Technoliteracy and learning: An analysis of the quality of knowledge in electronic representations of understanding

Recent educational research from a socio-cognitive perspective has validated students’ collaborative engagement with new technologies and heightened understanding of influential factors shaping the effectiveness of peer interactions, learning contexts and computer interfaces for enhancing learning. This paper focuses on an analysis of the complexity of knowledge in student-designed, electronically created texts for what they might reveal about learning with technology. It reports on a study with 17-year-old female students whose collaborative learning process in subject English was mediated by the creation of electronic concept maps and Web files to represent their developing understanding. To analyse these electronic texts, evaluative criteria templates were developed from the Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes (SOLO) taxonomy, integrating levels of understanding with the distinctive characteristics of multimodal text production. Findings indicated not just the incremental acquisition of conceptual understanding equated with cognitive change but that the level of understanding might also be positively influenced by the students’ length of exposure to computer-mediated learning practices. As well, the criteria templates have emerged as useful evaluative tools for classroom assessment or further research when analysis of the level of complexity of student-created, electronic artefacts is required.