Accommodating%20Students

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Accommodating Students Needs in E-Learning and
B-Learning Different Routes to the Same Success?
Students Needs

• Sherri Y.C. Wei
• ETAL April 08 2009

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The Integration of TechnologyThe Third Distinct

• A mixture of two languages
• will produce
• a third distinct from both,
• and
• they will always be mixed.

In Samuel Johnsons (1755) the preface of A
Dictionary of the English Language
(paragraph 89).
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Outline
1. The Digital Native Debate (Prensky, 2001) 2.
Theory of Transactional Distance (Moore,
1972) 3. Community of inquiries (Garrison,
Anderson, Archer, 2000)

• Opportunities to exercise
• choice-making
• 2. Willingness to assume
• responsibility
• 3. Reflection on
• self-management
• 4. Sense of ownership

Spring 2008 Class A (e-learning, semester) Class
B (b-learning, semester) Class C (b-learning,
one-month)
I-Statement Analysis Students voices in diary
and interview analysis
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Theoretical Frameworks
1. The Digital Native Debate (Prensky,
2001) 2. Theory of Transactional Distance
(Moore, 1972) 3. Community of
inquiries (Garrison, Anderson, Archer, 2000)
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The Digital Native Debate

• Prensky (2001)
• A new generation
• Digital Natives
• (1980-1994)
• Digital Immigrants

• Two key claims
• A distinct generation of Digital Native does
  exist.
• Fundamental changes are necessary to meet their
  needs.

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Characteristics of the Net Generation

• Active experiential learners
• Proficient in multitasking
• Dependent on ICTs for accessing information and
  interacting with others

• Fundamental changes are necessary to accommodate
  the skills and interests of this Net Generation
• (Benett, Maton Kervin, 2008, p. 776)

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The Call for Changes I

• There is growing appreciation that the old
  approach is ill-suited to the intellectual,
  social, motivation and emotional needs of the new
  generation (Tapscott, 1998, p. 131).
• Our students have changed radically. Todays
  students are no longer the people our education
  system was designed to teach emphasis in
  original (Prensky, 2001, p. 1)

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The Call for Changes II

• Lius Study The Trend and Challenge for Teaching
  EFL at Taiwan Universities (2005)
• The need to provide balanced, sound instruction
  to include Web-based instruction (WBI) in the
  Internet age.
• EFL instructors need to think about how to take
  advantage of the Internet to help learners
  development of English in conjunction with CLT in
  a hybrid context.

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Suggestions from Liu

• Benefits of WBI
• Large numbers of resources in English are
  available online.
• More opportunities for authentic English
  practice.
• Alternative communication opportunities
  (Synchronous and asynchronous communication
  tools).

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The Other Side of the Debate

• The survey study of 4375 students across 13
  institutions in United States
• by Kvavik, Caruso Morgan (2004)
• 99.5 Email
• 99.5 Surfing the Internet for pleasure
• 93.4 Word processing
• 21 Creating their own content and
  multimedia for the Web

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Similar Patterns in Two Australian Studies

• Kenndy et al (2006)
• 21 Blog
• 24 Social net-working technologies
• 21.5 Downloading podcasts (Oliver Goerke,
  2007)
• Other variables
• Socio-economic status
• Cultural/ethnic background
• Gender
• Discipline specialization

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Moores Theory of Transactional Distance (1972)
Distance education is not simply a geographic
separation of learners and teachers, but, more
importantly, is a pedagogical concept.
(In Keegan Theoretical Principles of Distance
Education, 1997 22)
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Airbag for Online Learning?
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Myths of technological determinism

• Technology determines its own uses an effects.
• The changes brought by technology are inevitable.
  
• Inventions as revolutions.
• (Kenning, 2007, p. 6 -13)

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Four major obstacles

• The drivers for change should be identified and
  capitalized on.
• New possibilities in delivery are available at a
  cost, so sustainable approaches to these learning
  have to be ensured.
• New methodologies add a layer of complexity to
  course structure.
• New ways of interacting and the free exchange of
  information require careful consideration of
  ethical issues.
• (Littlejohn Pegler, 2007, P. 3)

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Community of Inquiry
Social Presence
Supporting Discourse
Cognitive Presence
Educational Experience
Selecting Content
Setting Climate
Teaching Presence (Structure/Process)
(Garrison, Anderson, Archer, 2000)
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Online Listening Resources
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Three Listening Courses
B-Learning (One-Month) Freshmen Listening
Lab Freshmen English Majors
E-Learning Intermediate Listening Junior/Senior
Non-English Majors
B-Learning Computer Assisted Listening
Comprehension Junior/Senior English Majors
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Class A Class B Class C
Course Title Intermediate Listening Computer Assisted Listening Comprehension Freshmen Listening Lab
Course Type Elective Elective Required
Major Non-English Major (Day) English Major (Night) English Major (Day)
Year 3rd year and above 3rd year and above First year
No. of Ss 25 24 33
Length of Online Learning One semester 16 weeks One semester 16 weeks One month 4 weeks
Modality of Interaction Reduced F2F meeting (3 times) synchronous asynchronous discussions Regular weekly F2F meeting asynchronous discussions Regular weekly F2F meeting asynchronous discussions
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Data Collection Diaries Interviews
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I-Statement Analysis I

• I-statement analysis examines how people speak
  in the first person, referring, for example, to
  their actions, successes, abilities, or
  constraints, and thus use language to fashion
  themselves as a person of a particular type
  (Gee, 1999, 2000 in Fang Warschauer, 2004, p.
  308) .

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I-Statement Analysis II

• Gee (1999, 2000)
• how teenagers fashion themselves through the
  choice of language
• one of the discourse analytic tools he applied in
  order to give a snapshot of teenagers actual
  use of language so as to further explore the
  underlying identity formation (Gee, 2001, p.
  177).
• Fang Warschauer (2004)
• to analyse interviews in showing higher level of
  autonomy More Action Statements
• Brown, Smith and Ushioda (2007) Ushioda (2008)
• to analyse written reflective accounts

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Extracts from Focus Group Interviews

• Class A Online FG
• It is the higher level of autonomy that makes
  this course interesting I think the Internet
  plays a major role, because I have this certain
  sense of achievement that I depend on myself in
  learning or do other things through the internet.
  It makes me feel like a college student.

• Class B F2F FG
• Whos responsible for the success of the forum?
• Its a matter of attitude. Even if its part of
  the requirement, those who dont care will not
  participate. They might appear online but just
  hanging there.

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Learner Autonomy

• Opportunities to exercise choice-making
• Willingness to assume responsibility
• Capability to take control
• Determine the objectives/goal-setting
• Define the content
• Select methods and strategies to use
• Reflection on self-management
• Evaluate the progress
• Monitor the procedure of acquisition
• Sense of ownership

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Community of Inquiry
Social Presence
Supporting Discourse
Cognitive Presence
Educational Experience
Selecting Content
Setting Climate
Teaching Presence (Structure/Process)
(Garrison, Anderson, Archer, 2000)
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Elements Categories Indicators
Cognitive Presence Triggering Event Sense of puzzlement
Cognitive Presence Exploration Information exchange
Cognitive Presence Integration Connecting ideas
Cognitive Presence Resolution Applying new ideas
Social Presence Emotional Expression Emotions
Social Presence Open Communication Risk-free expression
Social Presence Group Cohesion Encouraging collaboration
Teaching Presence Instructional Management Defining initiating discussion topics
Teaching Presence Building Understanding Sharing personal meaning
Teaching Presence Direct Instruction Focusing discussion
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Thank you for your listening!

• Sherri Y.C. Wei
• Y-C.Wei_at_warwick.ac.uk
• ETAL April 08 2009