Webliography

Traditionally, a bibliography is regarded as a list of printed resources (books, articles, reports, etc.) on a given subject or topic for further study or reference purpose (Alred, Brusaw, & Oliu, 2006; Lamb, 2006). According to the Micropaedia (1990), the bibliography refers to “study and description of books.” It is either the listing of books according to some system (enumerative or descriptive bibliography) or the study of books as tangible objects (analytical or critical bibliography). The term webliography is commonly used when discussing online resources. Although there is no clear agreement among educators regarding the origin of this term, many tend to believe that the term webliography was coined by the libraries at Louisiana State University to describe their list of favorite Web sites. It is referred to as “Web bibliography.” Accordingly, a webliography is a list of resources that can be accessed on the World Wide Web, relating to a particular topic or can be referred to in a scholarly work. A variety of studies suggest that understanding and developing webliographies, which relate to locate, evaluate, organize, and use effectively the needed online resources, are essential for information literacy and technology integration.

Vygotsky and the Zone of Proximal Development

Thinkers throughout history have surmised that humans exist most fully in communion with others. Learners mimic or model, read or reflect, and listen or lecture within a social context; therefore educational experiences,traditional or technology based,ought not to discount the interplay between shared experience, individual’s attitudes, and relational understandings. The theories of learning that emphasize this kind of interpersonal interaction, the necessity of collaboration and collegiality, a reliance on social reference points, and intentional modeling have had various nomenclatures (Rogoff & Lave, 1984). Vygotsky’s (1978) seminal work is commonly referred to as “social cognition” or “social constructivism.”

Varieties of Authentic Assessment

The need for effective assessments has been recognized since the earliest days of public education. Student testing provides rationales and support for many activities, including instructional feedback, system monitoring, appropriate selection and placement of students, and certification of skills (U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, 1992). With the growing recognition that learning is an individual accomplishment and that learning takes place in context, traditional testing methods need to be supplemented to accurately assess achievement (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989; Eisner, 1999). Authentic assessments are designed to accurately reflect the real world situations in which the skills and knowledge that students developed would be applied. Although there are a variety of authentic assessment methods, each method encourages linkages between the classroom experience and real world applications. This does not mean that traditional forms of testing are obsolete, rather that these methods should be supplemented by information gathered from more situational methods.

Technology Support for Collaborative Learning

Collaborative learning is an activity that takes place between a teacher and a learner, between learner and learner, and sometimes, one would hope, between learner and teacher. The free flow of ideas between the various parties can be inhibited by a variety of factors, including perceived or actual power barriers, language skills, previous learning experience, and personal factors such as shyness or dominance. Technology can be used as a way of overcoming, or reducing, some of these inhibitory factors, and this chapter outlines some of the computer-based technologies that can be used. The use of technology to support distant learners is well documented, and this chapter concentrates instead on the less well-reported use of technology in the face-to-face classroom. The chapter opens with a brief consideration of collaborative learning and then focuses on the technologies that can be used to support collaborative learning process in a variety of time and place settings. These technologies include audience response systems, electronic meeting systems, and more recently, and rapidly developing, blended versions of these technologies.

Technology and Student Achievement

Since the introduction of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001, education in the United States has, in the words of President Bush, been seen as “a national priority and a local responsibility.” The first of the four basic education reform principles stated in the NCLB Act is local accountability for results. The second principle, flexibility and local control, empowers states to create their own standards and to test every student’s progress using tests aligned with these standards. In addition, there are also programs to promote the alignment of technology with educational goals within the NCLB legislation. In more and more states, school performance is assessed by means of a standardized assessment test which is designed to assess the academic level of students, schools, and districts. It is also intended to assist in identifying students’ strengths and weaknesses and to foster improvements in academic achievement. In one such state (that will remain anonymous) the reading and mathematics portions of the exam are administered to grades 5, 8, and 11.

Student Response Systems for Active Learning

The importance of a student’s involvement in learning is well documented and well known. It is easy to sum up research related to active learning by simply saying, “students who participate in the learning process learn more than those who do not” (Weaver & Qi, 2005, p. 570). Active learning seeks to create a learner-centered environment and engage students as active participants in their education. The opposite of this is passive learning, which is thought of as the traditional way of teaching where the professor is a subject matter expert whose role is to convey the knowledge to an audience of students (Barr & Tagg, 1995). While the success of active learning is well documented, some instructors may find it difficult to fully engage students as active learners in the classroom. Active learning requires student participation, which is easier for some students than it is for others. Larkin and Pines (2003) found theF common practice of calling on students to promote active learning in the classroom resulted in a “clear and unmistakable pattern of avoidance behavior as reported by both male and female students” because many students seek ways to avoid the psychologically unpleasant situation of providing the wrong answer and looking foolish. Larkin and Pines (2003) argue that if a student’s emotional and cognitive resources become directed towards avoiding the immediate threat of being called on, then arguably the practice of calling on students may reduce active learning, which was the intended goal of calling on the student in the first place. Fortunately, educational technologies are able to assist in this challenge.

Pedagogical Characteristics Affecting Student Learning

Student in today’s undergraduate level classrooms often display widely varying characteristics that extremely affect learning outcome. Although student characteristics have been widely studied in the more traditional teaching and learning environments, educators have just begun exploring the applications in interactive multimedia and its associated technological techniques. This article first describes some pedagogical characteristics that could affect students in their learning and than discuss some student learning styles.

Online Mentoring in Education

Mentorship between new and experienced education professionals is a laborious task. Senior educators assume the responsibility of teaching rules, codes of conduct, relevant information, content knowledge and skills, and so forth to newer colleagues as a way to help them transition into the new role of an educator. This form of mentorship can also exist between professionals and students who are learning about their fields of study. Finally, older students can mentor younger students to help them progress academically, personally, physically, and psychologically. Hence, mentoring is one of the more effective processes for supporting and improving professional development in education (McCampbell, 2002). Because mentorship can be arduous in terms of time and commitment, other mentoring alternatives are available such as using online communications. This overview discusses the importance of using online modes of communication as a form of mentorship between educators and students. When distance and time are factors impeding effective mentorship, online tools can help improve the teaching and learning processes.

Online Learning Environments

Online learning, which was defined as a learning environment using computer communication systems for learning delivery and interaction (Harasim, 1990), has been involved into all facets of society’s education. Online learning can be considered as a subset of the category of e-learning because it refers specifically to learning that is occurring via the Internet or Intranet. Online learning environment normally refers to learning via electronic communications, coursework, and/or information posted on the Web, and through other instructional activities by using Internet.

Net Generation

The Net Generation refers to the description given to young Americans born from 1976 to 2001. Although the individuals of the Net Generation (or Net Gens) are the last generation of the 20th century, they are considered the first generation to grow up in an Internet culture and a multimedia driven environment.