CMC for informed collaborative knowledge construction (1609-10)

Last week I got a chance to participate in the Dean’s Graduate Student Research conference. Being a part-time student at OISE and having taken online courses for the most part, it was a refreshing and invigorating experience to be around student researchers and get a taste of what is being carried out at OISE. The keynote session titled ‘Where do we go from here? Making our research count’ was inspirational too with keynote speakers being Prof Rinaldo Walcott, Canada Research Chair, Chair SESE, our very own Prof Clare Brett, Associate Chair & Co-ordinator of Grad Studies, CTL and the artist, activist and OISE PhD Candidate Spencer J. Harrison.

Rinaldo’s message about intellectual multiculturalism was reminiscent of our discussions about deliberative democracy two weeks ago, interwoven with cultural aspects which he was now bringing to light as well. There had been a brief discussion between Jessica and Natalia about whose perspectives carried more weight, as far as news was concerned – an ordinary man’s or a specialized journalist’s. I would consider both views powerful and equally important. If we aim at creating informed citizens then their participation has to be given enough credit and included in the realm of general politics. It is the sum-total of the perspectives, which then becomes greater for a society than the individual parts.

As I went through it, I remember thinking about the construction of knowledge and the way it occurs. Bouncing ideas off of each other, weaving it in with facts, opinions, ideas and considerations is what really brings knowledge to the world. While collaborating with Vincent on the final assignment, I was introduced to a rather interesting TED talk, which Vincent also mentioned in his journal entry dated Feb 6th. For me, two noteworthy points that emerged from this video were the need for a platform conducive to bring forth these ideas, which was best grounded in collaborative environments, and the value of interconnections between thoughts from different sources.

This gelled well with Rinaldo’s idea about intellectual multiculturalism which referred to the merging of a range of perspectives, identities and considerations if we were to utilize knowledge for its liberatory purposes. Cultural studies, he said, are an attempt to delimit democracy. This broadening of social contexts might not be possible without the coming together of diverse fields, ideas, realities and opinions. Lifting a summary point of last week’s discussion directly from Natalia and Jennifer’s note: “The online medium can result in information overload but is the only real place that freedom of the press can exist”. I do believe that CMCs have a big role to play in enhancing the collaborative knowledge construction in society.

Deliberative Democracy.. but where's the news? (1609-9)

The article on ‘Online Civic Engagement’ by Min, this week and the corresponding discussion posed some questions about deliberative democracy – a term that was totally new to me, but it kind of made sense in that it aims at creating an atmosphere of informed discussion among citizens that would lead to better democratic practice. Theoretically, deliberation is believed to induce active political participation. The discussion questions took me further into this aspect and what it really means to participate politically. I was awed by the backgrounds of some of my fellow classmates, that led them into active political situations.

As I am pondering over the question of what really constitutes political participation, I am reminded of my time in India - we used to get at least three different newspapers every morning - the first one my parents had a historical attachment with, the second was considered the most happening in the entire nation and the third carried the best local supplement each day. Needless to say, our large extended family was all seen poring over newspapers most of the time during the day. There were political discussions (which I passed off as 'drawing room talk') and everybody was expected to know 'the news'. Oh, and we didn't watch TV in our house at all pretty much, except for.. guess what... 'the news'!

Given all of that, it is probably very ironical that I developed into a political non-participant. I attribute this to the following factors: one, my family never went beyond the phase of putting forth their opinions and/or inviting comments (akin to blogging/twitter of the modern age?) and second, my personal lifestyle seemed to be practically uninfluenced by any real political issues. We learnt to accept red-tapism in our out-of-house dealings, helplessness of the common man and other every-day struggles because active engagement seemed to lead to more frustration and many sorry stories were highlighted each day. I got some experience with different forms of media while doing a diploma in Journalism and I realized that the stance of the media does not really give a true picture of the state of affairs anyway. My university studies kept me extremely busy due to the nature of work I was into (Biophysics - involving rigorous research and a lot of time and effort), so I tuned out of politics. Moving to Canada resulted in having to be even less bothered with such issues. As Clare pointed out in the discussion on deliberate democracy, “In a country like Canada, where we are relatively comfortable, and relatively safe, and relatively economically stable”, there is a culture of general indifference towards politics.

Getting to read this article was very timely for me. Just a couple of weeks ago, I was thinking of how ‘out of it’ I was when it came to current affairs and so I was sort of gearing myself up for staying more in touch with the latest. After finishing the article, I got all motivated and went to watch some news on TV. Now I don’t know if that often happens to other people as well, but at least for me, it turned out to be a futile attempt. Not one channel (out of the hundred that my cable claims to provide – which really isn’t the case, but that’s another story) was broadcasting news! I managed to find one in the end that was telecasting some local news from a different province, but that was it! It was pretty frustrating. Being informed, enhancing political efficacy, increasing political participation seemed like pretty challenging goals all of a sudden. Yet again, it was the Internet to the rescue.

Makes me wonder if looking out for own selves has become an expectation for the times? Has the world transitioned into so much customization and self-learning, that you have to actually go look for what you need to learn? With RSS and other such information-management tools, it probably is one’s own prerogative to decide what one will choose. Open access to resources and universal availability of all kinds of information comes with a slight catch I guess. It’s all out there somewhere (on the cloud? In the air? Floating around?), but the onus is on you to tune into it. ‘The News’ ain’t comin' walking to me no more!

Technology and Gender Bias (1609-8)

Discussion shifted to gender biases in the use of technology as we read and discussed the present situation with boys still seeming to dominate the technology sector. There definitely seems to be rising appreciation of technology among girls, but the overall picture still looks pretty bent towards males. After one of the readings (by Vekiri and Chronaki) that outlined a Greek study about gender biases pertaining to technology usage, I decided to look into some other studies around the world, as I expected to see a rapidly shifting trend from boys to both girls and boys, considering what I see in the Canadian classroom every day (girls more keen on using the computer, even during their free time – although they put it to more ‘intellectual’ use than I think boys would). Natalia brought up the point of the article’s Canadian study being slightly dated as well (from 1995) in the present context where, as she pointed out in a reference, the number of female enrolments in engineering programs at Queen’s University were outlined to be on the rise.

Well, based on my resource findings and some excellent contributions from other classmates, I came to the conclusion that whereas some trends were changing, the transition is probably going to be a rather slow one. Not surprisingly, there was discussion around the reasons as to what it was with technology that attracted boys’ attention more than girls’? Clare revealed some interesting facts that led to a well-taken understanding that “cultural/gender etc influences are very subtle and complex phenomena and often hard to definitively talk about.” And indeed, as we continued to explore, we found some plausible reasoning in factors such as Jane Austen-esk values of the arts as a woman-thing being passed down from generations (Michelle), computers being initiated as a corporate-world thing that seemed to have been a male-dominated area (Jessica) and different family/cultural expectations for males and females – males being expected to be more involved with hands-on fields (Michelle).

The last point seems to be a significant one and one that is found to be a common factor in several gender gap studies. It reminded me of a rather interesting article, “Retooling Play: Dystopia, Dysphoria, and Difference” (By Suzanne de Castell & Mary Bryson) that I read earlier. It strongly points out how family expectations set the basis for what a girl or boy will experience for the rest of his or her life. The gender gap is exemplified by the words of the authors - “We know that women have always had access to technology; whether reproductive, domestic, industrial, or educational. The kinds of technologies made readily accessible to women, however—like the Fabulous Mark Eden Bust Developer, the Hamilton Beach Food Mixer, the Wang Word Processor, or the Dalkon Shield—have tended both to reify, and to produce, gender effects; effects which, in fact, consolidate already inequitable class and race positionings.”

An interesting view about these gender gaps has been articulated in An Educator's Guide to Gender Bias Issues which emphasized the roles of parents, educators and school administrators in bridging the gender gap. Whereas there are huge initiatives on ‘We’re Erasing prejudice for good’ (an ETFO publication) and ‘Education for All’ (a UN initiative), how much is really being done in the classroom to eliminate stereotypes when it comes to technology use? Are female teachers being role models or are the guy teachers usually the technology-experts at schools? And another probable question could be – should we even try? Could it be just a girl/boy thing? Just like some of us gravitate towards a personal like or dislike based on instinct, is it like that with technology use among boys and girls? If the way we treat girls or boys influences their appreciation and understanding of technology, then I think we might hold some power over this issue.

Online courses and Socialization (1609-7)

We continued to discuss the nuances and details of online communication in educational settings. A point that made me ponder over my own perceptions of computer-mediated communication was when I got into a discussion with Natalia, Michael and Dan about the importance of healthy conflict, which is more naturally possible in face to face environments as opposed to online settings. I think back to some classes where direct conflict has either led to embarrassing moments or has led to the discussion being swayed in a direction different from the goal of the class, which led to discontentment and waste of the participants’ precious time. In online courses, it is easier to talk about various other things as the course is self-paced and those who are interested have the liberty to participate in the particular discussion at their own leisure, while the ‘keeners’ can choose to stick to the ‘business’.

Another question raised by this week’s readings was that of individual responsibility being required for online courses. At the first go, I found the article Student Role Adjustment in Online Communities of Inquiry: Model and Instrument Validation by Garrison et al., pretty informative with a deep reflection of how online learning can inspire way more cognitive learning. But after I read some of my fellow students’ viewpoints and looked over the reading again, I noticed how the author was leading the readers into believing that online courses were a notch above face to face courses. Jennifer brought my attention to the interesting fact that the author was a professor of a university that delivered courses only through online mode, which could be a cause for the bias.

Indeed, some issues in online courses need to be dealt with in order to make the learning useful for everyone – not just for keen writers or those familiar with (and comfortable with) online socialization. Even though I personally like online learning, yet the reality is that we live in a ‘real’ world, not ‘virtual’ and therefore the social etiquette is equally important to learn.

Kneading Perspectives (1609-6)

A particularly useful activity I found last week was listing my goals for this course. The moderators based this task on a study by Scardamalia wherein school students were asked what they would like to learn if they had an extra hour each week for learning whatever they wished. I found it was even better that I got to do this mid-way through the course. At the beginning of the course, I would have probably said that I wanted to learn more practical, hands-on strategies for using instructional technology. But as I had had a chance to go over a few excellent discussions already in the course of this semester, I thought my real goal was to find out multiple perspectives and assimilate, integrate and synthesize my understanding of computer-mediated communication and reach a holistic perspective.

At the end of the week, Clare’s video was a great source of inspiration. Despite all the administrative work she is doing, the problems in the software she was using and a terribly busy schedule, she effectively summed up the main issue in this week’s discussion. She was honest in stating that we are not quite there yet in terms of evaluating online discourses. The readings of the week made an attempt to compare online courses with face-to-face ones and even though some inferences can be drawn, it is a difficult task to compare the two media. They both seem to offer distinct advantages different from the other.

In retrospection, I am thinking that one big advantage of online courses seems to be the ready repository of resources. Not just the class notes and discourse, but the actual resources are also easier to compile and refer to. For my other in-class courses, I have binders – supposedly organized well too – but I find that I don’t consult them often, even though sometimes I remember something from one of them and feel I could reference it. I prefer resorting to my online collection of resources – most of which have been gathered from online courses or self-learning.

On another note, yesterday some group members on the team for the Elementary Case Study assignment met in a KeC chatroom. The synchronous discussion turned out very productive. Although we have a separate asynchronous conference for this assignment where we have been firing off our own ideas and trying to organize them clearly, yesterday’s ‘meeting’ seemed like a pretty important step. This makes me wonder whether the entire class has been undermining the importance of synchronous discussion as evidenced by the Week 3 responses to the task of stating preferences for the system of their choice. Most of us had picked asynchronous, articulating the need for flexibility, control, ‘no-pressure’, better focus, choice of time and so on. But I guess, what one can do, the other sometimes cannot. For example, after yesterday’s chat, we all have a timeframe, are clear on what sections each person is to cover (as opposed to randomly contribute wherever whenever) and what the general outline of the paper is to look like. With a large group, it was getting difficult to smooth out these issues all on asynchronous forums.

So, definitely my perspective has broadened this week about computer-mediated communication in general as well as about the modes and principles through which it is carried out, in specific.

Checking in (1609 - 5)

This week’s readings focus on Teaching Presence and Knowledge-Building. Two weeks ago, we had already started a little bit of discussion on how to build social presence and the importance of facilitation (as mentioned in a previous journal entry) . This week seems to be focussed entirely on that and it gives everyone a chance to analyze online environments more thoroughly.
With regards to the topic being discussed this week, I found it very interesting to compare Asynchronous/online learning environments and Face-to-face learning environments on the basis of a structured framework. The facilitators referenced another article on online teaching effectiveness, which I thought was an excellent idea as it touched up on the topic of discussion very clearly and referenced some ‘teacher traits’ that need to be present in both face to face and online environments.

I know some people who opt for online courses because they think they are ‘quick and easy’. Others (including myself) like them more because they give them time to chew and process the information and work the way they want to. It is so interesting to see contrasting viewpoints about the same issue.

Based on the reading on ‘Collective Cognitive Responsibility for the Advancement of Knowledge’, the moderators have posted a question about our learning goals from this course, steps towards achieving them and foreseen obstacles. I found that activity very helpful as it gave me a checkpoint to see how well I was progressing and what else I needed to do. There are times when there is so much to do and online courses become so overwhelming with the amount of information that one resorts to quick responses to discussions. I was made aware of this through one of the readings in this course (A content analytic comparison of learning processes in online and face-to-face case study discussions) which suggested that in online environments students rushed into posting as they had control over that aspect, sometimes even before exploring concrete details about the subject. This leads to a lack of analysis and integration. I hope to be able to avoid this hasty disposition throughout the course.

Wikis and collaboration (1609 - 4)

This week the discussion moved on to the exploration of wikis and access to information using the Internet and handhelds like cellphones. One point of speculation about wikis is their ‘editable’ nature. There are people who are not comfortable having their ideas and words changed, modified, deleted or moulded. It could be a personality issue as well. Just like everyone has a different style of socialization and communication, everyone could have a different perspective on online communication through the mode of wikis.

In a lot of workplaces (especially schools), people struggle with issues of collaboration because of lack of time. Sometimes, starting a wiki seems like a possibility in such situations, but since work needs to be done, people cannot really wait for another person to learn how to use a wiki, to get out of his or her comfort zone, to make sure at least one post is made every day by every person and to ensure that everyone is regularly checking up on the information. In light of all these possibilities, it does not seem practical in a lot of situations, especially where the technical levels of participants is very varied.

Online environments and their facilitation (1609 - 3)

Moderating last week’s discussion was fun. The topic of discussion was a comparison between synchronous and asynchronous online environments. There were many interesting arguments – mostly in favour of asynchronous. People seem to enjoy the control they have in asynchronous. Although I was expecting a lot of people to say that each type of mode has its own place, I found myself putting check-mark after check-mark for asynchronous. It lets people pick their own time, think things through and avoid confusion.

We also discussed obstacles in Online Learning Environments (OLEs) and Vincent raised a good point about ‘writing anxiety’. Certainly the stronger writers are more comfortable in OLEs since text is the major mode. That brings forth the issue of facilitation. What opportunities are provided and how all participants can feel comfortable is mostly in the hands of the facilitator. One of the learnings from another course that has always stuck with me is the TPACK model which emphasizes the convergence of technological, pedagogical and content knowledge on the part of the teacher. I found myself thinking back to that concept as we discussed the importance of facilitation. Interestingly, on similar lines, another group was discussing social presence and how it can be cultured through the conscious use of some parameters. Jennifer and Murat attached their papers based on their past studies related to social presence, which I found wonderful. Sharing of such ideas, especially coming from one's own expertise, helps provide a structured viewpoint on the issue.

Online learning needs no bashing (1609 - 2)

An interesting question was raised last week about the perception of online learning; what the media’s stand is on this and what is being projected about online learning - including distance education.

When looking at the holistic picture, it still does seem that conventional, face-to-face learning is more acceptable for some scenarios. I know for example, that just until some time ago, when an internationally trained teacher came to Canada and applied for certification, their B.Ed. program was not given any credit by OCT if the program had been done in a distance mode. Nowadays, however, I have heard that they have started to look into such cases as well, but the number of conditions imposed are higher than in the case of teachers whose programs have been face-to-face. I believe that the reasoning behind their non-acceptance of distance education programs emerges from the fact that people take such courses sometimes just for the sake of credentials and in a very ‘quick and easy’ way. It was believed that distance education lacks serious passion and commitment.

Personally I believe that it is the way a distance education program is set up that determines its effectiveness. Things are changing pretty fast with more online resources available now than ever before. It reminds me of a video that I watched in a previous course in which Allen Collins mentions our current age as a life-long learning era , where learning is available just when and where we would like to have it. Not only graduate and other academic courses, but also various ‘casual’ courses are now available to provide interested individuals some learning at their own pace.

I cannot close this journal without mentioning YouTube! Being away from my parents and older, experienced relatives, all my kitchen learning usually comes from YouTube. When I was put in the role of a technology teacher a few years ago, I self-taught myself quite a bit of technology using YouTube. There are several online methods nowadays like video, audio, screencasts, podcasts, streaming, forums etc that will let us learn all the time. Online learning needs no bashing, because it is valuable.

CTL 1609 begins! :)

Open lines of communication always warm me up. So, when Clare started a discussion about what could be some potential problems we could face in this online course, it felt like a community. With everyone sharing their ideas of what works and what doesn’t work for them in online courses, I felt safe to share mine. I also got a chance to elaborate on the fact that my social outlook and my own personality make me a better fit for online courses. Computer-mediated communication refreshes me. It opens up several wonderful opportunities for expression in my case. I hardly mention this elsewhere, but my graduate diploma in Journalism which culminated with a Frank Moraes memorial award for Editing gives me confidence in written expression.

Another issue discussed was 'Tagging'. In the beginning, I wasn't too sure what to think of it, but it became clear with the readings and discussion that it was a technique to follow if one has to stay on top of the exponentially increasing information and use it to one's benefit.

The interesting biographies of some of my amazing classmates are providing a forum for rich conversation - again helping to build community. It was so funny running into a classmate who is in India at this time and basically living the life that could have totally been mine! Small world I guess. Even smaller with Computer-mediated communication around!