Listening to the Learners' Voices in HE: how do Students Reflect on their use of Technology for Learning?

The importance of the Learner's Voice and thus of listening to students' views has been evidenced in various high profile initiatives in the UK. The work presented here is from the JISC Learners' Experiences of ELearning Phase 2 Learners' Journeys STROLL project. The seven JISC funded projects were set up in 2007 to investigate inter alia the changing views of students in their use of technology to support their learning. The STROLL (STudent Reflections on Lifelong e-Learning) project has recruited a diverse range of students from both Higher and Further Education backgrounds with the aim of researching the students' experiences of learning in a technology rich environment and their progression in their use of learning technologies over the two years of the project's timescale. STROLL is a largely qualitative study with students participating from across the University of Hertfordshire (UH) and Hertford Regional College (HRC) by recording their own video and audio diaries of their learning experiences. Using the students' choice of camcorder, web camera, or digital voice recorder they recorded their daily learning experiences of using technology, including a range of e-learning tools and the University's own MLE (Study Net). The project started in March 2007 and completed in March 2009 with the final round of student diaries collected in October 2008.