CONCLUSION In this chapter, social constructivism has been proposed as the foundation for online language learning environments that foster the participation of students and teachers in
Trang 1performance Last but not least, teachers need to
become change agents using Web 2.0 tools to
move towards a new way of learning and teaching
(Richardson, 2006, pp 132-133)
CONCLUSION
In this chapter, social constructivism has been
proposed as the foundation for online language
learning environments that foster the participation
of students and teachers in today’s knowledge and
information-based society to their full potential
through the use of Web 2.0 tools like blogs and
wikis It has been argued that teachers and students
need to take full advantage of these emerging
tools to participate in more dynamic, immediate,
and communicative environments that provide
opportunities for meaningful experiences through
social constructivist learning
While putting the pedagogy of blogs and
wi-kis to work may take some time, the following
recommendations can assist program designers
and teachers in making the first step towards
participatory and collaborative online learning
of the Web 2.0 era:
Where possible, orientation “events”
•
should be held to introduce students to
the requirements of the technology and
the expectations for student-to-instructor
and peer-to-peer communication The
ori-entation process can be a critical factor in
the success of online learning programs
(Johnston et al., n.d.)
When possible, begin the course by
pro-•
viding traditional face-to-face instruction
and then blend it with online education
Face-to-face instruction can provide
stu-dents with a little online learning
experi-ence with support and help them develop
confidence in their ability to succeed
us-ing on-line learnus-ing tools (Johnston et al.,
n.d.)
Help students develop their ability to
en-• gage in self-directed learning If the on-line learning program is complemented with some traditional instruction, teach-ers can spend time in class working with students on self-management strategies and help change their perceptions of them-selves as students and allowed them to take ownership of their learning (D’Amico & Capehart, 2001) Provide opportunities for students to take leadership and engage in peer tutoring
In an online learning program, ongoing
• support should be provided for students through frequent contact with teachers via multiple modalities, e.g e-mail, instant messenging, chat, or telephone contact Learners should be offered opportunities to participate in online learning at the earliest possible point in their language learning
A tool for students to self-assess their
on-• line learning skills should be accessible to them This tool should assess students’ fa-miliarity with technology, their experience
in online learning, their problem solving skills, their ability to motivate themselves, their level of self-directedness as well as their level of English fluency The results should be shared with the student to help
in determining their preference for ing environments
learn-Encourage students and fellow teachers to
• explore and experiment with Web 2.0 tools and their potential for learning and teaching Professional development activities should take advantage of the same technologies so that teachers learn about e-Learning 2.0 the same way students would and understand the implications of the demands placed on students and their expectations better
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KEY TERMSBlended Learning: The term Blended Learn-
ing describes the design of a learning environment from the viewpoint of how the delivery of learning materials to the students is best accomplished by a variety of means available, be they technological
or non-technological in nature By choosing the appropriate vehicle for the student to access the learning content, a number of different strategies are used to provide hybrid learning environments Blended Learning is closely related to Distributed Learning and Flexible Learning
Distributed Learning: This term refers to
learning environments that use a mixture of tools
to navigate the distance between teachers and learners From a design viewpoint of a learning environment, building a variety of connections between the participants and the learning content
is the main objective, as is allowing patterns of participation to develop between teachers, students and learning materials Technological tools allow these connections to be made easily Distributed Learning is closely related to Blended Learning and Flexible Learning
e-Learning 2.0: The term e-Learning 2.0 refers
to the second generation of eLearning making use
of the social collaboration and information ing tools embedded in Web 2.0 environments It describes a new generation of e-based learning environments that allow students to create content, and collaborate with peers on the creation of con-tent distributed by technological tools e-Learning
Trang 5shar-2.0 provides a new learning paradigm naturally
unfolding collective intelligences
Flexible Learning: This term describes a
learning design perspective deeply rooted in the
needs of students, with the main objective being
to provide them with the most flexibility about
the learning content, schedules, access, and
learn-ing styles as possible A flexible learnlearn-ing design
customizes learning environments to meet the
needs of learners, using both technological and
non-technological tools Flexible Learning is
closely related to Blended Learning and
Distrib-uted Learning
PLATO: Programmed Logic for Automated
Teaching Operation, refers to one of the first
com-puter assisted instruction systems, dating from the
early 1970s and running until 2006 PLATO was
one of the first systems to test applications such
as e-mail, discussion forums, and chat rooms
TICCET: This stands for Time-shared,
Inter-active, Computer-Controlled Educational sion The project ran at the same time as PLATO and was funded by the University of Texas at Austin and Brigham Young University In place
Televi-of expensive hardware, the system used sion technology with minicomputers to deliver interactive educational content
televi-Wiki: This is a Web-based environment
de-signed to enable readers to become creators of content and editors of previous entries Wikis are paradigm examples of Web 2.0 tools that are effectively used to design constructivist learning environments and engage learners in collaborative learning environments Much like blogs, wikis integrate different types of media from audio to video files, which can be played on demand, as well as podcasts to vodcasts, which readers can subscribe to Wikis can be an integrated part of a larger learning management system
This work was previously published in Handbook of Research on Web 2.0 and Second Language Learning, edited by J Wang,
pp 367-384, copyright 2009 by Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global).
Trang 6This article identifies digital literacy as an important
aspect of new media literacy at the K-12 level Digital
literacy includes developing the skills of information
location and application as well understanding how
to use available evidence to assist in problem solving
and decision making about important questions and
issues that have no clear answers Two web-based
examples of instructional strategies – WebQuests
and Web Inquiry Projects—are suggested as ways
to develop these and other important 21st century
learning skills
WHAT IS DIGITAL LITERACY?
Over the last decade the term ‘ literacy’ has evolved
to include an ever increasing, and diverse range of
skills “The new literacies of the Internet and other
ICTs include the skills, strategies and dispositions
necessary to successfully use and adapt to the
rapidly changing information and communication
technologies and contexts that continuously emerge
in our world and influence all areas of our personal and professional lives” (Leu, Kinzer, Coiro & Cam-mack, 2004, p 1572) According to Jamie McKenzie (2005), “Literacy is about wrestling understanding from chunks of information, whether these chunks
be numerical, textual, visual, cultural, natural or tistic” (p 7) One form of literacy, ‘digital’ literacy, can be defined as “a person’s ability to perform tasks effectively in a digital environment, with “digital” meaning information represented in numeric form and primarily for use by a computer [and] includes the ability to read and interpret media (text, sound, images), to reproduce data and images through digital manipulation, and to evaluate and apply new knowledge gained from digital environments” (Jones-Kavalier & Flannigan, 2006, p 9)
ar-Developing the skills of information location and
application is one aspect of digital literacy These
skills include the ability to find, evaluate, synthesize, and use information to answer questions and make informed decisions Digitized information comes
in many forms, and students need to acquire the ability to read, interpret, understand, and use all of these media formats They need to understand that
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60566-120-9.ch026
Trang 7everything on the Web represents an individual’s
point of view and that all sources need to be
carefully and critically examined for authenticity
and bias They also need to recognize that no one
source of information can adequately represent all
there is to know about a particular topic; multiple
sources on any topic should always be consulted
and their information compared Digital literacy
also involves understanding how to use the
avail-able evidence to assist in problem solving and
decision making about important questions and
issues that have no clear answers Furthermore
students benefit from opportunities in which they
are encourage to transform information in new
ways to advance their own and other’s thinking,
rather than simply consuming what others have
produced Finally, students need to develop a
criti-cal attitude toward computer technology in our
society in terms of its present and future impact on
humanity The overall goal of digital literacy is to
develop knowledgeable, skilled, and responsible
users of computer technologies
The Partnership for 21st Century
Learn-ing [http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/index
php?option=com_content&task=view&id=254&
Itemid=120] calls for an emphasis in schooling on
all of these literacy skills to ensure that students
will be successful in the 21st century The
Inter-national Society for Technology in Education’s
(ISTE) Standards for Educational Technology
(2007) also include creativity and innovation,
communication and collaboration, research and
information literacy, critical thinking, problem
solving and decision making, digital citizenship,
and technology operations and concepts
Address-ing all of these components of digital literacy is
a major undertaking for schools and all teachers,
grade levels and subject areas have important
roles to play
This chapter begins by reviewing what we
currently know about effective computer use
to support and enhance teaching and learning
Constructivism is then examined as a promising
theoretical framework for that use The
remain-der of the chapter looks at WebQuests and their extension, Web Inquiry Projects, as approaches
that have the potential to effectively address both constructivist learning principles and digital
literacy, higher level thinking, problem solving
and communication skills
WHAT DOES THE RESEARCH TELL US ABOUT WHAT MAKES EFFECTIVE AND MEANINGFUL TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION?
Before examining ways to address digital literacy
skills in teaching with technology, it is important to review what we know about effective technology use Computers are now more readily available
in many schools worldwide and the Internet is often hailed as an innovation with unprecedented potential for the improvement of teaching and learning Although some critics claim that the use
of computer technologies has had minimal to no affect on learning outcomes (Cuban, 2001, Op-penheimer, 2003), there have been positive affects identified in the research literature “Several recent research reviews and meta-analyses published in the United States and Britain suggest that, when measured across the board, educational technology yields “small, but significant” gains in learning and student engagement” (Viadero, 2007 p 1) Learner motivation has been identified in numer-ous studies as being particularly evident with the use of computer technologies (Sterling, 2007) As for learning gains, Wan, Fang, and Neufeld (2007) found that, “Technology can influence learning processes by facilitating cognitive information processing activities such as search, scanning, transformation or comparison of information” (p 187) Higgins (2004) found advances in reasoning, understanding and creativity using computers Viadero (2007) identified positive affects for writing with the use of word processors, and for
Trang 8generating deeper understanding and increasing
knowledge through the use of simulations
Bal-anskat, Blamire and Kefala (2006) analyzed the
evidence from 17 impact studies and found that
using information and communication
technolo-gies had a positive impact on children’s’ learning
of basic skills such as calculation, reading and
writing, and on communication and process skills,
while also allowing for greater differentiation to
address individual needs and learning styles, and
giving more responsibility for the learning to the
student The greatest benefits, according to
Balan-skat et al (2006), were seen in primary education
Significant benefits have also been found in the
areas of special needs (Hartley, 2007) and English
as a Second Language (Lee, 2006)
While the benefits from the use of computer
technologies are evident, K-12 teachers continue
to be at varied levels of awareness about the
possibilities for employing these technologies
in effective and efficient ways to enhance
teach-ing and learnteach-ing “Effectively integratteach-ing new
technology into educational practice is not just
a matter of learning how to use technology It
is also a process of reflecting on how to teach
and how students can learn most effectively in
today’s world” (Wiske, Franz, & Breit, 2005, p
3) Where the greatest challenge for teachers lies
is in thinking differently about teaching and
learn-ing According to David Thornburg, “The main
thing that’s holding technology back is a fear a
well-placed fear, I might add that if technology
becomes ubiquitous, it will totally transform the
practice of education There are a lot of people who
don’t want the practice of education transformed
because they’re very comfortable with it” (cited
in Brumfield, 2006, p 1) Computer technologies
can help teachers to develop new approaches to
teaching and learning, but teachers need to be
exposed to these new understandings and new
capabilities They also need to determine where
technologies fit into their philosophy of
teach-ing As noted by Doolittle and Hicks (2003), “A
philosophical and theoretical foundation provides answers to the questions of why and how specific pedagogy, including the application of technology, should be employed” (p 76) The key to best use
is not the fact that computers are being used, but how they are being used Where success has been most apparent, has been in cases where teaching
is transformed through the use of computer nologies and where learning is happening in ways that were impossible or difficult without the use
tech-of these technologies “Education can be formed using ICT which brings new capabilities and capacities to learning For example, ICT has the potential for enabling teachers and students to construct rich, multi-sensory, interactive environ-ments with almost unlimited teaching and learning potential” (Balanskat et al., 2006, p 12)
trans-“Researchers are just now understanding how much greater the payoffs can be when digital-learning programs combine specific academic content with lessons from cognitive science and de-velopmental psychology on how children learning
in those subjects” (Viadero, 2007, p 1) Computer use needs to go beyond low-level tasks such as students being able to demonstrate understanding
of how to operate the various technologies with proficiency, to tasks that encourage more advanced learning by actively engaging students in learning,
by releasing of agency from teachers to students, and through collaborative knowledge building around authentic or ill-defined problems Accord-ing to Dunn (2007) the best uses of computers gain learners’ attention, engage learners through productive work, increase learners’ perceptions
of control, help learners visualize problems and solutions, link them to information resources and
to learning tools, encourage shared intelligences through collaborative and cooperative learning,
and encourage higher level thinking Using an
inquiry approach to learning with computers can
be an effective way of creating a learning ment that places less emphasis on acquiring and presenting information and more on constructing
Trang 9environ-knowledge, making meaning, drawing on
per-sonal life experience, and taking responsibility
for learning
The merging of technology and
constructiv-ism offers many possibilities for framing the
de-sign of such innovative learning environments
HOW CAN CONSTRUCTIVIST
LEARNING THEORY HELP TEACHERS
TO DESIGN MEANINGFUL,
COMPUTER-ENHANCED
LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS?
Ferdig (2006) identifies the importance of “tying
innovation to learning theory to create authentic
and engaging activities for students” (p 750)
Research on effective integration of computer
technologies in schools points to uses that support
constructivist learning principles (Jonassen,
How-land, Moore, & Marra, 2003) Constructivism is a
theory about how people learn in which learning
is not just about acquiring more knowledge but
rather “it’s the mental act of reformulating what
we thought we knew into something new and
different Learning occurs through conceptual
change” (Brooks, 2003, p 13) This conceptual
change occurs through an active and social process
The new learning always begins with and builds
upon the learners’ previously stored knowledge;
as the learners elaborate upon and interpret the
new information, their initial ideas are reshaped,
and misconceptions in prior knowledge can be
ad-dressed through the formation of alternate
concep-tions (Tarhan, Ayar-Kayali, Urek & Acar, 2007)
They are routinely asked to apply knowledge in
diverse and authentic contexts, to explain ideas,
interpret texts, predict phenomena, and construct
arguments based on evidence (Windschitl, 2002)
Learning occurs most effectively when it is situated
in experiences that are authentic and meaningful to
the learner and when they engage in task-oriented
dialogue with one another Constructivism as a
framework for using computer technologies in
the classroom has been advocated now for over
a decade, but adoption has been slow One of the reason is that it requires a significant shift in thinking about teaching and learning for many teachers from knowledge instruction to knowledge construction Teachers who support this view rec-ognize the importance of the active involvement
of their students in learning and the need for a learning environment that encourages students’ independent exploration of ideas Smith, Clark and Blomeyer (2005) see the greatest benefits in
“constructivist approaches that use interaction within a situational context to encourage learners
to think and reflect while constructing their own personal meaning” (p 11) However, teachers need to remember that the technology does not teach students, but rather the students only learn when they construct their own knowledge and think and learn through their experience The computer is simply a tool that can assist students
in their knowledge construction
Technology use that is shaped by ist learning principles supports a more student
constructiv-centered, inquiry oriented approach to teaching
What is needed in classrooms are technology uses that help students to build knowledge and develop higher order thinking and problem solving skills by providing opportunities for them to think critically and analytically about information and represent their new understandings in multiple ways in an engaged setting (Marlow & Page, 2005) Accord-ing to active learning principles, which emphasize
constructivism, students must engage in
research-ing, reasonresearch-ing, critical thinkresearch-ing, decision makresearch-ing, analysis and synthesis during construction of their knowledge” (Tarhan, Ayar-Kayali, Urek & Acar, 2007, p 286) Ferdig (2006) identifies five components of a social constructivist innovation design: authentic, interesting and challenging academic content; a sense of ownership by the
learner; active participation, collaboration and
social interaction; opportunities for creation of artifacts in a variety of ways; and publication, reflection and feedback (p 750) Teachers also
Trang 10need to recognize that the four classroom walls no
longer bind learning “When children collaborate,
they can and do scaffold each others’ thinking”
(Ferdig, 2006, p 751) Every classroom has the
potential to be a global learning environment In
this way, computer technologies can help to bridge
the gap between the artificial world of school and
the outside lives of young people by engaging then
in projects that investigate real world issues, that
draw on multiple perspectives and that encourage
collaboration with experts and other students
from around the world Such global
collabora-tive activities with peers in classrooms around
the world can help to promote understanding and
appreciation of multiple perspectives and
encour-age students to become global thinkers (Boss &
Krauss, 2007)
Thus, constructivist uses of computer
technolo-gies need to provide learning opportunities that
are based on authentic tasks and environments and
include opportunities for exploring and doing as
well as for feedback and reflection These learning
environments should be learning spaces in which
students have control over the learning activities
and are able to use a variety of information
re-sources and tools to solve problems The inquiry
should begin with students’ prior background
knowledge and experience, and engage them in
creatively applying the resultant new knowledge
This learning environment should represent
as much as possible the complex real world of
problem solving, however, students need to be
taught the skills to work in such environments
This is where a more structured type of learning
environment such as problem based learning
can provide initial assistance in developing the
requisite skills by providing a guided process
What is problem based learning and how it is
an example of a learning environment based on
constructivist learning principles?
In order to prepare students for today’s’ complex
world, some schools engage students in
problem-based learning trying to hone the students’
skills in applying what they learn to the kinds
of problems they are likely to face (Sternberg,
2008, p 14)Problem-based learning (PBL) is an instruc-tional model that exemplifies constructivist learning principles (Ochoa & Robinson, 2005) One of the main characteristics of problem-based learning is situating the learning in the examination
of authentic, real-life problems and questions of relevance to the learner in order to engage them
in the learning Rather than ‘teaching’ the student
in the sense of presenting or even assigning formation, the goal is encourage student driven
in-inquiry in which they activate their prior
knowl-edge and investigate the problem from a number
of different perspectives in order to develop equally viable alternative solutions to the problem (Ochoa & Robinson, 2005) “Teachers who value thinking and habits of mind would ensure that students confront the problem with a question-ing attitude, arm themselves with attendant data, explore alternatives to the status quo, and predict the consequences of each of those alternatives” (Costa, 2008, p 21) Learning abstract ideas in this way becomes more concrete and realistic for students (Frazier & Sterling, 2008) Effective PBL environments also involve communication and
collaboration that require students to articulate
their ideas in ways that strengthen and assist the knowledge construction process as well as activi-ties that encourage the learners to reflect on their learning Organizing content around significant questions or problems can also assist students in developing higher order thinking skills, flexible understanding and lifelong skills (Ruiz, 2008).The teacher in PBL does not teach the students what they should do or know and when they should
do it or go about learning it Rather the teacher is there to support the students in developing their critical thinking skills, self-directed learning skills, and content knowledge in relation to the problem The teacher should acknowledge and support the students’ thinking rather than impose structure on
Trang 11it but should also provide experiences that
chal-lenge that thinking Initially the teacher needs to
determine what the key concepts and procedures
are that the child needs to know and then design
a learning experience that requires students to use
the that information in authentic tasks Scaffolds
also need to be built in to help students to
orga-nize and represent what they know as to provide
the teacher with opportunities to probe students’
knowledge and thinking skills The inquiry needs
to focus on using information as a means to
de-velop information-processing skills and problem
solving skills
Computer technologies can be effective
ve-hicles for introducing problems for student
investi-gation because they “allow students to experience
a shared context in which they engage in sustained
thinking about complex problems and engage in
interpretive learning experiences” (Hmelo-Sivler,
2004) WebQuest and Web Inquiry Projects are
two examples of how online learning environments
that are problem based can be designed
HOW IS A WEBQUEST AN ExAMPLE
OF A PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING
APPROACH TO TECHNOLOGY USE?
A WebQuest is one example of how to design
Internet-based learning experiences that promote
digital literacy as well as the development of
essential higher level thinking, problem solving
and communication skills There is a growing
body of literature on the value of WebQuests as
an instructional approach to integrate structured
inquiry and the use of technology (Hicks, Sears,
Gao, Goodmans & Manning, 2004) A WebQuest
is an inquiry-oriented activity in which most or
all of the information used by learners is drawn
from the Web (Dodge, 2005) WebQuests are
designed to efficiently use learners’ time, to focus
on using information rather than looking for it,
and to support learners’ thinking at the levels of
analysis, synthesis and evaluation (March 2004;
Dodge, 2005) Such a use of the Internet supports
a view of students as active creators and shapers
of their own knowledge who are able and willing
to think for themselves Through a WebQuest,
students can actively explore issues and problems from a number of different perspectives, as well
as searching for solutions and making moral and ethical decisions about real contemporary world
problems In an authentic WebQuest there is
no single correct answer While engaged in the
inquiry through a WebQuest, students are
con-structing their own personal meaning about the problem under investigation
The rationale for using a structured inquiry approach such as a WebQuest design can be
traced back to Bruner’s cognitive development theory For Bruner, the most important outcome of cognitive development is thinking and the process that students undergo to acquire knowledge, not the product (Bruner, 1966) Bruner’s discovery
learning and inquiry teaching methods envision
the learners creating their knowledge by ranging or transforming evidence in such a way that one is enabled to go beyond the evidence so assembled to additional new insights” (Bruner,
“rear-1961, p 22) This requires an activity structure that scaffolds learners’ experience so that they must move beyond simply finding information
to using that information to think through and resolve a problem or issue Also, the question posed to students cannot be answered simply by collecting and spitting back information A well
designed WebQuest requires students to
trans-form intrans-formation into something else Some of
the thinking skills analogous with WebQuests
are “comparing, classifying, inducing, deducing, analyzing, constructing, abstracting, and analyzing perspectives” (Norton & Wiburg, 2003, p 180)
WebQuests have been used successfully to
develop subject specific content in middle and high school social studies (Hung 2004; Leite, McNulty
& Brooks, 2005; Lipscomb, 2003; Stickland, 2005); creativity in art (Kundu & Bain, 2006), conceptual understanding in elementary math
Trang 12(Orme & Monroe, 2005); thinking skills (Murry,
2006), with at risk students (Wilson, 2006); and
ESL students (Goodwin-Jones, 2004); and for
developing reading and literacy skills (Ikpeze &
Boyd, 2007) “Using a WebQuest can help to bring
reading alive, address essential questions that bring
meaning to learning, engage in information
pro-cessing, problem solving, collaboration, alleviate
the concern of how to address reading needs of
all students, taking on role- meet individual needs
and differing learning styles” (Teclehaimanot &
Lamb, 2004)
WebQuests can also enhance students’
com-munication skills as many involve working in
co-operative groups and role-playing Working either
independently or in groups, the students explore
an issue or problem in a guided and meaningful
manner Some WebQuests have the students take
on roles that help to make the group work together
more efficiently and effectively These roles can
include a group leader, recorder, communicator,
encourager and evaluator, among others Other
WebQuests have the learners assume the roles
of particular players in a role-playing setting
where they access, analysis and synthesize the
information provided from the perspective of
that player
The most authentic WebQuests engage
stu-dents in perspective taking on a particular problem
or issue Students investigate the context and the
issue from an individual’s perspective in order
to build a better understanding of the person, the
event and the setting The goal is for students
to use the information collected to construct an
argument based on evidence They then publicly
share their findings with the class and the class
tries to come to some kind of resolution to the
problem under investigation This resolution may
mean arriving at class consensus or if there is a
conflict of resolutions, then agreeing to disagree
Role-playing can be particularly beneficial for
teaching students the importance of perspective
taking when problem solving Here is where
We-bQuests have the greatest potential for addressing
the multicultural literacy aspect of digital literacy
Investigating problems from a number of different cultural perspectives can help learners to better understand the wide diversity of views on any one issue as well as the important cultural foundations
of those views This can lead to learning to respect and appreciate diversity
WebQuests and problem based learning fit
well together as they both address constructivist
learning principles, critical thinking,
scaffold-ing, learner motivation, cooperative learning and
authentic assessment (Levine, 2002) Both
We-bQuests and problem based learning encourage higher level thinking including analysis, critical
thinking and creative thinking; both include a introduction that sets the stage and provides some background information; both place students in a scenario where they must solve a fuzzy problem; both actively engage students in the learning and empower them to determine the outcome; both have no one right answer; both require compiling information from a variety of sources in order to arrive at a solution; and, both use authentic as-sessment strategies such as rubrics Where these two strategies differ is in how structured they
are and in who imposes that structure Problem
based learning is less structured than a WebQuest
and provides the students with a larger decision making role in terms of defining the problem to
be investigated, setting the conditions for lution, determining strategies for addressing the problem, deciding on the roles to be taken and the end product of the investigation, and in selecting the resources to be used
reso-WHAT ARE THE COMPONENTS
OF A WEBQUEST?
Usually a WebQuest consists of the introduction,
task, process, resources, evaluation and sion The first part, the introduction, lays out the task or the problem to be investigated, provides some background information and acts as a moti-
Trang 13conclu-vator to get the students interested in the activity
The task outlines the overall challenge the students
will be engaged in and explains what they will be
doing to represent what they have learned from
completing the WebQuest The task also provides
the focus questions that frame the investigation
and facilitate the learning process The process
provides a description of what needs to be done
in order to accomplish the task in a step-by-step
fashion Here, students are usually assigned roles
or provided with differing perspectives on the
is-sue or problem being investigated The resource
section provides information sources that are
needed for solving the task Most of the resources
used for the inquiry are other Websites that have
been vetted by the teacher and linked directly to
the WebQuest Many WebQuests provide direct
access to individual experts, current news sites
and searchable databases for information sources
The evaluation section provides information for
students on how they will be assessed The
as-sessment tool often included is a rubric for
pro-viding feedback on the outcome of the inquiry
Other formative types of assessment can be used
throughout the inquiry including personal
reflec-tive logs, skills checklists, and self and group
feedback on the effectiveness of their group work
The conclusion brings closure to the WebQuest
by reviewing and summarizing the learning from
the experience and often challenges learners to
extend their learning in new ways
WebQuests can be either short term, on the
average one to three classes, with the goal of
ac-quiring and making sense of new information or
longer term in which a student analyzes a body
of information, transforms it in some way and
demonstrates an understanding of that
informa-tion in a public way Longer-term WebQuests can
take anywhere from a week to a month (Norton
& Wiburg, 2003) Throughout the WebQuest, the
teacher acts as the facilitator checking to see that
students understand the role that they are to take
and that they stay on task
WHERE CAN WEBQUESTS
BE FOUND?
A WebQuest can be chosen from a series of pre-designed WebQuest collections [see <http://
Webquest.org/index.php> or < http://www.kn.att.com/wired/fil/tips/Webquest_instructions.html
>] or one can be created by the teacher to dress a specific topic of study The latter allows for more active student involvement in deciding what problem they might like to investigate and
ad-in designad-ing an ad-interestad-ing and relevant learnad-ing experience around that problem An example of
a pre-designed WebQuest from one of the
data-bases mentioned earlier entitled “Does the Tiger Eat its Cubs” [http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/China/childquest.html] explores the way children
in orphanages in China are treated
In this WebQuest, students investigate the
question “What’s the truth about how children are treated in China?” They are directed to investi-gate the question from a number of perspectives They are divided into three teams One team reads international news reports, another reads responses from the Chinese people and a third examines the government of China’s position as stated in China’s One Child Policy The class then comes back together and discusses their findings with the challenge of arriving at consensus deci-sion on the issue The culminating activity is to write a letter to the government expressing their opinion on what they feel should be done about the situation
In the WebQuest, Children of conflict [http://
www.accessola.com/osla/bethechange/Webquest/conflict/index.html], students work in teams as part of a task force to investigate how conflict af-fects children in different parts of the world After researching their particular areas, the groups come back together to present their recommendations
to a special parliamentary committee to decide what Canada should do to help to protect children around the world
Trang 14DNA for Dinner WebQuest
[http://dnafordin-ner.blogspot.com/] engages students in an inquiry
about the issue of genetically altered food The
issue to be investigated is “Should genetically
engineered food crops be specifically labeled
for consumers and why.” Using the resources
provided, students are to read up on the issue and
then draft a law based on their investigation They
are then encouraged to email a representative in the
federal government detailing their investigation
and their concern over the issue and explaining
their proposed solution A WebQuest such as this
one is an example of how the learning activity
can be designed to increase students’ motivation
to want to learn by connecting what is learned in
school to real world experiences
WebQuests can also be a powerful way for
students to be immersed in historical events and
to have the opportunity to work with historical
documents In the Scrooge for Mayor WebQuest
[http://www.coollessons.org/Dickens.htm],
students work in teams to develop a campaign
proposal for Scrooge using information about
labour, education, industrialization and quality
of life issues in nineteenth century England as
represented in Charles Dicken’s work of fiction
“A Christmas Carol” Each campaign team is
made up of a team manager, research analyst,
public relations person and political strategist
Students are directed to focus on how Scrooge’s
viewpoint on daily life in London will need to
change and what solutions to London’s problems
and programs he will need to support in his run
for mayor Each person on the campaign team is
responsible for writing an article for a newspaper
describing what they found out including what life
was like in the area in the 1840’s, the conditions
that made it necessary to bring about change, what
changes were proposed and how those changes
would better things as well as an editorial on the
topic “Is the industrial revolution a good thing?”
The team also is directed to create a campaign
poster, a pamphlet and a PowerPoint presentation
that are to be used to communicate their ideas to
Scrooge This WebQuest is an excellent example
of how WebQuests can be used to integrate
vari-ous subject areas in meaningful ways It could be used to address the learning outcomes of social studies, reading, language arts and science
In the Ancient Egypt WebQuest [http://www.
iWebquest.com/egypt/ancientegypt.htm] students take on a series of missions to learn about King Tut, early Egyptian daily life, and the study of archeology
Using the Middle Ages Storytelling Quest [http://www.iWebquest.com/middleages/Default.htm], students learn about the history of the Middle Ages then create their own story to teach their peers what they have learned about this historical time period
Some WebQuests encourage students to take
on cooperative learning roles to make their group
work more efficient The Big Wide World
Web-Quest [http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/bww/
index.html] is an example of one that combines cooperative roles and focus topics to engage primary students in an investigation about their
world The “A “No-bullying Proposal” WebQuest
[http://www.gecdsb.on.ca/d&g/nobullying/index.html] involves children in role taking from dif-ferent perspectives on the issue of bullying The groups then come up with a plan for how to ad-dress bullying in their school
As well as selecting from thousands of
pre-designed WebQuests, teachers can design a
WebQuest to meet their own personal needs
using available templates [see for example < http://Webquest.sdsu.edu/LessonTemplate.html.] Students can also be encouraged to try develop-ing their own WebQuests and sharing them with classmates A database of sample student devel-oped WebQuests can be found at the ThinkQuest Library site [http://www.thinkquest.org] Having students create their own WebQuests challenges them “to explore a topic, summarize what the most important events or facts are in relation to the topic, and then put together the links and ques-tions or other students to follow” (Whitworth &
Trang 15Berson, 2003, p 480) When students engage in
creating their own WebQuests, it can also enhance
the development of their critical, creative and
higher level thinking skills The two Websites
noted previously provide templates that students
can use for creating their own quests
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE
LIMITATIONS OF WEBQUESTS?
The WebQuest approach is intended to capitalize
on the possibilities provided by the Internet for
guided inquiry learning while eliminating some
of the disadvantages such as time wasted looking
for resources, learners accessing inappropriate
resources, and the lack of sufficient experience
with the research process (Milson, 2002) There
are some limitations to using WebQuests, however,
that teachers need to be aware of Maddux and
Cummings (2007) caution that “simply because
a lesson is cast in a WebQuest format is no
guarantee that the lesson makes use of
coopera-tive learning, advanced organizers, scaffolding,
problem-based learning, nor does it guarantee
that these concepts and techniques are effectively,
or even merely competently, applied in a way that is
consistent with the huge literature base underlying
each of them” (p 121) One problem is that not
all WebQuests encourage higher order thinking
and must be carefully scrutinized in order to assess
how well they accomplish this Many WebQuests
are merely designed as fact-finding exercises that
do little to engage students in problem solving
No attempt is made to engage students in role
taking or learning to view problems from multiple
perspectives Fewer still actually engage students
in learning the important problem solving skills
of conflict resolution, compromising or agreeing
to disagree Others lack clear direction to the user
that can detract from the ability of students to take
control of the learning experience
There are a number of Websites that provide
rubrics for determining the quality of WebQuests
[See for example, <http://bestWebquests.com/bwq/matrix.asp> and <http://Webquest.sdsu.edu/Webquestrubric.html > ] The criteria included
in these assessments are: engaging opener; clear question and tasks; learner roles match the is-
sues and resources; higher level thinking built
in; opportunities for feedback provided; and a conclusion that ties in to the introduction, makes the students’ cognitive tasks overt and suggests how this learning could transfer to other domains/issues
Another limitation of WebQuests is that
stu-dents are most often removed from the process of selecting resources on which to base their investi-gation There is now more information than teach-ers, textbooks and the curriculum can dispense Consequently, students need to learn the skills to become information managers themselves New computer technologies have much to offer teachers and students in terms of enhancing their informa-tion access, use and evaluation skills to encourage more effective and thoughtful consumption of information As current information becomes eas-ily accessible online, it is increasingly important that students have the opportunity to develop their critical analysis capabilities (Mason, Alibrandi, Berson Diem, Dralle, Hicks, Keiper & Lee, 2000) Also educators are warned not to simply rely on Internet filtering software but rather to focus on teaching students critical thinking skills so that they can learn to make informed decisions and judgments about the information they encounter
on the Internet (Whitworth & Berson, 2003, p 480) The use of such filtering tools can also be
a problem as many sites that would be relevant
to the study of a topic, such as war and conflict, would be inaccessible to students
Locating useful and accurate information
on the Web can be a struggle for students The abundance of things to access via the Internet can cause students to be easily side tracked and spend a great deal of time off task Information gathering can easily become a mindless exercise
in which quantity overrides quality This sort
Trang 16of information-gathering exercise does little to
promote deeper thinking and understanding
Students need to be instructed in and have
op-portunities to practice how to critically examine
and make informed choices about the information
they are accessing Critical information literacy
skills need to be carefully taught and monitored
to ensure students are developing proficiency
in their use In addition to learning the skills of
locating and evaluating information on the Web,
students also need to learn how to select relevant
pieces of information and synthesize and organize
it in order to apply it to the learning activity and
communicate it to others
Because there is an inclination to accept the
computer as an authority and view the
informa-tion accessed as the “truth,” students need to be
taught to recognize that the information on the
Web represents a particular viewpoint, as does
any other resource They need to be encouraged
to conscientiously use critical thinking skills to
make both appropriate and ethical choices when
using computer-generated information Students
need to be taught how to apply the skills of actively
interpreting the information provided, drawing
conclusions from data, seeing several points of
view, distinguishing fact from opinion, and
find-ing meanfind-ing in information, as they interact with
digital technologies In order to develop students’
critical thinking skills, they should be taught to
look for authorship/source, objectivity/biases,
and validity of content, bibliography/reference
links, currency and quality of writing Questions
such as the following can be helpful for students
and teachers to use in judging the effectiveness
of Websites:
Where did this document come from and
•
how reliable a source is it?
Is the information presented objectively or
•
with an obvious bias?
How current is the information?
•
How comprehensive is the coverage of the
•
topic on the Website?
How trustworthy is the data provided
• and how accurately does it depict the phenomenon?
Does the site deepen my understanding of
• the topic?
How useful is the site to me in assisting
•
with the inquiry?
Critical literacy skills need to be carefully taught and monitored to ensure students are developing proficiency in their use Children need to be instructed in and have opportunities
to practice how to critically examine and make appropriate, ethical and informed choices about the information they are accessing They need to
be taught to recognize that the information on any Website represents a particular viewpoint and that
it is important to examine several points of view
on any issue They also need to be taught how to distinguish fact from opinion
A third limitation is that WebQuests lead students through a scaffolded inquiry experience
that specifies the task, the roles and perspectives to
be taken, the resources to be used and the guides for organizing the learning with little opportunity for the students to set the direction and plan for
the investigation Being heavily scaffolded,
We-bQuests prevent learners from participating in
higher-level inquiry activities (Molebash, Dodge,
Bell, Mason & Irving, n.d.) While these initial scaffolds are very important for helping children
to develop problem solving strategies, there needs
to be opportunities for releasing some of the control into the hands of the learners Molebash and Dodge (2003) note that the support of the
WebQuest can be removed in stages by allowing
more flexibility in how and what student are to produce in the task, by gradually providing fewer URLs and expecting the learner to find more,
by gradually removing the scaffolding such as
note taking guidelines, information organizing structures, writing prompts, etc., and by putting more resources in the conclusion for learners to explore on their own later
Trang 17WHAT ARE WEB INQUIRY
PROjECTS?
In order to promote higher levels of inquiry in
the classroom, less specific guidance can be given
to students Web Inquiry Projects (WIPs) are
one example of a way to extend the WebQuest
idea beyond structured inquiry to more open
inquiry that promotes higher levels of thinking
and student engagement Web Inquiry Projects
are “open inquiry learning activities that leverage
the use of uninterpreted [primary source] online
data and information” (Molebash, 2004, p 2)
Unlike WebQuests, which provide students with
a procedure and the online resources needed to
complete a predefined task, WIPS place more
emphasis in having students determine their own
task, define their own procedures, and play a role
in finding the needed online resources More
often the inquiry is sparked by the interest of
the students The teacher’s role is to “insert the
necessary scaffolding at each stage in the process
to ensure that students are successful” (Molebash
2004, p 2) According to Molebash, WIPS have
seven stages: a hook to capture students’ interest,
question generating, deciding on procedures for
guiding the investigation, data investigation of
possible online sources, analysis of data,
find-ings reporting including drawing conclusions
based on the evidence, and lastly the generation
on new questions resulting from the investigation
to encourage further inquiry.
Numerous examples of Web Inquiry
Proj-ects can be viewed at http://edWeb.sdsu.edu/
wip/examples.htm In the WIP entitled “The
AIDS Epidemic: Can It Be Stopped?” [http://
edWeb.sdsu.edu/wip/examples/aids/index.htm],
for example, students are presented with the
fol-lowing hook:
The HIV/AIDS Epidemic is still occurring today
Currently medical research in finding a cure for
AIDS have not progressed beyond prolonging HIV
before it turns into AIDS Although we don’t see
HIV/AIDS in the news today, it is still a problem around the world Many people feel that they are not at risk for contracting this disease, but it
is important for individuals to realize that they may be at risk The first case of HIV/AIDS was diagnosed in the United States in the early 1980’s When will the last case be diagnosed?
In order to address this challenge, students need to determine what investigative tools to use, what types of data they will need and how they will manipulate that data in order to predict
an answer As a part of their investigation they also conduct detailed research on AIDs in order
to increase their understanding of the issues rounding AIDs and HIV
sur-In another example, North American tives [http://eprentice.sdsu.edu/F034/sjohnson/teacher_template2.html], students are hooked into
Perspec-the inquiry through a series of questions that Perspec-they
are to answer initially from their own perspective then from “behind Native American eyes” They are encouraged to think of some questions related
to this topic that they might like to investigate
as well as being provided some teacher-initiated ones There are some pre-selected resources pro-vided but students are encouraged to locate their own as well Some ideas for how to re-present their learning are made available but once again students are encouraged to come up with their own ideas too Each of these examples allows for a greater degree of student control over the learning experiences
CONCLUDING REMARKS
Attention to digital literacy has become an
es-sential aspect of children’s education for the 21st
century This chapter began by defining digital
literacy as well as highlighting other important
21st century skills including higher level thinking, problem solving, communication and collabora-
tion Included under the umbrella of digital literacy
Trang 18are such skills as understanding how to operate
a particular technology, knowing how and why
technologies can be used, and recognizing the
ramifications of their use The research on best uses
of technology for learning has identified a number
of effective ways for infusing digital literacy
skills and other technology outcomes throughout
a child’s educational experiences Emerging from
this review of the research is an acknowledgment of
the learning theory of constructivism as a way of
framing learning experiences with computer
tech-nologies WebQuests and their extension, Web
Inquiry Projects, are two approaches that have
the potential to effectively model constructivist
learning principles while also addressing digital
literacy, thinking, problem solving and
commu-nication skills What makes these approaches to
technology use in schools most effective is the
emphasis on student directed learning and active
student engagement The level of student control
over the decision making about the learning varies
from a lesser degree in the more structured inquiry
usually found in WebQuests to a greater degree
in the open inquiry of Web Inquiry Projects
Other essential features of effective technology
use found in both WebQuests and Web Inquiry
Projects that were identified were: a) problem
based learning focused on real world authentic
issues and questions of interest to students and, in
the case of WIPs, generated by the students; b) a
focus on collaborative learning both within and
beyond the classroom walls; and, c) an emphasis
on learning to manage information and to work
with that information at a higher level of thinking
and understanding All of these features support
the call for learning experiences that attend to
digital literacy and to developing the thinking,
problem solving and communication skills of
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KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONSDigital Literacy: The skills of information
location and application including understanding how to use available evidence to assist in problem solving and decision making
Constructivist Learning Theory: A learning
theory that acknowledges the learner as the holder and creator of their own knowledge
Inquiry: An approach to learning that directly
engages learners in constructing their own edge and understanding
knowl-Problem Based Learning: An approach to
learning in which learners inquire into problems about important questions and issues that have
no clear answers
WebQuest: A Web-based structured inquiry
approach to learning
Web Inquiry Project: A Web-based open
inquiry approach to learning
This work was previously published in Handbook of Research on New Media Literacy at the K-12 Level: Issues and lenges , edited by L.T.W Hin; R Subramaniam, pp 403-418 , copyright 2009 by Information Science Reference (an imprint
Chal-of IGI Global).
Trang 22Chapter 5.21
The EduOntoWiki Project
Educational, and Knowledge Construction Processes with Semantic Web Paradigm
Corrado Petrucco
University of Padua, Italy
INTRODUCTION
The Web is going to produce a revolution in
learn-ing and teachlearn-ing: the debate on the role of ICT in
educational processes leads to a reconsideration of
how we deal with information and knowledge The
widespread use in educational contexts is also due
to the ease with which learning resources can be
retrieved and shared: for example, the recent
intro-duction of learning objects means that the contents
which reside in different e-learning platforms is easy
to find and access But knowledge is also deeply
embedded in millions of Web pages Nonetheless,
searching for information on the Web is not a simple
task and the great number of documents found using
search engines, such as Google, is beyond the
hu-man cognitive capacity to deal with this information overflow Teaching information literacy skills or stimulating collaborative information filtering that supports the discovery of resources in a way that
is responsive to the context of users may help, but there is a need for more efficient cognitive tools to search, organize, and discuss information in order
to codify it in shared knowledge structures
In a more and more complex world we need port to think at a high level so the technologies let us develop strong knowledge structures that do not have the representational problems of the old schemas
sup-An attempt in this direction is the Semantic Web: if
we succeed in making the Semantic Web available and useful for education, it could revolutionize the way we think about teaching and learning with ICT Our current research is aimed at the development, experimentation and evolution of an integrated
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-59904-845-1.ch026
Trang 23learning environment called EduOntoWiki that
is backed up by a semantic structure based on the
active consent of communities of practice
BACKGROUND
Current research suggest that it is not correct
to assume that the introduction of ICT
neces-sarily changes the way students learn We have
to acknowledge that the teacher plays a critical
pedagogical role in creating the conditions for
technology-supported learning through selecting
and evaluating appropriate technological resources
and designing learning activities (Galliani, Costa,
Amplatz, & Varisco, 1999) We can distinguish
between two approaches to ICT: a
technology-centered approach and a learner-technology-centered approach
(Mayer, 2005) The former generally fails to lead
to lasting improvements in education: looking back
at the many predicted educational revolutions,
in which the current “new” technology (radio,
television, computer, multimedia, the Web) would
have been the “killer” application for teaching
and learning processes, we see that they failed to
materialize (Cuban, 1986) and so was the case
with the claims and worries, during the 1960s,
that computers-as-tutors would replace teachers
(Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt,
1996) A learner-centered approach can, on the
other hand, help students and teacher to learn
and teach through the aid of technology with a
focus on how ICT can be used as an aid to human
cognition and consistent with the way the mind
works solving complex tasks and dealing with
today’s information overflow The quantity and
kind of information students today need to assess
has expanded exponentially in the last few years,
due mainly to the World Wide Web and
improve-ments in the capabilities of search engines In this
context, it is important to consider both student
and teacher roles using a constructivist approach
that can stimulate collaborative formalization and
knowledge building
SEMANTIC WEB AND ONTOLOGIES
The Web has arrived at an important logical crossroad and there is a need to integrate the current dialogic-informative model, which allows us to interact with people and search for documents on the Web, with a model based on the contextual knowledge domains within which we operate: the Semantic Web approach (Berners-Lee
epistemo-et al., 2001) Both models are strongly based on a learner-centered approach so the applied research,
in particular in the field of ICT and educational technologies, is moving in two directions:
1 The development of solutions for tion exchange, and in general, for intelligent knowledge management;
informa-2 The development of a tive approach to knowledge building.The Semantic Web was coined by Tim Berners-Lee to refer to a vision of the next evolution of networks that can add meaning to the navigational context of the current World Wide Web It is the new-generation Web that makes it possible to express information in a machine-interpretable form, ready for software agents to process, as well as to understand what the terms describing the data mean both on the syntactic and semantic levels (Hendler, 2001) An important role in the development of the Semantic Web is played by ontologies (Gruber, 1993) The term is borrowed from philosophy but it is used in a different and more pragmatic sense: they are an explicit speci-fication of a conceptualization, that is, a formal description of concepts and relationships that can exist in a knowledge domain, that is intended as
collaborative/coopera-a knowledge bcollaborative/coopera-ase to be shcollaborative/coopera-ared collaborative/coopera-and re-used in the real world These ontological structures will, for instance, allow us to no longer surf the universe
of documents on the Web through hypertext links from text to text, but from concept to concept;
or even to retrieve information in a relevant way without the “noise” that characterizes search
Trang 24engines In order to achieve this aim, formalized
languages have been created (XML, RDF) to
mark texts semantically These languages, which
are able to codify knowledge through domain
ontologies, can be easily understood both by
hu-mans and by ad hoc programs such as semantic
browsers (Dzbor, Domingue, & Motta, 2003) or
by specific software agents
The importance of ontologies has been
recog-nized in different research fields, and even from an
operational point of view the current application
areas are different: from medicine to knowledge
content standardization, from legal information
systems to biological and geographical
informa-tion systems, from e-commerce to natural language
processing, and finally education (Devedzic,
2004) Our current research project is aimed at
extending and integrating the construction and
evolution of a semantic learning space that is
backed up by ontological structures relative to
educational sciences (Petrucco, 2003) based on
an active consent of communities of practice
THE EDUONTOWIKI PROjECT
The different training and background of those
who contribute to educational theory, the different
cultures they belong to, and the rapid development
of scientific work today require the development of
a series of shared conceptual schemas It is
impor-tant then to generate these schemas not as general
principles but as justified, motivated, documented
and finally usable schemas as control “criteria” of
pedagogic discourse As an ontology is basically
a conceptual organizer of scientific discourse, it
is a formidable support to hermeneutic work
Within this context we developed the idea
to build an ontology of education The project
takes into account the state of the art of
educa-tional research in Italy, France, Spain, Germany,
England and Spain The three thematic areas
studied, at least in this first step of the project, are:
didactic planning, educational communication,
and assessment and evaluation The ontology is
“negotiated” in working exchanges and cal moments in order to develop a circularity of information flow within the virtual community
dialogi-of the experts involved in the project and other actors participating
The project has been developed with the mediate aim of building an integrated semantic learning environment called “EduOntoWiki” (http://multifad.formazione.unipd.it/eduonto), a wiki-based environment where it is possible to construct, discuss, and contextualize ontologies suitable for describing the actors, processes and technologies of educational sciences A wiki was chosen because it enables easy and immediate insertion, modification and sharing of texts and materials by a community of users (Wikipedia is
im-a good exim-ample) im-and becim-ause it gives freedom over the knowledge creation process to users The recent promising research in the application of the semantic Web to wiki software (Campanini, Castagna, & Tazzoli, 2004; Hepp, Bachlechner, & Siorpaes, 2005; Scaffert, Gruber, & Westenthaler, 2005) confirm this decision
Indeed, our initial vision conceived the ment as a tool to help in the creation of an ontology and the description of a specific knowledge domain mediated by a discussion within a community of practice To be really useful an ontology requires the active consensus of a committed community
instru-of practice in a knowledge domain (Domingue, 1998; Trentin, 2004) as experts of do not always completely share the same categorizations, inter-pretations and distinctions Often this is not only because of the reciprocal irreducibility of funda-mental theoretical orders, which is both physi-ological and necessary, but rather because of the confusion created by the different meanings given
to “key” terms in the discipline in question
If it were possible to have an “ontological” reference model with shared lexis and semantics,
as regards both terms and their relations, this would probably help to reduce conflicts which arise from misunderstandings and incomprehen-
Trang 25sion Ontologies created in this way would also
have a significant side-effect for all the actors
involved: first of all the definition of a common
lexis (Wenger, 1998), then a strong push towards
the conceptualization of tacit knowledge, and
finally the sharing of a metamodel in which
processes, knowledge and relations are shared
Defining ontologies which support educational
applications based on the Web is therefore no
simple task, above all because of the difficulty
in formally conceptualising a domain which has
always played on the idiosyncratic interpretation
of each philosophical/pedagogical approach
Ontologies would be useful not only to the
aca-demic community, but as far as their didactic use is
concerned, we can think of an ontology or a series
of “educational” ontologies, that could be used
and discussed by students, teachers, and people
interested in the real world of applications and
training contexts This “open” ontology paradigm
can offer considerable advantages For example,
it could provide a medium which would foster the
sharing of the basic knowledge in a discipline and
a place where students could easily find
educa-tional resources (learning objects) with a strong
context relation to the subject Today the learning
objects paradigm means that the contents which
reside in the different systems used in e-learning
platforms, need to become reusable, accessible
and interoperable Each object therefore needs
to be described beforehand by others through
unambiguous formalisms (so-called LOM,
learn-ing objects metadata) so that people can retrieve
them more easily But this retrieval paradigm is
often wrong: the meaning of the metadata must
be shared by most communities of users possible
and this is not the common case The practice of
describing resources may at first appear to be
simple and straightforward, however, when a
sys-tem of description is analyzed deeply it becomes
evident that it is actually ambiguous The use of
metadata presupposes not only a set of logical
relations but also a specific vocabulary generally
agreed upon by a linguistic community (Downes,
2004) Ontologies, integrated with social tagging processes (i.e., folksonomies) (Mathes, 2004), could indeed offer a strong support for solving this problem because every learning object would be
embedded in the structure of the ontology itself;
in this sense there is a side-effect that consists of the collaborative setting up of a learning object repository that uses the ontological base for “intel-ligent” consultation Learning objects have always existed in teaching: in their practice, educators operate within a deconstruction and reconstruc-tion process of materials and resources, but what
is missing is often a conceptual and disciplinary framework to go back to, which, in today’s world, could be easily accessible and consultable through the Web It is precisely this that the various domain ontologies could provide
The wiki interface of the ontologies is well able for developing a constructivist environment, where people of a learning community can add and modify the concepts dialogically (Souzis, 2005) If
suit-we then assume that the learning process is never confined to the materials used in an online course, but that it is also fruit of the interaction among the members of the group, with the wiki-based
ontologies we provide a scaffolding (Devedzic,
2004) which will facilitate communication and the construction of meaning among all the actors involved (academics, teachers, tutors, students) and at the same time represent the structure and contents of the discipline
FUTURE TRENDS AND DEVELOPMENTS
As ontologies in EduOntoWiki will be the result
of the active involvement of both a community
of practice of academics and actors from different educational fields (teachers, students and train-ers), the social/relational aspect which turned out
to be increasingly significant in the course of this research, led us to systematically further the study
of the relationships within a community, as well
Trang 26as between different communities, in relation to
the knowledge construction process supported by
the wiki-based software We want to verify how
this environment can ease knowledge construction
and formalization as “instance” from different
communities of practice interacting together In
fact, the direction that the most promising, current
research is taking involves the study of so-called
“complex constellations of communities of
prac-tice” (Wenger, 2004) This definition has been used
to describe the special relationships which unite
various communities and render them permeable
in such a way that they can reciprocally share
knowledge, contextualizing, and enriching it with
new meanings, thus favoring creative solutions
to complex problems
On the basis of these premises, we will seek
to verify whether a social theory of learning can
effectively lead to the overcoming of rigid borders
between training/educational systems, work
envi-ronments and social activities In this sense, we can
try to “free” learning so it is no longer seen to be
linked to a specific area or moment of one’s life,
but actively constructed in the inter-community
interactions of a lifelong learning continuum
What will be investigated in particular are
the negotiational interrelations between people
who, in various forms, are members of different
communities, people who share an active
inter-est in all training environments and who bring
valuable examples of “good practice” even if
they belong to different work contexts This
as-pect, led us to expand a new learning dimension,
aimed at stimulating reciprocity, transferring and
recontextualization processes, insofar as learning
is recognized as a social/relational process, and
the multiple contexts where learning takes place
that becomes a precious alternative representation
(Lave, 1988), effectively expressed by the
learn-ing subjects by means of a narrative description
(Bruner, 1996) that a rigid codified ontology
for-malization would, on the contrary, risk penalizing
Narrative is used in education and training contexts
to motivate and to illustrate, the reason for this is
that the cognitive structures we use to understand the world around us are similar to the cognitive structures we use to understand narratives It is assumed that the interaction, comparison and re-ciprocal recognition of the different communities involved will succeed in triggering off a virtuous process of crossfertilization able to transfer skills, processes, and models
An important challenge highlighted by a close examination of international research on this theme, is that inter-community relations are not easy to manage or formalise since the members can only count on relatively limited shared mean-ing and practices (Friesen, 2002) Interoperability among communities, which our EduOntoWiki environment wishes to foster, is thus closely linked
to a negotiation of meanings, identities and roles Identity and roles for example, can be formalized using the semantic standard FOAF, (friend of a friend) while other important personal relations are more difficult to express Maybe the only way is to include the innovative approach of the folksonomies (Petrucco, 2006) and/or the creation
of specific “instances” in the ontologies intended mainly as a narration of personal and contextual experiences lodged in a precise space, time and place It is not by chance that social networking tools, such as LinkedIn, Friendster and Orkut, are now considered a necessary extension of the recent blog phenomenon In fact, we intend to evaluate whether, and in what way, it is possible that this
process of narrative conceptualization can lead
from the formulation of “descriptive instances”
to spontaneous formalization, on behalf of munity members, of “normative instances”, that is, knowledge models which can be reused in multiple experiential contexts for solving problems
com-CONCLUSION
Our research group believe that the potential fects of the Semantic Web for the world of educa-tion and training, and in particular for e-learning,
Trang 27ef-will certainly be positive, but only if governed by
a strong pedagogical-methodological reference
structure which facilitates integration of the new
technological-semantic paradigm into the more
recent social theories of learning Given these
assumptions, combining the Semantic Web with
social software appears to be a natural choice: it
can support the creation of semantically enriched
content using simple interfaces and by allowing
domain experts and novices, teachers and students
to collaborate within rich inter-cultural
com-munities, sharing their true life experiences To
conclude, while it is true that the EduOntoWiki
project presents considerable challenges both on
a technical-scientific and on a
theoretic-method-ological level as it attempts to integrate the most
innovative instances of international research on
the Semantic Web and on pedagogic research, we
also believe that fast and complex
contemporane-ous social evolution necessarily requires adequate
instruments able to interpret and manage it
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practice are groups that form to share what they know and to learn from one another regarding some aspects of their work People in organiza-tions often realize they could benefit from sharing their knowledge, in-sight, and experiences with others who have similar interests or goals For the most part, this process of informal gathering and sharing of expertise is a voluntary
Folksonomies: Folksonomies are bottom-up
taxonomies that people create on their own, as opposed to being created and imposed by a group
or institution such as by professional librarians using complex and lengthy rule sets (e.g., Dewey decimal system or Library of Congress index) Synonyms include folk categorization, social tagging, and ethnoclassification They are grass-roots classification systems for data The value
in folksonomies is derived from many people adding their own tags The more people tagging one object, the better, because it gives alternative ways of searching for and finding information
LOM (Learning Objects Metadata): We can
define metadata as “information about tion”, and a LOM is a metadata about a learning object that can refer to multimedia or digital educational resources Sets of metadata are used
informa-to identify and meaningfully describe istics relevant to these resources, for example, the learning resource type, the intended end user, difficulty level, educational goal, and so forth The Learning Technology Standards Committee
Trang 29character-(LTSC) give rise to the IEEE LOM (Learning
Object Metadata) 1484.12.1-2002 standard of
educational metadata
Ontologies: An ontology is a formal
repre-sentation of knowledge about an area of interest
The part of the world conceptualized or described
is called the “knowledge domain.” Ontologies
provide a vocabulary for representing and
com-municating knowledge domains and a set of
relationships that hold among the terms in that
vocabulary
Semantic Web: The Semantic Web is an
ex-tension of the current Web in which information
is given a well-defined meaning, better enabling
computers and people to work in cooperation
The mix of content on the Web has been shifting
from exclusively human-oriented content to more
and more data content The Semantic Web brings
to the Web the idea of having data defined and
linked in a way that it can be used for more
effec-tive discovery, automation, integration, and reuse
across various applications For the Web to reach
its full potential, it must evolve into a Semantic
Web, providing a universally accessible platform
that allows data to be shared and processed by
automated tools as well as by people [W3C]
Social Network: A social network is a set
of people or organizations or other social
enti-ties connected by a set of social relationships, such as friendships, coworking or information exchange The connections between them may show specific patterns and can be represented by graphs Recently many online social networking sites have begun to flourish with millions of users describing themselves in terms of who they are, what music they listen to, what books they read, and so forth, and trying to discover other people with similar interests
Wiki: A Wiki is a collaboratively-edited
Website that uses a software publishing tool The distinguishing feature of wikis is that they typically allow all users to edit any page, with full freedom to edit, change and delete the work
of previous authors Collaborative knowledge creation is thus a central aspect of a wiki system Wiki pages are accessible and usable at any time, and the content constantly evolves The first wiki was created by Ward Cunningham, and the word
“wiki” came from a phrase in Hawaiian—“wiki wiki”—which means “quick” It’s quick because the process of editing is entwined with the process
of reading Both are done using a standard Web browser Unlike most Websites, there’s no need to edit a file, upload it to a Web server, then reload the original to check it
This work was previously published in Encyclopedia of Information Communication Technology, edited by A Cartelli; M Palma, pp 195-201, copyright 2009 by Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global).
Trang 30This chapter makes a case for the importance of
preparing e-teachers by requiring them to have an
experience as an e-learner The chapter begins with a
review of the challenges and criticisms of e-learning
Some of the literature indicates that e-learners have
been dissatisfied with their learning experiences
Some academics have concerns about the rigour of
courses offered through e-learning The literature of
academic development and e-learning is used to link
theory with practice The chapter provides examples
of best practice in the preparation of academic staff
for e-teaching Two case studies of lived examples
of e-teaching preparation are provided from a North
American perspective Future research directions
are outlined, with research questions to be explored
regarding the link between the preparation of
e-teachers through e-learning and the quality of the
e-learning experience for students
INTRODUCTION
Academic staff in higher education are enthusiastic about getting involved in e-teaching, yet most are getting started with no experience as an e-learner Experiencing e-learning from the learner’s per-spective is immensely helpful, if not essential, for effective e-teaching Ideally, it would be best to experience a very positive and involving model of e-learning, which may be used as a model for one’s own e-teaching This chapter is a presentation of a lived example of academic development through e-learning
The aim of this chapter is to make a strong case for the preparation of e-teachers through successful completion of a fully online programme to prepare for e-teaching International examples of e-teaching programmes will be included, including lessons learned from participation in two North American Web-based e-teaching programmes: one generic programme (for anyone from any institution), and one programme offered by a university for new e-teachers
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-59904-814-7.ch003
Trang 31Whenever new or innovative teaching methods
are used, it is normal for sceptics and critics to
express concerns about the quality of teaching
and learning, and e-learning has attracted some
criticism While some studies have shown “no
significant difference” between learning outcomes
in face-to-face classrooms and in the e-learning
environment (Joy & Garcia, 2000), other studies
have shown high attrition rates in e-learning,
stu-dent frustrations with inexperienced e-teachers,
and frustrations of e-teachers with poor student
participation and learning outcomes
While all of these criticisms cannot be directly
linked to the quality of the preparation of the
teachers, some of the frustrations of novice
e-teachers show that preparation for e-teaching is a
significant issue that does contribute to the quality
of the overall teaching and learning experience
for students and teacher
Academic staff who plan to begin e-teaching
usually need some professional development to
provide an introduction to the new learning and
teaching environment According to a recent
study in the United States, two thirds of 320
col-leges and universities surveyed require academic
staff to complete some training prior to teaching
online (Lokken & Womer, 2007) Professional
development for e-learning often takes the form
of face-to-face workshops, one-on-one assistance
and mentoring, and sometimes hybrid or blended
e-learning experiences The focus of some
profes-sional development is on the use of the
technol-ogy, or on the development of materials to put
up on a Web site for students Some academic
development programmes are also focused on the
use of e-learning technology to enhance student
learning
The main point of this chapter is to consider the
potential benefits of a professional development
programme that is provided fully online Some
universities currently provide professional
devel-opment preparation for teaching online through
classroom instruction in computer labs or through blended learning formats The premise of this chapter is that, while these approaches are useful,
it may be even more effective for academic staff
to have the opportunity to experience e-learning fully at a distance as their students will This chapter will focus on the role of effective profes-sional development fully through e-learning to prepare teachers for high-quality e-teaching that
is focused on student involvement and learning First the criticisms of e-learning will be explored
to determine what needs to be done to improve the quality of e-learning Second, best practices
in professional development will be examined, including possible ways of translating these to the preparation for e-teaching Third, research on the current practices in academic development for e-teaching will be explored Finally, recommen-dations will be made for the improvement of the preparation of e-teachers in the future
This chapter is not a research-based chapter, but rather a detailed review of the existing literature
on the challenges of preparing academic staff for teaching in the online environment, and some of the best practices that are emerging in the field
In this chapter, the terms e-teaching, ing, Web-based learning, and online learning refer
e-learn-to any instructional course component delivered using the Internet, whether provided fully at a dis-tance or in a hybrid or blended format E-teaching refers to the processes used by teachers, and e-learning refers to students learning online
ISSUES, CONTROVERSIES, PROBLEMS
Several concerns are addressed frequently in the literature of e-learning: the quality and rigour of instruction, including learning outcomes; student persistence; and student satisfaction
Trang 32Concerns about the Quality
and Rigour of E-Learning
There is a perception, particularly among those
who have not experienced e-learning, that it is
much less rigourous for learners and teachers
than face-to-face classroom-based learning A
recent report from the Sloan Consortium (Allen
& Seaman, 2006) notes that although perceptions
of quality in e-learning have improved somewhat
since 2003, only 62% of chief academic officers
surveyed believe that learning outcomes are the
same as face-to-face learning, and only 16%
be-lieve outcomes are superior in e-learning
The highly quoted report The No Significant
Difference Phenomenon (Russell, 1999) was a
meta-analysis of research studies that showed
evidence that the learning outcomes from
e-learning were no different than e-learning outcomes
in traditional courses However, since then,
oth-ers, including Phipps (2000) and Joy and Garcia
(2000), claim that the original analysis was flawed
and that cause and effect cannot be determined
because the research did not control for extraneous
variables Joy and Garcia recommend that rather
than looking at the use of technology as an issue to
be debated, it is more important to focus on learning
by considering this question: “What combination
of instructional strategies and delivery media will
best produce the desired learning outcome for the
intended audience?” (p 38)
In a meta-analysis of many studies of
learn-ing effectiveness in e-learnlearn-ing courses offered at
a distance, Zhao, Lei, Yan, Lai, and Tan (2005)
found that interaction is the key element that
contributes to student learning outcomes More
interaction among students and teacher, including
both asynchronous and synchronous interactions,
was the most important element in many studies
20 percentage points lower in e-learning courses (Barefoot, 2004; Carr, 2000) A more recent study
of over 300 colleges in the United States shows
a much smaller difference in student retention in semester-length modules: 72% for distance learn-ing and 78% for face-to-face modules (Lokken
& Womer, 2007)
While theories on persistence in face-to-face learning emphasise engagement and social cohe-sion, Gibbs (2004) points out that an attempt to adapt these theories to the online environment have not been successful However, according to one study, feelings of isolation, anxiety, or con-fusion can contribute to decisions to drop out of online courses (King, 2002) Several studies have found that students underestimate the workload
of e-learning and will drop out when they feel they have fallen too far behind (Aqui, 2005)
Jo Tait (2004) of the Open University (United Kingdom) explains that student persistence is difficult to address because there are many factors that may contribute to students’ decisions to drop out However, she also points out the important role of tutors in distance learning, and the need for academic development to teach in ways that enhance student persistence One example of this comes from an introductory computer module at a community college in Tyler, Texas The e-teacher, Emilio Ramos, reported that when he started hold-ing regular chats and provided more interactive discussions for his students, his course comple-tion rates jumped from 62% to 90% Ramos says,
“The key to having low attrition and successful completion in the online medium is the ability of instructors to keep the students engaged, and that
Trang 33requires quite a bit of effort from the instructor’s
point of view” (as cited in Carr, 2000)
Student Criticisms about the
Quality of E-Learning
Some of the criticism of e-learning has come
from students In a large-scale study of students
who have participated in Web-based distance
learning in the United States (Noel-Levitz, Inc.,
2006), students responded that the following areas
needed improvement in e-learning: the quality
of instruction, the responsiveness of e-teachers
to students’ needs, and timely feedback from
e-teachers Experienced e-learners would agree
After dropping out of an online astronomy module
mid-semester, a student said, “It wasn’t worth the
headache The instructor wasn’t a bad teacher
He just did not have the experience with online
courses” (as cited in Carr, 2000) The instructor
was teaching online for the first time and had not
set up the course materials and labs properly
Other studies reinforce these findings,
includ-ing a study of Canadian university students (Stodel,
Thompson, & McDonald, 2006) When asked to
compare their experiences in face-to-face classes
with online classes, students expressed concerns
about the quality of the online asynchronous
dis-cussions Some felt that they were too drawn out,
going over the same issues too many times Others
were unhappy with the flow of the discussion and
felt that students were really just “checking in”
rather than paying close attention to what others
had already written on the discussion board
Despite the criticisms about the quality of
e-learning and the concerns about the consistency
and rigour of e-learning, it is possible to address
these concerns by preparing e-teachers more
ef-fectively
SOLUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
To examine the solutions, it is important to first look at best practices for the preparation of e-teach-ers Two case studies of e-teaching preparation will be described in detail as concrete examples
of the best practices outlined
Best Practice to Prepare for E-Teaching
In determining best practices for preparing for e-teaching, it is important to examine four dimensions of the preparation First, how do novice e-teachers learn to teach online? Second, how can best practices in academic development for face-to-face teaching be translated into the preparation of e-teachers? Third, which methods
of professional development are currently used in preparing academic staff for e-teaching? Fourth, what is the focus of the professional development programmes to prepare new e-teachers?
First, How do Novice Teachers Learn to Teach?
Those with no background in teaching and learning often try to reproduce what they have experienced
as students If they have seen excellent lectures, they will try to emulate them If they have expe-rienced small group work and lively discussions, they will try to create a similar learning environ-ment for their own students They often tend to use the teaching methods that best suit their own learning style
How do novice e-teachers learn to teach online?
If novice teachers tend to reproduce what they have experienced as students, what happens if they have never experienced e-learning? If they do not have a frame of reference or a prior e-learning experience to draw upon, it is very challenging
to begin to teach online This is confirmed in an article written from the perspective of a first-time
Trang 34online teacher Using a reflective approach through
teaching journals, student feedback, and analysis
of online discussions, Yu and Brandenburg (2006)
analysed several dimensions of a first-time
e-teacher’s experience The issues and frustrations
that were raised indicated a lack of experience
in e-learning as a learner, and a significant lack
of preparation to teach online In particular, the
importance of facilitating student interactions
and collaboration was a lesson learned through
hard experience In a case study of another very
frustrated novice e-teacher, Choi and Park (2006)
outlined very similar issues and concluded,
If the new online instructor had had training
re-garding the pedagogical issues of online teaching
and vicarious experiences through experienced
online instructors, she could have been better
prepared and had a different impression about
online teaching This implies that training for
online instructors should be designed with more
focus on the pedagogical issues of online
teach-ing and on vicarious experiences with the actual
online teaching rather than on technical issues
(p 322)
The University of Hull developed a tutor
training programme for e-teaching based on a
model that started with face-to-face workshops,
progressed to 4 weeks of online teaching
observa-tion, and ended with 12 weeks of online teaching
practice In their extensive evaluation of this
programme, it became clear that one of the major
issues was the lack of experience in e-learning as
learners The participants could only imagine what
it might be like as an e-learner, and they only had
a few weeks of experience as an observer (not
learner participant) The programme evaluation
also noted the importance of modeling practice
in the tutor training programme that matched the
group work and interactive discussions that would
be expected of tutors when they were teaching
(Bennett & Marsh, 2002)
Second, Which best Practices in Academic Development may be used Effectively in Preparing E-Teachers?
The following characteristics of academic opment programmes are important to consider for long-term impact and positive changes to teaching practice: a long duration, social construction, a focus on content, an experiential model of learn-ing, and reflection on learning
devel-Longer duration programmes are more tive than short-term workshops Several studies have shown that activities for academic develop-ment that are longer in duration tend to have a more substantial impact on making changes to teaching practice over the long term (Hinson & LaPrairie, 2005)
effec-The social construction of learning through cohorts is important for long-term impact on teaching practices Tom Angelo (2001, p 100) explains, “Faculty [academic] developers intent
on change must engage their colleagues in structing or adapting new, shared, contextually relevant concepts, rather than presenting faculty [academic staff] with imported prefabricated models for adoption.”
con-Academic development programmes linked clearly to the content of teaching are more mean-ingful for teaching practice When lecturers have opportunities to apply their learning to teaching
in their own discipline, they are more likely to make changes to enhance their teaching In a suc-cessful programme of professional development for online course development at Louisiana State University, participants moved from learning and practicing new skills in using the e-learning plat-form to applying the skills into their own courses (Hinson & LaPrairie, 2005) Another study of over 1,000 science and mathematics teachers found that professional development activities with a focus on content knowledge and active learning had the greatest positive impact on increases of knowledge and skills in teaching, which changed the teachers’ teaching practices In addition, those
Trang 35activities that were longer in hours of
participa-tion and spanned a longer period of time had the
greatest positive impact (Garet, Porter, Desimone,
Birman, & Yoon, 2001) Most lecturers consider
teaching methods to be linked strongly with the
discipline, so they are more likely to be accepting
of ideas and advice on teaching from those within
their own discipline Those in a department who
have a solid background in learning theory and
teaching and learning methods can be very
effec-tive consultants to their colleagues According to
Maxwell and Kazlauskas (1992, pp 356-357),
“expert consultation by colleagues on specific
teaching matters were among the most effective
modes of development.”
Experiential or situated learning is the notion
of experiencing a model of teaching and learning
to be used in a real-life situation If learning is
embedded in the context in which it will be used,
it will be more meaningful to the participants
(Brown, Collins, & Dugiud, 1989) Ideally, the
learning experience should provide authentic
situ-ations and activities, process models, collaborative
constructions of knowledge, and opportunities for
reflection (Herrington & Oliver, 1995) Staff
de-velopers at Southern Cross University in Australia
call their module a “staff immersion” programme
that immerses participants in the role of online
students, who learn about the potential for online
interaction (O’Reilly & Brown, 2001)
Stephen Brookfield (1993, p 21) explains the
importance of becoming learners to learn about
teaching: “I argue that regularly experiencing
what it feels like to learn something unfamiliar
and difficult is the best way to help teachers
em-pathise with the emotions and feelings of their
own learners as they begin to traverse new
intel-lectual terrains.”
By experiencing a designed and
well-facilitated e-learning course about teaching online
at a distance, new e-teachers understand from
their own experience what a good e-learning
experience feels like The University of Southern
Queensland drew upon the ideas of situated and
experiential learning to develop a situated staff development model for e-teaching (Taylor, 2003) This successful model included awareness build-ing for novice e-teachers experiencing the actual e-learning environment with authentic activities,
a small amount of face-to-face training, online reflection, and peer mentoring
Reflection on the learning experience and possible application to teaching must go hand in hand with experiential learning Cowan (2003) points out that we learn from experience only if
we also reflect upon that experience: “What have
I learnt from that which will be useful to me in the future?” (p 207) is a useful question for stimulat-ing reflection on a learning experience Cowan calls this “reflection for action,” expanding upon Schön’s (1988) model of reflective practice
Third, Which Methods of Professional Development are used to Prepare for E-Teaching?
Whether teaching and learning occurs fully at a distance or in a blended format with some face-to-face meetings, academic staff must be well prepared to teach effectively in this new learning environment This preparation often includes an orientation to the course management software, such as WebCT™ or Blackboard™, and usually takes the form of a face-to-face course or a series of workshops that include some underpinning learn-ing theories, the use of features of the e-learning platform, and the development of materials to load
to the course Web site There are several examples
of this type of workshop designed to prepare those who are new to e-teaching, including the Jump Start programme at Indiana University Purdue (“IUPUI Jump Start Program Prepares Faculty
to Teach Online,” 2006), the CampusNet online workshop provided by the University of Houston, Texas (Kidney, 2004), and the Xanadu project at the University of Turin, Italy (Trentin, 2006).While these face-to-face workshops are help-ful, they might not provide the same experience
Trang 36as an online e-teaching course How will the new
e-teacher learn what a good discussion looks like?
How will teachers understand the experience of
a new e-learning student if they have never
par-ticipated in an e-learning module?
Blended or hybrid e-learning is the format of
choice for some university professional
develop-ment programmes, including the e-moderating
course offered by the University of Glamorgan
(Fitzgibbon & Jones, 2004) However, blended
learning comes with the challenge of finding an
appropriate time for the face-to-face sessions
Some programmes are fully online self-paced
tutorials Prospective e-teachers are expected
to work through the materials to learn to teach
online While this provides experience in using
the course management software, and often gives
prospective e-teachers a look at innovative
pos-sibilities for course materials and assessments,
the self-paced workshops lack one of the most
important aspects of e-teaching: the facilitation
of online discussions
Fully online e-teaching programmes offered at
a distance include the e-moderating programme at
the Open University, United Kingdom (Salmon,
2006), and the two case studies described later in
this chapter This model provides a comprehensive
experience in learning for the prospective
e-teachers and, if well modeled and well facilitated,
provides a positive experience for future e-teachers
to draw upon when they begin teaching online
Fourth, What is the Focus of
E-Teaching Programmes?
The focus of e-teaching programmes has been
evolving Some programmes still focus on the use
of the technology for e-learning, including how
to use various features of the specific e-learning
course management software, such as WebCT™,
Blackboard™, Moodle™, and so forth As a part
of this focus, novice e-teachers are most interested
in learning how to develop materials for a module
Web site with a content-driven focus when
pre-paring to teach online As Dianne Conrad (2004) noted in her study of novice e-teachers, teachers’ overall concerns stemmed from their perception
of their role as “deliverers of content.” They preciated the e-learning platform as a place to put more content to be accessed by their students However, they did not seem to be concerned about issues of social interactions among learners, and facilitation and mentoring of learners The partici-pants in Conrad’s study took part in face-to-face workshops and one-on-one mentoring sessions that focused only on the use of the technology for e-learning While this is a necessary part of professional development for e-teaching, the professional development focus must go beyond
ap-a focus on technology ap-and content
A study of over 500 members of the Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT) indicated that the focus of interest for e-teachers has shifted from technology skills training to enhancing skills in e-moderating for high-quality online learning (Kim & Bonk, 2006) Gilly Salmon’s (2006) well-respected work
in this field indicates that this is a crucial nent in successful e-teaching Using Vygotsky’s
compo-“zone of proximal development” as a model, those who provide e-teaching workshops online can help the academic staff to develop their skills in facilitation by modeling behaviours in asynchro-nous discussions that will be more productive for their learning development, including questioning techniques that probe for deeper learning (Welk, 2006) Through this modeling, participants will experience the type of facilitation that will help them to be more effective facilitators of online asynchronous discussions
To summarise, high-quality e-teaching grammes focus on the learning theories and principles that have been proven to be effective
pro-in face-to-face teachpro-ing, adaptpro-ing them to the e-learning environment The “Seven Principles
of Effective Teaching,” originally developed by Chickering and Gamson, were used by Graham, Cagiltay, Lim, Craner, and Duffy (2001) to provide
Trang 37a useful way of looking at the qualities of teaching
that help students learn in the online environment
These seven principles include contact between
students and teacher, cooperation among students,
active learning, prompt feedback to students, time
on task, high expectations, and diverse talents
and ways of learning By applying these same
principles to e-learning, e-teachers can fine-tune
their teaching practices
TWO CASE STUDIES: MODELS
OF THE FULLY ONLINE
E-TEACHING PROGRAMMES
To provide concrete examples of model
pro-grammes to prepare e-teachers, two propro-grammes
are described (Kelly, 2000, 2002) Both
pro-grammes were provided fully online at a distance
with no face-to-face meetings This was an
inten-tional part of the design to give participants the
same experience that learners will have when they
participate in a fully online programme rather than
blended or hybrid learning
The first case study describes a
postgraduate-level certificate programme open to anyone in the
world who has teaching experience in education,
higher education, or in professional development
in the business world The second case study
de-scribes a programme that was designed specifically
for Walden University to prepare tutors to work
online at a distance with postgraduate students in
the PhD in education programme
The most important similarities between the
programmes are the strong grounding in
learn-ing theory, a focus on facilitatlearn-ing active learnlearn-ing
through asynchronous discussions and
collabora-tive activities, and, most importantly, providing
a relevant learning experience in context and
allowing reflection on this experience
I started with the first two core modules: duction to Online Technologies and Developing Curriculum for Online Programs Other core modules were Teaching and Learning Models for Online Courses, Internet and Online Teach-ing Tools, and Practicum in Online Teaching (a capstone course) I chose the module Multimedia Production as my elective module Modules were offered in 4-week or 6-week periods in four terms each year Taking two modules each term, it was possible to complete the certificate programme
Intro-in three terms over 9 months
Flexibility in Learning
Although there were clear starting and ending dates for each module, the time students put into the actual course work was entirely flexible Almost all of the collaborative work and online discus-sions were asynchronous Each module usually had 10 to 15 participants, and only those who were experienced teachers were accepted into this programme Some were from very remote areas, and they were happy to participate in this online programme because they had no university within traveling distance
People have often asked how much time this online programme required of me as an e-learner
My experience was that, as with any course, it depends on the student’s level of interest and
Trang 38motivation Students could spend as much time
online and completing assignments as they wanted
to, but on average, I probably spent about 10
hours per week on each module, and more when
major assignments were due Those 10 hours per
course (20 hours per week for two courses) were
spread out over lunchtimes, evenings, weekends,
and generally whenever I had a chance to work
on assignments
International Participation
As a fully online programme offered at a distance,
we had a very international group of participants
from many parts of the world including Hong
Kong, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Switzerland, and
North America This resulted in rich discussions
with an international perspective We learned
quite a bit about educational issues in other
countries and gained some new ideas Having
such broad international participation would not
have been feasible if face-to-face sessions had
been required
Mandatory Student Orientation
After enrolling I received a welcoming e-mail
from OnlineLearning.net, UCLA’s online
learn-ing provider It recommended orderlearn-ing textbooks
soon, and provided links to several places where
textbooks could be ordered online The e-mail
also included information about how to download
the necessary software from Embanet, the online
course management system, which was a simple
process
Prior to the start of the first module, it was
required that all participants complete a four-part
online self-paced orientation to the Embanet
soft-ware There were dire warnings that those who
did not complete the entire orientation would be
removed from the module Although this sounded
a bit harsh, it soon because obvious that the online
orientation to the software was absolutely
essen-tial to the experience Students learned how to
use the asynchronous discussion groups, submit assignments, participate in synchronous chat, go
to the course resources, get help from Embanet, and so forth Without this orientation and the easy availability of Embanet’s technical-support team (by phone and e-mail), this fully online programme would have been very frustrating, if not impossible
The Importance of Support Systems for E-Learners
Technical-High-quality e-learning is impossible without good technical support in place, ideally 24 hours per day, 7 days a week If this is not possible, then
it should be available at specified times when usage is highest, particularly on weekends and evenings It can be incredibly frustrating if the course Web site crashes, especially when an as-signment is due Embanet had a habit of doing this periodically Fortunately, Embanet had excellent technical support for major problems like a Web site crash or individual student problems such as software incompatibility Students could e-mail
or call the technical-support desk for immediate assistance with any problem
Providing a Welcoming Learning Environment
As with any face-to-face class, introductions at the beginning of each module help students to become involved more quickly Online learning
is no different Participants have a desire to make connections with other students, but the e-teacher must facilitate this This initial interaction on the discussion board also helps e-learners get into the habit of checking in to the course Web site regularly to see if anyone new has added their introduction
About a week before the module started, we received a welcoming e-mail from the e-teacher She asked all of us to go to the course Web site and introduce ourselves, including our background,
Trang 39our interest in online learning, and what we were
hoping to achieve, as well as any personal details
we wanted to share As a good student, I was happy
to follow her directions and thought I would be
the first one there, but I was not Everyone was
enthusiastic about getting started It was
interest-ing to learn that they were not only from higher
education, but also from secondary education and
from training and development
Facilitation of Asynchronous
Discussions
At the beginning of each module, the e-teacher
provided general discussion guidelines, or
neti-quette rules, which emphasised the importance
of participating, contributing, and encouraging
With these guidelines, our discussions were very
positive and encouraging Even when someone
in the class was struggling with an issue, many
would respond positively to offer advice and
encouragement
The online asynchronous discussions were
lively and stimulating, and the teacher was an
ac-tive participant, sometimes providing answers to
questions that were raised, and sometimes raising
new stimulating questions Because the
discus-sions were written and asynchronous (occurring
whenever someone felt like submitting a
discus-sion item), they were much more thoughtful than
the typical face-to-face discussion People had time
to read another student’s thoughts, digest them,
and respond thoughtfully Students also became
great resources for the rest of the group If one
person raised a question, often two or three others
would respond with answers or online resources
The teacher did not feel obliged to be the only
one providing answers In fact, the teacher was
truly a “guide on the side,” actively participating
and guiding the discussion but encouraging the
students to provide the majority of input
All of the online modules seemed to follow the
same pattern in terms of organization, discussions,
and assignments, but the quality of the learning
experience was really influenced by the tone set
by the teacher Those modules in which the teacher was less involved seemed to be less interesting and less involving for the students The modules with the greatest interaction and that stimulated more learning were those in which the e-teacher was actively engaged on a daily basis, and showed his or her enthusiasm for the e-learners, the topic, and the discussions through comments that were worded in the most positive way These modules were so involving that I found myself checking into the course Web site several times a day to see the new postings: at lunchtime in front of my computer and most evenings
Practical and Relevant Assignments
The assignments for each module were very practical, relating the theoretical readings to the creation of online materials However, one big difference was that we submitted our assignments
to the module Web site so all e-learners in that module could look at the assignments and offer formative comments and suggestions before final submission The comments were very positive and affirming, and when suggestions were offered it was in the spirit of helpfulness: e-learners help-ing other e-learners This was all a part of the process of learning how to provide formative feedback to e-learners, as well as modeling an excellent collaborative process to be used with our own students
Group Projects
Some of the course projects and assignments were done in groups It is possible to do group work online if it is well organized and facilitated One assignment was to create a fictional module Web site around a particular topic In my small group (members were assigned by the teacher), there was one member in Switzerland, one in New York, one
in Texas, and two in California We decided who would do which piece of the project, and most of
Trang 40our work was done asynchronously through our
own group discussion site that the teacher had set
up on the course Web site We also decided to try
a synchronous chat just to check in with the group
members Considering the 9-hour time difference
between California and Switzerland (and the
oth-ers in between), we determined a time that would
work for all of us It worked pretty well, but at
times it was somewhat confusing because just as
I thought of a response to someone’s comment,
there were three other responses about something
else So, the asynchronous mode generally worked
best to pull our project together We were happy
with the course Web site we created as a team,
and it was also interesting to see how the other
groups developed their course Web sites
Lessons Learned as an E-Student
From this experience, I learned that e-teaching is
completely different from a scheduled lecture or
tutorial meeting 3 hours per week It is much more
flexible As prospective e-teachers, we wanted to
know how much time an online module requires
of e-teachers Our e-teachers answered truthfully
that the busiest time in online courses is on the
weekends because that is when most students
have the time to do some concentrated work
So e-teachers plan to be online several times on
weekends to respond to questions and problems
In addition, they check in everyday to read student
comments and assignments, facilitate
discus-sions, and address questions If our e-teachers
were traveling to a conference, they would often
let us know that they would be out of touch for a
particular period of time until they had their
lap-top set up in the hotel room Because e-learners
may also contact the teacher privately through
e-mail on the module Web site, the best
teach-ers also felt that it was important to be quick in
responding to these individual queries However,
e-teachers usually said that questions that were
not of a personal nature should be addressed to
the discussion board so that other students may
respond, and/or see the teacher’s response There
is no question that e-teaching online takes a lot
of time and dedication, and a learner-centred proach to e-teacher availability
ap-As with any learning and teaching method, online learning is not the preferred learning mode for everyone Some of the people in the online course said that they really missed the face-to-face contact or hearing the voices of the teacher or the other students Perhaps it is a learning style issue
On the UCLA Web site (and other university Web sites), there is a self-assessment tool for prospec-tive online students to determine how well suited they may be for the e-learning experience It is im-portant for prospective e-learners to recognize that e-learning also takes much more self-discipline and self-motivation than a face-to-face class Those who think it will be easier are in for a big surprise Anyone looking for an easy ride really does not belong in an online programme.The final module of the UCLA programme was a supervised e-teaching experience with Al-fred Rovai, who has written widely on e-teaching practices and was an excellent mentor to us one
on one After receiving the UCLA Certificate in Online Teaching, I was able to immediately ap-ply my learning to create some online self-paced workshops for lecturers interested in learning new teaching strategies These e-workshops were also designed to provide a test experience as an e-learner, allowing one to see how e-learning works, how it feels, the pitfalls, and the advantages
WALDEN UNIVERSITY:
ORIENTATION FOR NEW FACULTY MENTORS Background on Walden University
Walden University (http://www.waldenu.edu) is
an accredited postgraduate university that started
in 1970 based on the learner-centred principles outlined by Harold Hodgkinson, professor at