Preparing Elementary Pre-Service Teachers from a Non-Traditional Student Population to Teach with Technology

This article documents the development of a two-stage curriculum intended to improve elementary teacher candidates’ understanding of technology integration. Most students in the program came from low-income districts and lacked technology experience. The first stage of the curriculum consisted of a prerequisite basic technology skills course offered by the Computer Science Department. This was then followed by an online educational technology course offered by the College of Education. The objectives of the authors in this article are twofold. The first is to describe the rationale, procedures, and design of a two-stage curriculum, as a pedagogical model for teaching elementary teacher candidates to teach with technology, with the goal of preparing a new generation of teachers who are capable and comfortable applying a broad range of advanced technologies to meet the learning needs of their students. The second objective is to share the authors' findings from the evaluation, which employed mixed methodologies, after the students completed the online educational technology course. The results showed that an online educational technology course contributed to the candidates’ development of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge and improved their attitudes and beliefs on their technology integration practices.     

Sandcastle competitions

This commentary discusses reasons that lead scholars to feel entitled to make judgements in areas where they have little or no expertise. Three current reports about the future of online learning are considered, issued by the Global Learning Council, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Gates Foundation. Two of these publications contain contradictions and confusion that may simply be due to lack of awareness of distance education (DE) and online learning research. The third report gives good evidence but has been criticized for being too academic. The conflicting standards and criteria evident in such writings may be due to institutional pressures to promote policies and principles despite lack of supportive evidence, and to weaknesses in the DE literature itself. As major institutional policies about online learning are likely to be based on the recommendations of such reports, it is important for DE specialists to challenge them where appropriate.     

MOOCS: digesting the facts

The techniques used in massive open online courses (MOOCs) are compared with supersizing in the fast food industry. Similarities include the profit motives, marketing techniques, criticisms, industry defences, and evolution of the two controversies. While fast food restaurants strategically increase the size of their meal courses and consumer base, MOOC providers increase the size of their student enrolments and the amounts of online course material they provide for the students to consume. In the two contexts, franchise owners and educational administrators deliver the supersized courses to their customers with apparent disregard for their widening negative effects. Educational institutions are encouraged to consider the ethics of these practices in order to prevent the unmonitored spread of junk education.     

MOOC课程与开放大学在线课程对比研究

2012年国家开放大学的挂牌成立标志着中国远程教育发展步入了新的征程。作为中国远程教育领域的先驱,开放大学亟需探索吸收新型多媒体教学理念及手段。新兴出现的大规模在线开放课程（MOOC）开辟了远程教育在线课程的新的发展思路,其多元化的学习支持,多媒体课程资源的全球共享,新颖的翻转课堂模式及独立运营的MOOC平台体系都值得开放大学思考与学习。     

A Model of Teaching and Learning Online in Asian Context

Online teaching and learning practices in Asian universities are different from that in western universities. Western universities give emphasis on student-student interaction for learning. Online courses offered by most Asian universities are a kind of mixed mode that comprised simultaneous face-to-face tutorials and online interaction facility. In this situation most students use the online facility to collect resources and to contact their teachers. The quantity of student-student interaction was sporadic in many courses. So research is needed to improve the situation and create an environment for students where they can learn what peer group interaction is and practice it. This paper has presented for Asian universities. Possible barriers in teaching and learning have been considered to develop the model. a model of teaching and learning online situations in Asia and students＇abilities     

The fog of online learning

The authors recognized a close similarity between practices used in online genealogy research and those common in online education. Uses of a popular online database service were examined within a peer instruction community dedicated to researching a family history topic. Three community subgroups were divided into leaders, who base their work on external sources, and followers who copy the leaders’ conclusions. The accuracy and error levels of the 21 family trees produced by these researchers were calculated in relation to data obtained from offline archives. The trees created in the online process all contained flawed details and invalid conclusions due to practices similar to those of massive open online courses. The inconsistent reliability of the online approaches is discussed in terms of the ‘fog’ that descends upon knowledge when facts are distorted by academic jargon, disciplinary trends, and institutional priorities, and which increases with its transmission to others by non-experts.     

美国网络教师的培养及启示

美国将网络教育视作促进教育改革、提升教育质量的重要途径,并认为网络教育对教师的专业素养有新的要求,因此十分重视对网络教师的培养。本文从宏观背景、资源建设、实践平台、质量保障四方面分析了美国对网络教师的培养。文章首先介绍了美国《国家技术教育规划》的沿革,并以此作为美国网络教师培养的宏观背景;其次,分析了美国多元与系统的网络教师培养课程及丰富的学习资源;再次;介绍了作为美国网络教师实践平台的虚拟学校的现状;最后,梳理了作为教师质量保障的专业素养标准与系统支持。文章最后探讨了美国网络教师培养对我国的启示,包括把握网络教育的本质、重视网络教师的培养;明确网络教师的专业素养要求并据此系统设计培养课程;重视网络教师的自主发展并支持经验共享。     

Orienting Toward Teacher Education for Online Environments for All Students

Abstract

The online environment is an expansive educational context distinct from the traditional one. We problematize the current online teacher education landscape and make recommendations for practices that prepare and support teachers as online teachers, rather than teachers who periodically use Internet resources and digital devices for instruction. Recommendations focus on personalization, collaboration, administrative support, program (re)designs, new models of technological integration, attention to standards for teaching and learning, and ongoing professional learning opportunities.     

The Effect of Content Delivery Style on Student Performance in Anatomy

The development of new technologies and ensuing pedagogical research has led many tertiary institutions to integrate and adopt online learning strategies. The authors of this study have incorporated online learning strategies into existing educational practices of a second year anatomy course, resulting in half of the course content delivered via face-to-face lectures, and half delivered online via tailored video vignettes, with accompanying worksheets and activities. The effect of the content delivery mode on student learning was analyzed by tailoring questions to content presented either face-to-face or online. Four practical tests were conducted across the semester with each consisting of four questions. Within each test, two questions were based on content delivered face-to-face, and two questions were based on content delivered online. Examination multiple choice questions were similarly divided and assessed. Findings indicate that student learning is consistent regardless of the mode of content delivery. However, student viewing habits had a significant impact on learning, with students who viewed videos multiple times achieving higher marks than those less engaged with the online content. Student comments also indicated that content delivery mode was not an influence on learning. Therefore student engagement, rather than the mode of content delivery, is a determinant of student learning and performance in human anatomy. Anat Sci Educ. © 2018 American Association of Anatomists.     

Updating RIGs: including the systematic influence of online study on student evaluation of teaching

Based on student evaluation of teaching (SET) ratings from 1,432 units of study over a period of a year, representing 74,490 individual sets of ratings, and including a significant number of units offered in wholly online mode, we confirm the significant influence of class size, year level, and discipline area on at least some SET ratings. We also find online mode of offer to significantly influence at least some SET ratings. We reveal both the statistical significance and effect sizes of these influences, and find that the magnitudes of the effect sizes of all factors are small, but potentially cumulative. We also show that the influence of online mode of offer is of the same magnitude as the other 3 factors. These results support and extend the rating interpretation guides (RIGs) model proposed by Neumann and colleagues, and we present a general method for the development of a RIGs system.     

网络教学平台功能之比较研究——以香港公开大学与上海电视大学为例

香港公开大学与上海电视大学都是国内远程教育领域里的领头羊,从办学方式、办学理念、教学模式、生源素质、网上教学等角度来看,两校有着诸多相似之处.站在学习者的角度,为他们提供优质的服务莫过于为他们提供功能强大的网络教学平台.为了能更好地践行"两个一切"办学宗旨,本研究采用问卷调查方法,分析两校网络教学平台功能上的差异,从而总结各自的优点和缺点,并分析学习者最常用、最喜欢和最关心的功能,对网络教学平台的改版升级有着非常重要的参考价值.同时,对于其他远程教育单位也有借鉴意义.     

国际学生对在线课堂学习支持的需求

此文研究了英语非母语学生,在美国某所公共大学网络课堂上学习时候所需要的帮助和支持。建立在网络教学文化差异研究的基础上,本研究关注这些学生在网络学习中可能面临的各种挑战(语言、文化、社交)等。研究揭示了这些挑战在这所大学网络课堂上的显现,并且建议了教学改进方法,比如教师应该更多地理解不同文化背景学生的学习方法和技能,从而改进教学设计和实施。     

在教师教育者中创建网上学习社区

网上授课在全球各教育机构尤其是开放和远程学习机构呈迅猛发展的态势。网上学习为远程学习者提供了大量的师生互动、生生互动的机会。他们分享感受,共同协作。通过学习者之间的交互学习,网上学习较独立学习能产生更好的学习效果。斯里兰卡开放大学教育系利用Moodle学习系统开设了“作为教育技术人员的教师教育者”网上课程。课程设计使用协作学习模式,为远程学习者提供了大量积极参与学习过程的机会。学习者借助学习资源和教师的引导完成学习和评估任务,通过讨论会的方式进行协作学习并共同分享感受。本文采用个案研究的方法,对设计者、教师以及学生在网上学习环境中共同加强社区构建所实施的具体策略和技术进行了调查,并进一步探索了社区建设对远程学习者即网上学习的初学者的影响。本文同时讨论了建构网上学习社区的发展进程并强调了设计者、教师和学习者在成功创建网上学习社区中所起的作用。     

Teacher Perceptions of Parent Engagement at a Cyber High School

A growing number of adolescents are taking all or most of their courses online. This places a greater responsibility on parents to support and facilitate their students' learning. This case study used teacher surveys and interviews to better understand how teachers perceived and supported parents' attempts to support their online students at a single online charter school. The results indicated that teachers observed multiple ways in which parents supported their students by (a) organizing and managing students' schedules, (b) nurturing relationships and interactions, (c) monitoring and motivating student engagement, and (d) instructing students when necessary. However, teachers believed that parents could act as obstacles to their students' learning by being overly engaged in certain types of learning activities. Additional research is needed that examines parent engagement in a variety of online learning environments. Research that identifies best practices could also be especially valuable to online teachers and administrators wishing to improve the quantity and quality of parental engagement in their programs.     

Instructor-provided summary infographics to support online learning

Infographics are a visualisation tool that can be used to improve retention, comprehension and appeal of complex concepts. The rise of infographic use in education has facilitated new forms of application and design of these tools. Instructor-provided summary infographics are a new form of infographic, whereby key learning objectives and content are summarised in graphical form at the end of a lesson. However, it is unknown whether these types of infographics can support learning in online environments. This exploratory research investigates student perceptions, retention, applications and activity generation of instructor-provided summary infographics in a massive online learning environment. Using both post-course learner survey data (n = 1,899) and text mining analysis (n = 72,490 words), results present how learners perceived instructor-provided summary infographics as useful and appealing for retaining, clarifying and understanding learning concepts. The research contributes a novel understanding of summary infographics in online learning environments, and supports their use as a design tool for educational delivery in the online space.     

国内外在线学历学位教育的发展

2012年以来,以慕课为代表的全球在线教育蓬勃兴起。Coursera、edX等国际知名在线教育平台对在线学历学位教育进行了一系列实践,引领了全球在线学历学位教育的新潮流。国内以清华大学发起的"学堂在线"为依托,在在线认证证书项目和同等学力申请硕士项目等方面做了一些探索,但与国外在线学历学位项目相比仍然存在较大差距。文章梳理了全球在线教育的发展概况,分别介绍了国外、国内在线学历学位教育的发展现状,并分析了国外在线学历学位教育对我国的启示,以期促进国内在线学历学位教育的健康、可持续发展。     

Empowerment through sex education? Rethinking paradoxical policies

Youth empowerment is the main goal of sex education according to Dutch Government and NGO policies. Academics from different disciplines have argued, however, that the ideal of empowerment through education is problematic, because of the unequal power relations implicated in educational practices. Building on one-and-a-half years of online and offline ethnographic fieldwork among Dutch youth, this article argues that Dutch sex educational policies inhibit rather than encourage young people’s empowerment by allowing only a limited number of sexual knowledge building practices to thrive while making others nearly impossible. In order to facilitate young people’s empowerment, policies should aim to create space for young people to develop their own themes and priorities, to offer a multitude of perspectives, to set the pace and to use different strategies for sexual knowledge building, including learning by doing and online learning. This requires a cultural shift that involves both an openness to young people’s experimentation, and a change in existing power hierarchies based on age.     

Public domain or private data? Developing an ethical approach to social media research in an inter-disciplinary project

This paper discusses the ethical issues faced in undertaking research about the role of learning in the subjective experience of chronic illness, where data were taken from social media. Drawing on psychology and education, this paper discusses the ways in which authors from these disciplines are laying the groundwork for legitimate online research by actively debating the public versus private nature of online spaces. The paper explains how this debate informed the development of an ethical approach to research. Relevant ethical guidelines and previous research are used to support the argument that individuals’ informed consent is not necessary in online contexts where data exist within the public domain, and where risk of harm to users is low. This paper provides an insight into one educational researcher's journey through the process of doing ethical social media research, and suggests ways forward for others embarking upon that same journey.     

学习支持服务的新模式(英文)

远程教育项目实施的关键因素之一就是学习支持服务。传统的学生支持服务观念将其界定为除课程材料制作和传送之外帮助学生学习取得进展的一切活动(Simpson,2000)或者课程制作之外的所有过程(Sharma,2000;Keegan,1996)。随着在线学习的发展及其在远程教育中所处的主导地位,有必要反思学习支持,且不同于传统或第一代远程教育中的学习支持。网络技术促进了知识的社会创建/建构和对用户生成内容的共享,二者均将学习者看作是知识创建/建构的积极参与者。本文分析了开放与远程数字化学习情境下学习支持服务的关注点,并重点关注在线学习者的挫败感、在线讨论中的沉默文化、基于共同体的学习支持,以及教师在整个学习支持服务提供中的角色。文章主要基于菲律宾开放大学十多年来实施开放与远程数字化学习的经验,并就学习支持系统应具备的属性提出了建议。