Collective Intelligence in Online Education

Collective intelligence may be loosely defined as the capacity of a group to think, learn, and create collectively. Online education reflects an interactive mode relative to information, particularly because of social media, that can involve expertise and resources that generate collective intelligence to address issues. Several theories reflect a belief in the dynamic and situational meanings that collectives create. The impact of technology, particularly in terms of social networks, also informs collective intelligence-related educational theories. This chapter explains conditions for optimum use of collective intelligence, noting individual and group behaviors, cultural factors, and its application in online education.

Capturing Educator Voices

According to Albert Einstein, “It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.” This quote illustrates my online teaching philosophy as I work to mentor graduate-level educators, deepening their knowledge of how to best facilitate their students' abilities to tackle twenty-first century literacy demands. Through designing and teaching online courses for a fully online Reading Specialist M.Ed. program as well as for students pursuing an M.Ed. in Early Childhood Education or a Reading Endorsement, I have evolved as an online educator committed to inspire student success. This chapter will present the reader with strategies to create an online learning environment where students are provided with authentic opportunities to apply research-based approaches and modes of developing their pupils' literacy, communication, and critical thinking skills through innovative means.

Designing Curricular Games

Most teachers only dream of their students spending the amount of motivation, attention, passion, and critical thinking on their classes that some do playing video games. Many teachers have thought “How can I compete with that?” as they confiscate a hand-held gaming device from a student. However, more and more teachers are incorporating video games into their curriculum, instead of banning them. This chapter argues that it is not just video games that can transform teaching, video game techniques can as well. By using video game design principles such as game stories and quests, teachers can restructure their teaching so students do not just learn the curriculum, they experience it. This chapter explores the research on using game-based teaching and learning with the Next Generation including how game-based teaching can be used to achieve 21st century goals as outlined by business leaders within 21st century educational constraints.

Learning the Active Way

This chapter, by highlighting research project examples, reports on methods of active learning to promote student engagement in previously static classes. Through these examples, one can explore how increased lecture interactivity can be accomplished via the implementation of strategies sans technology and those that leverage the often ubiquitous wireless Internet accessed by mobile devices found in higher education learning spaces today. A variety of practices for engaging students in lectures are described including those that promote student voice through various emerging technologies. Technologies discussed include learner response systems, 3D simulations, videos, online web applications such as Padlet and tlk.io, as well as various other feedback systems. Learning design theory is used to relate the case studies included to the latest theory.

College Student Reception of Next-Generation Learning and Effective Approaches for Instructors

Next-generation learning (NxGL) approaches have been applied to improve learning outcomes for the diverse student population of New Jersey City University (NJCU), one of the top hundred most diverse institutions of higher education in the country. This chapter focuses on the variety of reactions that diverse students, both undergraduate and graduate, can have to unknown or unfamiliar learning experiences, as they move through different stages of adjustment to the next-generation classroom. The chapter discusses how instructors can anticipate common student reactions and what they can do to guide students toward successful participation in NxGL. The improved skills of the instructor will allow students to benefit to the fullest possible extent from new learning opportunities. If the instructor feels at home with next-generation teaching and learning, this will increase the potential for student success as well as satisfaction with these approaches.

“Just Don't Get Too Personal”

In this chapter, the authors explore Millennial students' perceptions of contemporary transformative teaching pedagogy. Following a review of the literature on popular transformative teaching practices, the authors share their findings from a survey of 400 students from two different colleges regarding teaching methods that students perceive distracts them from learning. The authors argue that while students appreciate many feminist teaching goals, they are distracted by some of the strategies that professors often use to accomplish these goals. More specifically, while students wish to be respected as valuable co-producers of knowledge in the classroom, a number of them claim to be distracted by the use of self-disclosure and physical movement. The authors suggest that professors may wish to revisit their strategies with the understanding that our current students' experiences with technology and family alter their expectations of faculty behavior.

Collaborative Learning as a Pedagogical Tool to Improve Students' Learning

There are many approaches to teaching and learning available to teachers. However, educators and educational researchers have focused attention on approaches that ensure active learning of students and social interaction in the teaching-learning process. One of the approaches that promote students learning through active engagement and social interaction is collaborative learning. The chapter attempts to help teachers and pre-service teachers to understand collaborative learning as an inductive approach to teaching and learning. It examines important issues like meaning and elements of collaborative learning; collaboration and cooperation; advantages and challenges with implementation of collaborative learning. Teachers' role in the implementation of collaboration learning as well as collaborative learning techniques is also covered.

Expertise Development for Next-Generation Digital Learners

As the nature of work has become much more complex and sociotechnical, the needs for developing expertise are high. Research on expertise development are diverse (Bjork, 1994; Einstein & McDaniel, 2005; Schneider et al., 2002), but empirical studies intended to bridge expertise development and instructional design theories are relatively scarce (Ertmer et al., 2008; Fadde, 2009). This chapter addresses why and how scholars and practitioners should foster expertise development skills for Next-Generation digital learners.

How Does Technology Influence Students' Motivation Towards Learning Kiswahili Proverbs?

The presumed importance of technology in enhancing students' motivation may call for a profound shift in pedagogy. In an attempt to inform evidence-based practice, this study examined the influence of videos mediated instructions on students' motivation towards learning Kiswahili proverbs in a sample of secondary schools of equal ability in Nakuru County, Kenya. A Solomon Four quasi-experiment research design was used. The 436 students who participated in this study had a mean age of 16.2 years (SD = 0 .89) with a nearly equal sex distribution. The 43 five-point Likert type motivation items used were reduced into three dimensions: affective, behavioral, and cognitive by use of factor analytic methods. Regression analyses highlight equivocal effects of technology on these three dimensions of motivation while teacher experience was a notable confounder. Pre-test effects were also evident. The study has important implications for promoting more ambitious teaching methods.

Connecting Pedagogy, Preparation, and Passion

This chapter will address an engaging pedagogical strategy to prepare pre-service teachers to work in diverse communities challenged by social issues such as poverty and food instability. The chapter presents a service-learning pedagogical approach that creates a collaborative partnership between faculty, students, the university, and the greater community. It demonstrates how stakeholders can work and learn together within a common service-learning project that positively impacts change in diverse communities. The chapter will benefit faculty at the secondary and post-secondary education levels who are interested in enhancing teaching and learning through service learning, collaboration and community engagement.