E-learning in Schools

mk Normal UTS 2 2005-11-08T01:16:00Z 2005-11-08T01:16:00Z 1 218 1248 P 10 2 1532 11.257 96 800×600 A group of us went to a primary school yesterday to look at their use of electronic whiteboards. Teachers and students seemed enthused about this new teaching tool – how much of this was due to ‘novelty’ remains to be seen. These tools have been investigated in the UK (eg. see http://www.becta.org.uk/corporate/publications/documents/Research7_Whiteboards.pdf ) and like any new educational technologies, their impact on learning depends on how they are used. In contrast to digital video cameras which are inherently a ‘student-centred tool’ (eg. see our previous research on DV projects), electronic whiteboards are primarily a teacher-centric tool. However, most if not all teachers include some direct instruction in their lessons and contrary to some beliefs, such instruction can fit into a constructivist philosophy of teaching (eg. see Schwartz & Bransford, 1998). The challenge becomes when, where and how to use whole class instruction and furthermore, how to creatively engage the minds of learners in these situations! As we visit various schools over the coming 6 months, it will be interesting to explore these questions.

Leila recently touched on the important subject of ‘blended learning’ when she reflected on the Net Generation – see http://leila.edublogs.org/2005/09/07/net-generation/ She mentions that the new Net Generation like to communicate using the Net “yet they still like the interactive part of being a human, eg face-to-face communication”. Blended Learning is an important topic and in this posting I am taking its meaning to be the combination of face to face (f2f) and online learning environments eg. see http://www.schools.nsw.edu.au/learning/yrk12focusareas/learntech/blended/index.php
One teacher on the above DET website mentioned: “‘One thing [facilitating online learning] has reinforced for me is that you need to actually experience online learning to appreciate how it works. Actually doing it opens your eyes!” As teachers, we have experienced f2f teaching environments and we are able to take our ‘best experiences’ from here to inform our own teaching styles and ideal class environments. However, for teachers with minimal ‘online learning’ experiences, designing an online learning environment for their kids can be challenging! Perhaps one of the biggest challenges is knowing what types of learning activities are best suited to traditional f2f classes and more pertinently, what experiences are BEST suited to the online environment (ie. use of online facilities to actually ENHANCE learning outcomes rather than simply to ‘fulfil some DET requirement to use the Internet with my kids or to build computer skills etc….) Another challenge is to choose the best (and cheapest!) online communication and reflection tools (blogs, wikis, discussion boards, chat facilities etc.) to support online collaborative activities such as online projects, debates, role plays, cultural exchanges etc.

The notion of virtual excursions is an interesting one and Worthington et al. (ND.) provide a adequate introduction. They talk about the opportunities for students to ‘connect’ with people through these ‘e-trips’ and the importance of student preparation before the trip and reporting on their learning afterwards. I was disappointed with the video examples and indeed, the shallow nature of the students engagement with their ‘excursion’ sites. (Indeed, in both examples, the kids seem to be just ‘finding information’ – really a glorified research lesson! There seems to be v. little problem-solving going on!) Dr. Janette Griffin ( http://www.tld.uts.edu.au/people/index.html#grif ) has done a lot of work on informal learning settings and recently held a seminar on student learning in museums (see http://www.tld.uts.edu.au/news/slimhome.html ) Indeed, she devised a well known ‘SMILE’ model to help teachers scaffold students learning experiences at museums. This model is based around 5 guidelines for integrating school and museum learning (eg. planning and preparing students for concepts to be investigated during the visit); 6 guidelines for providing conditions for self-directed learning (eg. encourage students to generate questions and use their museum visit to stimulate interest in finding out more about the topic); and 4 guidelines for facilitating strategies appropriate to the setting (eg. allow a period of orientation at the site). I often wonder how these guidelines could be applied to virtual excursions. Ref. Worthington, V. & Ellefson, N. (ND.) Electronic field trips: Theoretical rationale. Last accessed 28th July, 2005 at: http://commtechlab.msu.edu/sites/letsnet/noframes/bigideas/b1/b1theor.html

Lamb et al (2005) make a comprehensive analysis of the last decade of webquests and provide an insightful summary of the range of authentic learning possibilities for students. One aspect which they briefly mention is the notion of kids making their own webquests. Probably not the best way to go initially with kids but a powerful activity for more experienced webquest users! It was also interesting to read about the problem of kids ‘copying and pasting’ information into their final presentations for their webquests … Lamb suggests that kids be given “opportunities to analyse, synthesise and evaluate information and alternative perspectives” eg. instead of presenting the traditional powerpoint ‘results’ of a webquest, they hold a debate about the pros and cons of an issue or critique various views on an issue. From a practical viewpoint, the webquest design patterns looked useful (see http://webquest.sdsu.edu/designpatterns/all.htm ) Lamb, Annette & Teclehaimanot, Berhane (2005). A Decade of WebQuests: ARetrospective. In M. Orey, J. McClendon, & R. M. Branch, (Eds.). Educational mediaand technology yearbook (Vol 30). Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited.

Lily mentions ‘communities of practice’ (CoP) in her recent, thoughtful posting. I recently had the pleasure of listening to Etienne Wegner (who first coined this term) and he made an interesting point about ‘engineered’ communities such as the one we’re attempting to build here in our EC3 class ‘blogosphere’ and REAL CoPs that are more self generating (and generally last longer than 1 semester!). Recently, I experienced such a CoP in the form of Cool Runners community. In this community, there were experts (in this case expert athletes) and other participants – amateur runners (like me ) It was interesting to be part of this online community for a time and experience learning (in my case, learning how to prepare for and run a marathon – v. slowly I might add!) in this online environment. I did learn a lot about running by reading experts’ comments, asking questions, reading others’ responses etc. I must admit that often I didn’t participate actively but was more of a passive participant (perhaps this reflects the way i learn?) – ie. i mainly read others’ comments. Nevertheless, I did feel a part of that community after a time – I felt I knew something about the people in the community (at least the people who posted regularly) and felt some affinity with this group. (Unknowingly, I sat next to a regular participant in the ‘coolrunners’ community at a recent education conference – it was only when he used the site as an example of a CoP that i realised who he was!). Btw, all participants in this community used pseudonyms which was an interesting phenomenon too.

I recently attended a presentation from Bernard Garcin – a teacher from France who has been running a collaborative project with 30 schools around the world. They use online technologies to support their students’ language learning. They started with email but have slowly graduated to more sophisticated video-conferencing tools. The students are given projects to do, covering a range of themes. For example, one group was asked to compare and contrast their countries’ energy consumption levels; another group were asked to describe a tour around their home city. All students must write in a foreign language in their correspondence (ie. they are not alklowed to use their native language!) One interesting technique he talked about was the use of ‘online pools / surveys’ to initiate interest and spark debate amongst students. On a practical level, Bernard said that because of time zones, you need a min. of 4 schools to make this work and approx. 10 was an ideal number of participant schools.

Soloway et al (2000) spend a lot of time talking about the importance of the social aspects of learning and the importance of giving learners opportunities to interact with experts, peers etc. They use the Jason project as an example, where students, teachers and real scientists collaborate in investigations. The video (linked from the Jason homepage) provided a nice overview of the project. I was particularly interested in the video narrator’s claim that this type of project enables kids to learn in “new and exciting ways” (I think he used the word ‘exciting’ at least 3 times!) I wonder what makes this collaborative endeavour ‘exciting’ for kids? Are they just ‘excited’ on a superficial level or do they become deeply interested in the material involved in their projects? They also claim that this type of activity will encourage ‘high standards’ of understanding? How do we know this & what types of tests do we use to find out? Does this type of project encourage rigorous, deep learning (in this case, in the domain of science)? Finally, this article was written 5 years ago – I wonder what the authors would make of online tools such as blogs and wikis that have gained in popularity since then? It will be interesting to think about this final question over the coming weeks as we use these tools to ‘share out thoughts and experiences’ in this medium.

Soloway, E. et al. (2000). K-12 and the Internet. Communications f the ACM 43(1), 19-25.

Hi everyone
welcome to my weblog. I aim to use this weblog as a vehicle for reflecting on e-learning issues and experiences relating to the use of online learning technologies in K-6. I look forward to contributing to your online class community