This link has been bookmarked by 4 people . It was first bookmarked on 10 Jan 2007, by Sage Adams.
-
13 May 08
-
They found that effective courses via CMC are based on a learner-centered
approach to education in which facilitators and students share responsibility
and participation in learning and teaching
-
-
10 Jan 07
-
As new
technology enables shifts at the level of delivery, old
technologies are augmented, not totally replaced. Even though
many of us have computers at our disposal, we still use books,
speech, and pen or pencil writing in education. -
Technology enables us to implement these new visions in
distance learning. Berge (in press) points out that:
"[T]echnology makes it possible that these investigations are not
limited to students from one classroom, school, grade, or country
necessarily-nor to exclude experts in the field of inquiry from
the collaboration. Effective learning hinges on active engagement
by the student and the construction of knowledge on their own
leads to understanding (Sheingold, 1991). This learning is not a
solitary process. Rather, it occurs in a larger world of people
and technology." - 13 more annotations...
-
-
Computer-mediated communication (CMC) promotes a type of
interaction that is often lacking in the traditional teacher-
based classroom. It allows learners the freedom to explore
alternative pathways-to find and develop their own style of
learning. What if content could be delivered in the form of
graphics, text, and/or full-motion video, whenever and wherever
in the world it is requested? How do we, as teachers and
educators, responsibly participate in and make use of the
inevitable technological changes at hand? -
What we have been discussing is a reengineering of education, not
only in the sense of rethinking the organization of site-based
schools, but also in the sense of finding ways to unite computers
and telecommunications and bring down the schoolhouse walls; to
deliver instructional content when and where it is needed-whether
in the home, the workplace, or the school. -
Distance educators are now beginning to focus on a related
set of notions: (a) there are different learning styles, (b)
students create their own meaning when learning new things, and
(c) what makes a difference in content retention and transfer is
not so much what is done by teachers, but what students as
learners can be encouraged to do themselves. -
Although there are some
differences between distance education and classroom education,
the significant issues concerning the use of computer networking
and other emerging technologies to promote learning in both are
similar. -
For many years, educators have been exploring ways to
combine theories of differing learning styles and student-
constructed knowledge with the theory of practice-centered
learning. Instead of being passive recipients of knowledge, we
now consider students capable of constructing their own knowledge
with guidance from the teacher. We can offer part of this
tutorial guidance by setting up an environment that will provide
students with the resources necessary for independent
exploration. In using emerging computer-based technology as a
resource, students are encouraged to explore their own interests
and to become active educational workers, with opportunities to
solve some authentic problems. -
For communications to take place, at a bare minimum, there must
be a sender, a receiver, and a message. If this message is
intended as instruction, then besides student, teacher, and
content, we must also consider the environment in which this
educational communication occurs -- an environment that benefits the
educational system in some ways and constrains it in others. Part
of this learning environment can include various technologies and
media. If "the medium is the message," that is, if technology
changes what we can do and how we think about it, then the
various media enabled by
instructional technology also change
both what we can do in education and how we conceive of it. -
Computer-mediated communication (CMC) promotes a type of
interaction that is often lacking in the traditional teacher-
based classroom. It allows learners the freedom to explore
alternative pathways-to find and develop their own style of
learning. What if content could be delivered in the form of
graphics, text, and/or full-motion video, whenever and wherever
in the world it is requested? How do we, as teachers and
educators, responsibly participate in and make use of the
inevitable technological changes at hand?
Computers are not a threat to the teacher (although the role
of the teacher must change when using them), but computers may
threaten the chalkboard. Computer technologies allow
professionals to share with students tools that we use daily.
Further, as educators, we can provide guidance to help students
develop meaningful ways to construct their own knowledge, much as
we ourselves do. -
Rachelle Heller and Greg Kearsley (Chapter 7) describe their
experiences using a combination of instructional television and a
computer bulletin board system (BBS) to teach graduate students
in computer science and education. The television component
provided a medium for lectures, guest interviews, and software
demonstrations, whereas the bulletin board was used to stimulate
interaction among students and the instructors. Heller and
Kearsley used a variety of different strategies to encourage
interaction on the BBS, including assignments, discussion
questions, and team activities. Based on the evaluations
completed by the students in their courses, the authors concluded
that the combination of media works very effectively. -
Rae Wahl Rohfeld and Roger Hiemstra (Chapter 5) draw on their
experience teaching in the Syracuse University Distance Education
Program to examine the experiences of both course facilitators
and students in courses delivered via CMC. They found that
effective courses via CMC are based on a learner-centered
approach to education in which facilitators and students share
responsibility and participation in learning and teaching. To
initiate such a process, facilitators must make sure they and
their students have adequate training and support on the
electronic system. They must also do a great deal of advance
planning to teach a course via the new medium. By initiating a
variety of activities, both on and off-line, facilitators can
encourage an active, challenging learning environment. As the
class conference progressed, Rohfeld and Hiemstra found that
different strategies were necessary to keep energy high.
Those involved in the Syracuse University Distance Education
Program were highly satisfied with this mode of learning once
they got past initial difficulties with technology. Because the
courses were delivered by CMC, students were able to take
considerable control over their learning in terms of how they
scheduled both personal study time and group-interaction time,
how much personal contact they had with the instructor and other
learners, and how they contributed to the class. Rohfeld and
Hiemstra are confident that courses delivered via CMC can meet
immediate learning needs as well as help learners increase self-
direction in their ongoing learning. -
Morten Paulsen's second chapter (Chapter 4) presents a
review and analysis of the literature relevant to moderating
educational conferences on computer networks. He suggests that
moderators should identify their preferred pedagogical styles,
based on their philosophical orientation, their chosen moderator
roles, and their preferred facilitation techniques. The author
assigns the moderator role three functions: the organizational,
the social, and the intellectual. To help moderators improve
their moderating skills, Paulsen organizes facilitation
techniques recommended in the literature according to these three
role functions. Finally, the author assists moderators in finding
their pedagogical style by identifying some possible
philosophies, roles, and facilitation techniques discussed in the
literature. -
Effective design is essential to the success of an online
course, and the next chapter focuses on design. Using their
recent experience designing an online adult education graduate
seminar as an example, Dan Eastmond and Linda Ziegahn (Chapter 3)
outline essential issues, considerations, and tasks for
instructional development with CMC to which the course designer
must attend. These considerations include overall course design
issues, resource allocation, syllabus creation, activity
selection, online structure production, and evaluation planning.
Appropriate attention to these items during the design phase
informs the development and delivery phases of the online course,
thereby creating a "good learning experience" for adult college
students. -
In combination with other media, computers can utilize an
instructional design that teaches to the multiple intelligences
that Gardner (1983) speaks of in Frames of Mind (linguistic,
logico-mathematical, intrapersonal, spatial, musical, bodily
kinesthetic, and interpersonal). The idea behind this
instructional design is to use as many methods and formats for
instruction (e.g., small group discussion, graphics, lecture,
hands-on labs, writing/reflection, sound, CMC, and conferencing)
as possible, provided that instructional goals and design dictate
their use. -
In the sixth chapter, Morton Cotlar and James N. Shimabukuro
describe their use of electronic guest lectures to stimulate
thinking and interaction among students. This technique, like
other applications of CMC in education, shows promise. However,
the degree to which students interact in meaningful ways with the
guest lecturers seems to be related to the style of the lecture.
Three different lecturers addressed a graduate course (through
text documents posted to the class discussion group, with the
invitation for follow-up questions and discussion) and evoked
markedly different degrees and types of responses. The authors
analyzed the style of each lecture to explore the relationship
between style and responsiveness. Extraordinary findings showed
that the extent of personalization and readability in the
lectures strongly influenced responsiveness. Cotlar and
Shimabukuro invite others to replicate this kind of study to
validate their findings.
-
-
-
27 Jul 04
Would you like to comment?
Join Diigo for a free account, or sign in if you are already a member.