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As
described in the slides, there are many modes of telecommunication.
The mode of delivery, though, is not the most important aspect
in course design. Rather it is the "quality and design
of instruction which makes learning more effective" (Richard
Clark).
There
has been a shift on how online courses are designed in recent
times. Tapscott (as cited in Reily, 2001) outlines 8 shift
that he believes instructor and students need to make if they
want a more powerful and effective learning paradigm. These
shifts are from linear to hypermedia learning, from instruction
to construction and discovery, from teacher-centered to learner-centered
education, from absorbing material to learning how to navigate
and how to learn, from school to lifelong learning, from one
size fits all to customized learning, from learning as torture
to learning as fun, and from teacher as a transmitter to a
teacher as a facilitator.
These
shifts all relate to the learning theories we covered in earlier
discussion.
Gardner's
Multiple Intelligence
- different types of intelligences need different methods
of curriculum design
Constructivist
theory -
focus more on structured activity where the student is taking
responsibility for the contruction of their learning
Andragogy
(self - directed learning theory) - learners need to know
why they are learning the material, material should be learned
experiencially, and problem solved, and material should have
immediate value
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My topic for the discussion thread was on telecommunication
modes. This discussion ran from Thursday to Wednesday.
Unfortunately, it also fell on a Thanksgiving weekend as well
as on the week that our major paper was due. As a result
participation was minimal. As well, the questions were
not as challenging as I hoped it to be. The task of posting
the question using a HTML format was a laborious chore as some
of you might have noticed. I posted it 3 times and did
not get the "look" that I wanted. The
limiting factor for WebCT was that previous messages cannot
be deleted. However, as a learning community I felt those
who did participate had some interesting comments.
The questions I posed were:
How do we use the
different telecommunication modes to promote a "community
of active learners? If you were to redesign this course,
explain what tools you would choose? Why?
Everyone agreed that the tools used for
the course mainly WebCT and Centra really complemented each
other. Iris commented, "I
like the time lag…I can think through
my answers before posting them, so I feel they have better
quality / substance to them, than speaking off the cuff as
I do in real time classes." She goes on to talk
about Centra, "I like this format because it allows some
real time interaction. For me, it makes my classmates more
'real' than printed words." Most of us like the
fact that we can use the asynchronous mode on our own time.
The synchronous mode helped us with clarification, promoted
collaboration, and added real time communication.
As for the different types of telecommunication
modes to create a community of active learners, some people
were for using all types of modes to give each learner an
opportunity to succeed. Other felt that too many modes
distracted from the quality of the course. The confusion
of having to go to various sites to get into the telecommunication
modes was an issue for many of us. Jody comments were:
"If possible, it would be nice to have a single point
of entry - or portal - to the EDER program and all of the
courses in which we are registered. With one single login,
you could have access to marks, courses, fees, research tools,
and the list goes on."
Crystal mentioned the theory of "meta-cognition."
This term is often simply
defined as "thinking about thinking." In actuality,
defining meta-cognition is not that simple. Although the
term has been part of the vocabulary of educational psychologists
for the last couple of decades, and the concept for as long
as humans have been able to reflect on their cognitive experiences,
there is much debate over exactly what metacognition is.
One reason for this confusion is the fact that there are
several terms currently used to describe the same basic
phenomenon (e.g., self-regulation, executive control), or
an aspect of that phenomenon (e.g., meta-memory), and these
terms are often used interchangeably in the literature.
(Livingston, 1997)
She say that "anyone
can access as many postings, articles and posted projects
as are listed, but unless one takes the time to really read
it in depth, think about it, all one has done is recite words
on a page. Active learner is not measurable by how much
they've read or posted, but by what they've come to understand,
what they've twisted through their mind repeatedly until they’ve
come to own the knowledge." The problem is how
do we measure this?
Motivation to learn was also
mentioned as a key ingredient in the setup of a community
of active learners. This undoubtedly is not a factor
for graduate level students because these people choose to
come back to learn and to apply their learning to their work
situations.
All in all, this was a positive
learning experience. There were some things I would
have done differently. One would have been to pose more
challenging questions. The other would have be to intercede
when things were not going as smoothly as I wanted it to be.
However, for an inexperienced mediator, it was a judgment
call because of the mitigating circumstances with a holiday
and a major paper in the works, it was hard to decide if people
were not challenged or just busy.
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