Notes from my presentation at the Jica ICT for life seminar and PacInet 2004, on the NmInTheSouthPacific project.

Notes for my presentation

• Here's a flash version of the presentation
• First presented 16 June, 2004 at JICA conference on information & communication technology (ICT) in our life, 2-2.45pm, Ausaid lecture theatre, USP laucala campus, Suva.
• Presented again at PacInet 2004, Monday August 23rd, 2004, Port Vila, Vanuatu

Maximising the Benefits of ICT/Multimedia in the South Pacific: Cultural Pedagogy and Usability Factors

Christopher Robbins - Multimedia Specialist, USP Media Centre

Research questions

1. What are the major themes of Pacific learning approaches, pedagogy theory and practice?
2. How should we adapt typical western usability heuristics for educational application in the South Pacific?
3. How can we apply these findings in Pacific Pedagogy and Usability to the development of educational Multimedia in the South Pacific?

Methodology

Site Visits

• Nauru: 30 September to 6 October, 2003
• Samoa: 6 to 10 October, 2003
• Solomon Islands: 16 to 23 October, 2003
• Kiribati: 3 to 8 November, 2003
• Marshall Islands: 8 to 15 November, 2003
• Lautoka Centre: 5 December, 2003

Interviews

• 153 interviews, 130 with USP staff and students
• 23 with external agencies
  • development organisations (UNDP, Forum Secretariat, Peace Corps...)
  • Educational Institutions (Central Queensland University, Nauru College, the College of the Marshall Islands...)
  • ICT/Multimedia agencies (TSKL Kiribati, Datec, Internet Fiji, Aptech, Connect...)
• Interviews focused on preferred approaches to learning and technology.
  • communication between staff and students
  • language preferences and issues
  • local metaphors in teaching
  • active learning
  • group/ peer learning
  • computer access/ usage
  • centre access/ usage

Questionairres

• 546 questionnaires to students at the DFL centres visited.
• 196 focused on language preference
• 154 focused on layout preference for web-page navigation

• 196 focused on preference for the display of information

Usability Tests

• 28 Usability tests with students at USP DFL Centres (NmUsability)

Findings and Recommendations

Language: Provide simple English and vernacular translations and glossary

Offer opportunities for contextualization

Divide materials by learning approach as well as curriculum-wise

Utilise modeling rather than instructions

Create successive approximations rather than segmenting of difficult concepts

Language: Provide simple English and vernacular translations and glossary

Students prefer English as language of instruction (72%) but want vernacular when confused

• example: rollover glossary

• drop down translations

• example: 3 Tier XML structure
  • ease of translation
  • ease of re-use in other media (print, radio, etc)

Offer opportunities for contextualization

Materials, lecturers are often foreign, and staff and students appreciate local metaphors

• "The exam paper had to do with Kava. It was like double-dutch to us." (NmNauru, 2003)
• "Most of the examples are very Fijian. We don't have veggy markets. We don't have military management. I have to pick something we can identify with." (NmNauru, 2003)
• example: Virtual Peer: two way

example: wiki, a collaborative website (http://www.uspwiki.grographics.com)

• example: digital scrapbook

• example: database of regional metaphors

Divide materials by learning approach as well as curriculum-wise

group vs. individual

• example: The cushion of e-anonymity that email provides, as opposed to technology focusing more attention (video conference)
• (during video conference) "students are shy to ask questions, only a few students can talk... they want to ask questions individually, when the lecture is over they go straight to the teacher (via email), most of the students are too shy to ask in front of the students"

efficiency vs. detail vs. graphics

• example. 3 views: Outline, Map, and Test

Utilise modeling rather than instructions

allow students to act on any instructions immediately

• example: Help overlays

do not leave open-ended simulations

• example: scaffolded simulations

Create successive approximations rather than segmenting of difficult concepts

preserve the whole, lead from what student knows to increasing levels of complexity

• example: map/ timeline

• example: navigation as outline