Materials and technologies

TLRP has, since its inception, acknowledged the crucial role of tools and materials in teaching and learning in, for example, the teaching of literacy and numeracy, and in enhancing the quality of disabled students' learning in HE.

Nevertheless, the advent of digital technologies (or ICT) has generated new and specific themes for research. The Programme established an early group to look at ICT and research development and this has now been reported in a special issue of Teaching, Pedagogy and Education.

What roles might digital technologies play in supporting interactive teaching, and what kinds of interactions generate learning? How might teaching and learning initiatives be designed across the school subject disciplines, and how might research evidence be disseminated to stakeholders in order to enhance IT-based teaching and learning? How does digital technology influence what needs to be known by employees in modern workplaces – techno-mathematical literacies - and how might technology be employed to support the development of this knowledge? And how might multi-media databases be developed that support vicarious learning that is, learning that takes place by accessing others' learning experiences?

With the launching of the Technology Enhanced Learning phase of TLRP, in 2006, the programme acknowledged the need for a specific research focus on digital technologies, and the ways in which they shape (and can be shaped by) the demands of learning and teaching.  In 2007, with joint funding by the ESRC and the EPSRC, 3 major awards in the field of TEL were granted, focusing on the need for interdisciplinary research that incorporates perspectives from the social, cognitive and technological sciences. 7 small-scale 'development' grants were also awarded, each of which has fed into a new round of proposals that will be finalised in the Spring of 2008. These have been seminal in generating interdisciplinary collaborations and elaborating key themes.

3 large projects have so far been funded, spanning the teaching of dentistry students in HE employing haptic devices; the development of intelligent support for learning mathematics in schools; and the development of personal and collaborative technologies for science learning. These are due to be joined by a number of projects that will be commissioned in the Spring of 2008.

Publications related to the general theme of materials and technologies are listed below: