Education and Technology

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Education and Technology

• The Possibilities
• You can teach a Web-based Course too!

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A Guide to Helping College Professors Integrate
Technology into the Classroom
3
Implement Web Instruction into Your Classroom
with these Seven Principles of Undergraduate
Education

• Principle 1 Encourage Contact Between Students
  and Faculty
• Principle 2 Develop Reciprocity and Cooperation
  Among Students
• Principle 3 Use Active Learning Techniques
• Principle 4 Give Prompt Feedback
• Principle 5 Emphasize Time-On-Task
• Principle 6 Communicate High Expectations
• Principle 7 Respect Diverse Talents and Ways of
  Learning (Newlin)

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Encourage Contact Between Students and Faculty

• This can be done in two ways
• Asynchronous communication
• Time and place independent
• E-mail, Forum Postings, Bulletin Boards
• Synchronous communication
• Place, but not time independent
• Virtual Chatrooms
• (Newlin)

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Develop Reciprocity and Cooperation Among Students

• Studies show that Web-based student-to-student
  interactions (e-mail, student-organized
  chatrooms, face-to-face contact) increase student
  satisfaction and improve course outcomes
• To improve student-to-student interactions
• Group projects
• Facilitates cyberstudent collaborations
• Study Groups
• Instructor posts student e-mail lists, telephone
  numbers to encourage pre-arranged chatroom
  discussions for study groups
• Home page and syllabus
• Should describe the advantages of student
  collaboration, particularly for the virtual
  classroom
• (Newlin)

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Use Active Learning Techniques

• Instructors can use the benefits of the Web to
  promote active and critical thinking
• Cyberstudents in study groups can be either
  mentors or mentees, which benefits all
  participants
• Students report that collaboration on the design
  of each others Web pages is a positive
  experience
• Giving cyberstudents tips about Web-based search
  engines empower them to do Web-based research
  even when the project does not require it.
• (Newlin)

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Give Prompt Feedback

• Web-based technologies allows prompt feedback
  from instructors to students
• Instructor sends comments or grades on
  assignments via e-mail or by forum postings
• Students can quickly respond with questions or
  feedback
• This contributes to greater feelings of
  instructor contact, support, and availability for
  the students
• Instructors can also monitor the number and
  duration of student hits in the virtual
  classroom. Studies show that there is a strong
  correlation between number of hits and course
  grades, therefore early monitoring can allow for
  contact with students show low involvement with
  the virtual classroom.
• (Newlin)

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Emphasize Time-On-Task

• To maintain student involvement throughout the
  semester
• Establish regularly scheduled chatrooms
• Increase actual and perceived presence of
  instructor in course
• Chance to remind students of assignments
• Regularly post graded assignments throughout the
  semester
• Gives students time to form study groups
• (Newlin)

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Communicate High Expectations

• Use these four techniques to establish high
  expectations
• Post highly visible course goals and expectations
  on the course home page
• Describe how students will attain these goals and
  objectives and how grades will be determined
• Contact students early on (via e-mail, chatroom,
  forum postings) with course goals and
  expectations
• Continual contact from instructor throughout the
  course will reinforce goals and objectives in a
  non-threatening manner
• How to set expectations
• Use the same expectations as for conventional
  sections of the class
• (Newlin)

10
Respect Diverse Talents and Ways of Learning

• Unique situations for students (physical
  disabilities, family obligations, distance
  issues) that make travel difficult to campus are
  solved through taking a Web-based course
• Shy students are no longer intimidated in the
  Web-classroom setting
• Response is based on merit rather than race, sex,
  or age
• (Newlin)

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Speakeasy Studio and Cafe

• A Washington State University faculty member
  created a web-based program called Speakeasy
  Studio and Café, which is an online classroom

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Why Is Speakeasy Important?

• According to Mark A. Jacobs, Students who are
  better prepared for success are the ones who have
  had the opportunity to apply critical thinking as
  part of a practical research strategy formulated
  in a classroom setting which synthesizes
  traditional goals of scholarship with new
  realizations predicted on immersion in an online
  environment such as Speakeasy.

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Special Features of Speakeasy

• Problems or questions arising outside the
  classroom can be posted in a forum which allows
  other students to view and add threads, which is
  automatically archived by Speakeasy for viewing
  by current and future students
• Lists of terms used by students in search queries
  and links to digital resources are automatically
  compiled by Speakeasy for viewing by other
  students, supporting the concept of the new
  media classroom as a shared learning environment
  (Jacobs)

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Criticisms of the Online Classroom

• Lose value of face-to-face interaction
• Lose humanity of educational experience
• We will become a paperless society
• Jacobss response is that as a civilization we
  have never relied on just one form of information
  collection, therefore traditional classrooms will
  never be phased out

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Dealing with Multi-Conceptual-Level Students

• As in any classroom setting, there will be a
  variety of achievement levels
• A study done by Dawson R. Hancock,et al concludes
  that high-conceptual-level students achieved more
  and were most motivated when exposed to
  student-centered instruction
• On the other hand, low-conceptual-level students
  performed better and were most motivated when
  exposed to teacher-centered instruction
• Keep these results in mind when encountering
  difficulties with students

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Works Cited

• Hancock, Dawson R., et al. Influencing
  University Students Achievement and Motivation
  in a Technology Course. The Journal of
  Educational Research 95.6 (2002) 365-372.
• Jacobs, Mark. Speakeasy Studio and Café
  Information Literacy, Web-based Library
  Instruction, and Technology. Information
  Technology and Libraries (June 2001) 66-71.
• Newlin, Michael H., and Alvin Y. Wang.
  Integrating Technology and Pedagogy Web
  Instruction and Seven Principles of Undergraduate
  Education. Teaching of Psychology 29.4 (2002)
  325-330.
• Zhang, Wenxian. Developing Web-Enhanced Learning
  for Information Fluency. Reference User
  Services Quarterly 41.4 (2002) 356-362.

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More Information About Goal-Setting

• Goals developed for a Web-based classroom at
  Rollins College include the following
• Clearly express a research question, problem, or
  issue
• Determine the information required to answer the
  research question
• Locate and retrieve information
• Evaluate relevant information and information
  sources
• Organize information for practical application
• Understand the ethical, legal, and political
  issues surrounding information gathering
• (Zhang)