Supporting postgraduate writing pedagogies using Sakai Shaheeda Jaffer & Andrew Deacon Centre for Educational Technology University of Cape Town 9 th Sakai.
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Supporting postgraduate writing pedagogies using Sakai
Shaheeda Jaffer & Andrew DeaconCentre for Educational Technology
University of Cape Town
9th Sakai ConferenceParis
1 July 2008
The ‘postgraduate condition’
• Students view– High expectations of academic discourse– Difficulty entering scholarly community
• Lecturer view– Lack of student preparedness– Students need more practice writing drafts
• Institutional view– Student throughput inefficiencies
Educational technologists role
• Can educational technology help?– Possibilities at proposal and drafting stages
• Focus on mediation role with lecturers– What and how technologies are used
• Negotiating learning designs:– Understanding the pedagogies– Making effective educational technology
choices
Writers’ Circles
• Informal (students join voluntarily)– Support thesis writing
• Format: – Fortnightly meetings with ‘warm-ups’ &
discussion of student draft writing
• Aims:– Space to rehearse their research agendas– Develop postgraduate identities– Peer-critiques on drafts– Engage with academic writing structures &
conventions
Writers’ circles: initial ideas
• Students post writing into the resources section and elicit comment from peers and facilitators
• Students store drafts on Vula space and in so doing keep track of their development.
• Students read and comment on peer’s writing through the use of the forums between writers’ circles
• Facilitators read & comment on student’s writing online
Implementation
• Pedagogy dependent on engagement in f2f workshop
• Vula used to share writings prior to workshop
• No online interaction between students and between lecturer and students
• Growing realisation that f2f facilitation important
Use of Vula
History course
• Formal (research methodologies courses)– Support thesis writing
• Format:– Bi-weekly seminars
• Aims:– Develop skills working with primary source
documents– Lecturer and peer critiques on drafts– Develop generic research skills
History research methods course• Short formal accredited courses• Honours and masters courses• Students from diverse disciplinary backgrounds• Weekly seminars• Focus:
– Thesis writing– Analysis of primary source documents
• Tools used:– digital archives (Aluka)– wiki in Vula (Sakai)– Timelines– maps
History research methods course
Aluka
Time lines
Maps
ComparisonsWriters circles Research methods
improve student writing & induct students into scholarly discourse
improve student writing & induct students into scholarly discourse
informal multidisciplinary formal multidisciplinary
writing structures content
pedagogy patterned pedagogy varied
draft thesis writing - chapters not formally assessed
writing tasks wrt primary source analysis (assessed)
Tools: Vula email Tools: digital archives, wiki, maps, timelines
Conclusions• Educational technology used in limited ways
– few educational tools suited for PG writing
• Contradiction between educational technology and becoming scholarly– Collaborative learning designs
• Aims similar – draft writing and discussion central to both
• Pedagogies very different– uses of technology different – not understood ahead of time
Thank you
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