Enabling Disruptive Technologies for Higher Education Learning and Teaching

Higher Education Institutions (H.E.I.s) have invested significantly in technologies for learning and teaching, with Virtual Learning Environments (V.L.E.s) being more or less universal (Britain and Liber 2004). However, technologies provided by H.E.I.s have not been universally successful in terms of adoption and usage. Meanwhile, both students and lecturers use a range of technologies not controlled by H.E.I.s to enhance their learning and teaching on one hand, their social lives on the other, and to blur the boundaries between the two. There is therefore a need to understand how non-institutional technologies influence learning and teaching, and to understand how they can be incorporated into institutional contexts. In order to address this issue, this research investigates how H.E.I.s can engage constructively with "disruptive technologies" (Christensen 1997). Disruptive technologies in the context of this research are technologies that are not designed explicitly for learning and teaching, but which transpire to have learning and teaching potential. The research uses Activity Theory and Expansive Learning (Engestrom 1987, 2001) and the Community of Practice theory (Lave and Wenger 1991, Wenger 1998) as the primary lenses through which to analyse the impact of disruptive technologies. The research uses questionnaires and interviews in its pilot study phase to identify the technologies people use, the purposes for which they use them, and the extent to which uses of technology may be regarded as disruptive. The research is also interested in how disruptive technologies impact on activity systems (Engestrom 1987, 2001), and interested in how disruptive technologies impact on online identity formation. The findings suggest that a more bottom-up and less top-down approach to the implementation of technologies to support learning and teaching in H.E.I.s is more likely to lead to the enhanced adoption of technologies. Moreover, the findings suggest that users create their own meanings for technologies. In addition, the findings suggest that learners' uses of technologies blur the lines between work, study and recreation, which carries implications for where learning takes place, the means by which it is delivered, and the power relations that operate within a learning and teaching situation.