There are many different types of new media that are being used in online education. Podcasts, blogs, instant messaging, streaming video, streaming audio and wikis are just some of the many new innovative ways in which technology has helped students in online education. Berger studied the use of podcasts in online education. "The pilot study was designed specifically to assess student attitudes about podcasting, determine who benefits from podcasts, and evaluate which types of educational content provide the greatest benefit to the largest number of students."(Berger, 2007) Paul Lam and Carmel McNaught (2006) examined the benefits of using multimedia clips. Their student had students using multimedia clips to present material related to their projects. Their conclusions from this study showed the students were able to express their creativity, as well as improve their analytical skills.
Weller, Pegler and Mason (2005) examine the use of four innovative technologies incorporated in the design of an online course. The four technologies are blogging, instant messaging, audio conferencing and Harvard's Rotisserie system. Blogs were used to post information and to comment on other students' blog sites. Instant messaging was used between students to have a synchronous conversation with each other. Audio conferencing allows students to also have a synchronous conversation with each other, but the difficulty was trying to find a "good" time for everyone in the group to converse. Also, only one student could talk at a time. This leads to the Rotisserie system which incorporates a structured conferencing system that would decrease some of the previously mentioned problems. The Rotisserie is designed around a series of rounds where the students who signed up for a Rotisserie session would be sent an email letting them know to respond to a posting by a certain deadline. The students were asked to evaluate their experiences using the four technologies. The results revealed that instant messaging and audio conferencing were the most popular choices. It is also interesting to note that both of these technologies involve synchronous conversations to take place.
Social Presence and Learning with New Media:
There are many benefits from using new technologies to communicate in online class discussions. Stuart Glogoff (2005) examines how online discussions offer students the anonymity they may need so they can openly express their opinions relating to a topic. This anonymity also allows others the confidence to give more direct feedback over the Internet versus saying something face to face to another student (Glogoff, 2005). The communication tool that was implemented in this study was the blog. The students and professor found there were more communication and comments by using these blogs versus the traditional discussions that take place in a classroom.
Students can also benefit and increase their social presence by using instant messaging. Instant messaging can be used to increase the students' participation and engagement in discussions (Sparks & Mentz, 2006). Instant messaging can be helpful with assisting students with homework issues, clarifying assignments or even to hold virtual office hours for distance education students.
Project Talkback (Witte, 2007) is another example of how technology can be used to increase and improve social presence in online learning. This research project implemented the use of blogs to increase students' interest in writing about various topics. While a student may not be interested in writing about a topic on paper, using blogs as a writing instrument increases their interest in the writing assignment and the students are able to write more creatively.
Online education will never be perfect, but over the last 10 years, the improvements have come a long way. New technologies have made communicating in online classes more effective and at the same time, easier for all students to learn to use, including adult learners. New technologies have increased and sparked the interest of children to want to learn how to use technology and to improve their education. With new technology tools being discovered and implemented every year, perhaps one day soon, online education will be the way classes are taught at all grade levels.
References
Berger, E. (October 2007). Podcasting in engineering education: A preliminary study of content, student attitudes, and impact. Innovate Journal of Online Education, 4, Retrieved October 14, 2007.
Burge, L. (1988). Beyond andragogy: Some explorations for distance learning design. Journal of Distance Education, 3(1), 5-23.
Fose, L. & Mehl, M. (May 2007). Plugging into students' digital DNA: Five myths prohibiting proper podcasting pedagogy in the new classroom domain. MERLOT Journal of Online Teaching and Education, 3(3).
Glogoff, S. (2005). Instructional blogging: Promoting interactivity, student-centered learning, and peer input. Innovate, 1(5), 1-6.
Lam, P. & McNaught, C. (2006). Design and evaluation of online courses containing media-enhanced learning materials. Educational Media International, 43(3), 199-218.
Neuhauser, C. (2002). Learning style and effectiveness of online and face to face instruction. American Journal of Distance Education, 16(2), 99-113.
Sparks, P. & Mentz, L. (2006). Electronic note passing: Enriching online learning with new communication tools. Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 2(4), 1-6.
Witte, S. (2007). That's online writing, not boring school writing: Writing with blogs and the talkback project. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 51, 92-96.
Weller, M., Pegler, C., Mason, R. (2005). Use of innovative technologies on an e-learning course. The Internet and Higher Education, 8(1), 61-71.
17 comments:
Hi James,
Thanks for the compliment. I am not sure about the pages numbers because I found it very difficult to find the exact page numbers in the all the annotated bibliographies. I really wish I knew what to do about the page numbers because I do not want to be marked down for not having the them. Do you know how we can get the exact page numbers?
If you find out for sure what we are suppose to do please let me know.
Thanks again,
Debbie
Hi James,
I too am confused about the page numbers. When I printed out some of the pdf's they either did not have page numbers, or the page numbers did not match those cited in the reference. So I am going to leave them out right now, (I'm still working on my literature review) and then revise based on Dr. Newberry's feedback. I believe that that type of revision is actually intended to be built into our learning for next week. (In other words, we don't have to be perfect, we are in a learning process mode). At least, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. I don't know about you, but I am finding it challenging enough to get the hang of the basics of how to do this type of synthesis...it will be easier to go back later and fix the citations if they are wrong, once I at least have the basic structure of the review down. I should have mine posted in the next few hours and I will look forward to your comments if you get a chance to read it.
Rebecca
Hi again James,
In the end I did use some page numbers in my citations in the body of the literature review. It will be interesting to see what Dr. Newberry says. When I observe his examples they seem so much more varied and complex than the way I did it.
I notice that your references and mine are very similar, yet our papers are completely different. One of the things I've learned from this assignment is some of the complexity and nuances of extracting information that is relevant to one's OWN interests and research, from an existing body of knowledge. I guess a thousand people could review the same literature and each one would have a different perspective. Interesting huh?
What is the most valuable thing you learned from doing this exercise?
Rebecca
Hey James,
Nice review, as usual :)
I was intrigued with your comment about online courses one day being offered at all levels. I'm actually considering basing my thesis project on online courses in media production at the middle school level. I'm always amazed at how successful new ideas such as these are at the higher education level and it still takes SO long for it to trickle into the high school and middle school arena.
Anyhow, thanks for the review, looking forward to all of our results.
Jon
I am not certain if I am correct, but I put the page number in the citation by the quote. I had to go back to the library and find the original article to find the page number of the exact quote.
I am curious how many of the different new media do you use as a student? Which one is actually your favorite? I am beginning to really appreciate the blogs now that I know how they work. I did not like instant messaging that we used in Dr. Baek's class because it moved so fast that I could not keep up with what people wrote. I did like SKYPE and WIKI too. I think with the blogs you get a better picture of what is expected because you can see how others did it. One thing that hurts the whole group is when people do not post assignments when they are due. Fortunately, there were a lot of people who completed this task, but imagine how it would have been if no one had completed the assignment.....we could have all been in trouble.
Kathy
James,
You always do a great job with your postings. It will be interesting to see how far technology and online learning goes in the near future especially in the primary and secondary levels.
Hello James,
I find your comment about online education being the way classes are taught at all grade levels interesting. I think that children benefit from the interactions in the classroom and It may be difficult for them to retain a connection online. I am not a teacher and would like to know what you think about how online classes would affect K-5 students.
Hello James,
Good literature review. That was interesting how the students improved their analytical skills when they used multimedia clips to share content. Also, like the study on technologies I rather use a communication media that is synchronous rather than asynchronous.
Hi James,
I just want you to know that I appreciate the quality of work you complete each week. You have continually offered constructive feedback to many students in this class and your postings give us an excellent example to follow week after week.
Thanks for all your help,
Debora Griffin
Hi James,
I believe one of the anticipated shortcomings of this literature model was for students to not always have access to the research to get exact page number in which quotes would appear.
One recommendation I will make to Dr. Newberry in the future will be to make the articles he has us summarize available for us to review through the online course program. That would help resolve the difficulties students have been having with the page numbers.
4 weeks to go...
I have been thinking all week about your question of how I believe that professors can create community. I think as I read all of the blogs and replies it is easy to see that encouraging people to reply to blogs is a good way of creating community. Just look at how many of the students are willing to assist each other in how to fix citations, recheck confusing comments, and many other things. People are willing to share that they are shy and more. I became close to Bill and Erika because of using SKYPE and WIKI in a force, but pleasant group project in a hybrid class. I actually learned a lot by working with those two and Bill still helps me with the details and Erika and I still support each other in another class we are taking. I think professors intentionally set up these group projects to help create community. Professors might also assign pages like My Space to students to create community. I am certain if you were to ask this same question of students between the ages of 13 to 22 they could come up with many more suggestions than I could. One thing I am certain of is that every member of this learning community looks to you as a very valuable member because of all the positive things you have to offer each member in the group.
There was a great Technology Conference at the college this weekend that spent a great deal of time discussing just how important all of this new media is to the future of our students.
Kathy
I think the point Kathy made about the ability of blogs allowing students to view their colleagues approach to the assignment is a major catch-22. If everyone waited to see how James did it, poor James would have nobody to reference =).
It has definitely been helpful to me though to see other's approaches to our projects. That is one aspect of blogging in this class that I have found valuable. And again, like Kathy said, as long as at least half of this relatively large group get stuff in close to the due date, there is plenty with which to work.
Matt
James:
Thank you for reading my review. To clarify what I meant about social presence, I used the word belonging similar to the way you used anonymity in your review. If students do not feel like they belong, then they are not communicating, participating, or comprehending in the online environment.
Hi, James. Great review. I find Rebecca's second comment about the reviews varying so much interesting. I have had a horrible challenge trying to complete my literature review. In part because of my life, and in part because I have a hard time getting through it. Every time I go back to look for supporting information, the same stuff changes meaning because of everything else I have read. I guess that is the nature of the beast. Does anyone have an analytical approach to literature reviews, a step by step, if you will? ;-)
Thanks James !
It looks like there really is something to using 'New Media and Online Learning'
The whole point was how to integrate new technology into the learning process, which certainly seems to have supported, if not proven, that theory, right here, right now.
Thanks again !
Charles Lee
Charles Lee writes :
Adult learning is better online, but I believe that a student has to be more familiar with the learning process than the younger students are likely to be, in order to be successful in a distance learning environment.
DL is very flexible, which is more appropriate or someone who has already learned structure, and can therefore structure his or her own learning process more effectively.
Your review of the study presents the aspects tat need to be considered in light of the application of DL to everyone.
Charles Lee
Well said.
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