Hello and welcome to (sadly) the final blog post from yours truly, Joe Bloggs. In this summary post I will be looking back at my journey over the past ten weeks and thinking about how far I, as a student and a teacher, have come. In fact, let’s go right back to my first post “The journey begins” (https://jgamblesite.wordpress.com/2016/02/02/humble-beginnings/) from 2nd February (such a long time ago now…). In this introductory post I provided three key objectives which I wanted to achieve in this blog series:
- To create a weekly post consisting of 500-1000 words;
- To focus each post around a particular theme;
- To incorporate readings from a wide pool of resources – not only what the Module 2 (and indeed Module 1) recommended reading had to say, but also other academic /non-academic information sources.
To show how I have achieved these objectives, I will now provide a summary of this “journey” – showing how each weekly blog post theme has linked to the next, which information sources have been my inspiration and what I have learned as a BOE student.
Strength in numbers? The perils and pitfalls of online learning communities in supporting students.
This post explored online communities in terms of how they relate to supporting students in TEL. As well as describing my own experiences of social media communities, I drew on the U1E3 SBOSE podcast (and in particular the guest speaker James Blake) regarding the opportunities for students/staff with time constraints and feedback. I also considered academic literature from, amongst others, Kamenetz (2010) regarding the introduction of online community tools, as well as a report by Contact North (2013) on what are the inherent types of support available and how the role of the teacher represents a critical determining factor in moderating these online learning communities.
Professor Plum to Inspector Gadget? The changing role of the teacher in modern learning environments
This post focussed on the previously identified topic of the teacher/tutor role in supporting students in BOE, in which I took inspiration from both the U2E1 SBOSE podcast and a promotional video for the Connections Education Academy (https://youtu.be/64449kcUj-0) in order to create a mock job advertisement for a BOE teacher which highlighted the extent of the role in terms of essential qualities and duties. By discussing my own reflections on the various role elements, the opinions in other students’ blog posts and some key literature arguments such as the suggestion from Kuswara et al. (2008) that teachers must relinquish some intellectual authority and become less instructive, I learned about the important (and ongoing) debates surrounding the teacher role in BOE and the inherent types of support associated with this changing role.
Illusion or reality? The use of freedoms and control by online tutors as support mechanisms for students
This post addressed questions which were raised in the two previous blog posts regarding what are the different types of support that teachers provide in online learning settings. The first key sub-topic I considered was the prospect of granting freedom to students, in which I took guidance from the pedagogic literature where some authors such as O’Hare (2011) espoused the control relinquishment argument, whilst others such as Lee and Yau (2015) emphasised the opportunities for teachers to monitor both performance and e-textbook access data by maintaining control through cloud computing. After providing context for these polarising views through my own experiences I also considered the topic of control over online tools, in which McLoughlin and Lee (2007) warned about potential associated controlling behaviour, whereas I reflected upon my own BOE experiences to provide a counter-argument. I also considered a blog post by another student who raised the importance of considering the long-term consequences of using freedoms/controls to support students.
Elois or Morlocks? A journey through time towards a balanced view of future online learning practices
This blog post advanced the previous post’s identification of the future tense of online learning by taking the concept of The Time Machine by H. G. Wells and writing a short sci-fi story (featuring students and teachers from the course as characters!) involving the positive (Elois) and negative (Morlocks) potential future of BOE learning practices. I also took inspiration from a YouTube video entitled “Shift Happens” (https://youtu.be/PcZg51Il9no) which demonstrated the true concerns over the technological advancement of knowledge and learning practices. In the story, when the Time Traveller visited the Elois, they advocated the positive future BOE practices by referencing predictions from the literature, for example the suggestion by De Freitas and Liarokapis (2011) that all future learning will involve game-based, immersive and interactive elements. Likewise, when the Time Traveller met the Morlocks, their pessimistic viewpoints were also inspired by predictions from the pedagogic literature, such as the suggestion by Downes (2006) that future personal learning environments will be owned by the students and not controlled by educational institutions.
Too much of a good thing? Coping with information overload in online learning environments
This blog post took inspiration from Anne’s feedback comments on the previous ‘Time Machine’ post in which she inferred that the real threat facing today’s BOE students relates to mass produced knowledge. The post therefore explored the aspect of information overload and whether or not there is truth to the arguments that more quantity invariably means less quality. I considered what was discussed in the literature, including an argument by Huang et al. (2011) that students are pressurised to exposed themselves to a saturation of online resources over short periods of time, and ultimately identified a key underlying issue relating to the (in)ability to navigate through all the available information. I also took inspiration from the talk by Dr Aileen Wood at the “Leap Into Research” conference which I attended on 2nd March, and ultimately learned about the individual needs of students and the importance of cultural considerations.
Lending a helping hand? The global reach of student support in culturally diverse online learning environments
In this blog post I developed my understanding of cultural diversity in supporting students in BOE, as identified in the previous post. For this I considered the blog posts of other students, as well as the list of tools which culturally diverse students derive benefits from, according to Fry and Bryant (2006). However, I questioned the real benefits of some of these tools by raising the political limitations which certain international students would face and bringing in some of my own experiences in teaching international students. I considered the suggestion by Lamas et al. (2013) that emphasised the diverse styles/needs of students and acknowledged the fundamental question of which are the most effective online tools for supporting students.
The sharpest tool in the box? Considering online tools in supporting BOE students
This blog post built upon the previous by advancing the aspect of online tools from the perspective of effectiveness and relevancy. In this post I began with my own reflections of using various tools through this BOE course and other academic circumstances, as well as considering the appraisals in the literature – such as Fu et al. (2013) who unilaterally espouse wiki-based tools or Millar and Schrier (2015) who provide more balanced views on the strengths/weaknesses of e-textbook tools. I also considered the importance of online tool utilisation in isolation in which I concluded that they should be perceived in terms of their overall application due to their context-specific nature. Lastly, I took inspiration from Stewart (2010) who detailed the implications of online tools for students in terms of information sharing.
Sharing is caring? Some thoughts on learning-by-sharing as an approach to online student support
This penultimate post (and final topic-based post) developed the previous blog’s affordance topic of information sharing and considered this approach in more detail in terms of supporting students in TEL. Here I provided reflections on my own learning experiences which were significantly lacking in information sharing opportunities and questioned whether or not these degree courses would be offered differently (i.e. with more sharing aspects) today. I also explored the blog post of another student who discussed how trust and comfort is associated with this sharing culture in education, as well as considering an influential quotation from the literature in which Mansour et al. (2013) talked in detail about truthfulness validation. This post also highlighted how many of the sub-topics raised (such as the need for a degree of tutor involvement in content provision and synergistic quality enhancement of shared content) had been previously discussed in my earlier blog posts – thereby underscoring the interconnected nature of the themes which I have discussed throughout this blog post series. I hope that in doing so, all those of you who have stuck with these posts to the end of this journey have enjoyed the story of my learning process as I have tackled some of the key topics relating to supporting students in online learning. I know that I have.
The end.
References
Contact North (2013) “How to Prepare and Moderate Online Discussions for Online Learning” http://teachonline.ca/sites/default/files/tools-trends/downloads/how_to_plan_for_and_moderate_online_discussions.pdf 1-13.
de Freitas, S., & Liarokapis, F. (2011). Serious games: a new paradigm for education?. In Serious games and edutainment applications (pp. 9-23). Springer London.
Downes, S. (2006) ‘The student’s own education’, webcast seminar at Knowledge Media Institute, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK, 5 June 2006.
Fry, S. W., & Bryant, C. (2006). Using distance technology to sustain teacher education for student teachers in isolated areas: The technology supported induction network. Journal of Computing in Teacher Education,23(2), 63-69.
Fu, H. J., Chu, S., & Kang, W. X. (2013) Affordances and Constraints of a Wiki for Primary-school Students’ Group Projects. Educational Technology & Society, 16 (4), 85–96.
Huang, T.-C., Huang, Y.-M., & Yu, F.-Y. (2011). Cooperative Weblog Learning in Higher Education: Its Facilitating Effects on Social Interaction, Time Lag, and Cognitive Load. Educational Technology & Society, 14 (1), 95–106.
Kamenetz, Anya, (2010) “Chapter 4 : Computer science”, Kamenetz, Anya, DIY U : edupunks, edupreneurs, and the coming transformation of higher education, 81-107, Chelsea Green Publishing
Kuswara, A., Cram, A., & Richards, D. (2008) Web 2.0 supported collaborative learning activities: Towards an affordance perspective. In Proceedings of the 3rd International LAMS & Learning Design Conference (pp. 70-80).
Lamas, D., Välyataga, T., Laanpere, M., Rogalevich, V., Arakelyan, A., Sousa, S., & Shmorgun, I. (2013) Foundations for the Reconceptualization of the e-Textbook. In International Conference on e-Learning (p. 510). Academic Conferences International Limited.
Lee, H. J., & Yau, K. L. A. (2015) Addressing the major Information Technology challenges of electronic textbooks. Journal of Computer Information Systems, 55(2), 40-47.
Mansour, O., Askenäs, L., Ghazawneh, A. (2013) Social Media and Organizing: An Empirical Analysis of the Role of Wiki Affordances in Organizing Practices. In: Thirty Fourth International Conference on Information Systems, Milan 2013
McLoughlin, C., & Lee, M. J. (2007) Social software and participatory learning: Pedagogical choices with technology affordances in the Web 2.0 era. In ICT: Providing choices for learners and learning. Proceedings ascilite Singapore 2007 (pp. 664-675).
Millar, M. & Schrier, T. (2015) Digital or Printed Textbooks: Which do Students Prefer and Why?, Journal of Teaching in Travel & Tourism, 15 (2) 166-185.
O‘Hare, S. (2011) The role of the tutor in online learning. In ASCILITE-Australian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education Annual Conference (Vol. 2011, No. 1, pp. 909-918).
Stewart, V. (2010). A classroom as wide as the world. Curriculum 21: Essential education for a changing world, 97-114.
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