Community of Inquiry

How technology tools can be used in blended courses

According to Anderson (2007) quotes Siemens (2005) the founder of connectivism about the old learning theories that “these theories were developed in a time when learning was not impacted through technology. Over the last twenty years, technology has reorganized how we live, how we communicate, and how we learn. Learning needs and theories that describe learning principles and processes should be reflective of underlying social environments.”

Grosseck  (2009), quoted Lance Dublin, a researcher of blended learning, “our generation is “experiencing a kind of renaissance, with new technology prompting new thinking about how to enhance, extend, and enable learning” and that technology and media are important for a student’s quality education, stating, “new tools and technologies are opening up exciting new possibilities”. Many education facilities and programs have embraced the technological innovation of education that enhances blended courses.

Internet/web technology has a great influence on our education and training environment, as well as our social life and work activities (Clark &Mayer, 2013).  Interactive learning using social media allows effective training for professionals by providing the opportunity for interaction in any work environment.

Using technology in blended courses such as web, internet, and mobile technologies allow student and teachers to generate and share content/information (Garrison and Kanuka, 2004). This collaborative effort is a new way to overcome the limitations of the traditional face-to-face teaching and learning approaches (Grooseck, 2009). All helpful tools such as , social networking sites, pro-casts, wikis, blogs, e-profiles, e-portfolios, and the integration of a range of mobile technologies and applications expand the classroom to the virtual world and allow everyone to participate in a true virtual classroom (Kietzmann et al., 2011).

Using social media tools such as Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, and other collaborative interactive tools allows for knowledge sharing. Learners are also able to construct new knowledge through interactive communication and timed information sharing.

Social media tools allow for the propagation of knowledge sharing activities. This is particularly useful for collaborative environments. Previous research has suggested that professional workers tend to share knowledge with their colleagues via Facebook, Instagram and blogs, which provides positive effects on organizational culture. Social media tools provide positive group discussions and collaboration.

Technology such as Facebook, YouTube, and blogs in a blended course can allow the learners and teachers to coordinate effectively their activities; the level of participation can range from trivial and anonymous to in-depth and interpersonal. The idea is that web can offer learners and educators a strong set of tools to support classroom, communities where learning has been shown to effectively take place (Franklin, 2008).

Moreover, the expectation in the classroom is that the work the learners create will be on display. Blogs can allow for the publication of that work to be open to the world to allow for discussion by the students at any time during the learning process. (Franklin, 2008).As we are doing with our blog pages for NURS 6005. 

This is an example of using blogs where medical information is shared which it can be used in research to enhance the lives of the people in the society/community.

Further these forms of tools allows for new forms of research to take place, it allows for the learner to construct new ways to organize their research data, allows for different forms as sources to refer to, and gives both the learner and educator a rich space to allow for interrogation of the information that have researched. This allows for the leaner to gain the feeling of empowerment and thus move towards become a truly independent leaner in the community (Rosenberg, M.J. (2001).

Example of teacher and cognitive presence using technology to enhance learning in blended course.

  

References

Anderson, P. (2007) What is Web 2.0? Ideas, technologies and implications for education. JISC Technology and Standards Watch.

Barbera E., Gros B., and Kirschner P. (2012) Temporal issues in e-learning research: A literature review, British Journal of Educational Technology, 43 (2)

Clark, R.. and Mayer R.. (2011) E-learning and the Science of Instruction: Proven Guidelines for Consumers and Designers of Multimedia Learning, 3rd Edition, Wiley

Driscoll M (2002) Web-based training: Creating e-learning experiences, 2nd, Pfeiffer.

Garrison, D.R. and Kanuka H. (2004) Blended learning: Uncovering its transformative potential in higher education, The Internet and Higher Education, 7, 95-105

Grosseck G (2009), To use or not to use web 2.0 in higher education, World Conference on Educational Science, 478-482

Kietzmann, J. H.; Hermkens K., McCarthy I.P., and Silvestre B.S. (2011). Social media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media. Business Horizons 54 (3): 241–251.

Krause, K. and Coates H. (2008) Students’ engagement in first‐year university, Journal of Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 33(5), 493-505

Moore M.G. (2014) Editorial, Journal American Journal of Distance Education, 28(4)

Rosenberg, M.J. (2001) E-learning: Strategies for delivering knowledge in the digital age, McGraw Hill, OH, Columbus