Online teaching and learning

This Modelling New Skills for Online Teaching by Salten, G. and Hansen, S. provides an useful summary on online teaching.  Though it seems to have been written sometime ago, I found it valuable to review and reflect on the findings:

In order to incorporate online skills into their own teaching, academics are likely to benefit by actively experiencing them as a learner.

In a lot of situations, traditional methods of training are still clearly favoured over online methods.

What are the skills and strategies required for successful online teaching?  I think this is a critical question now when Web 2.0 and social media are ubiquitous.

Common factors highlighted in successful projects using online teaching include:

Structure

Relevance

Support

Teaching itself is an eclectic process and there is no need to adopt an all-or-none attitude (Schneiderman et. al., 1998)

In this Breaking down online teaching: Innovation and resistance by Hannon, J.

One question arising from the two cases is how innovation, that is, transformative change, can occur in the context of mass teaching and learning, that is, the tension between innovation and standardised

approaches to online teaching. At issue is the tendency of blackboxes, such as an LMS, to be totalising both as technologies and as discourses, and to set a “standard” approach to online teaching which may be the antithesis of innovation. As such the “standard” for online teaching in an institutional will contest and resist alternative pedagogical models brought to the assemblage, like the collaborative wiki example.

So, there are still many factors to be considered when using technology enhanced learning in online teaching.

How about these 6 ‘s’ – system, story, style, sense,  synergy and support?

System – What sort of systems would be necessary to support online learning?  Learning Management System has been successful in providing an effective learning solution in certain cases.  Would this include Personal Learning Network/Environment?  How effective would the PLN/E be in online learning?

Story – What sort of stories would the educator/learner like to tell and share throughout the learning process?  What is the focus of the story?

Style – What styles of learning are adopted and adapted by learners in the online teaching/learning?

Sense – What senses of learning are involved? Does the learner use multiple senses in the “sensemaking process”?

Synergy – How is synergy achieved in the online teaching/learning process?  Are there conversation, cooperation, collaboration amongst teacher, peer learners and other educators and networkers?  Are the learners encouraged and supported to leverage with the tools and media in their networked learning?  What level of participation would help in yielding the synergy required for networked learning?

Support – What sort of support are provided by the institution, online course instructors, peers, technology,  community and networks etc.

John

Postscript: Interesting findings here in The MetLife Survey of the American Teacher: collaboration for success referred by Stephen

Personal and professional judgment

Ken writes in his Judgment Day:

John’s use of the biblical quotes are interesting. They sound like a prohibition on passing judgements, or, maybe a warning that if one does choose to speak out one’s judgements then one must accept the possibility of being held to account for the very things one is using to judge others. Perhaps interpretivism has its roots here, in the sense that, perhaps one should not be judgemental of another until they “walk a mile in the other’s mocassins“.

Would it depend whether judgement is based personally or professionally?
Here http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/consistent_teacher/assessment.htm
on professional judgment, teachers have been trained, encouraged and passed professional judgment to decide on the competency of the candidates. This way of judgment has been used for decades, especially under the paradigm of competency based training and assessment. Within this framework, knowledge and skills could be transferred and acquired through training and development. How does this compare to the connective knowledge, where it emerged out of the interactions/connections rather than acquired or transferred from one person to another like a thing? How would you make your judgment? On personal basis?
John