institutions,” she explained. “I was just at Mind The Gap, looking at the differences between the institution and the learner, and there were many similarities with the digital divide within institutions.  I was looking this morning at the learner experience, and that was incredibly useful – again, the same issues coming up, people don’t have the time to get themselves knowledgeable on technology, the technology students are using.”

When she gets back to work, she’s got lots of ideas. “I think we’ll be developing a strategy on taking forward technology in a meaningful way – getting learners more involved in voicing what they would like and thinking about how we can support and develop staff to use technology that’s useful to them.  It’s a tool, it shouldn’t lead the learning, but how does that actually connect with the learners’ choices and experiences?”

March 24, 2009 | Filed Under jisc09 | Author Carrie Dunn 

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