Creative Arts

This project aimed:

1)To explore, examine and theorise on how the notion of "software literacy" is understood, developed and applied in tertiary teaching-learning contexts,

2)To inform us on ways to help students develop knowledge and skills that traverse across software packages and versions, and, across contexts of learning with and through software

The research aim was translated into the following questions:

1. To what extent and how does student software literacy develop and impact on the teaching and learning of discipline specific software in formal tertiary teaching settings?

2. How and in what ways do lecturers model attention to and use of different aspects of software affordance in a course which utilises discipline specific software?

3. What software literacy do students consider they learnt as part of the case study tertiary course(s)?

There were two phases in this exploratory study designed to address these questions.

Phase 1 addressed research question 1 in terms of exploring and understanding the ways lecturers and students become aware of and develop software literacy understandings and skills about PowerPoint. This was selected as a commonly used application that provided an inclusive context for discussing the role of software in affording and constraining student opportunities to learn.

Phase 2 examined how discipline specific software literacy develops in a formal learning environment and the extent this development fitted with our hypothesised model. Phase 2 addressed research questions 2 and 3 and intended to unpack if and how students: develop and utilise discipline specific software literacy;  understand the influence of software on the way they make sense of disciplinary knowledge; and whether their learning trajectories fit with the hypothesised tiers of software literacy.

In 2011 ideaschool Arts & Thinking at the Eastern Institute of Technology embarked on a journey to redevelop the Bachelor of Visual Arts and Design into a project-based learning programme. This implied a significant paradigm shift from teacher-centred to learner-centred education for all involved. Many months of exploration, discussion, and hard work resulted in implementation of the new programme from 2013. Observations during 2013 indicated a major transformation in student engagement compared with the previous curriculum. This project aimed to gain a deeper understanding of this transformation and the contributing processes, to support other education organisations in developing project-based curriculum, particularly in the field of arts and design.