This module will introduce participants to the principles of emerging technologies, their roles in inclusive education and concerns for universal design for learning. Researching emerging technologies is often needed, given that technology development is ongoing. There are important principles to consider when undertaking research in an emerging rather than a static environment, and these include the important need to consider inclusive learning and related practices. Students will explore how emerging technologies have effects on pedagogy and assessment, and how pedagogy and assessment can be designed to meet the needs of all students, considering how inclusion can be identified and developed in the context of technology enhanced learning. Perspectives on inclusion, and the moral and legal imperatives that exist to ensure that teaching-learning is inclusive and accessible at every level of education and in the workplace will be considered. There will be a focus on how to research uses of emerging technologies in the context of innovation, from technology enhanced learning and pedagogical perspectives. Students will be introduced to mechanisms for investigating educational uses of emerging technologies, to critically evaluate benefits and challenges. Students will draw on innovative and evolving e-research approaches – such as learning analytics –alongside related ethical concerns to understand how emerging developments can underpin inclusive teaching-learning generally.

The module will enable a range of methodological approaches, theoretical and conceptual models to be explored, and used as appropriate. Case study approaches will be discussed in terms of emerging technologies; mixed methods and inclusive methods will be introduced that include participatory, emancipatory and arts-based methods, such as visual and narrative approaches.

Assessment will be in the form of two equally-weighted submissions: two 3,000 word written assignments, the first of which can be based on empirical (newly gathered or existing) data. and the second of which will be a draft research proposal that focuses on a future longer study. The assignments may relate to each other or not.

This module will explore the meanings of ‘social practice’ as they relate to uses of technology for educational purposes. It will emphasise the importance of understanding the goals and expertise of those using it, the material circumstances in which it is used, a range of institutional and micro-cultural factors, and relationships between the practices being studied and others with which they intersect. It will also emphasise that practices are often unstable and constantly developing.

The module will provide you with an opportunity to reflect in new ways on the practices, policies, and change initiatives you are already familiar with. The module will provide you with an opportunity to familiarise yourself with, and gain confidence in using, theoretical scholarly vocabularies to describe professional practices and policies. The module will increase your awareness of approaches to policy development and change that you might use in your own settings.

The module will draw on a cluster of ‘social practice theories’, with which you will engage, and will encourage you to use those theories to interrogate your own practices and the previous academic literature on topics related to your research interests. There will be a particular emphasis on understanding how policy interacts with practice (since technology use is often mandated by a variety of policies) and how change, including professional development initiatives, is attempted in particular educational settings.

You will be invited to:

1. Discuss a range of policies, originating from a variety of sources, that impact upon uses of technology for educational purposes;

2. Recognise and analyse how technology use for educational purposes is situated in particular practice contexts;

3. Analyse the extent to which existing literature recognises the practice context;

4. Provide reasoned arguments in support of your views on how technology use for educational purposes might be enacted, contested, changed and developed;

5. Relate theories of practice, relevant to uses of technology for educational purposes, to your own professional practice and expertise.

Assessment will be in the form of a 6,000 word assignment, written in the form of a journal article, on a topic falling within the remit of the module. You will submit a draft version and receive feedback from the tutor and two of your peers before re-submitting the final version.