Taking Teaching Further

We’re pleased to welcome Marlena Bravender as a regular contributor to our community. Marlena is an instructional designer who teaches and designs undergraduate and graduate courses for several universities. She is also in the home stretch of a Ph.D. Please welcome and post comments to Marlena.

Summary

A number of new technologies have emerged that were created largely for personal use. The article by Hsu gives a well-rounded history of four tools and their evolution into a more educational setting. The author decided to focus on instant messaging, blogs, wikis, and podcasts. His intent is that all of these tools have educational uses as they were essentially created for interactivity. Each allows for learning in “innovative” ways. One important point is that these tools are best suited for classes that promote collaboration rather than the traditional lecture format. The author also points out that a variety of learning modalities could benefit from use of these tools.

Hsu provides the description, advantages, disadvantages, and theoretical foundations for each of the four tools. Above and beyond that, he notes the specific educational applications and discipline suitability for each tool. Instant messaging is rooted in active learning with applications for real-time discussion and collaboration. Blogs, or Weblogs, have a number of foundations in social cognition, communities, receptive learning, and cognitive scaffolding. The blog can be applied extremely well into journaling and peer review activities. Wikis generally encourage students to participate. They are a constructivist-learning tool that can be applied in brainstorming and group project management. Although relatively new to the intended audience, the podcast has a tradition in cultural-historical activity theory. The podcasts can be applied as supplemental material by guest participants and for case-based instruction as well as in a support role for online courses.

Student interaction, especially in online learning, is one facet to a well-rounded classroom experience. To apply any of the aforementioned tools is likely to enhance the overall experience for the student and the teacher. The use of constructivist tools could even spill over into other areas like business and fields that are rooted in an interactive nature.

Commentary

Discussion on the article led to the various classroom types that could benefit from such tools. The article itself does not go far enough to talk about traditional face-to-face classrooms. That could take an entire article itself. However, all items presented by the author lead the readers to discuss the possibilities in a traditional lecture classroom. Can any of the four tools help an instructor build a more collaborative nature and move away from that printed material dependency? How would enhanced learning be measured with the influx of the new tools? The article is extremely positive about the addition and use of the tools. Using these tools may very well enable teacher-to-teacher collaboration to discuss the assessment and transfer of knowledge possibilities.

Through this another great question presented itself. Is it even possible to take faculty, teaching in a manner in which they have always done, into a paradigm shift of courses with high interactive emphasis? The article does a great job showing the history related to each tool. It might be a impressive future article to combine that with the history of teaching practices, lesson planning, and the lack of those items in institutions of higher education. In the traditional higher education setting instructors are generally hired as content experts and they may not have been equipped with the tools or desire to try new teaching techniques and tools.

This article raised many questions within the group and one firm conclusion. It was concluded that more research is needed to show specific examples of success in a higher education setting. Maybe it is the responsibility of the members of the academic institution to discover the research for themselves. Hsu presented tools and possible uses. Now those findings should be implemented, research fostered, and findings presented. It could be a major breakthrough in student learning assessment. The research could show some significant impact on learning that engages, encourages, and enhances the teaching portfolios for many professors to come.

Reference
Hsu, J. (2007). Innovative technologies for education and learning: Education and knowledge-oriented applications of blogs, wikis, podcasts, and more. International Journal of Information and Communication Technology Education, 3(3), 70-89.