Papers by Catherine Adams
International Association for Development of the Information Society, 2014
This research explored what it is like for university students to participate in a Massive Open O... more This research explored what it is like for university students to participate in a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) as part of their undergraduate course load. We report on some of the temporal dimensions of students’ learning experiences as they undertook the MOOC during a regular, campus-based university term. The research is situated in a “phenomenology of practice”, a form of qualitative inquiry that eschews participant opinions and instead gathers and focuses on his or her lived experience descriptions (LEDs), that is, recollected, everyday moments that transpired for a student while learning in the MOOC environment. In the paper we present several of these descriptive snapshots of the lived world of the MOOC for undergraduate students and for each LED, we offer a brief phenomenological reflection on the theme of temporality.
Emotions, Technology, and Learning, 2016
Broadly defined as the connection between the learner and his or her learning, student engagement... more Broadly defined as the connection between the learner and his or her learning, student engagement is a motivational construct involving behavioral, cognitive, emotional (Fredricks, Blumenfeld, & Paris, 2004) and social (Klassen, Yerdelen, & Durksen, 2013) components. Although all four components of engagement have been linked to greater effort, persistence, enjoyment, interest, and achievement (e.g., Fredricks et al., 2004), emotional and social engagement may be particularly influential in the massive open online course (MOOC) environment because literally tens of thousands of people participate resulting in countless opportunities for both pleasant and unpleasant emotions and social connections. In this chapter we use quantitative and qualitative data to describe MOOC learners' emotional and social engagement, pointing out places of convergence and divergence with theory.
Educational Philosophy and Theory, 2009
In this paper we explore the phenomenon of writing online. We ask, 'Is writing by means of online... more In this paper we explore the phenomenon of writing online. We ask, 'Is writing by means of online technologies affected in a manner that differs significantly from the older technologies of pen on paper, typewriter, or even the word processor in an off-line environment?' In writing online, the author is engaged in a spatial complexity of physical, temporal, imaginal, and virtual experience: the writing space, the space of the text, cyber space, etc. At times, these may provide a conduit to a writerly understanding of human phenomena. We propose that an examination of the phenomenological features of online writing may contribute to a more pedagogically sensitive understanding of the experiences of online seminars, teaching and learning.
NOTICE: The author has granted a nonexclusive license allowing Library and Archives Canada to rep... more NOTICE: The author has granted a nonexclusive license allowing Library and Archives Canada to reproduce, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, communicate to the public by telecommunication or on the Internet, loan, distribute and sell theses worldwide, for commercial or noncommercial purposes, in microform, paper, electronic and/or any other formats. AVIS: L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public par telecommunication ou par Plntemet, prefer, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou autres formats. Canada Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu manquant.
Phenomenology & Practice, 2008
Teacher-student discourse is increasingly mediated through, by and with digital technologies. In-... more Teacher-student discourse is increasingly mediated through, by and with digital technologies. In-class discussions have found new, textually-rich venues online; chalk and whiteboard lectures are rapidly giving way to PowerPoint presentations. Yet, what does this mean experientially for students? This article investigates college students' experiences of PowerPoint in the classroom. The research asks: What are the tacit and pedagogical dimensions of the PowerPoint presentation for students? The method of inquiry is informed by a hermeneutic phenomenological approach and by the heuristic notions of pedagogical tact and thoughtfulness.
Journal of Curriculum Studies, 2006
In lecture halls, in secondary school classrooms, during training workshops, and at research conf... more In lecture halls, in secondary school classrooms, during training workshops, and at research conferences, PowerPoint is becoming a preferred method of communicating, presenting, and sharing knowledge. Questions have been raised about the implications of the use of this new medium for knowledge dissemination. It is suggested PowerPoint supports a cognitive and pedagogical style inconsistent with both the development of higher analytical thinking skills and the acquisition of rich narrative and interpretive understanding. This paper examines how PowerPoint invites and seduces educators to reshape knowledge in particular ways, and subsequently how this knowledge is presented to students in the classroom. The particular forms of knowing, relating, and presenting with PowerPoint are decided in part by teacher habituation to the software tool's default patterns, but also by the very nature of the presentation medium itself.
Distinktion: Scandinavian Journal of Social Theory, 2013
We apply our heuristics for 'interviewing' nonhuman research participants (Adams and Thompson 201... more We apply our heuristics for 'interviewing' nonhuman research participants (Adams and Thompson 2011) to the digital things of qualitative research itself: recording devices, data analysis software, and other sociomaterial concoctions recruited at different stages of contemporary research projects. We suggest that these 'inorganic organized' entities participate as co-researchers that inevitably extend but also disrupt research practice and knowledge construction, introducing new tensions and contradictions. Counterpointing phenomenology and Actor Network Theory, we usher some of the hidden and coded materialities of research practice into view, and glimpse unexpected realities coenacted. Such immersive entanglements raise ethical questions about the posthumanist fluencies now demanded in social science research practice and we outline several considerations.
Learning Management Systems as sites of surveillance, control, and corporatization: A review of the critical literature
Society for Information Technology and Teacher …, Mar 29, 2010
This paper examines the educational research literature regarding enterprise-scale Learning Manag... more This paper examines the educational research literature regarding enterprise-scale Learning Management Systems (LMSs) such as BlackBoard, Moodle and Desire2Learn. Specific criticisms leveled against LMSs are detailed. In particular, concerns have been raised regarding Learning Management Systems'“traditionalist” design pedagogies, power, control and surveillance issues, and the corporatization of academic labor. Suggested research directions are proposed to investigate some of these critical concerns and issues.
Being-in a Learning Management System: Online Teachers and the Ethic of Care
Since Noddings (1984) first made a case for acknowledging care as a core element and value in ped... more Since Noddings (1984) first made a case for acknowledging care as a core element and value in pedagogical relationships, research on care in classroom environments has flourished. However, although research confirms the importance of a supportive environment for the success of the online student, we know little about how online instructors' experience care—for their students and for themselves. This paper offers a phenomenological exploration of care as it appears in online postsecondary instructors' ...
Toward appreciative engagements with slideware
PowerPoint presentations make both an effective (informational) and affective (aesthetic) claim u... more PowerPoint presentations make both an effective (informational) and affective (aesthetic) claim upon the student. Aesthetically, teachers using PowerPoint slides may be unwittingly educating a questionable cognitive style, shifting their students' gaze away from human gesture and facial expression towards a hypnotic corporate gloss, thereby altering classroom atmosphere and tone, even as they efficiently deliver the content of their talk. In an aesthetically thick sense, PowerPoint instantiates, indeed, significantly fortifies, the ...
Readers’ Forum Introduction: The Age of McLuhan, 100 Years On
ESC: English Studies in Canada, 2010
... Readers' Forum Introduction: The Age of McLuhan, 100 Years On. Marco Adria. Catherine Ad... more ... Readers' Forum Introduction: The Age of McLuhan, 100 Years On. Marco Adria. Catherine Adams University of Alberta. Marshall McLuhan (back ... This year marks the centenary birthday of English literature professor, media theorist, and global village prophet Herbert Marshall ...
Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology, Mar 30, 2011
Teacher-student discourse is increasingly mediated through, by and with information and communica... more Teacher-student discourse is increasingly mediated through, by and with information and communication technologies: in-class discussions have found new, textually-rich venues online; chalk and whiteboard lectures are rapidly giving way to PowerPoint presentations. Yet, what does this mean experientially for teachers? This paper reports on a phenomenological study investigating teachers' lived experiences of PowerPoint in post-secondary classrooms. As teachers become more informed about the affordances of ...
International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, Nov 1, 2011
This article argues the importance of including significant technologies‐in‐use as key qualitativ... more This article argues the importance of including significant technologies‐in‐use as key qualitative research participants when studying today's digitally enhanced learning environments. We gather a set of eight heuristics to assist qualitative researchers in 'interviewing'technologies‐in‐use (or other relevant objects), drawing on concrete examples from our own qualitative research projects. Our discussion is informed by Actor‐Network Theory and hermeneutic phenomenology, as well as by the literatures of techno‐science, ...
Have you considered how the many things assisting you with your research—digital recorders, compu... more Have you considered how the many things assisting you with your research—digital recorders, computer assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) or even Google Scholar—may also be silently shaping scholarly practices? In this paper, we interrogate the networked, digital landscape of everyday qualitative research practices by unraveling several examples taken from recent empirical studies in educational and social science. Our disentangling and decoding of the digital materialities of qualitative inquiry involves “interviewing” several digital objects—a recording device, a digital camera, an iPod, and a software program—that were recruited at different stages of several contemporary research projects. We deploy Adams and Thompson’s (2011) heuristics for interviewing nonhuman or “thingly” research participants, and apply these to the digital things of qualitative research practices. We suggest that these digital entities—“coded materialities” — participate as co-researchers t...
To scope the global landscape of ethical issues involving the use of AI in K-12 education, we ide... more To scope the global landscape of ethical issues involving the use of AI in K-12 education, we identified relevant ethics guidance documents, and then compared and contrasted concerns raised and principles applied. We found that while AIEdK-12 ethics guidelines employed many principles common to non-AIEd policy statements (e.g., transparency), new ethical principles were being engaged including pedagogical appropriateness and children's rights.
Erziehungswissenschaft, 2008
Erziehungswissenschaft 19 (2008) 36, S. 8-32 Padagogische Teildisziplin: Medienpadagogik; Hochsch... more Erziehungswissenschaft 19 (2008) 36, S. 8-32 Padagogische Teildisziplin: Medienpadagogik; Hochschulforschung und Hochschuldidaktik; als elektronischer Volltext verfugbar
Even before we’ve wiped the sleep from our morning eyes, many of us now find ourselves reaching f... more Even before we’ve wiped the sleep from our morning eyes, many of us now find ourselves reaching for our smartphone or tablet to check the shutterless pulse of the tweeting, facebooking, emailing, googling globe, hoping to catch up on what news has transpired in our brief overnight sojourn. Then, throughout the balance of our day, an astonishing but now taken-for-granted host of digital applications and devices serve to enhance, inform, monitor, entertain, customize, regulate and otherwise touch nearly every aspect of our everyday lives: laptops, ATM machines, Google, grocery checkouts, and for teachers and students, Learning Management Systems, SmartBoards, eBooks and clickers. Our being-in-theworld is increasingly enhanced by, enmeshed with, and seamlessly folded into networked machines, smart mobilities, and sophisticated software environments. This new technology infrastructure is mediating our lived experience with a 24/7 immediacy and sometimes 911 urgency. Merleau-Ponty once o...
Phenomenology & Practice
Educational research has explored the potentials and problems inherent in student anonymity and p... more Educational research has explored the potentials and problems inherent in student anonymity and pseudonymity in virtual learning environments. But few studies have attended to onymity, that is, the use of ones own and others given names in online courses. In part, this lack of attention is due to the taken-for-granted nature of using our names in everyday, “face-to-face” classrooms as well as in online learning situations. This research explores the experiential significance of student names in online classrooms. Specifically, the paper reports on one relational thematic that surfaced in a phenomenological study investigating experiences of teaching and learning online.
Teaching Phenomenological Research and Writing
Qualitative health research, 2017
In this article, we describe our approach and philosophical methodology of teaching and doing phe... more In this article, we describe our approach and philosophical methodology of teaching and doing phenomenology. The human science seminar that we offer involves participants in the primary phenomenological literature as well as in a variety of carefully engaged writing exercises. Each seminar participant selects a personal phenomenological project that aims at producing a publishable research paper. We show how the qualitative methodology of hermeneutic phenomenology requires of its practitioner a sensitivity and attitudinal disposition that has to be internalized and that cannot be captured in a procedural or step-by-step program. Our experience is that seminar participants become highly motivated and committed to their phenomenological project while involved in the rather intense progression of lectures, workshop activities, readings, and discussions.
Introduction: The Age of McLuhan, 100 Years On
Esc English Studies in Canada, Jul 12, 2011
... Marco Adria Catherine Adams University of Alberta Page 2. 2 | Adria and Adams This year marks... more ... Marco Adria Catherine Adams University of Alberta Page 2. 2 | Adria and Adams This year marks the centenary birthday of English literature profes-sor, media theorist, and “global village” prophet Herbert Marshall McLu-han in Edmonton on 21 July 1911. ...
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Papers by Catherine Adams