Improving the technology of learning

Professor Peter Goodyear is looking at new ways to help our students learn with the aid of technology.

Professor Peter Goodyear is working with some of the University's finest minds to design better networks of technology-based learning. Last year, he was awarded an Australian Laureate Fellowship by the Australian Research Council (ARC) – the first for a researcher working in the field of education. The award recognised his outstanding international reputation as well as his work in a field that delivers significant benefits to Australian teaching and learning.

Professor Goodyear and his fellow researchers are looking at how people learn with the aid of technology.

“Part of the point is to try and understand how to use technology in more productive ways in education, how to design better and more congenial learning environments, and how to help teachers in schools or universities make better decisions about organising, managing and designing learning environments,” he explains.

“The bigger vision is to see if we can improve the science of design for networked learning.”

About the fellowship

Peter explains the foundations of the Laureate Fellowship project

The fellowship has been put to good use funding seven additional positions for researchers at the University’s Centre for Research on Computer-supported Learning and Cognition (CoCo). Professor Goodyear is co-director of the centre, which is located in the Faculty of Education and Social Work, and supports collaborations with teams in other areas such as IT, engineering and science.

“CoCo has a reputation for cutting-edge research on educational design and we attract academic visitors and PhD students from around the world," he says. "The ARC funding will also help us firm up our links with other leading research groups in the Asia- Pacific region.”

In 2012, CoCo will host the International Conference of the Learning Sciences, the first time the conference has been held in the Southern Hemisphere.

Learning to teach online

One project successfully developed through the centre is PhD candidate Simon McIntyre’s Learning to Teach Online. The initiative's website provides valuable resources on online learning issues, including increasing student engagement with podcasts, teaching with Twitter, wikis and blogs, and introductions to using social media and other online communication tools.

When it was released, the project hit the top 10 in iTunes U Teaching and Education category, with its offer of downloadable episodes. You can read more about it at the College of Fine Arts (NSW) website.

So far the project has interviewed around 50 academics, deans, learning and teaching professionals and librarians from 18 different institutions in Australia and the UK on disciplines including art, education, science, maths, medicine, humanities, business and architecture.