On distant poles or mixed? Development of teaching methods

and techno-solutions in DE(Looking into the past/present & future)

Translation of a keynote presentation (with minor changes additions)October 14 th 2005 on a conference on

distance education, Keflavik, Iceland (http://www.fjarnams.vefurinn.net/)

Sólveig Jakobsdóttir, soljak@khi.is Associate Professor Distance Education

Iceland University of Education

The Celtic cross?

Foundation?

Rests upon?Recent Past?

Hope/worry?

Answer?

What/who helps?

The relevantperson/party in the case ?

Conclusion?

Near future?

Rests upon?

Foundation?

Recent Past?

Hope/worry?

Answer?

What/who helps?

The relevantperson/party in the case ?

Conclusion?

Near future?

Rests upon?

Foundation, root?

Foundation?

Recent Past?

Hope/worry?

Answer?

What/who helps?

The relevantperson/party in the case ?

Conclusion?

Near future?

Foundation?

Foundation?

Recent Past?

Recent past?Hope/worry?

Answer?

What/who helps?

The relevantperson/party in the case ?

Conclusion?

Near future?

Recent past?

Taking the pulse?

• Made telephone interviews with representatives* of all 29 high schools/junior colleges** in Icelance – got answers in time from 28 (97%); 14:14 (capital area.:countryside)

• Viewed all school webs • Was received very well everywhere!

*usually principals, but sometimes key people linked to distance or distributed learning in the school

**Upper secondary level to college level; grades 11-14; age of “regular student”/”day school” 16-20 (+/- 1); in some schools various other programs available more used by adult learners.

The schools – age+type

• Age: Young, only 6 schools established before 1960 (21%); 22 established after 1960 (79%, thereof 20 schools from 1970 or later).

• Type: Course-based system, with a core curriculum and electives (21, 75%) vs. Grade system, with fairly set curriculum (classes, “grammar school”/gymnasium) (7, 25%).

• Age x type: Older schools are rather grade based (67%) than the younger (14%)

• Location: Half in the Reykjavík (capital) area and half outside in the countryside.

The schools: agextype

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Older schools >1960 Younger schools<1960

Course-based

Grade-based

The schools: time of establishment

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<1900

00-59

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90-992000+

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Countrys.

Situation: distance, distributed, blended...?

Status: DE/distr./blend?

• No school with DE (distance education)* only (and no regular program).

• Of the 29 schools, 8-9 have webs or links to web pages labelled with distance (learning/teaching) and 2 additional school such sites with a label of distributed learning, i.e. a total of 38% of high schools/junior colleges. 7 schools (20-25%) name a special person in charge of such learning/education.

* Simonsen et al. (2003) DE: – institution-based; – teacher(s) and student(s) separated; – interactivity, some form of telecommunication;– joint pool of materials, information, experience

Names of positions

• DL manager (2 schools)

• Supervisor of DL

• Project manager of DL

• Teaching supervisor of DT

• DT manager

• Project manager of distributed ed.

DL= distance learning; DT= distance teaching

Status: DE/distr./blend?

• Two main situations in 28 schools (plus a middle group)

• 43% have a large or considerable DE or distributed ed. program or number of students who take such classes. (Group 1a and b)

• 14% are in the middle (Group 1-2)• 43% are more traditional, DE or distr. ed.

minimal (Group 2a and b)• A lot of variation within each situation

Status: DE/distr./blend?

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Group 1a Group 1b Group 1-2 Group 2a Group 2b

Skólar

Nu

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er Countryside

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Group 1a (14%)?

• Reg.+DE: 4/28 (14%). Strong DE “stems” (about equal to reg.); large % of students involved in DE. Varies how much DE+Reg. is blended or separated.

• RC1 & CC1 (Net-based)• CC2 & CC3 (video conferences+net-based)

• Capital area: countryside: 1:3

Groups 1b (29%)?

• Reg.+DE: 2/28. Smaller programs/lower % of students that in group 1 but DE growing fast.– RG1– RC2

• Reg.+DE: 6/28 Distributed ed./DE program considerable in size but maybe more separated from the reg. program; not growing as fast?– RC3., RC4, RC5– CC4, CC5, CC6

Capital area.:countryside: 5:3

Group 1-2 (14%)?

• Regular but DE starting in some ways– For groups/courses

• CC7, RC6 (shorter school day)

• Distr. ed. started to characterize regular program (fewer reg. classes; more project-based; learning management systems.); – CC8 (students in 1 place; guest teacher); RG2

• Capital area: countryside: 2:2

Group 2a (14%)?

• Use of learning man. systems or intranet in high use by most teachers/student but attendance, length of school day,schedule unchanged.– 4 schools (RC8, RG3, RC7, RG4)– DE, e.g. via e-mail for individuals (out-of-school for

1+semester(s)• RG4, (also in CG!, CC9 counted in 2b; and 3 countryside

schools already counted in group 1)

Capital area.-countryside: 4:0

Group 2b (29%)?

• Learning management sy. or intranet in use in all but one; use general and increasing but slower than in group 4; in some cases many things going on, planning, courses for teachers (e.g. MA, Flaug), sometimes more the grassroot-based development.

• RG1, CC11, RC9, CC2, RG5, CC10, CC9, CC12 (+this is true for CC5, CC6, already counted)

• Capital area: countryside – 3:5

DE and type

• If one looks at the previous classification of the extent of DE or distributed learning in the school and the type of school (course vs. grade base) there is a significant difference (chi-square)

• Of 14 schools more DE/distr.ed. 93% were course-based vs. 57% of the other 14 schools with less DE/distr.

Technical solutions?

Technical solutions - LMSWebCT Angel TLM MySchool Moodle

7-8 schools(1 considering going to Moodle)

4 (2) 5 3-4 (1 maybe going from WebCT

21 of 28 or 75% of the schools have LMS: 4 schoolsin a selection process. Four systems most popular

Technical solutions – Intranet,..

Homemade

Share-point

Notnamed

Webs Blog E-mail

2 2 5 1 2 5

Technical solutions – other

Video confer-encing

Studiofor recording

Specializedsoftware/equipment

6(all from countryside)

1 3(art, technical)

Groups of learners

How is it going?

How is it going?

• Which groups are doing well (low drop-out),e.g..?– Students from middle schools (lower secondary

level) who have completed curriculum in certain areas and take 1 or more courses via distance (e.g. in English, math...)

– Adult learners who are completing their high school education or adding to their knowledge/skills in their interest areas.

– Where there is a good group spirit• Usually people seem happy with the

experience of using LMS

Problems -solutions?

Problems -solutions?

• Younger people may be lacking in self- discipline and responsibility – too many temptations for entertainment and fun/games; difficult to keep working/studying. Solutions: requirement to be in school, added support.

• Digital divide – older, often women?- - Solutions: e.g. more video conferencing that use of Internet in one of the east coast schools.

Skills in ICT grades 7-10?

SkillsSkillsICTICT= 0,5*Y= 0,5*Y

ICT= Information and communcations technologySkills ICT= Mean no. of skills in ICTY= Year calculated from 1983; 1984=1 etc.

ICT skills Grades 7 -10, 1998, 2002, 2004

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ICT skills Grades 7 -10, 1998, 2002, 2004 by year, age

Problems (2004)

*“Internet addiction”? - Spend far too much time on the Net, affects in a negative way learning, communic. with friends/family **“game addiction”? Spend far too much time on games on the computer/the Net, difficult to stop even if I want to

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Teaching methods

Teaching methods

• E-transmission of materials from teachers to students very common: course plans – organization, information about assignments and projects.

• Often students turn in assignments on the Net – usually directly to the teacher (other students do not have access).

• Some mention use of exams in the LMS.• Use of web-based asynchronous discussion and online

chat is used much less (of course in many places there are a lot of regular classes/meetings with students). Exception are to that e.g. in one school (media and arts) and there is marked interest in other schools for the development of online teaching methods.

Benefits mentioned

• Groups and individuals that could otherwise not study can

• Easier to run courses with few students

• Use of LMS: Very convenient for students and teachers to keep all materials in one location. Much more efficient.

Drawbacks

• Technical problems e.g. having diffrerent systems communicate (intranet vs. new learning management systems) (however, problems with videoconfencing reduced a lot)

• Some teachers take long to adapt (according to leading-principals)

• There is a lot of work involved for teachers, especially in the beginning and/or when new systems are taken into use.

• Sometimes there is lack of of leadership, policy, actions from principals/adiminstrations (according to pioneering teachers).

Hope/worry?

Hope, worry?

Foundation?

Recent Past?

Answer?

What/who helps?

The relevantperson/party in the case ?

Conclusion?

Near future?

Hope, worry?

Near future?

Near future?

Foundation?

Recent Past?

Hope/worry?

Answer?

What/who helps?

The relevantperson/party in the case ?

Conclusion?

Near future?

Formal gathering collaboration - Our conference ?(http://www.fjarnams.vefurinn.net/)?

Answer?

Near future?

Foundation?

Recent Past?

Hope/worry?

What/who helps?

The relevantperson/party in the case ?

Conclusion?

Answer?

Answer?

Who/what helps?

Near future?

Foundation?

Recent Past?

Hope/worry?

What/who helps?

The relevantperson/party in the case ?

Conclusion?

Answer?

Who/what helps?

The one involved?

Near future?

Foundation?

Recent Past?

Hope/worry?

What/who helps?

The relevantperson/party in the case ?

Conclusion?

Answer?

The one involved?

Confused,restricted, powerless?

Conclusion?

Near future?

Foundation?

Recent Past?

Hope/worry?

What/who helps?

The relevantperson/party in the case ?

Conclusion?

Answer?

Conclusion?

Trends?

Trends?

• Socio-cultural theories of learning, social constructivism, theories about distributed cognition

• How do we as teachers help build communities of learners, professionals and channel the energy from learning groups for the good of the individuals inside and outside the group? We have increasing possibilities for different kinds of communication on the net to do this in various ways.

• Development of open source software is an example of such energy/power.

• Difference between wholistic education and just-in-time learning (narrow focus)

Trends?

• Social constructivism, ... Teaching model in online teaching/distance t./blended learning see e.g.

• Jakobsdóttir, Sólveig. (2001). Uppbygging námsbrautar og þróun námsamfélags á Neti. Erindi var flutt 2.11.2001 á málþingi um fjarkennslu á háskólastigi á vegum rekstrardeildar og kennslusvið HA, Akureyri.  http://soljak.khi.is/erindi/uppbyggingnetnams.ppt

• Jakobsdóttir, Sólveig. 2002 . United we stand - divided we fall! Development of a learning community of teachers on the Net . Designing instruction for technology-enhanced learning (Ed. Patricia L. Rogers ), pp. 228-247 . Hershey, PA , Idea Group Publishing.

• Course web http://tolvupp.khi.is/disted

Trends?

Trends?

• More interest than before in synchronous communications rather than just asynchronous and various levels of blends, not just campus-based/regular vs. distance (i.e. blended learning)

Trends?

• How do we use possibilities to help students acquire particular skills or insights into how things function, e.g. by modelling them with animations, video, learning objects or by using other types of digital resources.

Trends?

• How does the government/agencies react to and/or help facilitate distance education and teaching?

Final words?