Technology Competency & 21st Century Learners

Aaaaaaah! I’ve just deleted the Recycle Bin from my Desktop!

My PC runs Vista. Unlike other versions of Windows, Vista has a pull-down list on the Recycle Bin with a Delete option as well as the Empty Recycle Bin option. If Delete is chosen, the Recycle Bin isn’t emptied – it is removed from the Desktop!


Fortunately, the Recycle Bin is not actually deleted, but the path to restoring it, although easy to follow, is not easy to find.

The first time I deleted it was traumatic but I found a tip on Google. There are millions on
the Vista Recycle Bin!


It was only when it happened again that I realised that I hadn’t followed the advice I give to my students and colleagues on learning and practice. So the second time I had to do the Google search I made a careful mental note of the steps needed, and also to come back and check I could still remember them before I logged off.

I was reminded of this helpful idea when I read Tracy Hamilton’s recent post, Laughing at my own memory lost - Use it or Lose it. I also recalled the related comment I left on Tony Karrer's Tool Set 2009.

See > Note > Act > Practice (SNAP)

Teachers today require a high level of ICT competency, in addition to their understanding of subject knowledge, pedagogy and teaching practice. But the 21st Century teacher doesn’t need much more in the way of basic ICT skills than a late 20th Century teacher did. Certainly keeping up with the latest ICT developments and updates is a part, but then, isn’t that always the case in ICT?

The need is for a clear pathway for the learner to apply the learning once delivered, by whatever means – conversation, professional development program, whether on-the-job or in a formal training class.

Cognitive apprenticeship

It is embraced in the so-called cognitive apprentice theory that experts in a skill often don’t consider hidden processes involved in carrying out complex skills when they are teaching/instructing newcomers.

Situated professional development programs can be used to make this happen, instead of defining a prescription for particular technology competencies that learners must have and be able to use.

Often, learners have difficulty learning raw content. They may not be able to see exactly how raw know-how can be applied as it may have no relevance to them at the time and so they don't learn and remember.

Situated learning that ground learning experiences in the learner’s own practice may well be more successful and a situated professional development technology program can serve the needs of the learners’ specific technology within their own learning environment.

But learners can do a lot of this for themselves.

Practice and metacognition

Whatever skill/knowledge/concept the learner has first learnt should be practiced soon as - the same day. This means that any training that is given should take into account the opportunity the learner may have to practice the same day and try out their newly acquired skill.

Mini projects that can be used by the learner after learning sessions always helps with this. This also applies to an on-the-job conversation where the learner picks up a tip or piece of advice that may well be useful to them in the future.

Learning to write little reminders when first shown something and then to practice it immediately afterwards is paramount to putting what's learnt into use and maintaining it. It is in the category of what’s called metacognition.

The mantra is learn and practice soon as.

As well, last thing on a Friday is a no-no for training/learning simply because of this whole principle of practice soon as. You can say ta-ta to what you're shown last thing on a Friday by the time Monday arrives. You rarely consolidate what you’ve learnt over the weekend!

When a helpful IT technician comes to show me how to do something on my PC on a Friday, I always say, “Can you show me on Monday? I’ll send you an email - I'll come round and you can show me then.”
Then I send the email AND cc it to myself.

I recall some years ago getting computer training on the last days of the year! Forget it! I may as well have!

Three tiers of technology competency

Acquiring technology competency has at least three components to it. They are to do with concept (c), training (t) and practice (p). Take knowing where to find the ‘attach and email’ function for instance.


The know-how to use the ‘attach and email’ function in Word 2007 comes with a bit of t & p and the end result is swifter and less cumbersome than other methods. But the ‘concept’ that a newly created Word document can be attached immediately to an email, and that the email application is invoked automatically while this process is being brought into effect is more than mere t & p.

The learner who has never met this idea is very unlikely to think of looking for the function on any new version of a computer application in order to use it. Thankfully in most instances the c comes with t & p but not always.

It’s not all just learning how to. My feeling is that there are at least 3 tiers of competency in any set of related skills:

1. concept - such as Send to Mail Recipient as Attachment (just get your head round the c idea)
   
   
2. knowledge that a function exists on the application/program used (t but also needs c),
   
   
3. knowing how to use it on a specific app/program (c and t & p).

You'll notice that practice always comes last but is no less important.

Remember the mantra?

Learn and practice soon as (SNAP!)

Working With Online Learning Communities

This article was first published on Futurelab in January 2008. I've reproduced the text of the article here. Some links to resources are now no longer current.

What is an online learning community?

Since the end of last century, government initiatives throughout the world have sponsored the development of online learning communities in schools and other learning institutions.

A community can be classified as a group of people, each with different expertise and with access to diverse resources, in which a sharing occurs so that individuals within the group can benefit from each other.

Wikipedia defines an online community as “a group of people that primarily interact via communication media such as letters, telephone, email or Usenet rather than face to face”[1].

An online learning community can be described as a common place online where its members can engage in community activities in areas of learning guided by a leader. It is widely accepted that such communities hold promise for the effective sharing of skills and knowledge. This review looks at a number of key factors important to growing successful online learning communities and provides some relevant strategies for this.

Non-participating members of an online group

One behaviour in online groups that has been extensively studied is that of the non-participating members, termed the ‘lurkers’. Etienne Wenger[2] calls them Legitimate Peripheral Participants.

Lurkers are widely known to be among the majority of defined members and they have been found to make up over 90% of most online groups. They are perhaps the most important members in view of their potential to contribute to online groups.

Blair Nonnecke and Jennifer Preece have studied the ‘silent participants’ of discussion forums and have extensively researched[3] many of the reasons why lurking occurs. Though these have implications for the expected success of collaborative learning, it would appear that lurkers are not necessarily non-learners.

Takahashi et al have found that intentional learning seems to occur with so-called active lurkers[4]. If lurkers can be identified, it is found that some of them can be enticed to become active participants. Non-active lurkers are apt to be members with online capability but who do not log on. Though proportions vary from group to group, non-active lurkers tend to make up the largest proportion of all members in an online group.

Perceptions of online student communities

In a series of in-depth studies with online student communities,
Caleb Clark examines and identifies key learning success factors[5] in working with those. He cites findings confirming that the technical infrastructure and user interface (the online environment) “must provide the means to communicate social cues and information”, and other studies by Kaplan[6] and by Schwier[7] reinforce these results. For instance, Clark asserts that “just because it's online, doesn't mean the effects of (page) design disappear.”

Clark’s work is well sourced, and within it he develops three guiding principles:

online learning communities are grown, not built

online learning communities need leaders

personal narrative is vital to online learning communities.

Clark identifies that “online learning communities grow best when there is value to being part of them”. He further elaborates that, “one of the hardest things to do in any online community is to get people to give information. One reason is that people just don't naturally think their way of doing things has value, when in fact it is the very heart of a community's value! This is especially true in online learning communities where the exchange of information is key to keeping students coming back.” He stresses the need for doing the groundwork that makes for successful student engagement in online collaboration, an opinion also shared by Mohr and Nault[8].

Clark contends that “leaders are needed to define the environment, keep it safe, give it purpose, identity and keep it growing”. He gives a set of mantras for teacher/leaders in any online community:

all you need is love

control the environment, not the group

lead by example

let lurkers lurk

short leading questions get conversations going

be personally congratulatory and inquisitive

route information in all directions

care about the people in the community; this cannot be faked

understand consensus and how to build it, and sense when it's been built and just not recognised, and when you have to make a decision despite all the talking.

He cites confirmation that “personal narrative is vital to online learning communities. Personal stories and experiences add closeness, and provide identity, thus strengthening online communities.”

William Klemm has a more pragmatic approach[9, 10] to student participation, one that tends to coerce the engagement of post-secondary students in online collaborative learning. A minimum level of online participation as well as a deliverable piece of work relevant to the community activity is a mandatory course requirement. Many universities adopt a similar approach in order to ensure minimum online engagement of each student in collaborative study.

Challenges to student learning in online communities

Marcy Bauman reports on the challenges[11] posed in working with online communities. She identifies that “many of the interaction strategies both [teachers] and students use face-to-face simply will not work online” and she gives reasons for these.

She identifies that “students often do not have the necessary skills to survive in an online class” and that persistence, application and other key skills that are required to learn from the online platform may not be there in every student. These are quite different from the assumed equivalent skills required of the student in a face-to-face environment.

Bauman recognises that “in face-to-face classes, it is rare for students to be put in the position of having to rely solely on the written word in order to perform the work of the course”. She further justifies this by outlining that “when all the information comes to students via texts, they need to become proficient in reading those texts for meaning, and in order to be able to use the information they read in another context”, a circumstance not unknown to distance educators. She asserts that “this kind of reading is demanding in a different way than the kinds of reading students usually do in their classes; it requires considerably more effort and commitment than students may be used to giving to their reading.”

Bauman elaborates on the difficulties faced by the teacher, highlighting the lack of verbal and visual clues from students leading to a lesser understanding of student “attitude” while there is a need to monitor this feature. She explains her guidelines for growing communities within a class of students:

communicate frequently with the class

make as much interaction public as possible

create a space for non-classroom-related interaction

understand the limitations and strengths of the technology you're using in terms of fostering interaction

ask questions often, and interact with students in the forum you have devised for class interaction.

E-learning manuals and e-books elucidating much of the common practice upheld by Clark and also by Bauman are becoming more numerous. Many of them are freely available online such as the eBooks from The eLearning Guild[12].

References (some links are no longer current)

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_community
2. http://www.ewenger.com/
3. http://www.cis.uoguelph.ca/~nonnecke/research/
4. http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=958160.958162
5. http://www.noendpress.com/caleb/olc/3Principles_Online_Comm.pdf
6. now not available - www.learningcircuits.org/2002/aug2002/kaplan.html
7. http://cde.athabascau.ca/ISEC2002/papers/schwier.pdf
8. http://www.astd.org/LC/2004/0504_mohr.htm
9. http://technologysource.org/article/creating_online_courses/
10. now not available - cid.byu.edu/tutorials/EightWays.pdf
11. now not available - kolea.kcc.hawaii.edu/tcc/tcc_conf97/pres/bauman.html
12. http://www.elearningguild.com/

related posts - >> ( 6 ) ( 5 ) ( 4 ) ( 3 ) ( 2 ) ( 1 )

What Is Learnt From Community?

North of Scotland, 25 miles south west of the Shetland Islands, lies Frjóey (Sheep Island - from the Norse) or Fair Isle. About 3 miles long and 1.5 miles wide, it is the most remote inhabited island in the United Kingdom. Despite its almost complete lack of raw materials, Fair Isle has been occupied since the Bronze Age.

The resourcefulness of the people of Fair Isle is extraordinary.
The principle occupation of the men is crofting. The people subsist almost entirely on their own fine produce of meat and vegetables.

The women foster an impressive cottage industry in woollen knitwear, from natural coloured home-spun wool.

Their intricate Fair Isle patterns are legendary and are favourites in fabric and textile industries, local and world-wide.

A wind-powered electricity supply seasonally provides between 50% and 85% of the island’s electricity needs. Fair Isle is a world leader in the use of renewable energy.

In 1900 there were 300 inhabitants. Less than 70 people live there today, ranging in age from 6 months to 96 years old. But what is truly remarkable is that the community has a lifestyle based almost entirely on mutual help and community effort. Disputes between individuals or between families on the island are virtually unknown; such is their dependency on, and commitment to cooperation and mutual support.

The commitment to cooperation and mutual support is self-sustaining.
It is what has permitted the people of Fair Isle to live as a community for thousands of years.

A lesson in community

There is much to be learnt from the people of Fair Isle. In recent years, people networks, groups and communities, and the relevance of their activity in present day education, have captured my attention.

A fascination for the behaviour of communities and a desire to learn how to encourage learners to participate within learning groups, motivated me to become a blogger in May last year.

Through my own practice and research, I’ve discovered that achieving a sustainable online learning community is very difficult. Over the years, and especially recently, I’ve been relieved though not satisfied to learn, from many different sources, that it’s not just me. Teacher/facilitator reports of the endeavour needed to engage online learners in community participation are to be found everywhere I look.

So-called learning communities are capricious in the way they perform. Growing an online learning community needs a specialist skill. It also takes a lot of time, effort and patience. Such undertakings do not always achieve the desired learning successes. In Clark Quinn's recent post Real Community, he questions if what we call online communities are really communities.

I continue to look, learn and try to understand how some communities function and survive.Taking a lesson from the people of Fair Isle, how can a sustained commitment to cooperation and mutual support be brought about in a group of online learners?

Video
courtesy Lise Sinclair

In Praise Of Paudit

Hannah praising Kashin - Auckland Zoo

Well done! Good thinking! Fantastic idea! Terrific score! Great result!

These are plaudits among many that are part of the vocabulary of the supportive parent or classroom teacher. They’re often used with the learner who is striving to achieve.

Clear-cut recognition of this quality praise works so successfully that many teachers use it even if the learner isn’t putting in much effort and is only making some show towards what might lead to possible achievement. So why give such encouragement to learners who aren’t really achieving?

Good teachers discover, perhaps through long experience, that support and encouragement given to a potential learner usually bring forth a good result. Even a reluctant learner can be encouraged to engage in learning when given praise of the right kind.

In a recent study, Izuma et al have gathered evidence that suggests the brain's reward system works just as well for praise as for money.

A privileged opportunity

In 1993 I was privileged to meet and listen to the experience and advice of Ormond Tait, former Principal of The Correspondence School, New Zealand (TCS), one of Australasia’s largest distance education centres. Tait’s expertise in working with distance learners is legendary.

He gave frequent seminars on distance learning to teachers at TCS, despite his busy timetable. Tait’s empathy for the distance learner was real and passionate. He held the opinion that distance learners are at a severe learning disadvantage nearly all the time, an impediment that sets them apart from most learners in the classroom.

One major difference that he often stressed involves teacher approbation. The learner in the classroom can receive encouragement in many ways. A smile, a nod showing that the learner is on the right track, a kind word of encouragement, a comment on a returned assignment, are all signs of approval that the classroom learner can receive, perhaps several times during a lesson. The distance learner may not have the benefit of any of these plaudits during a similar period of study.

Straight advice

Tait’s advice was implicit. Do not lay on praise with a trowel. That is just not enough. Praise in the distance learning environment has to be heaped on with a shovel. In this, most elearners have similar dispositions to the distance learner. For the most part, the distinction between these two sets of learners lies in how the learning resources are delivered and the nature of these.

Both categories of learners can experience the same feeling of isolation. In many ways Ormond Tait’s advice on encouragement applies as much to elearners as it does to distance learners.

The dangers of over-praise

Unexpected or spontaneous praise is a powerful motivating force for the learner. But it is widely accepted by classroom teachers that praising for achievements that come too easily, or for doing things that the learner may want to do anyway, can be ineffectual and even lead to problems with some learners.

While over-praise in the classroom may lead to feelings of unwanted smugness and self-satisfaction in the learner, such attitudes are rarely brought about through praise in distance learners.

Studies by Meyer (1992) indicated that, in a classroom environment, praise that comes automatically can quickly become ineffective. As young learners mature they become sophisticated in the way they interpret the social significance of praise. While these suggested guidelines could be expected to apply in some way to distance learners, the opportunities for their occurrence are less likely.

The danger of criticism

Tait’s contention always was that much more praise and encouragement, and certainly no criticism, was the balance most likely to achieve results with the isolated distance learner. Criticism is so demotivating that it should never be used in a distance learning environment. It is very likely the same applies directly to the elearning environment.

So where do the avenues for plaudit lie?

Clearly the elearner and the distance learner share some commonality in respect to praise deficit during periods of study. With elearners, however, the computer interface has the potential to afford some feedback that is not there for the distance learner. And while learners in a classroom environment will ask questions in an attempt to interpret teacher feedback and understand its context, this doesn’t happen when learners are working with computers.

Early studies by Meyer, Mittag, and Engler suggested that learners tend to accept feedback from the computer at face value, and that it can make a difference to their self-perception and motivation. This indication could be taken as good news for elearning, for it provides a valid avenue for encouraging the learner.

My own experience in working with elearners is that computer feedback can provide some measure of encouragement that fills the obvious gaps for the isolated distance learner. But there are other avenues for providing praise that can also provide effective learner support and foster engagement.

Telephone, mobile texting, email and standard letters have all been shown to provide useful results when feedback is positive. Direct chat through an LMS, the use of video conferencing or face to face contact using Skype with webcams provide suitable opportunity for learner-teacher contact to give appropriate learner support.

Tait’s rule about criticism applies equally to all of these. The maxim is keep it constructive and keep it positive at all times.

Reference: Meyer, W.U. (1992). Paradoxical effects of praise and criticism in perceived ability. In W. Strobe & M. Hewstone (Eds.), European review of social psychology (Vol. 3, pp. 259-283). Chichester, UK: Wiley.