Erin’s Educational Technology Journey

The 565 Toolkit referenced research by Kock (2001), Shirani, Tafti & Affisco (1999) who found synchronous communication tools actually improve the quantity of ideas. This was interesting to me as I’m a fan of associated learning and constructive learning. If there are more ideas out there, more associations can be made and thus more ideas can be constructed from those: A continuous cycle is what I’m imagining.

Also, Tu (2000a, 2000b, 2001) and Wegerif  (1998) were cited in the 565 Toolkit to support the claim that students’ knowledge is enhanced by on-line communication tools. I read Wegerif’s paper, now 11 years old but still relevant, and came away with the importance of creating a supportive learning community. You can link to Wegerif’s paper here: http://www.aln.org/publications/jaln/v2n1/pdf/v2n1_wegerif.pdf

The paper expresses that educational designers must consider the social dimension as important as the learning dimension when creating an online learning environment. I am now concerned about being able to design such a well-balanced environment! Although Wegerif’s research focused on professional adults and mine focuses on elementary children, I feel the paper relates to my professional background. At the very least, it certainly relates to my MET experiences. Nothing is as depressing and unmotivating as posting in a forum and not getting any responses!

Currently I use several synchronous communication tools for my MET program, not for classroom teaching. I hope next year I will be able to use some of these tools with my own class! As a MET student I have used:

Skype to collaborate with MET peers on a group project. We used the chat function and the video calling function. I found this to be very effective. You can conference call with up to 4 people (plus yourself) which is perfect for a group of five. Also, Skype has a synchronous chat function. I have used this and found it to be good, but I still prefer to use  Microsoft Instant Messenger. See my notes below.

Wimba’s Chat tool for WebCT/Vista: I have found this tool to be great in class, but if you want to check differenct areas within the course, you are often “chat kicked”, meaning as soon as you leave chat, you are often registered as “XX has left the room”. Actually, you have not left, but Wimba is fooled into thinking you have left. Several times in Wimba live chat, I’ve had to shut down my UBC tabs, re-enter my CWL , re-enter the course, and re-enter the chat again. I’ve found it easier to make sure I have a hard copy of essential information or open windows on my desktop during classroom chats.  

Instant Messaging: Yahoo, Google and Microsoft Instant Messenger. Usually I stick to MSIM simply because most of my contacts are already on it. I can send links, files and photos to contacts and easily receive the same from them. I can open several tabs and even be in discussion in Wimba and use MSIM to converse privately with members from the same class. I can chat with several people at once, or I can have private conversations running with many at the same time. I have never been accidentally removed from a MSIM conversation as in my Wimba experience.