Emphasis on the C in ICT
There has been a tendency to regard the use of the technology in learning and teaching as an isolating process which alienates/distances the learner from the teacher and the learners from one another. Our experience has been that the use of the technology can create a nearness to individual students which is often lacking in a face to face situation with larger groups. In the traditional face-to-face situation, teaching and learning go on in the restricted time frame of the timetabled classes and the occasional tutorial. The use of the interactive tools like forums, chat, emails and shared text writing allows contact both within and outside these formal times and encourages teaching and learning to happen at any time.
Learning as social activity
“I believe that computers with Internet access can give us potential ways of meeting, if not physically, then at least in the exchange of knowledge and ideas. In other words, it is not physical distance which is our concern, but the relational distance between teacher and student.” (Tricia Bender 2003,p 6).
If learning is a social activity and works best in an environment where the individual learner feels part of a group or a learning community, how does this tally with distance learning/ learning using the technology where the learners are separated physically both from each other and from the teacher? Bender is concerned with “potential ways of meeting” and these ways of meeting are provided by the use of forum discussions, chat and email and collaborative writing. All these activities can take place in and outside face to face classroom time.
We tend to assume that if a student is physically present in class then learning is taking place. The problem is that this ignores the fact that a student may be an unwilling or even resentful participator in a face to face situation, and even an enthusiastic student may find their attention wandering to external thoughts like the party the night before, the shopping they need to do after class today and so on. In other words we can insist on a student being physically present in class, but we cannot insist on their being mentally present.
We are not course suggesting that learners should be entirely free to choose whether they do any work or not. Indeed the efficient use of a Virtual learning Environment implies a much greater degree of learner participation than the more “traditional” teacher- class approach. It also extends the teaching and learning time outside the timetabled classroom time. We are not using the word “traditional” in any derogatory sense, since we firmly believe in the value of good teachers working in good classrooms. The technology is an additional and useful tool, though hopefully one which is integrated into the teaching and a central part of it rather than an “add on”.
Although there will always be “lurkers” who need to be followed up, one of the advantages of, for example, a forum discussion is that the participants can take part when they feel inspired/stimulated or provoked by others rather than within a restricted period of class time.
An important aspect in the use of online materials in network supported teaching is the creation of a close transactional distance between learner and teacher. Creating social cohesion and a sense of belonging in a class is an important first step towards creating a forum /arena in which the subject matter may be taken up and discussed. Gilly Salmon has a useful and interesting discussion of this (Salmon 2000 and 2002),
“ For online learning to be successful and happy, participants need to be supported through a structured developmental process” (Salmon 2002.10).
Although she is discussing a purely online course here, what she says is equally relevant to a hybrid course of the sort we are discussing where most of the teaching is still face to face but where there is a strong element of support from a Virtual Learning Environment
We also need to be realistic and not assume that using the technology in itself will create classes of inspired and enthusiastic learners. It is not the technology which creates this nearness by some magic process but rather the use made of the technology by the teachers or moderators in creating a feeling of belonging to a learning community.
