In the past few years many studies, conferences and experimental projects have been devoted to the issue of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) use in teaching and learning within European Universities.

There is a number of remarkable examples of the involvement of educational and training institutions, research centres, and companies in this field, such as: the Humanities projects (approved in the framework of the Joint ODL Action of DGs XXII, XII and XIII, they involved between 1995 and 1999 large students communities in the planned activities); the Virtue project (1997, in TEN-Telecom); Transcult (1997); Euroliterature (1997); Restructuring University, and many more in the EC Socrates programme, in the Telematics Application Programme, and later on in the 5^th Framework Programme. In addition, national programmes to develop use of ICT in higher education have also been put in place, for example TLTP in the UK, {others???} and these have led to widespread innovation.

A recurrent feature of many of the aforementioned projects is the basic lack of student involvement in the projects’ design phase (in those cases in which learning materials were to be developed) and in the evaluation phases. Students have generally been involved as final users, with a specific role in the verification/experimentation stages. In some cases they have also been involved in dedicated users’ needs analyses, aimed at collecting their ideas and needs related to the services/systems to be developed and implemented. Students have hardly ever been considered as real stakeholders with particular interests and “stakes” in the innovation or in the internationalisation processes of the universities. These innovation experiences have largely taken into account only the points of view of teachers’ and university managers, following a ‘top-down’ approach.

The position of students within university settings as the main “constituency”, with specific identities and “views of the world”, makes their participation in university change processes a priority for balanced and effective developments, as well as for assuring their acceptance of innovation and change. This perspective goes beyond the idea of user-led or formative approaches, involving students in the decision making processes, and in the assessment and evaluation of outcomes. As such, they are recognised as stakeholders, whose acceptance and awareness of the developed models and proposed practices represent essential components to the implementation of effective and practical systems, contents and related support services.

A real students’ perspective on the use of ICT in university curricula needs to be further researched and developed, adding evidence to recent intensive studies¹, and substantiating national and European policy actions². The aim is to extend digital literacy in educational and training systems, and to bridge the gap between those who have access to ICT and those who are excluded from this “new élite”, well integrated into mainstream society.

The “reversed”, bottom-up approach adopted in SPOT PLUS allows for the measurement of students’ viewpoints regarding the actual role and the potential for development of ICT in higher education. The pressure to further develop the use of ICT in this sector is accompanied by a need for a balanced and “democratic” access to the relevant tools and methodologies, involving students as well as teaching staff in the participative definition of new curricula.

The main hypotheses addressed in SPOT PLUS are:

The use of ICT can contribute to the development of a number of “transversal skills”, such as social competencies, communication and organisational skills, skills to effectively manage time and available resources. Such abilities and skills are fundamental to living and working in the Information Society . The blended use of ICT with traditional classroom-based teaching would allow students to mature their key competencies and transversal skills, hence increasing their employability and savoir-être-related skills. In these regards the role of ICT as a tool for enhancing opportunities to access the labour market is recognised and valued.

ICT represents a tool to facilitate the development of collaborative approaches to learning and to stimulate more autonomous and learner-centred ways of learning. By increasing the degree of familiarity with technological devices that allow for remote communication and distance learning, students are introduced to a complex scenario, in which they are part of a learning community (at local, national or even transnational level) and experience self-managed learning processes.

The use of ICT can greatly contribute to the removal, or at least the diminution, of existing barriers to access to higher education opportunities and resources. which prevent students from benefiting from the development opportunities that are available (such as: learning resources reference materials, assessment exercises, interactive communication tools). This is particularly true for those segments of the students population who live in geographically remote areas, and for those who are less favoured in social, economic, organisational or physical terms.

ICT has the potential to add an international component to the study experience of most European students. The opportunities offered by ICT devices (namely, the “virtual mobility experience”) can serve to prepare them for, follow up after and complement the physical mobility experiences of European students across national borders.

Footnotes

1

Elen, J. & Lowyck, J. (1998), Students’ views on the efficiency of instruction: An exploratory survey of the instructional metacognitive knowledge of university freshmen. Higher Education, 36, 231-252.
Elen, J. & Lowyck, J. (1999), Metacognitive instructional knowledge: Cognitive mediation and instructional design. Journal of Structured Learning and Intelligent Systems, 13(3), 145-169.
Elen, J. & Lowyck, J. (2000), Instructional metacognitive knowledge: a qualitative study on conceptions of freshmen about instruction. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 32(3), 421-444.

2

For example, it is interesting to see how in year 2000 the European Commission set the EU priorities concerning the development of a knowledge-based society in the document “eLearning: Designing Tomorrow’s Education”, which have been then developed in concrete programmes and action plans.