Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and Internet Residency: Implications for Both Personal Life and Teaching/Learning

Technological advances over the last decade have had a significant impact on the teaching and learning experiences students encounter today. We now take technologies such as Web 2.0, mobile devices, cloud computing, podcasts, social networking, super-fast broadband, and connectedness for granted. So what about the student use of these types of technologies? Is there a blurring of the distinction between using them for academic purposes versus social use in their everyday lives? If so, what lessons can Higher Education learn from the fields of HCI and User Experience Design (UXD) about improving engagement through using familiar, intuitive and exciting interactions with technology? One of the factors driving the development of new pedagogies associated with the use of technologies for learning is a concern that there may be differences between the way that students use technologies today for socialising, working and learning. This paper describes the experiences of undergraduate students within the School of Engineering and Computing at the University of the West of Scotland. Initially under the auspices of a UK Higher Education Academy (HEA) Digital Literacies project, groups of students have completed activity maps to show how they used modern technologies for educational and personal purposes, and whether Visitor or Resident behaviour is exhibited. An analysis of these maps may prove interesting showing which tools are most popular and which are niche-focussed in order to assess the implications for student engagement and enjoyment of learning. [For full proceedings, see ED571332.]