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.
Please see my “Communication Tools” page for the assignment and for my reflection on the assignment. I posted my reflection above my assignment to frame my learning path. Enjoy!
This is a posting reflecting on the activities in module 3, unit 2. I had to explore Moodle communication tools and decide which tools to add to my course. This is not part of my “official” assignment on selecting tools, but this activity prepared me for it. I am looking forward to any feedback before I submit my official “case”. Feel free to comment. I will reflect on this activity at the end of module 3 to show how much I’ve learned!
Setting: Grade 4 blended learning environment with English Language Learners (70%) and native English speakers (30%) were class population=15. Moodle has been chosen to provide all students with educational technology experience, to enhance the existing learning program and to provide ELL students with more opportunities to practice English communication skills. Science classes will be taught in a blended-learning format.
Communication Tools
Asynchronous 2-way communication: Moodle blog & discussion forum
Synchronous 2-way communication: Moodle chat function
Activity
I created a science unit on dinosaurs based in Moodle and this will be the first time students will use Moodle. In a blended-delivery course, it is possible to lecture about the learning management system, but a class is necessary to explore and orient to the Moodle environment. The instructional goal in this activity is to provide an orientation of the Moodle space, begin to foster an online learning community and to familiarize students with use of the dinosaur unit Splash Page navigation. For the purposes of this posting, I will focus on the rationale of the communication tools.
A “Start Here” activity in the Introductory Module was created. Through the activity, students learn that the class will be using various communication tools during future group and individual work. The activity is designed to give students experience using the tools in to maximize time-on-task during future modules.
Discussion Forum: Students write a brief introduction and answer basic questions about dinosaurs and the unit. I created an introduction about myself to promote the principle of faculty-student contact and a sense of trust and safety (Anderson, 2008; Chickering & Ehrmann, 1996). In addition, this sets a personalized tone for the course and gives students the opportunity to see my own interest in dinosaurs (Anderson, 2008). I wanted to ensure the course began by providing a “social presence” opportunity so students would feel supported and open to sharing ideas as they develop a collaborative community (Anderson, 2008). The student introduction activity was selected based on the principle of fostering reciprocity and cooperation among students (Chickering & Ehrmann, 1996). In addition, discussions are an active learning technique that engage students and stimulate constructive learning (Chickering & Ehrmann, 1996). Being asynchronous, the discussion forum provides ELL students time to formulate ideas and structure their arguments. To track posts, I can use the “reports” section or the “activity reports” section to see who has been active in posting. I’m learning about this, as it is not fool-proof and there are work-arounds to track quality posts requiring more time (See “Track student forum participation” in the Using Moodle forum at http://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=5). My concern is some students may “lurk” and participate infrequently in the longer term. Also, some students may dominate the future discussions. I tried to initiate discussions in the introduction to model the importance of everyone participating.
A final note: In the future I want to develop student-led discussions and I thought initial discussions should be modeled (See Anderson, 2008, p.351).
Chat Forum: Students are instructed to introduce themselves and to respond to the chat introductions of others. Again, this supports the principles of student-faculty contact and student-student cooperation and functions as an active learning technique (Chickering & Ehrmann, 1996). This also supports a social presence, the establishment of trust and (in the future) engagement with cognitive presence (Anderson, 2008). Synchronous text communication may be more challenging for ELL students but I want to provide them with the opportunity to practice and improve their skills. I included the message that spelling and grammar were not concerns in chat to ease anxieties. Of course, beyond language anxieties, my concern is also time-on-task. Chat is used in this activity to aid orientation but keeping students on-task in chat may prove to be difficult or challenging. To track chats, I know I can go to the “participants” link and see which chats each students has been engaged in.
Moodle Blog: Students are instructed to reflect on their introductory module and to set their privacy settings to “members of this class”. As Anderson (2008) notes, blog discourse renewed reflective writing . As an active learning technique, this tool requires students to reflect and engage in the material (Chickering & Ehrmann, 1996). As an asynchronous tool, it supports the principle of respecting diverse talents and ways of learning because it is the student’s personal reflective space (Chickering & Ehrmann, 1996). They can add to it as they wish in addition to posting required content. All students can take their time to formulate ideas and structure their own understanding through self-reflection. In addition, the comment feature allows for asynchronous exchange and peer feedback. Survey research on ELL students and blogging by Wu (2005; 2006) found ELL students felt more motivated and confident writing in English when blogging was added to their face-to-face English writing class. My biggest concern is privacy, and I’ve selected the “make my blog visible to classmates only” in my design. In addition, as a teacher I want to facilitate blogging through peer-feedback (comments) but some students may not respond well or want to comment on the blogs of others. As an instructor, I plan on commenting on blogs and tracking blog posts through the “participants” tab.
The introductory module does instruct students to visit the class wiki for orientation, but students are not instructed to post. This will be a follow-up activity in Module 1.
Does anyone have any better Moodle ideas/tips for tracking discussions/chats/blog posts within a class Moodle? I searched the Moodle forums and some of the “tech talk” was beyond me. Any tips or work-arounds to suggest?
References
Anderson, T. (2008). Teaching in an Online Learning Content. In: Anderson, T. & Elloumi, F. Theory and Practice of Online Learning. Athabasca University. Accessed online June 14, 2009, from http://www.aupress.ca/books/120146/ebook/14_Anderson_2008_Anderson-DeliveryQualitySupport.pdf
Chickering, A.W., & Ehrmann, S.C. (1996). Implementing the seven principles: Technology as lever. Retrieved May 6, 2009,f rom http://www.aahea.org/bulletins/articles/sevenprinciples.htm
Moodle. Using moodle forum. Available on June 15, 2009, from http://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=5
Wu, W. S. (2005). Using blogs in an EFL writing class. Proceedings of 2005 International Conference and Workshop on TEFL & Applied Linguistics, Taiwan, 426-432. Retrieved May 18, 2009 from http://www.chu.edu.tw/~wswu/publications/papers/conferences/05.pdf
Wu, W. S. (2006). The effect of blog peer review and teacher feedback on the revisions of EFL writers. Journal of Education and Foreign Languages and Literature, 3, 125-139. Retrieved May 18, 2009 from http://www.chu.edu.tw/~wswu/publications/ papers/journals/04.pdf
