Hello? Is anyone out there?

Studying by one's self no longer means studying alone. The use of online learning tools should afford students the interaction that is required to learn in a constructivist manner through collaboration and collective inquiry. It is then the teacher's responsibility to be actively engaged with students in the "digital classroom" not merely the assessor of a lonely displaced student. I hesitate to use the term learner, because it would be challenging to be a learner under such isolated circumstances.
Students are not often prepared for the isolation of distance learning when they sign up for the course (Serwatka, 2002). It is then the teacher's role to facilitate the interpersonal connection between and amongst students to overcome the isolation felt by these learners. Activities such as ice breaker discussion threads, chat rooms or "the water cooler" where students can introduce themselves, talk about similar experiences all aid in creating a learning environment, albeit separated physically, that is close in spirit. Without a classroom environment in which students can feel comfortable as part of a group, a camaraderie must develop between the instructor and individual students, as well as among the students themselves (Serwatka, 2002)
In addition to the introduction, teachers may need to initiate contact with students on a regular basis to avoid a perception of abandonment felt by students. Garrison's (2003) Community of Inquiry Framework incorporates Teacher Social Presence and Student Social presence as a critical factor of developing both teacher and student cognitive presence. The teachers cognitive presence may be displayed via the material posted online, however animated and interactive the material may be, teacher social presence is required to make the learning personal and the lessons come alive. It is also important not to merely create a site or indicate an electronic discussion tool is available. Instructors need to springboard discussions by giving some direction and content (Reed, 2000). In addition, early in the learning term, announcements should be made wth respect to appropriate "nettiquette" and advising students to issue their comments in a positive and constructive manner (Casas, 2006). While the announcement can be made at the beginning it si also the teacher's responsibility to monitor and model appropriate behaviours online and in discussion forums.
Teacher participation in the chat forums serves many purposes. By being actively involved in the discussion the teacher can encourage students who may be lurking to enter, they can encourage students to probe further into a deep topic, as well as reach out to students that may not have made a connection to other students in the class. All the while, monitoring and modelling positive and appropriate online behaviours that bolster class discussions and thwart in appropriate discussions.
While these are good guidelines for online discussions, I believe they are founded in the best practices of what teachers do face-to-face. I can't imagine a caring adn effective teacher assigning a discussion topic in a classroom and leaving. Nor would a that same teacher display or allow inappropriate behaviours in their fac-to-face environment. This is clearly an example of bringing the best of the traditional classroom into the digital envrionement.


References

Casas, M. (2006). Implementing constructivist web-based learning and determining its effectiveness in a teacher preparation course. The Journal of Educators Online, 3(2). pp. 1-17. Retrieved August 30, 2006 from http://www.thejeo.com/Volume3Number2/CasasFinal.pdf.
Garrison, D. R. & Anderson, T. (2003). E-learning in the 21st Century: A framwork for Research and Practice. London: RoutledgeFarmer.
Reed, April, (2000) Computer-mediated Communication (CMC) and the Traditional Classroom. Teaching with Technology Today. NEWSLETTER 5(6). Retrieved August 11, 2005 from http://www.uwsa.edu/ttt/articles/reed.htm
Serwatka, J. (2002). Improving Student Performance in Distance Learning Courses. T.H.E. Journal, 29(9). Retrieved August 11, 2005 from http://www.thejournal.com/articles/15952

To Be (online) or Not to Be (online)

Social interaction is needed for students to develop their sense of self (Crichton & Kinsel, 2002), communicate with the teacher, as well as fully participate in a constructivist inquiry based collaborative learning environment. Whether this environment is face-to-face or fully online, class chat rooms and discussion boards have become an integral tool for facilitating social interaction in today's learning and with today's learners.
Combined with teacher presence and cognitive presence, social presence are the pillars of Garrison et al's (2000) community of inquiry framework. Social presence in online learning has been described as the ability of learners to project themselves socially and emotionally, thereby being perceived as "real people" in mediated communication (Gunawardena & Zittle, 1997 as cited in Arbaugh, 2007). There have been a number of studies correlating social presence to increased cognitive presence (Arbaugh, 2007; Benbunan-Fich & Hilts, 2003) as well as increased satisfaction with a student's learning experience.
Garrison and colleagues further disseminate social presence to learner social presence and teacher social presence. It is this teacher social presence that Shea et al (2006, p184) found to be related to student sense of connectedness and learning. Respondents in Shea et al's research were more likely to report higher levels of learning and community whey they also reported their instructors exhibiting more salient "teaching presence" behaviours. These teacher presence behaviours lead to higher reportings of trust collaboration, shred educational objectives, support and learning (Shea et al, p185)
These findings are consistent with Paz Dennen's research that showed teacher presence, when properly balanced between avoiding dominating the conversation to complete abandonment, facilitated learning and social interaction with, between and among students in an online learning environment. In addition, teacher presence is a vital key to demonstrating correct online etiquette (McInnerney & Roberts, 2004, p79).
McInnerney and Roberts found that teacher involvement in online discussion, in a facilitative role rather than an instructional role fostered further discussions and collaborative based learning. I particularly appreciated their guidelines to conducting effective online discussions and chats.
(Understanding, common ground, perception, awareness, Self-Confidence and Clarity) Furthermore, Lewis's (2000) W.R.I.T.E. model is excellent for all teachers as they interact with students at any given time, either face-to-face or online. It is when we integrate the best of current face-to-face teaching with the advantages of technology based learning that the future of education is assured.

References

Arbaugh, J.B.(2007) Does the Community of Inquiry Framework Predict Outcomes in Online MBA Courses? Paper submitted for consideration for presenation at the 2007 meetings of the Academy of Management, Management Education and Development Division

Benbunan-Fich, R. & Hiltz,S.R.(2003). Mediators of the effectiveness of online courses. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 46(4):298 - 312.

Crichton, S. & Kinsel, E. (2002). The importance of self and Development of Identity and Learning. Retrieved electronically from http://www.ucalgary.ca/~rwindrim/files/crichton.pdf September 27, 2008.

Garrison, D. R. & Anderson, T. (2003). E-learning in the 21st Century: A framwork for Research and Practice. London: RoutledgeFarmer.

Lewis, C. (2000). Taming the Lions and Tigers and Bears. In K. W. White & B. H. Weight (Eds.), The Online Teaching Guide: A Handbook of Attitudes, Strategies, and Techniques for the Virtual Classroom (pp. 13-23), Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

McInnerney, J. M. & Roberts, T. S. (2004) Online Learning: Social interaction and the Creation of a Sense of Community. Educational Technology and Society, 7(3) pp73 - 81.

Paz Dennen, V. (2005) From Message Posting to Learning Dialogues: Factors affecting learner participation in asynchronous discussion. Distance Education 26 (1) pp 127 - 148.

Shea, P. et al (2006) A study of teaching presence and student sencse of learning commuinty in fully online and web-enhanced college courses. Internet and Higher Education 9, pp 175 - 190.

The Full Meal Deal

A few years ago Dairy Queen advertised their"Full Meal Deal" that included a main portion, a side, a drink and a dessert. It was meant to appeal to those that felt after eating at another fast-food restaurant may have left still feeling hungry or at least, not full or not satisfied. It became, to me, my mantra of what I wanted from so many things in life; from my job, to my partner, and now I believe I can apply it to teaching and learning.
I often think of what I want from teaching, but alas that is a topic for another blog. I also often think about what do students want from school. I also think many of them are not getting their educative "Full Meal Deal". This is to say that many students leave school or a course unsatisfied or at least not full.
By combining the ideas presented in McCombs & Vakili's (2005) paper with Crichton and Kinsel's (2002) paper, I believe it begins to come closer to a fuller more satisfying approach to education, be it online or face-to-face.
While Crichton and Kinsel's work focused on the student's development of identity, McCombs and Vakili's work presented a framework for pedagogical applications in teaching and learning online. I now aggregate these ideas to present "two wheels of the same cart"(Unknown) for Learner centered teaching and learning.
By enhancing learners' capacities to develop their own complex and multi-faceted sense of self, Crichton and Kinsel believe confidence there is a correlating improvement in achievement and self-confidence felt by the learners. By focusing on the students' themselves as people with all of their strengths and frailties, we can create and foster relationships through which any curriculum standards may be met. It is when we de-personalise and standardise instruction that we remove the student from the equation and leave the student feeling unfulfilled educationally.
On the other side, McCombs and Vakili support Crichton and Kinsel's view with their overriding principal that is it necessary to look not only for the match or mismatch of technology uses with learning principles, but also its match or mismatch with learners and their diverse learning needs. They see the value in focusing on the student to develop students fully as well. By providing opportunities for inquiry and collaboration, either online or face-to-face, learners can build technical as well as technical thinking skills. Combine this in an comfortable and caring online environment where students feel welcomed, valued, supported and respected, the fulfillment as they develop their sense of self can become a natural product. The two wheels have now come full circle where each complements the other in their development and success.
References
Crichton, S. & Kinsel, E. (2002). The importance and development of identity in learning. Retrieved electronically from D2L September 15, 2008 as part of University of Calgary EDER 679.06 from http://www.ucalgary.ca/~rwindrim/files/crichton.pdf
McCombs, B. & Vakili, D. (2005). A Learner-Centered Framework for E-Learning, Daily Teacher's Record, 107(8) pp 1582 - 1600. retrieved electronically from D2L September 15, 2008 as part of Universtiy of Calgary EDER 679.06 from http://fp.ucalgary.ca/maclachlan/EDER%20679.06%20Fall%202006/learner-centred-framework.pdf

Rainy Sundays

So I am sitting in the math office at Diefenbaker High School completing this weeks' assignments and quizzes. My frustration level has dropped dramatically as I am having some more success with my other course web page; much more than I had this morning.
I was just speaking with a friend about Dreamweaver and he did not recommend using it, but I feel at this point I am bound to use it as other programs may not run on my CBE laptop (Maybe I should have risked it and gotten a Mac!!)
I enjoyed the Elluminate session but did not enjoy being bumped out every minute or two because fo the CBE Firewall. However, once I got home the session was interesting and informative. Prior to that seeing as this is a U of C course, I was searching for the Course shell on U of C's Blackboard, then once I clicked on my D2L shell I found it only to further find I was a week behind in discussion forums and entry assignments.
In addition to that for the first week I felt as if this was "How not to teach and learn online" as hiding the weekly readings in the course syllabus was frustrating to find. I went to the weekly checklist and found reminders to do the weekly readings but no links to the readings themselves.
I learned in another course to have assignments and readings posted, placed and linked all over the place, so that learners with different paths of thinking would be able to find whatever it is they are looking for easily. I will try to do this when I set up my own shells and CMS's.

After using the quiz tool, I am very interested in using it effectively for either review for some of my math classes or for TA. I believe the Career Pathways/TA program would be best served not by handing out mounds of paper but having students use D2L effectively to do the assignments, hand in resumes and assignments, complete learning indices and quizzes online. This way I can use my face-face time with them building relationships not handing out tedious assignments.
So far, so good when it comes to learning online. I think I need to reach out a bit more to class mates in the discussion forums and pager to feel a bit more connected to the class.

Week 1 Journal

As my first Journal entry I may list my successful and challenging experiences with the first week in Designing Web Based Learning EDER 679.06.
First, with this being a U of C course, I was expecting this course to appear in Blackboard not in D2L. Once I figured that out, it took me an evening just to get caught up with the discussion threads and introductory activities.
Once I finished those, finding the reading for each week seemed be the next challenge to overcome. When the time comes that I develop my own website I will try to create a section labelled "Weekly Readings" or "Course Readings" or perhaps on the weekly checklist, have direct links to those readings.
The readings themselves were interesting and luckily enough in direct correlation with my other course Computer Based Learning. I hope the tow courses will interact and complement each other well.
Notes from this week's Readings
Keller's (1983) ARCS Model
A - Attention - get their attention and hold it
R - Relevance - Make the material and learning current and relevant to the learners
C - Confidence - Building on Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development, ensure that learning is occurring at the right pace and intensity for each learner.
S - Satisfaction - strategies that provide extrinsic and intrinsic reinforcement for effort.

Effects of Web Based Learning Environments - Wang, S-K. and Reeves, T. (2007)
Increase motivation using
Challenge - Curiosity - Control (student centered and driven) and Fantasy.

First Principals of motivation to learn and e3-learning - Keller, J.M. 2008
Motivation to Learn is increased and facilitated by:

• curiosity is aroused by a perceived gap in their current knowledge
• material is perceived to be related to learner's goals
• learner's believe they can succeed
• learner's anticipate a satisfying and gratifying outcome
• self-motivation and self-regulation are paramount to self-motivation.

These two articles created some hints for me when developing my own WBLE's

• Create links to further learning that the students can follow if desired to give them control on extending their investigation for self guided, self regulated and divergent exploration of new material
• Use video and animations when and where possible or appropriate rather than straight text to maintain interest.
• Clarify HOW the tool will be used, by whom and for what purpose (focus on learner not the delivery)
• Focus the design on increasing conceptual understanding
• Integrate motivation in all elements
• COLLABORATE AT ALL LEVELS OF DEVELOPMENT!!!