ERIC Number: EJ987961
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2012
Pages: 20
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1743-9884
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Available Date: N/A
Digitally Mastered? Technology and Transition in the Experience of Taught Postgraduate Students
Masterman, Elizabeth; Shuyska, Jane Alexen
Learning, Media and Technology, v37 n4 p335-354 2012
Taught Master's students have been largely overlooked in research into learners' engagement with digital technologies. This article reports work to redress this imbalance, in which an extended email correspondence was conducted with 23 Master's students. Specifically, it investigates (1) the extent to which these students start their courses both functionally competent in the use of IT and digitally literate, and (2) the relationship between students' engagement with digital technologies and their experience of transition to postgraduate study in five areas: knowledge and skills, autonomy, "deeper" learning, enculturation into an academic community, and self-concept. Findings suggest that students may initially be less functionally competent in IT than might be expected, but use these tools in an informed manner. Engagement with a wider range of digital technologies parallels their shift from novice to expert practice and their developing self-concept as researchers; however, non-digital means also remain important in mediating all aspects of transition.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Electronic Learning, Electronic Mail, Computer Literacy, Information Technology, Computer Uses in Education, Qualitative Research, Case Studies, Correlation, Graduate Students, Self Concept, Student Adjustment, Acculturation, Student Development, Expertise, Student Research, Masters Programs, Novices
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United Kingdom
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