A summary of discussıons about open and distance learning

 INTRDUCTION

            Thanks to the rapid advancement of technnology, online learning became a part of education around the world. With courses available in almost every subject, and flexible time tables to suit almost every lifestyle, students are increasingly turning to online learning as an altenative to on- campus study. It allows students to study abroad remotely, at a university not in their home country.

Advances in technology now allow students to study entirely online while still socializing with classmates, watching lectures and participating in subject-specific discussions. Related to this developments, this term we discussed some topics for our Open and Distance Leaarning lesson. In this article there are some key points about this discussions.

CONTENT

We discussed four article releated to online education. For each week we had basic topics. These are ; online teaching and learning, forms of presence in online enviroment, online learning engagement, and  flipped classroom.

In our first video we disccused about online teaching and learning. First of all we focused the term of “technology”. We thought that using technology in the lessons makes students more motivated and it is an encompassing. We defined synchronous and asynchronous learning. Synchronous learning is online or distance education that happens in real time, often with a set class schedule and required login times. Asynchronous learning does not require real-time interaction; instead, content is available online for students to access when it best suits their schedules, and assignments are completed to deadlines. (STAFF, 2021)  Then we gave examples for web 2.0 tools such as blogs and wikis and showed our blogs related to this tools. ( kahoot , metachart, storyboard, padlet, wordart, voki, quizlet, blooket, second life, flippity, socrative, pixton, wordwall, prezi, photogrid, jamboard, tolks, answergarden, whiteboard, mentalup. Baamboozle, etc.)  Then we mentioned about seven key competences for a successful online language teaching. This is a pyramid.

Level one is (At the bottom of this pyramid) there is; Basic ICT competence

 Level two; is Specific Ttechnical Competence for the software,

Level  three is ; Dealing with Constrains and Possibilities of the Medium,

 Level four is ; Online Socialization,

Level five is; Facilitating Communicative Competence,

Level six is; Creativity and Choice

Level seven is; ( at the top of the pyramid) Own Style

At the end of the our meeting we decided that “there is a critical need not only pedagogical innovation, but for sustained attention  to how new tools and environments function from the point of view of learners, and through careful scaffolding to extend the value they can derive from technology‐mediated distance language teaching. (WHITE, 2017)

            Second week we discussed  forms of presence in the online environment. We defined “presence” which means the sense of ‘being there’ and ‘being together’. Briefly , interactions with others in online environment and being aware of students and the teacher are present at a location remote from their own immidiate environment. To create presence in the online environment, we need to think, feel, and behave differently than we do in the face - to - face environment because we have to make an effort to be aware of the intentions of others and their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors when they are connected to us via technology (BIOCCA, BURGOON, & STONER, 2001) . When we become aware of and understand the differences between in - person and online interactions, we are better able to select appropriate technology and design learning environments that help create a sense of presence. (Lehman & Conceição, 2010) After that we talked about the effects which is related to ability to be social in a virtual space. And explained social presence, immediacy, degree of awareness and willingness. Also we talked about “how we can possitively effect the social presence” then  We watched a video about the importance of teacher presence in online education. (eteachonline, 2020)

Finally,  the concept of presence is not easy to understand  and I think it is hard to create it in online lessons. Because the instructor and learners are not in the same physical space. Presence is result of insteraction of thought, emotion and behaviour in the online world and the outer world. Therefore it has different aspects. Such as; social, psychological and emotional. In today’s world we need to create an online learning community. To create an effective online community we can not ignore the importance of social, cognitive and instructor presence.

            In our third discussion we talked about online learning engagement. We start the topic trying to find a key term for engagement. Such as; interaction. Interaction between learner-learner, learner-instructor and learner content. Then we talked about the importance of engagement for Language classes. And we touched behaviour engagement (reflecting in manipulation of the interface through actions such as clicking, navigating, submitting,scrolling)  and cognitive engagement. ( reflected by students thinking about and working through the learning meterial at a deeper level) (Kennedy, 2020) Finally we talked about fake engagement.

            At the last week of the discussions we talked about Flipped classroom. We start with bloom’s taxonomy about flipped learning. (Kurt, 2018) according to this taxonomy; Students listen to the lesson and takes notes. And basically understanding remembering all the information that the lecturer told and then teacher gives a homework . so students go home and writes a comperative essay about the topic. When students doing the lower order thinking skills now the student starts begining to analyze and apply the new knowledge. So student begins to apply his knowledge and use it. Students do the lower order thinking skills at home so that they have got the basic remembering and understanding of something. In the class we can do more of the higher order thinking skills. We can begin to do more group work and pair work and analyze and discuss the knowledge. After we explain the flipped learning we mentioned about it’s activities and effects on language teaching. We talked about it’s benefits and challanges. At the end of the discussion we realized that despite it’s challenges such as; giving a lot of responsibility to learners , sometimes lack of students discipline, finding and reaching resources, lack of internet access (ResourcEd, 2018) we need to use it because of it’s benefits such as: free classroom time, opportunities for personalized learning, opportunities for more student centered learning, increased motivation of students, a continuous connection between student and teacher.

CONCLUSION

The goal of this discussions is to provide a brief  outline of how we can do much better open and distance learning. To do this we read some articles related to online teaching and learning, forms of presence in online enviroment, online learning engagement, and  flipped classroom.

Thanks to this articles and our investigations we reached some outcomes. This outcomes might be simply be summerised as:

·         The need for ongoing attention to learner support that adds value to individual learning agendas, attention to community and affikiations within that, feedback on individual and collective activity, and careful consideration of the affective aspects of distance language learning. There is a critical need not only for pedagogical innovation but for sustained attention to how new tools and enviroments functions from the point of view of learners and through careful scaffolding to extent the value they can derive from technology- mediated distance language teaching.

·         Fostering feeling of being there and being together are so important in creating online presence. Also there is some difference between presence and engagement.

·         It is hard to see engagement online, but using a range of measures and metrics we can get a sense of it.

·         Flipped language classroom not only improved students’ academic performance and cultivated their learning motivation but also developed their self-regulation, confidence, and higher-order thinking skills. the effects of external and learner factors on the flipped learning approach, students’ readiness and technology acceptance, the flipped learning process, students' interactions, and teacher perceptions.

 

NOTE: I uploded my article to my blog.

here is my blog link: http://techno-englogic.blogspot.com/

 

REFERENCES

 

BIOCCA, F., BURGOON, J. H., & STONER, M. (2001). Criteria and scope conditions for a theory and measure of social presence. Fourth Internatıonal Workshop.

eteachonline. (2020, 09 27). ınstructor presence: https://www.eteachonline.com/blog/onlinepresence adresinden alındı

Kennedy, G. (2020). What is student engagement in online learning ... and how do I know when it is there? Melborn discussion paper, 2.

Kurt, S. (2018, 05 13). educational technology. https://educationaltechnology.net/flipped-classroom/ adresinden alındı

Lehman, R. M., & Conceição, S. C. (2010). The Role of Presence in The Online Environment. Creating a Sense of Presence in Online Teaching. "How to be there for distance learners" (s. 2). içinde USA: JOSSY-BASS.

ResourcEd. (2018). How to overcome flipped learning obstacles: https://resourced.prometheanworld.com/obstacles-flipped-learning-overcome/ adresinden alındı

STAFF, T. (2021, 02 18). the best schools. Synchronous Learning vs. Asynchronous Learning in Online Education: https://thebestschools.org/magazine/synchronous-vs-asynchronous-education/ adresinden alındı

WHITE, C. J. (2017). Distance Language Teaching with technology. C. A. CHAPELLE, & S. SAURO içinde, The Handbook of Technology and Second Language Teaching and Learning (s. 145). USA: WILEY BLACKWELL.