The Net Generation has grown up with information technology. The aptitudes, attitudes, expectations, and learning styles of Net Gen students reflect the environment in which they were raised—one that is decidedly different from that which existed when faculty and administrators were growing up.
http://www.educause.edu/educatingthenetgen
Student Privacy Issues, Ethics, and Solving the Guest Lecturer Dilemma in Online Courses
By Virgil E. Varvel Jr., CAI Specialist and Instructor
University of Illinois Department of Outreach and Public Service
In an era where our privacy seems to be slowly dwindling—when our email can be viewed by our employers and cameras sit perched on street corners—some strongholds of privacy do remain. And, perhaps surprisingly, one such stronghold carries over to the online realm. While your face may be on camera and your words in print, your identity remains protected and privileged information. Of interest then is the special situation when an individual enrolls in an online course. For some, it is the very nature of online anonymity that prompts an educational move to online courses.
http://elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=articles&article=28-1
A review of Sakai 2.0 on EduTools.
http://www.edutools.info/course/productinfo/detail.jsp?id=262
October 18, 2004
George Siemens
Introduction
One of the biggest challenges in discussing elearning arises from different understandings of the field. Most often, we attach our experiences and career to our conversations, presenting an image of elearning that reflects what we have encountered. For an instructional designer, elearning often means courses or learning materials directed at meeting an objective within the larger scope of program development. A corporate trainer may view elearning as a combination of courses and knowledge management. No one perspective is symbolic of the whole industry."
http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/elearningcategories.htm
Robert Farmer, Mount Saint Vincent University, Canada
Robert.Farmer@msvu.ca
University of New Brunswick
Abstract
Today’s students have grown up with the computer; in fact many, if not most, are younger than the first microcomputer. Students are more technology literate and Internet savvy than ever, and they use technology in ways that weren’t even thought of a decade ago. What impact does this have on educators today and for the future?
This paper begins by highlighting select current literature in the area of students’ knowledge of communication technology with a focus on instant messaging. Instant messaging usages today and proposed future usages are looked at. While today’s younger generation has adopted it with a frenzy, it appears that the corporate enterprise will be the next big player in the instant messaging arena. Corporate enterprise level (secure) instant messaging usages are discussed and several enterprise level software packages are identified. The advantages and disadvantages of both public and secure instant messaging are discussed.
A review of results from a student survey on technology usage and an in-class instant messaging trial are presented. In the student survey on technology usage, students rated their use of four technologies; email, browser, discussion forums, and instant messaging. The in-class instant messaging trail usage statistics were captured using an enterprise level (secure) instant messaging software.
In conclusion, this paper reviews some of the good, the bad, and the ugly about instant messaging and some of the benefits and drawbacks of instant messaging in educational settings.
http://naweb.unb.ca/proceedings/2003/PaperFarmer.html
by Mark Mabrito
Establishing fruitful interaction in online courses is a persistent challenge. Mark Mabrito shares his personal practices with readers, outlining the tools and policies he has used to enhance interactivity with students, among students, and between students and course content. Mabrito explores the fine lines that instructors must walk: encouraging participation without being overbearing, evaluating student input without making it a dreaded requirement, allowing for spontaneous reactions while promoting careful reasoning and good writing skills, and providing ample resources without overloading or confusing students. For educators struggling with such issues, this article offers clear and practical strategies.
http://innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=12
This site provides a wonderful collection of organized links to theories that have been applied to instructional design. The collection was created by Marvin Ryder of the School of Education at the University of Colorado, Denver. "Models, like myths and metaphors, help us to make sense of our world. Whether it is derived from whim or from serious research, a model offers its user a means of comprehending an otherwise incomprehensible problem. An instructional design model gives structure and meaning to an I.D. problem, enabling the would-be designer to negotiate her design task with a semblance of conscious understanding. Models help us to visualize the problem, to break it down into discrete, manageable units. The value of a specific model is determined within the context of use. Like any other instrument, a model assumes a specific intention of its user. A model should be judged by how it mediates the designer's intention, how well it can share a work load, and how effectively it shifts focus away from itself toward the object of the design activity."
http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~mryder/itc_data/idmodels.html
by Sean Silverthorne, Editor, HBS Working Knowledge
Managing the Gamer Generation: "They are different from you and me, this generation born after 1970. They grew up with a finger on the keyboard and an ear to the cell phone, and in a world where the forces of globalization have broken down national barriers like no time in history."
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id=4429&t=innovation&nl=y
By Ryan Tansey
At the end of the last school year my son made an interesting comment: "My teachers are finally learning how to use Blackboard." The statement immediately struck home as a missing component to our explorations of eLearning. Here are his current thoughts on the impact of the CMS on his education. --Frank Tansey
http://www.campus-technology.com/news_article.asp?id=10122&typeid=155
Online learning environments (OLEs) are now critical to teaching and learning across Australian higher education. Their influence impacts on the availability of content, the design of courses and, perhaps most pedagogically significantly, the nature of communication. The discussion board is the ubiquitous communication tool within these OLEs and hence significantly shapes the kind of communication that takes place. In light of this, the degree to which a successful community of inquiry can be facilitated through the use of discussion boards is examined and compared to the possibilities afforded by weblogs in the same role. Weblogs, it is argued, offer new opportunities in the development of social, cognitive and teacher presence online and should be considered in the development of or alongside established OLEs.
http://incsub.org/blog/index.php?p=3
The pedogogical concepts and theories used in traditional education apply to online education as well. We've developed a tool to graphically navigate the complex relationships between schools of thought, theorists, theories and concepts. The exploration covers Behaviorist, Cognitivist and Constructivist Schools of thought. It includes a comprehensive list of theorists from Piaget to Guilford, theories including Metacognition and Andragogy and concepts such as Scaffolding and Learner Centered Education.
http://www.nyucolp.org/pedagogy.shtml
Stephen Downes
June 10, 2004
1. Technologies
The evolution of a new technology passes through two distinct stages. In the first stage, the technology may be seen as a new way of doing an old thing. For example, when the motor was introduced to transportation, the early vehicles were known as horseless carriages. The introduction of the motor was simply seen as the replacement of an existing feature, the horse. In the second stage, however, the new technology takes us beyond the mere replication of an earlier technology. Horseless carriages, for example, evolved not only into cars but also into motor coaches and transports.
In the field of learning, a very similar evolution is taking place. The introduction of information and communications technologies is also in the process of passing through two stages. The first stage, which we have very nearly reached, is what might be thought of as the electronic classroom. The physical environment in which teaching and learning occurs has been replaced with an electronic classroom, but the process of teaching is very much the same. In the second phase, however, we will begin to use technology in new ways, to advance beyond what was possible in the classroom.
Because we are a part of the way through this transformation, a mid-range projection is now possible. Our experience with information and communications technologies is sufficient to allow us to identify the progression through the two phases. This progression may be mapped to a continuum of technological innovations that are now becoming more familiar to researchers in the field.
For the entire article see http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/website/view.cgi?dbs=Article&key=1086898598
This is from the eLearning Guild's email newsletter and is a summary of the full article that's available in the complete journal:
Many e-Learning designers are interested in ways to accommodate the differences between individual learners. Some avenues to do this may exist in human learning styles, if the designer knows about them and can find a way to bring them into the design strategy. In a recent article in The eLearning Developers' Journal, author Bill Brandon explains how designing your e-Learning to accommodate different learner styles will improve their retention and success. The article, "Style Points: Adapting e-Learning to the Learner" begins with a definition of learning styles.
"Learning style" is usually defined as a set of stable characteristics that affect the way a person perceives and interacts with the environment while learning. As such, learning style is an individual difference that can be taken into account when designing the content in any instructional system. There are many learning style models and theories, and many other psychological measures are used by classroom instructors as the basis for adjusting their teaching to individual learners. For example, the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a well-known measure of psychological type frequently mentioned in the literature, as is the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument. Gardner's Multiple Intelligences theory is another system that has been used to account for different learning styles.
Apart from these broad theories of intelligence and personality type, theory and formal research on learning style have mainly pursued two other ways to characterize learning preferences. One view is based on understanding the learning process, and the other is based on understanding how people take in, store, and retrieve information. These views are not necessarily mutually exclusive, and they are both important to the designer's understanding. From these two views, three methods have emerged that are designed for the purpose and are in common use world-wide."
He then goes on to describe the three methods. The first he tackles is Kolb:
"The first of the two closely-related learning style theories I'll discuss is David Kolb's learning cycle model. Kolb created the Learning Style Inventory, an instrument that identifies an individual's dominant learning style. The LSI is sometimes called the "KLSI," for "Kolb's Learning Style Inventory" to distinguish it from all the other learning style inventories that have been developed, and it is also sometimes shown with a number following it - e.g., KLSI-3 - to indicate which of Kolb's several revisions it is.
Kolb, probably the best known and most used model in the United States, identified four different ways that people approach learning based on their preferences for the different stages of the learning cycle.
* Diverging: Someone who uses the diverging style (a "diverger") learns by looking at experience from several points of view and by generating lots of ideas. Divergers are imaginative and open-minded, believe they understand people, and are alert to look for and recognize problems. A diverger would benefit from being able to review case studies that don't have "cut and dried" solutions, in order to come up with a number of different ways to solve the problem presented.
* Assimilating: This style relies on inductive reasoning (working from examples in order to derive the "rules"). Assimilators like to come up with theories and models and to do planning. They are very patient, and want detailed background information about theory and practice. Give them a problem where they can apply a theory, or where they can come up with a theory about why there is a problem.
* Converging: Convergers are driven to solve problems and make decisions. They rely on deductive reasoning (applying the "rules" to specific instances). A converger will want "hands-on" examples for which there is only one answer, or where they choose the best answer from several possibilities. Give them a lot of facts to sort out.
* Accommodating: These are the risk-takers and leaders who are compelled to get things done, even if (especially if) it involves taking risks. Accommodators like games, particularly if there is a range of payoffs that depend on the skill with which the game is played. They also do well with exercises that involve multiple scenarios and decisions to be made about allocating or assigning resources.
The article also explains the two other approaches:
1. Peter Honey and Alan Mumford, two researchers in the United Kingdom extended Kolb's model in 1982 by defining individual preferences for each stage of Lewin's cycle. Honey and Mumford's model is best known outside the United States, and is particularly popular in the UK, Europe, and Australia.
2. VAK stands for Visual (seeing), Auditory (hearing), and Kinesthetic (touch and movement). According to this model, one of these senses will tend to dominate the way a learner takes in and processes information, and the way in which that information is represented when stored in memory, with the other senses serving in auxiliary capacities. It is also possible that an individual may use different dominant senses and different combinations of senses for different learning tasks.
Read the article for complete descriptions of each method and a summary of practical ways they can be applied to the design of e-Learning programs. Guild Members, go to www.eLearningGuild.com, log on, and download the complete article now! Guild Associates, we encourage you to Upgrade your membership so you can access this issue of the Journal. Just go to www.eLearningGuild.com and log in, then click "Upgrade Membership" from the main menu on the left, and follow the prompts from there.
This is an outline of the types of questions that can help in the instructional design process, primarily for courses involving web-based materials. It is based on the ADDIE Instructional Design Model.
http://people.senecac.on.ca/kathy.siedlaczek/id_process.html
Study Shows Impact of Web Technology on Higher Ed The latest results of a four-year study by McGraw-Hill on the impact of Web technology on higher ed institutions confirmed that Web-based technology is helping instructors achieve teaching objectives and has a positive impact on student attitudes and achievement. In 1999, only 22 percent of faculty participants viewed technology as very or extremely important for achieving success; in 2002, figures rose to 57 percent. The survey indicates that technology has increased dramatically in terms of importance, with 68 percent of respondents rating training and professional development as very or extremely important and 60 percent assigning a high level of importance to course Web site use in achieving teaching objectives.
Pew Monographs on Learning and Technology
The sixth and final monograph from the Pew Symposia in Learning and Technology, entitled Expanding Access to Learning: The Role of Virtual Universities, is now available in PDF format on our Center Web site at http://www.center.rpi.edu/PewSym/mono6.html. The monograph assesses the current state of statewide virtual university initiatives, discusses five critical success factors derived from that assessment, and offers an alternative strategy to the predominant collaborative model that can improve current practice. Print copies may be obtained by contacting Pat Bartscherer .
A new discussion paper on the changing nature of learning in the information age is available now, on the Web or as a PDF e-Book. "There is widespread belief that society is moving from the industrial age to the information age. This paper discusses what is meant by the term information age and how society will differ from the industrial era of the previous two centuries. In particular it considers the impact upon learning, both in terms of differences in the type of learning that will be required to survive and thrive in this new era, and of the new and improved methods it brings which might enhance the learning process.
http://www.twinisles.com/dev/research/learninfoage.htm
Rubric for Online Instruction This site is designed to answer the question being asked: What does a high quality online course look like? It is our hope that instructors and instructional designers will use this site to learn more about the Rubric for Online Instruction, and be able to view examples of exemplary courses that instructors have done in implementing the different components of the rubric. Peer Reviwed by MERLOT