UOIT, a laptop university: a look at the eight-year mark

Citation

Desjardins, F. (2011), "UOIT, a laptop university: a look at the eight-year mark", Interactive Technology and Smart Education, Vol. 8 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/itse.2011.36308baa.001

UOIT, a laptop university: a look at the eight-year mark

Article Type: Guest editorial From: Interactive Technology and Smart Education, Volume 8, Issue 2

In higher education, one of the trends that have manifested themselves in the past decade, in many cases because of pressure from the students themselves, has been the attempt to achieve ubiquitous internet access, if not ubiquitous computing, on college or university campuses. The ideas gravitating towards a students/computers ratio of one to one as well as trying to provide the necessary associated support infrastructure have lead to many interesting projects. As large computer labs were no longer seen as a viable solution, some colleges and universities instituted laptop programs.

The University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) in Canada, Ontario’s first laptop-based university is one such institution. Since it opened it’s doors in 2003, it has supplied every student with a new, current laptop preloaded with all the software required for every course as well as wireless internet access from anywhere on both campuses. Presently, the more than 7,000 students enrolled in undergraduate studies for the 2010-2011 academic year, along with another 500 in graduate studies, are encouraged to use their laptop to access course materials, conduct research, make presentations and communicate with faculty.

Obviously, projects of this magnitude are often somewhat controversial and rarely generate unanimity. Some find the costs far exceed the benefits, while others will argue the necessity or even the responsibility of the institution to replicate at least in part, the perceived reality of society. Some discussions have raised voices in favour of using the technology as a cognition-enhancing tool where others describe it as a brain numbing distraction. Whatever the perspectives, the place of technology in higher learning is growing, it is a source of debate and it is subjects to a great many social pressures.

This special issue of Interactive Technology and Smart Education examines some varied experiences and explores some of the thoughts about teaching in such a laptop university. Authors coming from three distinct faculties at UOIT offer us a glimpse into their thoughts and experiences related to teaching and learning in an institution with ubiquitous computing. The intention is not to present a complete representation of everything occurring within UOIT specifically, but rather to present the kinds of thinking, even critical thinking, that such an environment can incubate over a relatively short time. In the call for papers, professors were invited to think about what effects that a ubiquitous use of technology, in class or online, has had on our pedagogical approaches, on the teacher-learner relationship and/or on our role as professors in general.

First, one study by R. van Oostveen, William Muirhead and William M. Goodman, involved an examination of the students’ use of the portable tablet PC that allows for the use of a stylus on a touch sensitive screen as one of the principal input method. Although this project has been going on for a number of years, its relevance has been highlighted in many discussions in the light of the recent appearance and rapid adoption of the new generation of tablets (Apple iPad, Samsung Galaxy, RIM PlayBook, etc.). The main concern in this study was to try to identify the real or perceived value of such an interface, when used as a learning tool.

The second article, by Shawn Michael Bullock, presents a structured insight into the problems faced by a new professor teaching undergraduate courses in this ubiquitous computing environment as well as in a new fully online graduate program in education. With many personal experiments with mobile learning, online social networks and collaboration, the author gives a critical analysis of the effects of the use of these various digital technologies on the relationships with the students as well as on the fundamental representation as to what teaching is in the digital world.

The next two articles come to us from the Faculty of Business and Information Technology’s program in Game Development & Entrepreneurship. The first one from Bill Kapralos, Michelle Hogan, Antonin I. Pribetic and Adam Dubrowski examine the user’s perceptions of simulations and serious games in the context of the laptop university. One of the findings suggests that students overwhelmingly found computer simulations and serious games useful to their learning thus supporting a very constructionist and social constructivist view of learning that is taking hold in many faculties. The second article from this program, by Andrew Hogue, Bill Kapralos and François Desjardins, speaks to the adoption of a specific pedagogical strategy for the entire program. In itself, such an agreement between all involved within a program and the support of the upper administration usually represents a substantial achievement. In this case, again to directly address the issue of relevance, this program made the decision to adopt a problem-based learning approach. This case study presents a detailed description and in-depth analysis of such an approach as well as the resulting positive impact on student learning.

The final paper, authored by Shahid Alvi, brings a note of caution to the use of technology in the teaching/learning context. This reflective viewpoint paper is important in this special issue in that it does give voice to many unspoken thoughts in this institution as well as outside. That is not to say that it represents anyone else but the author, but that it can bring us, the readers, to add a careful note of critical balance to the extremely rapid adoption of technology in all spheres of human activity.

In the context, of this relatively new institution, with a laptop program, the opportunity to experiment with both new academic programs infused with new technology is a constant. In larger, more established institutions that might want to implement new programs requiring the installation of a substantial technological infrastructure, potentially large expenses and massive changes to administrative and financial structures would often impede these innovative ideas.

The careful exploration of the potential of technology in higher education continues in this institution, where many projects are presently being carried out, to specifically study not just how things are done now, but to explore how higher education could deal with the potential and pitfall of further digital injection in the pedagogical process and the personal relationships between the learners and the teachers.

If higher education is to meet the social challenges of accessibility and rapid evolution of disciplinary knowledge and scientific inquiry as well as sustain relevance from the student’s perspective, a continuous critical exploration of these and other ideas need to be pursued.

François DesjardinsGuest Editor