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Gabrielle Vojt

Bio: Gabrielle Vojt is an academic researcher from Glasgow Caledonian University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Educational technology & Computer-mediated communication. The author has an hindex of 2, co-authored 2 publications receiving 917 citations.

Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The findings show that students use a limited range of mainly established technologies, and the study did not find evidence to support popular claims that young people adopt radically different learning styles.
Abstract: This study investigated the extent and nature of university students' use of digital technologies for learning and socialising. The findings show that students use a limited range of mainly established technologies. Use of collaborative knowledge creation tools, virtual worlds, and social networking sites was low. 'Digital natives' and students of a technical discipline (Engineering) used more technology tools when compared to 'digital immigrants' and students of a non-technical discipline (Social Work). This relationship may be mediated by the finding that Engineering courses required more intensive and extensive access to technology than Social Work courses. However, the use of technology between these groups is only quantitatively rather than qualitatively different. The study did not find evidence to support popular claims that young people adopt radically different learning styles. Their attitudes to learning appear to be influenced by lecturers' teaching approaches. Students appear to conform to traditional pedagogies, albeit with minor uses of tools delivering content. The outcomes suggest that although the calls for transformations in education may be legitimate it would be misleading to ground the arguments for such change in students' shifting patterns of learning and technology use.

964 citations

Journal Article
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated changing patterns in students, use of electronic tools over a four year period, mapping changes in social communications with expectations in formal learning and found that students' expectations of learning are strongly influenced by their prior experiences.
Abstract: This study investigates changing patterns in students, use of electronic tools over a four year period, mapping changes in social communications with expectations in formal learning. The data, collected from 2001 to 2004, reflect the views of 2215 university entrants, the majority of whom were aged between 17 and 20 years across a range of disciplines (Business, Science and Engineering) on their first day at university. Although the data was collected prior to the emergence of the contemporary social technologies, it tests an underlying assertion that students, expectations of learning are strongly influenced by their prior experiences.

49 citations


Cited by
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The findings show that students use a limited range of mainly established technologies, and the study did not find evidence to support popular claims that young people adopt radically different learning styles.
Abstract: This study investigated the extent and nature of university students' use of digital technologies for learning and socialising. The findings show that students use a limited range of mainly established technologies. Use of collaborative knowledge creation tools, virtual worlds, and social networking sites was low. 'Digital natives' and students of a technical discipline (Engineering) used more technology tools when compared to 'digital immigrants' and students of a non-technical discipline (Social Work). This relationship may be mediated by the finding that Engineering courses required more intensive and extensive access to technology than Social Work courses. However, the use of technology between these groups is only quantitatively rather than qualitatively different. The study did not find evidence to support popular claims that young people adopt radically different learning styles. Their attitudes to learning appear to be influenced by lecturers' teaching approaches. Students appear to conform to traditional pedagogies, albeit with minor uses of tools delivering content. The outcomes suggest that although the calls for transformations in education may be legitimate it would be misleading to ground the arguments for such change in students' shifting patterns of learning and technology use.

964 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A critical perspective on popular and political understandings of young people and digital technologies – characterised by notions of “digital natives”, the “net generation” and other commonsense portrayals of expert young technology users are offered.
Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop and promote a realistic understanding of young people and digital technology with a view to supporting information professionals in playing useful and meaningful roles in supporting current generations of young people. In particular the paper aims to offer a critical perspective on popular and political understandings of young people and digital technologies – characterised by notions of “digital natives”, the “net generation” and other commonsense portrayals of expert young technology users. The paper seeks to consider the accuracy of such descriptions in reflecting young people's actual uses of digital technology and digital information.Design/methodology/approach – The paper provides a comprehensive review of the recent published literatures on young people and digital technology in information sciences, education studies and media/communication studies.Findings – The findings show that young people's engagements with digital technologies are varied and...

627 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The findings show that the undergraduates were generally able to use unfamiliar technologies easily in their learning to create useful artefacts and the self-perception measures indicated that digital natives can be taught digital literacy.
Abstract: In recent years, there has been much debate about the concept of digital natives, in particular the differences between the digital natives' knowledge and adoption of digital technologies in informal versus formal educational contexts. This paper investigates the knowledge about educational technologies of a group of undergraduate students studying the course Introduction to eLearning at a university in Australia and how they adopt unfamiliar technologies into their learning. The study explores the 'digital nativeness' of these students by investigating their degree of digital literacy and the ease with which they learn to make use of unfamiliar technologies. The findings show that the undergraduates were generally able to use unfamiliar technologies easily in their learning to create useful artefacts. They need, however to be made aware of what constitutes educational technologies and be provided with the opportunity to use them for meaningful purposes. The self-perception measures of the study indicated that digital natives can be taught digital literacy.

565 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors take a critical look at three pervasive urban legends in education about the nature of learners, learning, and teaching and look at what educational and psychological research has to say about them.
Abstract: This article takes a critical look at three pervasive urban legends in education about the nature of learners, learning, and teaching and looks at what educational and psychological research has to say about them. The three legends can be seen as variations on one central theme, namely, that it is the learner who knows best and that she or he should be the controlling force in her or his learning. The first legend is one of learners as digital natives who form a generation of students knowing by nature how to learn from new media, and for whom “old” media and methods used in teaching/learning no longer work. The second legend is the widespread belief that learners have specific learning styles and that education should be individualized to the extent that the pedagogy of teaching/learning is matched to the preferred style of the learner. The final legend is that learners ought to be seen as self-educators who should be given maximum control over what they are learning and their learning trajectory. It con...

471 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The huge possibilities of accessible virtual technologies will make it possible to break the boundaries of formal education as discussed by the authors, and educational institutions will benefit from better accessibility to virtual technologies; this will enable them to teach in virtual environments that are impossible to visualize in physical classrooms, like accessing into virtual laboratories, visualizing machines, industrial plants, or even medical scenarios.
Abstract: Virtual reality captures people’s attention. This technology has been applied in many sectors such as medicine, industry, education, video games, or tourism. Perhaps its biggest area of interest has been leisure and entertainment. Regardless the sector, the introduction of virtual or augmented reality had several constraints: it was expensive, it had poor ergonomics, or implied too much work to create contents. Recent technological innovations, including the rapid adoption of smartphones by society, have facilitated the access to virtual reality and augmented reality of anyone. In addition, several large companies like Apple, Facebook, Samsung, and Magic Leap, among others, have increased their investment to make these technologies to improve their accessibility within the next few years. Educational institutions will benefit from better accessibility to virtual technologies; this will make it possible to teach in virtual environments that are impossible to visualize in physical classrooms, like accessing into virtual laboratories, visualizing machines, industrial plants, or even medical scenarios. The huge possibilities of accessible virtual technologies will make it possible to break the boundaries of formal education.

425 citations