Reviews for CHOICE,
a publication of the Association of College and Research Libraries,
100
and other venues
by David L. Stoloff,
Professor and Chair, Education Department,
Eastern Connecticut State University
1) EDUCATION Index [URL:http://www.educationindex.com/]
The Education Index® is an annotated guide to education-related sites on the Web, sorted by Subject and Lifestage. Education Index® also offers a graphic Web WeaselSM to guide the visitors through the site and a Coffee Shop for threaded discussions.
Education Index® is sponsored by College View Partners, a division of Hobsons, a British and US-based company with over 25 years' experience in publishing recruitment guides for students making career and course decisions. Education Index® includes a link to College View and its college online database.
Searchable lists of over 60 subjects are arranged alphabetically from Agriculture through Military Technologies, Parks and Recreation, Theology, and Women's Studies.
Lifestages are defined into 11 categories including Prenatal and Infant, Preschool, Primary Education, Middle Education, Secondary Education, Distance Learning, Graduate Education, Continuing Education, Parenting, Careers, and College Education.
The Web WeaselTM's lair features holiday games and downloading opportunities for a concentration game and a screen saver.
The Coffee Shop topics include the Lifestage categories and others, including Education Directions, a threaded discussion on different paths and choices for learning to career programs, and discussions on Professional Training and Learning Abilities.
Similar to TeachersNet [URL: http://www.teachers.net/] as a forum for threaded discussions on educational topics, Education Index® provides links to dynamic websites developed by teachers, but not as many resources for lessons planning for primary and/or secondary education. Creative and attractive in format and well-organized, Education Index® covers a wider range of lifestages than TeachersNet and is more linked to college curriculum and interests. The WebWeasel games included appropriate warnings that downloading might be slow; all of the other links were seamless and fairly rapid on delivery.
I would recommend Education Index®’s
use by students searching for college information and as an additional website
for online resources and threaded discussions for PK-12 teachers.
2) Kent, T. W. and McNergney, R. F. (1999). Will technology really
change education? From blackboard to Web.
In this book commissioned by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, Kent and McNergney ask four questions: what is current use of technology in education, how do computer technologies compare with previous technologies in education reform, how might our knowledge of teaching guide our use of technology, and what role might technology play in the future of teacher education.
They suggest that four factors encourage the use of computers – collegiality among computer users, resources available for staff development and computer coordination, smaller class sizes, and school support for using computers for meaningful activities.
The authors suggest that the ubiquity of computers in the economy and their flexibility of use have created a novel role for their applications in educational reform.
They provide examples of World Wide Web sites that encourage personal growth, support information processing, and integrate technology into teacher education and expand our knowledge of teaching.
While recognizing the potential of the technology for student-directed learning, the authors conclude that the human experience in education must be valued and that teachers and teacher educators are the individuals most capable of designing the educational experience in the classroom.
3) The knowledge web: Learning and collaborating
on the Net (1998), Eisenstadt, M. and Vincent,
T., editors.
Eisenstadt and Vincent, scholars associated
with the Knowledge Media Institute (Kmi) at
the
The text is organized into three sections on Learning Media, Collaboration and Presence, and Knowledge Systems on the Web. The first section includes essays on the challenges and benefits of mega-universities, the enabling and disabling qualities of the Web, collaborative learning in networked simulation environments, media integration through meta-learning environments, Web-based student support systems, and the transformation, not translation, of curriculum from the classroom to distance teaching.
The second section provides presentations on promoting learner dialogues on the Web, new scenarios in scholarly publishing and debate, exploring Web telepresence and the KMi Planet, a Web-based news server, and sharing programming knowledge over the Web.
The third section concludes with discussions of accessing artificial intelligence applications, knowledge modelling, the World Wide Design Lab, psychological agents, and virtual participants.
This text would effectively supplement advanced and graduate courses in educational technology theory and practice.
4) Keating, A. B. with Hargitai, H. The wired professor: A guide to
incorporating the World Wide Web in college instruction.
A collegial part-history of information and web-based applications in college instruction, part-hands-on manual on developing instructional web site, and part-projection on virtual universities. The accompanying web page at http://www.nyupress.nyu.edu/professor.html complements the text with interactive sites of exemplary college instruction, resources to enhance web site development, and full-text sections from the book. The text includes a history of information highways and byways, a guide to the geography and history of the Internet, online research and reflections on building course web pages, initial and advanced instruction on how to put together an instructional web site, and visions on a virtual university and on virtual reality. The appendices add useful tips and trick on creating with html (the programming language for web pages) and a strong bibliography of related texts. The text is limited in its discussion of software programs, such as Netscape Composer or Microsoft Front Page, which have decreased the need for actual coding with html for getting started with online teaching.
This guide serves as an excellent introduction for professors seeking
to explore the web as well as a strong reference text for all students interested
in educational technology.
5) Learning to teach using ICT in the
Secondary School. (1999) M. Leask
and
Developed by educators in secondary schools and universities in the
The text opens with discussions on the theories of learning and ICT and
on strategies using ICT for motivating pupils, for classroom management,
and as a teaching and learning tool. Other chapters discuss selecting, using,
and producing classroom-based multimedia, videoconferencing, special educational
needs and ICT, and assessment of and through ICT. The second section of
the text surveys professional and whole-school issues including a self-audit
of ICT proficiency skills, managing classroom change, using ICT for particular
subjects, integrating ICT via whole-school approaches, online professional
development opportunities, using ICT for professional purposes, and linking
school with home use via ICT. The text concludes with an appendix that features
the
6) Virtual instruction:
Issues and insights from an international perspective, Feyten, C.M. and Nutta,
J.W., editors.
This collection of chapters on virtual instruction, computer-mediated communication
that promotes synchronous or asynchronous active learning over a distance,
is international in scope. The editors, Nutta
and Feyten from the
7) Mustang: a Web cruising vehicle for teachers. URL: http://mustang.coled.umn.edu/
The
Web66 was an early recognized leader in organizing educational resources, a fore-runner of current WWW resources such as TeachersNet (http://www.teachers.net/), ThinkQuest (http://www.thinkquest.org/), webTeacher (http://www.webteacher.org/winnet/indextc.html ), and Schoolhouse Networking (http://metalab.unc.edu/cisco/noc/ ), and Classroom Connect (http://www.classroom.com/home.asp ).
8) Linn, M.S. and Hsi, S. (2000). Computers, teachers, peers:
Science learning partners.
Computers, Teachers, Peers: Science Learning Partners is an instructional
package that includes a textbook, a companion CD-ROM, and a website [http://www.clp.berkeley.edu/] that
builds on the sixteen years of experience of the Computers as Learning Partner
(CLP) collaboration at the
They provide a wealth of resources - science activities with and without computer applications; case studies on student achievement; software demonstrations of a CLP tool, E-LabBook; assessment strategies; and an annotated bibliography. The textbook also includes insights from a classroom teacher who was a founding member of the partnership, an invitation to join an online forum with other teachers and students, and strategies on how to form a local learning partnership.
Designed to enhance science education, this instructional package offers strategies for learning and teaching in all subjects.
9) Semail,
L. (2000). Literacy in multimedia
Professor Semali designed this text to "provide a guide for teachers on how to integrate critical media literacy across the curriculum." He defines critical media literacy within the context of critical pedagogy as a field inquiry that seeks to understand multimedia programs - how they produce meaning and construct reality. Also studied are the contexts in which the programs are transmitted; the organizations or culture industries that produce them; the technologies of production, distribution, and reception; and the different ways in which audiences use and respond to mass media.
The author explores the foundations and practices of media literacy instruction and offers analytical frameworks for interpreting the values of media representations. These frameworks are discussed while analyzing the cultural assumptions within a film - The Gods Must Be Crazy, the Newspaper in Education curriculum, and television viewing habits.
The text includes "two examples of unit plans that attempt to integrate critical media literacy across the curriculum" - on visions of Utopia and of the Future as interpreted by diverse media. Professor Semali concludes that critical media literacy would lead to teachers mobilizing their students to "more effectively create their own meanings, lives and society."
10) DiSessa,
Andrea (2000). Changing minds: Computers,
learning and literacy.
Professor diSessa builds on his roots as a member of MIT's Logo group and his efforts developing the Boxer Project, "a proposal for a unifying form for a computer user's experience." Boxer's biggest breaks from the Logo tradition are its pursuit of the intellectual, political, and practical entailments of computational literacy. Computational literacy differs from computer literacy in its focus on all three pillars of literacy - the material, the mental or cognitive, and the social.
The text contains insightful discussions on the foundations of knowledge and the influence of phenomenological primitives (p-prims) - unexpected intuitive knowledge - on learning. Professor diSessa examines the differences between structure and function in computer design and explores evidence that "kids are smart" and highly inventive within the Boxer environment of metarepresentation. He analyzes the four macroniches for the World Wide Web - distribution of public information, on-line commerce, personal experience, and community building - for their implications for cultural resonance and the educational community.
Professor diSessa concludes that minds, both of learners and of all of society, may be changed through the systematic integration of computers, learning theory, and literacy in classrooms and cultures.
11) Lankshear,
Colin; Snyder, Ilana; with Green, Bill (2000).
Teachers and technoliteracy: Managing literacy,
technology and learning in schools. St. Leonards,
NSW,
This text focuses on “how to ‘do’ literacy and technology in educationally
effective ways, in classrooms, in countries like
12) Burniske,
R.W. and Monke, L. (2000) Breaking down
the digital walls: Learning to teach in a post-modem world.
This provocative text arises from the email dialectics and friendship
of the authors, originally colleagues at an international school in
13) Palloff,
R.M. and Pratt, K. (2001) Lessons from
the cyberspace classroom: The realities of online teaching.
This text provides a strong comparative study on the current tools of distance learning, with displays of websites from the major online platforms, as well as comparisons of the learning and teaching differences between the syllabi of face-to-face and online courses. The authors review several recent developments in online learning and teaching, including the creation of have and have-not institutions, concerns over faculty control of the academic process, course ownership, intellectual property and copyright, and continuing training needs. Tips to maximize the potential of the virtual students include that instructors should post a welcoming response to student introductions, log on to the online classroom three or more times a week to keep the discussion moving, and use humor in discussion postings. Strategies for managing the dynamics of online discussions, teaching courses developed by others, and enhancing specific learner dispositions and learning styles are also clearly described. The authors conclude that not only are online instructors “helping to shape the creation of empowered, lifelong learner, our participation as equal members of a group of learners supports us in our quest for lifelong learning. For us, this is the power of online distance learning.”
14) Technology in its place: Successful
technology infusion in schools. (2001). LeBaron, J. F. & Collier, C,
editors.
Sponsored by The International Network of Principals’ Centers, this text
focuses on the improvement of teaching and learning through a discussion
of curriculum and pedagogy and of leadership strategies. In separate
chapters, Editor LeBaron examines how the principles
of learning organizations would benefit planning for infusing curriculum with
technology. Editor Collier outlines four approaches to technology integration
– technology mentors, student involvement, teacher leadership and student
technology competencies, and inquiry and action research for technology integration.
Abilock overviews the collaboration between librarians and content-area
teachers to enhance student inquiry in
15) Spring, Joel (2001). Globalization
and educational rights: An intercivilizational
analysis.
A wide-ranging intercivilizational analysis
precedes Professor Spring’s proposal for amendments to the world’s constitutions,
which would emphasize the duty and right of all people to receive an education.
Intercivilizational, instead of international, for the author illustrates well
the cross-boundaries influences of educational ideals.
Motivated by the reactions of Asian scholars to Western concerns about human
rights violations, the author seeks to expand education practice through
the infusion of ideas from Confucian thought, Maoist educational policies,
Islam education, western concepts of educational opportunities, and competing
educational and political theories in
16) Cuban, Larry (2001). Oversold
& underused: Computers in the classroom.
Through field studies in early childhood settings, a high school, and a university in the Silicon Valley in northern California, Professor Cuban found unexpectedly that students and teachers show little evidence of resistance to using information technologies but that less than 5 percent of high school students had intense “tech-heavy” experiences and less than 5 percent of teachers integrate computer technology into their regular instructional routines. In these schools, he discovered no substantial evidence of students increasing their academic achievement as a result of using information technologies; the majority of teachers employed technology to sustain existing teaching patterns, rather than to innovate; and only a tiny percentage of high school and university teachers used the new technologies to accelerate student-centered and project-based teaching practices. He concluded that teachers, like other professionals, have been selective in their uses of technology in the classroom; that the “computer age” may be a slow revolution with incremental change over a generation or two; and that teachers may be constrained to accept technology by the history and contexts of schooling. An interesting text for upper division and graduate students and decision-makers on computer uses in education.
17) Trend, David (2001). Welcome
to cyberschool: Education at the crossroads
in the information age.
Part of Giroux’s edited Culture and Politics Series, Professor Trend’s collection of essays on politics, technology, and school; utopian promise and the digital divide; the education business; cyberschool; myths of cyberdemocracy; reading cyberculture; and broken promises and democratic possibilities would serve as a good text for an educational philosophy graduate seminar. Trend suggests it is difficult to “reconcile the democratic aspirations of cyberspace with its inegalitarian materiality” and that the “age-old dream of transcendent or idealized virtuality will always be flawed as long as its authors or agents remain tethered to the nonvirtual world.” Following a review of the current business model of educational management, he concludes that “great potential exists in the way information technology is causing schools and universities to scrutinize themselves and focus more on issues such as the relationship between teaching and research.” Recognizing that “new communication technologies are not yet lost to democracy because they still exist in a fluid state” and that “it is important to resist closure in any discussion of such a dynamic phenomenon,” he cautions that “the totalizing aspects of the utopian global village undermine any assertions of diversity or equality.”
18) Schmidt, W. et al. (2001).
Why schools matter: a cross-national comparison of curriculum and learning.
A team from the U.S. National Center, which oversees U.S. participation
in TIMMS (Third International Mathematics and Science Study), a cross-national
comparison of curriculum and learning, provide explanations based “on changes
in achievement rather than on comparative status in achievement” for Why
School Matters. They find several curriculum variations in national
content standards, textbook and teacher coverage of mathematics and science
topics, the matching of topics covered by the international exams and topics
covered by textbooks and teachers, teachers and principals’ perceptions of
their own influence on the curriculum, and student opportunities to learn.
They characterize mathematics and science curriculum in the
19) Stallard,
C. K. with Cocker, J. S. (2001) The
promise of technology in schools: The next 20 years.
Following a review of the engines of change for information technology – hardware, software, and connectivity - and the relationships of technology adoption, organizational change, and the challenges posed by public education, the authors outlined their vision for information technology in schools in the next 20 years. During the near future, 2001-07, the authors present a model for differentiated staffing which envisions a sharp reduction in full-time certified teachers. They predict widespread year-round schooling, distributed learning, home schooling, and enhanced relationships among schools and other public institutions. For the midterm future, 2008-14, the authors envision e-learning and data mining becoming essential for schooling, the end of paper textbooks, the growth of a master teacher corps, grades 11 and 12 moving to community colleges or corporate settings, and learners becoming prosumers – customers effectively in contol of how they learn. For the long-term future, 2015-21, the authors envision the end of standardized testing with the expansion of dropin/drop out attendance patterns beyond grade 6, the growth of personal learning assistants, virtual reality, and microworlds. They close with a recognition of the social value of schools for establishing rituals, routines, communities, and sanctuaries.
20) Edutopia:
Success stories for learning in the digital age, foreword by George Lucas.
Milton Chen, Executive Editor, Sara Armstrong, Editor.
Building from The George Lucas Education Foundation website, http://www.glef.org , this text and accompanying CD-ROM celebrates
innovators in educational technology applications in schools in the
21) Rose, D. H. and Meyer, A., with Strangman, N. and Rappolt,
G. (2002) Teaching
every student in the digital age: Universal Design
for Learning.
Reviewed on
Developed by the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) co-directors, this textbook advocates for a Universal Design for Learning (UDL), “a research-based set of principles that forms a practical framework for using technology to maximize learning opportunities for every student.” These principles are founded on research on brain functions and on the efficacy of flexible instructional media. The authors find that there are no “regular” students and that learning is a complex series of bottom-up and top-down, instinctual and socially developed, processes of recognition, strategic, and affective networks of brain functions within individualized learning contexts. They also conclude that digital media have power to be versatile, transformable, easily marked for diversity of presentation, and networked with other learning resources. The authors provide case studies, which outline the applications of UDL to enhance learning. They suggest that UDL may more accurately assess student progress, support individual differences, and enable embedded assessment to provide ongoing feedback. The text includes appendices of planning templates and references. The parallel online version at http://www.cast.org/TeachingEveryStudent demonstrates “the flexible, interactive nature of networked digital materials” through threaded discussions and an expanding set of related Web links.
22) Weller, Martin. Delivering learning on the net: the why, what & how of
online education. London, UK : Kogan Page Limited,181p bibl index ISBN 0-7494-3675-1
pbk $25.00. reviewed on
This text is a well-designed and entertaining
guide to e-learning and online education. The
author, a creator of an online course, T171 – “You, Your Computer and the
Net”, delivered by the United Kingdom Open University to tens of thousands
of students worldwide, sets the stage by discussing the strengths of the
Net when compared with other educational technologies.
He then explores and explodes e-learning myths, which include that
online learning is not of the standard of face-to-face, oncampus instruction. Lessons learned from e-commerce serve as part of
the foundation he develops for an overview of the motivations and planning
of e-learning and an analysis of the costs of differing forms of online
teaching. Dr. Weller explains how this form of
educational delivery requires new strategies for teaching, communicating,
assessing, integrating other technologies, and redefining the intellectual
ownership of ideas. He concludes that the future
of e-learning will be shaped by successes in e-commerce, changes in technology,
“the students, particularly those of the next generation who have grown up
online as it were, and the educators who begin to fashion something new,
appropriate and most of all exciting in this medium.”
23) Standards-based school mathematics curricula:
What are they? What do students learn?, ed. by
Sharon L. Senk and Denisse
R. Thompson. L. Erlbaum, 2003. 515p bibl indexes afp
ISBN 0-8058-4337-X, $110.00 reviewed on
This comprehensive
compilation of evaluations of 17 university-school district-federal initiatives
to enhance mathematics learning within diverse US K-12 schools begins with
a historic review of reform movements for mathematics teaching within US
public schools. The most influential of recent
documents is the Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics
published by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) in 1989,
also known as the Standards document referred to in the title. The editors provide a context for the research
and development of the projects by describing their associated NCTM standards
and reviewing the research on
A review
for the preservice.org community – posted on
Solomon, G.; Allen,
N.J.; and Resta, P., editors. (2003) Toward
digital equity: Bridging the divide in education.
This collection of leading edge essays on concerns about digital equity features the reflections of several members of the ThinkQuest for Tomorrow’s Teachers community – Gwen Solomon, Kathleen Fulton, Robert Sibley, Carmen Gonzales, Steven Sanchez – and other leaders in instructional technology and education. The editors define digital equity in education as “ensuring that every student, regardless of socioeconomic status, language, race, geography, physical restrictions, cultural background, gender, or other attribute historically associated with inequities, has equitable access to advanced technologies, communication and information resources, and the learning experiences they provide.” Gwen Solomon and Nancy J. Allen introduce the obstacles in the way of digital equity – including access, poverty, spending on education and technology, the uses of technology in schools, and the need for professional development for teachers and administrators – and the opportunities for preparing future teachers for leadership roles and empowerment through skills in educational technology.
The text is divided into four sections. In section one – setting the stage - Karin Wiburg and Julia Butler provide a historical framework for access issues in education. Kathleen Fulton and Robert Sibley outline the barriers to equity in a digital age. Karin Wiburg et.al. present various factors influencing the digital divide through a case study of the digital divide in a Southwest border community.
Power and literacy is focused on in section two. Joyce Pittman discusses how one may facilitate educational empowerment in organizations and individuals. Kevin Rocap overviews how technological changes relate to the changing definitions of literacy in the 21st century.
Section three emphasizes learners and technology. Henry Ingle describes how cultural perspectives affect the use or appropriation of digital technologies. Vivian Delgado illustrates these perspectives in a case study of technology and Native America. Amy Staples and Joyce Pittman discuss how technology empowers teachers to work with all students, especially those with disabilities in the general education classroom. Lynne Schrum and Sandra Geisler describe how cultural stereotypes impact choices regarding the applications of technology across gender. Lynne Schrum and Bonnie Bracey discuss how technology-enhanced curriculum supports the goal of greater equity.
A road map to the future is the concern of section four. Carmen Gonzales and Steven Sanchez discuss the policies necessary to ensure that all students have equitable access to technology. Nancy Allen and Linda Wing overview the characteristics common to leaders whose institutions are making significant progress toward achieving digital equity. Karen Keenan and Joan Karp describe the processes which help educational move toward digital equity. J. David Ramirez outlines the most effective methods for assessing digital equity. Paul Resta and Robert McLaughlin describe policy implications and recommendations at the national level for establishing the direction and rate of progress of digital equity.
Gwen Solomon concludes the text by summarizing and discussing the implications of each the four sections. Gwen notes that “however optimistic we are and however much progress we have made in using technology in education and in achieving digital equity, we know that there are certain areas that continue to need improvement.” Although “school systems, perhaps even more than any other part of society, are slow to change,”…educational “leadership is possibly the single most important element in creating the systemic, sustained transformation of learning communities required to meet the challenges that face education today.” Gwen poses an intriguing closing question – “in a context of limited resources, should digital equity have a higher priority than other aspects of the larger social divide, or will efforts to overcome other inequities ultimately have a positive effect in promoting digital equity?”
This text was developed partially as an outgrowth of
discussions within the US Department of Education’s Preparing Tomorrow’s
Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) Program’s Digital Equity Task Force. The task force’s portal is located at http://digitalequity.edreform.net/home/
and serves as a valuable supplement to the vital discussions in the textbook. This text is highly recommended
for members of the PT3 and T3P – preservice.org communities and for graduate
seminars in educational technology and the social foundations in education. Congratulations to the text’s editors and contributors
for their service in moving these issues further in the conversation on
technology and the future of learning and teaching.
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David Stoloff is Professor and Chair of the Education Department at Eastern
Connecticut State University in Willimantic, Connecticut. He also
coordinates an online Master of Science in Educational Technology program,
which is outlined at http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/edtech.html, and
the Connecticut State Department of Education-funded EFFECT Project (Experiences
for Future Connecticut Teachers), which integrates web-based communications
to recruit high school students into teaching. His research interests
include online learning and teaching, international and cross-cultural education,
and educational reform.
Dr. Maeroff has provided the education community with
a service through his status report on online learning and teaching in A
Classroom of One: How Online Learning is Changing Our Schools and Colleges
(New York: Plagrave MacMillan, 2003).
Recognizing the difficulties in chronicling the dynamic force of online
learning, he notes that most of the book is written in the past tense and
the challenge of writing was like taking “a snapshot of a cyclone” (page xi).
Dr. Maeroff suspects that ultimately online courses “will work best and prove
most attractive when directed at mature adult learners” (page xii).
The text begins with a global perspective on online learning
for both K through 12 education and higher education. Chapter 2 revisits
the history of distance learning and concerns about content, design, and
instruction. Dr. Maeroff in chapters 3 through 6 focuses on the
nature of interactions and facilitating conversations within online learning
and the responsibilities of both the learners and the instructors in achieving
successful experiences at a distance. Chapters 7 and 8 raise the issues
of how online learning is changing as a business and how it changes education
for careers. Dr. Maeroff in chapter 9 reviews the literature
that questions the academic legitimacy of online learning and teaching which
leads to a discussion of its regulation and accreditation in chapter 10.
He suggests in chapters 11 that “if nothing else, the availability of online
learning may force schools and colleges to reflect on their missions and
on how they discharge their responsibilities” (page 195) and reflects that
online learning supports a new emphasis on learning outcomes. In chapter
12, he also posits that online learning may help educational institutions
to serve those least served – nontraditional and special needs students,
recognizing the need to overcome the digital divide. Online learning
redefines the educational institution, as discussed in chapters 13 and 14,
raising questions on what is an educational institution?, who is a teacher?,
what is a library?, and other issues. In turn, online learning is being
redefined, with the creation of hybrid courses, web-enhanced courses, and
virtual high schools and universities. Dr. Maeroff concludes in chapter
15 with a discussion of the historically assumed purposes of education and
how they are being adjusted to the new realities of the cyber era.
As an online instructor and a coordinator of an online Master of Science
in Educational Technology program at Eastern Connecticut State University,
I appreciate Dr. Maeroff’s review of the issues and concerns about web-based
learning. In a next edition of this or similar texts, I would suggest,
though, that online learning be viewed in a wider social perspective.
My students and I would disagree that online learning occurs in a classroom
of one. My colleagues who teach online uniformly consider the focused
conversations within the threaded discussions in a course to be a major
component of the program; usually valued at between 20 – 30% of the participants’
assessment. In a recent course evaluation, online participants in
one of my graduate courses, EDU 577: Educational Computing – Theory and Practice,
commented that –
“… even though some people miss "face-to-face" interaction, I actually
think that online courses are better suited for participation. Everybody
has had a college class dominated by three or four individuals who like
to hear themselves talk. Usually, the other students have plenty of opinions,
too, but often refrain from speaking due to exhaustion and because they
want to get home before sunrise.
Online discussions are more equitable, as everyone is required to respond...
without interruption, at her or his own convenience. And because threads
are written, students have a chance to reflect and revise before submission.”
(comments of an inservice teacher enrolled in online EDU 577: Educational
Computing – Theory and Practice, Eastern Connecticut State University, Sunday,
June 22, 2003, 12:07pm)
Another participant agreed –
“Online discussions do make it more equitable for the people who may feel
intimidated to discuss idea in the class. It is helpful to take time to
reflect between responses and for ideas more clearly.” (comments of a preservice
teacher enrolled in online EDU 577, Friday, June 27, 2003, 2:29pm)
A third responded -
“… we do have time to think and complete our thoughts before we join the
discussion.” (comments of an inservice teacher enrolled in EDU 577, Friday,
June 27, 2003 7:04pm)
This exchange lasted for over a week with participants
sharing their comments at a distance and over time. Although they
were alone with their workstations, the participants were shared in a classroom
of many.
I would also suggest that two models from educational
history might be useful to reconsider when analyzing the future of online
learning and teaching. Ivan Illich’s Deschooling Society (1970) foreshadowed
online learning’s discussion groups in the concept of learning webs.
Illich wrote
“What are needed are new networks, readily available to the public and
designed to spread equal opportunity for learning and teaching.” (Illich,
I. (1971). Deschooling Society. New York: Harper & Row,
Publishers, pages 78-79.)
The next edition of this text might continue to explore how online learning
fulfills these suggested forms of learning exchanges. As a society,
we are developing learners who are comfortable using instant messaging,
participating in online chats and discussion forums, and obtain and evaluating
information from the web. Online learning may be the context for these
learning webs.
In summertime, it is easy to remember the influence of the Chataqua movement
on American thought. These gatherings of scholars and lay-people at
summer encampments for entertainment and enlightenment incubated American
philosophy and culture from its start in the 1870s. The Chataqua and
elderhostel movements provide learning webs for adults who have the resources
and interests to continue learning in attractive settings. Online
learning may also serve as post-modern Chataquas - a resource for those
who are unable to travel or for the times between voyages.
Online learning is not for all subjects or for all individuals, but it
does provide for a setting for discussions and learning at a distance and
across time. Although the individual is isolated before a computer
screen, the learning, when the social context is adequately addressed through
threaded discussions and email, is within a virtual community, a Chataqua
for the 21st century.
Read Dr. Maeroff’s text for a strong foundation on the top and to prepare
to witness the cyclone of online learning as it grows and changes the landscape
of education.
References
Illich, I. (1971). Deschooling Society. New York: Harper &
Row, Publishers, pages 78-79.)
posted July 30, 2003