Volume Two - Academic Conferences

Michael Flavin
The lecturer also spoke about her own experiences with technologies outside work and, specifically,
her experiences on LinkedIn, which she uses for social rather than business networking. The lecturer
stated she experienced no awkwardness about using LinkedIn for social networking and described
how a LinkedIn contact had led to her finding a violin shop that assisted her children’s progress in
music lessons. The interviewee uses LinkedIn for a purpose other than its declared purpose, but
without any sense of transgression or protracted reflection. The technology serves a personal
purpose, and has thus acquired a meaning through usage.
The second interviewee, a Learning Technologist, spoke about her own experiences when she first
started working with learning technologies: “we learnt on the job pretty much… We probably learnt
from our own mistakes as we went along.” She then talked about her own experiences as a
postgraduate student: “I am not really very well organised when I study, so I tend to just dive in and
see how it works for myself really… you just have a go and hope that you don’t embarrass yourself
publicly.”
Q. So there were induction materials available, but would it be fair to say that you didn’t
use those and just used experience?
A. Yes. absolutely… For me It’s the most effective way to learn – just go in and click
things and see what happens.
The interviewee also spoke about her experiences with Twitter: “You could watch five thousand
tutorials on Twitter and I still don’t think you would get it. You have to capture your own purpose in
using it… you have to actually use it before you begin to see the value in it.” However, while the
interviewee uses Twitter primarily to support her work, her use of Facebook serves a different
purpose: “Facebook for me is purely a social tool.” Thereafter, the interviewee spoke about her online
identities.
Q. So is it fair to say that you have more than one online identity?
A. Definitely, yes. I keep them all separate deliberately.
Q. Why is that?
A. Facebook relates to what I do at the weekend, socialising with friends. My friends
take pictures and I don’t have any control over the pictures they put up. I don’t
necessarily want my boss at work seeing me mingling… And Twitter for me, I use it as a
learning tool primarily. I don’t actually tweet that much myself, I’m more kind of
consuming stuff at the moment. But I don’t put up things relating to what I had for dinner
and what I’m doing that night. Sometimes I do, but generally I keep that sort of work
related persona.
The interviewee’s responses echo the findings of Creanor et al. (2006) in the sense that learners can
choose to separate their uses of technologies, and may opt to use different technologies to support
different online identities. The interviewee maintains some demarcation between work, study and
recreation in relation to her uses of technologies. However, she also establishes her purposes for
technologies through her use of them.
Both interviewees are self-taught to a large extent in their uses of technologies to support learning,
thereby supporting one of Conole et al.’s contentions, that learners rely more on trial and error than
on formal training (2008, p. 515). Moreover, both interviewees create their own meanings for
technologies, using LinkedIn in one case for non-professional networking, and Twitter in another for
solely professional networking.
7. Conclusion
A number of the questionnaire responses suggest the validity of the Disruptive Technology theory.
For example, only one participant stated that they use Second Life (online virtual world). The
participant enjoys using Second Life but states it has “a steeper learning curve”. In addition, a further
participant stated a disadvantage of using technologies for learning is that they are “not always
transferable to other teachers (due to their lack of knowledge or desire)”. The Disruptive Technology
theory argues that ease of use is a significant factor in the take up of a disruptive technology.
Wikipedia has this capacity, with one simple search box. Mastering Second Life requires more
advanced competencies. If technologies are kept simple, people are more likely to use them.
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