Poster Abstract:

The Appropriate and Practical Technology STAIRS Model was developed as part of a JISC project to explore barriers to the adoption of new technologies by staff and students in the education sector. In particular, it aims to identify simple, scalable and practical solutions that address the collective needs of diverse user groups. It draws on the the Users and Innovation Development Model (Fowler & Scott, 2007) to specifically promote technologies that are agile, inclusive, rapid and relevant.

On the poster, a cartoon strip is used to demonstrate how the “gap” in technical competence between lecturer and student can be incrementally closed. Whilst the cartoon depicts the teaching and learning dynamic, it is also equally relevant to a research context where "lecturer" becomes "researcher" and "student" becomes "research collaborator"; in fact in many cases, the researcher and the lecturer are the same person.The STAIRS model was applied and tested in a practical setting through small scale demonstrators.

Initially, the project started by using Google Docs. The intention was that a user who had been encouraged to trial the use of a collaborative document only has to take a small, next step to use other innovative collaborative technologies such as blogs or wikis; hence, progressing up the “STAIRS”. The key message in the cartoon is that technology can offer new opportunities to collaborate, communicate and coordinate and provide the potential to bring lecturer and student to their common goal of ensuring the highest quality of teaching and learning. This has been born out by practical application of the model in a range of different Higher Education settings.

Fowler, C. & Scott, J (2007). The User Innovation and Development Model Guide. University of Essex.

APT STAIRS website