Durrington, Berryhill & Swafford (2006) stressed that online learners need clear syllabi, rubrics. Additional resources such as links and articles are extremely important part of an enhanced learning environment.
It is also necessary for communication to be clear, concise, and timely to give student the feeling of a trusting online environment (Durrington, Berrhill, & Swafford, 2006). According to Durrington, et al. (2006), instructors who respond in a timely manner to their students with additional views and questions show the students that they are interested in their work and education.
References:
Durrington, V. A., Berryhill, A., & Swafford, J. (2006). Strategies for enhancing student interactivity in an online environment. College Teaching, 54(1), 190−193. Academic Search Premier database; Accession Number: 19754742
Siemens, G. (2008, January). Learning and knowing in networks: Changing roles for educators and designers. ITForum.
5 comments:
Belinda,
Online learning has grown in the past decade. It is important for students to be aware of the technological tools. Most students are aware of email and use it daily in work, education, and personal. Other communication tools such as the discussion board are used specifically for education. It is an easy forum to post reflections and ideas. You mentioned that students need rubics as a guide. This is very important for discussion. Students need to know what is expected of them. Some important factors to include in the rubric for discussion are when to post, how long the post should be, and how many participants to respond to.
Tracy
You were able to come up with a few more tools than I could. I'm a little upset that I didn't think of Twitter as a communication tools because I have been using it myself in the educational setting. Thanks for including it on your diagram - it really is an effective, anytime-anywhere tool.
I have never heard of WebEx or SoftChalk. I plan on looking into them myself. I am very interested to hear how you incorporate these tools into your own classroom.
I was also intrigued by the fact that you included listservs on your graphic organizer. I never really utilized them before, and I assumed that the introduction of blogs, discussion forums, and other tools had all but done away with listservs. Am I wrong? Are people still using them? Maybe I've been ignoring this tool when I shouldn't be.
Great post.
Adam
Adam, I included ListServs because I was just remembering all the tools I have used during my schooling. -Belinda
Hi Belinda,
There are so mnay technologial tools that are available for students now. Each one has its own uniqueness. In these classes, we have been using wikis, blogs,and disscussion forums to collaborate to name a few. Students do need rubrics to help them to understand the multiple requirements and to understand how they are going to be assessed.
Sandra
One of your tools (SoftChalk) is new to me. I'm going to do some more research and look into that particular tool. I have used listservs in the past and they are definitely beneficial to the members that are a part of each particular one. I enjoy the fact that we have been able to use so many of these tools throughout this course as well as throughout our current Walden program.
Great posting!!
Ashley
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