Learning from peers is extremely important and something we do from the beginning of life. We learn how to walk and talk from imitating our patients. We perhaps learn to tie our shoes from watching a sibling do it and then trying ourselves. Half of what we learn in life is because we experienced it ourselves the other half is what someone else has learned and has chosen to share.
I attended the eLearning Guild’s Annual Gathering this year and one presentation really hit home for me. The speaker mentioned that since he had started blogging, a year previous, he had learned more from blogging and reading the blogs of peers than he had in his entire academic career. I though to myself “Ya, right? Who’s going to believe that?” He knew the audience was thinking the same thing and said to just try it and experience it yourself.
So the first thing I did upon my return was start my own and behold he was right. I truly believe I have learned a great deal from this simple process. Blogging is a wonderful way to learn directly from one another. Each day I read many different postings from people I then can summarize, analyze, draw my own conclusion and post my own ideas and thoughts on those same topics. By doing this one simple example of peer-to-peer learning/teaching I am able to learn a many new things each day and expand my existing knowledge on those topics of which I am already aware .
“By sharing (writing about it) it you’re helping others learn. It’s always easier for us to learn from other people’s hard work and mistakes” (Yoskovitz, December 20, 2006).[i]
[i] Ben Yoskovitz, Inspiration Through the Learning of Other. Retrieved June 18, 2007 from: http://www.instigatorblog.com/inspiration-through-the-learning-of-others/2006/12/20/
Showing posts with label u of c. Show all posts
Showing posts with label u of c. Show all posts
Tuesday, 19 June 2007
Strategies for fostering critical thinking. (course work)
A recent submission to my elearning course.
“Critical thinking is a process that challenges an individual to use reflective, reasonable, rational thinking to gather, interpret and evaluate information in order to derive a judgment. The process involves thinking beyond a single solution for a problem and focusing on deciding what the best alternatives are.”[i] There are many discussions regarding strategies for improving critical thinking and best methods of utilization.
Diagrams can help build upon the making connections strategy. They allow participants to visually see and layout discussions. An Argument Map is an example of one of these diagrams and is described by Austhink.com as:
In Argument Maps, the lines mean something very specific: that something is a reason to believe or a reason not to believe something else. Argument maps are driven by the question, ‘Why should I believe that?’, Any map driven by that question is an Argument Map.”[ii]
This goes beyond just comparing items to see how they are similar. Making connections allows the learner to go more in depth and see how several various aspects may be interlinked or dependant upon one another. “It pushes participants to higher levels of thinks so that they can examine inferences or explore beliefs or assumptions openly” (Collison, Elbaum, Haavind and Tinker, 2000, p. 153).[iii]
Dr. Tim van Gelder predicts: “Over the coming decades, diagrammatic techniques will increasingly displace pure prose as a medium for articulating and communicating reasoning. This transformation in our cognitive practices will improve both the quality of thinking activities and the effectiveness of critical thinking instruction.”[iv]
[i] Nursing Department: Philosophy & Concepts. Retrieved June 18, 2007 from Piedmont Technical College, Nursing Department website: http://www.ptc.edu/department_nursing/Philosophy.htm (February 2001)
[ii] Austhink: Argument Mapping, Retrieved June 18, 2007 from http://www.austhink.com/argumentmap/ Austhink Software Pty Ltd., Carlton Victoria, Australia
[iii] Collison, G. Elbaum, B. Haavind, S. & Tinker, R. (2000). Facilitating Online Learning. Effective Strategies for Moderators. Madison, WI: Attwood Publsihing.
[iv] Dr. Tim van Gelder. Critical thinking: Some lessons learned. Retrieved June 18, 2007 from: http://www.ala.asn.au/commentaries/2001/Gelder3005.pdf
“Critical thinking is a process that challenges an individual to use reflective, reasonable, rational thinking to gather, interpret and evaluate information in order to derive a judgment. The process involves thinking beyond a single solution for a problem and focusing on deciding what the best alternatives are.”[i] There are many discussions regarding strategies for improving critical thinking and best methods of utilization.
Diagrams can help build upon the making connections strategy. They allow participants to visually see and layout discussions. An Argument Map is an example of one of these diagrams and is described by Austhink.com as:
“… (example: http://www.austhink.com/argumentmap/thinking/)
box-and-line diagrams that lay out visually reasoning and evidence for and
against a statement or claim. A good map clarifies and organizes thinking by
showing the logical relationships between thoughts that are expressed simply and
precisely. Argument Maps show only evidential (inferential) relationships
between claims.
In Argument Maps, the lines mean something very specific: that something is a reason to believe or a reason not to believe something else. Argument maps are driven by the question, ‘Why should I believe that?’, Any map driven by that question is an Argument Map.”[ii]
This goes beyond just comparing items to see how they are similar. Making connections allows the learner to go more in depth and see how several various aspects may be interlinked or dependant upon one another. “It pushes participants to higher levels of thinks so that they can examine inferences or explore beliefs or assumptions openly” (Collison, Elbaum, Haavind and Tinker, 2000, p. 153).[iii]
Dr. Tim van Gelder predicts: “Over the coming decades, diagrammatic techniques will increasingly displace pure prose as a medium for articulating and communicating reasoning. This transformation in our cognitive practices will improve both the quality of thinking activities and the effectiveness of critical thinking instruction.”[iv]
[i] Nursing Department: Philosophy & Concepts. Retrieved June 18, 2007 from Piedmont Technical College, Nursing Department website: http://www.ptc.edu/department_nursing/Philosophy.htm (February 2001)
[ii] Austhink: Argument Mapping, Retrieved June 18, 2007 from http://www.austhink.com/argumentmap/ Austhink Software Pty Ltd., Carlton Victoria, Australia
[iii] Collison, G. Elbaum, B. Haavind, S. & Tinker, R. (2000). Facilitating Online Learning. Effective Strategies for Moderators. Madison, WI: Attwood Publsihing.
[iv] Dr. Tim van Gelder. Critical thinking: Some lessons learned. Retrieved June 18, 2007 from: http://www.ala.asn.au/commentaries/2001/Gelder3005.pdf
Variety adds appeal as a moderator. (course work)
A recent submission to my elearning course.
Adding variety to your course will create a huge impact on your learners allowing them to be more engaged in the material being presented and having a greater vested interesting in the quality and quantity of education that they are receiving.
Colonial Intermediate Unit 20 has a wonderful slide presentation[i] that is simple, to the point and interactive (albeit limited). Some of the key points that they describe within their slides are:
- Animation and narration more clearly explains concepts, principles, facts and procedures.
- Demonstrations guide learners and simulations provide immediate practice of material.
- Interactive practice activities and labs are engaging, provide hands-on practice and help instil knowledge and discovery into the learner
- Allow for imitation so that the learners may then innovate, direct the learners to create their own goals.
- Assessments can be more fun (such as games) creating experiences for the learners to draw back upon when recalling material outside of the classroom
- Help learners identify, evaluate, and use external sources of knowledge.
- Team activities promote interaction amongst learners, fosters trust and strengthens your online eLearning community
- Make it easy for learners to get answers to their questions by using email, instant messaging, telephone and face-to-face tools if available.
- Send students on virtual tours to museums, art galleries, etc.
- Create a bank of job aids that assist and encourage further learning.
Mixing many of these applications together will create enormously exciting, engaging and interactive learning environments for your participants.
[i] Making eLearning Meaningful. Retrieved June 18, 2007 from Colonial Intermediate Unit 20 website: http://www.slideshare.net/sspengler/making-elearning-fun. (November, 2006.)
eLearning students have more responsibility and less structure. (course work)
A recent submission to my elearning course.
Virtual students need to spend a great deal more time in an online learning environment then in a classroom course for many reasons. One of these is to keep up with the amount of reading and writing to discussion boards regarding class material.
“Online courses are often more time-consuming than their face-to-face counterparts, because you are expected to do so much more writing, and because it's very difficult to succeed in an online courses as a non-participant” (Learn NC for High School, University of North Carolina, 2007).[i]
It is true that online learning environments are becoming more and more less structured as they are becoming more self-lead then instructor-lead and certainly more collaborative amongst students. However, I find this relies solely on the instructor and their teaching/facilitating methods. I have participated in online courses where I was expected to read/post to a certain number of messages each week, have certain articles read, have assignments submitted by certain dates. There was very little flexibility to the course and many students enjoy that and need that, especially when first transitioning from CBT to WBT. Other instructors have giving much more group work than weekly discussions and this has lead to more collaborative learning.
Therefore I would have to disagree with Palolff and Pratt and the concept that online classes are less structured environments. This may be come the case in the near future, but I do not believe we are at that point universally.
[i] Learn NC for High School: Is online learning right for me? Retrieved June 18, 2007 from University of North Carolina website: http://www.learnnc.org/students/9-12/support/isonlineright
Virtual students need to spend a great deal more time in an online learning environment then in a classroom course for many reasons. One of these is to keep up with the amount of reading and writing to discussion boards regarding class material.
“Online courses are often more time-consuming than their face-to-face counterparts, because you are expected to do so much more writing, and because it's very difficult to succeed in an online courses as a non-participant” (Learn NC for High School, University of North Carolina, 2007).[i]
It is true that online learning environments are becoming more and more less structured as they are becoming more self-lead then instructor-lead and certainly more collaborative amongst students. However, I find this relies solely on the instructor and their teaching/facilitating methods. I have participated in online courses where I was expected to read/post to a certain number of messages each week, have certain articles read, have assignments submitted by certain dates. There was very little flexibility to the course and many students enjoy that and need that, especially when first transitioning from CBT to WBT. Other instructors have giving much more group work than weekly discussions and this has lead to more collaborative learning.
Therefore I would have to disagree with Palolff and Pratt and the concept that online classes are less structured environments. This may be come the case in the near future, but I do not believe we are at that point universally.
[i] Learn NC for High School: Is online learning right for me? Retrieved June 18, 2007 from University of North Carolina website: http://www.learnnc.org/students/9-12/support/isonlineright
Healthy online communites are established with guidelines and expectations. (course work)
A recent submission to my elearning course.
Defining participant guidelines and expectations from the beginning of a course helps to establish several things within an online course community. “Building Communities--Strategies for Collaborative Learning,” By Soren Kaplan (August 2002)[i], states these guides:
Defining participant guidelines and expectations from the beginning of a course helps to establish several things within an online course community. “Building Communities--Strategies for Collaborative Learning,” By Soren Kaplan (August 2002)[i], states these guides:
- Establish operating norms explaining “…guidelines for online and offline etiquette and obtain agreement on the behaviour that will lead to successful group and individual learning outcomes.”
- Foster trust. “Establishing and aligning learners’ expectations around shared objectives, including how individual contributions tie in to the broader success of the group, helps create an open and sharing environment.” Allowing members of the community to establish these norms, objectives and goals strengthen the buy in of learners and increase trust in one another.
- Create a buddy system. “Keeping learners engaged in an online environment can be challenging.” Groups help create collaborative efforst amongst the members to contribute to not only their learning, but that of the entire group.
“Communities are about people and their interactions with each other. Thus communication is the heart of online communities” (Bowes, 2002, pg. 1).[ii]
Learning is becoming more about learning from one another rather than just and instructor or textbook. The Australian Flexible Learning Framework Quick Guide[iii] series points out that this has been driven by:
- The recognition of the importance of social interaction within the learning process.
- An increasing emphasis on a constructivist model of education, rather than the transmission of knowledge.
- Recognition that in the online world, information is pervasive and readily accessible, but that making sense of it is the real challenge.
From this discussion clearly “a Learning Community is a group of individuals engaged intentionally and collectively in the transaction, or transformation of knowledge” (Kowch & Schwier 1007 quoted in Grozdanic & Weatherely 2001)[iv] and that by defining the guidelines and expectations will allow all members to fully contribute and utilize the community to its fullest.
[i] Soren Kaplan, Building Communities—Strategies for Collaborative Learning, Learning Circuits. http://www.learningcircuits.org/2002/aug2002/kaplan.html, August 2002.
[ii] Bowes, J 2002, Building Online Communities for Professional Networks, Global Summit Conference, Adelaide. http://www.educationau.edu.au/globalsummit/papers/jbowes.htm
[iii] Backroad Connections Pty Ltd 2003, What are the conditions for and characteristics of effective online learning communities? (Version 1.00), Australian Flexible Learning Framework Quick Guides series, Australian National Training Authority. July 29, 2003.
[iv] Grozdanic, R & Weatherley, R 2001, Designing for a Viable Online Professional Development Community, NET*Working 2001. http://flexiblelearning.net.au/nw2001/01_attending/program/tuesday.htm
Online courses demand more time management and independent motivation. (course work)
A recent submission to my elearning course.
I have personally found that online courses definitely take much more time to fully participate within and therefore demand greater time management and determination then a classroom base setting.
Classroom based courses tend to have a set amount of reading, homework and in class participation that is fairly standard from one class to another, one year to another. Web based courses on the other hand require a great deal more involvement from the student. There is usually a set amount of reading to accomplish each week of a course. The student often then needs to complete an assignment or participate within a discussion board regarding that week’s topic. Discussions occur one message at a time. A learner may post their message today and then have to check back several times over the next few days to see a response to their thought. In a classroom setting the feedback is instantaneous.
Many times as well, one student will post a link regarding something they have found interesting and relevant to the class discussion. Instead of generalizing it as one would in a face-to-face setting the link is often posted and other learners must follow the link and read about it to see the tie in to the course material. This creates added time to the learning process.
Student must make sure in an online course that they stick to the reading schedule, reading other participants postings, submit comments, and assignments all within allotted time. There is little room for flexibility so it takes great discipline to schedule your time accordingly to cover all aspects of a course.
The University of Illinois sums this up nicely on their “What Makes a Successful Online Student”[i] website saying,
[i] Online Education Resources: Pedagogy & Learning, ‘What Makes a Successful Online Student?”, Retrieved June 18, 2007 from University of Illinois website: http://www.ion.illinois.edu/Resources/tutorials/pedagogy/StudentProfile.asp
I have personally found that online courses definitely take much more time to fully participate within and therefore demand greater time management and determination then a classroom base setting.
Classroom based courses tend to have a set amount of reading, homework and in class participation that is fairly standard from one class to another, one year to another. Web based courses on the other hand require a great deal more involvement from the student. There is usually a set amount of reading to accomplish each week of a course. The student often then needs to complete an assignment or participate within a discussion board regarding that week’s topic. Discussions occur one message at a time. A learner may post their message today and then have to check back several times over the next few days to see a response to their thought. In a classroom setting the feedback is instantaneous.
Many times as well, one student will post a link regarding something they have found interesting and relevant to the class discussion. Instead of generalizing it as one would in a face-to-face setting the link is often posted and other learners must follow the link and read about it to see the tie in to the course material. This creates added time to the learning process.
Student must make sure in an online course that they stick to the reading schedule, reading other participants postings, submit comments, and assignments all within allotted time. There is little room for flexibility so it takes great discipline to schedule your time accordingly to cover all aspects of a course.
The University of Illinois sums this up nicely on their “What Makes a Successful Online Student”[i] website saying,
‘The online learning process is normally accelerated and requires commitment on
the student’s part. Staying up with the class and completing all work on time is
vital. Once a student gets behind, it is almost impossible to catch up.
Basically, the student needs to want to be there, and needs to want the
experience.’
[i] Online Education Resources: Pedagogy & Learning, ‘What Makes a Successful Online Student?”, Retrieved June 18, 2007 from University of Illinois website: http://www.ion.illinois.edu/Resources/tutorials/pedagogy/StudentProfile.asp
Facilitating online communication and/or learning (course work)
A recent submission to my elearning course.
Facilitators need a large supply of skills to help keep them on top of their online environments and keep them apprised of the communication and learning that is taking place among their learners.
Audrey Choden wrote in an article[i] for http://www.suite101.com/ “According to Australia’s Natural Training Authority (now the Department of Education, Science and Training) Conceptual Model of Influences on Online Teaching and Learning[ii], the competencies required of online facilitators to ensure an effective online learning environment include:
- Instructional - questioning, supporting, leading and pacing,
providing explanation and additional resources. Induction programs, the
establishment and maintenance of learning communities, group tutorials and
individual feedback. - Managerial - keeping to the task, agenda, timetable, procedural rules and decision-making norms and tracking student participation.
- Social - creating a friendly social environment in which a climate for learning is promote.
- Technical - participants need to be comfortable with the system and the software in use.
The Jennifer Hoffman captures in her article for ASTD’s January 2000 issue of Learning Circuits[iii], several key points that all facilitators themselves should know before creating synchronous learning environments.
- Participate before you facilitate. – try a session yourself
- Be an advocate. – if this is a new initiative at work be supportive
- Practice, practice, practice. – rehearse first
- Learn the technology. – know the tools you are using
- Keep tuned in to the participants. – know how to read your participants’ moods
- Prompt some form of interaction every 3 to 5 minutes.
- Record questions that are asked in the session's chat function.
- Use a teaching assistant. – an assistant can help during live chats with questions/technology
- Collaborate.
- Encourage coaching.
[i] Audery Choden, How to Succeed as an Online Facilitator http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/training_and_development/45384/2, August 8, 2000.
[ii] Australian National Training Authority (ANTA), http://www.tafe.sa.edu.au/lsrsc/one/natproj/tal/conmodel/facilitation.htm (Note: I can no long find a current web reference for this model, however I do like these points captured by other authors)
[iii] Jennifer Hofmann, Making Synchronous Training a Success, http://www.learningcircuits.org/2000/jan2000/Hofmann.htm, Learning Circuits, January 2000.
Limiting the use of audio or video if you use it at all. (course work)
A recent submission to my elearning course.
ELearning designers are more and more frequently using a minimalist approach to their courses. From a technological viewpoint:
With all the exciting options that are available to designers, we often can get quite carried away with our own intrigue into utilizing all the latest and greatest applications. However, Molly Hazschlag makes a wonderful point that our lesson designs should go way beyond just graphics.
[i] Lisa Terry, Tech Barriers to E-learning http://www.upside.com/texis/mvm/story?id=38e163780, July 18, 2001.
[ii] Digital University, Inc. staff. Minimalists May Be Winning E-learning Design Arguments http://www.cuesu.org/enews/0108minimal.html August, 2001
[iii] Molly E. Holzschlag Clean Up, Flatten Out http://molly.com/articles/webthoughts/2001-08-cleanup.php , August 2001.
ELearning designers are more and more frequently using a minimalist approach to their courses. From a technological viewpoint:
"…limited bandwidth has a direct impact on the sophistication of technology thatMinimalist designers see the complexity of elaborate technology design as more of a hindrance to learning rather then an enabler.
courses can use. Niceties such as audio, video, animation, simulations, and
games eat up more bandwidth, may require plug-ins or Java applets on the
desktop, and can run afoul of firewalls.”[i]
“Complexity adds costs, distracts employee learners and creates technological
problems that eat up valuable time to solve.”[ii]
With all the exciting options that are available to designers, we often can get quite carried away with our own intrigue into utilizing all the latest and greatest applications. However, Molly Hazschlag makes a wonderful point that our lesson designs should go way beyond just graphics.
"I'm convinced that the best designs use only graphics that are absolutely
necessary. If you limit your use of graphics, the ones you do use will grab much
more attention, especially if they're well planned and well placed."[iii]
[i] Lisa Terry, Tech Barriers to E-learning http://www.upside.com/texis/mvm/story?id=38e163780, July 18, 2001.
[ii] Digital University, Inc. staff. Minimalists May Be Winning E-learning Design Arguments http://www.cuesu.org/enews/0108minimal.html August, 2001
[iii] Molly E. Holzschlag Clean Up, Flatten Out http://molly.com/articles/webthoughts/2001-08-cleanup.php , August 2001.
Wednesday, 16 May 2007
Best Practices in Online Learning
My final submission for the current portion of my course required a brief summary of one of the chapters of our course text book. We are utilizing Palloff & Pratt's (2003) "The Virtual Student".
I chose to go straight to the last chapter, "Becoming Truly Learner Focused - Best Practices in Online Learning," hoping to get some solid concrete examples of best practices. I'm not sure it truly does hold what I was hoping to get out of the chapter or the course, but it's a start. I would be curious to see what others think of how to be Truly Learner Focused. Does this mean stepping into and embracing elearning 2.0?
My submission:
To become facilitators and instructors in online learning environments we must become more familiar to the needs of our students and that is drastically changing moment by moment as technology constantly changes. We must understand our students at a much deeper level then perhaps ever before. Palloff & Pratt (2003, p.124) point out that as facilitators we need to more clearly understand who our students are, how they learn, and how we can best support them and promote involvement. Surely the more familiar we become with our students’ learning styles, preferences, needs, and aspirations then the more we can truly assist them in their educational endeavours and create learner-centred environments.
Palloff & Pratt look to Maryellen Weinmer’s (2002, p. xvi) work regarding several key changes that we need to address to foster these environments. The balance of power needs to change from the instructor “pushing” information to the students “pulling” the information that they need and require from a variety of resources. The facilitator becomes more of a “guide on the side” (Palloff & Pratt, 2003, p. 125) assisting the students in finding and evaluating the sites they visit and the content that they are reading and researching.
Secondly the function of content needs to be changed. This concept centres on the idea that the students need the opportunity to work collaboratively to formulate knowledge and meaning, rather than just providing facts and information that they have memorized or retained (Palloff & Pratt, 2003. pg. 126). Important to note here is the idea that students need to learn from one another and that this collaboration of ideas, concepts, discussions, and so forth will in essence become the true content of the course material.
The next key element is that the role of the teacher needs to change. The teacher/facilitator should no longer be the key content expert (Palloff & Pratt, 2003, p.126). Students do need/want an instructor who is knowledgeable, however to promote a learner-centred environment the main breadth of knowledge should emerge from the students expertise, experience and research. The eLearning Guild e-book “834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction” (2005, pg. 5) suggests that the facilitator should subscribe to newsletters (blogs, rss feeds, etc) that are geared toward online designers and developers; stay connected with other professionals in the field. Make sure to have some first-hand experience regarding online courses and more specifically the topic you are facilitating. Be prepared to receive and immediately respond to vast amounts of email from your students. As a “guide” to the course you will need to respond to these emails that will be seeking your input and feedback.
The fourth key element is that the responsibility for learning needs to change. Time and time again as students we are told that we will get out of a course all that which we put into it (Pallof & Pratt, 2003. pg. 127). Palloff & Pratt continue to say that “students will need to be encouraged and empowered to take charge of the formation of the learning community, to interact with on another and to receive feedback on how will this is occurring.” Simply stated students need to become comfortable learning from one another rather then purely from the teacher or a text book. This concept begins to lead us towards Personal Learning Environments (PLEs). These environments are web base systems that allow learners to mange their own learning. Wikipedia.com (May 16, 2007) describes these as a system that will provide support for the learner to set there own learning goals, manage their learning (both content and process), and communicate with others in the process of learning thereby achieving their learning goals. PLEs are still emerging and growing as the next phase and application of elearning.
Finally the last element to change is the purpose and processes of evaluation. If the course has very specific outcomes and objectives then it is appropriate to base the evaluation on determining if these have been mastered by the student. More accurately for a learner-centred course is the ability of the student at the end of the course work to be able to apply the knowledge that they have gained and demonstrate the ability to use newly developed skills as addressed in the course to new efforts.
As technology grows/develops daily and as new concepts or ideas emerge on elearning, such as PLE’s, the best practices on how to use these tools to provide your students with the optimum learning experience will continue to change as well. As mentioned above from eLearning Guild ebook, one of the best practices that we as facilitators can do is to stay in constant contact with our students to know what they need of us. But we also need to stay in constant contact with our peers, by newsletters, blogs, sites, and rss feeds in this manner stay abreast of new developments in an ever changing learning community so that we can best support our students.
References
History of personal learning environments. (2007, May 15). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 14:56, May 16, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_personal_learning_environments&oldid=131090813
Palloff, R.M. & Pratt, K. (2003). The Virtual Student. A Profile and Guide to Working with Online Learners. San Francisco: Jossey Bass
The eLearning Guild. (2005). 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction. Santa Rosa, California: The eLearning Guild.
Weimer. M. Learner-Centred Teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2002.
I chose to go straight to the last chapter, "Becoming Truly Learner Focused - Best Practices in Online Learning," hoping to get some solid concrete examples of best practices. I'm not sure it truly does hold what I was hoping to get out of the chapter or the course, but it's a start. I would be curious to see what others think of how to be Truly Learner Focused. Does this mean stepping into and embracing elearning 2.0?
My submission:
To become facilitators and instructors in online learning environments we must become more familiar to the needs of our students and that is drastically changing moment by moment as technology constantly changes. We must understand our students at a much deeper level then perhaps ever before. Palloff & Pratt (2003, p.124) point out that as facilitators we need to more clearly understand who our students are, how they learn, and how we can best support them and promote involvement. Surely the more familiar we become with our students’ learning styles, preferences, needs, and aspirations then the more we can truly assist them in their educational endeavours and create learner-centred environments.
Palloff & Pratt look to Maryellen Weinmer’s (2002, p. xvi) work regarding several key changes that we need to address to foster these environments. The balance of power needs to change from the instructor “pushing” information to the students “pulling” the information that they need and require from a variety of resources. The facilitator becomes more of a “guide on the side” (Palloff & Pratt, 2003, p. 125) assisting the students in finding and evaluating the sites they visit and the content that they are reading and researching.
Secondly the function of content needs to be changed. This concept centres on the idea that the students need the opportunity to work collaboratively to formulate knowledge and meaning, rather than just providing facts and information that they have memorized or retained (Palloff & Pratt, 2003. pg. 126). Important to note here is the idea that students need to learn from one another and that this collaboration of ideas, concepts, discussions, and so forth will in essence become the true content of the course material.
The next key element is that the role of the teacher needs to change. The teacher/facilitator should no longer be the key content expert (Palloff & Pratt, 2003, p.126). Students do need/want an instructor who is knowledgeable, however to promote a learner-centred environment the main breadth of knowledge should emerge from the students expertise, experience and research. The eLearning Guild e-book “834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction” (2005, pg. 5) suggests that the facilitator should subscribe to newsletters (blogs, rss feeds, etc) that are geared toward online designers and developers; stay connected with other professionals in the field. Make sure to have some first-hand experience regarding online courses and more specifically the topic you are facilitating. Be prepared to receive and immediately respond to vast amounts of email from your students. As a “guide” to the course you will need to respond to these emails that will be seeking your input and feedback.
The fourth key element is that the responsibility for learning needs to change. Time and time again as students we are told that we will get out of a course all that which we put into it (Pallof & Pratt, 2003. pg. 127). Palloff & Pratt continue to say that “students will need to be encouraged and empowered to take charge of the formation of the learning community, to interact with on another and to receive feedback on how will this is occurring.” Simply stated students need to become comfortable learning from one another rather then purely from the teacher or a text book. This concept begins to lead us towards Personal Learning Environments (PLEs). These environments are web base systems that allow learners to mange their own learning. Wikipedia.com (May 16, 2007) describes these as a system that will provide support for the learner to set there own learning goals, manage their learning (both content and process), and communicate with others in the process of learning thereby achieving their learning goals. PLEs are still emerging and growing as the next phase and application of elearning.
Finally the last element to change is the purpose and processes of evaluation. If the course has very specific outcomes and objectives then it is appropriate to base the evaluation on determining if these have been mastered by the student. More accurately for a learner-centred course is the ability of the student at the end of the course work to be able to apply the knowledge that they have gained and demonstrate the ability to use newly developed skills as addressed in the course to new efforts.
As technology grows/develops daily and as new concepts or ideas emerge on elearning, such as PLE’s, the best practices on how to use these tools to provide your students with the optimum learning experience will continue to change as well. As mentioned above from eLearning Guild ebook, one of the best practices that we as facilitators can do is to stay in constant contact with our students to know what they need of us. But we also need to stay in constant contact with our peers, by newsletters, blogs, sites, and rss feeds in this manner stay abreast of new developments in an ever changing learning community so that we can best support our students.
References
History of personal learning environments. (2007, May 15). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 14:56, May 16, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_personal_learning_environments&oldid=131090813
Palloff, R.M. & Pratt, K. (2003). The Virtual Student. A Profile and Guide to Working with Online Learners. San Francisco: Jossey Bass
The eLearning Guild. (2005). 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction. Santa Rosa, California: The eLearning Guild.
Weimer. M. Learner-Centred Teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2002.
Tuesday, 15 May 2007
Relating Valuable Experiences through Social Book Marking
Personal Learning for Learning Professionals - Using Web 2.0 Tools to Make Reading & Research More Effective : eLearning Technology
A recent quoted added to a discussion thread in my online course mentioned “Van Manen (2003, p.53) says “When someone has related a valuable experience to me then I have indeed gained something, even though the [thing] gained is not an identifiable entity”. Educators and aspiring ones can be authorities who speak of their own experiences in e-learning and e-teaching.”
This thought tweaked in me the idea of social book marking. This concept allows a user to bookmark any site they find on the internet whether it is a website, recipe, etext, music, etc. and store it online. By storing it online you can have access to your bookmarks from any computer that has an internet connection. It also allows you to add tags to your saved book marks. Tags are short identifiable words that you assign to the book mark so that you can find it quickly later. An example of this is, if you stored a website on how to bake a lemon pie, you may uses tags such as recipe, lemon, pie. As you accumulate book marks you may begin to store more and more under one particular tag (i.e. recipe). Also when you book mark a site you can also see how many other users (of a particular social book marking site) have also book marked that site for its relevance. In this respect you are telling one another “Here is a site about xxxx that I found extremely interesting and informative and I think others should look at it as well.”
If several users collaborate and use the same tag identifier then they will all be able to share and resource the same pages. These booking marking sites also allow you to do searches on their home page regarding a particular topic. In this respect as one user finds a page/experience that they have found invaluable then this e-tool becomes an extremely valuable tool as a method for sharing those experiences with other learners and facilitators.
Notes: Extra information on this topic can be found through Tony Karrer’s blog eLearning Technology, and through the del.icio.us website.
References
http://del.icio.us/ Yahoo! Inc., Sunnyvale, California.
Karrer, Tony. Tags: Social, Bookmarks, eLearning Technology. Los Angeles, California Retrieved May 15, 2007 from http://elearningtech.blogspot.com/search?q=social+bookmarks
Van Manen, M. (2003). Researching Lived Experience. Human Science for an Action Sensitive Pedagogy. Ontario: Althouse Press
A recent quoted added to a discussion thread in my online course mentioned “Van Manen (2003, p.53) says “When someone has related a valuable experience to me then I have indeed gained something, even though the [thing] gained is not an identifiable entity”. Educators and aspiring ones can be authorities who speak of their own experiences in e-learning and e-teaching.”
This thought tweaked in me the idea of social book marking. This concept allows a user to bookmark any site they find on the internet whether it is a website, recipe, etext, music, etc. and store it online. By storing it online you can have access to your bookmarks from any computer that has an internet connection. It also allows you to add tags to your saved book marks. Tags are short identifiable words that you assign to the book mark so that you can find it quickly later. An example of this is, if you stored a website on how to bake a lemon pie, you may uses tags such as recipe, lemon, pie. As you accumulate book marks you may begin to store more and more under one particular tag (i.e. recipe). Also when you book mark a site you can also see how many other users (of a particular social book marking site) have also book marked that site for its relevance. In this respect you are telling one another “Here is a site about xxxx that I found extremely interesting and informative and I think others should look at it as well.”
If several users collaborate and use the same tag identifier then they will all be able to share and resource the same pages. These booking marking sites also allow you to do searches on their home page regarding a particular topic. In this respect as one user finds a page/experience that they have found invaluable then this e-tool becomes an extremely valuable tool as a method for sharing those experiences with other learners and facilitators.
Notes: Extra information on this topic can be found through Tony Karrer’s blog eLearning Technology, and through the del.icio.us website.
References
http://del.icio.us/ Yahoo! Inc., Sunnyvale, California.
Karrer, Tony. Tags: Social, Bookmarks, eLearning Technology. Los Angeles, California Retrieved May 15, 2007 from http://elearningtech.blogspot.com/search?q=social+bookmarks
Van Manen, M. (2003). Researching Lived Experience. Human Science for an Action Sensitive Pedagogy. Ontario: Althouse Press
Advantages/Disadvantages of Discussion Boards in the Online Classroom
After recently starting an online course I was surprised at the format in which it was presented to the participants. Having taking many online courses through several different institutions, this was the first one in which a study guide was present as a tool. I posted a question on the discussion board regarding this and the discussion that ensued was very interesting.
Some students were very familiar and pleased with the guide, some welcomed the guide as an offline resource, and some were quite taken back and in fact had their enthusiasm for the course diminished. Regardless of the reaction to the format of the course the ability of all the participants to state their feelings over this small issue was wonderfully captured within a discussion board.
One student stated quite clearly one of the great advantages of these discussion boards:
"I don't think anyone would dispute your point of view Mr. X. I didn't think we were for or against anyone, but expressing opinions as we might if we met face to face. In a regular classroom, this is what we might do, explore our opinions, gain perspectives and carry on. Is this possibly revealing the kinds of things we have to plan for in an online course? In online learning we don't have face-to-face or continuity of exploring a topic. Time passes between comments. Opinions may be formed without exploration. To me challenging thinking is what learning is about. Is someone right or wrong? Not necessarily. Depends upon what you believe the goal of learning is. We could all agree, but do we want groupthink to happen?
You mention learning style...we do have preferences, but usually adults have honed a number of styles. Our text speaks of trying to get at all learning styles throughout a course, but that it is unrealistic to expect to be able to address every style all the time. I don't really feel I know anyone here well enough to say that the course may not match their learning style. In fact, I frequently do learning styles analysis with adults taking courses and I'm always surprised at what the results are...learning styles are difficult to predict from a cursory view.
Thanks for the challenging ideas.
Discussion boards/threads are a great resource tool for allowing participants to freely express their thoughts on a common topic at their own pace and leisure. Participants can scroll forwards and backwards through a conversation to see the overall structure. A sense of virtual communities can be established through frequent contributors. Also as Lucy mention they basically replace the face-to-face discussions that occur within the classroom setting.
Mr. K does point out a significant disadvantage of these discussions and one as facilitators in which we need to be attuned. “Sometimes in haste and inexperience, participants of a discussion board post a message that, after reading a few responses to, wish they could retract. Before the original author knows it the discussion has gone off in a different direction.”
Discussion threads can become complicated and go off topic from the original posting. The can also become tedious as one general thought often splits into many thoughts (posts) and then each of these need to be responded to separately. This is where some participants will begin to feel the threads become more argumentative instead of collaborative.
This is where as facilitators we can monitor many of these discussions and be sure to keep the participants on track to the main initial thought/post. New ideas that emerge and are less related can be placed into new discussions for participants to expand upon. As facilitators we should remain open to keeping discussions fairly fluent and moderate those posts that may be extremely negative, personally attacking and devastating to the groups’ existence. (Palloff and Pratt, 2003, pg. 106)
References
Palloff, R.M. & Pratt, K. (2003). The Virtual Student. A Profile and Guide to Working with Online Learners. San Francisco: Jossey Bass
Some students were very familiar and pleased with the guide, some welcomed the guide as an offline resource, and some were quite taken back and in fact had their enthusiasm for the course diminished. Regardless of the reaction to the format of the course the ability of all the participants to state their feelings over this small issue was wonderfully captured within a discussion board.
One student stated quite clearly one of the great advantages of these discussion boards:
"I don't think anyone would dispute your point of view Mr. X. I didn't think we were for or against anyone, but expressing opinions as we might if we met face to face. In a regular classroom, this is what we might do, explore our opinions, gain perspectives and carry on. Is this possibly revealing the kinds of things we have to plan for in an online course? In online learning we don't have face-to-face or continuity of exploring a topic. Time passes between comments. Opinions may be formed without exploration. To me challenging thinking is what learning is about. Is someone right or wrong? Not necessarily. Depends upon what you believe the goal of learning is. We could all agree, but do we want groupthink to happen?
You mention learning style...we do have preferences, but usually adults have honed a number of styles. Our text speaks of trying to get at all learning styles throughout a course, but that it is unrealistic to expect to be able to address every style all the time. I don't really feel I know anyone here well enough to say that the course may not match their learning style. In fact, I frequently do learning styles analysis with adults taking courses and I'm always surprised at what the results are...learning styles are difficult to predict from a cursory view.
Thanks for the challenging ideas.
Discussion boards/threads are a great resource tool for allowing participants to freely express their thoughts on a common topic at their own pace and leisure. Participants can scroll forwards and backwards through a conversation to see the overall structure. A sense of virtual communities can be established through frequent contributors. Also as Lucy mention they basically replace the face-to-face discussions that occur within the classroom setting.
Mr. K does point out a significant disadvantage of these discussions and one as facilitators in which we need to be attuned. “Sometimes in haste and inexperience, participants of a discussion board post a message that, after reading a few responses to, wish they could retract. Before the original author knows it the discussion has gone off in a different direction.”
Discussion threads can become complicated and go off topic from the original posting. The can also become tedious as one general thought often splits into many thoughts (posts) and then each of these need to be responded to separately. This is where some participants will begin to feel the threads become more argumentative instead of collaborative.
This is where as facilitators we can monitor many of these discussions and be sure to keep the participants on track to the main initial thought/post. New ideas that emerge and are less related can be placed into new discussions for participants to expand upon. As facilitators we should remain open to keeping discussions fairly fluent and moderate those posts that may be extremely negative, personally attacking and devastating to the groups’ existence. (Palloff and Pratt, 2003, pg. 106)
References
Palloff, R.M. & Pratt, K. (2003). The Virtual Student. A Profile and Guide to Working with Online Learners. San Francisco: Jossey Bass
Saturday, 21 April 2007
Just started a new online course
I just started another online course. This one in entitled "Facilitating Online Learning". I'm a little surprised to tell you the truth regarding the layout of this entire course. It is being completely presented in a manner I have never seen before through 10 other courses on various platforms. I'm most surprised or taken back by the fact that a course that is about facilitating online courses begins by having the students look through a 103 page study guide.
I'm open to trying to figure this all out, but from my recent studies and information I have collected at a recent conference this almost seems backwards from what is normally expected of online courses. By this I mean that information is normally broken out into several components so that you can quickly get to the info at any given time instead of having to flip through a large document. I am curious to ask why you choose the format that you have instead of individual accessible sections.
Please understand this is not a critique (not on day one) but more so trying to gain knowledge as to the methodology. As I stated this is the first time a course has been presented this way to me and it seems more of a paper based course instead of online info. I have a feeling I'm "reading" too much into all this as the ideas on online collaboration and discussion does represent the new trend in elearning.
I'm curious if anyone else in the class is surprised by the format/layout/documents or if I am the only one that feels a little out of place? It seems completely oxymoronic to teach a course about online facilitating by teaching it with a book.
We'll see what the teacher and students think. I may have put a target on my forehead day one. May be a little harder to get that A+ in this class.
I'm open to trying to figure this all out, but from my recent studies and information I have collected at a recent conference this almost seems backwards from what is normally expected of online courses. By this I mean that information is normally broken out into several components so that you can quickly get to the info at any given time instead of having to flip through a large document. I am curious to ask why you choose the format that you have instead of individual accessible sections.
Please understand this is not a critique (not on day one) but more so trying to gain knowledge as to the methodology. As I stated this is the first time a course has been presented this way to me and it seems more of a paper based course instead of online info. I have a feeling I'm "reading" too much into all this as the ideas on online collaboration and discussion does represent the new trend in elearning.
I'm curious if anyone else in the class is surprised by the format/layout/documents or if I am the only one that feels a little out of place? It seems completely oxymoronic to teach a course about online facilitating by teaching it with a book.
We'll see what the teacher and students think. I may have put a target on my forehead day one. May be a little harder to get that A+ in this class.
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