Being objective : communities of practice and the use of cultural artefacts in digital learning environments
Over the past decade there has been a dramatic increase in the volume of digital content created from museum, library and archive collections but research on how this material is actually used, particularly in digital learning environments, has fallen far behind the rate of supply. In order to address this gap, this thesis examines how communities of practice (CoPs) involved in the supply and use of digital artefacts in the Higher Education sector in the UK interact with content and what factors affect this process. It focuses on a case study involving the digitisation of Shakespeare collections used in postgraduate research, and the testing of use in a range of different learning environments. This produced a number of significant findings with implications for the HE and cultural sectors. Firstly, similar patterns of artefact use were found across all users suggesting there are generic ways in which everyone interacts with digital artefacts. However, distinct forms of use did emerge which correspond with membership of particular communities of practice. Secondly, members of a CoP appear to share a particular learning style and this is influenced by the learning environment. Finally, the research indicates
Hopes, David
C Auxiliary sciences of history (General) ; ZA Information resources ; ZA4050 Electronic information resources
Being objective : communities of practice and the use of cultural artefacts in digital learning environments. Over the past decade there has been a dramatic increase in the volume of digital content created from museum, library and archive collections but research on how this material is actually used, particularly in digital learning environments, has fallen far behind the rate of supply. In order to address this gap, this thesis examines how communities of practice (CoPs) involved in the supply and use of digital artefacts in the Higher Education sector in the UK interact with content and what factors affect this process. It focuses on a case study involving the digitisation of Shakespeare collections used in postgraduate research, and the testing of use in a range of different learning environments. This produced a number of significant findings with implications for the HE and cultural sectors. Firstly, similar patterns of artefact use were found across all users suggesting there are generic ways in which everyone interacts with digital artefacts. However, distinct forms of use did emerge which correspond with membership of particular communities of practice. Secondly, members of a CoP appear to share a particular learning style and this is influenced by the learning environment. Finally, the research indicates
objective community_practice use cultural_artefact digital learning_environment dramatic increase volume digital content create museum library archive collection material actually use particularly digital learning_environment fall far behind rate supply order_address gap_examine community_practice involve supply use_digital artefacts higher_education sector interact content factor_affect process focus case_study involve digitisation shakespeare collection use postgraduate test use range_different learning_environment produce number_significant finding implication cultural sector firstly similar_pattern artefact use find across user suggest generic way everyone interact digital artefact however distinct_form use emerge correspond membership particular community_practice secondly member cop appear share particular learning style influence learning_environment finally indicates