I have just finished writing the conclusion to the book I edited that is to be published by Athabasca University Press (under an Open Access license) for Terry Anderson’s distance education series. It is tentatively titled Emerging Technologies in Distance Education.
I am posting the conclusion below. If you’d like to provide any feedback, I’d be glad to listen. Are there things that you’d expect to see in there but you don’t? Is something unclear? Anything that needs further refinement? Or is everything perfect? (I doubt it!) And, of course, I hope that when the book comes out, you grab your free copy and send us your feedback!
It has been a little over a year since this book was conceptualized. Notwithstanding important global events that happened during the period from July 2008 to October 2009, the period in which this book was developed (such as the worldwide economic recession and the election of Mr. Barrack Obama to the US presidency), technological advances during this time have been rapid. To cite a few, Twitter became part of the popular discourse and the web has seen increased activity and interest in real-time access to published information. In addition, this period has seen advances in the educational front. For instance, this was the first time Open Access Week was celebrated, calling for immediate and free access to scholarly knowledge, while two free online universities were launched (Peer-to-Peer University and the University of the People). It seems that both the web and the way we think about education are changing.
Regardless of the fact that both education and the web are in a state of emergence, this book provides evidence that we are moving towards a consensus with regards to how effective and engaging learning experiences should be designed. Whether as a result of technological advancements, as a result of a changing mindset, or a combination of the two, distance learning educators, researchers and practitioners are (a) moving towards a model of distance education grounded upon social, authentic, and community-based learning experiences, where (b) presence, communication, interaction and collaboration are valued, (c) and where emerging technologies are both used to enhance education and where good practice and pedagogy is used to appropriate the emerging technologies available. Reflecting on the finished chapters, the original submissions, and my discussions with chapter authors, I see three themes that can bring closure to this volume: (a) the broad focus of the book, (b) the excitement and motivation displayed by this volume’s practitioners and researchers, and (c) the prospects for future research. I will discuss these themes next.
First, while our focus lies on the use of emerging technologies in distance education, it is clear from reading the chapters and observing the summary of the chapters generated via wordle.com (figure 1), that the focus isn’t necessarily the technology. The authors in this volume focus on enhancing educational research and practice based on the notion that powerful learning experiences are social, immersive, engaging, and participatory. In turn these types of learning experiences lend themselves well to being enhanced through the emerging technologies that we have available at our disposal. [insert figure 1 here]
Second, the authors contributing to this volume have displayed tremendous excitement for their work, eagerness to receive feedback, and motivation to transform the future of distance education. These authors are not just writers and scholars but also activists in furthering meaningful, powerful, and just educational opportunities. To me this is very important. The work of an academic should not be limited to teaching classes and writing research reports to be read and analyzed by like-minded individuals. In short, academics should also see themselves as changemakers, and, academics in schools of education in particular, should focus their work towards developing equitable societies that are free of injustices, where opportunities for deeply personal and powerful learning experiences are open to everyone. Evidence to these authors’ commitment to the noble causes of education was the fact submissions to this book came as a direct result of it being open access. In particular, more than three quarters of the original 65 submissions noted that the reason for submitting to this project was because the book was going to be offered free of charge for anyone to use and download.
Finally, while each chapter suggests future lines of inquiry at the micro level, the work presented in this volume collectively highlights broader areas of interests that deem research attention. At the macro level, it is clear that we need longitudinal research that is multidisciplinary in nature. At the meso level, important areas of inquiry and research include,
• Further inquiry into the symbiotic and reinforcing relationship between emerging technologies, pedagogies, and the rise of the participatory web
• new pedagogies and approaches that embrace emerging technologies as natural artifacts in contemporary educational systems as opposed to add-ons to an existing pedagogy, approach, or activity,
• renewed emphasis on the role and nature of education and universities, along with an examination of the roles of educators and informal learning experiences,
• further research into understanding how social, immersive, engaging, and participatory learning experiences can be initiated in distance education contexts,
• development of research frameworks for investigating social, immersive, engaging, and participatory learning, and
• revamped efforts to understand how learning communities can be fostered (both in the context of formal education, as well as in the context of lifelong informal learning).
In closing, I hope you enjoyed reading this book and that you found it worthwhile for your research and practice. If you did, share the book openly and freely.
George Veletsianos, October 2009
I am editing an open access book for Athabasca University Press on Emerging Technologies for Distance Education. It consists of 16 chapters, and the 230-page word file is about 4.9MB. While not yet ready for public use, below is a basic summary of it. Apart from the obvious high-frequency words you will also notice a few favorite of mine including process, community, open, experience, and agents.
The following showed up in my inbox. It may be helpful to some…
Amy Mahan Research Fellowship Program to Assess the Impact of Public Access to ICTs:
Up to 12 Research Fellowships will be awarded, each providing a grant of up to 22,000 € and specialized guidance to enable emerging scholars to carry out their own new and original study examining the impact of public access to information and communication technologies (ICT).
Emerging developing country researchers from Africa, the Middle East, the Asia Pacific region and Latin America and the Caribbean are invited to apply for a Fellowship. They may submit their application and conduct their research in English, French, Portuguese or Spanish. The deadline for applying is Midnight Eastern Standard Time, 31 December 2009.
The Program is an eighteen-months project sponsored by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and managed by Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain, in collaboration with scholars from Universidad de San Andrés, Argentina, the University of the Philippines, Manila, and the LINK Centre, South Africa.
Detailed information is available at the Program Website. The Frequently Asked Questions section (http://www.upf.edu/amymahan/faqs) is comprehensive and a good starting place to learn more about the Program. We’d also like to encourage those interested to make use of the topic query to help refine their proposals.
Again, we hope you can help us disseminate this announcement (which is also attached) to other researchers and scholars who might be interested in ICT for development research.
Starting this academic year (2009/2010), the University of Manchester has moved to allowing MA students to submit their dissertations in electronic format, and gives students the option to “allow the University to make the dissertation open access.” [Insert applause here]
I would also like dissertations from prior years to be posted online, especially because (a) our current distance learning students would benefit from seeing examples of past dissertations, and (b) knowledge stored in libraries is easily lost. And for that, as long as there is the desire to share, there’s scribd (or any other file hosting site). So…
Below you will find two MA dissertations from two of our talented students who completed our MA in Digital Technologies, Communication & Education degree in September 2009. The first one (by Eman Tariq Mehana) is entitled Perceptions of Saudi Female Higher Education Students Using Web-Based Videoconferencing and it’s one I supervised. Eman used a videoconferencing system in a traditional higher education classroom in Saudi Arabia and juxtaposed the results with current practice. If you are interested in the global uses of educational technology, use of technology to solve real problems, cultural relevance, and don’t subscribe to the notion that technology is culturally neutral, then you should take a look at this one. Some illustrative quotes to entice you follow:
“In Saudi Arabia, gender segregation is conducted in institutions from the beginning of formal education until graduation from university…most campuses are designed with two main areas, one for males and the other for females, with high walls separating them. In each academic and administrative department there are female and male counterparts for all posts. The issues around gender segregation in higher education arise when male lecturers are asked to deliver lectures to female students; however, it is not acceptable for female lecturers to lecture males. For female students in higher education, the lectures they attend when given by male lecturers are delivered through videoconferencing or closed circuit television (CCTV). The rest are given by female lecturers, where there is no need for CCTV” (page 14).
“It is important for the sake of completion [comparison] to visualise the traditional CCTV class these female students are using as a means of comparing this new experience for them. A typical CCTV class in a Saudi Arabian university will be an auditorium of up to 100 seats with two medium-sized monitors hanging from the ceiling to allow better observation from the whole class. Female students take their seats before the class starts and a supervising university employee takes attendance and closes the auditorium doors before she notifies the male lecturer that they are ready for the lecture to begin. The male lecturer has no means of seeing what is happening in the female class except for what the university employee will tell him. There is no camera in the female auditorium. The single method of communication between the lecturer and the rest of his class is through a telephone placed on a desk across the auditorium. A student who wishes to speak to the lecturer, or request clarification as the distance between a student’s seat and the screen makes it difficult to observe details, has to leave her seat, walk through the auditorium until she reaches the telephone and then ring the extension of the telephone in the lecturer’s auditorium. Although this is technically two-way synchronous communication, these calls can only be made at the end of the lecture and there is only a remote possibility that a lecturer will engage his female students in a debate or an ongoing discussion” (page 81-82).
Full Dissertation appears below:
Perceptions of Saudi Female Higher Education Students Using Web-Based Videoconferencing
The second one, How effective is ICDL Training for Omani Teachers (by Fahad Khalifa Humaid Al Hatmi) is another good example of the type of work that our students engage with and it was supervised by my colleague Drew Whitworth.This one looks at a standardised computer training certification, the ICDL (International Computer Driving License), and, espousing a critical theory perspective, examines whether teaching fundamental technology skills to teachers effectively prepares them to critically integrate technology in their classrooms. Education departments who teach technology skills to their teacher trainees (aka pre-service teachers) should read this one. Here’s a quote:
ICT literacy, described in terms of both core skills and transferable skills, is an important element of education from the standpoint of both students and teachers. ICT education needs to include core skills training, critical thinking skills applied to ICT selection and use, and the ability to evaluate the outcomes related to the use of ICT. In general, and specifically in the Sultanate of Oman, ECDL/ICDL programs are not achieving all of these goals. (p. 35)
Full dissertation appears below:
How Effective is ICDL Training for Omani Teachers
Enjoy! If you have any comments, I am sure that both Eman and Fahad would love to read them.
“Usually under The University of Manchester’s Intellectual Property Policy (subject to some exceptions), the student owns the copyright and intellectual property (IP) in their thesis itself (IP described in the dissertation may belong to someone else). Those exceptions are where:
- the student is undertaking a sponsored studentship and the sponsoring body has a claim on arising IP
- the student participates in research together with employees of the University (other than simply being supervised) where potentially commercialisable IP may be created
- the student creates IP outside of their course using more than incidental use of University resources
- the student writes a thesis which is generated by research performed in whole or in part using equipment or facilities provided by the University under conditions that impose copyright restrictions e.g. software licenses”
My RSS reader brought these presents today. Hope they are useful to you. The article will strike a chord with those who seek to improve schooling (with or without technology). The CFPs also relate.
Singal, Nidhi & Swann, Mandy (2009). Children’s perceptions of themselves as learner inside and outside school. Research Papers in Education. Published online: October 15, 2009 (today) at http://www.informaworld.com/10.1080/02671520903281617
Abstract: This exploratory study set out to investigate how a group of children, who were identified as underachieving in school, constructed understandings of themselves as learners inside and outside school. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and image-based methods with the children. Interviews were also conducted with their parents and teachers. Findings of this study highlight the centrality of the children’s relational world and the richness of their learning experiences and capacity for learning outside school. Significant differences were evident in their descriptions of learning processes inside the classroom and outside the formal school setting. Outside school learning experiences, both structured and less formalised were perceived by the children as being more active, collaborative and challenging. Knowledge and understanding in these contexts seemed to be located within the children. In contrast, learning inside school was characterised by dependence on the teacher. Knowledge and understanding in this context appeared to be located within the teacher.
CFP #1: Call for a special issue of QWERTY. Generation Y, Digital Learners, and Other Dangerous Things (via the red-ink doctoral school)
CFP #2: Call for chapters for an e-book on Personal Learning Environments and Networks (via George Siemens)
I took the following two pictures in two recent trips of mine. Similarities and differences abound, but one difference (other than the language) stands out for me. And that difference reminds me of an unfortunate state of affairs in the learning technologies field.
Look at the photo below. It’s from a menu that I came across in Dublin.
And the next one: It’s from a menu that I came across in Stockholm.
Other than the differences in the language, do you notice anything else? (Hint: Look at the typography.) Wouldn’t it be amazing if instructional/learning designers paid that much attention to the details as well? Yes, beauty and aesthetics are probably the least of our problems (so say the critics), but they count, and they count more and more in a world where beauty (constructed as it may be) surrounds us.
(High resolution images are available on my flickr page)
On the 7th of October, I am giving an invited talk at Linköping University in Sweden on my work and research with pedagogical agents. I will also be meeting with Agneta Gulz, Magnus Haake, and their colleagues whom I haven’t yet met (but really looking forward to meeting) to discuss various projects and future directions. Below is my presentation for attendees and for those who may be interested.
I’ve been away from my RSS reader a couple of days, and when I came back to it today I saw these two interesting articles. The first one looks at avatar design with respect to perceived interactivity and immersion, and although implications for education are not explored, it’s easy to see how this work applies to the increasing importance of pedagogical agent’s visual aesthetics. While I may not completely agree with the second article, it does a good job delineating the complexity of our work.
Avatars Mirroring the Actual Self versus Projecting the Ideal Self: The Effects of Self-Priming on Interactivity and Immersion in an Exergame, Wii Fit
in CyberPsychology & Behaviour by Seung-A Annie, Department of Communication, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts
Abstract: As exergames are increasingly being used as an interventional tool to fight the obesity epidemic in clinical studies, society is absorbing their impact to a more intense degree. Interactivity and immersion are key factors that attract exergame consumers. This research asks, What are the effects of priming the actual self versus the ideal self on users’ perceived interactivity and immersion in avatar-based exergame playing? and What are important moderators that play a role in exergame users’ self-concept perception? To answer these research questions, this study leveraged the Wii’s avatar-creating function (Mii Channel) and exergame feature (Wii Fit) in a controlled, randomized experimental design (N=126). The results of a 2×2 factorial design experiment demonstrated the significant main effect of self-priming on interactivity and the moderating role of the actual-ideal self-concept discrepancy in influencing immersion during exergame playing. Game players who created an avatar reflecting the ideal self reported greater perceived interactivity than those who created a replica avatar mirroring the actual self. A two-way ANOVA demonstrated the moderating role of the actual–ideal self-concept discrepancy in determining the effects of the primed regulatory focus on immersion in the exergame play. The underlying theoretical mechanism is derived from and explained by Higgins’s self-concept discrepancy perspective. Practical implications for game developers and managerial implications for the exergame industry are discussed.
in Educational Technology Research and Development by Jianwei Zhang, University at Albany, SUNY Department of Educational Theory and Practice