Technology and Collaborative learning

As a teacher, do you like to promote collaborative or individual learning? In my opinion, I prefer the later to the former one. Collaborative learning is defined as two learners and above ‘working together toward a common goal’ (Dooly, 2008). Importantly, students are required to work and study for themselves and their partners as well to achieve the goal that they set before. According to Rahman, collaborative learning could facilitate education, encourage social relationship, create self-esteem, and foster critical thinking and group learning (Panitz, 1997, 1998, cited in Ralman, (2010)). Furthermore, it might promote leadership, communication, and interpersonal. Otherwise, technology is a good channel for collaborative learning. Buckley and William also supported this view, specifically webpage 2.0. They claimed that ‘By using Web 2.0 technologies, students are able to collaborate at distance, at a time that suits them.’ Additionally, they believed that technology, i.e. Web2.0, may promote communication among learners who are living far away each other, and help them participate in communicative tasks and collaborative activities productively.

As I know, nowadays there is a wide range of technologies for teachers to apply collaborative learning such as wiki (Buckley, William, 2010), Moodle, social network (Facebook, Wordpress, blogpot, and so on). These technologies not only facilitate students’ collaboration but also provide teacher a tool to observe the process. In my assignment about Material design, I also tried to promote collaborative learning for my students. I tried designing tasks that need real communication and get them to work together to complete a task (co-writing). I hope that freer-practicing task provides them opportunities to practice their and language and writing skills that they learnt in class.

How about you? Do you usually promote collaborative or individual activities in your class? Why? How can you use technology to make it? Please share with us!

References

1. Clive N. Buckley, Angela M. William. (2010). Web 2.0 Technology for Problem-Based and Collaborative Learning: A Case Study. In J. K. Terry T. Kidd, Adult Learning in the Digital Age: Perspectives on online technologies & Outcomes (pp. 118-124). New York: Hershey.

2. Dooly, M. (2008). Constructing Knowledge together. In M. Dooly, A guidebook to moderating intercultural collaboration online (pp. 21-45). Bern: Peter Lang.

3. Hakikur Ralman. (2010). Collaborative Learning: Knowledge beyond the peripheries. In J. K. Terry T. Kidd, Adult Learning in the Digital Age: Perpectives on online technologies & Outcomes (pp. 81-87). New York: Hershey.

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The role of emotion in e-learningby Hoang Kim Mai Khoi - Wednesday, 10 June 2015, 10:03 AM Dear sir and my friends,

Recently, we have discussed a lot about the benefits and drawbacks of computer-assisted courses in language teaching and learning. However, I wonder whether students emotionally participate in the online courses (via facebook, blogs or platforms).

In one research, Michalinos Zembylas et al. (2008) claimed that students experienced both positive and negative emotional while taking part in distance learning or e-learning courses. On one hand, they enjoyed the excitement for the flexibility of distance learning methodology, and felt satisfied for fulfilling the course requirements. On the other hand, they were anxious for the unknown methodology of distance learning and the demands of the programme, experienced a sense of isolation and loneliness and were under pressure for the inability to fulfill other obligations.

This article is of my particular interest, since it reflects my personal thinking when I took part in a Statistic course in Coursera. Although I enjoyed the flexible and engaging content of the course, it was hard to follow all the discussion in the course: I could not communicate with other participants in the course, and I was not familiar with the design of the course. 

How can I, as a distance learners, eliminate those negative emotions? And how can teachers help students to decrease these feelings?

 

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DOES TEXTSPEAK AFFECT STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILLS?by Nguyen Minh Giang - Sunday, 28 June 2015, 3:40 PM Communicating with other people by “typing” is more and more popular nowadays thanks to the growth of technology. We can chat with our friends via Facebook. We can chat via Skype. We can chat via Google Hangouts. Or, more simply, we text other people everyday. For a variety of reasons, we tend to type as quickly as we can, resulting in the fact that most of us use abbreviations when typing. Some of which are G9 (which stands for goodnight), c u l8r (which stands for see you later). And that

kind of language is called Textspeak. Undoubtedly, textspeak is convenient and interesting in informal style of communication. However, once language students use it in some formal writing types such as writing tests, or essays, then it is just problematic. There are a lot of arguments about this issue. Some experts believe that textspeak affects the standard of language while some others do not. In the former case, Yousaf (2013), in her research, found that that “two-third majority of students feel difficulty in writing English and they often make spelling mistakes due to the SMS using habit”. In the latter case, on the other hand, According to Baron (2008, cited in Aziz, 2013), “as soon as children can distinguish between formal and informal language, SMS language does not affect their literacy”. For what has happened in my classes so far, I quite agree with those experts in the latter case because when I chat with my students via facebook, they use textspeak such as “g9”, “c u”, “asap”, but they never use such abbreviations when they write their assignments. I also believe that although they use textspeak when texting their friends, the teacher’s writing instruction still helps them distinguish the two types and choose the appropriate, not the inappropriate, writing style in class.

How about you, my dear friends? Do you seem to see eye to eye with experts in the former case or those in the latter case?

References

 Aziz, S et al (2013). The Impact of Texting/SMS Language on Academic Writing of Students- What do we need to panic about? Elixir Ling. & Trans. 55 (2013) 12884-12890.

 Yousaf, Z(2013). Effects of Sms on Writing Skills of the University Students in Pakistan (a Case Study of University of Gujrat). Asian Economic and Financial Review, 2013, 3(3):389-397. 

Online courses and students' isolationby Mai Thi Hong Dung - Tuesday, 23 June 2015, 11:41 AM

 E -learning has been increasingly popular nowadays and more and more students students have been interested in online courses to gain more knowledge in the simplest form or get BA degree at a higher level. The benefits of these programs are flexible time, active learning anywhere at anytime just with a computer, an Iphone, or an Ipad. It's notable that e - learning can help busy students save time because they don't have to take time to sit in long and sometimes boring classes. Instead, they can choose to meet their instructor synchronously or asynchronously. However, because of the limited opportunities for face to face interaction, distance education or e- learning encounters

some challenges. For example, Wang and Newlin (2000) stated that teachers are unable to know characteristics of students in e- learning courses, but what I really concern about is students' isolation. Some studies have shown the sense of isolation and low-motivation among distance education students (Boulos, Taylor, & Breton, 2005). In contrast, it is also believed that studying online doesn't have to mean being isolated behind a computer screen, but there are numerous ways to connect with coursemates and tutors such as email exchanges, Skype, online forum, Facebook... From my point of view, being socially isolated or socially connected depends on the extent of the learners' autonomy. If they just sit behind the computer screen and listen to their tutor's lectures with little interaction with their mates or instructors, it may cause isolation. 

I used to join an online course on Moon.vn to prepare myself for the Universtity Entrance Exam. Although the tuition was not much, and flexible time brought me more chances to do other things, I myself felt isolated because my questions were delayed and as a result, sometimes I lost my motivation.

What about you? Have you ever learnt online? Please share your opinions and experience.

Thanks for reading.

Hong Dung.

 

References:

Boulos, M., Taylor, A., & Breton, A. (2005). A synchronous communication experiment within an online distance learning program: A case study. Telemedicine Journal and E-health, 11(5), 583-593.

Wang,A. Y.,& Newlin,M. H. (2000). Characteristics of students who enroll and succeed in psychology web-based courses.Journal of Educational Psychology, 92,137–143.