PhD References
I use an online citation tool called Zotero for referencing, hence all my references for my thesis are available online.
PhD Poster
In the best traditions of sharing research I have produced a poster which sumarises my PhD in one image. It is an A0 size image, so not easy to print, but it's here to download if you wnat to get an overview of how the PhD fitted together.
Rich Osborne's PhD poster (pdf, 356kb)
ResearchGate
An Ecological Approach to Educational Technology: Affordance as a Design Tool for Aligning Pedagogy and Technology
My PhD links together my expertise in psychology, technology and education, and tackles the complex problem of how to use digital technologies effectively to support teaching & learning. You can access the full text in HTML format, or dive straight to one of the individual chapters though the links below.
- Chapter 1: Introduction and Background to the Research
- Chapter 2: Technology and Learning
- Chapter 3: The Theory of Affordances
- Chapter 4: The Digital Environment
- Chapter 5: Research Methodology and Design Overview
- Chapter 6: Design Narrative, School A
- Chapter 7: Design Narrative, University of Exeter
- Chapter 8: Discussion and Interpretation
- Chapter 9: Conclusion and Implications
The Unversity of Exeter also hosts a copy of my PhD in PDF format.
Key Contributions
The key contributions of the thesis to knowledge are:
- An updated definition of affordances that moves from away the current ‘action possibilities’ to ‘transaction possibilities’. This gives agency to both learner and technology, and recognises the important contribution of the digital environment to the learner experience.
- A specific design framework which uses this redefinition of affordances as a design tool to align an authentic learning scenario with the digital technologies that have the potential to support that learning scenario. This framework includes the 'Tech Trumps®', digital playing cards in the top trump style which summarise the affordances of digital technologies given a specific pedagogic context.
- A generic design methodology, based on this framework, which has the potential to align pedagogy and technology using this updated definition of affordance. To close, some thoughts on the value of the design-based research approach are discussed.