National, inter-institutional, graduate modules – blended learning approaches for PhD education in Ireland

This paper is a case study that describes the design and delivery of national PhD lectures with 40 PhD candidates in Digital Arts and Humanities in Ireland simultaneously to four remote locations, in Trinity College Dublin, in University College Cork, in NUI Maynooth and NUI Galway. Blended learning approaches were utilized to augment traditional teaching practices combining: face-to-face engagement, video-conferencing to multiple sites, social media lecture delivery support – a live blog and micro blogging, shared, open student web presence online. Techniques for creating an effective, active learning environment were discerned via a range of learning options offered to students through student surveys after semester one. Students rejected the traditional lecture format, even through the novel delivery method via video link to a number of national academic institutions was employed. Students also rejected the use of a moderated forum as a means of creating engagement across the various institutions involved. Students preferred a mix of approaches for this online national engagement. The paper discusses successful methods used to promote interactive teaching and learning. These included Peer to peer learning, Workshop style delivery, Social media. The lecture became a national, synchronous workshop. The paper describes how allowing students to have a voice in the virtual classroom they become animated and engaged in an open culture of shared experience and scholarship, create networks beyond their institutions, and across disciplinary boundaries. We offer an analysis of our experiences to assist other educators in their course design, with a particular emphasis on social media engagement.

Trials of the rhizomatic learner

How should educators respond to the whole phenomenon of ‘digital learning’? This question has been in vogue for the past twenty years or more and there is a need for a regular renewal of this question as societies change. This article will draw on some post-structuralist writing, particularly Deleuze and Guattari, to try to understand better the divide between the optimistic account and the pessimistic account of the effect of ICT on teaching and learning. It argues in particular 1) that ICT in its current form signals a paradigm shift in education—but this thesis is difficult either to prove or disprove; 2) that Deleuze and Guattari’s rhizome provides us with a theoretical tool for understanding the pedagogical nature of this shift; 3) that this change is wider than literacy itself and announces posthuman elements in the socio-cultural environment of learning.