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Pedagogical theories and the applications of information technology for language learning have been widely researched in various dimensions. However, ethical issues, such as online privacy and security, and learners’ personal data disclosure, are not receiving enough research attention. The perceptions and attitudes from thosewho participate in Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL)—instructors and learners—towards these issues have been particularly neglected. This research investigated the following issues: privacy protection and learners’ personal data disclosure, along with teachers’ and students’ ethics self-assessments, and their perceptions and ideals of ethical issues in technology-assisted language learning. The results of two surveys of teacher and learner perspectives on these issues are outlined, along with some possible solutions to these ethical problems for teachers who are teaching languages through CALL.
This study determineswhether an activity system provides a systematic framework to analyse collaborative group work. Using an activity system as a unit of analysis, the research examined learner behaviours, conflicting factors and facilitating factors while students engaged in collaborative work via asynchronous computer-mediated communication. The online postings from the two highest and lowest performing groups of students during one semester were analysed, coded and reorganised. The coded postings of these four groupswere then compared using an activity system to identify the difference in patterns of learner behaviours. The conflicting and facilitating factors that students encountered were identified as well. The findings provide implications for online collaborative learning environment design and mediating strategies. The study also addresses some of the challenges in using an activity system to analyse collaborative learning activities and provides suggestions for future research.
The rapid development of computer-supported collaborative environments has highlighted the need for collaborative knowledge construction devices. Because most available mindtools do not promote collaboration, there is a need for social mindtools that can be used in collaborative learning situations. We have used activity theory as a conceptual framework to define the requirements of social mindtools as awareness of other participants, communication and the ability to edit common objects together. We present the concept of Woven Stories and use it as an example of an effective social mindtool.We also describe a case study in which Woven Stories software was used as an online debating forum. This case study reveals the potential inherent in the concept, compared with other text-oriented Web 2.0 tools, such as wikis.
The trend to adopt more online technologies continues unabated in the higher education sector. This paper elaborates the means by which such technologies can be employed for pedagogical purposes beyond simply providing virtual spaces for bringing learners together. It shows how data about student ‘movement’ within and across a learning community can be captured and analysed for the purposes of making strategic interventions in the learning of ‘at risk’ students in particular, through the application of social network analysis to the engagement data. The study that is set out in the paper indicates that online technologies bring with them an unprecedented opportunity for educators to visualise changes in student behaviour and their learning network composition, including the interventions teachers make in those networks over time. To date, these evaluative opportunities have been beyond the reach of the everyday practitioner—they can now be integrated into every teaching and learning plan.
This study focuses on a project, EMPATHY Net-Works, which developed a learning community as a means of encouraging women to progress into employment and management positions in the logistics and supply chain industries (LaSCI). Learning activities were organised in the form of a taught module containing face-to-face and online elements and e-mentoring with successful professional women in the LaSCI. In this particular research, we have used structuration theory, a social theory that concentrates on the relationships between human agency (micro-level) and social structures (macrolevel). We used structuration as an analytical tool to help us understand what happened within the project e-learning and e-mentoring processes. Our analysis suggests that there were two factors that influenced the way project participants carried out their learning activities: the first one being the issue of absence and presence in online environments, and the second one the issue of time frame changes for online users.
This case study explores how a constructivist-based instructional design helped adult learners learn in an online learning environment. Two classes of adult learners pursuing professional development and registered in a webbased course were studied. The data consisted of course documents, submitted artefacts, surveys, interviews, in-class observations, and online observations. The study found that the majority of the learnerswere engaged in two facets of learning. On the one hand, the instructional activities requiring collaboration and interaction helped the learners support one another’s learning, from which most claimed to have benefited. On the other hand, the constructivistbased course assisted many learners to develop a sense of becoming more responsible, self-directed learners. Overall, the social constructivist style of instructional strategy seems promising to facilitate adult learning, which not only helps change learners’ perceptions of the online learning, but also assists them to learn in a more collaborative, authentic and responsible way. The study, however, also disclosed that in order to maintain high-quality learning, appropriate assessment plans and adequate facilitation must be particularly reinforced. A facilitation model is thus suggested.
As Dr Arora observes, the Hole-in-the-Wall approach has shown that the absence of a teacher can sometimes encourage children to explore more‘bravely’ than they would in their presence. In our trials we have been exploring the limits of self-motivated and self-managed learning by the children. So yes, if we had involved teachers in the usage of these kiosks, they would have dictated the nature and pace of the learning, defeating the whole purpose of the project. However, as she again observes, institutional indifference may result in abdication of responsibility and lack of sustainability. We need a solution to this.
Hole-in-the-Wall as a concept has attracted worldwide attention. It involves providing unconditional access to computer-equipped kiosks in playgrounds and out-of-school settings, children taking ownership of their learning and learning driven by the children’s natural curiosity. It is posited that this approach, which is being used in India, Cambodia and several countries in Africa, can pave the way for a new education paradigm and be the key to providing literacy and basic education and bridging the digital divide in remote and disadvantaged regions. This paper seeks to establish why two such open access, self-directed and collaborative learning systems failed to take root in the Central Himalaya communities of Almora and Hawalbagh.The purpose of this study is not to deny the achievements and potential of such an approach in other settings, but to examine the tenets and sustainability of such initiatives. It is argued that there is a need to distinguish between Hole-in-the-Wall as an idea and as an institution and to reflect on the key suppositions on how unsupervised access, informal, public, self-guided and collaborative work can help in children’s learning.
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