Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:1249] Final Discussion Summary
From: Brent Muirhead (bmuirhead@email.uophx.edu)
Date: Sun 25 Feb 2001 - 20:19:05 MET
From: "Brent Muirhead" <bmuirhead@email.uophx.edu> Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:1249] Final Discussion Summary Date: Sun, 25 Feb 2001 14:19:05 -0500
Greetings Colleagues!
I am writing to share my final summary of our responses to Albert Ip's
discussion on "Ideal features of Web-based role play generator." The summary
covers February 20-24, 2001. I had approzimately 9,000 words to edit, so I
strived to be concise and share your main thoughts. The group was very
interested in exploring autonomous learning. It is always a challenging
concept for distance educators because it involves a host of instructional
issues. Personally, I have found that even highly motivated online graduate
students (including doctoral) need specific teacher assistance.
I want to thank Albert Ip for sharing a very stimulating discussion paper
that prompted detailed and thought provoking comments from our members.
February 20, 2001
Norma Benesdra favors responsible autonomous learning that is daring built
upon teachers asking more questions while offering fewer answers to
students. Norma relates that "maybe this small change will, following
Socrates, enable students and teachers to know themselves better, find their
own learning
and teaching strategies and thus learn better."
Cameron Nichol reflected on the impact on of online learning on traditional
education and makes some an observation on the future of distance education.
"What is more likely are Hybrid classroom / online courses. These are
becoming more ideologically acceptable as many educators (particularly in
the training
field) now have enough information to evaluate the relative strengths of the
newer learning strategies. For many areas hybrid courses potentially offer
a sensible (and defensible) middle way which offers cost benefits while
maintaining a strong (and in many cases stronger) focus on learning."
Marshal Anderson discusses how the phrase "autonomous learning" can be
viewed differently by business and government leaders. Marshal notes that
"the idea that someone can be empowered to develop their own learning, that
they become their own personal constructivists and 'own' their own learning
seems to be a good thing. In any formal course students will still need
guidance, course content still needs to be constantly re-developed and there
is still a 'teaching' role - but the more autonomous students are the more
they will be able to get what they (rather than governments and employers)
want out of the courses they take."
Ted Panitz believes that people need to start addressing the question about
who controls computer technology. Ted relates that students are controlling
the system and "they will continue to demand human contact in the form of a
professor, in a class, where they can interact with their peers and the
professor. A few students will use distance learning for its convenience. I
have observed that they come to the
conclusion that in class, human interactions cannot be replicated over the
Internet and thus the value of pure Internet delivery as an equal to
classroom interaction is overrated. They then return to the classroom
environment."
Ted observes that college teachers tend to rely too much on lectures and it
will limit student interaction. In fact, he stresses that computer
instruction has similarities to the formal lecture setting. Ted shares his
paper written on this subject at the following web site:
http://www.capecod.net/~tpanitz/tedspage/tedsarticles/teaching.htm
Bill Klemm discusses his agreement with Chris O'Hagan's comments about the
need for teachers to reach more students. Yet, educational institutions that
expect to increase the number of students taught per teacher must increase
their teacher resources (e.g. technical staff). Bill states that "teachers
and their technical consultants must find ways to automate more completely
the logistical requirements of D.E., ranging from registration, monitoring
of group work, and grading of assignments and tests."
Margaret Martinez argues that most school systems do not support autonomous
learning. Unfortunately, teachers are often the ones who control the
learning climate. Margaret asserts that "we are not teaching learners the
skills (goal-setting, progress monitoring, reflection, etc.) for autonomous
learning so why are we surprised that learners are not self-directed,
self-motivated, independent learners when they go online."
Margaret shares a website that addresses the issue of autonomous learning,
http://www.trainingplace.com/source/research/learningorientations.htm
Bob Leamnson shares the term "preposterism" that comes from the author
Jacques Barzun. The term highlights those in education who try to reach
their goals without using adequate methodology. Bob is concerned that the
discussion postings have shown a tendency to a comprehensive view of
autonomous learning. Often, people will place too much emphasis on the end
result and forget that it is a distance goal. Bob challenges veteran
educators to ask themselves the question, how did you become an autonomous
learner?
Bob states that "autonomous learning is not a simple skill one picks up,
it's a habit of mind that develops gradually and with practice. If
autonomous learning were something "picked up" by one-trial learning, a
single course called "autonomous learning" would eliminate the need for all
this brickwork. Autonomous learners don't need teachers. The path to
autonomous learning is like the path to good citizenship--neither
Stephen Downes is concerned that Erroll Thompson's view of autonomous
online learning is too narrow and stresses a distorted picture of distance
education.
Stephen believes that self-directed online learning of three major elements:
1. An online knowledge base of resource materials, FAQs, examples,
background information, and more.
2. A learning environment, a place to practice skills without causing
damage, simulations, problems, question sets, and more.
3. An online community of practice, often centered around a discussion list
(like this one), but also supported by collaborative development
environments.
The three elements can be captured in the slogan "Knowledge, Learning &
Community." Stephen believes that traditional online college courses tend to
error in one or more of these areas. Naturally, an error in any one of these
areas creates problems and creates a distorted educational setting.
Stephen argues that "the critics of autonomous online learning need to move
beyond their conception of online learning as computerized versions of
university classes. Though it is true that much work in the field has been
dedicated toward emulating the classroom environment, the classroom
environment is itself sterile, a weakness magnified in an online setting.
Critics of autonomous learning need to study instances of learning which
really happen online, they need to look at the many sectoral communities
that have sprung up over the last few years, and they need to analyze the
interactions and the learning that takes place in these settings."
February 21, 2001
Forte discusses in depth the value of concept maps to help promote the
development of self-directed learning in students. Fortes'offers a list ten
advantages that students experience when first using conceptual knowledge
bases:
1. Evidences the more important concepts and maybe those of secondary
importance, with a clear and direct representation of what is "important"
and what is secondary or complementary.
2. Evidences relations among concepts that are never unidirectional.
3. Stimulates him to analyze the analytical network that constitutes the
conceptual nucleus of a topic, in order to infer even non explicit,
sometimes transitive, but always important relations... he reasons,
besides "snapping" the scheme, without which building our knowledge is
impossible.
4. Enables him to connect to precedent experience.
5. Enables him, moreover, to "see" new relations and to create new relations
considered relevant to personal learning, to transform the original platform
in his own personal learning / development platform,
easing memorization (a must, anyway) of relations among more important
concepts.
6. Encourages to reach a deeper insight in concepts beyond relations,
strengthening understanding with texts, images, video, audio, that directly
influence the creation of meaningful knowledge, an audiovisual
explanation of facts, procedures, evolutions, reference to huge or important
information and knowledge references, directly linked to concepts.
7. The text becomes a complementary discursive illustration, collateral,
(important, but not fundamental).
8. Enables semantic searching (through relations among concepts), expressing
conceptual structure through questions and answers.
9. Enables text searching, in concept descriptive texts, deepening and
recognizing secondary concepts, acquiring, together with conceptual
knowledge, holistic knowledge.
10. Encourages to adapt the "map aspect" to his own conception, to his
personal cognitive needs.
Norma Benesdra responds to Stephen Downes' comments on knowledge, learning
and community
Norma observes that online learning will "demand a responsible involvement
of the student and the teacher in each other's territories. Also with this
view you encourage students to question, criticize and take over, which is
very motivating. In fact, if students could bring into the classroom what
they have seen, heard, read or discussed outside in the various sources of
"community" learning, it would round off nicely their education."
Deirdre Bonnycastle seeks to help the discussion focus more on instructional
design. Deirdre's preference is a student-centered approach that raises
three questions:
1. What do you want the student to leave the course knowing?
2. What characteristics do my potential students have?
3.How do we move students with these characteristics from Point A in their
learning to Points B-Z?"
Deirdre makes a strong case for listening to students and paying attention
to the need to set learning goals. "Too often I see faculty focused on what
they want to teach and learning is something that happens out there in the
nebulous world of good and bad students. That approach tends to result in
the "I talk, you listen" model. The other mistake I see is people who start
by picking the delivery method first
without looking at objectives/goals."
Dennis Nelson talks about the importance of having a mentor, partner or
friend to help foster individual learning. Dennis notes that genuine
learning takes time and others help played a key role in his development.
"The individual who helped me transform the data, information, and knowledge
to applied wisdom, and element five, a value system driving my introspection
and seeking for knowledge, learning, community and "significant others."
Dennis saw his role models as providing an example of individuals who
pursued the truth and cared for others during their educational journeys.
Also, he stressed that "difficulties" of life (e.g. deaths) provided a basis
for realistic learning that fostered empathy in his life for others.
Gavin Nettleton discusses the importance of meeting the need human needs of
our learners by wisely using our technology. This is a challenging task
because you must try to reduce costs to increase online participation. Also,
Gavin points out that a good online learning model promotes both individual
and group learning. Gavin observes that "there has been a lot of
contructivist talk but in the end they have the interpersonal high ground in
offering models of learning which are person centred not technically
pushed."
Gavin stresses the need to seek a balanced and relevant online educational
philosophy that recognizes that learners have their job related expectations
that require direct attention. Yet, it is vital not to neglect the "socially
desirable need to produce concerned citizens capable of challenging the
prevailing orthodoxy and questioning for whom a system is working or more
poetically 'for whom the bell tolls'."
Chris O'Hagan shares that he agrees with Bob Leamson on the value of having
goals in autonomous learning. Chris believes that work experience provides
real life encounters but the individual still needs feedback and the quality
of educational experiences. Also, individuals need to continue to develop
knowledge skills to use prior knowledge and to know when you need additional
information.
Chris believes that the current dialog has failed to pay enough attention to
cultural factors that influence student learning. "As a mature student I did
a work-based learning, distance PG course. There was no face-to-face. This
did not trouble me - in fact the lack of a fixed schedule was great. But I
would have found that difficult as a teenager. One gets the impression that
other cultures can cope better at a younger age than in the over-indulged
West."
Paul Whittaker talks about the role of the teacher (mentor/facilitator)
creating a student centered online climate. Paul relates that the key
elements to a learning rich environment seem to be good learning resources
(digital and paper), a well-structured course, and a peer group interested
in learning the same things. Students certainly seem to happier to come to
their own conclusions rather than be told the conclusion by a lecturer."
Paul does have questions about how research is conducted in the online
classroom.
Kristinka Ovesni shared two articles with discussion group on new
technologies in adult education. Kristinka provided a web site for one of
the articles:
http://www.spark-online.com/january00/trends/articles/ovesni_samurovic.html
Erroll Thompson stresses that he is not against autonomous learning. He does
oppose the idea that learners can work completely independently without any
need for assistance. Erroll believes students need to develop skills that
helps them manage new information and he advocates responsible change. "I am
a very strong advocate for change but not a change that leaves another group
disadvantaged or that throws out
some critical areas of learning. A move to on-line learning must continue to
promote good pedagogy and learning theory." Erroll has not been impressed
the instructional quality of the online courses that he has seen that appear
very similar to reading a textbook.
Erroll relates his teaching experiences involve using "a combination of
techniques aimed at the level of learning skills of the learner and the
subject matter understudy to work within the time constraints and the cost
constraints." Erroll hopes that " I will never blindly chase a technology or
particular teaching approach but will always consider the impact on the
learner and how it enhances their ability to learn whether autonomously or
collaboratively."
February 22, 2001
Larisa Enriquez affirms her agreement with Norma Benesdra for the need to
make effective technological changes that help students. Larisa talks about
the distance education program at the National University of Mexico that
utilizes different technologies. "The students get their courses by video,
also they receive a manual and an excercising book. For the accreditation
there is a site with an on-line tutorial, an on-line
tutor, a FAQ section, links to another sites and information about the
exam."
Larisa highlighted the fact that the program had to become more flexible to
meet student needs by enhancing communication within the classes. Also, many
of the students did not like not knowing their teacher. The program has
added two traditional classes for students who wanted to talk face-to-face
with their instructors. The changes have improved student motivation and
participation. Larisa closes by noting that "it is still a long process
before students feel comfortable with new educational proposals and we
cannot ignore this issue."
February 24, 2001
Souley Dounda relates a strong concern for developing countries that have
many individuals with limited access to the Internet. Souley states that
"very few people do access to email accounts or research on line. For
instance, most of the faculties in my country, Niger are not connected to
Internet and keep on making use of the traditional way of sharing
information. It's hard to imagine the gap that exists between the
developed countries and the developing ones. It's just huge and growing up
higher and higher every day; this is why I strongly believe that a plea
should be undertaken in this sense in order to stop or break this gap."
Unfortunately, developing countries suffer from an assortment of problems
such as the high cost of
Gao Shuting offers a different set of perspectives on autonomous learning.
Gao states that "some people in this world have to learning autonomously
since they live in the sparsely populated area or poorly net-lised area,
such as in very north of the Nordic countries. Gao does acknowledge that the
truly solitary learning requires personal discipline and clear learning
objectives. Also, today's distance learning materials do not promote
autonomous learning. The barriers to cultivating more self-directed learners
involve such factors student maturity and studying for specific tests. Gao
shares that in the Eastern culture "students have formed the habit to be
'fed in' the learning materials for the purposes of passing the exam."
Brent Muirhead D.Min; Ph.D.
Faculty, University of Phoenix
bmuirhead@email.uophx.edu
---------------------------------------------------------
List address to send message to everyone:
ifets-discussion@catfish.valdosta.edu
Details of current discussion: http://ifets.ieee.org/discussions/discuss.html
Forum website: http://ifets.ieee.org/
Forum's contact person: kinshuk@massey.ac.nz
Info on Join/Leave List: http://ifets.ieee.org/maillist.html
---------------------------------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2a24 : Mon 26 Feb 2001 - 04:26:25 MET