Module 4 – Techno-pedagogical content
knowledge (10 hrs)
4.1. Ways to link technology to pedagogical content
knowledge
4.2.Innovative ways of teaching – web based learning,
virtual classroom, edublog smart classrooms
and e-content.
4.1. WAYS TO LINK TECHNOLOGY
TO PEDAGOGICAL CONTENT KNOWLEDGE
Teacher knowledge for
technology integration is called
technological pedagogical content knowledge (originally TPCK, now known as
TPACK, or technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge). This framework builds
on Lee Shulman’s construct of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) to include
technology knowledge. The development of TPACK by teachers is critical to
effective teaching with technology.
The TPACK framework for teacher
knowledge is described in detail, as a complex interaction among three bodies
of knowledge: Content, pedagogy, and technology. The interaction of these
bodies of knowledge, both theoretically and in practice, produces the types of
flexible knowledge needed to successfully integrate technology use into
teaching.
Relevance
As educators know, teaching is a complicated
practice that requires an interweaving of many kinds of specialized knowledge. Effective
teaching depends on flexible access to rich, well-organized and integrated
knowledge from different domains, including knowledge of student thinking and
learning, knowledge of subject matter, and increasingly, knowledge of
technology.
The
Challenges of Teaching With Technology
Teaching with technology is
complicated further considering the challenges newer technologies present to
teachers. In our work, the word technology applies equally to analog and
digital, as well as new and old, technologies. As a matter of practical
significance, however, most of the technologies under consideration in current
literature are newer and digital and have some inherent properties that make
applying them in straightforward ways difficult.
Most traditional pedagogical
technologies are characterized by specificity (a pencil is for writing, while a
microscope is for viewing small objects); stability (pencils, pendulums, and
chalkboards have not changed a great deal over time); and transparency of
function (the inner workings of the pencil or the pendulum are simple and
directly related to their function) (Simon, 1969). Over time, these
technologies achieve a transparency of perception (Bruce & Hogan, 1998);
they become commonplace and, in most cases, are not even considered to be
technologies. Digital technologies—such as computers, handheld devices, and
software applications—by contrast, are protean (usable in many different ways;
Papert, 1980); unstable (rapidly changing); and opaque (the inner workings are
hidden from users; Turkle, 1995).On an academic level, it is easy to argue that
a pencil and a software simulation are both technologies. The latter, however,
is qualitatively different in that its functioning is more opaque to teachers
and offers fundamentally less stability than more traditional technologies. By
their very nature, newer digital technologies, which are protean, unstable, and
opaque, present new challenges to teachers who are struggling to use more
technology in their teaching.
Also complicating teaching with
technology is an understanding that technologies are neither neutral nor
unbiased. Rather, particular technologies have their own propensities,
potentials, affordances, and constraints that make them more suitable for
certain tasks than others (Bromley, 1998; Bruce, 1993; Koehler & Mishra,
2008). Using email to communicate, for example, affords (makes possible and
supports) asynchronous communication and easy storage of exchanges. Email does
not afford synchronous communication in the way that a phone call, a
face-to-face conversation, or instant messaging does. Nor does email afford the
conveyance of subtleties of tone, intent, or mood possible with face-to-face
communication. Understanding how these affordances and constraints of specific
technologies influence what teachers do in their classrooms is not
straightforward and may require rethinking teacher education and teacher
professional development.
Social and contextual factors
also complicate the relationships between teaching and technology. Social and
institutional contexts are often unsupportive of teachers’ efforts to integrate
technology use into their work. Teachers often have inadequate (or inappropriate) experience with using digital
technologies for teaching and learning. Many teachers earned degrees at a time
when educational technology was at a very different stage of development than
it is today. It is, thus, not surprising that they do not consider themselves
sufficiently prepared to use technology in the classroom and often do not
appreciate its value or relevance to teaching and learning. Acquiring a new knowledge
base and skill set can be challenging, particularly if it is a time-intensive
activity that must fit into a busy schedule. Moreover, this knowledge is
unlikely to be used unless teachers can conceive of technology uses that are
consistent with their existing pedagogical beliefs (Ertmer, 2005). Furthermore,
teachers have often been provided with inadequate training for this task. Many
approaches to teachers’ professional development offer a onesize-fits-all
approach to technology integration when, in fact, teachers operate in diverse
contexts of teaching and learning.
An
Approach to Thinking About Technology Integration
Faced with these challenges,
how can teachers integrate technology into their teaching? An approach is
needed that treats teaching as an interaction between what teachers know and
how they apply what they know in the unique circumstances or contexts within
their classrooms. There is no “one best way” to integrate technology into
curriculum. Rather, integration efforts should be creatively designed or
structured for particular subject matter ideas in specific classroom contexts.
Honoring the idea that teaching with technology is a complex, ill-structured
task, we propose that understanding approaches to successful technology integration
requires educators to develop new ways of comprehending and accommodating this
complexity.
At the heart of good teaching
with technology are three core components: content, pedagogy, and technology,
plus the relationships among and between them. The interactions between and
among the three components, playing out differently across diverse contexts,
account for the wide variations seen in the extent and quality of educational
technology integration. These three knowledge bases (content, pedagogy, and technology)
form the core of the technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge (TPACK)
framework. An overview of the framework is provided in the following section,
though more detailed descriptions may be found elsewhere (e.g., Koehler &
2008; Mishra & Koehler, 2006). This perspective is consistent with that of
other researchers and approaches that have attempted to extend Shulman’s idea
of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) to include educational technology. (A
comprehensive list of such approaches can be found at http://www.tpck.org/.)
The
TPACK Framework
The TPACK framework builds on
Shulman’s (1987, 1986) descriptions of PCK to describe how teachers’
understanding of educational technologies and PCK interact with one another to
produce effective teaching with technology. Other authors have discussed
similar ideas, though often using different labeling schemes. The conception of
TPACK described here has developed over time and through a series of publications,
with the most complete descriptions of the framework found in Mishra and
Koehler (2006) and Koehler and Mishra (2008).
In this model (see Figure 1),
there are three main components of teachers’ knowledge: content, pedagogy, and
technology. Equally important to the model are the interactions between and
among these bodies of knowledge, represented as PCK, TCK (technological content
knowledge), TPK (technological pedagogicalknowledge), and TPACK.
The
TPACK framework and its knowledge components.
i)Content
Knowledge
Content knowledge (CK) is
teachers’ knowledge about the subject matter to be learned or taught. The
content to be covered in middle school science or history is different from the
content to be covered in an undergraduate course on art appreciation or a
graduate seminar on astrophysics. Knowledge of content is of critical
importance for teachers. As Shulman (1986) noted, this knowledge would include
knowledge of concepts, theories, ideas, organizational frameworks, knowledge of
evidence and proof, as well as established practices and approaches toward
developing such knowledge. Knowledge and the nature of inquiry differ greatly
between fields, and teachers should understand the deeper knowledge
fundamentals of the disciplines in which they teach. In the case of science,
for example, this would include knowledge of scientific facts and theories, the
scientific method, and evidence-based reasoning. In the case of art
appreciation, such knowledge would include knowledge of art history, famous
paintings, sculptures, artists and their historical contexts, as well as
knowledge of aesthetic and psychological theories for evaluating art.
The cost of not having a
comprehensive base of content knowledge can be prohibitive; for example,
students can receive incorrect information and develop misconceptions about the
content area (National Research Council, 2000; Pfundt, & Duit, 2000). Yet
content knowledge, in and of itself, is an ill-structured domain, and as the
culture wars (Zimmerman, 2002), the Great Books controversies (Bloom, 1987;
Casement, 1997; Levine, 1996), and court battles over the teaching of evolution
(Pennock, 2001) demonstrate, issues relating to curriculum content can be areas
of significant contention and disagreement.
ii)Pedagogical
Knowledge
Pedagogical knowledge (PK) is
teachers’ deep knowledge about the processes and practices or methods of
teaching and learning. They encompass, among other things, overall educational
purposes, values, and aims. This generic form of knowledge applies to
understanding how students learn, general classroom management skills, lesson
planning, and student assessment. It includes knowledge about techniques or
methods used in the classroom; the nature of the target audience; and
strategies for evaluating student understanding. A teacher with deep
pedagogical knowledge understands how students construct knowledge and acquire
skills and how they develop habits of mind and positive dispositions toward
learning. As such, pedagogical knowledge requires an understanding of
cognitive, social, and developmental theories of learning and how they apply to
students in the classroom.
iii)Pedagogical
Content Knowledge
PCK is consistent with and
similar to Shulman’s idea of knowledge of pedagogy that is applicable to the
teaching of specific content. Central to Shulman’s conceptualization of PCK is
the notion of the transformation of the subject matter for teaching.
Specifically, according to Shulman (1986), this transformation occurs as the
teacher interprets the subject matter, finds multiple ways to represent it, and
adapts and tailors the instructional materials to alternative conceptions and
students’ prior knowledge. PCK covers the core business of teaching, learning,
curriculum, assessment and reporting, such as the conditions that promote
learning and the links among curriculum, assessment, and pedagogy. An awareness
of common misconceptions and ways of looking at them, the importance of forging
connections among different content-based ideas, students’ prior knowledge,
alternative teaching strategies, and the flexibility that comes from exploring
alternative ways of looking at the same idea or problem are all essential for
effective teaching.
iv)Technology
Knowledge
Technology knowledge (TK) is
always in a state of flux—more so than the other two core knowledge domains in
the TPACK framework (pedagogy and content). Thus, defining it is notoriously
difficult. Any definition of technology knowledge is in danger of becoming
outdated by the time this text has been published. That said, certain ways of
thinking about and working with technology can apply to all technology tools
and resources.
The definition of TK used in
the TPACK framework is close to that of Fluency of Information Technology
(FITness), as proposed by the Committee of Information Technology Literacy of
the National Research Council (NRC, 1999). They argue that FITness goes beyond
traditional notions of computer literacy to require that persons understand
information technology broadly enough to apply it productively at work and in
their everyday lives, to recognize when information technology can assist or
impede the achievement of a goal, and to continually adapt to changes in
information technology. FITness, therefore, requires a deeper, more essential
understanding and mastery of information technology for information processing,
communication, and problem solving than does the traditional definition of
computer literacy. Acquiring TK in this manner enables a person to accomplish a
variety of different tasks using information technology and to develop
different ways of accomplishing a given task. This conceptualization of TK does
not posit an “end state,” but rather sees it developmentally, as evolving over
a lifetime of generative, open-ended interaction with technology.
Technological
Content Knowledge
Technology and content
knowledge have a deep historical relationship. Progress in fields as diverse as
medicine, history, archeology, and physics have coincided with the development
of new technologies that afford the representation and manipulation of data in
new and fruitful ways. Consider Roentgen’s discovery of X-rays or the technique
of carbon-14 dating and the influence of these technologies in the fields of
medicine and archeology. Consider also how the advent of the digital computer
changed the nature of physics and mathematics and placed a greater emphasis on
the role of simulation in understanding phenomena. Technological changes have
also offered new metaphors for understanding the world. Viewing the heart as a
pump, or the brain as an informationprocessing machine are just some of the
ways in which technologies have provided new perspectives for understanding
phenomena. These representational and metaphorical connections are not
superficial. They often have led to fundamental changes in the natures of the
disciplines.
Understanding the impact of
technology on the practices and knowledge of a given discipline is critical to
developing appropriate technological tools for educational purposes. The choice
of technologies affords and constrains the types of content ideas that can be
taught. Likewise, certain content decisions can limit the types of technologies
that can be used. Technology can constrain the types of possible representations,
but also can afford the construction of newer and more varied representations.
Furthermore, technological tools can provide a greater degree of flexibility in
navigating across these representations.
TCK, then, is an understanding
of the manner in which technology and content influence and constrain one
another. Teachers need to master more than the subject matter they teach; they
must also have a deep understanding of the manner in which the subject matter
(or the kinds of representations that can be constructed) can be changed by the
application of particular technologies. Teachers need to understand which
specific technologies are best suited for addressing subject-matter learning in
their domains and how the content dictates or perhaps even changes the
technology—or vice versa.
Technological
Pedagogical Knowledge
TPK is an understanding of how
teaching and learning can change when particular technologies are used in
particular ways. This includes knowing the pedagogical affordances and constraints
of a range of technological tools as they relate to disciplinarily and
developmentally appropriate pedagogical designs and strategies. To build TPK, a
deeper understanding of the constraints and affordances of technologies and the
disciplinary contexts within which they function is needed.
For example, consider how
whiteboards may be used in classrooms. Because a whiteboard is typically
immobile, visible to many, and easily editable, its uses in classrooms are
presupposed. Thus, the whiteboard is usually placed at the front of the
classroom and is controlled by the teacher. This location imposes a particular
physical order in the classroom by determining the placement of tables and
chairs and framing the nature of student-teacher interaction, since students
often can use it only when called upon by the teacher. However, it would be
incorrect to say that there is only one way in which whiteboards can be used.
One has only to compare the use of a whiteboard in a brainstorming meeting in
an advertising agency setting to see a rather different use of this technology.
In such a setting, the whiteboard is not under the purview of a single
individual. It can be used by anybody in the group, and it becomes the focal
point around which discussion and the negotiation/construction of meaning
occurs. An understanding of the affordances of technology and how they can be
leveraged differently according to changes in context and purposes is an
important part of understanding TPK.
TPK becomes particularly
important because most popular software programs are not designed for
educational purposes. Software programs such as the Microsoft Office Suite
(Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Entourage, and MSN Messenger) are usually designed
for business environments. Web-based technologies such as blogs or podcasts are
designed for purposes of entertainment, communication, and social networking.
Teachers need to reject functional fixedness (Duncker, 1945) and develop skills
to look beyond most common uses for technologies, reconfiguring them for
customized pedagogical purposes. Thus, TPK requires a forward-looking,
creative, and open-minded seeking of technology use, not for its own sake but
for the sake of advancing student learning and understanding.
Technology,
Pedagogy, and Content Knowledge
TPACK is an emergent form of
knowledge that goes beyond all three “core” components (content, pedagogy, and
technology). Technological pedagogical content knowledge is an understanding
that emerges from interactions among content, pedagogy, and technology
knowledge. Underlying truly meaningful and deeply skilled teaching with
technology, TPACK is different from knowledge of all three concepts
individually. Instead, TPACK is the basis of effective teaching with
technology, requiring an understanding of the representation of concepts using
technologies; pedagogical techniques that use technologies in constructive ways
to teach content; knowledge of what makes concepts difficult or easy to learn
and how technology can help redress some of the problems that students face;
knowledge of students’ prior knowledge and theories of epistemology; and
knowledge of how technologies can be used to build on existing knowledge to
develop new epistemologies or strengthen old ones.
By simultaneously integrating
knowledge of technology, pedagogy and content, expert teachers bring TPACK into
play any time they teach. Each situation presented to teachers is a unique
combination of these three factors, and accordingly, there is no single
technological solution that applies for every teacher, every course, or every
view of teaching. Rather, solutions lie in the ability of a teacher to flexibly
navigate the spaces defined by the three elements of content, pedagogy, and
technology and the complex interactions among these elements in specific
contexts. Ignoring the complexity inherent in each knowledge component or the
complexities of the relationships among the components can lead to
oversimplified solutions or failure. Thus, teachers need to develop fluency and
cognitive flexibility not just in each of the key domains (T, P, and C), but
also in the manner in which these domains and contextual parameters
interrelate, so that they can construct effective solutions. This is the kind
of deep, flexible, pragmatic, and nuanced understanding of teaching with
technology we involved in considering TPACK as a professional knowledge
construct.
The act of seeing technology,
pedagogy, and content as three interrelated knowledge bases is not
straightforward. As said before,
… separating the three
components (content, pedagogy, and technology) … is an analytic act and one
that is difficult to tease out in practice. In actuality, these components
exist in a state of dynamic equilibrium or, as the philosopher Kuhn (1977) said
in a different context, in a state of ‘‘essential tension’’…. Viewing any of
these components in isolation from the others represents a real disservice to
good teaching. Teaching and learning with technology exist in a dynamic
transactional relationship (Bruce, 1997;
Dewey & Bentley, 1949;
Rosenblatt, 1978) between the three components in our framework; a change in
any one of the factors has to be ‘‘compensated’’ by changes in the other two.
(Mishra & Koehler, 2006, p. 1029)
This compensation is most
evident whenever using a new educational technology suddenly forces teachers to
confront basic educational issues and reconstruct the dynamic equilibrium among
all three elements. This view inverts the conventional perspective that
pedagogical goals and technologies are derived from content area curricula.
Things are rarely that simple, particularly when newer technologies are
employed. The introduction of the Internet, for example – particularly the rise
of online learning – is an example of the arrival of a technology that forced
educators to think about core pedagogical issues, such as how to represent
content on the Web and how to connect students with subject matter and with one
another (Peruski & Mishra, 2004).
Teaching with technology is a
difficult thing to do well. The TPACK framework suggests that content,
pedagogy, technology, and teaching/learning contexts have roles to play
individually and together. Teaching successfully with technology requires
continually creating, maintaining, and re-establishing a dynamic equilibrium
among all components. It is worth noting that a range of factors influences how
this equilibrium is reached.
Implications
of the TPACK Framework
We have argued that teaching is
a complex, ill-structured domain. Underlying this complexity, however, are
three key components of teacher knowledge: understanding of content,
understanding of teaching, and understanding of technology. The complexity of
technology integration comes from an appreciation of the rich connections of
knowledge among these three components and the complex ways in which these are
applied in multifaceted and dynamic classroom contexts.
Since the late 1960’s a strand
of educational research has aimed at understanding and explaining “how and why
the observable activities of teachers’ professional lives take on the forms and
functions they do” (Clark & Petersen, 1986, p. 255; Jackson, 1968). A
primary goal of this research is to understand the relationships between two
key domains: (a) teacher thought processes and knowledge and (b) teachers’
actions and their observable effects. The current work on the TPACK framework
seeks to extend this tradition of research and scholarship by bringing
technology integration into the kinds of knowledge that teachers need to
consider when teaching. The TPACK framework seeks to assist the development of
better techniques for discovering and describing how technology-related
professional knowledge is implemented and instantiated in practice. By better
describing the types of knowledge teachers need (in the form of content,
pedagogy, technology, contexts and their interactions), educators are in a
better position to understand the variance in levels of technology integration
occurring.
In addition, the TPACK
framework offers several possibilities for promoting research in teacher
education, teacher professional development, and teachers’ use of technology.
It offers options for looking at a complex phenomenon like technology
integration in ways that are now amenable to analysis and development.
Moreover, it allows teachers, researchers, and teacher educators to move beyond
oversimplified approaches that treat technology as an “add-on” instead to focus
again, and in a more ecological way, upon the connections among technology,
content, and pedagogy as they play out in classroom contexts.
References:
Matthew J. Koehler and Punya
Mishra Michigan State University,
Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 9(1)
WEB-BASED
EDUCATION {WBE)
WBE is an important and fast
growing segment of educational technology. It largely overlaps with the field
of e-Learning, but it must be noted that learning represents only one aspect of
education. WBE covers many other educational services, such as teaching,
authoring, assessment, collaboration, and so on. Nowadays, most of distance
education is implemented as WBE and use of virtual classrooms. There is a lot
of technological issues involved there, but it must be never forgotten that the
ultimate goal of WBE is increasing the learning opportunities and efficiency,
not the technology itself. In learner-centered design of WBE, educational
workflows determine desired functionalities of WBE systems and quality of
service provided to the learners is crucial to success or failure of any such a
system. Two important ways of increasing the quality of service of WBE systems
and thus the likelihood of their success are to make them intelligent and
adaptive. Intelligent tutoring systems already have a long tradition and
recently often make a synergy with WBE. Adaptive educational hypermedia systems
use many different techniques to adapt content delivery to individual learners
according to their learning characteristics, preferences, styles, and goals.
However, there are several problems with WBE that both teachers and learners
face (Devedzic, 2003a). Educational material on the Web is still highly
unstructured, heterogeneous, and distributed as everything else on the Web, and
current learning and authoring tools offer limited support for accessing and
processing such material. The main burden of organizing and linking the
learning contents on the Web, as well as extracting and interpreting them, is
on the human user. Next-generation WBE applications should exhibit more theory-
and content-oriented intelligence and adaptivity, pay more attention to
interoperability, reusability, and knowledge sharing issues, and look more
closely to general trends in Web development. New fields of research and
development, such as Semantic Web and Web intelligence, provide means for
representing, organizing, and interconnecting knowledge of human educators in a
machine-understandable and machine-processable form, as well as for creating
intelligent Web-based services for teachers and learners. The following
chapters discuss extensively how to use the results and technology of these
other fields to make WBE more effective and more appealing to learners,
teachers, and authors alike. Specifically, the chapters that follow introduce
Semantic Web technologies and explain common prerequisites for creating
intelligent WBE systems and applications. They also describe the kinds of
intelligent WBE services that such systems should support and how to ensure for
such support. They attempt to answer many practical questions of both
engineering and instructional importance. For example, how can a search engine
from the sea of educational Web pages select automatically those of most value
to the authors, teachers, and learners in pursuing their educational goals?
Informally, Web-based education
{WBE) encompasses all aspects and processes of education that use World Wide
Web as a communication medium and supporting technology. There are many other
terms for WBE; some of them are online education, virtual education,
Internet-based education, and education via computer-mediated communication
(Paulsen, 2003). Adapting from (Keegan, 1995) and (Paulsen, 2003), it can be
said that WBE is characterized by: • the separation of teachers and learners
(which distinguishes it from faceto-face education); • the influence of an
educational organization (which distinguishes it from self-study and private
tutoring); • the use of Web technologies to present and/or distribute some
educational content; • the provision of two-way communication via the Internet,
so that students may benefit from communication with each other, teachers, and
staff. Since 1990s, Web-based education has become a very important branch of
educational technology. For learners, it provides access to information and
knowledge sources that are practically unlimited, enabling a number of
opportunities for personalized learning, tele-learning, distance-learning, and
collaboration, with clear advantages of classroom independence and platform
independence (Brusilovsky, 1999). On the other hand, teachers and authors of
educational material can use numerous possibilities for Web based course
offering and tele-teaching, availability of authoring tools for developing
Web-based courseware, and cheap and efficient storage and distribution of
course materials, hyperlinks to suggested readings, digital libraries, and
other sources of references relevant for the course (Devedzic, 2003a, 2003b).
There is a number of important concepts related to Web-based education, such as
e-Learning, distance education, and adaptive learning.
E-learning is defined as any
use of technology for learning outside the boundaries of the physical classroom
The growth of the Internet is bringing online education to people in
corporations, institutes of higher learning, the government and other sectors
[Hall, Brandon.20001]. The challenge of technology today is capturing
information and building useful and meaningful databases whose contents are
retrievable when and where needed. Both information technology and
telecommunications are driving the need for e-learning and at the same time
creating the means to accomplish it..
The Corporate University. In
the knowledge economy, corporate universities and learning organizations are
playing mission-critical roles within the organization. While some learning
organizations may take traditional classroom approaches, others are using the
benefits of e-learning to meet corporate objectives. Examples of other
elearning implementations within the enterprise include using technology to
train technology, new product introductions, tracking regulatory compliance,
on-demand task or skill references, degree programs from online universities
and IT certifications.
Depending on the complexity of
the topic and the individual skill level, some students learn faster or slower
than others. E-learning allows students to learn at their own pace. The slower
student can review course material as often as necessary, redoing exercises or
simulations until the information converts to knowledge. An average of 50% time
savings has been found when comparing time-to-learn in a classroom versus on a
computer.
The scalability of e-learning
allows one course to train thousands of students, as opposed to the ratios of 1
to 20 in the more traditional classes.
Computer-based training reduces
the total cost of training when compared with instructor-led training. The
total cost of training includes the cost of development and the cost of
delivery. Interactive training has a higher cost of development and a lower
cost of delivery, while traditional training has a lower cost of development
and a higher cost of delivery. The lower delivery cost for interactive training
results primarily from a reduction in training time and the elimination of
travel. A positive return on investment requires a training population large
enough for the savings in delivery to offset the development cost.
There is very strong evidence
that computer-based training results in an equal or higher quality of learning
over traditional instruction. A number of scientific studies have investigated
this issue. The settings for the studies have included business and industry,
the military, higher education institutions and elementary schools.
The
Learning Management System
The most important foundation
for e-learning in your organization is a learning management system (LMS). A
learning management system provides the infrastructure and database from which
employees may quickly tap e-learning courses, registration and needs
assessment, as well as receive just-in-time training.
The infrastructure for
e-learning gives managers the ability to track usage and scores, enable online
registration, deliver courses and update calendars as needed. Learning
management systems also can incorporate e-commerce to track payments from
customers. Courses can be created once, then distributed to thousands of
students simultaneously using LANs, WANs or the Internet.
Training has play an integral
role in overall organizational strategy. E-culture is the synergy among
e-learning, knowledge management, and performance support and management
practices. To implement e-learning effectively, organization has first develop
or adapt a clear vision of optimising learning, knowledge and performance and
how current technology can activate this vision. The vision increases company’s
openness to change. Change is the reason and the fuel for e-learning.
Successful e-learning implementations confirm
the need to combine the impact of standard enterprise-wide activities with flexible
and quick local innovations and efforts. The best-practice organizations are
using e-learning in all topic areas -- new product training, management
development, leadership, sales, service, manufacturing.• Packaged courseware
providers • Custom developers • Own internal development.
E-learning is not about
using the latest technology to replace the classroom. Nor is it about posting
content on the Web to be downloaded or read. E-learning provides a new set of
tools that can add value to all of the traditional learning modes - from
classroom experiences to learning from books.
As learning moves closer to the
job, blended instruction addresses the need for more just-in-time and
project-based learning, performance support, open and distance learning, expert
assistance and a generally greater variety of events and experiences.
It is important to say, that
classroom-based training will continue to play an important role for a few
reasons: 1. It is the best delivery approach for certain types of high-level
learning, 2. It is the way some people prefer to learn and it is still the way
many trainers prefer to teach.
In the issue • Understand the
challenges of e-learning for your department. • An e-learning implementation
can be difficult. It is necessary to invest significantly in planning and
strategy development. Each organization's elearning plan is very specific to
its own context. • Use templates and "learning objects" which allow
for reuse of content in various courses with the aim to save money and time. •
Interactive training has a higher cost of development and a lower cost of
delivery, while traditional training has a lower cost of development and a
higher cost of delivery. • Learning portals are Web sites that create a
learning community and provide access to content and learning resources.
Note: Read more about learning
in new economy in case studies and Internet resources. Carry out the activity
“Learning place in the new economy” described in the course HTML format.
Use
of Educational Technologies
To identify appropriate use of
new information technologies (IT) and clarify the kind of educational
opportunities they support helps a layered approach [Recker, M. 1997]. The
layered framework integrates a bottom-up view of information technology usage
and a top-down view of education. The Figure1.1. in slide 4 shows the layers
comprising the framework: 1. Delivery of material 2. Media 3. Computational
activities within educational technologies 4. Modes of communication 5. The learning
phase
Delivery
of material
The delivery is the
transmission of educational materials between learners, teachers and providers.
The technologies supported delivery of material is: CD-ROMs, computer
networking, Internet. The most popular is Internet now. The only thing keeping
the Internet from becoming the dominant technology based education delivery
environment is current bandwidth and speed limitations. The access to digital
libraries and information is an important potential of the Internet. But information
access is only one aspect. More pertinent to education is that networking
supports the formation of new learning communities. Distribute groups of
students, teachers, mentors; experts can be involved in knowledge-building
activities with new forms of communication and information media.
Media
Information technology supports
these types of physical media: text, 2-D, 3-D graphics, animation, digital
audio, digital video, virtual reality.
Many factors affect the
learning: students' background knowledge, their motivation and interests, their
learning strategies and goals, and overall learning context. Therefore
designers should focus on the cognitive and learning goals of particular
educational contexts and seek to support those with educationally meaningful
activities. The most important form of media is dynamic interactive
representations, which learners can manipulate, that support a particular
activity within discipline.
Computational
Activities
These are computational
activities that support learning: simulations, games, information browsing, and
design environments.
Simulations-Computer
simulations provide environments where learners can interact in a simulated
world and engage in activities otherwise not possible in the real world. For
example, the haircutting simulation might enable a student to manipulate with
the shapes of the coiffure, to suit it to the face. Or in astronomy simulation,
the student can manipulate the force of gravitational attraction between the
bodies and see the resulting effect on planets. These activities obviously
can't be performed in the real world.
Computer
games- From the pedagogical standpoint, the challenge becomes
embedding content within similarly motivating environments.
Information
browsing- Access to information requires teachers and learners to
learn new skills of finding, evaluating and filtering the huge amount of
information. This skills is called information literacy.
Design
environments-These are environments where students can design
and built manipulatable artifacts. Through hands-on-design activity students
train themselves in, for example, software development, testing.
Computer based learning is
interactive. There is no only mouse to click or button to push. Activities on
the web must be educationally meaningful. Inventor of the WWW, Tim Berners-Lee
(1996), proposes that designers must focus on supporting
"inter-creativity" in computational activities. Learning environments
must support both individual and collaborative abilities to build knowledge and
to create.
***
VIRTUAL
CLASSROOM
A virtual classroom is a combined
set of tools for conducting classroom-like sessions live over the Internet. We
intend to use the virtual classroom as a replacement for face-to-face (f2f)
tutoring sessions, which are normally organised in our study centres located
across the country. The virtual classroom is a valuable addition to our
educational offerings.
What is a virtual classroom?
A virtual classroom is an
instrument for conducting live classroom-like sessions over the internet. In
it, students and tutor(s) can communicate using voice, video, chat and
whiteboard tools. They also have facilities like application sharing, polling,
breakout sessions and quizzes. It allows the tutor and students to participate
in real time lessons and discussions. Students can ask questions, draw on the
whiteboard, and participate in breakout sessions. (Almost) everything that can
be done in a real classroom, can be done in a virtual classroom. Moreover, the
whole classroom session can be recorded and made available for review
afterwards.
Features
Some of the virtual classroom
instruments, indicating some interaction
functions
are: Participants,
Chat, Give feedback/Vote, Whiteboard (+controls), Send chat message, Start/stop
microphone, Raise hand, forum, Wiki,
Announcement etc.
Students study independently,
in their own time and at their own place and pace, using course materials
specifically developed to support
self-directed learning. Contacts with tutors are limited and in most cases take
place through e-mail or in discussion groups. Certain courses organize face to
face meetings in study centres for most introductory courses, but to a far
lesser extent for regular courses to offer the students a sense of connectedness:
they get to know each other and their tutor and get immediate feedback on
questions and problems.
Selection
of the virtual class instrument
In order to select a virtual classroom
instrument we developed a list of specifications based on the needs of tutors,
students and educational experts: we scored potential candidates on educational
use, user friendliness, features and administration. For educational use we
looked at the way different teaching activities were supported, such as
discussion, workshops, group work, assessments etc. User friendliness was
assessed by examining the installation procedures, the features of the
integration into our Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and the availability of
training materials for students and teachers. For features tutor should
look at the availability of Voice over Internet (VoIP), presentation
tools, whiteboard tools, application sharing, public and private chat, feedback
tools, document sharing, polling and quizzes. We also looked at how the system
should be installed/administered, the way students and tutors were authorised
for use and the licence fees.
Organization
and use of the virtual classroom
The virtual classroom is
technically well suited for lectures, but teachers have to be aware of the fact
that boring lectures become even more boring when you listen to them on the
computer. When bored, the temptation to grab a quick cup of coffee or to check
your email becomes hard to resist. As Niall Sclater (2008) says on his weblog:
‘Online synchronous teaching is not about lecturing at people - it’s about
involving your class continuously in a whole host of different ways’.
Group size should not be to
big, certainly not in the beginning when tutors and students are not used to
the tool. We worked with groups of 8 to 15 students and that seems a manageable
size. A virtual class session should also be fairly short. One and a half hour
is an absolute maximum, otherwise attendance is too exhausting for both the
tutor and the students.
Preparations to make The first
teaching session in a virtual classroom feels the same as first-time teaching
in a real classroom. Tutors feel insecure and therefore it is important that
they are well acquainted with the software and are well trained. A virtual
classroom session requires good preparation. Tutors should have a scenario of
their lesson available and upload all the required materials to the classroom
before the students enter the session. It is a bit more complicated to
improvise during a virtual classroom session than it is in a real classroom,
especially for the inexperienced tutor. One should also be aware that
everything proceeds at a bit slower pace then in a normal classroom
setting.
Furthermore, the students who
participate in the virtual classroom should be well prepared and instructed.
Not only technical preparation is important, students should also be aware of
the basic ‘etiquette’ to adhere to in a virtual classroom. They should know how
to ask a question, how to let the tutor know you have left for a minute to go
to the bathroom, how to avoid interruptions from family members who enter their
study or from their telephones. And what policy is used for students coming in
late. It’s better for New groups to first organize an informal session to
discuss ‘rules and regulations’. Training and support for tutors and students are essential.
***
BLOG-CREATION
BLOG
Blog is an abbreviated version of
"weblog," which is a term used to describe web sites that maintain an
ongoing chronicle of information. A blog features diary-type commentary and
links to articles on other Web sites, usually presented as a list of entries in
reverse chronological order. Blogs range from the personal to the political,
and can focus on one narrow subject or a whole range of subjects.
Many blogs focus on a particular
topic, such as web design, home staging, sports, or mobile technology. Some are
more eclectic, presenting links to all types of other sites. And others are
more like personal journals, presenting the author's daily life and thoughts.
Generally speaking (although there
are exceptions), blogs tend to have a few things in common:
1.A main content area with articles
listed chronologically, newest on top. Often, the articles are organized into
categories.
2.An
archive of older articles.
3.A
way for people to leave comments about the articles.
4.A
list of links to other related sites, sometimes called a "blogroll".
5.One
or more "feeds" like RSS, Atom or RDF files.
Some blogs may have additional
features beyond these. Watch this short video for a simple explanation for
what a blog is.
Content is the raison d'être for any web site. Retail sites
feature a catalog of products. University sites contain information about their
campuses, curriculum, and faculty. News sites show the latest news stories. For
a personal blog, you might have a bunch of observations, or reviews. Without
some sort of updated content, there is little reason to visit a web site more
than once.
On a blog, the content consists of
articles (also sometimes called "posts" or "entries") that
the author(s) writes. Yes, some blogs have multiple authors, each writing
his/her own articles. Typically, blog authors compose their articles in a
web-based interface, built into the blogging system itself. Some blogging
systems also support the ability to use stand-alone "weblog client" software, which allows authors to write
articles offline and upload them at a later time.
Want an interactive website?
Wouldn't it be nice if the readers of a website could leave comments, tips or
impressions about the site or a specific article? With blogs, they can! Posting
comments is one of the most exciting features of blogs.
Most blogs have a method to allow
visitors to leave comments. There are also nifty ways for
authors of other blogs to leave comments without even visiting the blog! Called
"pingbacks" or "trackbacks", they can inform other
bloggers whenever they cite an article from another site in their own articles.
All this ensures that online conversations can be maintained painlessly among
various site users and websites.
Things Bloggers Need to Know
In addition to understanding how
your specific blogging software works, such as WordPress, there are some terms and concepts you need to know.
A blog is also a good way to keep
track of articles on a site. A lot of blogs feature an archive based on dates
(like a monthly or yearly archive). The front page of a blog may feature a
calendar of dates linked to daily archives. Archives can also be based on
categories featuring all the articles related to a specific category.
It does not stop there; you can also
archive your posts by author or alphabetically. The possibilities are endless.
This ability to organize and present articles in a composed fashion is much of
what makes blogging a popular personal publishing tool.
A Feed is a function of special
software that allows "Feedreaders" to access a site automatically
looking for new content and then post updates about that new content to another
site. This provides a way for users to keep up with the latest and hottest
information posted on different blogging sites. Some Feeds include RSS
(alternately defined as "Rich Site Summary" or "Really Simple Syndication"),
Atom or RDF files. Dave Shea, author of the web design weblog Mezzoblue has written a comprehensive
summary of
feeds.
A blogroll is a list, sometimes
categorized, of links to webpages the author of a blog finds worthwhile or interesting.
The links in a blogroll are usually to other blogs with similar interests. The
blogroll is often in a "sidebar" on the page or featured as a
dedicated separate web page. WordPress has a built-in Link Manager so users do not have to depend
on a third party for creating and managing their blogroll.
A feed is a machine readable
(usually XML) content publication that is updated regularly. Many weblogs
publish a feed (usually RSS, but also possibly Atom and RDF and so on, as
described above). There are tools out there that call themselves
"feedreaders". What they do is they keep checking specified blogs to
see if they have been updated, and when the blogs are updated, they display the
new post, and a link to it, with an excerpt (or the whole contents) of the
post.
One of the most exciting features of
blogging tools are the comments. This highly interactive feature allows users
to comment upon article posts, link to your posts, and comment on and recommend
them. These are known as trackbacks and pingbacks.
The blogger should know to moderate and
manage comments and how to deal with the annoying trend in "comment
spam", when unwanted comments are posted to the blog.
E-CONTENT
e-content (Electronic-content)
is Digital content that can be
transmitted over a computer network such as the Internet. E content education is educational"
in addition to "electronic."
“ E-content is termed as
Electronic content that include text, image, graphics, animation, audio and
video, sometimes e-content will be single element carrying anyone of the above
element or all of the above together to display offline or online web-pages and
also to be transferable to computer to another computer and internet.
Electronic content (e-Content) or digital content is defined by those involved
in creating, providing and distributing information 4 as the digitized content,
which is viewed on screen and not on paper. Contents that are produced and
stored electronically rather than in print are the result of electronic
publishing (e-publishing). The contents can be in any of the following
forms: Any one information type (for
example fully textual, only graphics content, or only audio content) Multimedia or hypermedia (i.e. mixing more
than two information type) Each category according to Borchers (1999) can be
used in education (e.g. textbooks, research reports, theses), as reference
(e.g. dictionaries, encyclopedias), leisure (e.g. novels, magazines, comics),
browsing (e.g. newspapers) and advertisement (e.g. brochures).
Nature
Of E-Content
It is all forms of digital
information that is used for multiple purpose in different fields and areas. It
is the living expression of the life in country with all its images, sounds and
recorded heritage. It is innovative application of computer in the teaching and
learning process. 5 It may be internet based which includes text, video, audio,
animation and visual environment.
Features
Of E-Content
E-content is technologically
friendly to pupil for downloaded text materials and used on any computer in
independently for the purpose of learning process. E-content is having learner friendly for easy
navigation. Another important feature of
e-content is learner centric, it is useful in self instructional model. E-content is also teachers friendly, it is
used in various teaching learning methods such as classroom, lecturing to a
group, lab session.
Advantages Of E-Content
Many institutions publish books, research
reports, lecture modules, theses and other information for academic purposes.
All these publications are usually in-print form and stored in library for
fellow lecturers, researchers and students use. Are there compelling reasons
why these in-print publications should be in electronic form? To answer this it
is necessary to identify the advantages and disadvantages of printed content
(p-Content) and e-Content. According to Bonime and Pohlmann, (1998) e-Contents
benefit from Hyper linking - contents can be linked to other pages inside and
outside the book; 9 Non-linearity - i.e. the order of access can be determined
by users. addition of multimedia - i.e. content presentation is enhanced by
mixing information type (i.e. sound, video and so on) data density - storage
capacity is decreased while at the same time increasing portability Searching -
the usefulness of the content is enhanced by the ability of the users to locate
any piece of information, or to access any section instantly. Students can take
advantage of this new type of content presentation. Results of some studies
suggest that involvement with computers through the use of E Contents and other
new technologies, can promote positive attitudes towards learning and higher
achievement among learners (e.g. Ebersole, 1997; Causey, 1996; AlKahtani, 1998;
Cakir, 1999; Govil, 1997; Espinosa & Chen, 2001; McCreary et al., 2001).
Studies also show that computerbased learning tools lead to significant gains
in learner’s performance in reading, mathematics, computer knowledge and
grammar (Shields & Behram, 2000). Furthermore, computers and technology
tend to have more positive effects than negative effects (Seniuk, 2001). 10 The
existing academic publications in most institutions are in printed and bound
forms which pose some disadvantages. In addition, the publications have not
been widely promoted and as a result their accessibilities have been very
limited. Many researches and textbook publications by academics of the
institutions, for example, have not been publicized properly and thus not
noticed locally, and more importantly, internationally. These problems are
easily tackled by producing e-Contents.
E-content is of two forms
namely i. Assembled form, ii. Created form. Assembled E-content: Assembled E-content constitutes compiled and
assembled from several resources and book with due care taken for IPR and
copyright issues. Here the authors will be main content providers. Content
assembled will be given the credit as compiled by and editor by (if edited). Created E-content: Content developed by
the author based on various sources, as well as his/her own work. Here the
authorship will be of the content creator. The content developer has to provide
the written material in standard module format.
Forms
Of E Content
Text, pictures, sound, Video,
Animations and Presentation Text Text is most important element of any
e-content. Computers of any level can help create text files, though Word Pad
and MSWORD to create formatted text. One can save text files in the following
format: .txt .doc .htm .pdf Pictures - Photographs One could store pictures in
various formats: .bmp .gif .jpg .png “.bmp” is an uncompressed format that
stores pictures in millions of colours. This is the most popular format for
exchanging pictures between different programmes. “.gif” is a compressed format
that stores pictures in 256 colours. This is a very popular format for
displaying pictures in web pages. “.jpg” is a glossy format that stores
pictures in millions of colour in very small file size, thereby making it most
popular format for E-content. Sound There are various formats of audio that can
be used a part of e-content. .wav .au .mp3 .mid “.wav” is most popular format
of 12 audio deployed in E-content. This offers multi-track audio both in
uncompressed, compressed and sampling rates. “.au” is a compressed format of
storing audio from Sun Microsystems. “.mp3” is a highly compressed format for
storing voice and music. This is perhaps the most popular format storing and
exchanging digital music today. “.mid” is a popular format of storing music.
Video Video is perhaps the most sensational medium in the Econtent domain. With
recent breakthrough in compression and streaming technologies, video has
emerged as feasible E-content elements. Like other elements, digital video also
comes in many formats: .avi .mov .mpg .rm .wmv .flv “.avi” is a very popular
format of storing digital video in computers. It stores both in compressed and
uncompressed forms. “.mpg” is a lossy and compressed format of storing video.
“.wmv” is the latest offering from Microsoft for storing highly compressed and
streaming video in Windows.“.flv” is a recent entry from Macromedia to deal
with video content. Animation 2D and 3D animations are powerful communications.
New compression technologies helped animations become a regular part of all
E-content. Animations come in different formats: 13 .flc .swf .gif “.flc” is an
old 2D animation format from AutoDesk. “.swf” is a recent format from
Macromedia to store Vector based 2D animations. Some programmes also render 3D
animations in this popular format. “.gif” can also animated frames. Simulation
This realtime interactive E-content element can work as a virtual lab.
Suddenly, teaching Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry with this new aid has
made learning more interesting. One can design, store and display simulation
applets in various formats: .swf .jar “.swf” is fast becoming a format for
displaying simulation content. This is widely used because of 95% of desktops
have access to Flash player. “.jar” is format that stores Java based
interactive applets providing simulated contents. Presentations Electronic
Presentations have become a standard tool and considered as a good
teaching/learning aid. The most popular format is PowerPoint from Microsoft.
The format should incorporate the following – - Objective of the Module -
Glossary of terms used in the module 14 - Frequently asked questions with
regard to content of the module. - Quiz pertaining to content for formative
evaluation. - Case Study - Full content (video) in text format for download -
References, if any The module would require that text of subject content is
divided into smaller chunks for better understanding by the learner. Hence,
every content needs to be divided into module, unit, and granule. It is called
chunking of content. 1.8 E-Content Development An essential condition for
effective ICT enabled teaching and learning is that there must be access to
high quality, culturally relevant content. Although it may not provide such
content, the Web can be a powerful tool for teacher educators, teachers and
others to develop and share content that meets cultural, linguistic and
educational needs of the Indian education system. School Net (Africa) and Four
Direction Project (North America) are examples using the Web for indigenous and
collaborative development and sharing of e-content that reflect the language,
culture and resident 15 knowledge of the community. In the process of
developing a technopedagogy for the ‘new’ learner in the ‘new’ environment,
learning ‘new’ things using ‘new’ technologies, the first issue to be addressed
is the development of content. It is imperative to note that many corporate
organizations have entered this domain which should be totally under the
control of the teachers. The point of paramount importance is the fact that if
teachers don’t create e-content, either no one else can or somebody else will.
Of course, the task of developing e-content or Knowledge Packaging necessitates
collaborative efforts by technologists and academics. In this context, the
following observation of Vladimir Kinelev (2005) needs attention, “ICTs have
not eliminated the most pressing of problems that education systems face.
Attempts to improve education through ICTs suffer from the absence of sound
education paradigms”. It is here that the teacher with clarity in content and
depth in pedagogy assumes a pivotal role in creating the right instructional
design and in creating appropriate content in effective manner. Indeed,
Knowledge Packaging has always been there since the Gurukula days in different
forms like conversations, lectures, songs, stories, manuscripts, print, audio
and what not. Now, the need for digital convergence of these forms is
imperative to provide quality education to greater quantities of learners for
the simple reason that 16 the reach and richness of e-content is quite high.
Other salient features of e-content viz., bi-sensory learning experience,
digital convergence of text, image, audio, video, animation etc. to create the
effects of multimedia, accessibility, reusability, interoperability etc. are
the supporting points in favour of the claim to give top priority to e-content
development, among all academic endeavours. The question of content creation
looms large in the backdrop of EDUSAT and exclusive educational television channels
like Vyas, Gyandarshan, Ekalyva which are badly in need of content to telecast.
Responding to the need, the UGC – Consortium of Educational Communication has
taken up a mission of training the Higher Education teachers in the art and
science of e-content creation. But, for a country like India with one of the
largest higher education systems in the world, a single agency cannot serve the
immediate purpose. The need of the hour is a policy decision to train the
teacher educators and personnel of other teacher development agencies in the
country as trainers in e-content development, who in turn would carry the
message and continue the mission of providing e-content development training to
scores of teachers across the nation. Of course the question of creating the
necessary infrastructure comes up. The solution is to exploit the potentials of
EMMRCs and to create departmental level studios, like the one at the Department
of Educational Technology, Bharathidasan University. The cost involved will
only prove to be an investment and not expenditure.
Phases Of E-Content
In this phase the processes are often
concurrent and iterative. Processes and steps might differ between
organisations and for different projects, but broadly the steps include: •
Establishing the assessment criteria and methods by which students will
demonstrate skills, attributes, and understanding (at stages within the
learning as well as at the conclusion). Time spent exploring options here can
open up many more ideas for presenting content, and is more likely to produce
meaningful and integrated assessment embedded within learning activities. •
Mapping and then sequencing the key elements of the content. • Applying
instructional design effective for online (choosing appropriate teaching
strategies; presentation considerations; and building in scaffolding that will
support the learners move to independent thinking as they become more familiar
with the topic and the medium which is very important to do when learners are
not in a face-to-face situation). 18 • Technical or multi-media decisions
(specific technical treatments, next step beyond the broad-brush considerations
in the planning phase). • Deciding what should be presented on screen and what
should be downloadable/printable. • Deciding which is key content, and needs
reinforcement, what material can become secondary links, and which comes under
the heading of supplementary or additional learning resources. • Doing a
walk-through to confirm time allocations for each learning activity (including
reading); congruence between assessment and learning objectives and learning
content and learning tasks; clarity; and completeness. • Defining and providing
for (either in the content itself or in documentation) the learning support
needs of the students, and also for teachers if the material is to be used by
others.
Materials Development
This phase takes the material produced in the
writing and planning phases and turns it into product. It can either be done
during or immediately after the content planning and writing phase, 19 but in
either case close liaison should occur between writers and the developers (if
these are different people) throughout these stages.
Testing And Final Checking
It is an important phase. All
your efforts above are of little value if the product is not accessible and
usable. Consideration of usability factors actually begins in the planning
phase but it should be formally tested during prototyping, then following full
production. The importance of testing and considering the usability factors
cannot be over-stressed. These steps require: • Knowing what standards should
be aimed for (technical compliance and usability of the product being
developed). • Establishing means by which to measure or test that standards and
usability objectives have been achieved. • Considering when to measure, and how
information from this will feed back into the development process to achieve
best outcomes most efficiently.
Evaluation,
Feedback And Redevelopment
Evaluation is a positive step
that can provide feedback on the effectiveness of your product; this will
enable fine-tuning of the 20 product. It also provides valuable feedback to the
production team on ways future developments can be improved.”
***
