Blending online education with pedagogic concepts

For decades, I have researched computer-supported collaborative learning. Internet technologies can provide a great opportunity to engage students through online learning platforms. 

Now that students can also stay connected to the Net via mobile devices, the opportunity becomes even bigger. 

But the main point here is that educators or educational institutes must not focus simply on technologies or tools. They also need to understand how to apply IT power efficiently to the learning/teaching context. 

Technologies can definitely make great contributions to the educational sector, as they can create collaborative and interactive communication platforms as well as maintain huge databases of knowledge and resources. 

Technologies pave the way for online learning or the e-learning environment. The forerunner on this front is the massive open online course (MOOC) concept, which is an unlimited online course and a model for delivering learning content online to any person who wants to take a course, with no limit on attendance, as described by EDUCASE. 

There are now many well-known learning platforms or tools that favourably support online education such as Udemy, Khan Academy, TED Ed, Edmodo, edX, Coursera, iTunesU and MIT OpenCourseWare, which provide academic resources from various institutions and educators. 

Those online platforms aim to unlock knowledge and empower the minds of all learners. 

As the open educational resources can provide learners with a huge pool of resources, knowledge can be accessed from everywhere. In other words, a “ubiquitous learning” platform can now materialise. Simply put, learners can learn anywhere, anytime. 

This courseware gives a free choice to students to learn based on their interests. Also, Big Data can persuade students to explore their curiosity and share their understandings via the Internet. 

Many schools and universities integrate online courses into their classroom. However, most of them still use IT with conventional teaching and learning. 

So, IT fails to deliver the innovations that it is capable of. State-of-the-art MOOCs and social software can, after all, now construct new space for learning and empower the mode of interaction.

The Internet platform provides the possibility of making project assignment easy by logging everything that is said and done in the electronic learning environment. 

The platform can also engage students in working or fixing something together, and then the students can share ideas and keep a record on what they do together. 

Computer-supported collaborative learning can support the discussion of ideas in both synchronous and asynchronous ways. At the end, they can present and express their collection of ideas that they kept posting on the learning platform. 

By analysing posting logs, teachers can see the development of students, evaluate their experience and observe changes over different periods of time. 

Similarly, a networked learning environment allows users to form a community of learners who share concerns or issues via online courses. This enables social support and augments face-to-face communication. 

The online platform may empower learners to learn interactively to develop their learning experiences through the reflection process. 

Teachers should unpack the learning theory and make clear the learning method that will be used for teaching and learning via online platforms such as a hybrid of the flipped classroom concept, research-based learning, work-based learning, “crystal-based” learning, action learning, project-based learning and problem-based learning. 

This is the essential stage to form the activities and instructional approach, when designing teaching and learning in schools. 

The technology-enriched learning environment provides a starting point for deeper reflection about learning. 

It is the power of technology in education that can connect learners and encourages interaction, discussion exploration and collaboration. This is a challenge strategy for online education. 

From my research, students get involved in a learning community informally. They engage in teaching and learning, student-student interactions via the use of various Internet technologies. 

When using digital tools and an electronic learning environment, teachers should observe and escort students along the learning process to foster interaction and boost the motivation to learn. 

On the other hand, students should keep posting their ideas and tracking the knowledge they gain in order to raise their learning awareness. 

The teacher or facilitator has the important role of keeping discussions alive and provoking students with various kinds of questions. I call it the process of “learning-making-taking-knowing-sharing” in the classroom. 

A basic understanding of education and of technology-supported learning is the key to design the technologies for education. 

To implement, teachers may engage students in concrete projects, create teams, design activities that foster collaboration, relay projects on collaborative technology and idea-sharing, motivate participants to interact regularly, promote students to learn the right information and promote students to get materials on priority. 

Another issue to consider is the dialogue in the classroom – the interaction between teacher-students and students-students. The process really empowers and supports online learning. This is not only about providing online resources and the opportunity to learn, but also about giving students greater control over their learning process. Then, online |learning can enhance the learning of more personal and more meaningful contexts. 

If a teacher encourages students to use an online platform regularly, the Internet can link students to other learning |networks and different powerful ideas. 

Teachers should not pay attention only to online |education technologies, but should also understand the |pedagogical process and education theory. 

When students interact with their preferred online |education platform, they can keep practising, improving themselves and finally becoming effective, life-long and proactive students. 

 

PRIYAKORN PUSAWIRO 

Learning scientist 

Computer Engineering Department 

King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thon Buri 

[email protected]