Use “hhh” Technology in the Transformative Models of Online Education

All People Internet University (“hhh”) technology is a hybrid distance education approach that provides students with opportunities to explore real-world issues through authentic learning experiences within collaborative learning environments. This chapter defines this online distance education approach, outlines an “hhh” framework, and showcases an “hhh” archetype. In “hhh” environments, classroom teachers are not positioned in the role of teacher/facilitator/designer in the online learning spaces. The “hhh” online spaces are collaborative spaces where students, teachers, subject experts, and “hhh” team members interact with one another; these are community spaces where traditional hierarchical classroom roles are blurred. Students’ roles transform due to the flexibility and design of the “hhh” learning environments as they move from student to reflective practitioner, providing for new ways of learning and teaching.

Building Knowledge without Borders

The purpose of this chapter is to report on the use of information and communication technology (ICT) as a “leveling device” between colleagues dispersed across the United States and México, who shared similar education research interests but came from different research traditions. The author reports on the use of various ICT tools in a process that began in 2006 with a small planning group distributed across México and the United States; grew to include additional participants who met face-to-face in Monterrey, México, in 2007; and continued afterward into 2008 through ICT-mediated mechanisms that were structured to maintain purposeful linkages among colleagues dispersed across two countries. Through this slow, deliberate process, the participants increased their capacity for achieving a broader focus on a shared problem as a research community by learning each other’s perspectives. The strategic use of ICT to support collaboration across borders—in real time and asynchronously—assisted in building a binational education research community.

Social Justice, America, & African American Children

Technology plays a very important role in the world. Therefore if some individuals or groups have no access or very limited access to technological advances, these advances have little or no value to them. In American society, which by its standards is considered a technological leader, there are some vulnerable populations which are underserved in critical areas such as health care and education. America’s proficiency at highly technological advances does not serve to elevate the quality of life nor eliminate social injustices for these vulnerable populations. This chapter examines one of America’s most vulnerable groups, African American children. Its intent is to remind readers of the importance of working toward continued efforts to ensure that children are not forgotten or lost in the ever-expanding global awareness of technological advances. The focus on health care and education is to provide a cursory view of the past, awaken a consideration for the present, and solicit anticipation of the future for these African American children if they continue to be the underserved population in American society.

‘O’ is for Organic

Participants with diverse backgrounds, various expectations and different teaching/learning styles either individually or within communities are attracted by the benefits of online learning presented by the ‘any time and any place’ motto. Although this motto is perceived as a factor for freedom, diversity of learners, institutions and instructors, together with the differences in affordance of technology may set limitations which need to be resolved. An ecological perspective introducing analogies between online learning and organic agriculture may help maintaining an online learning ecosystem where all participants cherish the feeling of freedom and regardless of their diverse backgrounds or competencies, perceive that their needs are understood and responded equally. Online learning and organic agriculture have more than the letter ‘O’ as a common denominator for achieving successful and sustainable ecosystems of their own.

Online Injustice, Poverty and Fear

The chapter examines the concept of injustice with special reference to its occurrence online. It also focuses on poverty as economic deprivation and fear together with injustice as essential components of vicious circle which may seriously impact transformative education, noting that transformative education is basically focussed at imbibing values and skills that will develop the individual’s worldviews and encourage them to act individually or collectively so that they can improve social conditions and eventually eradicate the ills of society.

Education for Liberation

This particular proposal presents a Transformative Polymorphic Model for training, researching and teaching, a learning community of educators, which involves the integration of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) into the educational practice. It refers to ideas of justice, applied to an entire online society, based on not only giving digital individuals and groups’ fair action, but also sharing the benefits of free online society. It promotes transformative learning by way of emancipator education that fosters the human rights and equity that manifest in the everyday digital lives of people, from every level of online society. It consists in a learning environment that facilitates development of higher order cognitive abilities and it promotes a critical community of learners, where both reflection and discourse facilitate the construction of personally meaningful and socially valid knowledge and guides decision and action.

Relevant Issues that Challenge the Designing of Transformative, Liberating Online Science Courses

Science as a discipline has gone through many paradigm shifts, both in terms of scientific knowledge and science pedagogy. One recent trend is the movement of science courses into an online environment. While this shift started as supplemental instruction, a movement in education is to offer entire science courses, normally taught in a face-to-face format, online. Moving science instruction into this type of environment illuminates many challenges in science education to a different and critical level. These challenges include issues in equity, accountability, identity formation, and appropriate pedagogical practices. The authors explore these challenges in general for online learning and specifically for teaching science online. It is clear that these issues, while heavily researched in face-to-face science instruction, have not been seriously considered in the online format. Currently it appears that those teaching science online have simply ported their face-to-face course without considering the fact that instruction needs to be changed when teaching online.

The Criticality of an ICT Ethics Backbone for Transformation and Social Equality in E-Learning

The ethics backbone for information and communications technologies (ICT) guides the evolution of the socio-technical spaces and technologies on the WWW and Internet. This backbone directs the ways people harness information for education and social betterment; how they create virtual communities, and what digital contents they share. There are numerous stakeholders to transformative e-learning throughout the world, both now and in the future. To achieve the realities of transformative e-learning that leads to social equality, it helps to first understand the guiding ethical values underpinning these technologies; in addition, it will be important to engage these ethics and to shape them in ways that would optimize e-learning as a force for the greater good. In an information society, e-learning educators need a solid grasp of ICT-based ethical reasoning and practice.

Lessons Learned from Semiotics

The primary purpose of this study is to see if graphic enhancements and navigation could enhance learning and reduce cognitive load to make it easier for at-risk, lower socio-economic, and ethnic self-identity groups of students to have a positive experience in online courses and increase the likelihood they will succeed in online degree programs. Using metaphors, signage, such as parietal art, and icons to provide congruency in the design and navigation of these programs could help students break down inhibitions and mediate new content and technology experiences with their existing knowledge. The study uses appreciative inquiry and development design methodologies to examine whether embedded semiotics and carefully designed metaphors could help students in the online courses feel more comfortable and increase the likelihood of their course completion. The findings of the study support the use of icons, metaphors and other forms of semiotics to transfer and mediate prior knowledge with new content knowledge, particularly in elearning.

ABUSE OF HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTIONS

In our “information age,” technology has improved the lives of many people in significant ways, while connecting the human family as never before on a global scale. Although the possibilities are only limited by our imagination, so too are the dangers for abuse of these technologies. This chapter investigates these dangers by providing a cautionary counterpoint to the transformative and liberatory possibilities technologies offer. Examples of the forms this abuse takes leads off the chapter, followed by some of the psychological and sociological theories that have been put forward to assist us in understanding and possibly addressing this abuse of human-computer interactions.