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OMDE 610 Reflective Journal
Week Three - September 25th - Oct. 1st.
Facilitated Instruction and the Effective use of Technologies
Week three discussed the change in the role of the instructor in the online learning environment. Instructors in the online classroom simply guide the students through their learning. The students learn by interacting with one another, and sharing their perspectives on the content that the instructors present to them. The instructors present the content, as well as invite the students to share any information that they may find on the topic of discussion. In facilitated instruction, not only do the students walk away from the course with new knowledge, skills, and fresh perspectives, but so do the instructors.
The primary role of instructors in the online classroom is to guide the students in their discussions, and respond as needed to ensure that the students are gaining a clear understanding of how to apply their skills to the real-world. As an instructor, I believe that I should also encourage the students to participate in the discussions, as well as ask them to elaborate on certain points that may be addressed regarding the topic of discussion. It is important that I make sure that all students are making connections that will allow them to effectively apply their knowledge to real-world applications.
When I was an instructor in a Business/Technology course, I often reminded my students that we were learning together. I explained to them that while I have a great deal of knowledge on what is presented to them in the course, I do not know everything because technology is ever-changing, and new developments can emerge overnight, and because of that fact, they could teach me something just as I could teach them something. I believe that facilitated instruction improves the instructional environment because it eliminates the feeling of authority and superiority in the classroom.
Students and instructors can easily view themselves as equals as they both are looking forward to walking away from the course with new knowledge that can be applied to future courses, as well as other real-world situations.
Reference:
Collins and Berge. (1996). Facilitating interaction in computer mediated online courses. Retrieved from http://repository.maestro.net/valutazione/MaterialeSarti/articoli/Facilitating%20Interaction.htm.
Two areas that I found to be interesting in the week three discussions are scaffolding and feedback. My understanding of Mayes’ view of the relationship between feedback and scaffolding is that feedback occurs among the instructors and the students; whether it is instructor-to-student or student-to-student. Providing and receiving feedback is a part of the learning process. Scaffolding is the support that is given during the learning process. With that, I see scaffolding as the involvement of the technologies that are used in the online environment that makes our ability to give and receive feedback possible. Additionally, the community that is formed among the instructors and the students as they share experiences, and build knowledge from the sharing of one another's knowledge and experience contributes to the relationship that is formed among feedback and scaffolding. Scaffolding also relates to the asynchronous and synchronous technology tools that are made available to the students in the online environment, as well as the computer, the internet, etc. As read in a previous article, the technology alone, does not necessarily enhance student learning, it is how the technologies are used which contributes to the enhancement of student learning in the online environment. The relationships are formed through the integration of feedback and scaffolding. The technology tools make it possible for the communication to take place anywhere and at anytime.
However, I believe that people make technology usable and effective. For instance, when we are experiencing issues when using our technology, we often contact a person to help us with our issue. An example of that is Errol sharing that when he needed help resetting his password so that he could access a document that was needed to complete research for a class by Sunday, and he called in to see if he could receive the assistance to only be informed by a recording that he was calling outside of office hours, he experienced first-hand that the availability of the technology was not effective standing alone, but was only effective and usable through the assistance of a person. The effective use of technology by people is what makes technology so powerful.
Reference:
Mayes, T. (2006). Theoretical perspectives on interactivity in e-learning. In C. Juwah (Ed.), Interactions in online education (pp.9-26). London/NewYork: Routledge.
