This debate has been about some of the many pro's and con's of online learning. Phil has come up with many common pitfalls and I have attempted to rebuke them in favour of my current favourite medium for learning.
Pitfalls of Technology
The debate began with a look at some of the advantages and disadvantages from a technology point of view. Technology can and will fail at the worst possible times but there are always alternatives like text chat when voice fails and discussion boards when text fails etc. Slow internet is becoming a problem of the past with the vast majority of students having broadband, but yes ultimately online learning is still dependant on having an internet connection up and running. The technology does enable students to study from anywhere (like me in Adelaide), use multi-modal communications, record almost all aspects of class and create a very participatory environment. In a post on AndreaMartines blog, the interesting idea was raised that schools should not be fostering the use of technology at all, but because technology has permeated all aspects of modern life, schools should avoid technology in favour of 'direct contact with the living world'. I think this argument is wrong on some levels, most people use technology regularly as part of their lives so to remove it from schools would create a very artificial environment. However the way we use the technology should be carefully examined to ensure it's not overdominating our curriculum.
Academic Integrity
Problems with cheating and identity fraud were raised in round two of our debate. Phil asked the question how can you ever be sure who is on the other end of the internet? I would suggest that this is a problem in face to face environments as well as you never really know who actually wrote the essay that is handed to you. With the internet full of electronic resources it is very easy to just copy and paste together an assignment, however it's also very easy to run assignments through one of the many plagiarism detection tools available. Many examples of types of technology based cheating were given and just as many detection and verification methods exist. Some students will always be trying to find a way to cheat whether it be online or offline, the solution is to try as best we can to prevent it from happening. Once again it comes down to good pedagogy and excellent teaching in a way that discourages cheating or makes it unthinkable.
Isolation
The internet can be a lonely cold experience but it can also be a friendly social experience. I gave an opposing example to Phil's argument by citing the use of Facebook to increase social interaction in the face to face environment. Social interaction is definitely important for learning and this does come naturally in a face to face class as the act of putting people in a room together forces at least some interaction. In the online environment it is important for teachers to explicitly allocate time to foster social interaction in one way or another. There are currently many tools to enable synchronous interaction including virtual classrooms like Elluminate and voice chat apps like Skype and I'm sure hologram technologies are just around the corner. If done well, online learning has the potential to be just as social as face to face learning but again it comes down to good pedagogy and excellent teaching.
OpenCourseWare
My final contribution to the debate was to look at how the online environment has enabled education that would otherwise not have been possible. There is a growing list of some of the worlds top universities offering 'OpenCourseWare' including MIT, Yale and Berkeley. There are also many sites offering free lessons in specific subject areas purely because they want to. This type of free and open philosophy is seen across cyberculture from Wikipedia through to opensource software and is just starting to flourish in the realm of online education. The valid question of quality was raised but the internet is somewhat self moderating. Once again I think only sites with good pedagogy and excellent teaching will gain popularity.
Conclusion
This debate has made me think about some of the barriers to online learning and raised some interesting issues. Across all the arguments I think the common theme is that of good pedagogy and excellent teaching. Online learning provides opportunities for different learning experiences but they are not necessarily better or worse. I think that we can't ignore technology in education as it is an integral part of both our working and social lives. It is clear that technology provides many new opportunities to improve the delivery of education - the tools available to teachers are now far more powerful than any other time in history. It is a mistake to think that these technologies will, of themselves, guarantee better learning and I believe it is our job as teachers to find relevant, useful and innovative ways in which these technologies can actually improve the learning environments we provide.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
SUMMARY OF DEBATE – BY PHIL
It has been an interesting experience over the last few weeks taking the side of a debate I had very little belief in. Having said that, I may have started to convince myself that I did have some good points regarding the benefits of the more traditional teaching methods. I feel like it has been a good challenge to try and put forward arguments against e-learning to a group of students who are essentially doing this course because of its online benefits and flexibility. Needless to say I was up against it from the start.
The first points discussed by Dayle and I were some of the problems/limitations of e-learning in terms of issues associated with technology. I argued that glitches in hardware/software were quite common and can result in an unproductive experience for the student. Microphones drop out, likewise internet or skype connections etc. Dayle conceded that technological problems do occasionally occur, but life goes on and we find ways to get around it. I would agree with that as we seem to get around any issues with our week-to-week skype sessions. I still believe that if it was a one off class, for example a full day session for a particular subject, I might be a bit wary of relying on technology when there are no more opportunities if things were to go wrong.
The second point I raised concerned the issue of authenticity. I argued that it is more difficult to determine if a student was really producing their own work using an online environment than by attending a face-to-face class. Plagiarism to me was a concern especially in the TAFE environment where students will try and get away with anything. There really is no guarantee that a student on the other side of skype or any other program is who he says he is nor that the work being produced is not being written by another person. The same can be said for students doing a standard essay and then submitting it to their teacher (on campus). The general feedback on this issue from Dayle and the others who posted comments was that we as teachers need to find ways of appropriately assessing our students so that cheating can be minimised, whatever the teaching environment. This might include collecting various forms of evidence throughout a course and trying to “get to know” your students so that you can easily detect if a piece of work submitted is theirs or not. Yes, I agree that we need to tailor our assessments to blend in with our style of delivery. But what about an online course that is totally asynchronous? How can you then get to know your students and verify their work? Still a few question marks for me and I am leaning towards my own ideas here.
The next angle I took was regarding e-learning as being a lonely and quite solitary experience. I stated that a lack of social interaction associated with e-learning could produce a number of side effects such as a decrease in the effectiveness of any online course, a student’s motivation to complete the course and the enjoyment of the online learning experience. I was quite happy to receive a few comments from people actually siding with me on this one (to an extent). A few people said they have at some point felt isolated in their course except during the synchronous skype sessions that we have each week which would not be a part of every online course. I believe a fully asynchronous online course would be very isolating no matter how you look at it. Thank goodness for skype and messenger!
Dayle put forward an idea about getting students to post photos and information on a facebook page as an activity to break the ice and allow social interaction to take place. A great idea in my opinion and I have thought about doing something similar except that I know a few students who are not actually on facebook (yes I know it is hard to believe), and might object to having images or information of themselves displayed in a semi-public domain.
The final post was interesting with Dayle explaining the concept of a free university where all the materials are made available online and students can study whatever and whenever they like. Despite the ‘University of the People’ not being accredited at this stage, I can definitely see some potential with this idea as a way of granting students access to an education. If there were a system of nationally accredited assessments that students could pay to undertake, these could go towards making up a recognised qualification.
In summary, this debate has been a fun and interesting journey which has answered many questions, yet left many more lingering. I do not know that we as teachers can ever get our assessments or methods of delivery exactly right (if that is at all possible). And anyway, how can you really say that one method will ever suit all members of a particular class. We can only try and do our best and experiment with different techniques as we strive to make education engaging, relevant, productive and useful.
The first points discussed by Dayle and I were some of the problems/limitations of e-learning in terms of issues associated with technology. I argued that glitches in hardware/software were quite common and can result in an unproductive experience for the student. Microphones drop out, likewise internet or skype connections etc. Dayle conceded that technological problems do occasionally occur, but life goes on and we find ways to get around it. I would agree with that as we seem to get around any issues with our week-to-week skype sessions. I still believe that if it was a one off class, for example a full day session for a particular subject, I might be a bit wary of relying on technology when there are no more opportunities if things were to go wrong.
The second point I raised concerned the issue of authenticity. I argued that it is more difficult to determine if a student was really producing their own work using an online environment than by attending a face-to-face class. Plagiarism to me was a concern especially in the TAFE environment where students will try and get away with anything. There really is no guarantee that a student on the other side of skype or any other program is who he says he is nor that the work being produced is not being written by another person. The same can be said for students doing a standard essay and then submitting it to their teacher (on campus). The general feedback on this issue from Dayle and the others who posted comments was that we as teachers need to find ways of appropriately assessing our students so that cheating can be minimised, whatever the teaching environment. This might include collecting various forms of evidence throughout a course and trying to “get to know” your students so that you can easily detect if a piece of work submitted is theirs or not. Yes, I agree that we need to tailor our assessments to blend in with our style of delivery. But what about an online course that is totally asynchronous? How can you then get to know your students and verify their work? Still a few question marks for me and I am leaning towards my own ideas here.
The next angle I took was regarding e-learning as being a lonely and quite solitary experience. I stated that a lack of social interaction associated with e-learning could produce a number of side effects such as a decrease in the effectiveness of any online course, a student’s motivation to complete the course and the enjoyment of the online learning experience. I was quite happy to receive a few comments from people actually siding with me on this one (to an extent). A few people said they have at some point felt isolated in their course except during the synchronous skype sessions that we have each week which would not be a part of every online course. I believe a fully asynchronous online course would be very isolating no matter how you look at it. Thank goodness for skype and messenger!
Dayle put forward an idea about getting students to post photos and information on a facebook page as an activity to break the ice and allow social interaction to take place. A great idea in my opinion and I have thought about doing something similar except that I know a few students who are not actually on facebook (yes I know it is hard to believe), and might object to having images or information of themselves displayed in a semi-public domain.
The final post was interesting with Dayle explaining the concept of a free university where all the materials are made available online and students can study whatever and whenever they like. Despite the ‘University of the People’ not being accredited at this stage, I can definitely see some potential with this idea as a way of granting students access to an education. If there were a system of nationally accredited assessments that students could pay to undertake, these could go towards making up a recognised qualification.
In summary, this debate has been a fun and interesting journey which has answered many questions, yet left many more lingering. I do not know that we as teachers can ever get our assessments or methods of delivery exactly right (if that is at all possible). And anyway, how can you really say that one method will ever suit all members of a particular class. We can only try and do our best and experiment with different techniques as we strive to make education engaging, relevant, productive and useful.
Monday, May 31, 2010
OpenCourseWare - How cyberculture is bridging the education gap. (by Dayle)
The internet has a history of being an open and free culture and this holds true for the culture of online education. In 2000 MIT faculty decided the best way to pursue their mission - "to advance knowledge and educate students" was to make all their course materials available online, for free, without the need to even register. They now have 1950 courses published and some amazing stories about how this online material is being used across the world.
Many other institutions have followed suit and a number of 'free universities' are emerging. The University of the People is one such institution currently offering two programs free of charge, Business Administration and Computer Science and boasts academics from Columbia University, New York University and Yale.
Other projects in the 'open and free' spirit include Open Textbooks and the Khan Academy:
Often I hear arguments such as "if I put it online, they won't come to class" but perhaps the opposite is true, if you put good course material online, people are more likely to come to class and more likely to participate in education in general.
Many other institutions have followed suit and a number of 'free universities' are emerging. The University of the People is one such institution currently offering two programs free of charge, Business Administration and Computer Science and boasts academics from Columbia University, New York University and Yale.
Other projects in the 'open and free' spirit include Open Textbooks and the Khan Academy:
Often I hear arguments such as "if I put it online, they won't come to class" but perhaps the opposite is true, if you put good course material online, people are more likely to come to class and more likely to participate in education in general.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Using Facebook to increase social interaction in the face to face classroom (by Dayle)
This is an example of how the online environment can be used to increase social interaction in the face-to-face class.
First year university students often comment on feeling isolated as they move from a highly cohesive high school class environment to large lecture style education. International students also find the first year experience difficult and often feel they can't easily interact with local students. As part of his first year architecture course, McCarthy used the online environment, through Facebook try to break down some of these barriers and help students build social relationships with their peers. A Facebook group was created where students could post images and review and comment on each others submissions. He found that at the end of the course there was an increase in social interaction between the students in the online environment as well as face-to-face.
Comments from the students:
"The best thing about the Facebook galleries was that they got everyone talking from day one - all of a suddent I had all these new friends on Facebook and from there friends in class." (local Student)
"It was great being able to communicate with the other students – due to my language skills I couldn’t do this at first in class, but the galleries helped everyone get to know each other, and by the end of the course I was much more confident." (international student)
The results were quite interesting you can read the article here and a more recent update on the project from the ascilite conference here.
References
McCarthy, J 2009, Utilising Facebook: immersing Generation-Y students into first year university, The Journal of the Education Research Group of Adelaide, Vol 1, No 2, Feb 2009, https://www.adelaide.edu.au/erga/ergo/ergo_v1n2_p39-50.pdf
First year university students often comment on feeling isolated as they move from a highly cohesive high school class environment to large lecture style education. International students also find the first year experience difficult and often feel they can't easily interact with local students. As part of his first year architecture course, McCarthy used the online environment, through Facebook try to break down some of these barriers and help students build social relationships with their peers. A Facebook group was created where students could post images and review and comment on each others submissions. He found that at the end of the course there was an increase in social interaction between the students in the online environment as well as face-to-face.
Comments from the students:
"The best thing about the Facebook galleries was that they got everyone talking from day one - all of a suddent I had all these new friends on Facebook and from there friends in class." (local Student)
"It was great being able to communicate with the other students – due to my language skills I couldn’t do this at first in class, but the galleries helped everyone get to know each other, and by the end of the course I was much more confident." (international student)
The results were quite interesting you can read the article here and a more recent update on the project from the ascilite conference here.
References
McCarthy, J 2009, Utilising Facebook: immersing Generation-Y students into first year university, The Journal of the Education Research Group of Adelaide, Vol 1, No 2, Feb 2009, https://www.adelaide.edu.au/erga/ergo/ergo_v1n2_p39-50.pdf
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
It's a lonely world out there (by Phil)
During a large scale study exploring student perceptions of barriers to online learning, 47 barriers were identified.
Ok, I won't be discussing all 47 barriers in this post (I will leave the rest for the next 46 posts!)But the disadvantage or barrier that the students ranked as number 1 was the 'lack of social interaction' involved in online learning. The lack of a social environment results in a negative impact on the following:
- likelihood of taking a future online course
- effectiveness of online learning
- enjoyment of online learning
- confidence in online learning
- likelihood of completing a course online
It appears the lack of social interaction is the most important reason people do not want to use online learning. It is also apparent that the online learning through the use of chat rooms, messenger etc. is not as effective and cannot replace real-life student interaction.
"A great deal of learning occurs through the interaction between students and educators. That discussion is lost online" and that "Students don't get to hear other students' opinions and teachers' real-time interpretations."
There is also evidence to suggest that social interaction using online collaborative learning has various pitfalls which also need to be considered before using an online approach to teaching.
Avoid the hassle and stick to the classroom!
References:
http://www.emoderators.com/barriers/stbarr_final_may05.pdf
http://www.allbusiness.com/technology/software-services-applications-internet-social/6537375-1.html
http://www.netwerkopenhogeschool.com/Docs/Faculteiten/OW/Identifying%20the%20pitfalls%20for%20social%20interaction%20in%20computer.pdf
Friday, May 7, 2010
Can we design assessment that makes cheating too hard? (by Dayle)
Is it really Phil at the other end of the internet? I think that as an online teacher you can get a feel (or a phil) for how a student speaks, acts and expresses themselves just as you do in a face to face environment, especially if you carry out continuous assessment (be it formative or summative) rather than just one big assignment at the end. Also, as mentioned in the comments, it is really just as easy for a face to face student to hand in someone else's essay, so this is not a problem unique to e-learning. I agree with Phillips & Lowe (2003), James, McInnis & Devlin (2002) and McDowel & Brown (2001) who see this issue as an opportunity to rethink current assessment methods and develop more effective ways of measuring student learning. However, if you really must assess online using traditional closed book style exams, it is possible according to Talia Carbis, who is currently doing so using webcams and Skype. Also, there is software that will 'lockdown' a browser during a test, plagiarism detection tools that compare student work to thousands of electronic resources and test engines that will randomise questions in any way you like, making it difficult to share answers. For as many ways that technology can make cheating easier, there is a way that technology can make it harder too.
Surely the aim should be to discourage and prevent cheating rather than just detect and subvert it. Assessment strategies such as reflective writing, group assignments, peer assessment, submission of drafts and more generally ensuring tasks are relevant and authentic are some of the ways to minimise cheating (McDowell & Brown, 2001). We also need to explicitly teach and discuss issues relating to online research and academic writing and the importance of using existing literature (and all sorts of online material) correctly through referencing.
Best practice in online learning means using pedagogies that take advantage of the natural use of the online environment. Online assessment tasks need to reflect the same processes and modes used in the learning (Phillips & Lowe, 2003). Putting students who have utilised the internet, multimedia and collaborative technologies throughout their learning in an assessment situation such as an invigilated exam is not an appropriate measuring tool and promotes surface learning (Phillips & Lowe, 2003). Why not use the social and collaborative nature of the internet as part of the assessment? In this course, everybody blogs, everybody comments, everybody links to new relevant material, it is more akin to professional practice and is no longer just a dialogue between teacher and student. I think it would be fairly difficult to cheat in this course. Other ideas for innovative effective online assessment include using wikis, scenario based learning, and many more. The increasing adoption of online learning across all education sectors is an opportunity to rethink assessment, make it more effective and authentic and make cheating unworkable.
References
Carbis, T. 2010, eLearning Australia, Blog, 6 Jan 2010 Supervising an exam via Skype
http://elearningaustralia.net.au/2010/01/supervising-an-exam-via-skype
James, R, McInnis, C, Devlin, M. 2002, Assessing Learning in Australian Universities, Centre for the study of higher education, http://www.cshe.unimelb.edu.au/assessinglearning/docs/AssessingLearning.pdf
McDowell, L, Brown, S. 2001, Assessing students: cheating and plagiarism,The Higher Education Academy, http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/York/documents/resources/resourcedatabase/id430_cheating_and_plagiarism.pdf
Moore, C. 2009, 'How to save the world with elearning scenarios', adapted from presentations at Australian Flexible Learning Framework events, http://www.slideshare.net/CathyMoore/how-to-save-the-world-with-elearning-scenarios
Phillips, R, Lowe, K. 2003, 'Issues Associated with the Equivalence of Traditional and Online Assessment', In Interact, Integrate, Impact: Proceedings of the 20th Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education, http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.83.7863&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Snelling C, Karanicolas, S. 2008 'Why wikis work: Assessing group work in an on-line environment', In Proceedings of Australian Technology Network Assessment Conference, http://www.ojs.unisa.edu.au/index.php/atna/article/view/298/276
Links
Respondus Lockdown Browser
Turnitin Plagiarism Prevention and Detection Tool
Moodle Quiz Module
ALTC project Transforming Assessment
Surely the aim should be to discourage and prevent cheating rather than just detect and subvert it. Assessment strategies such as reflective writing, group assignments, peer assessment, submission of drafts and more generally ensuring tasks are relevant and authentic are some of the ways to minimise cheating (McDowell & Brown, 2001). We also need to explicitly teach and discuss issues relating to online research and academic writing and the importance of using existing literature (and all sorts of online material) correctly through referencing.
Best practice in online learning means using pedagogies that take advantage of the natural use of the online environment. Online assessment tasks need to reflect the same processes and modes used in the learning (Phillips & Lowe, 2003). Putting students who have utilised the internet, multimedia and collaborative technologies throughout their learning in an assessment situation such as an invigilated exam is not an appropriate measuring tool and promotes surface learning (Phillips & Lowe, 2003). Why not use the social and collaborative nature of the internet as part of the assessment? In this course, everybody blogs, everybody comments, everybody links to new relevant material, it is more akin to professional practice and is no longer just a dialogue between teacher and student. I think it would be fairly difficult to cheat in this course. Other ideas for innovative effective online assessment include using wikis, scenario based learning, and many more. The increasing adoption of online learning across all education sectors is an opportunity to rethink assessment, make it more effective and authentic and make cheating unworkable.
References
Carbis, T. 2010, eLearning Australia, Blog, 6 Jan 2010 Supervising an exam via Skype
http://elearningaustralia.net.au/2010/01/supervising-an-exam-via-skype
James, R, McInnis, C, Devlin, M. 2002, Assessing Learning in Australian Universities, Centre for the study of higher education, http://www.cshe.unimelb.edu.au/assessinglearning/docs/AssessingLearning.pdf
McDowell, L, Brown, S. 2001, Assessing students: cheating and plagiarism,The Higher Education Academy, http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/York/documents/resources/resourcedatabase/id430_cheating_and_plagiarism.pdf
Moore, C. 2009, 'How to save the world with elearning scenarios', adapted from presentations at Australian Flexible Learning Framework events, http://www.slideshare.net/CathyMoore/how-to-save-the-world-with-elearning-scenarios
Phillips, R, Lowe, K. 2003, 'Issues Associated with the Equivalence of Traditional and Online Assessment', In Interact, Integrate, Impact: Proceedings of the 20th Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education, http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.83.7863&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Snelling C, Karanicolas, S. 2008 'Why wikis work: Assessing group work in an on-line environment', In Proceedings of Australian Technology Network Assessment Conference, http://www.ojs.unisa.edu.au/index.php/atna/article/view/298/276
Links
Respondus Lockdown Browser
Turnitin Plagiarism Prevention and Detection Tool
Moodle Quiz Module
ALTC project Transforming Assessment
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Is it really your work?? (by Phil)
So you're in a classroom with your students while they complete an assessment task. It can either be written, oral or otherwise. The students complete the requirements and submit their work to you (the teacher). You can be pretty confident that the student's work is their own, that is, it's authentic. Can the same be said of someone sitting in front of a computer a thousand miles away?
And are they really a thousand miles away? And are they who they really say they are? How many of you have joined a chatroom under a different name? Or indeed a different gender? OK, I have once about 12 years ago. Relax Ted, it really is me typing this, or not?
The fact is, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, there is absolutely NO guarantee that an online student, whether secondary, tertiary or whatever is getting any real benefit from this particular type of education. Educational outcomes are not guaranteed as there are still question marks raised over the honesty of online students and effectiveness of assessments and outcomes.
"Probably the most serious problem with online assessment is confirming that the student is in fact who they say they are". It is unfortunately impossible to completely trust and verify the authenticity of any student's online work!
So they receive a piece of paper at the end of it all...but perhaps no education...
Give me a real classroom anytime!!
Cheers,
Phil (Allegedly)
References:
http://www.articlesbase.com/online-education-articles/pros-and-cons-of-online-education-for-the-world-citizen-250687.html
http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/summer72/rowe72.html
And are they really a thousand miles away? And are they who they really say they are? How many of you have joined a chatroom under a different name? Or indeed a different gender? OK, I have once about 12 years ago. Relax Ted, it really is me typing this, or not?
The fact is, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, there is absolutely NO guarantee that an online student, whether secondary, tertiary or whatever is getting any real benefit from this particular type of education. Educational outcomes are not guaranteed as there are still question marks raised over the honesty of online students and effectiveness of assessments and outcomes.
"Probably the most serious problem with online assessment is confirming that the student is in fact who they say they are". It is unfortunately impossible to completely trust and verify the authenticity of any student's online work!
So they receive a piece of paper at the end of it all...but perhaps no education...
Give me a real classroom anytime!!
Cheers,
Phil (Allegedly)
References:
http://www.articlesbase.com/online-education-articles/pros-and-cons-of-online-education-for-the-world-citizen-250687.html
http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/summer72/rowe72.html
Friday, April 23, 2010
It would be unnatural NOT to use technology! (by Dayle)
Response to: "online learning can quite often be unproductive due to reliance on technologies that fail to work effectively"
I would argue that it is actually the opposite, online learning is becoming more productive due to the increasing availability and improvement of technologies. Using Skype as an example:
Response to: "the internet is still a relatively slow way to communicate and present to a class"
How exactly is the internet slow in comparison to other methods? The internet makes accessing information infinitely faster than days gone by. Without the internet and the LMS for most university subjects we would have look up each of the readings in the library - let's say it takes 10 minutes to find each one, and there are perhaps 100 references per subject... well that's a long time! Using the internet we can show a video, play music or reference a book by simply sending someone a hyperlink. The argument about download times is becoming increasingly defunct as internet connections improve. In a 2009 survey of 794 students from various disciplines at the University of Adelaide it was found that 97% had broadband internet access at home (Hall, 2009). Besides which, the internet is just FAST - fibre signals move at ~200,000 km/ps!
Technology is a normal part of our working, social and family lives, it would actually be unnatural NOT to use it in education. I put it to you that technology is not the real issue, it's pedagogy that counts (Preskett, 2010). Technology is a tool, like textbooks and blackboards and it is all about how it's used that makes for good education. You can have excellent learning and teaching experiences online or you can have terrible ones, just as with face to face learning and teaching. Today's technologies provide us with tools to enable more participatory and collaborative learning experiences.
References
Hall, D 2009, MyMedia Student Evaluation 2009, Centre For Learning and Professional Development, http://www.adelaide.edu.au/clpd/resources/reports/MyMediaStudentEvaluation2009.pdf
Louis C K 2009, 'Everything's amazing and nobody's happy', Late Night with Conan O'brien, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r1CZTLk-Gk
Preskett, T 2010, 'Thoughts on 'Innovating the 21st-Century University: It’s Time!', Educational Technology and Change Journal, http://etcjournal.com/2010/03/06/3719/
Munroe, R 2010, 'Seismic Waves', http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/seismic_waves.png
I would argue that it is actually the opposite, online learning is becoming more productive due to the increasing availability and improvement of technologies. Using Skype as an example:
- It allows us to meet in a class situation even though we are all in our own locations
- It allows participants to share links to relevant materials at the time they are being discussed
- It promotes interaction between students and student-teacher; we can text chat while someone is speaking allowing commentary without directly interrupting the speaker
- It allows for the recording of a class for future reference and revision
Response to: "the internet is still a relatively slow way to communicate and present to a class"
How exactly is the internet slow in comparison to other methods? The internet makes accessing information infinitely faster than days gone by. Without the internet and the LMS for most university subjects we would have look up each of the readings in the library - let's say it takes 10 minutes to find each one, and there are perhaps 100 references per subject... well that's a long time! Using the internet we can show a video, play music or reference a book by simply sending someone a hyperlink. The argument about download times is becoming increasingly defunct as internet connections improve. In a 2009 survey of 794 students from various disciplines at the University of Adelaide it was found that 97% had broadband internet access at home (Hall, 2009). Besides which, the internet is just FAST - fibre signals move at ~200,000 km/ps!
Technology is a normal part of our working, social and family lives, it would actually be unnatural NOT to use it in education. I put it to you that technology is not the real issue, it's pedagogy that counts (Preskett, 2010). Technology is a tool, like textbooks and blackboards and it is all about how it's used that makes for good education. You can have excellent learning and teaching experiences online or you can have terrible ones, just as with face to face learning and teaching. Today's technologies provide us with tools to enable more participatory and collaborative learning experiences.
References
Hall, D 2009, MyMedia Student Evaluation 2009, Centre For Learning and Professional Development, http://www.adelaide.edu.au/clpd/resources/reports/MyMediaStudentEvaluation2009.pdf
Louis C K 2009, 'Everything's amazing and nobody's happy', Late Night with Conan O'brien, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r1CZTLk-Gk
Preskett, T 2010, 'Thoughts on 'Innovating the 21st-Century University: It’s Time!', Educational Technology and Change Journal, http://etcjournal.com/2010/03/06/3719/
Munroe, R 2010, 'Seismic Waves', http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/seismic_waves.png
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Disadvantages of E-learning (by Phil)
Ok, we need to acknowledge that online learning can quite often be rather unproductive due to the over reliance on technologies that fail to work effectively. I would like to remind you of an online class I attended on Thursday 15th April where the lecturer's microphone was misbehaving and as a result the intended learning couldn't take place as planned.
Refer to the following statement be Ted Clark, "My sound dropped out etc." (http://app.lms.unimelb.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboard%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%26id%3d_184348_1%26url%3d)
This type of learning is always going to be at the mercy of internet connections (fast or otherwise slow), microphones that are not being recognised by certain software and anything and everything else which makes up an electronic system designed to allow people to communicate.
"Technology can be a blessing or a curse" (http://www.grayharriman.com/e-learning_advantages.htm#2) and another major problem is the internet bandwidth available. In other words, the internet is still a relatively slow way to communicate and present a class (i.e. learning materials, discussions etc.)
I can recall an eluminate course I attended through Kangan Institute last year which was a complete disaster because my brand new Macbook didn't like the bigpond modem I was using and kept 'dropping out'. In the end I gave up. Would probably have preferred a face-to-face class instead...much more reliable and effective don't you think?
References:
(http://app.lms.unimelb.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboard%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%26id%3d_184348_1%26url%3d)
(http://www.grayharriman.com/e-learning_advantages.htm#2
Refer to the following statement be Ted Clark, "My sound dropped out etc." (http://app.lms.unimelb.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboard%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%26id%3d_184348_1%26url%3d)
This type of learning is always going to be at the mercy of internet connections (fast or otherwise slow), microphones that are not being recognised by certain software and anything and everything else which makes up an electronic system designed to allow people to communicate.
"Technology can be a blessing or a curse" (http://www.grayharriman.com/e-learning_advantages.htm#2) and another major problem is the internet bandwidth available. In other words, the internet is still a relatively slow way to communicate and present a class (i.e. learning materials, discussions etc.)
I can recall an eluminate course I attended through Kangan Institute last year which was a complete disaster because my brand new Macbook didn't like the bigpond modem I was using and kept 'dropping out'. In the end I gave up. Would probably have preferred a face-to-face class instead...much more reliable and effective don't you think?
References:
(http://app.lms.unimelb.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboard%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%26id%3d_184348_1%26url%3d)
(http://www.grayharriman.com/e-learning_advantages.htm#2
The Pros and Cons of online learning, e-learning, cyber learning and any other term(s) that describe it!
Hi Everyone,
Dayle and I (Phil) will be conducting a debate on the advantages and disadvantages of online learning, learning using technologies etc. I guess there really is no definitive answer as to which mode of learning is "better" as online learning will always suit some students and not others....BUT....the real question is...who will provide the most convincing argument??
Only you can be the judge of that. Let's begin!
Dayle and I (Phil) will be conducting a debate on the advantages and disadvantages of online learning, learning using technologies etc. I guess there really is no definitive answer as to which mode of learning is "better" as online learning will always suit some students and not others....BUT....the real question is...who will provide the most convincing argument??
Only you can be the judge of that. Let's begin!
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