Posted 9:45 AM by Steve
From Steve's Head

The E Team - Installment 2

I'm sure everyone has heard the ancient Chinese blessing/curse of "may you live in interesting times". It must be challenging to be an instructor in these "interesting times". (Regardless of whether this saying is authentically Chinese, isn't it refreshing for me not to go on and on about Italy for a change???) After being trained to educate students in a certain fashion and developing your experience over a number of years, all of a sudden you are faced with the task of trying to adapt what you've been successfully doing for delivery using another medium.

One of the results of this type of scenario is what I experienced when I decided to go back and work towards my M. Ed. degree. I knew that my schedule was erratic and taking regular classroom-based courses was not going to work. I needed to find a university that offered the quality that I expected which had courses in a more flexible format than traditional classroom delivery. After a lengthy search, I found an online degree in educational technology being offered by the University of Calgary. I was excited - the exact program that I wanted, delivered by a very reputable Canadian university.

After the thrill of being accepted wore off, I was a little taken aback when I started selecting my first course. As a read through the schedule for the semester, I saw an overwhelming majority of courses with teleconference sessions timetabled several times per week; I had managed to avoid regularly scheduled classes only to find myself in a sea of regularly scheduled virtual classes. What the professors had done was simply recreate the environment that they were familiar with using a new medium instead of adapting their courses to the strengths of the new medium. Based on the growing number of completely asynchronous courses that are starting to appear in subsequent schedules, this has slowly changed as staff has had a chance to evaluate the technology and has begun to adapt their content and delivery accordingly.

How do instructors who have extensive classroom experience make the leap to online delivery without trying to completely reproduce the physical classroom in cyberspace? More training? Have instructors first take an online course? A combination of both? Other possibilities? I have no definitive answers on this, and I have yet to see any published works that categorically address this issue. I would appreciate hearing from instructors who are currently undergoing this challenge or from those who have successfully done so.

Anyway, enough ranting for this week - bring on the articles...

Teachers Train in New Classroom: Cyberspace

Quote: "The interactive and web-based video...is still in its early stages of development. But, already some observers are saying that the software is providing a crucial tool for teachers to learn more effective ways of instructing. It may be the most affordable way yet for school districts to overcome a long list of hurdles - shortages of time, staff, money, coordination - that has hindered teacher training for decades."

Comment: Last fall when I took my first M. Ed. program online course, my classmates were overwhelmingly elementary and secondary public school teachers. When discussion turned to professional development and training, these folks had a litany of concerns about how this impacted teachers:

• little budget and time
• most could only take a half-day or full-day workshop, which from their experiences proved to be useless
• some felt they were abandoning their students if they went away for training
•some saw themselves or their colleagues as being uncomfortable with the changes brought on by training, or by their being "exposed" as a poor teacher because of their current practices
• most felt they could never really benefit from the topics covered as they were presented at times when teachers could not implement them into their classroom practices

This article outlines practical (and powerful) uses of online training in teacher education, implementing what business training has been doing for some time - make training relevant, make it meaningful to the learner, and time training so that the learner can implement what s/he has learned into his/her day-to-day work.

Getting Online: The Challenges for Academic Staff and Institutional Leaders

Quote: "A number of factors have made the push for universities to move online both inevitable and urgent. The implications for teaching and learning are far reaching and include both opportunities for enhancing the quality of student learning and threats to the values underlying higher education. Maximising the opportunities and minimizing the threats of 'getting online' pose challenges for academic staff and institutional leaders alike. Academic staff have to change their roles and develop new skills and ways of working. Institutional leaders have to create a culture that encourages and supports these changes."

Comment: This has got to be the most heavily referenced two page summary I have ever seen - it has an entire page of references to back it up! This is a summary paper of a conference presentation, so it contains just the bare bones of what was presented. It is a good quick read to get an overview of the opportunities, threats, and challenges the author associates with the process of taking courses online in a post secondary setting.

Androgogical and Pedagogical Training Differences for Online Instructors

Quote: "A self-selection process is critical to the success of future online facilitators. At the heart of this process is a self-evaluation, which addresses their written communication skills, belief in the facilitated, dialogue-based model, acceptance of the value of critical thinking in an applications-based environment, technology skills, and academic credentials. They should also consider the significant, and often underestimated, time commitment required in an online class."

Comment: Apart from its constant use of the term "paradigm" (shudder), I really thought this was an interesting read. This article explores the differences between pedagogy and androgogy not only from the perspective of traditional teaching versus the teaching of adults, but also how this parallels the differences between "traditional learners" and "nontraditional learners". The authors provide a good introduction to the kind of mind shift that instructors need to be prepared for when examining how to convert their course content and delivery into an online format.

Faculty Philosophical Position Towards Distance Education: Competency, Value, and Educational Technology Support

Quote: "Research in the field of distance education has recognized the need for a change and modification of the faculty role in teaching at a distance. It is not the distance education technology that drives the instruction but rather the primary changes in teaching style, technique, and motivation that must take place for instruction of the present and future to function effectively. Many studies cite faculty resistance to instructional technology as a primary barrier to the continued growth of distance education programs. How faculty percieve and react to these technologies is more important than the structural and technical obstacles in affecting the use of technology in distance education...student success and satisfaction in distance education courses was substantially and positively correlated to their interaction with instructors."

Comment: The title doesn't give it away, but this is a stats/research study buff's idea of great reading. If that's not you, there's still some interesting information here regarding what the research literature has to say about faculty acceptance of the value of courses delivered using a distance education model. The conclusion of the study indicates that (surprise, surprise) institutions must better communicate the value of distance education to staff who believe that courses delivered via distance education are not educationally equivalent to those delivered in a traditional face-to-face setting, if they want to see an increase in the number of instructors adopting this delivery method.

Posted 9:30 AM by George Siemens
Elearning, Online Learning, Web-based Learning, or Distance Learning
Quote: "E-learning, Web-based learning, online learning, and distance learning are widely used as interchangeable terms. However, these terms represent concepts with subtle, yet consequential differences. In this article, we reveal the differences, review the meanings of these terms, and suggest definitions."

Comment: The field of elearning (or whatever you decide to call it) doesn't do itself any favours by using many different terms to describe small nuances (and this article doesn't even bring in "distributed learning"). These multiple terms are helpful for people experienced in elearning - but the vast majority of people entering the field are overwhelmed (and confused) by the proliferation of terms and acronyms. Simplify.

Design Templates
Via Serious Instructional Technology. Looks like a cool concept. Designing a web site (graphically) proves to be a task for me...I have no problem with the organization/navigation component...but my stunted creativity needs graphical help.

Microsoft Wireless
Quote: "In a growing number of homes, waiting an eon for a Web page to download or putting up with constant interruptions in online music or video feeds are distant memories. High-speed connections, such as cable and DSL, have made speedy Web browsing a reality. The only problem: Everyone in the household ends up competing for time on the one computer with a high-speed connection, while other laptops and PCs go unused or become glorified word processors. Today, Microsoft announced plans to launch a line of products that will allow users to access high-speed connections and other conveniences on any PC almost anywhere in their home -- or even their favorite coffee shop."

Comment: I can relate...Internet access is the most in-demand feature in our household (and the kids are still young!). I've been exploring the concept of a home wireless network...sounds promising (and sure to restore peace to the family...).

Guide to KM Standardiaation
Quote: "Knowledge Management (KM) can be summarized as "a multi-disciplined approach to achieving organizational objectives by making the best use of knowledge". KM focuses on the processes involved in acquiring, creating and sharing knowledge."

Comment: Good KM overview article...including standardization of knowledge capture and storage.