Khine, Myint Swe and Atputhasamy Lourdusamy. “Blended Learning Approach in Teacher Education: Combining Face-to-Face Instruction, Multimedia viewing and Online Discussion.” British Journal of Educational Technology. 34.5. (2003) 671-675.
Having looked at wikis and blogs, I thought I’d step back to look at a more general study of blended learning, especially in context of teacher training. Khine and Lourdusamy’s article is also of interest as it deals with the National Institute of Education, “the sole teacher training institute in Singapore” (671). I had also been inspired by Oravec’s comment that “Because the weblog genre is simple in structure, it may lend itself easily to cross-cultural educational initiatives” (Oravec 618). So, it made sense to look at blended learning in other cultures.
The article looks at a 13-week course called “Teaching and Classroom Management,” which incorporates a multimodal approach to teacher training using a textbook along with content delivered on a CD-Rom, 6 weeks of face-to-face tutorial sessions, in-classroom practice teaching, along with online peer-to-peer interaction via a discussion board. Granted, the use of wikis and blogs was not specifically addressed, but the concept of peer-to-peer asynchronous interaction seemed to overlap.
Whereas content of this class had been traditionally communicated via traditional face-two-face lectures, this time around, the content would be found on a CD-Rom with “relevant classroom episodes, interviews with teachers, policy documents, reports and newspaper clippings on disciplinary problems in Singapore schools” (672).
Having taken Kathie Gossett’s New Media courses, I applaud the multimodal delivery of this content. However, it was never fully explained as to what “relevant classroom episodes” meant, or in what format was the interview content (video or audio only?). I still think the article is of interest because of this approach to teacher training. However, the summarization of the results seems to leave out a lot of potential links between causes and results.
The team doesn’t really mention the power of the first 6-weeks of face-to-face training. The class of roughly 20 students watched the CD-Rom module, and then participated in group activities and discussion time. The fact that the face-to-face sessions were scheduled in the first 6-weeks might have set up a strong camaraderie among the students, and yet that is never really pointed out.
“92% of the trainees agreed that the module was enhanced by the use of materials found on the CD-ROM” (674) and that “what seems to have been valued most in this exercise is the benefit of learning from peers” (675). But exactly how was this concluded? Are Khine and Lourdusamy merely going by survey results or was there a way they were able to measure these results via other instruments?
The authors claim the “appropriate use of technologies can make learning more interesting and enriching for students” (671), but again, how are they defining “interesting” and “enriching?” The students in this course are adult teachers, but could this approach be used in other learning contexts with younger pupils? This article leaves me with more questions than answers, and yet that really doesn’t bother me. The article (probably unintentionally) prompts me to think about possible methods in which further study could attempt to answer these questions.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Post #3: Posting now because of my trip
Oravec, Jo Ann. “Bookmarking the World: Weblog Applications in Education.” Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy. 45.7. (2002): 616-621.
As the first two articles I mention in this course’s posts cited this article, I decided it might be interesting to see if Jo Ann Oravec said anything that could be useful for my purposes. Oravec immediately makes the case for two important and distinct uses of blogs in education: 1- (the use most-often cited) blogs can be used as a venue for students to create and post their own content and reflections, and 2- (the use I haven’t really seen mentioned in other articles), blogs can be a source of “useful information” and “high quality relevant material” (616).
Considering its brevity, this article does manage to cover many applications, benefits and drawbacks of blogs in the classroom. A couple of particularly appropriate applications of student blogging include strong supplementary journalistic and marketing/business training. These applications are strong because of a couple benefits of the blog format: its immediacy and potential for direct contact with the world (620). Although Oravec believes in blogging, she cautions against many drawbacks of blogs: potential for abuses with plagiarism, their constantly changing content, and possible movement to another URL, or even complete disappearance (618).
I found the article helpful and would recommend it to anyone who is still ambivalent about blogging’s academic usefulness. I would echo Oravec’s point that we’re so used to asking students to post to blogs, that often we don’t value the resource that they can be for finding information. However, Oravec doesn’t address what to do with the fact that blogs do not carry the same amount of weight or clout in academic discourse. Granted, this may be due to two more drawbacks she does mention—the issues regarding verification of information and potential problems with intellectual property and copyright. Some content may be created by published and highly-regarded scholars, yet blog content is often regarded as personal, anecdotal and it often lacks verification through the peer review process. However, I agree that blog content isn’t entirely useless.
One caveat about this article: whereas Oravec cites academic contributions in her article, these quotes mainly stated generalizations about blogs in higher education and really didn’t offer grounding to the claims made by Oravec. Although I believe the content is sound, I think Oravec should have included examples or results of studies to substantiate her claims. Definitely there should be more study on the praxis of blogging in the classroom.
As the first two articles I mention in this course’s posts cited this article, I decided it might be interesting to see if Jo Ann Oravec said anything that could be useful for my purposes. Oravec immediately makes the case for two important and distinct uses of blogs in education: 1- (the use most-often cited) blogs can be used as a venue for students to create and post their own content and reflections, and 2- (the use I haven’t really seen mentioned in other articles), blogs can be a source of “useful information” and “high quality relevant material” (616).
Considering its brevity, this article does manage to cover many applications, benefits and drawbacks of blogs in the classroom. A couple of particularly appropriate applications of student blogging include strong supplementary journalistic and marketing/business training. These applications are strong because of a couple benefits of the blog format: its immediacy and potential for direct contact with the world (620). Although Oravec believes in blogging, she cautions against many drawbacks of blogs: potential for abuses with plagiarism, their constantly changing content, and possible movement to another URL, or even complete disappearance (618).
I found the article helpful and would recommend it to anyone who is still ambivalent about blogging’s academic usefulness. I would echo Oravec’s point that we’re so used to asking students to post to blogs, that often we don’t value the resource that they can be for finding information. However, Oravec doesn’t address what to do with the fact that blogs do not carry the same amount of weight or clout in academic discourse. Granted, this may be due to two more drawbacks she does mention—the issues regarding verification of information and potential problems with intellectual property and copyright. Some content may be created by published and highly-regarded scholars, yet blog content is often regarded as personal, anecdotal and it often lacks verification through the peer review process. However, I agree that blog content isn’t entirely useless.
One caveat about this article: whereas Oravec cites academic contributions in her article, these quotes mainly stated generalizations about blogs in higher education and really didn’t offer grounding to the claims made by Oravec. Although I believe the content is sound, I think Oravec should have included examples or results of studies to substantiate her claims. Definitely there should be more study on the praxis of blogging in the classroom.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Post #2: Use of Wikis in Graduate Course Work
Bold, Mary. “Use of Wikis in Graduate Course Work.” Journal of Interactive Learning Research. 17:1. (2006): 5-14.
In the “Use of Wikis in Graduate Course Work,” Mary Bold of Texas Woman’s University, looks at wikis as a viable tool for collaborative work. As Williams and Jacobs discuss the development and use of blogs in their article mentioned in my entry of May 16, Mary Bold looks at the development of wiki technology in 1995 and its desirability in academic settings.
Defining a wiki as “a set of related webpages that can be authored collectively, typically without a special log-on or password entry” (5), Bold cites benefits of wikis:
1. “A collaborative workspace that can display documents immediately, with a minimal working knowledge of HTML tags” (6).
2. Collaborative changes can be made “live” whereas “by contrast, a collectively authored document in a CMS [content management system-DC] setting requires saving, uploading, and other transfer of the file among student-authors” (6).
3. Due to their ease of use and open-source code, wikis require little to no institutional support, financial or technical (6).
4. Bold claims “they are not usually vandalized,” but acknowledges that users can create misinformation and “unwanted changes” (6).
5. Conversely, if there are any issues, because multiple users have access, there can be multiple users assisting in page rebuilding if necessary (6).
6. Wiki instructions are relatively simple and therefore require few demands on teachers to assist their “lost” students. (7).
7. Wikis can allow instructors to delegate tasks to their students who are held responsible for posting, managing and maintaining their work instead of requiring the teacher at each step of the process (10).
8. Wikis can be used as part of group collaborative work or as part of individual submissions (8).
9. Wikis can be used in both informal and personal contexts as well as “formal and science-based” (11).
10. Bold claims that students like wikis (10).
Unlike Williams and Jacobs, Bold had not yet surveyed students specifically about using wikis, but has found past responses to indicate “the loss of interaction as a disadvantage in the online setting” (11) and students’ desire for fostering community. As the Williams/Jacobs article pushes for LMS’s to include blogs as part of the LMS package, Bold states that wikis should also be part of the features or plug-ins offered in CMS products.
Overall, Bold believes wikis don’t just help the student learn the curriculum better, but they help the student learn how to improve their skills in online interaction.
Bold cites very few drawbacks. One drawback has to do with the accuracy of the content added by the users or with the lack of experience many students have in creating content in the wiki format. Bold didn’t cite the emphasis on text-based content as being a drawback and only marginally showed an example of a wiki that contained any imagery.
I found the article handy however, as I wish to encourage new faculty to consider the benefits of wikis (and blogs) in their online and/or hybrid courses as they provide additional opportunities for peer-to-peer interaction.
In the “Use of Wikis in Graduate Course Work,” Mary Bold of Texas Woman’s University, looks at wikis as a viable tool for collaborative work. As Williams and Jacobs discuss the development and use of blogs in their article mentioned in my entry of May 16, Mary Bold looks at the development of wiki technology in 1995 and its desirability in academic settings.
Defining a wiki as “a set of related webpages that can be authored collectively, typically without a special log-on or password entry” (5), Bold cites benefits of wikis:
1. “A collaborative workspace that can display documents immediately, with a minimal working knowledge of HTML tags” (6).
2. Collaborative changes can be made “live” whereas “by contrast, a collectively authored document in a CMS [content management system-DC] setting requires saving, uploading, and other transfer of the file among student-authors” (6).
3. Due to their ease of use and open-source code, wikis require little to no institutional support, financial or technical (6).
4. Bold claims “they are not usually vandalized,” but acknowledges that users can create misinformation and “unwanted changes” (6).
5. Conversely, if there are any issues, because multiple users have access, there can be multiple users assisting in page rebuilding if necessary (6).
6. Wiki instructions are relatively simple and therefore require few demands on teachers to assist their “lost” students. (7).
7. Wikis can allow instructors to delegate tasks to their students who are held responsible for posting, managing and maintaining their work instead of requiring the teacher at each step of the process (10).
8. Wikis can be used as part of group collaborative work or as part of individual submissions (8).
9. Wikis can be used in both informal and personal contexts as well as “formal and science-based” (11).
10. Bold claims that students like wikis (10).
Unlike Williams and Jacobs, Bold had not yet surveyed students specifically about using wikis, but has found past responses to indicate “the loss of interaction as a disadvantage in the online setting” (11) and students’ desire for fostering community. As the Williams/Jacobs article pushes for LMS’s to include blogs as part of the LMS package, Bold states that wikis should also be part of the features or plug-ins offered in CMS products.
Overall, Bold believes wikis don’t just help the student learn the curriculum better, but they help the student learn how to improve their skills in online interaction.
Bold cites very few drawbacks. One drawback has to do with the accuracy of the content added by the users or with the lack of experience many students have in creating content in the wiki format. Bold didn’t cite the emphasis on text-based content as being a drawback and only marginally showed an example of a wiki that contained any imagery.
I found the article handy however, as I wish to encourage new faculty to consider the benefits of wikis (and blogs) in their online and/or hybrid courses as they provide additional opportunities for peer-to-peer interaction.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Post #1: Exploring the Use of Blogs as Learning Spaces in the Higher Education Sector
Williams, Jeremy B. and Joanne Jacobs. “Exploring the Use of Blogs as Learning Spaces in the Higher Education Sector.” Australasian Journal of Educational Technology. 20.2. (2004): 232-247.
In this article, Jeremy Williams and Joanne Jacobs cover a brief historic overview of the development of blog and blog technology, their use in the corporate sphere and ultimate expansion into the academic world. The article also includes the results of a survey they gave to their MBA students at the Brisbane Graduate School of Business at Queensland University of Technology. Written in 2004, their somewhat simple conclusion is “that blogging has the potential to be a transformational technology for teaching and learning” (232) but the article is useful for other reasons.
When initially including the use of blogs in an MBA course, Williams and Jacobs didn’t really tell their students what their goals or rationale were for having this blogging option in their curriculum. In hindsight, they viewed this as a mistake for only about half the class participated “actively” in contributing to the blog. The instructors were surprised to find that the students who “lurked” considered their lurking a valid form of participation, even though they didn’t contribute to the content. These are important things to consider when setting up blogs as an assessment tool in any higher education course.
Williams and Jacobs declare that “universities ought to give strong consideration to the setting up blog facilities within their learning management system (LMS).” The fact that blogging tools have now been added to Blackboard’s more recent versions indicates that other people and indeed the creators of LMS’s have agreed.
Granted, the article may be a little out of date, since some LMS’s have already adopted blogs into their tools and features. However, the survey questions reveal in what ways the blog can best contribute to the learning experiences in higher ed courses: in facilitating learning, facilitating reflection, increasing peer-to-peer student interaction and functioning as a learning tool. Any instructor who is considering using blogs in their courses should review this article to see the ways in which Williams and Jacobs believe they can improve using blogs in future courses. Instructors can then design their courses to use blogs to their best advantage.
In this article, Jeremy Williams and Joanne Jacobs cover a brief historic overview of the development of blog and blog technology, their use in the corporate sphere and ultimate expansion into the academic world. The article also includes the results of a survey they gave to their MBA students at the Brisbane Graduate School of Business at Queensland University of Technology. Written in 2004, their somewhat simple conclusion is “that blogging has the potential to be a transformational technology for teaching and learning” (232) but the article is useful for other reasons.
When initially including the use of blogs in an MBA course, Williams and Jacobs didn’t really tell their students what their goals or rationale were for having this blogging option in their curriculum. In hindsight, they viewed this as a mistake for only about half the class participated “actively” in contributing to the blog. The instructors were surprised to find that the students who “lurked” considered their lurking a valid form of participation, even though they didn’t contribute to the content. These are important things to consider when setting up blogs as an assessment tool in any higher education course.
Williams and Jacobs declare that “universities ought to give strong consideration to the setting up blog facilities within their learning management system (LMS).” The fact that blogging tools have now been added to Blackboard’s more recent versions indicates that other people and indeed the creators of LMS’s have agreed.
Granted, the article may be a little out of date, since some LMS’s have already adopted blogs into their tools and features. However, the survey questions reveal in what ways the blog can best contribute to the learning experiences in higher ed courses: in facilitating learning, facilitating reflection, increasing peer-to-peer student interaction and functioning as a learning tool. Any instructor who is considering using blogs in their courses should review this article to see the ways in which Williams and Jacobs believe they can improve using blogs in future courses. Instructors can then design their courses to use blogs to their best advantage.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
New Course, New Types of Entries
Welcome to my blog for ENGL 895, Teaching Writing from a Distance. In this course I hope to develop a brief workshop on the use of wikis and blogs in higher learning with the purpose of passing this information onto higher ed instructors.
I’ve been asked by my employers to create a workshop on the Use of Blogs and Wikis to present to our new faculty at the end of the summer, I thought I’d take advantage of this course to look into theoretical and practical issues and considerations of blogs and wikis in higher education.
Over the course of the next few weeks I will be posting reviews of articles that examine issues of digital tools in higher ed and teaching the teacher.
I guess it’s appropriate that I’ll be presenting some of my findings via blog entries.
Hope you find something useful.
D.
I’ve been asked by my employers to create a workshop on the Use of Blogs and Wikis to present to our new faculty at the end of the summer, I thought I’d take advantage of this course to look into theoretical and practical issues and considerations of blogs and wikis in higher education.
Over the course of the next few weeks I will be posting reviews of articles that examine issues of digital tools in higher ed and teaching the teacher.
I guess it’s appropriate that I’ll be presenting some of my findings via blog entries.
Hope you find something useful.
D.
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