What do you want?

Can you help us?

We are interested to learn what students make of the ways in which we use technology as part of the fabric of activities while they are at University.

Here at the University of Southampton we have been using technology for learning for almost twenty years.

Over that time the world has changed, our newest undergrads can probably not remember a time without the web, probably have their own computers, and many carry and rely upon phones for communication (text and emails) and electronic diaries.

Computers are now part of leisure time (the vast majority of students appear to be on Facebook for social contact and leisure chats) and many students may be surprised that there are certain areas where the university still reles on paper based methods rather than uses a computer system to manage and automate our adminstrative processes.

Of course some of the ways in which we manage our processes may be historical, or we may be constrained by administrative needs and preferences for paper records and personal contact.

The question is - WHAT DO YOU WANT??

In 2009 we worked in partnership, with SUSU and ran an electronic survey about the student experience of technology in learning at the University. We have analysed the results that many students provided for that survey. Now, we would like to work in a more in-depth way with a group of students from across the University. We would like you to think about what technology works well for you, how it works well and what you value about the way in which it works. We would also like you to think about the downside of using technology in your academic work. Most of all we would like you to help us come up with some solutions which could really make a change.

In order to complement the information we have gained from the surveys we are looking for volunteers to take part in some short electronic consultations.

You will be asked to respond by a mix of email and web forms - and a few of you may be invited to some face to face meetings.

If you are interested in helping us understand what students want, so that we can feed this into the planning and change processes please email Su White