ESL ADAPTATION READINGS

74_Six Principles to Consider

2011-11-29T10:58:00.001-08:00

When Teaching Meets Learning: Design Principles and Strategies for Web-based Learning Environments that Support Knowledge Construction
Oliver, Ron
2000
available at: http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/coffs00/papers/ron_oliver_keynote.pdf

It has been a while since my last update on these readings. And I know people have been reading and checking these articles. Hope the suggestions for further reading are helpful to those who embark in the journey of planning, designing and delivering online learning experiences.

This article, although slightly older in nature, bases its suggestions on the true understanding of constructivism for learning. It states with interest, passion and great literary support, how the change in delivery between F2F learning, and even Distance Learning to online learning is much more than just the use of accurate tools to store, manage and organize content. The telling of the story for learning of the more traditional approaches, the ones that both teachers and students have so nicely become accustomed to, is a different "story".

From the set sequence of activities and decontextualized access to definitions and pre-set, often abstract assessment tasks, which relied heavily on the presence of the teachers as the guiding hand all along the journey, students are led to embrace the more constructivist mode of learning, where they build their way through the new information until it is knowledge they have owned all along.

The table on page 3 of the article, between the old and the new assumptions for the different delivery methods is also an important contribution and reason for reflection that the article mentions. It is stated, once again, that constructivism focuses on the learning as a process not a product. And processes are hard to define and often do not match even amongst similar content areas delivered in similar fashion.

The article states that not only instructors find it difficult to adjust to these new assumptions in the online learning environment, but also students. The delivery of lectures and set of step-by-step instructions is much easier to abide by and follow, than open-ended questions and ill-designed problems, that are subject to interpretations and need to take ownership of responses with highly and more sophisticated ways of thinking. Amongst the suggested characteristics of effective online courses the following are proposed:

the ability through devices and structures of the course for students to feel and perceive the teacher presence even though learner-control is elicited and supported at all times
plenty of meaningful resources - setting up pathways to discover reliable resources while providing strategies to discern important information from irrelevant content
select and construct meaningful contexts for learning - this is probably one of the hardest steps of teaching and learning online
select learning activities ahead of content and make them connect deeply with the goals of the learning
use ill-structured tasks - open-ended responses should be present throughout the course
provide support - remember that most often support comes from peers and peer-directed activities
use authentic tasks

The article concludes by stressing the fact that there cannot be a one-way prescriptive fashion to set up online learning environments, as this would contradict the very nature of the constructivist assumptions on which online learning is based upon.

73_Collaborative Learning and Social Presence

2011-10-04T13:33:00.000-07:00

Student perceptions of collaborative learning, social presence and satisfaction in a blended learning environment: relations and critical factors
So, H.J., Brush, T. A.
Computer and Education 51 (2008) 318-336

The key findings of this study connect and reiterate how positive collaborative learning perceptions are linked to positive perceptions of social presence and satisfaction, which are all critical element of successful online learning experiences.

In other words, students who are naturally and personally open to collaborative learning opportunities will make them happen, engage in the activities that bring these opportunities about and be more sensitive to perceiving social presence and higher satisfaction out of the learning, especially in online settings.

We have been writing for a while about the idea of social presence and perceptions, around the use of the tools, the sense of challenge that using the tools will bring about and the need to re-structure online learning environments in different ways than F2F ones. The dance between perceptions and personal disposition to the experience, and the ability to try things out, immerse oneself in the steps and still reflect on the facts, from a more distant position, is a really refined one to engage students in.

This study confirms, as previous research had already noticed, the importance of the psychological aspects of social presence and how these interact in different dynamics, in F2F settings, online and blended settings alike. It provides the basis for understanding concepts such as interactions in distance learning (p.319), and how these occur on a three-folded level: content/learner and instructor basis (this resonates with the community of inquiry model by Garrison and Anderson).

Additionally, the concept of transactional theory brings up the notion of small versus big transactional distance: the higher the amount of dialogue and the smaller the structure, the shorter the distance felt by a learner with their instructor. The concept aims at considering collaborative learning environments as places where the transactional distance is felt at its minimum. (p.319)

We also encounter the concept of social presence (intimacy and immediacy) and how different media impact on this in different ways.

The research indicates that factors to impact negatively the experience through distance courses by: unclear expectations (by instructor but also by the institution); tight timelines and expectations to complete work on impossible schedules; amount of work expected in course; poor interfaces of learning environments and lack of synchronous communication opportunities (321).

Highlights from this research indicate:

students with more online learning experiences tend to be more satisfied with online courses
use of authentic tasks positively impact the learning experience online
psychological distance and social interaction play an important role in online collaborative learning (329)
collaborative learning structures within the online learning environment usually increases the level of social presence and satisfaction with the course
including collaborative activities within online courses increases the discussion amongst students and the overall sense of satisfaction - however overdoing it will also have negative effects

72_Reflections from a failed Wiki Attempt

2011-10-04T13:09:00.000-07:00

Using Wiki technology to support student engagement: Lessons from the trenches.
Cole, M. Computers and Education 52 (2009) 141-146

A few worth mentioning thoughts coming from this article, connect to a lot of readings already met earlier in this blog, about features and potentials of specific online interactive tools and how these affect the outcomes we hope to achieve by using them in our classes.

The article shows awareness of the fact that the higher education (and in a way - adult education for the purposes of our blog) landscape is changing, much to the effects of technologies as other factors also may contribute to the evolution that is occurring. We encounter the idea of the paradigm shift (pedagogical) as well as the notion that online technologies may naturally be predisposed to support learner-centered environments. What we discover along these considerations is also the fact that there is not much innate in anyone given tool, until we (instructors and designers) consciously make use of the tool affordances in the most optimal way.

Ultimately the article was brought about by the need to share a failed attempt at using wikis to support a learning environment, and while the context of the research is important, a few transferable learning opportunities emerge as highlighted below:

interactive technologies have transformed users into producers (there is a really great line of thought about this by an author and leader in this area by the name of Clay Shirky - Ted Talks are really his thing!)
interactive technologies are levelling the playing field and making it more democratic for learners and instructors alike - however this does not mean we are necessarily ready for the opportunity yet.
the article refers to Tonkin (2005) and the classification of wikis under four categories (single-user, lab-book, collaborative writing and creating knowledge repositories)
Key and recurring theories of learning continue to emerge, such as social constructivism, cooperative learning

Given the failed attempt of the author around the use of the wiki, some important reflections were shared that are worth considering, around the ideas of online learning, and specifically for the ESL world.

Building something new does not mean people will use it.

Agreed. Not everyone is an early adopters, and there is value in laggards and their procrastination or scepticism around the use of new technologies. Certainly building without supporting will lead to failure or really hard ways to reach success.

Pedagogical planning and planning around established processes will affect the impact and use of new technologies.

If instructors do not build spaces for practice and give value to the use of new tools, the incentives to use these tools will be limited and often disappointing.

Redesigning and planning around the use of new tools is a must.

the modifications around the use of new tools are often substantial and cannot be a simple uploading exercise.

Technology is better used to support needed or frequently occurring behaviours, rather than imposing new approaches altogether.
This has probably something to do with the idea of adoption, the idea of pedagogical sound planning and also emotional and personal views around adoption of innovation.

Do not use the technology because learners said or showed interested in the fun element of personal use of technology.
The fine line between the use of a tool for entertainment purposes and for learning goals is one that can often be crossed in the wrong direction.

71_More on Wikis

2011-09-20T09:51:00.000-07:00

Wading Through the World of Wikis: An Analysis of Three Wikis Projects
L. C. Ducate, L.L. Andreson, N. Moreno
Foreign Language Annals - Vol. 44 No. 3 (pages 495 - 524)

As readers of this blog may have realized by now, we have been moving the attention slightly towards more practical thoughts in the readings around the online ESL world, as far s education matters go. This means simply that we are trying to balance the paradigm complexity of moving to teaching online with examples, mainly from the Action Research world, that put those ideas to the test in practice.

This article is fresh from the press. I receive the Language Annals at work and I am always on the look for research that challenges my assumptions to online learning or, at times, provides solid basis to what I am beginning to think may actually work in teaching a second language online, or with the use of online technologies in blended settings. The article refers to the analysis of three wiki projects completed y students of different languages, in public schools in the US. The study set out to investigate the collaborative nature of wikis and how that impacted students' perceptions. Of course motivation is a result of students' feeling satisfied with the use of the tool for the specific projects, so it was also part of the observation in the study.

A few important reflections (some of which we have already encountered in previous research) around the use of the technology include:

Web 2.0 technologies can foster critical thinking and creativity through collaboration (p.495) - the potential is there but it needs to be cultivated with the right strategies.
Web 2.0 technology uses seem to be connected to a number of factors in the programs, including perceived usefulness, ease of use, administration support and teachers' preferences.
Best practices seem to be one way to affect positive uses of technology
A way to categorize technologies is proposed as communicative, collaborative, documentative, generative, and interactive
Consideration around the inherent promotion of collaboration that wikis can provide to education (p.496)
In wiki-based collaborative projects students become authors and audience at the same time - this affect in part, that shift about the perspective of completing tasks using wikis. The author indicated the fact that some students found this very notion of duality in the writing process as a challenge and had a hard time seeing the value of it.
Group work using wikis truly helps students realize the collaborative and cooperative nature of group work.
When the instructor allows for some guidance on editing steps and ways to be engaged through the tool and in the online environment

The article contributes to practice with some suggestions on how to ease the use of wikis for collaborative projects (see page 500) - ultimately the key element remains the idea that the instructor can be present (social presence) in the process through planning, structures, scaffolding activities and a lot of feedback and support.

The three example tasks the study observed include a micropedia (student-let small version of an encyclopaedia); a branching story project (project with different endings and pathways to endings); and a pre-reading project in three different second languages.

Additional implications from the study that bring relevant points to our discussion (ESL and adult learning online) also include the idea of allowing learners to try things out as sample tasks before completing official school tasks. ensuring there is a balance between giving structure and giving freedom for creativity and self-organization, relinquish power (from the instructor' side - this is truly a piece of the paradigm shift that comes to play a key role in the challenges of adopting online tools for education).

Important notice comes from the idea that the "only negative perception regarding wikis involved work distribution and time management - two difficulties that are not so much a problem of the wikis themselves but address the issue of how carefully the instructor should plan the preparatory stages of a wiki project. (p.515)

70. More on Students' Motivation

2011-09-16T09:01:00.000-07:00

Changes in Student Motivation During Online Learning
K. Kim, T. W. Frick. J. Educational Computing Research, Vol. 44(1) 1-23, 2011

While this article moves aways from the more focused themes of structured online learning (whether in its pure online or blended forms), and refers specifically to the Self-directed e-learning (SDEL) students, some of the findings and reflections from the study I believe carry value for bigger conversations, around designing concerns and also ways to appeal and support students' motivation. So I thought it would be worth placing some of my reflections in here. I also consider the relevance of the study based on its publishing date. Research continues to be needed on a number of fronts in online learning (and specifically in ESL) as findings bring to the surface the complexity of the topic and the dynamics of online learning, that are at the same time, similar and different from more traditional educational settings.

In a nutshell, the findings of the research spoke to three key aspects of factors that motivate students in SDEL environments to complete and be satisfied with the learning experiences. Keeping in mind that SDEL environments usually do not include access to instructors or tutors or interaction with a community of learner, the following reflections were generated by reading the article:

convenience and flexibility of learning remain key factors for adult learners to chose online learning. (page 4) - we also know that for some this may be the only option to actually have access to specific learning opportunities (and for institutions to reach a great number of students)
additionally the ability to self-pace and control one's learning were also factors that would lead learners to make the online learning choice. Students who need a more direct, constant and familiar contact with instructors and peers would feel better in more traditional learning settings.
learner control affect motivation in computer-mediated learning settings - specifically around the ideas of: sequencing, pacing and access to support. This specific item can make us consider ways in which learning pathways can be established not necessarily in a sequenced fashion, but more as options/choices, in the online learning, to support student motivation even in more structured learning environments.
the article mentions the idea of playfulness as also a factor to keep in mind - online learning spaces that allow for a sense of playfulness can positively enhance the motivation of learners.
of course technology support and efficiency are critical - technology is the lifeline of the learner in these environments - if it breaks down the communication is interrupted and frustration levels rise.
social presence was mentioned even though, in SDLE settings, students are aware of more independent and 'solitary' learning experiences
ultimately the article summarizes the factors in three categogires: internal, external and personal
relevance of learning goals and tasks was found to be the number one factor for motivation to proceed and stick with the learning experience (the course) - we have considered in previous posts how relevance is not a new element of the learning, and that one way to support this factor is to ensure that appropriate and effective uses of the specific tool or online space is made, in direct connection with the pedagogy behind the choice of the task.
automaticity was also found to be a factor that affected the choice of the online learning in students - reaching a certain level of technology use automaticity allows learners to use the cognitive load on the learning task and not on how to complete it.

The key message from the article is probably the one below:

In summary, data from our study suggest that learners are more likely to experience increased motivation and satisfaction in self-directed e-learning when they: a) perceive the content to be relevant to their lives; b) are technologically fluent; c) are more highly motivated both at the beginning and during the e-learning course; and d) perceive the e-learning experience to be "just right" for them" (page 17)

One important note is my first encounter with the research around the first principles of instruction (problem-centered tasks and relevance to one's personal life). These principles sound very similar to the ideas in online games design of the wicked-problems and the idea that we can, as players, successfully solve them (they are quests just one step higher than our current skills and knowledge - Jane McGonigal Work is phenomenal in this area. I highly recommend you take time to find out about her at Ted. http://www.ted.com/speakers/jane_mcgonigal.html)

Finally, maybe the most important part of the article is the Table on the last page, which outlines principles to sustain motivation is self-directed learners. Some of these principles can inspire design and delivery of online learning for ESl adult learners in more structured courses. I list some below:

find ways to make content relevant to learners
incorporate multimedia content (this, in the case of ESL learners is more of a need than a suggestion)
if possible use real-world types of activities (in bridging programs for ESL this is also an essential element of the course design)
respect Vygostky's principles
articulate effectively feedback (when instructors are present ensure they are timely in giving the feedback and can personalized the responses to stduents' work and offer support)
respect principles of easy navigation of the website

69_Teachers Use of Technology

2011-09-13T09:40:00.000-07:00

Student Teacher Use of Technology to Facilitate Teaching and Learning
Rebecca Ruth Stobaugh, Michael McDonald, and Janet Lynne Tassell
Maddux, C.D., Gibson, D. & Dodge, B. 2010. Research Highlights in Technology and Teacher Education 2010. SITE. (page 43-51)

OK: this short article is more focused on student teacher rather than experienced teachers, but the interesting finding is important to reflect upon. To this date we are still seeing a dissociation between the professional expectations of teachers with regards to their preparation in using technology to its fullest potential, and how it actually works in universities to prepare future teachers for these tasks.

While teachers are expected (according to US national standards) to

use available technologies to design and plan instruction,
implement instruction that facilitates learning, integrates students' uses of technology into instruction
use technology to assess and communicate with students about their learning
are aware and make ethical use of technology parameters with content and sharing of content online,

student teachers leave their university programs with a different set of skills. The study worked with about forty student teachers from four different institutions and realized that the key focus and skill area of these individuals with use of technology for teaching was mainly to support and deliver instruction. And even in that case the uses remained marginal as far as multimedia abilities to diversify content delivery.

"Primarily, student teachers use word processing technology to create documents such as handouts and tests." (page 49)

While several usual barriers were listed to the integration of technology at the school level, ranging from access to technology and support, to time to learn the skills and tools and planning effectively, the use of technology to support and enhance collaboration amongst students remain very low. This seems to indicate that there is still a misunderstanding of the potential of the use of the technology, on one hand, and maybe to the fact that the so called "paradigm shift" in pedagogical approaches to teaching has yet to reach the pre-service realm. And if this has yet to enter that preparation field, we can imagine the difficulty of implementing it in the professional world, where teachers were trained on a completely different battle ground to begin with. Interesting, no?

68_Teacher Presence and Students Learning

2011-09-12T11:51:00.000-07:00

The Effects of Teacher Social Presence on Student Satisfaction, Engagement and Learning
A. Wise, J. Chang, T. Duffy, R. Del Valle
Journal of Educational Computing Research, Vol. 31 (3) 247-271, 2004

The key finding of this study is an interesting one: it may be truly hard to state that social presence, especially teachers', in online learning environment is actually a causal variable in students' learning. In other words: while the teacher's presence is an important one for the learning to occur, it actually seems to be correlational to students' learning (connected in some fashion but not causing an increase or decrease in performance).

Teachers should strive to make their presence in online learning environments, and support positively all activities that occur online during the learning experience. However learning seems to occur or not, regardless of the great or poor job a teacher does online. A number of additional and complex factors affect the learning in very specific dynamics which are often hard to pinpoint and duplicate.

The article derives its conclusions and discussion from a specific study around social presence with elementary and secondary school students. While not specific to ESL environments, a number of observations and reflections, as usual, are important to consider as they either reiterate findings already reviewed in this blog through previous articles, or by making new interesting connections and considerations. Here we go!

online learning environments have the potential to surpass the quality of traditional f2f settings (page 248)
interaction can play a key role in facilitating learning, specifically through the creation of a sense (perception) of community and by promoting critical thinking skills
the idea of community was brought about in the article, as the authors set to discover how the instructor (teacher) can be an agent of community building, from a social presence perspective
the definition of social presence is given as : the perception that there is another real person taking part in the interaction (249)
social presence can be viewed in term of media richness theory - the medium that allows for the most details of secondary communication (facial expression, tone of voice, gestures, etc.) would be considered the most effective to convey social presence. However, the medium in itself cannot determine social presence alone, but it derives its power from a combination of perceptions of intimacy (sense of closeness) and immediacy (psychological distance) (in this case of the instructor).
social presence can be built by interacting with the medium rather than from the medium itself.
higher social presence is thought to bring about higher levels of students' satisfaction and perceptions of the learning experience

Amongst the discussion points of the article emerge the following:

students must have a sense of trust of the learning environment
students' intentions of learning are usually strongly related to the learning outcomes achieved by them - learning intentions remain critical elements of the learning
warm-up activities that usually create a general sense of community in f2f settings, appear to be meaningful and effective if directly related to the content of the online learning (in other words: setting up sharing of ideas, pictures, chatting in social online spaces, just for the sake it it may not be as effective as actually using these tools for activities that are pertinent to the content and the course)
persistence - recurring presence of activities and feedback, provides the opportunity for learning but does not cause it - this is important as far as social presence goes. The fact that a teacher appears to be present in the online learning environment often and regularly does not guarantee higher learning achievements

The article does call upon the need for more structured frameworks that allow for understanding of complex dynamics that facilitate learning in online environments.

67.About Podcasting and Ideas for the SL Classroom

2011-09-09T08:31:00.000-07:00

Podcasting
A Teaching with Technology Paper
2007
Carnegie Mellon
available at: http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/resources/PublicationsArchives/StudiesWhitepapers/Podcasting_Jun07.pdf

Well, as I continue on this reflecting journey through academic and not papers about uses of technology, with a key focus on ESL possibilities for online deliveries (and second language possibilities as well), I have decided to also keep in mind specific and more practical examples on how the move towards online learning can be facilitated, and certainly supported by specific technologies and tools.

Over and over the message heard and reiterate in all corners of research, deal with the realization the the tools are just that - tools. They can be good for something once they are understood, the experiences using them is shared and their potentials exploited and tried out, over and over, until new tools or different tools come along.

This is also the case for this very important read - I would say a must for anyone who wishes to move part of a course for ESL or the entire program into an online space. The use of podcasts should be, in my opinion, an essential element of the make up of the course.

There is plenty of research on the power of sound and multimedia, and the ability and flexibility of playing recordings with a purpose, at one's own time and place are undeniable positive factors, especially in a language course.

As indicated the article is clearly a practical resource. It defines podcasting and proposes three key uses for it in the education setting: creation and distribution of class lectures and support material, and the task for students to create podcasts as homework tasks.

A few points that truly met my interest include:

audio podcasts seem to be the preferred media by students
overall students listen to podcasts on computers more than mobile devices
they are used mainly as review tools, even when lectures are placed (for an input model)
podcasts can certainly help "educate further, but not necessarily educate deeper" (this speaks again to the need to work with sound educational goals, and the absence of such approach will not yield as effective results)
while objections to podcasting have emerged, one specific being the idea that podcasting lectures in higher educations leads to justification of absences, one can also consider the way in which this specific new way of working through new content can change the dynamic of how class time us used - making students work through content prior to attending a live session, allows for discussions, attempts to practice the content reviewed and engage in more meaningful activities during live connection sessions.
podcasts have in this sense the potential to restructure class time and teaching listening as a skill on its own

Finally, the practicality of this specific article comes to mind in reference to an idea, tried and documented in the last few pages. The idea is called: Podcast Pairs - students in a literature class work to create pairs of podcasts - one to read a specific passage and one to create discussion questions and reflections to accompany the passage. This simple idea seems extremely well suited for a language class, no matter the content area talked about. As I said, a really good read!

66. Web 2.0 and Composition for ESL

2011-09-08T12:14:00.000-07:00

Making (and Not Making) Connections with Web 2.0 Technology in the ESL Composition Classroom
Sarah Nakamaru
National Council of Teachers of English, 2011

This short article is written in a self-reflection mode and describes the experiences of an ESL teacher with planning and delivering a specific composition class using wikis.

It begins with a wonderful quote I intend to catch here, which in a way captures some of the learning I have been facing through these readings to date. The idea that we, teachers, and educators in general, are just not ready or prepared to teach the learners of today. The shifts in technology have swept the foundations of our approaches from back at university, and if we do nothing to catch up we will loose an entire generation of learners, in ESl and in all educational subject areas.

Our students have changed radically. Today's students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach. (Marc Prensky, Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants)

The article refers to the idea of a basic disconnect there is between "digital natives" and instructors who may have adopted the technologies but were not born into that language as their native tongue. It could be argued that, to a certain extent, ESL adult learners, at least in Alberta, especially if coming from a professional background, may still fall under the "non native" category, and that may make them more in synch with our own reality as instructors born prior to the coming of Web 2.0 technologies.

Regardless of the era one would qualify as being part of, the article goes on to reiterate how online spaces can be set up and used to the maximum as participatory spaces, where learning can truly be constructed.

The author describes how she set up to use a wiki to reach three specific goals in her first attempt to integrate this technology in her writing class: making connections, as in creating a sense of community amongst students, making connections between the vocabulary and its context, and connectivity, as a sense of actually using hyperlinks to connect three language skills areas: reading, writing and vocabulary.

With a sense of honesty and true understanding of first attempt mistakes, the author shows how two framework models were differently used, in two consecutive attempts, to reach these goals using a wiki. The main learnings from her article include:

realization of the cognitive load of using a new technology for ESL learners - frustration levels arose and would lead to challenges, lower rates of participation and perceptions of possibility of success
learning to open more than one unidirectional pathway between goals and ways to achieve them, and being more open to collaboration through the wiki space, rather than control everything from the get go
organize content by content mainly, rather than by skill
the idea that "wikis don't create community" (page 385) - connections and relationships are built through the tools but within people. The tools on their own do not guarantee the community of learners.
wikis were good for sharing content and connections, sharing comments amongst students, working on corrections and edits that allowed learners to see the progressions and the changes made.
the connectivity nature of the tool could be considered as a metaphor for the possibility of connections that learners and instructors can build together, in face to face or online spaces alike.

One final comment was made about the differences between nativeness and affiliation with technology which may be worth considering further. Learners may be familiar and consider themselves as well versed in a specific technology, especially in the social media realm, while they may still have challenges around the ability to fully adopt a variety of technologies, under the isntructors' lead, especially for educational purposes.

65_About VoiceThread

2011-08-29T08:19:00.000-07:00

Supporting an Online Community of Inquiry Using VoiceThread
by Fei Gao, Yanling Sun, 2010
Research Highlights in Technology and Teacher Education

This article is worth considering, like a few I will be writing soon about from a special edition resource that summarizes highlights on technology and Education. The specifics of this piece are around the use of VoiceThread (www.voicethread.com ) and how this tool can support communities of inquiries based on the Garrison et all. model (2000).

We dealt with the model before in this blog. The idea is that communities of inquiries are built around the intersection of three key elements: Social, teacher and cognitive presence. This article argues that VoiceThread actually meets these three presence elements through its affordances and allows for a multidimensional potential for any online learning, and for us, in specific, for second languages (or ESL).

I highly recommend the consideration of the table that summarizes the features and affordances of the tool that can be found on page 10. It categorizes the features under three key families: presentation, collaboration and moderation features. The key differences between the tool and more text-based traditional online discussion posts is that specific discussion threads can be created through the tool, and the collaboration , view and moderation can occur utilizing multimedia features (text, video, audio and images) in a combination that allows users to follow along at their pace and meeting more than one learning style at a time.

The key claims that the article makes around the idea that VoiceThread supports the model include:

in support of social presence

multimedia tools are utilized to engage in the asynchronous conversation (use of audio in particular can support the connection with teachers and students at a more emotional level)
ability to share personal experiences
sharing of norms and class rules

in support fo cognitive presence

potential to design interactive activities that are meaningful and engaging (with multimedia support)
focused discussions and peer feedback (these are also totally possible in more text-based environments)

in support of teacher presence

creation of interactive content (this may be a bit of a stretch as one would need to define interactive and compare that affordance with other tools already available online)
engaging different learners through different delivery channels
provide scaffold and feedback

The uniqueness of the article lies more in the fact that it itemizes the features and their affordances of the tool in a simple way. However, the bigger picture view, the comparison with more interactive tools that can also be integrated and used in different ways to meet the model are rarely considered. Additionally, the idea of using a specific tool should include considerations about the tools limitations and specific requirements for use. I personally believe VoiceThread is probably the most reliable interactive discussion platform available to teachers at the moment and it has great potential when embedded in a suite of tools that can be used for online learning in general. On its own it has the potential to quickly become a heavier tool for presentation and collaboration tasks, when compared to more interactive tools like wikis and blogs.

64. More on Students' Perceptions

2011-08-25T11:49:00.000-07:00

Student Perceptions on Language Learning in a Technological Environment: Implications for the New Millennium
Jonita Stepp-Greany
January 2002, Vol. 6, Num. 1 pp. 165-180 Language Learning & Technology

It is interesting to consider how a research conducted almost ten years ago, provided the basis for what would be confirmed and realized, through newer technologies (Web 2.0) and reflections on different uses of online learning in second language courses.

The study reflected on perceptions about the isntructors' presence importance for online learning deliveries, the use of structure in lab sessions to learn the language and the impact that online learning has on students of second languages in general.

Some of the key messages worth considering (even though the article is a bit dated) include:

understanding that overall there are benefits for students using technology in their SL learning experience. these include: motivation, mastery of basic skills and the potential for higher level thinking skills. The use of multimedia for factual information access and sharing seems quite positive.
communication, empowerment and learning (control of learning) seem to have been identified contributions of the use of technology in learning in general (Warschauer, 1996).
As realized in several later studies we already discussed here, writing skills, when structured and intentional, result in improvements using technologies. However, when writing is used mainly to communicate with no emphasis on accuracy, even the more frequent use will not have salient positive effects.
Self-confidence in speaking can also improve, based on ongoing practice and written use of colloquial structures.
videoconferencing was already highlighted as having potential - nowadays, with the use of tools like Skype, it becomes and even more powerful opportunity for live interactions.
Instructors and students' roles change when technology becomes a more prominent channel and delivery mode.
Constructivist approach remains a basis for the new pedagogies.
The teacher presence was felt by students in this study as being very important.
Time on task appeared to be higher when completing work using technology.
The ability to offer a flexible but structured schedule to complete tasks online is important and should be taken into consideration. Putting too much pressure to complete something in a shorter time usually affects students' perceptions in a negative way.

An interesting observation follows about SL students using technology-supported learning environments:

[...]the student must confront a certain level of ambiguity, engage in a wide array of learning choices, and make meaning out of material presented in a nonlinear fashion. Moreover, it may also be difficult for students n a whole language environment to realistically evaluate their own learning. In this study, holistic learning consisted of authentic texts, large amounts of linguistic material, and students engagement in the construction of complex knowledge evaluated through performance-based measures, as opposed to traditional testing. (p.173)

The study finally concluded that the role of the instructor, though a changed one from the more traditional approaches, remains pivotal to the online learning experiences and must include well-developed new instructional skills, that include the understanding of the use of the new tools but also the new dynamics that take place when technology is used to support the learning. Additionally, teachers' roles and work commitment appear to be more time-consuming and somewhat 'harder' at the early stages of implementation of adoption of technologies and that "positive changes from technology are more evolutionary than revolutionary" (page 176).

63_ESl Students' Perceptions of Online Use

2011-08-24T09:57:00.000-07:00

Perceptions of Technology and Manifestations of Language Learner Autonomy
Karen Bordonaro, CALL-EJ Online
Vol. 5 No. 1, June 2003

Although this study is relatively older than the ones I have read and commented upon so far, it does bring up relevant considerations that, once again, impact online learning and delivery of ESL courses using online tools. Considering that Web 2.0 really made its streamline appearance after 2004 is also important to consider, as some of the perceptions and ideas talked in the article can probably be looked at differently now, and will certainly change in a few months.

As the title indicates the research dealt with perceptions and learner autonomy evidence of a specific (small) group of advanced ESL learners and their uses of online tools to improve their language skills. Overall, both positive and negative perceptions were discovered through the study. The positive perceptions included convenience, accessibility, comfort and safety, while the negative listed a sense of inauthenticity, concerns with interactivity (this is one area that is definitely different - at least at the potential of technology use today more than it ever was in 2003), sense of isolation and use of computers as supplement and not substitution to learning English.

An interesting statement in the article states:

[...] advanced language learners do not extensively use computer tools designed explicitly for pedagogical purposes, and that language learner autonomy is not often manifested in the successful self-directed learning of advanced English language learners. (page 1).

The lack of extensive use of pedagogical tools for language learning may require further investigation. Would costs be a reason for not accessing? Knowledge? Design of tools that nowadays can be substituted by free online services instead? This would warrant additional reflection.

The article works hard in defining perceptions and the difference between learner autonomy and self-directed learning.

"Perceptions as used here will refer to how people view the computer as a medium for language learning through their awareness of its value in such role."

"Autonomy as used here is based on the definition offered by Holec as the ability to take charge of one's own learning."

Once again. the research comes to tell us, in different words but similar meaning, that uses of technology are not as essential as the pedagogy behind them. And this specifically speaks to the topics and interests of researchers. The article brings the conversation closer to the fact that often, when technology is added to the picture, assumptions and causal connections are easily made between what was happening to the course or learning in traditional settings and what happens in online learning envrnments. We tend to forget about the other variable that affect the transition and the differences in the learning environments. And the pedagogical approaches are one essential element of that equation.

The potential that CALL brings to the equation (and to a great extent today, web 2.0 tools as well) is not often translated into an actual reality and effective use of the tools at hand. This may be a factor that affects learners' perceptions, as it is reflected upon in the article, considering that students' perceptions can be affected by built or natural relationships they have with using technology.

Interesting finding form the research is the dual natural use of technology from ESL learners in the study: using the Internet and its tools either access content or to practice the use of the language.

Below is a list of additional highlights form the article:

convenience - especially for reading authentic and updated materials
sense of lack of interaction - probably a finding that is no longer applicable with new tools and mobile access
sense of isolation - this emerged in other readings in this blog - overall this is a concern that can be addressed by planning/design and intentional use of available tools
the advanced computer users and ESL learners in this study, did not make intentional use of computer to improve their language skills - if the technology is perceived as positive and useful, this will impact the students' perceptions.

The article quotes an important thought by Healey that I want to commit to memory in this blog and that I believe truly highlights the importance of a thorough and intentional planning around online learning choices:

"Although technology is often touted as the great salvation of education - an easy way to customize learning to individual needs - it rarely lives up to this broad expectation" (Healey, 1999, p.398)

This is a reality that still seems to permeate the experience of many ESL learners who are advised or must select online options to fit their working schedules or their ability to connect with formal learning institutions.

I continue to be amazed at how connected and important perceptions are to the way technology is used in language learning, from both the learners and the instructors' ends. Definitely more reading is required. On to the next entry! :)

62_BlackBoard and LMS Considerations

2011-08-21T16:20:00.000-07:00

ACritical Examination of Blackboard's e-learning environment

By S. J. Coopman, 2009. First Monday, Vol. 14, Number 6 - 1-June 2009

Even though I personally believe the ear of clunky learning management systems (LMS) is approaching a sure decline, and especially in the play field of Blackboards and its look alike, this article proposes a number of truly important considerations that go beyond the specific make of this or that tool. The ideas proposed by the author and reflections considered allow us to learn about designing concepts that can be modified, principles that can and should be used and steps that can be taken or directed towards more interactive settings for our learners. I propose and suggest a good read of the piece, regardless of the decisions made around the adaptation ideas and structures. Chances are instructors will find this a safe place to begin the journey into online learning, and the analysis proposed valid points.

Online learning has moved from the extraordinary to the ordinary (page 1)

one more study that reaffirms the idea that there is little difference in achieving outcomes between F2F settings and online settings.
Generally speaking the most evident concerns seems to be perceived instructor's presence and transactional distance.
Perceptions of the online learning environment will affect how students accept the settings for their learning.
Some research suggests that online discussion is more frequent and more meaningful than F2F discussion. There is evidence of the skill improvement for non english participants in online discussions. This also seems more evident in blended-settings.
Check on quality of interactions rather than quantity - and because students must check on their peer's contributions, the interactions online occur more frequently between students than between student and instructor.

The following quote is too important to be rephrased:

Critical progressive pedagogy challenges instructors to design their course in ways that interrogate accepted - yet unexamined - ways of knowing, critique standard forms of knowledge included in textbooks, and invite diverse voices into classroom discourse. (page 3)

This truly seems to be the only way to approach design for online learning. We learn through this approach not to take strategies and practices for granted.

The author of the article wonders if the relationship between students and instructors truly changes in online learning. The mode of delivery is evidently different, but it may be richer and more involving, in the true constructtivist approach.

One importance critique of the author about the LMS is the realization and importance of understanding how the system and the technology is never value neutral. The degrees of structural flexibility of the LMS usually speaks to the values that the system supports - more or less direct involvement of instructors in the learning paths taken by students.

The article mentions blogs as an improvement from the basic and highly structured discussion boards.

Another element discussed in the article are the four dimensions of online learning: temporality, anonymity, modality and spatiality (use of graphical chats).

The article provides a critical review of the LMS considered and should be read by anyone beginning to use online delivery in structured systems such as Blackboard. In fact, I would highly recommend anyone who is about to become an online instructor for teh first time to actually be an online learners in a course and try the delivery on one's own skin, to face the challenges, limitations but also rewards of the different e-learning experience.

61_ESl Learners and Culture Online

2011-08-21T15:25:00.000-07:00

International ESL Graduate Student Perceptions of Online Learning in the Context of Second Language Acquisition and Culturally responsive Facilitation
F. Tan, L. Nabb, S. Aagard and K. Kim Adult Learning: Vol. 21:1-2. (2010)

I continue on with my readings as I discover additional pieces of the puzzle about online learning, that are also taking me to further considerations, other than the specific adaptation questions that started this blog. The idea is that anything the can increase understanding around online learning, and specifically ESL learning, from students, instructor, designers and stystsmes' perspectives can add to the overall picture of this new mode of delivery that will soon take over the more traditional ways of teaching we are mostly familiar with.

The dance has begun about 15 years ago, and I want to join it and hope to support ideas for others who read this page, to avoid fear of the unknown - online learning can be understood and improved and can make us all life long learners.

This article deals with the specific focus of how - or if - the online learning delivery can support and enhance not only language learning but also cultural understadning. From the lens of the language skills that a given ESL course sets to develop, the study focused on the idea of cultural understanding and transfer. Here some highlights.

Remember that technology remains a tool - "Despite offering the capability of reaching myriad students, technology is only an educational tool that can either enhance of hinder learning and understanding. (page 10)
Vocabulary acquisition appears to be supported by online learning - words used in context and accessible for reflection and additional practice are a plus of online delivery in ESL settings.
However - use of vernacular amongst students of similar cultural background, that was not supported by scaffolding and explanations can become an element of distress.
Reading and writing also seem to be highly supported by default, in online learning environments and allow students to revisit and correct one's text, use texts for meaningful purposes and to cement collaboration amongst students. Students participating in discussion forums admit their need to ensure they have read their peers' contribution to make their own. This calls on skilled instructors to ensure that students do not feel overwhelmed in reading hundreds of text entries.
Listening and speaking skills, according to this study were not positively affected by the online delivery. This can be definitely taken care of as an element of the course that more recent technologies can support and scaffold.
First time users, especially ESL learners, seem to have a very low sense of trust with the technology and time management, for self-pacing also seems to be a challenge without support and scaffolding.
Cultural concerns were expressed by students in this study around the expectation of language and content in academic discussions - some ESL learners felt that the expectation was always to write academic-based thoughts not personal stories included in the discussions.
Overall participants in the study indicated their idea that online learning does not promote cultural exchange and understanding. There seem to be a default sense of loneliness in students if not structured and supported all along.
Instructional designers and instructors need to anticipate students' needs and foresee ways in which the needs can be addressed by the technologies.

60_Technology Acceptance On teachers

2011-08-16T10:45:00.000-07:00

Modelling technology acceptance in education: A Study of pre-service teachers
Timothy Teo, Computers in Education 52 (2009) 302-312

The relevance of this article spreads around a number of topics for this specific Blog. The article provides a nice overview of TAM (technology Acceptance Model) and other perception-related factors that drive the use of technology in teachers. And since the modification and adaptations of curricula into online learning deliveries will involve teachers at some point in time (whether as designers or actual providers) the information from this research is worth considering.

[...] teachers used computers infrequently and often used games and drills in the classroom. (p.302)

Chances are a few ESL teachers we may need to work with in the future, as institutions move towards online deliveries, will fall into this described category. The article mentions, amongst other factors that influence this lack of knowledge and use of computers in F2F deliveries as due to:

lack of confidence
lack of opportunities for PD
lack of technical ongoing support

And since:

"The teacher is the key to effective use of technology in the educational system and it is important for teachers to understand the precise role of technology in teaching and learning so that they can learn to cope effectively with the pressure created by the continual innovation in educational technology and constant need to prioritize and use of technology"... (p.302)

considerations around acceptance of use and limiting factors is important. We have discovered on several occasions, in this blog and its readings, that a key element of success in implementing or working with online technologies is the understanding of how they work and the matching of the effective learning objectives with the proper use of media.

The author states that there are three critical categories of factors that influence teachers use of technology: personal, computer and environmental.

While TAM focuses on the causal relationship between perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEU) and personal attitudes towards computer use, the researcher utilized additional conditions and factors to explain its observations from the study. These are:

technological complexity - TC - the degree to which technology is perceived to be difficult to understand and use
computer self-efficacy (CSE) - an individual's judgment on their capabilities to deal with the technology; and
facilitating conditions (FC) - the environment that facilitates an individual's desire to perform a task

These six elements combined built the basis for the instrument used in the research and brought the author to consider a number of points (the more salient are listed below in connection to the overall theme of this blog):

positive attitudes do seem to have a direct impact on behavioural intention - thus we can strive to create safe and caring environments, for professional development, that foster positive attitudes to implement technology use
perception of adequate support to enable users also seems stronger than PEU and can impact individuals final decision to try out the technology
PEU can influence attitude - if I perceive the technology is not easy to use then I think it must not be useful.
opportunity to participate in ongoing PD sessions was also found to be a very relevant and important factor

The results of this study showed that perceived usefulness, attitude towards computer use, and computer self-efficacy have direct effect on behavioural intention to use technology, while perceived ease of use, and technological complexity, and facilitating conditions affect behavioural intention use directly. (309)

Needless to say that these influencing factors, whether at the teacher, pre-service teacher or even at the learner level need to be taken into consideration when planning for delivery changes such as the one discussed through this blog.

14_Learner Autonomy and Online Learning

2011-08-16T10:08:00.000-07:00

The Application of a course management system to enhance autonomy in learning English as a foreign language
Navaporn Sanprasert, 2010
Science Direct - 38 (2010) 109-123

This article focuses on a very specific cultural context (ESL students in a Thai university) and the attempt to implement increased learner autonomy in students using a blended approach of F2F and online learning.

The interest of the article lies in a few of the observations made based on the journal entries of students in the experimental group and some of the reflection around learner autonomy and motivation, which appear to improve when rightly scaffolded into online learning systems to give an additional "earning space" where students can operate.

Autonomy, which is defined as the extent to which learner demonstrate the ability to take control of their learning, has been justified by learner autonomy researchers during the past decades on the grounds that it can increase motivation to learn and consequently increases earning effectiveness. (p.109)

The researcher of this study indicates that the use of structured and well thought scaffolding activities can support greater learner achievement and to do so the use of a blended approach allows for the creation of an additional learning space that does not directly challenge the more traditional classroom and teacher settings.

Together with the concept of learner autonomy, the article brings to the conversation the idea of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. As students begin to take charge of their own learning, either by following invitations and directions by the instructors (reactive autonomy) or taking charge of their own learning decisions (proactive autonomy). The study focused on a few specific tools that allowed these observations to emerge, amongst them the use of reflective journals (blogs) and attention to individualized and timely feedback to their text entries.

A few additional highlights are listed below:

as students' perception of increased independence grows so does self-directdness - this is an important observation as we try to consider ways to modify F2F curricula into online learning deliveries. The openness and independence that technologies allow us to work with, if effectively used and planned with, can increase learner's autonomy.
the level of confidence in written contributions and the overall production of written texts in ESL students increased using the online submission and feedback tools.
feedback, when timely and individualized increased confidence, production and improvement in writing skills.
in this specific research, students in the experimental group did not report a modified understanding and perception of the teachers' presence (this was a first attempt and in a blended approach - as we have discovered in other articles in this blog, the teacher presence changes and remains a focus point of success).
one last claim by the author of this article is the pivotal role that teachers play in initiating, scaffolding and supporting learner's autonomy.

59_Culture and Online Instruction

2011-08-16T09:50:00.000-07:00

Cultural Competence and Instructional Design: Exploration research into the Delivery of Online Instruction Cross-culturally, by P. Clint Rogers - Charles R. Graham - Clifford T. Mayes, Published online March 9 2007

Association for Educational Communications and Technology

(this blog entry was previously published in another one of my research blogs.)

The intent of the paper is to explore the perceptions and knowledge of instructional designers who are assigned tasks to design online learning environments for international learners. In other words, deal with designing issues from learners of different cultures, when the designers are mainly Western society cultures.

The question per se brings a safe assumption to the table: the fact that no one can assume culturally-based perceptions and designing guidelines can apply to all learning setting and all learners all the time.

Usability concerns seem to resound as the first place one would be looking into and check if there are discrepancies around learners around the world. And there are. The article claims statistical data that shows discrepancies in general between the North American market and the rest of the world.

One striking comment in the article highlights that:

“Even though people of all cultures find themselves learning and teaching in formal instructional settings; who they are and what they bring to these settings can make large differences in how design is approached.” (p.198)

A very important consideration early at this stage of the article, as it presents one critical view that the authors hold dear: the context and what it entails. By context, designers must consider not only the learning settings (formal/informal; face-to-face/online; with instructors or self-guided) and goals, but also the learners and their backgrounds, their experiences and views on learning and life in general.

The key research questions revolve around two specific ideas: awareness of designers of differences in cultural groups (of learners) and ways in which designers have become aware of such differences, the level of importance they play on those differences and how this affects their ID decisions.

The idea of ‘ecological Fallacy” is also very interesting. The author describes it as the impulse for people to apply group or societal level characteristics onto individuals within a group.

A mistake that can often be made around the idea of using “best practices” and the generalized adoption of principles and rules that would provide solutions to all maladies encountered during instructional designing phases.

The article stresses the fact that to arrive to practical decisions that are valid and effective:

[…] a more dynamic approach is needed to account for both the complexities of the learners’ cultural predispositions as well as their individual uniqueness and ability to change” (p.200)

I believe this basic assumption could be extended to the fact that all instructional designing processes should remain faithful to their dynamic nature. The tensions between achievable goals and the realities of the delivery and contexts through which they can be achieved, can never be solved, but one should remain cognizant of their existence and acknowledge the possibility of circular motions that bring designers to the drawing table on a recurring basis. Embracing the tensions with the understanding that they could teach us something at each stage is a value that should be kept in mind.

One of the interesting observations of the people in the study include (in my opinion) the idea that IDT should ensure that materials used in the learning is as relevant as possible to learners and that they can relate it to their daily lives (in other words the content is useful to learners).

The awareness level of instructional designers in this study was categorized into four categories: a) general cultural and social expectations of learners – these change according to cultural backgrounds and experiences; b) teaching and learning expectations – these should be discovered as soon as possible to clarify the understanding of teachers and students and ease communication; c) the understanding of language and symbols (“language structures can actually influence the way in which people think” – p.204); and d) technological infrastructure and familiarity, in other words understanding user ease of access and navigation across the platform.

It is interesting to notice the observation that: the more foreign a concept, model or process is the more likely it is that people are not going to feel it applies to them. Again, it seems we need to get back to the importance of relevance in the content.

As far as the need these instructional designers felt to actually improve their awareness, the article brings about the idea of incidental versus intentional awareness. Designers may stumble upon differences but they can also seek them and learn from them. A mixture of the two is more likely to occur based on conscious designing efforts.

Three barriers to be more culturally responsive to differences were outlined in the article as being:

• Focused more on the importance of content versus the learner context

• The lack of evaluation in the real world practice

• The less than ideal role that IDs have in organizations

These points are important and should be kept in mind as limitations that could be addressed in exemplar future designing efforts.

Finally, the article proposes the idea of building bridges to promote additional and more intentional cultural awareness and integration of principles in designing processes. These are:
• Separating deeper principles from particular application – the principle and the application of the principle are different. Designing processes must include this understanding to be successful. The principle of respect can be universal – its application and demonstration is culturally different.

• Identifying gaps and building bridges – this can be successful if the extremities of the gaps are actually accurate. Building a bridge over the wrong points may do more damage than good. This brings about the idea of support in multiple ways. Discovering the learner frame of reference is a suggestion to proceed to apply this principle. The ADDIE model was mentioned at this point.

• Allow for more flexibility in processes – expressly teach additional and different metacognitive processes and techniques to help learners surface their own frame of references.
This article is extremely useful in terms of considering cultural differences and how they impact the design and success of delivery of online courses. However, the principles established in the article can be useful to generalize over bigger designing activities when creating or adapting online courses for adult learners.

58_The Millennials Shoreline

2011-08-14T11:18:00.000-07:00

The New Digital Shoreline. How Web 2.0 Millennials Are revlutionazing Higher Edcuation
Roger McHaney, 2011. Stylus Publishing, Virginia.

This book is phenomenal. I mean, easy read, fantastic structure and meaningful reflections. I had been looking for a text like this for a while, that would help me put my thoughts in a filing cabinet that did not clash with my confusion with all the new knowledge I am absorbing around online learning.

And even though, by Blog entry number 58 in this site, we are beginning to strain a little from the specific focus of ESL and online learning, I feel this short review and set of thoughts around McHaney's book is definitely necessary and will build on the information sharing I hope to continue to provide to you all around online learning, pedagogies and ways instructors can make sense of their own learning world, that is changing at a fast pace.

Being a book, this review will be slightly longer than expected. I am also adding a few links to documents I had to replicate from the book before it goes back to the library. Just in case I will make use of them in the near future for my upcoming designing projects at the college (we do great work at NorQuest, by the way!).

The book guides the reader from a beginning understanding of the fact that post-secondary education is changing, that there is a new shoreline and that such shoreline can be defined and understood and learning can accommodate it. Once we feel we have a somewhat incomplete but still decent understanding of this new horizon, the book goes back to three main theories of learning - instructivism, constructivism and connectivism, and allows us, the teachers, to make sense of all three, being abel to remain faithful to the contribution that each brings to the learning, regardless of the tools. However the new tools, Web 2.0 are brought into this new picture and connected, meaningfully with the theories and with practical ideas around their use in our courses. The jump or connection to ESL classroom remains an easy one to make on our one, especially based on the readings completed so far in this blog alone.

I will limit my highlights to a few salient points - do expect a slightly longer post for this though (after all we are considering a book! And you should really check it out of the library soon).

"Some technologies are more promising or more acceptable than others. For example, most students seem not to want to meet their professors on their Facebook pages, whereas the Internet has more to contribute to academic world than the mobile phone - except as a vehicle for taking the Internet with you." (page xiv - Foreword by Sir John Daniel)

"Higher education is facing a new digital shoreline largely shaped by forces outside its control. Two of these forces, Web 2.0 and the arrival of tech-savvy millennials, demand that educators reconsider learning theories, pedagogies, and interactions with students and peers. (page xvii)"

Important characteristics of millennials include:

familiarity and expectation of mobile access - it is embedded in their "can do" attitudes
time-shifting lifestyles
personalize and customize by default - you always can and should
creative and innovative beings

The book makes reference to the Tipping Point (Gladwell, 2000). In this view we have three types of promoters for change: the mavens, the connectors and the advocates. Instructors can be any of these or all three in one.

"Empirical evidence is beginning to emerge regarding the effectiveness of online courses, and it looks promising. In a study of over 18,000 course offerings, Benton et all. (2010) of the IDEA Centre indicated that student progress on relevant learning objectives and global ratings of instructor/course effectiveness were similar in online and traditional environments. " (Page 6)

From the author's experience, students have shared comments about online learning experiences such as:

they can list to online lectures repeatedly until they get the point
they seem to comment in discussion posts more than live contributions in the class
online classes suit their schedule best and they can self-pace their learning

Another reflection is around the idea of context and its power.

"If the tech-savvy millennial doesn't see the value in what we educators provide, no matter how sacred we believe our institutions to be, our systems will be disrupted in unexpected ways." (page 8)

Students that are not given contextualized structures from their instructors may even end up having what the author calls the "email-lag anxiety" (not know how long will it take for an email message to be replied to).

Millennials are forcing education to face some substantial changes that include:

priorities of what should be learned and what is reference information
access and use of teaching tools to filter and access reliable information
our students belong to a reality that is different from what we instructors have lived and we have been trained for as professionals - this is a one way change
we will need to rethink educational deliveries

A quote I have encountered in many readings by now is Clarke's quote:

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." (Clarke, 1962, Page 36, Footnote)

The beginning paragraph on chapter six (page 145) explains what students are currently experiencing in their learning journeys. I believe this is a reality that is permeating our landscape these days:

"Students are experiencing a mixture of old and new when it comes to class delivery on the new shoreline. Rather than being offered well-thought-out pedagogies rooted in learning theory, students often find themselves at the receiving end of experimentations with technologies that vary widely from course to course. The new shoreline offers opportunities that allow higher education to become more relevant and effective in its interaction with students, but typically students don't perceive this as happening."

Truly meaningful online learning experience should, as the author reminds us:

be positive and meaningful
involve cooperation over competition
work around complex problems in complex settings - not just over simplified settings and questions
be problem-solving based requiring students to seek knowledge and build networks that together will find a variety of solutions
promote deeper learning
be personal because always connected to the learning that students will experience

A really important point, that states the fact that all three key learning theories, instructivism, constructivism and connectivism are fundamentally still useful and can blend in the online learning field, the authors states:

"The process of building this knowledge may require instructivism-based knowledge transfer followed by constructivism-based experience building followed by the development of a lifelong network of connections to other related nodes. Learning approaches are not mutually exclusive." (page 173)

Finally, worth considering as guiding tips to adopting the new tools and strategies to embrace the new shoreline of education, the author gives us a list of useful and concrete tips to cope as a teacher (section on pages 200 - 204). I list below the headings of each tips - that I fully support in my own teaching and planning.

a lot of socialization can occur through the new technologies. This should be embraced, nurtured and built upon. Online learning does not detach us from our students or peer professionals.
support enabling the use and adoption of new media literacy
encourage mashups for educational material
create sticky learning experiences
put play at work
promote self-training and learning to learn
prepare students for ubiquitous learning
understand and help redefine the new educational boundaries
switch to active learning
learn from agile learning (think open-source code development communities and wikipedia)
engage real problems
use online learning whenever possible (in blended or augmented F2F situations if that is where you need to begin)
take the best of what the Web has to offer
use virtual teams
explore virtual worlds
break free

57_The Horizon Reports

2011-08-09T11:16:00.000-07:00

The Horizon Reports

2009-2011 - Johnson, L. Levine, A., & Smith R. Austin texas: the New Media Consortium

Available at: http://www.nmc.org/horizon

I highly recommend to anyone, but institutions in particular, consulting this great, easy to read resource that has been made available to the public since 2002, as the result of conversations of professionals across the globe, watching out for trends and challenges around technology and its implications on education. Each year since 2002, the report publishes a number of emerging technologies to watch out for and puts them in two key contexts: the short term adoption (up to 1.5 years) and the longer term adoption (up to 5 years).

Key trends that are truly important to consider (if all other rationales fail around adoption of technologies for education in general) are as follows (these come from the last three years worth of reports):

TRENDS

We must reconsider the idea of collective intelligence, harvest it and protect it - it is changing the landscape of education as we speak!
Abundance of resources are putting into question the role of educational institutions, instructors and students (role changes)
Online gaming and role play games are still an untapped potential in the education field. Some of their benefits include: community building and collaboration, engagement and commitment.
Visualization tools and intuitive interfaces are making it easier and easier to adopt and use all sorts of technologies.
Mobile accessibility is here to stay!
Cloud-based knowledge is also becoming more and more evident and offers economic and educational advantages at all levels.
People want to study whenever and wherever.
Collaboration in the workplace imposes a restructuring of ways in which education prepares students for collaborative work.

CHALLENGES

Students are all different while educational resources (in the more formal and traditional sense) are not. This needs to be addressed.
Computer literacy skills are increasingly needed while it remains hard to define them and attend to them through education.
Institutions are asked to prepare learners for future roles (professional) that do not exist yet - the need to address and master procedural knowledge and skills is quite evident.
Institutions lack appropriate ways to measure all skills of learners, in the digital era.
The overwhelming amount of information remains highly untapped and still hard to manage and take advantage of for education purposes.

In addition to defining trends and challenges on a yearly basis, the report proposes six emerging technologies each year, providing definitions, ideas and implications for education and literary research and professional blog links for further reading. Extremely good resource to keep in mind.

56_Students' Perceptions about Online Learning

2011-08-09T07:29:00.000-07:00

Classroom Preferences: What Factors can Affect Students' Attitudes on Different Classroom Settings?
C. Changchit and T. Klaus. International Journal of Information and Communication Technology Education, Volume 4, Issue 1, 2008.

This brief article sheds a light on some intuitive ideas around students' preferences and attitudes for online learning and how these can directly affect retention in online courses at the university level.

Based on ten hypothesis from gender, to distance from educational institutions, to sense of ease with online courses, usefulness and experience with previous online learning experiences, the article sets to state few important points, some of which are highlighted below:

students who enroll in online course perceive them to be very useful
students in online courses have usually had previous experiences learning online
students how are employed prefer online deliveries
students in online courses feel the technology is easy to master

The article reaffirms something we have already discussed at length previously on this blog and that is the fact that institutions need to consider all implications of offering online options and that this is usually not a cheap move in the long run. However, matching course offerings and flexibility to students' needs and perceived needs and attitudes can increase participation and retention numbers.

A quote worth keeping in mind:

It is important that institutions conduct a prior assessment of students' attitudes toward online courses in order to make an optimum course for the institution as well as its participants. (page 35)

55.The Two Ps of Podcasting

2011-08-08T12:34:00.000-07:00

Principles and Pedagogy: The Two Ps of Podcasting in the Information Technology Classroom
Mark Frydenberg, 2008 EDSIG, February 4

This short article holds significance based on the fact that it tries to connect the technical aspects and potentials of podcasting with pedagogical principles that are fundamental to any online delivery. Highlights follow - very easy read.

the RSS feed model impacts substantially the way learning occurs - once learners and teachers together agree on reputable sources to locate information about a specific topic and they subscribe to podcasting channels, the information comes to them and not the other way around.
advantages of pre-recorded sessions (short) that resemble the lecture style types of information delivery. Advantages include:

easy way to organize the sessions (consider benefits of metadata and tags)
shorter retrieval time
multi-use of similar information at different stages of learning
instructors can review their own material and modify it over time (this also engages instructors in ongoing learning)
instructors can make their mini-lectures as relevant as possible to the learning - this tends to increase engagement and interest in the learning
students can generate and share new information
the idea of walking libraries

There are two tables that summaries pros and cos of podcasting in the article that contain salient elements of potential and limitations of the tool
Students have now the responsibility of connecting with new information prior to a given session. They own their learning from inception. Students can then participate in discussions in deeper ways and demonstrate their reflective skills with their peers.

Finally, the article mentions a really great point: towards the end of the semester of the experiment of teaching using podcasts, students in the course became responsible for creating new podcasts to present new information to each other. This part of the course showed an increase in motivation, participation and higher level thinking skills of students.

54.The Networked Student Model

2011-08-08T10:09:00.000-07:00

The networked student model for construction of personal learning environments: Balancing teacher control and student autonomy

Wendy Drexler (201) - University of Florida. Australasian Journal of Educational technology, 2010, 26 (3), 369-385. Available at: http://ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet26/drexler.html.

This article is truly a must read, for those interested in true online deliveries and those who wish to wet their feet in the use of online learning technologies through a specific project, even in blended or f2f environments.

The essential elements and contributions of this article related to the approach to teaching and instructional delivery more than the actual content and case study used to demonstrate them. The now familiar theoretical underpinnings of this study include: contructivism, networked learning and connectivism.

The networked teacher (Drexler 1)

Network learning is defined as: "learning in which information communication technology is used to promote connections: between one learner and other learners, between learners and tutors, between a learning community and its learning resources."

The networked student model is presented as a spin on the networked teacher model, where students connect to and through their learning experiences though four key areas: contacts (with experts, teachers, classmates, friends, family and coworkers); information management ( locating experts, evaluating resources, accessing scholarly works, open course ware and library texts); synchronous and asynchronous communication (VC, blogging, instant messaging and mobile texting); and RSS (subscription readers, blogs, wikis, podcasts, social bookmarking and social networks.

The idea of the model is to empower students to create meaningful nodes of learning, through reflective search and open sharing of findings. These nodes (the network) that one student creates are deeply connected by default with the learning community or communities that the learner is part of and should be regularly revisited and updated. Drexler reminds us of the following key ideas from Jonassen, (2003):

"Ultimately, meaningful learning occurs with knowledge construction, not reproduction; conversation, not reception; articulation, not repetition; collaboration, not competition; and reflection, not prescription.[ It is this] perspective of meaningful learning [that] guides the design of constructivist learning environments."

The article reminds us of a few more ideas that are worth considering - I highly recommend this reading to all:

Consider students' familiarity with the online tools - digital literacy - these needs must be addressed before planning activities that require the effective use of tools to complete meaningful tasks.
Modify the level of structure and scaffold required for students to work in this model, depending on personal needs and experience learning according to the model. First time students will require more structure and mode scaffolding as well more frequent supervision and guidance.
Adapting the model, even for one specific project, can become the objective of a unit - guiding students through the creation of personal learning environments.
This model enhances the use of time management and provides opportunities to practice and improve the skill.
Use of checklists and minimum weekly expectations to be fulfilled are tools that instructors can use to implement the model.
Implementation of the model changes almost drastically teacher practice

The networked student (Drexler 20

I add below the picture of the model that you can find in the article to help you gather thoughts about its intriguing potentials.

53. Online Discussions to support online learning

2011-08-08T08:14:00.000-07:00

Integrating technology into teacher education: How online learning discussion can be used to develop informed and critical literacy teachers

by Josephine Ryan and Anne Scott - in Science Direct, Teaching and teacher Education 24 (2008) 1635 - 1644

This article relates specifically to pre-service teachers and their use of online discussion tools to support a blended learning approach, in their professional training university years. The article refers to an extensive study and focused on the use of online discussions as learning tools for these teachers. The specific content of the discussion posting were around literacy-base pedagogy.

It is obvious how the findings of this study can relate to the main conversations in this blog, even if we are dealing mainly with ESL needs and instructors finding their way to use technology to meet these needs. For this brief summary and comment of the article I will focus on summarizing the reading and trying to connect the findings with ideas that can facilitate the goal of ESL learners in their use of technology.

The use of case-studies proved most effective in discussion postings. This is a finding that reiterates the importance of pedagogical approaches to teaching, more than influence of the tool used to teach. Even in ESL settings, especially in settings where instructors teach professionals with common experience backgrounds, the use of a case study becomes the ground to support, facilitate and nurture higher level thinking skills. This approach through the discussion postings tool allows learners to use the language in context and in meaningful ways. Naturally, with lower level of language instructor will need to consider and prepare higher levels of support as far as scaffolding goes. But the essential use of the tool remains the same: give students the opportunity to master their thinking skills through guided participation in discussion postings with a goal: reflect, analyze and learn from case studies.
Discussions become the "think aloud" places in online learning spaces. This refers directly to one of the straightforward advantages of online-based education: make use of the extended classroom spaces and times to let students voice their thoughts. And by using the written word, students can reflect and modify their ideas until they believe they are ready to be shared. A default side effect of this action, if completed on a regular basis, is the fact that students will practice writing skills in context.
Perceptions of the tool influence its use. Over and over again we have witnessed through this informal literary review, that perceptions have a powerful presence on individuals, at all levels, in their use of technology tools. Encouragement, support, easy of use and accessibility will definitely mitigate more negative perceptions of a give technology, like a discussion tool, and have the potential to modify that perception. But the idea remains the same: positive perceptions directly affect the use of a tool and the level of commitment to stick with it. And often perceptions are based on previous experiences.
While technology is beyond the control of the user (at times) the pedagogy behind the activities is still a matter of teacher's control and decisions. Instructors remain fully empowered in the decisions they make around activities completed with the use and support of online technologies. Sure, modifications are required and understanding of the tool and its potential is certainly important. However, the organization and the pedagogical basis for creating and structuring the activities remains founded in the pedagogy and not the technical aspects of the tool.
If you use the discussion tools make the participation weigh in on the overall assessment of the course. Like all other instructional activities, participating in the discussion posting should be counted as grades in the final evaluation scheme of the course. While discussion postings have been identified in the article as: democratic spaces and avenues for telling personal stories (p.1639), a well structured and thought-out use of the tool is a fundamental element to its successful use in the course.
Discussion moderation is also paramount for the successful use of the tool. This is a new territory for many instructors wishing to use this tool. We have established, along the reading reviews in this blog that online learning and teaching are usually highly demanding of one's time. Organization and knowledge of the tools support this need. monitoring and structuring the discussions in effective and efficient but also meaningful ways helps with the challenges as well.
Suggested use of case scenario roles in discussion posting - the article suggested thee: The initiator, the researcher and the critic. Sharing these roles in groups of no more than five or six students seems to be a working effective strategy

The article overall validates many of the findings already discussed in this blog.

52.E-learning and the 21st Century

2011-06-23T07:42:00.000-07:00

E-Learning in the 21st Century
A Framework for Research and Practice, 2003
D.r. Garrison & Terry Anderson
New York

Where to begin to list the merits of this great book about E-learning... It is so great i so many ways, that I would say it is a definite read for the end of the discovery of the journey about e-learning. Some articles reviewed before in this blog refer to the book, and they help readers get a sense of the complexity of the nature of e-learning. They prepare you to fully appreciate what the authors of this book have done in providing a very descriptive and meaningful tool to read and understand the world of technology-assisted learning.

This brief review will only list some salient concepts - I a actually using the pages of this document to guide me in the current new project I am working on here in Alberta and Canada. I highly recommend you visit the pages of this book before you make sense and define your own strategies to approach ESL and online learning.

we still know very little about the new medium - the web and its interactive tools along with the software and its innovations are still a mystery to us, and especially to their full impact on education.
technology affects the educational transaction - wether we intentionally use it or not.
technology will transform - or already has - teaching (p. xii)
the transmission (presentational) model still permeates the education field - we need to move towards the constructive and collaborative transaction model and technology is in a sense innately predisposed for that mode.
"E-learning cannot be ignored by those who are seriously committed to enhancing teaching and learning." (page 2)
Mentioning the Advisory Committee for Online Learning the authors indicate: "CReating an e-learning experience involves serious commitment to understanding the very different features of this medium and the ways it can be used most advantageously to impart learning"(page 3)
Education is about ideas not facts (p.3)
using technology brings about the paradigm shift in education.
think about what e-learning allows us to do that could not be done before - but also think about the losses of using technology.
as McLuhan teaches us, the uses of a new technology are always based on the older or the one that preceded it.
today's key challenge is no longer 'access' to information but making sense of the info overload.
critical thinking skills can be truly enhanced by the correct use of the technologies - and these can follow the model of the triggering event, exploration, integration and resolution of the problem (the wicked problem so often mentioned in other literature and readings)
the domains that affect perceptions and approaches to learning, according to Ramdsen (1988) are assessment, curriculum and teaching. Assessment brings in the value to the learning, curriculum determines the amount and quality of the content learned and teaching shapes the environment and learning outcomes.
a great of the conversation in the book is based on the text-based and written-based nature of the transaction online and how writing is not to be considered a second-class substitute for face-to-face communication. it is a different transaction that has different features.
consider students as independent thinkers and interdependent collaborative learners (page 22)
"The affordability and ubiquity of e-learning, not to mention its capability to support a community of learners, is clearly disrupting technology in higher education - the lecture." (page 24)
remember the reflective and explicit nature of the writing process - the written text seems to have prevalence in the e-learning environment. Similarly any type of documented asset online, like a video or a recorded audio can work within the same characteristics - intentional and explicit.
the framework proposed in the book follows the model of Community of Inquiry, based on the three key presences in the learning experience: the social presence, the cognitive presence and the teaching presence.
the book makes a list of the different generations that went through the concept of distance education - first generation (distance learning packages); second generation CD ROMs and DVDs/TV education; third generation synchronous and asynchronous uses of technology; fourth generation makes use of the key characteristics of the NET, which are great amount of information retrieval, computer mediated communication tools and processing powers of computers (Java).
we should remember the principle that learning is influenced by what we learn, how we learn it and when.

The book, as I said, is filled with details about the framework approach and the fundamental take on e-learning that supports the idea of the paradigm shift, the need to understand the tool and how it impacts the message and how the technology brings about new pedagogies. Definitely worth considering.

51. ICT and Learning in the ESL Classroom

2011-06-22T13:03:00.000-07:00

Making Waves, Not Just Surfing the Net: ICT and Learning in the ESL Classroom
Leila Kajee, Applied English Language Studies
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
ReadMatrix International Conference, California (2004)

This university dissertation includes a number of very important points about ESL and uses of ICT in the classroom for adults. It focuses on a scenario that is seemingly distant from ESL education in Alberta and Canada, but beyond the geographical walls of the study, a number of really valid points can be read and considered for more "close to home" settings, of adult learners who may find themselves, together with instructors, in online learning deliveries.

Here some of the highlights as usual:

there is wide documentation that sustains that ICT in ESL adult environments brings a number of very important advantages (page 3)
these may include: availability, currency, authenticity and variety of resources, improved collaboration and the possibility to implement a variety of strategies.
the article reflects on key elements of andragogy - mainly from Knowles (1984), Davenport (1993) and Caffarella (1991). These are always good to keep in mind. With different levels of relevance the elements include: self-concept, experience, readiness to learn and motivation. A neat point made by the author is to remember that even though institutions and curricula may claim they elicit students' self-directed learning, there is still a great level of direct instruction and instructor-lead activities in traditional settings.
another cool concept is the idea of "democratization" of the learning experience - ICT seems to bring all players to the same level.
the article presents a summary table that is worth considering - in the table a number of characteristics of adult learners are considered and how ICT can support or connect to these characteristics.

support can be given via ICT
adults can take ownership of own goals and learning needs and make decisions in ICT learning environments
connection to life experiences can be very relevant and facilitated in ICT settings
student-led activities can more easily occur in ICT environments

the author describes the context of her own study - this is where some of the geographical implications may need to be decontextualized and read with care. However a number of points remain valid, such as:

the ICT environment seemed to facilitate debate and deeper thinking through discussion postings
the training needed at the beginning of the course which implemented ICT reminds us all of the basic essential support all need before the ICT-driven learning experience
self-directed learning was facilitated - however students' motivation remains critical
extended access to instructor and other classmates
learners felt they had increased control over their own planning and implementation of the learning

There seem to be very recurring themes by now (since here we are at article/book/read number 51!) in the field of ICT and ESL learning. However this will not stop us from continuing on with reflections and more consideration, as we are just entering this very exciting field of studies.

Read on!

50_Reflections About Technology-mediated Distance Learning

2011-06-17T07:04:00.000-07:00

Creating New Pedagogies at the Millennium
The Common Experience of University of Wisconsin-Madison Teachers Using Distance Education Technologies
September 1998
Nancy Diekelmann, Robert Schuster, Catherine Nosek

The title of this article really attracted my attention at first, even though its publish date was a bit further in the past than I would usually consider reading. Then the nature of the study, interpretive phenomenology, brought back a sense of validity that broke the barrier of time, as I began to expect reading about experiential stories of teachers teaching online, which is what this entire blog is about. I am glad I stuck with the reading as the article presents a number of very valid positions and thoughts that are worth considering.

The more salient are below:

A good reminder throughout the article is set about the meaning of pedagogy (referring to the nature of learning and its experience) and how using online deliveries to teach brings about a new set of pedagogies. This questions the ability and preparedness of professional teachers to actually move into online teaching straightforwardly without any reflecting process or PD training in place.
Another observations that permeates the article is the idea that we can increase our knowledge of the learning experience online by listening to teachers who have taught online and sharing experiences. There has to be also a balance between the theoretical and the practical and a profound understanding that , given the loss of very fundamental parameters in the traditional F2F environment, the use of tools that work perfectly in regular deliveries cannot be just adopted in 'as is' forms.
Ultimately the findings of the article, presented as observations rather than generalizations, include:

loss of the familiar
questioning of the reliance on the visual and physical presence
new roles
learn from experience
new pedagogies

Teachers in the study thought about their own assumptions and beliefs about teaching - what learning means to them and how they envision that learning in the course. When the environment and the delivery methods change so drastically as in online deliveries, these assumptions surface and can create discomfort.
Know the tools (technology) not for the flashy clicks they can make - but for how they transform the embodied experience of the visual and auditory.
Develop new strategies to stay connected. Distance learning changes the way relationships are established an maintained.
Always reflect on the complexity of the tasks you propose and how difficulties can be foreseen and addressed beforehand.
Distance learning tat is mediated through technology is never a straight line.
Be careful and consider the danger in set formulas that promise solutions - in online learning these often do not work.
Be a willing expert - do not stick with your own working formulas and fixed ways of achieving the goals in your curriculum. Be ready to put into question what you want to teach and how - work with your developing and support team to make the transformation happen.
teachers in the study indicated a sense of freedom around the idea of asking what seemed to be dumb questions - in the online world this seemed to be possible. Sense of liberation and freedom occurred in all teachers.
A quote that really spoke to me can be found on page 22 of the article:

"Distance teaching challenges the assumption of conventional pedagogy that teaching strategies are neutral, that is, that they are just tools to be used by individual teachers in specific contexts."

I believe this article speaks to so much that is still not only relevant but also modern to our current learning opportunities, in the advent of Web 2.0 technologies. Reading the teachers' comments and reflections, their stories will certainly speak to so many of us in so many ways, making us feel we are not alone in this journey and that we can truly become experts by sharing what we know and how we feel about it.

I feel privileged to share this in more than one way and sometimes formally through my own seminar offerings. Hope you find that useful as well.

49_The Importance of Instructional Design

2011-06-16T16:56:00.000-07:00

The New Frontier: A Case Study in Applying Instructional Design for Distance Teacher Education

Joy Egbert, Michael Thomas (2001). Journal of Technology and teacher Education 9 (3), 391-405

I was attracted to this article by its title about instructional design - a passion that I have come to nourish since my first encounters with technology in education and later with interactive technologies and online learning.

Some quotes from the article are worth considering, and overall there is a basis of truth to its approach - however, maybe because it was written 10 years ago, or maybe because it only counts for one specific experience of an institution that tried a way to design an online course when online deliveries where just beginning to take over the field, I felt a bit disappointed by its suggested ways to create/design an online course per se.

The idea of adapting or creating from scratch a course for online delivery is, in my opinion, a much more iterative process, where foundations are needed whether they be in research or through anecdotal experience and analysis of the local context and culture of the institution. But foundations are not placed and used in a linear process. A lot of ideas laid on the ground at the beginning of the designing process often require revisiting and even changing of directions, as certain realities do not appear crystal clear at first take. Either way, it is important to consider the specific process explained in the article, as it could reflect the experience of many other institutions, and understanding where one comes from allows us to build bridges and ease communication.

Here the key findings and learnings I took from this read:

"however, it is becoming clear that the educational landscape has forever changed and whatever direction this online revolution takes, it is clear that it will, in some way, affect the way all of us live and learn." (page 391) - This quote was prophetic in its own right! Before the advent of Web 2.0 tools and the use of mobile learning!
Instructional design is put forward in the article as one of the key ways to address the needs to deliver online learning that is of quality and effective. This point has been supported by a number of different articles, already covered in this blog. Analysis more than deliver seem to be the one crucial factor to assure positive outcomes in online learning.
through the analysis of the case study in the article, the idea of the most useful activities that can be conducted in a learning environment resurfaces again, as a familiar theme: students working together, interacting in meaningful ways and building knowledge. The old social constructivist paradigm never fails to appear in this type of conversation!

48_Acceptance on Blog Usage

2011-06-16T16:39:00.000-07:00

Acceptance on Blog Usage: The Roles of technology Acceptance, Social Influence and Knowledge Sharing Motivation

Chin-Lung Hsu, Judy Chuan-Chuan Lin, November 2007, Science Direct

The appeal of this article, where yet again a new model or framework of reference emerges around the use of a technology tool from Web 2.0 is the focus on key factors that appear to drive the use and adoption of blogs amongst young adults. In addition to the model example and the key factors, some interesting facts emerge and could prove interesting to consider is adopting blogs for ESL online deliveries as meaningful tasks for students.

Highlights include:

The average time spent by a blog reader on a blog page is about 2 minutes (not in an educational environment but as personal pleasure reading time).
Consider blogs an act of sharing knowledge (which the article sustains is mostly unselfish sharing) and by default a tool for socialization. A very specific way of socializing online.
The study in the article focused on the relationship between attitudes versus blogs' usefulness, ease of use and enjoyment and how these affect intention of use and commitment to continue using the blog (as readers and creators)
Participating in a blog does not seem to be directly related to the expectation that one is going to be rewarded by the task.

Other than these key elements, the direct connections to the actual topic of this blog seem loose. The idea behind my interest in the topic is mainly to consider research at specific aspects of online tools that can directly be used in ESL learning environments. Blogs, as written production tasks, can be the ultimate way to propose to students the opportunity to create personal stories and reflections on their learning and experiences. the article seems to stress the importance of ease of use of the tool and ways to ensure the experience is a pleasant one. One aspect can be technically attended to and practice usually fills in the gap - while the other aspect, the one relating to the enjoyment may prove more challenging, until a certain level of language skill is actually achieved.

35. Bridging the Gap

2011-06-13T13:45:00.000-07:00

Bridging the Gap - How Web 2.0 Can Help Business Education to Foster Organizational Learning
Dr. Ulf Ehlers, University of Duisburg-Essen, and Dr. Dirk Schneckenberg, ESC Rennes School of Business (paper)

The interest in this particular article lies in the idea that Web 2.0 technologies have the "potential to move education from knowledge transfer to competence development" (Page 1), even though the key focus of the topic gravitates around the learning environments of business education.

I believe it worthwhile as some really concrete and important elements are included and can be easily transferred between the article and education and ESL education in specific. Some key points follow:

Even though Web 2.0 technologies abound in the world of the Internet their systematic use and full integration in educational settings remains marginal and sporadic - reasons for this situations often remain unknown or hard to pinpoint. (page 2)
The element of reflection in intentional use and following the use of Web 2.0 technologies is suggested as a crucial step to achieve a better implementation and use of these technologies in the education field.
A nice definition is given to qualifications (descriptive educational learning objectives taught in courses - page 3) and competences (dispositional abilities to efficiently act in complex situations - page 3). Both require what the article calls: active learning and experience making situations. These appear to be highly transferable / desirable settings in any educational endeavour, and specifically to ESL settings.
Another key definition is the use of "unstable character of learning"

One important aspect of the role of learning in competence development is the unstable character of the learning process. Learning is sparked and initiated through a state of irritation, which is caused by action that takes place in an unstable, non-routinised and complex context. In this unfamiliar and complex context, the effect of individual or collective action is not predictable, as any experience on the effect of action is lacking.

This idea of instability can truly be supported by interactive web technologies, where the nature of learning is based on the discussion and collaboration, the sharing of findings, the prompting of questions and building of knowledge in the true constructivist sense. Nothing is written in stone, and information is used for specific and often complex needs, like the often mentioned "wicked problem".

In the competence based learning the learner has to be "active and participative" (page 4). Nothing new here. What the article then moves on to describe is a specific case study to support the idea of reflective learning.

The nature of tools such as blogs are innately conducive to the idea of reflecting while sharing and opening doors (through comments and other posts) to extend ideas to wider horizons. Tools such as wikis elicit collaboration in virtual settings that remain solidly valuable for synchronous and asynchronous communication, and can still promote reflection by tracking history settings and changes over time.

It seems, as the article states at the beginning, that the tools are there - however their effective and steady use in the education field remains mysteriously low.

36. A Nursing Faculty's TRANSITION to Teaching Online

2011-06-05T17:37:00.000-07:00

Arlene E. Johnson

Nursing Education Perspectives

January/February 2008 Vol. 29 No. 1, 17-22

Online learning can cause a paradigm shift in instructors. This is the key message of this article. Teachers' roles drastically change and the focus becomes the learner and how they can construct their own learning in new and often unfamiliar environments.

One important observation states:

"[...] before moving to an online teaching format, an infrastructure must be in place that includes policies, technology partnerships, and support systems for faculty." (page 17).

This is a critical statement that cannot be easily dismissed. In other words, moving towards online teaching cannot be a shortcut to fix resource problems or access to learners. Planning must occur not only within the design of the courses, but as institutions move as communities towards this new way of delivering formal education.

The study utilized interviews, interpretations and descriptions of participants in a nursing faculty, who recalled and relived their experiences in moving their course into online learning modes.

Lack of technical knowledge appears to be a significant hindering factor in the process, but as important is also the need to access and truly understand the new pedagogy that is the basis to online learning. IN reflecting about these issues, participants of this study admitted to know very little about the pedagogical approaches to online learning. Interesting enough, letting go of the face-to-face familiar delivery mode was not noted in the participants' reflections.

Another critical element of the study is the creation of categories of inquiry that can assist readers who embark in discovery journey about online learning in their own ESL departments. The categories utilized for the study include:

Structuring and delivering course content - even though at times participants felt they were going to be unable to move content into the online mode, they actually discovered how this is a possibility and that the element of flexibility of access is an improvement from the traditional delivery methods. Letting go of lecturing instructional styles was a concern; as well as the rethinking of instructors as facilitators, that guide learners through questions instead of delivering straightforward content. Online courses need to be carefully conceived - as they are much more difficult to modify once the course begins.

Faculty Development - letting go of proprietary feelings of course design and delivery. Collaboration is beneficial and almost essential. Increase in time and commitment from instructors. Instructors' personalities and learning styles influence delivery methods. But collaboration can help find strategies that work for all learners.

Students' Roles and Responsibilities - learners' roles change - the change may require intentional and explicit guidance on the part of the instructor, for first time online learners. Web-based courses tend to higher the thinking skills of learners - but this may require careful planning and scaffolding (especially for ESL environments).

Communication and Relationships - be intentional.

Faculty Role - teaching credibility is on the line. Lot's of trial and error. Instructors may find this a reason to resist adopting the new modality.

Overall the study supports the idea that moving online requires a re-thinking strategy not only at faculty level but at the institution level. More time is required in the new mode, new teaching and pedagogical approaches are required, collaboration often increases as well as deeper level thinking through asynchronous communication exchanges.

It was noted that ideal online delivery teams would have a content expert, a web-pedagogy expert (designer) and a technology expert. faculty would also be better off considering analyzing their own learning and teaching styles before moving into online deliveries. Participating in an online course as student could also be beneficial. Working with a mentor, a teacher who has also experienced the online method at least a few times before is beneficial as well.

Finally:

"The conceptual framework, program outcomes and student learning objectives do not change in web-based education. Students can acquire and synthesize new knowledge in this environment much as they do in a face-to-face classroom." (page 22)

47. Motivational Appeal of Online Instruction for Adult Learners

2011-05-30T13:44:00.000-07:00

Improve the Motivational Appeal of Online Instruction for Adult Learners: What's in it for Me?
Yonnie Chyung
American Educations Research Association (AERA) Conference, New Orleans
2000

Available online at: http://coen.boisestate.edu/ychyung/researchpaper.htm

This article summarizes a much greater research paper the author conducted around motivations, perceptions and satisfaction levels of adult learners around online learning, between 1989 and 1996. So a word of caution has to be kept in mind when considering the validity of the study, as it has now passed the 10-year historical timeline and much has happen in online learning ever since.

However, the study mentions a few very important models and ideas that can be useful not only for the planning or adapting of F2F programs into online learning environments, but presents a more solid basis from the learner's perspective, which has broader implications that go beyond the use of a specific available technological tool.

Highlights of the article are listed below:

adult learners seem to be mainly of two kinds: goal and learning oriented. At first the categories seem very similar. Goal oriented learners learn to achieve personal goals - this seems a very broad understanding and direction of the learning process. Learning oriented learners, focus on specific knowledge and skills which will support their work-related or pleasure/personal needs.
the choice for online instruction is mainly guided by need from geographically dispersed placements (learners leave away from source of instruction) and for time flexibility.
reasons for adult learners dropout in distance education settings include: mismatch between personal interests and course structure/content; lack of confidence; absence of perception that there is anything left to learn.
additionally: learners feel overwhelmed by advanced knowledge and overload of information and incompetence using online tools.
perceptions play a key role in the drop-out rates of adult learners who learn online.

"learners lose their motivation to learn and quit, especially when they do not perceive instruction as interesting or relevant to their goal." (page 5)

Using the Organizational Elements Model (means and ends correlations within an organization) the model supports a simple way of considering how a communications system can proceed.

the idea is that means of the system include: inputs and processes and that these through organizational efforts contribute to the internal organization
additionally the ends of system's attempts include products, outputs and outcomes, and these affect organizational results and have a societal impact, while both affecting the internal and external elements of an organization.

Probably the most interesting feature of the article is a practical table that suggests designing interventions based on the Attractive/Relevant/Confidence/Satisfaction model (ARCS). The table in the article suggests considering a number of potential learner characteristics and using possible interventions - the model refers to which motivational factors the intervention can more specifically work on.

The practical elements of the study are definitely worth considering.

46. Riveting Online Courses Elements and Reflections

2011-05-28T14:20:00.000-07:00

An Absolutely Riveting Online Course: Nine Principles for Excellence in Web-based Education
Jim Henry, Jeff Meadows
Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology, Winter 2008
Available online at: http://www.cjlt.ca/index.php/cjlt/article/view/179/177

I will continue on with readings and comments on readings that I will come across, in the subject field of online education. However, at this point in the research, I am going to consider this particular article a key turning point. Not only it summarizes a valuable amount of research and anecdotal findings around online learning, but it empowers the reader to consider their own place and space in the process of approaching or improving online learning environments, and take it one step at a time.

In fact, of all readings done to date, this is the one I would suggest everyone begins with - the rest are ways to go deeper into the ideas from this article.

here some highlights:

Online learning is here to stay.
"Inevitable" conversations that can be heard about point one go in both directions and ends of the spectrum: from embracing innovation to listing the infinite number of drawbacks from adopting the new environment approaches to education.
"Absolutely riveting" means striving for excellence even when perfection cannot be achieved - and room for improvement remains quite present at all times.
Riveting courses apply sound pedagogical use of the tools and put students in charge of their learning.
Principles in the course include:

The online world is a medium onto itself (the medium is the message). Different dynamics take place and must be considered. Multiple pathways must be designed and accounted for in this environment. Redesigning often takes a very long time.
In the online world content is a verb - students must be actively involved with content. (interaction, dialogue, coaching) - instructors become designers of students' learning experiences - design and take care of affective networks (UDL).
Technology is a vehicle not a destination - be judicious on the selection of the technology tools.
Great online courses are defined by teaching - not technology - find ways to show and nurture the passion for the content and the students' learning experience online. Use frequent, personalized, frequent feedback; engage students; provide clear goals and objectives.
Sense of community and social presence are essential - ensure deeper learning experiences can occur. Consider the ideas behind the community of inquiry model (Garrison et al. 2000) - social presence, teaching presence and cognitive presence.
Excellence requires multiple areas of expertise - you can either grow them in one individual - however the team approach is most desirable. Expertise is not an option!
A great web interface will not save a poor course - a poor interface can destroy a great one! - consider using a study guide; anticipate students' needs.
Excellence comes from ongoing assessment and refinement - again, consider aligning learning objectives with delivery methods and assessment - make changes as needed along the way.
Consider the importance of going the extra mile! -provide exemplars of work; use audio-video clips; share brief personal messages; use rubrics; tutorials, calendar reminders.

44. About UDL

2011-05-25T19:30:00.000-07:00

A Practical reader in Universal Design for Learning
Edited by Rose D. D. and Meyer Ann
CAST
Harvard Education Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts 2006

An interesting book with articles about Universal Design for Learning. It contains a number of articles, some of which are directly related to special education issues. However, a lot of the content is linked to uses of technology for learning. Of special interest:

Apply UDL in the Classroom, Coyne P., Ganley P., Hall T., Meo G., Murray E., and Gordon D., pages 1-13

Notes on the approach and fundamentals of UDL
UDL builds on Vygotsky's work (1998) and neurosciences
UDL supports three types of brain networks: recognition (representation); strategic (action and expression); affective (engagement).
The UDL overview chart on page 5 is quite helpful. The items that UDL supports can be directly related to the flexibility and inividualizability of the different technologies. Consider the following:

multiple examples
highlight critical features of content
provide multiple media and formats
support background contexts (these for the recognition networks)

flexible models of skilled performance
opportunities to practice with support
ongoing relevant feedback
offer flexible opportunities to demonstrate skills (these are for the strategic networks)

choice of learning context
choice of content and tools
adjustable challenge levels
multiple ways to succeed (these are for the affective networks)

An interesting quote that is worth reflecting upon can be found on page 10:

"A printed book represents a certain kind of technology, yet we know that having access to books is not the same as learning from books. Similarly providing students with access to computers, the Web, blogs, iPods and other technologies is not the same as providing access to learning."

43. More Considerations Around Technology

2011-04-25T13:33:00.000-07:00

A Comparison of Traditional and technology-Assisted Instructional Methods in the Business Communication
Diza Sauers, Robyn C. Walker
2004
Business Communication Quarterly
Volume 67
Number 4
430 - 442

This article talks about a study that was conducted with business communication students, and it supports an initial understanding that online education can in fact become the best mean of delivering learning opportunities for some students. This supposes the fact that online education can be at least as effective as traditional education and, in certain cases even more suitable for learners.

The validity of the study includes the rigorousness of the method, and the sample of participants - 261 students in total. Two key results emerge from the project data:

rate of frequency of communication tasks was at least 6 times higher in the online environment through the use of communication tools such as email and discussion postings. This means that students will naturally use these tools more often if they are in online environments than in face to face settings.
writing skills seem to naturally improve in online learning settings

45. Online Learning Student's Reflections

2011-04-25T09:22:00.000-07:00

Tri-fold Transformation: An International Adult Student's Reflections on Online Learning
Fujuan Tan
Adult Learning
2009

This article continues on the reflection elements from the learner's perspective, which is not entirely the focus of the project conducted for this blog, but remains nevertheless an important element of the e-learning field as a whole.

Brief and directly connected to transformational theory, the article reads like a personal reflection on the experience of an ESL professor on her first ever ESL e-learning class. Highlights include:

the key transformations in the article are around language, culture and technology
even though the article does not cover in detail all elements of transformational theory, they are mentioned as: disorienting dilemma, self-examination, critical assessment of assumptions, recognition of others who have gone through similar processes, exploring options, formulate a plan, reintegrate into the experience and create new perspectives.
language - according to the author: "To elaborate, out of the four language skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening, only reading and writing are easily accommodated and thus commonly practiced in online learning." (page 39) This observation is important as ESL learner will face the majority of difficulties in the writing portion, and without guidance and support reading can also be quite challenging. A critical look at one's design of an online learning environment can call for a more balanced approach, where listening and viewing, and also speaking opportunities are truly embedded in the course structure.
additionally around language - the author notes the fact that common vernacular can be quite confusing for foreigners, and in online discussion forums, such terminology should be avoided or monitored and guidance provided in a timely fashion.
around the concept of culture - being a more written-text-driven environment, the online learning experience caused the author a great deal of difficulty discerning cultural understandings and rules. These are usually facilitated and easily available (at least for a quick immediate clarification with the help of cultural informants) in face to face environments.
technology support, ongoing access to quick questions and the need to have directions around behaviours in online learning environments were difficulties encountered by the author.

The reflection article provides a few suggestions for consideration.

prepare learners beforehand, with an introductory course or support system. A period of time through which ESL learners can build confidence and understanding of the system and the environment.
increase use of audio and video media resources.
create detailed syllabi with listing of expectations for course assignments, behaviours, time management, etc.
encourage ways in which learners can create a sense of personal community (share pictures, videos, personal and resepctful information about themselves).

42. Emerging Technologies

2011-04-25T09:03:00.000-07:00

Emerging Technologies
Blogs and Wikis: Environments for On-line Collaboration
Robert Godwin-Jones
Language Learning & Technology
May 203, Volume 7, Number 2
Available at: http://cmapspublic2.ihmc.us/rid=1131480053328_1801720929_4296/godwin.pdf

This brief article, though a bit old, reflects initial thoughts, now considered quite commonly as valid thoughts, about using online tools for communication and language learning.

The article divides the discussion into first and second generation web, considering communication tools from e-mail, to discussion postings, to chats and blogs and wikis. Highlights are listed below:

Nice simple definition of XML (extensible markup language) which is code for using content void of format. Very important concept in using online design. The idea that content can be used in more than one way and that its format does not tie it to a specific placement in the planning is one of those fundamental considerations about the change in frameworks and pedagogical shift.
E-mail and discussion forums are included in the first-generation category. Characteristics noted about each tool respectively is the fact that discussion postings seem to enhance reflective thinking and students take longer to ensure their entries are correct and contribute positively to the conversation of the group. The next step in this communication category that is mentioned in the article is the voice trail using tools like Wimba voice. I suspect that the correlation and ideas shared with the text-based tools and the voice based tools will be different. Something that can be connected to the idea of digital versus analog data.
The synchronous tools in the first generation listed are the chat tools that are now available almost with any online interface one can think of. Important observation the article makes is that chat tools resemble the closest an actual environment of F2F, where students know they are part of a very quick and engaging dynamic of communication.
The second-generation web tools mentioned include blogs and wikis. A key featured noted about blogs and wikis, beside the collaborative nature of the tools, is the fact that users and producers are aware they are publicly being read and viewed. This formal quality tends to lead users to creating more accurate content and can promote self-assessment and review.

One final note about the article is the mentioning of important and useful sites to consider around the use of these communication tools, in education and as social tools in general.

41. Students' Perceptions

2011-04-21T12:39:00.000-07:00

Students' Perceptions of Effective teaching in Higher Education
Delaney, j. g., Johnson, A. N., Johnson T. D., & Tresland, D. L. (2010)
Distance Education and Learning Technologies
At: http://www.mun.ca/educ/faculty/mwatch/laura_treslan_SPETHE_Paper.pdf

This article was brought to my attention by reading another blog online. The idea of actually engaging students in the online development conversation is quite important and crucial to the learning and discoveries of models and ideas that have potential for success.

The study deals with characteristics which also include values that students expect and appreciate in instructors both in F2F and online situations. Ultimately the study indicates that the values are the same, with a slight sequence difference on two: responsiveness and engaging. These two values seem to be reversibly important to the two different settings. Online students consider responsiveness, the ability to provide feedback to students the second most important value in online learning and the 7th most important value in F2F interactions.

The idea of instructors needing to be engaging, is seventh in online and fourth in F2F.

The other qualities are listed below. The article proves an important basis for perceptions and experiences of learners and the comparing nature of the study allows for considerations on how to ensure these qualities can be enhanced in online learning environments.

Online

respectful
responsive
knowledgeable
approachable
communicative
organized
engaging
professional
humorous

Face to Face

respectful
knowledgeable
approachable
engaging
communicative
organized
responsive
professional
humorous

40. Practical Tools in online teaching Inventories

2011-04-20T13:52:00.000-07:00

Managing the Process of Online Teaching Inventory
Patient Education Management
April 1, 2009 pNA

Another non-scolarly reference that contains some really interesting tips that could be easily worked into ESL online learning plans.

Easy read (only two pages)

To track a great number of resources for what constitutes a catalog of tools for patients and the public in general, this institution established a nice routine and system that allowed for quick and effective development and publishing of the material. Consider these ideas as part of content of an online course.
Use a spreadsheet with one sheet per resource or category to save and update all work done on the inventory. A good idea could be to use sheets in the spreadsheet that contain categories of resources. Within each sheet resources can be titles, itemized, meta-data information included and stages of work on each resource can be easily considered. These can also help track down itemized hours worked on each individual resource.
Create consensus with group of people, team members, agreeing on initial and fundamental criteria and basis for approval of a resource and needs for edits. This will make the later steps of the work easier to deal with.
Maintain consistency in processes and products - but also be flexible, especially at the beginning of a process.

As I indicated above, these are practical ideas, and it is reassuring to know that they worked in practice for online inventorying purposes, even though for specific content needs. The strategies are valid across the border and can support and facilitate the achievement of solutions for managing content.

39. About Feedback

2011-04-20T13:17:00.000-07:00

Natasha's Blog
at http://natashakenny.wordpress.com/2010/07/

Good ideas and reflections come from everywhere. Not only scholarly articles. This blog I link to on purpose reflects the idea that sharing inspirational moments and learnings from experience can be as powerful as hard core research, especially for practical upraises.

I add below a few highlights of the blog entry about feedback, based on the article by Nicole and Macfalane-Dick (2006)

be explicit in expectations and criteria for assessment - this is really hard to do, if one does not have a clear understanding or idea of what excellence will look like in one's class. This has nothing to do directly or innately with technology. It is simply good pedagogy. However, for as much as technology can enhance formats and ways to determine and model excellence, ultimately the idea is to decide on goals prior to beginning an online offering. Changing ways and end goals along the way can be highly detrimental.
use intentional and reflective self-assessment - this is also something that technology can totally support and enhance. Facilitating these reflective steps and supporting self-assessment with models, self-tests and reflection journals of sort, can truly be a great advantage in online learning.
deliver high quality feedback - this can be negotiated in term of expectations, timely turn around feedback, involvement degrees into the feedback process, etc. Once more, online learning will closely support creative ways to attend to this element.
see feedback as a dialogue opportunity
promote positiveness and high self-estemeem
scaffold to close the gap from where students are at and where they wish to get
accept feedback from learners and elicit it often

38. About Using Metaphors

2011-04-19T08:40:00.000-07:00

Organizational Metaphors
Mitch McCrimmon
Leaders Direct
Available online at: http://www.leadersdirect.com/organizational-metaphors

Now, reference to this web page seems a bit far fetched for the content and discussion topic of this blog. However, I truly believe that one fundamental instrument of approaches to online delivery, in adaptation modes or brand new courses offered online, not only for ESL but for a variety of subject areas, can all benefit from the idea of adoption metaphors as designing principles that people can refer to.

The article explores the use of metaphors for organizations, and online learning deliveries could be thought of as mini-structures that, when compared to visual ideas, can allow contributors and users to feel more at easy with how they are best supposed to work.

I hope you will enjoy the similarities and inspirational ideas that can be drawn from this article.

37. About Collaboration

2011-04-19T08:34:00.000-07:00

Finding Common Ground in Dispersed Collaboration
Catherine Durnell Cramton
Organizational Dynamics, Vol. 30, No. 4, pp. 356-367, 2002

This anecdotal article seems to be relevant for the collaboration environment that is required in online learning spaces, especially on the faculty and staff sides. Even though not directly concerned with online learning delivery, the article mentions a few considerations that are worth keeping in mind.

Technology can ease the communication flow amongst people. Especially staff working for the same institution. This fundamental and often forgotten ability to communicate via technology-laden tools has increased the frequency of communication but that does not seem to directly correlate with people being more clear with one another or the dispersion of common knowledge being improved.
Failure to communicate and remember contextual information - this is a pitfall of using of email messages and threads. People tend to skip reading the entire message or take messages out of context and this creates confusion. Very important to this thought is the idea that people collaborating on projects from dispersed environments will often lose sight of this important element of the communication.
Uneven distribution of information - dispersed teams will inevitably end up having different access and understanding of common knowledge. This issue can be addressed with common working and sharing spaces (cloud technologies seem to have addressed this issue).
Differences in identifying salient information in same messages can cause problems.
Differences in response speed and use of time - these elements directly deal with cultural competency concerns and can be heightened by the communication which is only mediated via technology tools.

Guidelines for practice are also provided by the article, and could prove beneficial as a starting discussion point.

34. A Dimension Matrix for Online Learning

2011-04-18T16:12:00.000-07:00

A Model for Faculty Teaching Online: Confirmation of a Dimensional Matrix
Marilyn Ryan, Nagia S. Ali
Journal of Nursing Education, August 2005 - 44-8

The interest of this article arises from the idea of action research. A faculty of nursing created a matrix based on "wisdom" and knowledge that faculty members gained from a "hands-on" approach, which was subsequently validated by research about instructors and their experience in teaching online.

A couple of ideas already come to mind about this initiative. The idea that sharing knowledge and experiences can be a satisfying and really constructive process for teachers, especially when it comes to talking about online education. In addition, tackling challenges at hand with an action research approach is also a definitely positive way to improve knowledge and actions in institutions that wish to adopt and enhance their online learning offerings. Lessons learned from the experience detailed in this article are many. A few listed below:

amongst theoretical underpinnings of the study are constructive theory - I can definitely relate to this approach - knowledge is built by learners and not transmitted.
learners construct their knowledge in a social, interactive and supportive learning environment.
additionally, a framework for Web-based courses was also used, by Billings (2000) was used. Criteria included time on task, feedback and active learning.
the study used dimensional analysis - concerning interpretation of data and qualitative coding of data from different perspectives. Dimensions include pre-existing circumstances, conditions under which the event occur, processes to achieve outcomes and outcomes. This is a complex but quite solid framework.
another set of words for the categories in the previous points are: antecedent conditions, context, strategies and consequences.
Some of the findings include:

strong support in staff and the organization in general for online learning - this positively affected the outcomes.
policies can support this structure that can be in place before proceeding.
ownership should be pre-determined.
create user-friendly courses.
teaching online requires faculty to learn new pedagogy, be creative and more energy.
online environments are advantageous as far as time and space limitations.
timely responses and feedback are expected by students. These should be agreed upon before beginning.
learners may need to be taught about their own new responsibility in the new learning environment.
make use of content experts.
use interactive and reliable resources.
increased levels of communication.
online learning communities tend to be born.
reflective writing increases.

The five dimensions that emerged from the study include:

Faculty role change
Increased awareness of pedagogy
Collaborative learning environments
Different relationships with students
Flexibility outweighs committment

33. Learners' Attitudes

2011-04-17T16:01:00.000-07:00

Students' Attitudes toward Online Interaction
Yungwei Hao, Min Liu
Acdemic exchange - Winter 2006

This interesting article set to discover attitudes towards four types on online interactions of online learners, namely: instructional, affective, collaborative and vicarious.

The article explored the importance of interaction and its effects on successful online learning experiences. Interactive online learning environments seem to be more learner-centered.

After defining the types of interaction, the article provides the parameters of the study. Even though a relatively small sample was used for the study, certain discussion points seem to emerge that are worth considering:

learners tend to have more positive attitudes towards the types of interactions that give them specific and timely feedback or information about tasks and content.
secondly they prefer emotional engagement and support.
collaborative interaction was third on the list - this seems to suggest that online course can occur with few collaborative tasks to be completed, and still remain satisfactory as learning experiences.
students' attitudes determined course satisfaction - the higher they were at the beginning of the course and the closer they were met the higher the overall satisfaction was with the experience.

This study seems to suggest that students' attitudes could at least be uncovered at the beginning of the course to predict, to a certain level, how students' experience with the online course could be.

32. Guiding Principles in Online ESL Programming

2011-04-17T15:08:00.000-07:00

This brief summary refers to a series of tips and guidelines to support ESL instructors who wish to move into online learning deliveries. The document os not available publicly to date - but it was created based on funds from the AEI ministry and is connected to the work of ESL specialists in Alberta. If you wish to find out more about the document feel free to contact me.

The document lists a number of guidelines based on five different perspectives: materials, ID topics, Language Learning Outcomes, learners and instructors.

Under each perspective a section is created with easy to relate to guidelines about accessing resources, planning for online learning, considering instructors and learners' needs, etc.

With a total of 81 guidelines and a nice starting point bibliography the document can be a springboard for discussion and can lead to whatever direction an institution wishes to take, once they consider the guidelines and compare them to their own contexts.

31. Communities of Inquiry

2011-04-17T08:44:00.000-07:00

Development of a Community of Inquiry in Online and Blended Learning Contexts
Zehra Akyol, D. Randy Garrison, M. Yasar Ozden
January 2009
Science Direct
World Conference on Educational Sciences 2009
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

A paper about a small study conducted on two courses offered online and as a blended delivery, gives us a few insights on the idea of creating communities of inquiry.

We learn about the key research and model on communities of inquiry (CoI) developed by Garrison, Anderson and Archer.
CoIs are comprised of both learners and instructors. In the framework we find these agents work around three overlapping elements: social, cognitive and teaching presence.
Social presence deals wit the ability of the community members to identify with that community, interact and communicate effectively. (three elements of social presence are affective expression, open communication and group cohesion).
Cognitive presence is the ability of the community members to manipulate and work with information in the collaboration tasks within the community. This is not just understanding of knowledge and content, but the ability to use that knowledge and build new knowledge in the social environments of the CoI.
Teaching presence is the ability through design to facilitate interactions of social and cognitive presence. Teaching and not teacher - because this role can be applied to a variety of individuals participating in the experience.
When put in comparison the two courses showed a few differences.

social presence showed higher levels of affective expression in the online course and higher levels of group cohesion in the blended course. This speaks to the ideas already encountered in our article reviews that learners may find it easier to express themselves in online environments but group formation and group identity may be more difficult in online spaces.
cognitive presence seemed to be overall higher in online environments. This speaks mainly to the reflective opportunities in online environments.
teaching presence seemed to show in similar ways in both environments.

The study was relatively small to allow us for any greater generalizations. However findings lead us to support patterns and ideas already emerging in similar studies.

30. On Blended Learning

2011-04-16T09:08:00.000-07:00

Blended Learning: Uncovering its Transformative Potential in Higher Education
D. Randy Garrison, Heather Kanuka
The Internet and Higher Education 7 (2004) 95-105

The paper aims at eliciting the beginning of a discussion about the potential of blended learning. The key perspective it brings to our attention are some of the challenges that higher education faces today. Even though the article deals with college and university level contexts and not specifically with ESL learners, some lessons can be drawn as a parallel to the topic of discussion of this lit review blog.

It is an obligation of higher education institutions to promote life-long learning. This means meeting new educational patterns that are emerging across the globe, where learners are not as strictly classified and labeled into stiff and non-flexible pre-determined learning "boxes". Online learning can meet this challenge.
Some institutions have adopted the idea of blended learning (online and traditional settings) as the winning option to expand and open doors to more flexible learning environments.
ICT is changing society and the education systems within society. This seems inevitable. (This is actually something that appears as a recurrent theme across the board, when talking about ICT and especially Social Media. Clay Shirky tells us this in a Ted Talk: the "revolution" is here to stay for at least the next 5 years - we might as well learn how to make the best of it! -).
The paper briefly describes Blended Learning -

"a thoughtful integration of classroom face-to-face learning experiences with online learning experiences" (p. 96)

This does not come void of complexities.
Also, blended learning is the in-between model from enhanced learning and fully online learning. The trick is to define all three and be aware of the choices made to adopt blended over the other two. The paper indicates that the options are limitless, but that blended learning seems to be placedin the middle as one way to take advantage of the best characteristics of both approaches (F2F and fully online) in a blend that optimizes the environment for the best results.
Asynchronous technology can facilitate and enhance collaboration, reflection and independent learners to make very considerate and well-thought out choices. This is an important idea. We often think of asynchronous as a distant and ineffective tool to facilitate actual collaboration, while if well planned and structured, this characteristic of online tools expands the walls and the schedules of the traditional classroom and allows learners to build bigger and stronger connections with each other and the construction of knowledge.
Asynchronous technology also allows less noise to be the source of distraction when building new knowledge. Learners can be more focused and communicate with each other at deeper levels.
Blended learning seems to be highly suitable for the facilitation of communities of inquiry.
these consist of 3 elements (according to the paper): Cognitive, Social and Teaching Presence. (p.97)
Communities of Inquiry are the basis for the very social constructivist approach to learning: thinking and new knowledge happen through discussion, dialogue and socially constructed contexts where ideas create meaning. In blended learning the teaching presence affirms and guides these communities to confirming the construction of such meanings.
Blended learning is different from any other model - it is not a simple addition of online tools to traditional setting. As a new medium it changes the message and creates a new experience.

The paper then briefly discusses some challenges in adopting blended learning which are listed below:

Policy
Planning
Resources
Scheduling
Support
Leadership

These elements have become a re recurrent feature of literature and research. Yet, one can easily find in any current institution considering to offer or adopt online-based solutions to learning, that the complexities of the models are either ignored or only superficially included in the conversation, seeking for fast-based approaches which, unfortunately, rarely bear real solutions and positive outcomes.

29. E-learning Framework Considerations

2011-04-16T08:32:00.000-07:00

The Global e-learning Framework: An Interview with Badrul Khan
James L. Morrison and Badrul H. Khan
The technology Source Archives at teh Univeristy of Carolina
May/June 2003
Available online at: http://technologysource.org/article/global_elearning_framework/

This interview article can be considered of importance as it lists a number of really good ideas about the need of frameworks, to interpret, manage and enhance e-learning. Some will follow a logic thought that will reaffirm concepts already encountered in our lit review journey to date. Others will be a bit more novel and some will imply additional complexities that will connect to the overall idea that e-learning is an effort of institutions, and that teams must work together. Instructors alone rarely achieve excellence without the collaboration of the deprtaments and institutions they work for.

Framework for E-Learning
Badrul Khan

Highlights:

E-learning environments must be meaningful for learners. Accessibility, design, learner-centered spaces, affordability, efficiency, flexibility and access to facilitation are required.
E-learning environment as inclusive of distributed learning, flexible and open-learning environments. Meet the learner where they are at, in time, space and levels. These spaces must take advantage of the Internet innate characteristics of openness, flexibility and adaptability of space and time.
Institutions try new paths of e-learning every day. If common knowledge where to be shared they can build together a bank of learned experiences of what works and what doesn't.
E-learning is a paradigm shift not only for learners, but also for instructors and institutions.
Khan speaks of his proposed framework, which combines a number of issues and factors into eight dimensions. This elicits questions for discussion and collaboration. (See image above)
His framework includes a great number of critical questions that can generate not only fruitful discussions but also new ideas to tackle the problems at hand. A few questions below:

Does the institution support and motivate instructors to dedicate more time to improve learner-centered activities?
Is simple language used consistently across the online courses?
What is the state of navigation and visual communication? Are images and media used in a sensitive manner?

While not all questions in each sub-dimension may apply to one's specific e-learning planning and situation, these are definitely good ideas to keep in mind and spark a discussion about e-learning at the department and institution level.

28. Learnings from Under-resourced ESL Programs

2011-04-14T14:55:00.000-07:00

Going Online in Under-Resourced ESL Classes
Leila Kajee
Academic Exchange Quarterly
Spring 2003 v7 iL p102(5)

The notice about this article is the fact that technology is reaching the far end of institutions around the world, especially in less developed places, and the use of online tools can support ESL programs in places where textbooks and more traditional resources cannot. The article notes how we have moved from the drill-like approach (behaviouristic) to the more communicative-based approach and it basis its work on CALL. It concludes that regardless of location uses of technology can bring about global types of benefits.

It stresses the importance of interaction:

Interaction enriches the online environment, dispelling the misconception held by some that the online environment is sterile and impersonal. Dialogue and communication are necessary in computer-assisted learning. Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) refers to the ways in which telecommunications technologies have merged with computers and computer networks to give us new tools to support teaching and learning. (p. 103)

The article lists a number of benefits and challenges which we will use for one of our reflection tools (coming soon) and the call for new ways to support awareness of both challenges and benefits and work towards building support to more effective uses of technology-based tools and CALL.

27. Cybernetics and Teaching

2011-04-11T16:03:00.000-07:00

Cybernetic Circularity in Teaching and Learning
Joy Murray, University of Sidney
International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
2006, Volume 18, Number 3, 215-221
http://www.isetl.org/ijtlhe/

This is an older article and it deals directly with teaching and learning and possibly less directly with actual online learning. However, the idea of Cybernetics and teaching and learning somehow seems to connect to the design and planning that are so directly related to online learning. Therefore I add below a few elements of the article that may come in handy when specific questions will be raised from the tools suggested for adaptation purposes.

Cybernetics is related to the idea of circularity, control, communication and feedback. All elements that must be used and well planned around in online design.
A useful quote about the Second Order of Cybernetics is worth mentioning from the article:
" In recognizing that by communicating with others in a system we negotiate and constitute meaning, and that by being of the system we change and are changes by it, we are inevitably led towards the idea that there is no pre-existing reality, but that we create this world of ours by living in it." (page 216).
This deeply philosophical statement speaks to the fact that online design can facilitate a certain communication system within a course or a unit, but that participants who partake the learning through that system, become active members of the knowledge building process that such system facilitates.
Systems in cybernetics can be conceived as a whole and its parts or a system and its environment. Both perspectives could be useful for adaptation purposes.
The importance of noticing the difference. The observer has an important role.
Circularity implies change - and learning environment constantly change.
Teaching can contribute to learners' survival and changing processes. The author invites us to ponder on the idea that a teacher does not control a communication environment such as the learning environment with students, but aims at understanding the context and reasons through which a response or set of responses arise from.
Another essential consideration and quote that directly connects to the conversation in this blog about online designs:
" If learning is triggered by the environment and we connect with the environment in idiosyncratic ways, then it is essential to provide a wide range of potential "triggers" as possible and many ways of connecting with the learning environment." (Pagew 219)
This directly speaks to the open and diverse pathways that should be set in online environments to build an atmosphere as comprehensive as possible for learners to make connection with the learning.
Reflection is definitely one such apporach.

26. I-Pods and Learning English

2011-04-10T19:18:00.000-07:00

Learning English with IPods
Jan Lacina, Texas Christian University
technology in the classroom
Summer 2008
Also available online at the link here.

This easy to read article mentions a few practical ideas and example of ESL (ELL) language programs in a number of schools in the United States. Examples range from elementary to post-secondary programs, and there is a bit for everyone, in terms of positive effects that using IPods in schools can have in a variety of educational settings. A few are mentioned below. In addition the article gives practical links to tutorials and ideas around uses of IPods, which are also worth considering.

added opportunities to listen to audio and visual content at one's own time
improved motivation and interest in content topics
improved access to digital storage
greater students' engagement and interest
writing skills improve
seamless integration of classroom activities from in-class into homework
encourage students to listen on the go

Interesting sites:

25. Reflecting on E-Learning for Adults

2011-04-09T05:10:00.000-07:00

E-LEARNING FOR ADULTS: WHO HAS THE GOODS?
Robert M. Burnside
2001
The technology Source Archives
University of Carolina

Real learning can happen everywhere and anytime. What will determine our approaches to education are our underlining values and purposes. This article considers these elements from a business perspective.

"The advent of the Internet as a means of delivering and facilitating learning is blurring the line between traditional academic education, held away from the job and focused more on ideas that on the application of ideas, and traditional job training, held at work and focused more on applied skills than on the mastery of a body of knowledge." (p.2)

The discussion here focuses on the need of employees to have meaningful and reliable as well as effective access to the knowledge required to build working skills anytime, anywhere. The conversation puts a spin on questions around the value of full academic degrees and more specialized and skill-oriented qualities that employees can acquire also through online delivery.

Though not specifically addressing designing issues and challenges of instructors, this article supports once again, the need to establish collaborations, partnerships and opportunities for innovative learning environments. When considering ESL learners and their own goals to achieve mastery of the language to become fully functioning citizens as well as finding careers that match their skills and goals, online learning seems to be a highly valuable venue for new learning to occur.

24. Online Advantages to Face to Face Learning

2011-04-09T04:59:00.000-07:00

Ten Ways Online Education Matches, or Surpasses, Face-to-Face Learning
Mark Kassop, 2003
The Technology Source Archives

This article truly gets to the heart of the matter about learning, whether it be online or face to face or in any traditional fashion we can think of. The delivery and the media can change - but the value system that drives our planning and pedagogical decisions is what will guide us to success or failure. Certainly, knowledge of the media and the tools is important, but it cannot replace the guiding principles that lead our approaches to education. The article lists ten. Highlighted below some of the points made.

STUDENT CENTERED LEARNING - online learning allows the instructor to truly take a back seat, non-intrusively monitoring what happens and leaving space and times for learners that are often not possible in more structured and traditional environments. This does not mean the instructor will work less - in fact more planning and fundamental design work needs to be in place in online learning spaces than in traditional settings.
WRITING INTENSITY - whether the online environment is interactive and highly media-rich, ultimately, the core of production and reflection in online learning environments occurs in writing. And when students write they will tend to carefully considered what they say. And with increased access to reading texts the environment is set to produce improvements in the writing production.
DISCUSSIONS - Online asynchronous discussions are one of the ket factors of improved reflection and observation skills and tasks. Students feel more space is given to them to truly ponder a discussion point and participate, given clear and fair guidelines.
LIFELONG LEARNING - Online learning gives learners the responsibility to figure out the learning on their own, provided and knowing that scaffolding and support is always available, in many formats when needed.
ENRICHED COURSE MATERIAL - The opportunities to locate, access and download interactive, rich and high quality resources in any one topic is almost infinite in online courses.
ACCESS TO SUPPORT ON DEMAND
FEEDBACK - the article mentions the idea of immediate feedback. However research does support differentiated feedback and support presence that can be an enhancing feature of online learning environments. This is to say that online self-assessment opportunities can be clearly planned for and occur on online learning environments and instructors can establish routines and strategies to support the learning with students. Once an agreement takes place on the timing of the feedback and its individuality and structure, students know what to expect and work around it. Modifications are of course always an option.
FLEXIBILITY
INTIMATE COMMUNITY OF LEARNERS - A strong sense of community can truly form in online environments.
FACULTY DEVELOPMENT AND REJUVENATION - If done properly and well supporting instructors who are approaching this delivery mode for the first time, online learning can become a reason for development and allow instructors to "fall in love" with their calling with renewed energies and enthusiasm.

23. Faculty Focus and Technology Use Ideas

2011-03-23T13:14:00.000-07:00

Improve Feedback with Audio and Video Commentary
John Orlando
March 23, 2011

This brief post is about a series of blog entries more than just one single research piece, and I would consider suggesting anyone who is interested in very practical uses of technology and ideas, to check the entire site out, not only one reading.

This specific post deals with concrete ideas and sharing of tried and true techniques to add video-sumamries and feedback about class delivery though online video-tools.

The tool suggested here specifically is www.wetoku.com - a very simple interface to set up short video recordings that instructors can use to summarize and provide feedback for students.

Advantages of using this idea and tool include:

learners "get" the nuances of the summary - video commentaries go beyond the written text.
increased perception of community of learning - the video and voice of the instructor reassures learners of feeling part of a community
content retention improves - recorded material can be revisited and it appears that it was more frequently cited in reflection and assignments
sense of being supported - learners may feel their needs and challenges are being addressed

This seems an extremely neat idea to consider and incorporate in adaptation of ESL course into online environment to address language barriers learners may find when dealing with text overload in isolated instances.

22. Using Blackboard for Hybrid Course Offerings

2011-03-23T12:53:00.000-07:00

Hybrid Structures: Faculty use and Perception of Web-based courseware as a supplement to face-to-face Instruction
Robert Woods, Jason D. Baker , Dave Hopper
2004
The Internet and Higher Education, 7 (281-297)

This article addresses an interesting question around instructors using Blackboard (BB) to augment their face-to-face (F2F) course deliveries in post-secondary settings.

The ultimate conclusion is that instructors do not seem to fully take advantage of the tools in BB to extend, expand and open the doors of their traditional classrooms through the online LMS. In fact, the key findings indicate that these tools are used for administrating the course, organizing and archiving content and managing grades. It also seems that the more experience instructors had with the tool the more open they were to use it as addition to their F2F deliveries.

Research indicates that using BB in F2F hybrid deliveries could in fact yield a more productive learning environment, while this research seems to indicate they actually do not take full advantage of the tools and possibilities. Particularly interesting is the opportunity to create and enhance community through the LMS that is a key factor in fully online line learning environments, seems to be a neglected advantage.

The interactivity potential of the use of the LMS seems to be lost when combined in hybrid deliveries.

21. Technology and Its Affordances

2011-03-21T19:47:00.000-07:00

Teacher Technology Change: How Knowledge, Confidence, Beliefs, and Culture Intersect
Peggy A. Ertmer, Anne T. Ottenreit-Leftwich
JRTE, Vol. 42, No. 3, pp.255-284
2010

This article appears to provide a fundamental and comprehensive approach to the idea of change into adoption of technology for teachers. It begins with one basic premise: using technology for teaching is no longer a marginal and potentially "forgettable" activity that teachers can dismiss or excuse themselves from adopting in education.

"Teaching is not effective without the appropriate use of information and communication technologies (ICT) resources to facilitate students learning" (page 255).

Even though the use of technologies seems to be quite present in the life of teachers, administrative uses as well as more direct, lecturing style uses of technologies seem to be predominant. But this mode falls short of best recommended best practice as stated in the article, while technology should support real life learning and active knowledge building for learners.

The article proposes a model to address teacher change that includes beliefs, content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and resources as key dimensions. Ultimately it explains why and how teacher change can occur and in fact is not, from the following angles/perspectives:

knowledge and skills of teachers - teachers need knowledge of the tools and in-context understanding of how the technology can be used for pedagogical purposes. Practical examples are required and continuous support must be in place for this knowledge to become foundational. This specific element of the approach is fundamental for all other steps to be incorporated, and it truly becomes the initial step towards change. PD experiences, high in intensity and followed up with peer consultations are also part of this process.
self-efficacy - this point stresses the fact that even when teachers feel they know the tools the guiding and instrumental step towards implementing the use of technologies in meaningful ways relates directly to their own sense of confidence in actually experimenting with the tools. Personal mastery and positive successful experiences can increase this confidence. Adequate time to experiment and deepen the knowledge are paramount. Research suggests a minimum of 90 hours over a period of two years in the right context have borne visible improvements in some cases. Vicarious success and sharing of stories also add to the positive outcomes.
pedagogical beliefs - experienced teachers need to shift their well formed beliefs that using technology can in fact deepen the learning experience and bear positive fruits in learners. This is a fundamental step that teachers need to work towards. Seeing is believing! Teachers who witness colleagues successfully using the technology on a continuous basis tend to be more open to shifting their own approaches to pedagogical design and instructional methods. The key seems to be presenting teachers with plausible, strong cases that demonstrate that uses of technologies increase students chances to reach learning outcomes. When their beliefs align with the achievements (potential) of the technologies teachers may be more ready to adopt the.
culture - teachers like all other individual members of the society, need to maintain their membership of a group. And groups form cultures. From the perspective of cultural "meme", repeated values and processes come to play a very imposing role in the way teachers operate in a particular school setting, district or educational environment. As the article considers, the use of technology comes to destabilize one very important "meme" which is the idea of consistency, order and predictability of more traditional educational approaches. So adopting technologies often introduces elements that are not easily embraced by those who wish to remain part of the group. One way to address this issue is to ensure that positive reinforcement, school-wide support, management lead beliefs and encouragement are in place to present teachers with positive alternatives to the more walked paths.

The article goes on suggesting actual paths to attending to these steps, both from the pre-service and inservice teachers perspectives. These include situated professional development; in-depth sessions; vicarious experiences with opportunities to share and discuss and reflect; lesson studies; the presence of strong school leadership; adequate resources and support.

20. The Right Student, the Right Teacher, the Right Social Environment

2011-03-21T16:36:00.000-07:00

What Part of Self-Paced Don't You Understand?
David S. Magill, Program Manager
New Port, Rhode Island
24th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning
2008

This brief article from the proceedings of the Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning contains a few essential notions about distance learning and self-paced learning. While bringing forward clear distinctions about the different delivery models and what each brings to the options for learners and instructors, it also calls for clarification of expectation and the understanding that knowing what the delivery and the tools can do for you makes ever decision conscious, supporting sound pedagogical approaches and assisting in selecting the best structure for each learner.

an offering in which the learner determines the pace and timing of content delivery is called self-paced learning
self-paced learning requires a self-awareness and self-regulatory process - not all learners possess it
the environment that supports the learner must be supportive of these processes
theoretical underpinnings about self-paced learning include equivalency (opportunities must be the same regardless of the learning environment) and andragogy (adults learn differently from youth)
according to the andragogy theory adults will be self-directed, their own experiences with learning will play a great role in their new learning; they must be ready to learn and oriented towards learning

These are all elements that - to a certain level, affect online learning where a degree of self-directness will come to play a bigger role than in more traditional F2F settings.

Open-ended learning while providing flexibility that most adults appreciate as the possibility to fit the new learning in their busy lifestyles, can also be the very element that causes course withdrawal or incompletion, as it becomes hard to remain self-motivated and on task.

Research supports the idea that the instructor presence remains one of the most indicative factors to success in full or partial self-learning environments.

Fitting the right settings, delivery and environment with the right students remains key. As well as setting realistic expectations.

19. More Tools and Strategies

2011-03-18T16:33:00.000-07:00

Teaching with Technology: Tools and Strategies to Improve Student Learning
Special Report
Faculty Focus
January 2011
Magna Publication

This interesting and easy read contains a series of very short articles with reference and practical ideas about current Web 2.0 tools that a professor from Norwich University, Dr. John Orlando, wrote with instructors wanting to use technology in mind. Even though the series lacks reference to actual pedagogical approaches to using specific tools, the ideas suggested are relevant, easy to consider and can spark ideas for new ways of using the tools. Spoken of in first person and experience, the articles suggest tried and true ways of using technology which can be as easy as taking one link per day and following the use of that tool on the next web page.

Suggested tools and ideas include:

use VoiceThread tools to include learner's questions and ideas in voice format embedded into presentation formats (www.voicethread.com ). This is actually a really neat idea for ESL learners at lower levels that do not feel as confident writing responses or entering formal discussion forums.
use BLOGS for case studies and collaboration work.
use PREZI to capture non-linear thinking.
use SOCIAL BOOKMARKING tools to save our special sites and search them whenever you are. In fact create activities that engage students in collaboration with each other using and sharing their searches online.
encourage the exploration of diverse tools to serve similar purposes and share ideas amongst learners and/or colleagues.
use SCREENCASTING tools to save time and extend the life of your input work.
use POLLING tools to set the tone or the task of a lesson, gather data on the spot and engage learners.
use HIGH VALUE LECTURE CONTENT already available online and create discussions from common sources.

A great simple and very practical read.

18. Learnings from a PD Model Approach

2011-03-17T09:22:00.000-07:00

Lights...Camera...PD!
by Christina C. Schaller
April 2008 v 35 i4 p.22(2)
The Journal (Technological Horizons in Education

This brief two-page article contains a few interesting ideas around approaches to delivering PD sessions to instructors, so it does not automatically and directly relate to the actual design of online learning environments for ESL settings. However, the ideas can complement hybrid approaches to learning and give suggestions of what is possible to arrange to meet users' needs.

As I said - a very brief article.

web content accessed on the fly (digital and mobile content)
basic specifications on the end-user
experience that indicates that 30 minutes of online training (content with task) followed by 30 minutes of peer collaboration (discussion, working together) can be as effective as a half-day workshop
content created for the online inservice can be used by a variety of users for a variety of settings (re-purposing opportunities)
easy way to track users and be able to formally base evaluation on usage and frequency of access

The research relate to students conducted at the Utah Education Network (www.uen.org)

17. More Strategies and Resources for Teaching Online

2011-03-17T08:13:00.000-07:00

Assessing Students' Online Learning: Strategies and Resources
Patricia Comeaux, University of North Carolina - Wilmington

Essays on Teaching Excellence, Towards the Best in the Academy. Volume 17, Number 3, 2005-06

An interesting and simple read about yet again an emphasis on constructivist approaches to online learning, this essay lists a few interesting ideas around practices and strategies that have proven effective, in the context of higher education.

The focus of the article is around effective assessment and communication, which in online environment must remain consistent, timely and relevant as much as possible. A key statement from the article includes a quote from Huba and Freed (2000):

"Instructors should develop a deep understanding of what students know, understand and can do with their knowledge as a result of their educational experiences"

Interesting to notice that these elements apply to any type of learning. However, one concept that is definitely a more likely possibility in online learning environments is the idea of allowing learners to chose their learning path (the discovery, practice and production mode) as well as their earning assessment path. Depending on the selections that learner make this could be a potential idea to embed in the design of the learning online, which may have fewer restrictions when it comes to time and space.

Additional benefits of online assessment hilighted in the article include:

efficiency in management, collection and transfer of data (monitoring is also facilitated)
multiple communication tools and ways to exchange feedback
collection of records in print or recorded sessions facilitates accurate final grading

The value of authentic tasks is also another element considered in the article, and this can directly relate to the fact that, any language learning for workplace and social settings will include technology-based tasks that will give students the ability to practice and be ready for future career expectations.

Additionally, the use of checklists and rubrics and self-assessment tools is suggested as an effective practice for online learning environments. These will guide learners and also supplement support that may not be given as instantaneously as in F2F settings.

Key words repeatedly considered in the article are: provide CONSISTENT, FREQUENT AND AMPLE feedback.

16. Evidence-Based Practices and Findings in Online Learning

2011-03-13T11:42:00.000-07:00

Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning
A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies
U.S. Department of Education
Center for Technology in Learning 2009
Available at: http://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/tech/evidence-based-practices/finalreport.pdf

This comprehensive report is a must read when considering effects and implications of online learning. The report is current and represents an extensive look at online research since 1996 across the border, with studies considering a really substantial amount of data, around online learning.

The report contains a very useful lit review that can direct readers to specific areas of interest. It also contain a number of framework models that can be directly utilized in the creation of practical tools for ESL online learning adaptations. It also provides some reference for definitions and specific aspects of online deliveries, according to a number of perspectives. I include below only a number of considerations in the report. I highly recommend readers to have a direct take of the literature and stands suggested in the report. It is also important to notice that Canadian-based research is part of the literature used to analysis the data in the report. This brings a sense of relevance to Canadian readers and their contexts.

The report considered over 1,000 studies since 1996 - the amount of research considered gives the report a solid base of validity.
One striking finding is that "on average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction" (p.ix). Given the right conditions, and in contexts that allow for these conditions to take place on a prolonged time basis, online learning can be as effective and more effective than traditional delivery models.
The report set to investigate the question of practices around online learning from four key points: effectiveness in different delivery systems (namely F2F, blended and fully online); would supplementing of F2F delivery models with access to online learning enhance achievement of objectives; practices associated with effective online learning; and conditions that influence such practices.

The key findings section summarizes the main research points and these include:

students can perform better in online learning environments
blended instruction can be more effective than online learning alone
time on task can increase significantly in online learning
variations of implementation of online learning do not directly affect achievement of outcomes - but they can increase collaboration amongst students
effectiveness of approaches is broad across content and learner types
enhanced learning occurs when students are in control of interactions with media and prompting learner reflection
online learning is not superior as a medium per se - combinations of elements produced the best advantages
online learning is much more conducive to expansion of learning than F2F
promoting self-reflection is an advantage to learners - there are promising evidence-based studies that suggest this can affect achievement of outcomes
the learner ability to control the medium seems to be an important factor that affects success
asynchronous delivery seems to be more effective in online learning - a combination of time delivery factors can also work. Synchronous delivery online seem o have negative impact on success

Ideas around the conceptual framework for online learning proposed in the report considers the following key characteristics:

online activities that are a replacement for F2F - must achieve same learning objectives
online activities that enhance F2F activities - must improve achievement of learning outcomes

Learning experiences are also brought in the framework, being classified as expository (content transmission); active learning (learner interaction and ability to manipulate data to formulate and build new learning); interactive activities (learning through collaboration). Technology utilized in effective ways allows for each one of these types of activities.

Through technology instructors can

- DELIVER CONTENT

- ALLOW USER CONTROL

- MEDIATE COLLABORATION

Exhibit 1 on page 5 is a nice table of reference to explain the relationship with the model. Really important reference to keep in mind.

15. Ideas from Transformative Pedagogy

2011-03-11T11:49:00.000-08:00

Using Transformative Pedagogy when Teaching Online
Steven A. Meyers
2008
College Teaching, Vol. 56/No. 4, Fall 2008. Pages 219 - 224

Even though ESL language learning seems so distant from discussions around transformative pedagogy and its implications in teaching, especially at lower language levels, this article reflects on factors and contexts and ideas that appear highly transferable between the two learning foci. Of the five critical points made in the article, the first four seem quite applicable to ESL settings in online learning. Highlights and suggestions follow below:

Online discussions have the right ingredients to challenge the more traditional idea of authority and power than the college classroom most of us are used to. Lowering the barriers to this idea of whom is the expert and how everyone's position is equally valid, once supported with evidence and expressed respectfully is a key reflection to keep in mind.
Levels of permitted anonymity in online discussions can promote sharing of positions and what a person actually feels about something. However we have also considered in previous articles the downside of this aspect of online delivery - instructors may not feel comfortable knowing who said what and how to respond.
(1) Create a safe environment in your online learning class. This is paramount to almost anything else. develop mutual trust. Consider tips and ideas such as small groups, select facilitators and leaders. Online environment seem to promote more flexible and open spaces for people to express themselves, beyond barriers of age, gender or skin colour. Instructors need to maintain supportive, present and uplifting roles all along and for everyone in the class. This may directly affect the time commitment to provide a felt 'presence' in the classroom.
(2) Encourage individual and personal participation and sharing of one's own perspective. Invite students to examine their own assumptions. Support activities that help students make connections between what they believe and assume and their own experiences in life. Invite them to be critical and know where they stand. Promote the experience of considering alternatives. Online environment can foster this reflective approach to learning.
(3) Teaching strategies are crucial to promoting participation and engagement. They must be appropriate, relevant and flexible. Encourage the sense that everyone's contributions are essential to the building of new knowledge.
(4) Pose real-world problems. The idea of the "Wicked Problem" is emerging once more. relevance and meaningfulness are essential elements of the online learning experience.

13. Online Landscape Facts

2011-03-11T11:20:00.000-08:00

Changing the Landscape of Teacher Education via Online Teaching and Learning

Minsun Shin and Yoon-Joo Lee

Technology Usage in the Classroom, January 2009. Pages 32-33 Retrieved from http://www.acteonline.org/uploadedFiles/Publications_and_E-Media/files/files-techniques-2009/Theme_5.pdf

This brief articles is important o keep in mind for a few significant evidence pieces, namely:

as of 2009 67% of colleges and universities agree that online education is the single most significant development and long-term strategy for the field of teacher preparation. This facts makes us reflect on the idea that online learning affects instructors from their preparation times as well as the delivery of programs. Instructors are expected to deliver in different formats and online learning is here to stay.
full online learning seems to be an option that would best fit more technology-savvy teachers and students. This is a critical factor to remember - when considering the new approach of delivery for ESL learners who may have never had an experience with the online environment before.
students do appreciate a way to establish an in-person connection with instructors and each other. Live sessions or synchronous require classes mediated by the technology seem an approach that will bear much fruit for later in the course.

12. Strategies for Discussion Postings and Written Collaborations Online

2011-03-11T11:07:00.000-08:00

Strategies for Enhancing Students Interactivity in an Online Environment

Vance A. Durrington, Amy Berryhill, and Jeanne Swafford, 2006

College Teaching, Vol. 54/No. 1. Pages 190 - 193

This article does contain very practical tips specifically addressing the written asynchronous interactions that are used in online learning programs between instructors and students and students and students.

Although at times seeming a bit too precise and direct in its suggested approaches, the ideas contained in the article have very useful applications, if considered within additional contexts and factors in delivering online programs for ESL learners.

Highlights include:

Online learning presents challenges at different levels - it also provides new opportunities and possibilities. As long as instructors provide appropriate instructional tasks, timely and individualized feedback (presence) and students levels of interactivity remain high.
Administrators are often concerned with the quality of online courses and students' learning experiences (p. 190)
The learning environment must remain open, supportive and respectful. These are challenges that are not only and solely entirely met by technologies. The instructor is key to implementing these effectively.

Consider the following list as a set of practical tips (ideas, questions and additional suggestions are included in brackets)

use clear instructions for the get go
create a discussion space for frequently asked questions and use it especially during the first week of classes
inform students of approximate average time within which they can expect responses to their questions - acknowledge receipt of questions if you need to take more time to respond
use informal tone in message - (however consider cultural expectations and implications of using humour and the possibility that communication may be misinterpreted)
establish guidelines for discussion postings - use rubrics that are clear and promote active participation
use problem-based learning approaches (the Wicked Problem question seems to be happening over and over again)

11. Class Sizes and Teaching Load in Online Learning

2011-03-11T10:54:00.000-08:00

The Impact of Online Teaching on Faculty Load: Computing the Ideal Class Size for Online Courses

Lawrence A. Tomei
Robert Morris Univeristy, Pittsburg, PA USA
Journal of Technology and Teacher Education (2006) 14 (3), 531-541

This article reflects a study conducted to investigate the impact of online delivery on faculty load in comparison with more traditional teaching and delivering methods. This seems to be a recurrent theme in the research, about the worries that faculty members raise in changing the approach and methods for delivering courses in online environments.

The study two key questions were around teaching demands and ideal class size for online delivery of post-secodnary courses. Curious enough the study indicates that about 14% increase in teaching time was found to be taken in online deliveries, and that this was dedicated mainly to spending more time in delivering content. Given the research conducted to date in this lit review blog, one would have easily assumed that the increased amount of teaching time was needed more for personalized feedback, rather than instructional delivery.

One fundamental basis that the article supports is the idea of professionalism in teaching. The article states:

"Professional preparation, academic excellence, lifelong learning, and personal commitment are the hallmarks of the successful traditional teacher. (page 532).

These seem to be fundamental elements of any teaching environment and certainly one can assume they would transfer in online learning.

Secondly, the article states that:"Of all the peculiarities of teaching at a distance, none appears so crucial to successful student learning than teacher-student interaction." (page 532). This also greatly affects students' attitudes towards the experience.

One more reason it was to be expected that feedback and community building activities would actually constitute the increase in commitment and time for online learning.

Another finding from the research and the study indicates that the greatest use of technology in online learning environments happens in discussion postings and asynchronous communication.

The study findings about time and class size should be taken with a grain of salt. The scope of the study was too small to let a great number of generalizations be drawn with a sense of validity outside of the scope of the study. however, as stated in the article, this was a great attempt to bring about data that demonstrates that online learning does require an increase in resources and time for instructors to set up. So the idea that online learning can be more economic for institutions, as there is no need of physical spaces and time lines can be more flexible, needs to consider greater need for design and delivery time for instructors.

Additionally, the reference to ideal class size can be a starting point to consider (the article suggests around 12 students maximum). This would change dramatically based on subject area, nature of the course, language level of students and additional access to technologies and tools.

10. Five Reasons not to Teach Online!

2011-03-10T17:05:00.000-08:00

I'll Never Do It Again
by Elayne Clift
the Chronicle of Higher education, May 29, 2009 v55 i38 pNA

The beauty of this short essay that feels a lot like a rampage against online learning from the eyes of an instructor who had a very frustrating experience with the process is its simplicity, its straightforwardness and the ability to bring about five key messages that all online learning providers must pay attention to. The essay connects with the reader in the fact that it brings to the table ideas and concepts that cannot be forgotten when planning, delivering and evaluating an online course. Namely:

Understanding the mechanisms and shortcomings as well as potentials of the VIRTUAL REALITY. Virtual communication is not F2F communication. Anonymity which may attract some learners, brings frustration to others, and raises the bar for instructors and their ability to connect with students.
Trade offs for IMMEDIACY - the ability to probe, manouver and direct conevrsations and refelctions, clarify, coment and being in the moment change entirely when the envornment is digital. Without the clear, defined and traditional paramters of the F2F classroom settings.
QUALITY OF EDUCATION - this drastically changes as what we are used to in a classroom is no longer applicable. The curriculum we count upon to guide our pedagogical decisions must support the new platforms of delivery to raise the instruction to similar or higher standards. This takes time, professional commitment and ongoing reliable support. Any step that does not account for the changes required to maintain the bar at its highest levels will inevitably fall short of expectations.
Time commitment almost never equals adequate REMUNERATION. Instructors must be cautioned about the appearance of simplicity and perception of freedom one might inherit while teaching online. Preparation, delivery and monitoring time triples at a minimum in online learning environments. Institutions have not caught up quite yet with a comparable remuneration system to the actual hands on work using online platforms.
LOSS OF CONTROL, UN-SATISFACTION AND SENSE OF ISOLATION are perceptions that can become the only reality of first time or inexperienced instructors, as well as teachers who are detached from the support of peers and the online community.

9. Strategies and Shortcomings

2011-03-10T16:43:00.000-08:00

Technologies for Teaching Online: Strategies and Pitfalls
by Julie Meloni
The Chronicle of Higher Education, October 31, 2010 v57 i11 pNA

This short and easy read contains a summary of key technologies available to online instructors - the technologies are not born as instructional tools but they are presented as support for educational goals available to practitioners.

Highlights:

Considerations around synchronous and asynchronous communication, including use of discussion boards, chat room and emails.
A nice reflection is made about the idea of using blogs as teaching tools. Blogs remain an authoring voicing choice that give the owner of the blog a lot of space and opportunities to grow as a writer, for a variety of audiences. Certainly a communication tool worth exploring.
Consider selecting and sequencing the steps at which new tools are presented and implemented in the online environment - too many too fast will result in negative perceptions and experiences.
Course content managing tools mentioned in the article include suggestions around cloud-computing, as well as LMS from a variety of different providers.
Collaboration remains also a key feature of online learning - share ideas within the institution as well as across other organizations and specialists in the field.

Simple but effective ideas for beginner users of online instructional devices and platforms.

8. Not as Easy as it Sounds!

2011-03-10T16:30:00.000-08:00

Instructors' Vantage Point: teaching Online vs. Face-to-Face
The Chronicle of Higher Education
October 31, 2010 V57 i11 pNA

This is definitely a short reading I would recommend anyone who is beginning to be engaged with online learning or has become curious about online and F2F instruction differences. Written as short reflections from instructors who have walked the path of the adaptation or the full delivery into online environments, in different subject areas, the key messages that emerge from these voices range from enthusiasm, frustration, understanding the complexity of the tasks and appreciating what challenges and possibilities lie in the experience.

Here below some highlights and my personal reflections on their key messages:

Simple F2F tasks need to be translated and adapted to fit the new online formats. Almost always. This means they definitely can be adapted AND at times the translation enriches the original task and instructor go back to the F2F with modified versions that feed from the online delivery.
Knowing the technologies is a MUST. Support for teachers is paramount and must be kept ongoing.
Teaching online classes may still require instructors to be creative to maintain a sense of community. ideas in the article mention the printing of assignments, hand written feedback and scanning of documents for filing and storing. Recording live sessions for people who miss is also a good tip. How many times we wished we had recorded a really good lesson or lecture for those who were not in that day? Technology helps us with that.
Give clear instructions - this is a helping tool for all right?
Take some time to respond - do not set instructor's feedback expectations to high and to hard to live up to!
Institutions must support professional development for instructors. Sharing, teacher mentoring and peer reviews should be experiences enhanced by faculties.
Consider the idea of bending space but not bending time with online learning. This refers mainly to the concept that there cannot be satisfied expectations about shortcuts on time and commitment required to complete tasks. Even when learners may think so and administrators may assume when assigning online courses to instructors.

7. Readings from a Lit Review

2011-03-04T18:32:00.000-08:00

Meeting the Need: Students Success in the Online Environment. Teaching - Learning - Development - Administration - A Literary Review

Bow Valley College - Murray Ronaghan, Academic Foundations, June 30, 2010
Retrievable at: http://www.youblisher.com/p/130815-Sample/
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A review of a review? Sounds a bit strange and maybe superfluous, but this review about online environments (not specifically ESL but certainly digital!) is something great. besides the wealth of articles and references that it compiled, it provides some really great foundational considerations very pertinent to our research and some of them already reaffirming discoveries and ideas considered to date. So Here I come with my highlights of the document. This is a must to read for novice and more experienced online practitioners. Much to learn at all levels.

The review divides the research into four key categories of inquiry: teaching, learning, development and administration. Although the last category is at the moment on the sideline of my research, the idea of considering these different aspects as part of a complex set of interacting elements that all play a role in the online education set up is a comforting and reassuring thought.
While the review as well as many other articles refer to the idea of research and working practices as "best practices"it may be also worth considering the fact that a term such as "promising practices" may be considered. With the idea of promise one can consider a commitment to ongoing excellence.
The definition offered about online learning is: learning facilitated online through network technologies" (Garrison, Anderson, 2003). On top of the idea of different ways of offering courses the introduction considers variable not only in hybrid versus purely online offerings, but also cohort-style classes, ongoing intake, an so on.
In the teaching section the review offers a set of nine guidelines to consider around the teaching factor of online learning, ranging from quality of instruction, to motivating students, to feedback opportunities and promoting self-study. All suggestions could be very easily applied to any learning environment at hand. Ultimately it is the teaching that defines the greatness of online courses and not the technology (page 5).
Elements to consider from the teaching perspective include: presence of the instructor, which of course transcend the live synchronous and rigorous limitations of the classroom settings, but can still be tailored to meet students' needs. Several research studies conclude that learners feel successful when they perceive the instructor pays attention to their contributions and can offer individualized support. The idea of presence impacts the ability to keep organized records, structured workload, monitor students' contribution integrity and promote self-study. All important elements of learning as a whole experience and certainly more challenging through digital environments but certainly not impossible as a task.
Instructors who are present in the online learning become by default reflective practitioners.
In the area of learning and the learner, the review focuses on the idea of self-directed learners and how adults fit in this image of ongoing discovery. While adults are highly self-motivated learners they are certainly not immune from anxieties, such as sense of inadequacy and poor studying habits or inability to cope, to say a few. In this perspective the idea of constructivist approaches to learning is a sure recurrence and meaningfulness of learning lies ultimately in solving real life, highly contextualized and "wicked" problems. A number of studies around Problem Based Learning are listed in the review section. Engagement in highly meaningful tasks also directly affects retention and attrition rates in online learning.
Besides listing a number of valuable sites about online developments, the idea around development has sparked a number of projects and initiatives that have began proposing guidelines for future designs and deliveries. These include the nine principles of Online Design from the Florida Golf Coast University, and the four unique qualities of elearning that seem to have emerged around automated feedback, collaboration with self-study, simulations and games and dynamic instruction opportunities (see Clark and Mayer).
In the conversation around UDL (Universal Design Learning) three important modes continue to be reiterated: the show me; tell me and let me modes.
Finally the administration element of the elearning formula: issues around education that directly affect the implementation of digital approaches include funding, accessibility, demonstration of learning and translation of learning research into practice. Like in an inevitable circle, this element draws back the idea of communities of practice, sharing of resources and reflecting practice.

The review is definitely a good starting point for a very global if not comprehensive review of the key research steps in online environments.

6. The Brain Networks

2011-03-04T12:14:00.000-08:00

Universal Design for Learning

Avaliable at http://upgradingonlineconference.com/

More than an official article, this wiki page summarizes findings and key messages from Universal Design for Learning (UDL), which is a theory of Instructional Design.

The article directly mentions the work of Rose and Meyer, 2009 and Reigeluth (1999). We will deal with their messages in additional entries.

However, in the simplicity of its tables and key elements, the page begins to organize fundamental elements of the UDL that should be applied form the get go to any online learning design. These include:

The idea that a learning environment should be constructed around a "wicked problem". This idea intrigues designers and instructors and should lead to heightened interest of learners, improving motivation, engagements and commitment to effort to solving the problem.
The three network of our brain - recognition, strategic and affective. Learners must be engaged at all three levels to solve the problem and be successful.
The three key principles of UDL
Multiple means of Representation both in input, practice and production stages
Multiple means of Action and Expression - varied sequences and entry points based on knowledge and skill levels of learners; from simple to complex, from low to high interaction and from high scaffolded contexts to more independent activities and tasks.
Multiple means of Engagement - increase individual choice and autonomy, increase success and access to support.

Simple and yet fundamental elements for online learning.

5. Learning from Learning Objects: a Look at Standards

2011-03-04T11:55:00.000-08:00

Interoperability and Learning Objects: An Overview of E-Learning Standardization

by Norm Friesen, CanCore Initiative
Athabasca University
Interdisciplinary Journal of Knowledge and Learning Objects, Volume 1, 2005, pages 23-31

This article is a bit more technical in nature than all preceding ones, and I feel even of ones to follow. however it reminds readers of a few extremely important issues to consider when approaching online learning, from the designer perspective. These include:

Attributes of portability, interoperability and reusability of systems, content and metadata in online learning (and LOs)
The importance of considering pros and cons of standardization - in other words approaching the setting of standards to create and organize online delivery from multiple perspectives and with great caution. Not all sizes fit all deliveries and contexts remain important to ultimate successful outcomes.
The idea that initially designers work on specifications - which are more fluid and flexible and are worked on a recursive basis to ensure they work for the team. Standards become more global and fixed processes that apply broadly across platforms and technologies.
Learning from history and understanding pros and cons of "ad hoc" systems and developments.
Nothing is pedagogically neutral - know your value and where you stand and why!
Alphabetical reference of key organizations that contribute to the development of standards in e-learning (see pages 25-26)

4. Lessons from Learning Object Design

2011-02-27T14:57:00.000-08:00

A Study of the Design and Evaluation of a Learning Object and Implications for Content Development
by Ferdinand Krauss and Mohamed Ally
Interdisciplinary Journal of Knowledge and Learning Objects, Volume 1, 2005

This article is quite intriguing and at first it may seem to be detached from the idea and challenges of online learning and adaptation processes. I approached the article from professional experience and background working with the creation of digital learning objects which Ally broadly define as "any digital resource that can be used and re-used to achieve a specific learning outcome or outcomes" (Ally, 2004a, p.3)

Right from the beginning, even if one does not have direct experience in the field of learning objects, one can see how developing one or many as part of a complex resource deals with digital resources that can be put to work to achieve learning objectives. And one of the investigations being completed in this ESL Adaptation project is to consider digital learning environments and how they work, so that instructors have support and solid references to fall back on as they move towards online formats of delivering their programs.

However, the article goes deeper into the understanding of the designing, developing and testing of learning objects in a specific field (pharmacy to be precise) and considers designing implications that directly affect online learning. These are the analysis and documentation of processes to design the learning objects (LOs) and the evaluation of the practices used to develop the LOs. At the basis of these steps are foundational considerations around theory of learning and instruments that can be used to evaluate the achievement of specific set outcomes. So, in other words, almost every step of the way the article contains valuable reflections for online learning.

A few highlights follow:

Shaw (2002) stated that in developing learning resources one should begin with a genuine instructional problem and should strive to achieve outcomes, which are otherwise impossible. (page 1) - first reflection point - online learning and resources developed to support it must be genuinely suited for their purpose given the context and the understanding that the outcomes they set cannot be otherwise achieved.
The article presents a balance between behaviorist and constructivist approaches, and how both have a deep impact on instructional design decisions. The ideas of the correlation between stimulus and response is at the basis of outcome based planning, while the idea of knowledge as social construction supports elements such as scaffolding, feedback and support for the creation of successful learning environments.
The article directly relates the framework for the study on the work of Abdelhamid (1999) and his Multi-dimensional Learning Model (MDLM) and its key three features: the generation effect (inductive thinking generated knowledge); the spreading activation model (interconnectedness of data and the importance of contextualized information) and the use of pictures (graphic and multimedia support to learning resource). These factors can all be easily connected to online learning environments in general, as key elements to create successful learning environments.
Focus of process rather than product - "The role of the instructor would be to provide the process-based frameworks and guidance for integrating the various resources and approaches." (page 4)
The basic approach to learning theory that states that no one strategy is comprehensive and sufficient to attack the learning problems and propose extensive solutions. Integration of approaches, using a multitude of methods is the more desirable way of proceeding, in iterative steps, founding designing steps on models that most closely relate to the specific challenges at hand.
The importance for learners to be able to manipulate the data gathered or selected and the building of new knowledge based on collaborative environments.
The importance of feedback (time and complexity of responses)
Learning goals must be explicitly stated and available to learners, the sequence suggested must be pedagogically sound and possible present choices to the learner so that they can find their most suited path to understanding, application of knowledge and higher level thinking.
Generative learning theory is also found in the approach of the study - learners must be actively engaged and responsible for processing the information.
The use of support of metacognition by guiding students with direct instruction about use of learning strategies and then allowing learners to own their learning.

The most positive reflection in the article is one at the end of the conclusion and recommendations section: "more time should be spent on exchanging best practices for designing and applying learning objects to instructional contexts than content itself" (page 16). The article supports a fundamental belief that sharing not only the end products but especially the process to arriving to positive applications and steps on creating learning environments is essential to improving understanding and reaching set goals.

3. Digital Natives and the Interaction Age

2011-02-22T19:05:00.000-08:00

Facilitating Engaged Learning in the Interaction Age Taking a Pedagogically-Disciplined Approach to Innovation with Emergent Technologies

By Jennifer M. Brill and Yeonjeong Park
International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 2008, Volume 20, NUmber 1, 70-78

This article is quite intriguing. It does set to walk about a very arduous agenda: explore the intersections between traits and students of the Interaction Age, affordances and abilities of emerging technologies and the concepts of engaged learning. However, even within a limited amount of depth in the exploration path it takes, a number of very important reflections arises and are brought to the attentive reader as sources of fruitful considerations, around planning for engaged online learning opportunities. Amongst the highlights of the article are the following:

The evolution of digital networks and tools, from a transactional purpose to interactional goals. No matter what the technologies mobile, individualized and ubiquitous engagement are common threads of the most used and available technologies in today's world.
Today's students can be safely considered as digital natives. They process information fundamentally differently than any other previous generation and this directly impacts their learning abilities and needs. Needs that often can be met by adoption of technologies carefully used with sound pedagogical intents.
Emerging technologies are social and active. Affordances of such technologies include portability, social interactivity, connectivity, context sensitivity and individuality, rapid object identification, ability to manipulate data in experimental ways, etc.
Engaged learning constructs include: interest, effort, motivation and time on task and the article presents three frameworks that propose three different sets of indicators to determine the level of engaged learning that students can experience.

Ultimately, the message of the article remains one of intentionality. As evident as commonalities between digital tools, digital natives and engaged learning opportunities may be, at the intersection of the three remain the idea that "...sound teaching and learning approaches should remain at the forefront of such scholarly agenda" for improved learning. (page 75). Examples are included in a simple table and can be used for further exploration of research and models to deepen the understanding of how such intersection can bear positive outcomes.

2. Architects of Interactivity

2011-02-22T15:19:00.000-08:00

Activities to Engage the Online Learner
By Rita-Marie Conrad, Ana Donaldson and nancy Nelson Knupfer

Published in 2000 this short article reflects on some fundamental ideas about constructivism, engaged learning and the need for interactivity, prior to and now in the midst of technological advances for learning and instruction.

With a basic overview about engaged learning and connections to the dynamic nature of the Internet and technological tools, the article briefly provides a suggested model of phases of engagements and example of activities that guide the readers to very practical steps in implementing interactive settings in online learning environments. While most of the suggestions can be enhanced with todays current Web 2.0 tools, the basic ideas of development of learning steps that guide learners through stages of incrementally more complex uses of the online environments, the ideas of scaffolding the learning journey remains fundamental and provides the opportunity for initial reflections and planning.

A key message is the idea that instructors are "Architects of Interactivity"a creative term that directly speaks to the designing and planning skills instructors can work with to create welcoming, safe, engaging and dynamic learning environments.

1. Somewhere to begin from...

2011-02-03T09:15:00.000-08:00

Here we begin. Finally. It has been a long search of articles, and readings, information, models and such, to gather an initial research background for this project. And as I finally came across a specific reading for a discussion posting in my class, I stumbled upon this really well written, short but clear article by Brian Newberry, on initial reflections about the following topics:

use of media
social presence and
educational activities

The reason I love this article and I believe it can constitute a really good starting point for the project, is the fact that it brings to the surface some very fundamental initial thoughts around the se of technologies (specifically online tools) considering them from the perspective of Media Richness Theory, the social aspect of the perceived presence of agents interacting with technology-mediated communication tools and the ability for education to implement and infuse more traditional activities with technology-mediated practices.

From the perspective of the idea of how to go about to modify and adapt an ESL course which is traditionally implemented as a face-to-face (F2F) delivery into online environments, this article that I am about to give you a few notes on in the following paragraphs, creates a solid and simple basis to initiate the discussion and considerations of the challenges of the adaptation task.

The article is titled:

Media Richness, Social Presence and Technology Supported Communication Activities in Education

Written by Brian Newberry

And it can be accessed for free at: http://learngen.org/resources/module/lgend101_norm1/200/210/211_3.html
Note: The article is located on a site that is freely accessible to users - it was a project Technology Enriched Learning, funded by the United States Department of Education with additional funding provided by the University of Kansas School of Education and other sources. More information directly at the site: http://learngen.org/resources/module/lgend101_norm1/index.html
Key Messages in the Article

Educators seem to be included to adopt newer technologies and are often fascinated by new tools that can enhance the more traditional approach to instruction with interactive tools.
Technology supported (and mediated) activities can be used consistently with instructional approaches that are sound and innovation can align and enhance the value of instructional design. The article introduces the essential idea that using a variety of media, especially when these are newer to the instructional landscape, must include the knowledge of the medium being utilized.
Media Richness Theory - this theory states that different media impact communication in different ways. Every medium contains two inner qualities to carry information: the data carrying capacity and the symbol carrying capacity. Data carrying capacity refers to the medium's ability to transmit information while symbol carrying capacity refers to the medium's ability to carry information about the information or about the individuals who are communicating. This means that educators, like all communicators, can benefit from a deeper understanding of how a communication tool can enhance, facilitate or hinder a certain communication. Since the teaching and learning of ESL (or EFL) and any education act is essentially a communication act, instructors can benefit from keeping in mind these qualities. Depending on the importance of a variety of characteristics of the specific medium and the message one wants to communicate, the ratings of that medium ability to carry information can be ranked from high to medium to low. For example: If immediate feedback is deemed essential F2F is usually the ideal settings, for instructors and learners. Video Conferencing, Synchronous Audio and Text-based chats are also examples of technology-mediated tools to reach this goal. On the other hand, unless there are recording features embedded in the tools, the feedback is often lost. The article summarizes a few of these basic elements of the model of Media Richness Theory which are clear ways to begin to reflect on the qualities of the medium.
Social Presence - another important aspect considered in the article is the idea of "social presence" - The author states that: Environments where participants do not feel they are recognized as individuals, or in which their input does not seem to be valued may result in a reduced motivation to participate. By reflecting on this basic consideration, it appears that the idea of social presence can directly impact learners' participation and motivation, which are clearly essential factors to determine the overall success of any learning experience, and even more important for ESL learners.

Weaknesses and Conclusion
While clearly and concisely stating two essential starting points in the adoption of technology-metidated tools for educational purposes, the article remains clearly superficial in proposing further considerations and suggesting strategies to practically adopt specific tools at any more complex level than activity ideas. When planning for adaptation of entire curricula from F2F to online environments, the conversation around Media Richness and Social Presence must clearly dig deeper and achieve higher understandings of the complexity of goals, environments, infrastructures, cultural competencies, and more. But definitely a good place to start.