Vignettes from the Field
Snapshot
Amy |
Student |
Discipline |
Physical Sciences |
Enrolment mode |
External |
Level |
Undergraduate |
Experience with WBLT |
Negative |
‘I’m trying to use it this semester, but I haven’t had any success. I need to contact my technological mates (for help).’ Amy
Amy’s story
Amy is working full-time and currently enrolled part-time in the eighth year of an undergraduate degree in Physical Sciences. Although she lives in the same city as her University, she is enrolled as an external student. She describes herself as ‘like many students…very poor and, if they’re older, not particularly technologically competent’.
WBLT and learning
Although technologies were particularly important for the external students interviewed during this project, not all found WBLT helpful. Amy has tried using WBLT but found it was ‘totally not coherent’.
It just took a very long time to load’ and came through ‘in drips and grabs and bits and pieces and makes it very disjointed… so instead of taking an hour to listen to a lecture, it would take an hour and a half or something…I gave up after … 10 minutes or so.
Amy prefers the DVDs now offered for external students because she finds them easier to access and control how she listens to the lecture.
Impressions of using WBLT
Amy’s experience of WBLT was negative. She sees it as a technology barrier which she and other students without fast and reliable access cannot overcome. She finds the DVDs a useful study tool and has given up trying to use WBLT:
Hideous… I’ve never been able to return to (WBLT).
Learning Futures
Amy is concerned with the growing inequity of technology use in education. She feels strongly that older students and those in more remote areas will be increasingly disadvantaged:
I just think that whoever thought that was a good idea has rocks in their heads.’
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