Using Inquiry Based Learning in a Web-enhanced environment

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Using Inquiry Based Learning in a Web-enhanced
environmentAsynchronous learning networks can
level the playing field

• Cecil Harold McManus, Ph.D.
• The Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences
• Saint Augustines College
• Raleigh, North Carolina

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God made all persons
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But
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Colonel Colt made them equal!
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Colleges are also madeEndowmentsFixed
assetsLibrary resourcesTechnological
InfrastructureCapital CampaignsFaculty expertise
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BUT
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An ode to doing more with lessInquiry
Based LearningAsynchronous Learning Networks
Level Playing Field
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The Five Trends

• Idiographic Approach
• Decentralization
• Knowledge Creation
• Divergent Thinking
• Pragmatism

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Idiographic Learning

• Respect for individuals
• Non-traditional approach
• No temporal concurrence
• Multi-media

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Idiographic Learning

• Flexible Curriculum
• Active environment
• Professor is facilitator
• Situation creator
• Content director

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Students are partners in the
processMeta-cognitive skills enhancedAvoids
the old transmission model
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DecentralizationAsynchronous
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Inquiry Based LearningBlackboard.Com
High Touch
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IBL Blackboard.com

• Linear/non-linear
• Sequential/self-paced
• Temporal flexibility
• Artifact development
• Direct communication
• Monitored communication
• Perfect match

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What is IBL

• Pedagogy
• Art
• Science
• Profession
• Teaching
• Meta-cognitive
• Process based
• Research driven

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Blackboard.Com?E-learning
platformAdvanced communication systemVirtual
classroomElectronic Socratic ServerLink to
global contentCollaborative platform Web
Enhanced
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Lev Vygotsky set the groundwork for the
idea of communal learning and the use of symbolic
shared tool tools.
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Students have patterns of information
integration
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Students have a zone of proximal
development
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IBL and Blackboard.com allows us to
understand the patterns and facilitate the
development of students where they are!
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IBL is based on five principles
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Driving Question

• Topical
• Issue driven
• Requires investigation
• Requires model construction
• Requires working hypotheses
• Requires divergent thinking

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The Scientific ApproachInvestigations 101

• Survey literature
• Formal hypotheses
• Data collection
• Data analysis
• Hypotheses decisions
• Conclusions
• Formal Report

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Artifact Development

• Paper to defend
• Poster to present
• Web Site developed
• Computer program
• New research model
• Instructional Video
• Interactive DVD
• New product

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Learning Communities

• Shared tools
• Student in activity
• Internal collaboration
• External collaboration
• Collective investigations
• Collective presentations
• Virtual research labs
• Ecological validity

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Cognitive Tools

• The Network
• The Site
• Group pages
• Individual pages
• Site discussion board
• Group discussion board
• The Combination

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The technology is used to advance
thinking and reasoning, not to replace them.
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Blackboard.com and IBL levels the playing
field primarily because they manage a significant
number of tasks for faculty at smaller
institutions.
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IBL

• GOAL IS TO FIT THE RIGHT PLATFORM TO THE RIGHT
  GROUP.

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Platforms are everywhere
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Platform Analogy
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Platforms at College
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Opportunity Creation
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Benefits

• Problem solver
• Expert
• Divergent Thinker
• Critical Thinker
• Educated student
• Better grades
• Higher GPA
• Graduate School

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Divergent ThinkingThinking outside the
triangle or the rhombus?
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Opens up the playing field to new
participants who may develop the cure for
long-term human problems
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Builds momentum and the network makes all
things probable. Spinning tops keep spinning!
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Emphasize problems solving skills
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Emphasizes creating new Knowledgeand
sharing it
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Asynchronous Learning NetworksInquiry
Based LearningBlackboard.Com
Scholar
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One can develop passive students orOne
can develop active scholars
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of, used in, or being digital
communication (as between computers) in which
there is no timing requirement for transmission
and in which the start of each character is
individually signaled by the transmitting device

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focused communication (as between
individuals and/or groups) in which there is no
timing requirement for transmission of
information and in which the start of each packet
is individually signaled by the need of the
transmitting and receiving devices
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Pragmatism
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If you give a student a fishShe will
eat for day
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If you teach her how to fishShe will
eat for a lifetime!
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In the twenty-first century there will be a rapid
change in how literacy is defined and the
knowledge and skills that individuals need to be
literate in the 21st century may not have even
been invented.
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Five Trends For Success

• Idiographic Approach
• Decentralization
• Knowledge Creation
• Divergent Thinking
• Pragmatism

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Using Inquiry Based Learning in a
Web-enhanced environmentAsynchronous learning
networks can level the playing fieldC. Harold
McManus, Ph.D.Saint Augustines College