The changing landscape of communication in online learning: The use of blogs, wikis and VOIP in the

1
The changing landscape of communication in
online learning The use of blogs, wikis
and VOIP in the virtual learning space

• Rita Kop

2
Background
Knowledge learning Communication
Virtual Learning Environment
Social software
Conclusions
Further research
3
Background

• Manage e-learning provision in DACE
• Studying for PhD Lifelong Learning and the
  Internet, Post Modernism and the concept of
  knowledge

4
Teaching or Learning?
Interactive Education
5
Theories of knowledge
Culturalism Human Knowledge and interaction are
inseparable from the world
Affective functions and cognitive ones are
inextricably integrated with one another.
Picard et al 2004
Learning from experience
In the symbol-processing view, mind is seen to
be in the head. Symbols in the head then model
objects in the external world. Bredo 1999
learning is a process of active individual
construction
Knowledge, skills, understanding cannot be
conceptualised outside the specific real-life
contexts in which they occur.
Freire I engage in dialogue because I
recognize the social and not merely the
individualistic character of the process of
knowing.
6
Communication at the heart of knowledge creation

• Social interaction

7
Institutional Space (VLE) versus Personal Space

• Control
• Building on existing knowledge and experience
• Learning from others
• Communication

8
blogs and wikis

• Open media
• Willingness of people to share in such
  experiences
• Global communication forums
• immediate responses on a scale unimaginable in
  the traditional university

9
Communication in blogs

• Reactions to confessions
• Network building
• Group blogs
• Related to personal interest
• Communication for knowledge construction with
  20,000 better than with 20?

10
Communication in wikis

• As spaces for brainstorming, creating
  think-tanks
• As collaborative areas for teams to work on
  projects
• To work together in research
• As repositories of shared knowledge
• Different form of communication

11
Challenges
adjusting to more open learning environment
change in role of tutors
Integration in a formal educational setting
Access
Adult learners/tutors have to adapt
Net-generation is immersed in technology
The street finds its own uses for Technology
Gibson
12
Conclusion

• Blogs and wikis offer opportunities to improve
  the traditional VLE
• Strength lies in network forming
• Novelty value, Informality, linking own interest
  and knowledge, global communication
• Blogs and wikis (and VOIP, IM, personal space)
  bridge ICT use between educational institutions
  and home
• From institutional space to personal space?

13
communicate in a special way
communicate by sharing their knowledge in a pool
It is not supposed to be a glorified television
channel
an information space through which people can
communicate
not just that it should be a big browsing medium
The idea was that everybody would be putting
their ideas in, as well as taking them out
Berners-Lee (1999) about the Internet
14

• Communication in changing online learning
  environment in relation to
• Quality of the learning experience
• Quality of knowledge created
• Tutor role
• Institutional change

15
QuestionsWould communication for knowledge
construction be better with 20,000 than with 20?
Would the quality of the knowledge creation be
affected by a changed way of communication?

• F.G.Kop_at_Swansea.ac.uk
• Department of Adult Continuing Education
• University of Wales Swansea