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Using a discourse analytic qualitative approach, we investigated the naturally-occurring discourse that arose as part of two kinds of regular course activities, synchronous and asynchronous computer-mediated discussions. The messages contributed by members of a graduate course were analyzed for the kind of discourse functions and the kind of politeness strategies they displayed. Results indicated that synchronous CMD afforded more information seeking, information providing, and social comments than asynchronous CMD. Asynchronous discussions were slightly more likely to allow for such functions as discussion generating, experience sharing, idea explanation, and self-evaluation functions than synchronous discussions. Proportionately the two modes were similar in how politeness was expressed. Finally, in relating politeness and function, we found more politeness indicators when students were posting messages with such functions as positive evaluation and group conversation management, functions that carried the potential for face threat, and the least politeness associated with messages serving the function of experience sharing.
Students learn more effectively with personally meaningful tasks. Thus, students learn more if they have a say in deciding what specific topics and examples are being discussed in class. Naturally, the instructor knows what topics are important to cover in a course and which ones might be optional. Finding the right balance between students’ preferences and the instructor’s requirements is not so easy and thus may prevent this kind of shared control of the classroom from being realized. This article describes how the instructor’s and students’ interests can be used to generate a list of course topics that satisfies both parties. However, instead of adding technology to the classroom, technology is used to improve the classroom experiences. Specifically, it is shown how course topics can be assigned to specific students maximizing what is meaningful to the students and satisfies the course parameters as defined by the instructor. This problem can be formulated as a variation of the linear assignment problem and solved with a binary linear program. Results from actual and simulated courses are discussed and generalizations of the topic assignment problem presented.
The implementation of new technology is becoming more important to schools and the success of such implementations is often due to the presence of ICT champions. This article examines ICT champions to determine whether the intention to champion ICT is determined by the ICT competence of school leaders. This article, based on responses from 64 school leaders in New Zealand, reports that professional development and ICT usage are antecedents of ICT competency and that school leaders are ICT competent and willing ICT champions. These findings are contrary to existing research which has found that school leaders have poor ICT competency.
The Finnish high school system in rural areas is facing challenges because of a decreasing number of the students. This situation places new emphasis on online learning. Online learning offers new possibilities for high schools to provide equal learning opportunities for their students. This paper explores students’ readiness to adapt their studying habits in the networked high schools by outlining their beliefs about online learning. Beliefs are assumed to direct people’s actions, in this case activities concerning studying online. Three hundred second year high school students from Eastern Finland who had not had the experiences of learning online were studied. The findings suggest that students polarize into negative, neutral and positive groups based on their beliefs concerning online learning. Results also indicate that students’ knowledge about the possibilities of online learning is quite superficial. In contrast to theories about collaborative learning practices, students see online learning rather differently. Students with negative and neutral beliefs especially see online learning merely as a static “warehouse” of materials and study-alone learning tasks instead of offering possibilities for collaborative knowledge building.
Abstract This study compared the impact of three different facilitation approaches on elementary teacher candidates’ interactions in an asynchronous discussion board as well as their satisfaction with an online educational technology course. These participants were enrolled in three different sections of the same online course. In the first section (Group 1), the instructor responded to each student’s initial message regarding the discussion question and then required students to respond to at least two of their classmates’ postings. In the second section (Group 2), the instructor responded to each student’s initial message to the discussion question, but did not require students to respond to other classmates’ postings. Instead, it was the student’s voluntary choice. In the third group (Group 3), the instructor did not respond to each student’s initial message on the discussion question, but required students to respond to at least two classmates’ postings. Data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively, by using ANOVA, social networking analysis (SNA) and content analysis. The results indicated that in Group 2, voluntary interactions among students rarely occurred, resulting in the instructor primarily providing feedback to the students, with a low number of cues for social presence. In comparing Groups 1 and 3, when students were required to respond to one another, too much instructor intervention did not lead to more interactions among the students. Rather, when the instructor’s intervention was minimal, students tended to more freely express their thoughts and opinions, with a large number of cues for social presence. However, more interactions among students, occurring in a required setting, may not have correlated with student satisfaction with the online course ratings and the instructors’ ratings. Article Outline 1. Introduction 2. Conceptual framework 2.1. Interactions in asynchronous online discussion boards 2.2. Communities and social presence in an online learning environment 2.3. Students satisfaction in an online learning environment 3. Research questions 4. Methods 4.1. Context and participants 4.2. Data collection and analysis 5. Results 5.1. Quantitative results 5.2. SNA 5.2.1. Density 5.2.2. Centrality 5.2.3. Share 5.2.4. Reciprocity 5.3. Content analysis results 5.4. Student satisfaction 6. Conclusion and implications 7. Limitations of the study and future research directions Appendix A. Discussion questions for all of the eight sessions References
For years, web-based learning systems have been widely employed in both educational and non-educational institutions. Although web-based learning systems are emerging as a useful tool for facilitating teaching and learning activities, the number of users is not increasing as fast as expected. This study develops an integrated model of instructor adoption of web-based learning systems by incorporating existing literature and multiple empirically verified theories, including the technology acceptance model and DeLone and McLean’s information system success model. Survey data collected from 268 university instructors were examined using structural equation modeling to verify the proposed theoretical model. The research results further illuminate the factors that explain and predict the instructor adoption of web-based learning systems. Implications of this study are also discussed.
This study explores how pre-service student teachers acquired knowledge of good teaching practices through the interactive use of a video database and an online discussion forum, where the student teachers shared their teaching videos and received comments or suggestions from members of a learning community. A small group of student teachers was involved in this collaborative learning community during their teaching practicum in their third and fourth years of study. Content analysis of the sharing in the discussion forum and individual student teacher reflections provides insight into the use of a collaborative learning community to create a knowledge base for teaching. Suggestions regarding how this new technology can support teacher education are discussed.
This article presents a critical comparison of the usefulness and practicality of six CMC video chat tools (CUworld, ICQ, MSN Messenger, Paltalk, Skype, and Yahoo Messenger) from the perspective of language teaching professionals. This comparison is based on the results of a semester-long project between graduate students at an American university and their counterparts at a university in Turkey. The language teachers were asked to pair up with a partner in the collaborating university to test and then evaluate each of these tools via video chat tool evaluation sheets. They also completed an overall evaluation sheet commenting on CMC tools in general and ranking the video chat tools in terms of their potential as language teaching tools and their usability for personal communication purposes. The qualitative and quantitative analyses of the evaluation sheets indicate a clear preference for MSN Messenger and Skype while placing CUworld and Paltalk at the bottom of the list. The article also provides pedagogical implications and applications for using tools for language teaching purposes.
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