Monday, January 28, 2013

Module 4: Engaging Learners with New Strategies and Tools

The online learning environment can be a very media rich nexus for engaging students while providing meaningful learning both through the process and the content. A variety of tools and strategies are available in order to build nurturing collaborative environments that foster communication by connecting students to each other and to the content. Connectivism (Siemens, 2008) is alive and thriving in the online classroom and even if instructors are limited by their LMS, outside tools can support the process.

Content-Communicate-Collaborate. Click for larger view.


The online environment does not differ drastically from the face-to-face classroom; many of the same techniques are necessary to guide learners: small work-groups, defined rubrics, instructor wait-time (Durrington, Berryhill, & Swafford, 2006). Looking at the advice that Anderson (2008) for building that community of inquiry, the majority of the presence depends on the instructor but fortunately some of that 'being there' can be shared with the learner and enabled by technology.

Student engagement is still a deep question I have despite this week's readings and my own research for the video presentation. Does having the options available for participation mean there will be the joining in/cooperation/partnership?


References
Anderson, T. (Ed.). (2008). The theory and practice of online learning (2nd ed.). Edmonton, AB: Athabasca University Press.

Durrington, V. A., Berryhill, A., & Swafford, J. (2006). Strategies for enhancing student interactivity in an online environment. College Teaching, 54(1), 190−193.

Siemens, G. (2008, January). Learning and knowing in networks: Changing roles for educators and designers. ITForum.

Sharmaine Sharusan
PhD in Educational Technology
Pacific time zone, Washington State
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4 comments:

  1. Martha BlessJanuary 29, 2013 at 4:31 AM

    Hi Shar,

    Your graphic is well done. I like that you included the logos of the various online sites. It makes it easy to quickly identify the sites that you frequent and that you find useful in e-learning.

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    Replies
    1. Shar!January 29, 2013 at 11:43 PM

      Hi Martha,

      Thank for the feedback. I was thinking I need to go back and add in the LMS sites that are out there like Moodle, BlackBoard and eCollege and a couple other commerical products like Collaboration Nation and something else I saw recently.

      But I don't necessarily use those sites myself, so meh. hehe

      Cheers - Shar

      Delete
  2. Ms HillJanuary 30, 2013 at 6:33 PM

    Hi Shar,

    I think your graphic organizer looks fantastic. It encompasses and connect lots of helpful resources when it comes online learning. They also all connect in some way. It is very hard to separate and characterize these tools, because all of them interrelate to each other.

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    1. Shar!January 30, 2013 at 9:59 PM

      Hi Allison,

      What's interesting to me is that no one tool does it all, there are ways to make it work, but their original design is for a specific singular purpose. Do we need a tech tool that does it all, a swiss-army-knife of collaborative communicative connecting software? Or will we continue to have a chest full of tools that work really well for specific purposes and have to jump around from tool to tool per venture?

      Cheers - Shar

      Delete

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