Arranging and Rearranging Practice in Digital Spaces

Author(s):  
Laurette S. M. Bristol ◽  
Merilyn Childs

The study that formed the basis of this chapter aimed to understand the practices mediating the quality of an online learning program from the perspective of educators in transition from face-to-face to online learning and teaching. A narrative community of enquiry was established for the period of the study, and seven academics from a single institution volunteered to participate in a six-month conversation about the sites for practice, challenges and curriculum decisions made while teaching online. A “practice architectures” perspective was adopted. The study found that “designing and redesigning” was not limited as supposed to a single transformation from face-to-face teaching to an online learning space. Rather, it was an ongoing professional practice, regardless of how novice or experienced and “tech savvy” the academic. The digital space is rapidly evolving, as are the professional learning demands of teacher educators. “Ambitious teacher practices” are permanently required.

2018 ◽  
pp. 567-585
Author(s):  
Laurette S. M. Bristol ◽  
Merilyn Childs

The study that formed the basis of this chapter aimed to understand the practices mediating the quality of an online learning program from the perspective of educators in transition from face-to-face to online learning and teaching. A narrative community of enquiry was established for the period of the study, and seven academics from a single institution volunteered to participate in a six-month conversation about the sites for practice, challenges and curriculum decisions made while teaching online. A “practice architectures” perspective was adopted. The study found that “designing and redesigning” was not limited as supposed to a single transformation from face-to-face teaching to an online learning space. Rather, it was an ongoing professional practice, regardless of how novice or experienced and “tech savvy” the academic. The digital space is rapidly evolving, as are the professional learning demands of teacher educators. “Ambitious teacher practices” are permanently required.


2010 ◽  
pp. 84-102
Author(s):  
P. Toyoko Kang

This chapter provides an argument endorsing blendedlearning and teaching for foreign language (FL)/second language (L2) courses, in lieu of total online learning andteaching or total face-to-face learning and teaching (FFLT). Two main arguments are posed, citing concrete examples. First, that in total online learning and teaching, one of the greatest challenges is to reduce the psychological and social distance between teacher and student that leads to a dysfunctional parser (a mental language processor) for FL/L2. And secondly, online learning and teachingencourage more input, hence clarify communication---by making not only currently incomprehensible input comprehensible but also hard-tobe-comprehended output easy-to-comprehend---- through “self-negotiation of form and meaning,” and the parser’s strategy of being “first (prosodic phrase) come, first interpreted/processed.” This chapter proceeds to strongly recommend that FL/L2 teachers make simple audio files to provide their students with spoken input to prevent students from employing the L1 strategy of “first come, last interpreted/ processed.” Furthermore, this chapter shows what kind of spoken input is to be recorded in audio files for students in Elementary Japanese II and Intermediate Japanese I.


Author(s):  
Tiodora Fermiska Silalahi ◽  
Ahmad Fakhri Hutauruk

In improving the quality of school education and learning in the future, it is necessary to change the mindset that will be used as the basis for implementing a learning program. What's more in the co-19 pandemic period that requires students to be able to study at home without interacting in class for a while. In the past the learning process was conventional, namely face-to-face in class. But even then, most teaching processes are still dominated by teachers. As a result, teaching and learning activities place more emphasis on teaching and not on learning. Learning activities favor the interests of those who teach. Efforts for learning to be focused on students, it is necessary to apply a cooperative learning model which is a form of change in mindset in learning activities at school. However, during this pandemic, the next challenge is how the cooperative process can take place in the online learning process. The absence of a physical meetup becomes an obstacle that can be minimized by the adaptation of the teacher in the distance learning process. In this case the teacher no longer dominates the learning activities, but rather becomes the facilitator and mediator of the process. The cooperative learning model is designed by giving opportunities to students together to build their own knowledge.


Author(s):  
Sue Saltmarsh ◽  
Wendy Sutherland-Smith

Australian higher education increasingly relies on flexible modes of delivery as a means of attracting and retaining students in a highly competitive global education market. While education is among those disciplines that have been most actively involved in the shift from face-to-face to online learning and teaching, the transition for many teacher educators is fraught with tensions and contradictions. For some, teaching online is seen as primarily a cost-cutting exercise on the part of universities, and has little to do with improving the quality of student learning. For others, the online environment offers multiple pedagogic possibilities that have yet to be fully explored. Yet others consider online environments as problematic, posing challenges to pedagogic and peer relationships that are generally seen as integral to 'good' teaching. This paper draws on an empirical study of teacher education faculties in five Australian universities, and analyses excerpts from interviews about learning and teaching with teacher educators, educational designers and faculty management. We argue that understanding how teacher educators constitute learner and teacher subjectivities through their beliefs about and approaches to pedagogy is crucial to the future of online tertiary education. In particular, we consider how teacher educators' attitudes toward and approaches to online learning and teaching are predicated on their perceived subject positions as either 'stimulating' or 'simulating' particular kinds of learning interactions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 218-235
Author(s):  
Jasvir Kaur Nachatar Singh ◽  
◽  
Humayra Ayasha Chowdhury ◽  

Scholarly articles on international academics mainly focuses on personal and professional challenges endured by international academics’ during conventional times. This includes adjustments to new roles and living in a foreign country, pedagogical differences stemming from intercultural differences, language barriers and unequal access to resources (funding, exploitation). This paper explores experiences of two international early-career academics in Australia highlighting their teaching-related challenges, strategies and opportunities during COVID-19, using a collaborative autoethnography qualitative approach. At this Australian university, teaching was paused for a week in March 2020 to cope with the learning and teaching ‘shock’ – to reorientate teaching from face-to-face to completely offer courses remotely to ensure that students were not disadvantaged in their learning and provide space for academic staff to reorientate their learning and teaching materials to suit online delivery. Personalised reflections encapsulate some bizarre teaching related experiences of these international academics in the online learning and teaching space, underpinned by their cultural differences. There were four major challenges identified: transition to online learning and teaching, learning and teaching online practices, relationship issues between students and academic staff, and language-related issues. Specific strategies to overcome these challenges are also identified that led to overall teaching success endured by these international early-career academics in Australia.


Author(s):  
P. Toyoko Kang

This chapter provides an argument endorsing blended learning and teaching for foreign language (FL)/second language (L2) courses, in lieu of total online learning and teaching or total face-to-face learning and teaching (FFLT). Two main arguments are posed, citing concrete examples. First, that in total online learning and teaching, one of the greatest challenges is to reduce the psychological and social distance between teacher and student that leads to a dysfunctional parser (a mental language processor) for FL/L2. And secondly, online learning and teaching encourage more input, hence clarify communication---by making not only currently incomprehensible input comprehensible but also hard-tobe-comprehended output easy-to-comprehend---- through “self-negotiation of form and meaning,” and the parser’s strategy of being “first (prosodic phrase) come, first interpreted/processed.” This chapter proceeds to strongly recommend that FL/L2 teachers make simple audio files to provide their students with spoken input to prevent students from employing the L1 strategy of “first come, last interpreted/ processed.” Furthermore, this chapter shows what kind of spoken input is to be recorded in audio files for students in Elementary Japanese II and Intermediate Japanese I.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zakaryia Almahasees ◽  
Khaled Mohsen ◽  
Mohammad Omar Amin

COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted teaching in a vriety of institutions. It has tested the readiness of academic institutions to deal with such abrupt crisis. Online learning has become the main method of instruction during the pandemic in Jordan. After 4 months of online education, two online surveys were distributed to investigate faculty’s and Students’ perception of the learning process that took place over that period of time with no face to face education. In this regard, the study aimed to identify both faculty’s and students’ perceptions of online learning, utilizing two surveys one distributed to 50 faculty members and another 280 students were selected randomly to explore the effectiveness, challenges, and advantages of online education in Jordan. The analysis showed that the common online platforms in Jordan were Zoom, Microsoft Teams offering online interactive classes, and WhatsApp in communication with students outside the class. The study found that both faculty and students agreed that online education is useful during the current pandemic. At the same time, its efficacy is less effective than face-to-face learning and teaching. Faculty and students indicated that online learning challenges lie in adapting to online education, especially for deaf and hard of hearing students, lack of interaction and motivation, technical and Internet issues, data privacy, and security. They also agreed on the advantages of online learning. The benefits were mainly self-learning, low costs, convenience, and flexibility. Even though online learning works as a temporary alternative due to COVID-19, it could not substitute face-to-face learning. The study recommends that blended learning would help in providing a rigorous learning environment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-155
Author(s):  
Diana-Crina Marin ◽  
Mușata Bocoș

"In the context in which the teaching, learning, and assessment processes take place in the online environment, the question arises whether the currently organized learning situations are as effective as the learning situations carried out in the classroom, before the beginning of the pandemic. One of the disadvantages of online learning is related to the teacher’s low control over students’ activity. Factors such as initiative, creativity, efficient time management, intrinsic motivation, responsibility, and intellectual curiosity play an important role in students’ success in learning activities. Attendance at courses should not be formal and superficial and should be a process that involves the active and interactive participation of the students in the learning process. Providing high-quality educational opportunities to all students is a goal that is increasingly difficult to achieve in the context of the absence of face-to-face interactions. Also, applying a curriculum focused on the needs of the learner is becoming hard to achieve. Through this research, we aim to investigate issues related to how online learning takes place and to establish ways in which we can increase the efficiency of current teaching and learning processes. The study revealed that in the opinion of most of the students, the current epidemiological context has influenced in a negative way the quality of teaching and the student-teacher educational relationship. Keywords: Interactive learning, eLearning, independence in learning, higher education, efficient strategies "


Author(s):  
Dionisia Tzavara ◽  
Dimitrios Koufopoulos

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, universities worldwide were forced to close their campuses and move instructional delivery to a digital mode. Many argued that this massive emergency digitalisation of instructional delivery was a major move of higher education toward online learning. However, this view overlooks considerations of pedagogy and of online learning design and delivery. Online learning is not just about uploading content to an online space or about moving all lectures online, and there is a whole theory behind designing online learning environments and delivering online learning. This chapter will discuss key theoretical considerations behind online learning design and delivery in relation to the digitalisation of higher education during COVID-19 with a view to make recommendations that will help universities design fulfilling and effective online learning and teaching experiences for their students and faculty.


Author(s):  
Maysaa Barakat ◽  
Debra N. Weiss-Randall

Online enrollments have been growing substantially faster than overall higher education enrollments. It is argued that online learning can help address issues of educational inequity, poverty, and social exclusion. The momentum is moving towards online learning, and universities are pressured to develop more online options for their students in order to stay relevant and provide needed flexibility. On average, courses that are delivered online have higher attrition rates than regular face-to-face courses. There are numerous challenges and difficulties in developing online learning environments without sacrificing the quality of learning. This case study examines the development, delivery, and evaluation of online learning through the eyes of students and faculty of an educational leadership department in a Southeast research university.


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