ICTs in the classroom

In the "Emerging Technologies for Learning" article, the author writes that “teachers can and should be able to understand and teach where and how new technologies can add value in learning. To do this, teachers must learn what these technologies are and can do, and understand them, but without necessarily becoming proficient in their use.” My question is: how well can they understand a technology without using it? Can they decide whether or not a technology is appropriate without using it? How will they choose a particular technology over another one? And last but not least, we can’t assume that all students are tech-savvy students so can we rely on students to teach their peers? What about technologies with a longer learning curve (e.g. video editing or Flash)?

I’m perplexed about the analogy between ‘open book’ tests and ‘open phone’ tests. In the former case, students still need to look for the information and apply it whereas in the latter case, how can we make sure that students truly understand and do not simply write down the received answer?

I do agree that teachers and students need to work together and learn from each together “in order to figure out ways to use the technologies in service of learning”, but I wonder how willing the teachers are to learn from their students and to put at risk their image of authority...

The second article (on-line learning migration) emphasizes the importance of social presence in order for social learning to occur through social interaction. It also states that if CMC is used appropriately, it can be personal and foster social presence. “In other words, it is the perception of the users that matters even though the attributes of media do not provide the opportunity”. However, the author does not recommend ways of promoting social presence, which is a “complicated variable”… He does mention that features such as communication style, computer literacy skills and paralanguage skills influence the level of social presence but does not go a lot further.

Another point raised by the article is the potential difference between male and female students (and minority students). How do they react to online learning? Studies seem to agree that female and minority students tend to find benefits in an online classroom in which they are better able to communicate.

Final paper

I’m planning to do a literature review for my final project. I want to explore (maybe not all but at least some of) the following questions:

• How are interactions among learners being addressed in the online classroom?
• How do learners become members of a learning community and build an identity for the group?
• How do teachers and students need to adjust to the online classroom?
• What are the effects (both positive and negative) of online learning on the quality of the learning process?

These questions will relate to quite a few class topics, namely the use of computer-mediated communication tools and their impact in a learning environment, the construction and maintenance of a learning community, the emergence of a group identity, and more generally, how social factors affect learning.

I have already found a few articles that will help me in exploring the above questions. Some articles are theoretical, others are case studies conducted around the world. Here are a few articles that I will probably include in my list of references (although a lot of readings are still pending):

• Community development among distance learners (Haythornthwaite, Kazmer & Robins, 2000).
• Student role adjustment in online communities of inquiry (Garrison, Cleveland-Innes & Fung, 2004).
• Written interaction: a key component in online learning (Lapadat, 2002).
• Critical inquiry in a text-based environment (Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 200).
• Finally I can be with my students 24/7, individually and in a group (Gahungu, Dereshiwsky & Moan, 2006).
• Examining social presence in online courses in relation to students’ perceived learning and satisfaction (Richardson & Swan, 2003).
• Assessing teaching presence in a computer conferencing context (Anderson, Garrison & Archer, 2001).
• Impacts of college-level courses via asynchronous learning networks (Hiltz, 1997).
• The development of socialization in an online learning environment (Jones & Peachey, 2005).

Interaction

Towards the end of her article (None of this is real), Danah Boyd emphasized that “digital networks will never merely map the social, but inevitably develop their own dynamics through which they become the social”. I wonder if this sentence would still make sense if we replaced the word networks with learning environments and social with classroom… Let’s try: “digital learning environments will never merely map the classroom, but inevitably develop their own dynamics through which they become the classroom”...

Social Networking Sites (SNSs) adopted flat structures which created new issues in managing and negotiating social relations and thus people had to come up with new strategies. Digital classrooms have also created issues of their own and strategies adopted in the traditional classroom may not be adequate to these new learning environments. So once again, it seems like both teachers and their students will have to come up with new strategies. Are individuals ready to come up and adopt new educational strategies? I’m planning to take my first online course next semester and hence I’m looking forward to the experience.

In their article (The benefits of Facebook “friends”), Ellison, Steinfield and Lampe introduced three measures of social capital: Bridging, bonding and maintained social capital. Had I been part of their experiment, I most probably would have matched their results pretty closely. I “bond” with my close friends by sharing pictures and sending messages, I “maintain” acquaintances from high school and my undergraduate years and I “bridge” with people I briefly meet in face-to-face settings. It seems like it’s becoming more and more common to add people that you’ve just met to your Facebook profile. I feel like the question “are you on Facebook” is becoming part of the general set of questions that people ask when first meeting someone. Would the same be true if the first meeting occurred in a virtual classroom? This would then allow students to interact outside the virtual classroom and probably enhance their learning experience online.