Return to January 2006 Funded Projects

An investigation into the new relationship between technology and scholarship.

Lance Downie

Composing reading lists has, at one level, never been easier, given instant access to online library catalogues, the internet and other databases. Indeed, there is almost too much information in too many forms, and this glut of information has its costs, raising questions about how to select relevant titles and readings and how to guide students to appropriate resources so that they can use them creatively, whether these resources are printed, audiovisual or online.

One thing that we don't understand sufficiently is how students orientate themselves in relation to reading lists as they relate to increasingly informated libraries. It isn't clear how students use of the lists links to the projects in which they're involved, whether these are conventional research-based writing or imedia projects where research is complemented by other modes of creativity.

This project, then, is concerned with thinking about creativity and the interconnections between technology and scholarship. It seems that the ways students, tutors and the institution currently deliver the traditional reading list are often unimaginative and out of line with the transitions mentioned above and this is reflected in how students are using them and negotiating them.

This bid has been developed out of a final year research project undertaken as part of the PGCertHE in which a preliminary investigation into how a relatively simple innovation (the quote pad) might enhance the learning process for students on the MA in Digital Media in terms of exploiting and enhancing the physical spaces in which students were working. The current project seeks to extend this investigation to make a connection between students' engagement with reading lists in those physical workspaces and the various virtual spaces that students occupy. It is intended to set up an online forum where students and tutors can 'meet' to discuss and share relevant readings and aid the connection to creativity.

The project will set up a reading list forum on a VLE for specific groups of students at Sussex University - namely Digital Media MA students (theory and practice), Media and Cultural Studies MA students and students from students from the MA in Art History. (approximately 40 to 50 students). This forum will be developed rather differently from previous forums which have not always successfully engaged students interest: it will include information on course readings and extra information with links to libraries and to other information sources. However the forum will also operate as a more local space, supporting the readings lists for specific courses. The intention is that debates can be sparked in advance of seminars through the use of quotes taken from readings, and can be developed after seminars are over. In addition it is hoped that the forums will constitute a live space for continued creative interaction with others promoting deep learning and a useful archive recording earlier discussions in the final term of MA courses when students are working independently on individual projects.

Finally we want to continue research into how students are inhabiting physical and virtual spaces for learning - in this case the focus being on the digital media labs and the art history library as designated learning spaces. To do this we envisage developing quotepads; small notepads linked to the reading lists, and encouraging annotation. The quotepads operate as a prop to creativity and start to expose this space, and what students already do with it. This follows research done last year when quote pads proved an invaluable tool for exposing the complexity of the virtual/physical workspaces that students are now working in. The intention this time around is to manipulate the information offered to allow students to work more creatively in these interstices.