Journal and Book Publications in Education
McPherson, M. and Whitworth, A. (2008): "Editorial" - to a special issue on the organisation of e-learning; British Journal of Educational Technology, vol. 39 no. 3.
Benson, A., Lawler, C. and Whitworth, A. (2008): "Rules, roles and tools: Activity Theory and the Comparative Study of E-learning" in British Journal of Educational Technology, vol. 39 no. 3 (special issue as noted above)
Whitworth, A. (2008): "The organisation of space and place: A commentary on Wahlstedt et al" in British Journal of Educational Technology, vol. 39 no. 2.
Benson, A. and Whitworth, A. (2007): "Technology at the Planning Table: Negotiation, Activity Theory and Course Management Systems" in Journal of Organisational Transformation and Social Change, vol. 4 no. 1.
Whitworth, A. (2007): "Researching the cognitive cultures of e-learning" in Andrews, R. and Haythornthwaite, C. (eds.): The Sage Handbook of E-learning Research, London, Sage
Whitworth, A. (2007): "Communicative Competence in the Information Age: Towards a critical theory of information literacy" in Andretta, S. (ed.): Change and challenge: information literacy for the 21st Century, Auslib, Blackwood.
Whitworth, A. (2006): "Dynamic but Prosaic: Toward a Methodology for Researching e-Learning Environments", International Journal of Research and Method in Education 29/2, 151-164.
Whitworth, A. (2005): "The politics of virtual learning environments: environmental change, conflict, and e-learning", British Journal of Educational Technology, vol 36 no 4.
Whitworth, A. (2005): "'Who Wants to Learn Web Design Anyway?': Course Design for Student Diversity in an ICT Sub-Discipline", ITALICS vol 4 no 2.
Whitworth, A. (2005): "The State of ICT Skills Education", ITALICS vol 4 no 1.
Reffell, P. and Whitworth, A. (2002): "Information fluency: critically examining IT education", New Library World vol 103, no 1182/1183.
Conference presentations
Whitworth, A. and Benson, A. (2007): "Taming the Lone Ranger: the Creative Development of Elearning Technologies in UK and US Higher Education Institiutions", at Creativity or Conformity: Building Cultures of Creativity in Higher Education, 8-10 January 2007, Cardiff.
Whitworth, A. and Benson, A. (2006): "Mapping e-learning: Visualising the negotiated social shaping of educational technology" in Proceedings of ALT-C 2006: The next generation, 5-7 September 2006, Edinburgh, 192-202.
Whitworth, A. (2005): "Researching the cognitive cultures of e-learning" in Cook, J. and Whitelock, D. (eds.): Exploring the frontiers of e-learning: borders, outposts and migration - Proceedings of ALT-C 2005, 6-8 September, University of Manchester.
Sobol, S., Stones, C. and Whitworth, A. (2005): "Qualitative Evaluation of e-Learning using a Visualisation Tool", Proceedings of the IADIS International Confernce on Applied Computing, February, Carvoeiro, Portugal.
Whitworth, A. (2004): "E is for Environment: Critical Social Science, Technology and the
Learning Environment", Proceedings of the IADIS International Conference on E-Society, 16-19 July 2004, Avila, 980-983.
Whitworth, A. (2003): "Reclaiming the virtual public sphere: the philosophy and practice
of teaching web design", Proceedings of the 11th BOBCATSSS symposium on library and information science, 3-5 February 2003, Torun, 47-60.
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Research interests
My work lies at the intersection of three fields:
| | Critical theory
and the politics
of organisations | |
| | A critical theory
of e-learning? | |
Information
technology | | Education
(particularly HE) |
- What are the motivations behind the introduction of e-learning - and what might be its consequences?
- What are the impacts of the way IT skills and IL (information literacy) is taught?
- How does an organisation's structure and politics influence the learning technologies it produces and/or uses?
- How can we design learning in democratic ways?
Research projects
I am a member of the Learner Generated Contexts research group. For more information on this wide-ranging project see the LGC web site as linked.
Since March 2005: Technology at the Planning Table - a joint project with Dr. Angela Benson of the University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign, US.
This project considers the negotiation of power and interests in the creation of course management systems (sometimes referred to as virtual learning environments). Different approaches to systems development have been identified: open source (e.g., Moodle), commercial (e.g., Blackboard), home-grown private, and "ad hoc" (small-scale autonomous work by individual teachers). For each of these we have selected one online programme from the UK and one from the US as qualitative case studies. Various data collection methods are then used to establish how the course management systems were designed and shaped in an ongoing process partly dependent on the negotiation of power and interests amongst the staff (faculty), planners, and software developers on that programme.
The project has so far acquired funding from the World Universities Network and the British Academy. It will continue into 2007.
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Teaching interests
Current courses taught include:
- The Development of Educational Technology: principles behind the use of ICT in the classroom; a historical development of ICT, the Internet and their uses in education.
- E-learning and the Web: online pedagogies; design principles; learning styles and browsing patterns; synchronous v. asynchronous communication; usability and accessibility; course management systems.
- Evaluation and Design of Educational Software: the role of design in the world, human-computer interaction and education, learning theories and software design, prototyping, testing, instructional design, user-centred design.
See also my Web design tutorial site.
Consultancy
In 2008 I worked with the British Council Bulgaria delivering training (with Alan Jervis) on ICT in School Leadership to headmasters from all over Bulgaria.
For Leeds SDDU (Staff and Departmental Development Unit) I have run the training course, Web Development for E-learning, covering usability, accessibility, browsing strategies and other important principles in the structural design of e-learning web sites.
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