The Impact of On-line Learning And Its Potential to Improve Standards In Secondary Education - Essay Example

Topic:  The impact of on-line learning and its potential to improve standards in secondary education “Effective use of information technology as a learning tool has transcended its boundary from being only desirable to achieve the status of bare necessity. It should be considered inexcusable should any educator overlook its power. As on-line learning expands, its impact will affect curriculum, instruction, society, and individuals personal lives and careers. While in its infancy, it is imperative that educators analyze current practices of on-line learning to ensure successful developments.” (Temba et al. 2005. pg. 285). The current practices of online learning are totally different from traditional learning systems in terms of transparency, flexibility, classroom transaction, learning environment, use of information technology and class size. Technology driven online learning hasn’t only changed the how’s and why’s of teacher pupil interaction rather it has place education through a virtual metamorphosis. As in the traditional system, the online faculty is also expected to have mastery over the discipline, but now the student retains the power to decide/control factors like time required for skill acquisition, learning conditions, demonstration of mastery etc. In this context, the researches are needed to find the impact of online learning practices, i.e. student motivation, achievement, study habits, overall personality, attitude to learning, tendency to drop out, teacher effectiveness etc. The proposed research is a small but focused step towards finding answers to questions related to the issue of large groups, development and expansion of class experience, identification and development of new forms designed to move away from mass-production teaching. 2.    Background Online learning does not provide the spontaneous situations for learning through peer interaction. Traditional interaction between students, between teacher and student, between student and other employees like the librarian or bus driver will enter a new dynamic or become passé. Anecdotally, school yard tyrants won’t be able to teach the harsh realities of the outside society. How does is peer social interaction affected? Will there be any impact on social and emotional development, and the acquisition of the stereotypical sex roles (if any)? Key issues concerning online learning in summary are—primarily, the online learning demands that every teacher and pupil should have access to internet resources of learning. Secondly, each and every class should have high speed Internet connection and third, the educators require training in the effective utilization of computers and the Internet. The curriculum will need dramatic and ongoing changes in order to sustain the student’s attention. Online learning may not have class discipline and classroom management issues. The online teacher need not prepare audio-visual aids, rather he/she will be required to gather information about the resources and decide which one to use. In first instance it resembles an episode from a science fiction novel, but nonetheless, fast becoming real. “Will the online learning be able to provide the much needed individualized learning in to practice? How the individual differences like pace of learning, style of work, creativity, motivation, attitude, abilities, interests will be taken care of by the curriculum? Will there be individualized curriculum also? “ (Bassoppo-Moyo et al 2005. pg 285) Secondary school education focuses its’ attention on development of the fundamental skills like language, mathematics and thinking. How mastery of these will be affected by the online learning? What about the effective development of the verbal aspect of language? What will be the role of mother tongue in teaching learning? The list of questions is endless. The more I think the scarce are the answers. Hence I propose this study project in order to satisfy at least few queries. 3.      Research Aims    The proposed study aims:- To determine the necessity of meeting in person to establish the learning guidelines. To assess the effectiveness of learning guidelines established without in person meeting. To compare the effectiveness of established guideline in the two ways. To judge the effectiveness of learning with no in person meetings. To suggest ways to secure new services from higher education. To find the effectiveness of learner controlled education. To develop a dynamic curricula. To study the acquisition of the skill of discovering the best serving collaborative tools in the digitally enabled knowledge driven society. (Palloff et al. 1999) 4. Proposed Research Method The appreciative inquiry approach to the research will be followed. This is based on the assertion that “problems” are often the result of our own perspectives and perceptions of the phenomenon. Say for e.g. if we look at a certain priority as a "problem," then we may tend to constrain our ability to effectively address the priority and to continue to develop in our lives and work.  This approach to strategic planning includes identification of our best times during the best situations in the past, wishing and thinking about what worked best then, visioning the future, and building from what worked best in the past, to work towards the future vision. The data needs to be collected in the form of Learning guidelines established as a result of in person meetings as well as without in person meetings, Achievement records to show the effectiveness of learning guidelines established in the two ways i.e. without in person meetings and with in person meetings. Further in order to satisfy the aims listed above, the data should be collected by Owning and Conducting an online course for the secondary education and collecting the data from there regarding enrolment, classroom transactions, evaluation, assignments, awarding of respective grades and certification, records of campus-based courses vs. online course achievements.     The data will be collected through the specifically designed questionnaires, interview schedules, observations, achievement records for the in person meeting group and for the no in person meeting group taken from the administration or the teacher, and the in person meeting records. The data collected above will be analyzed using the techniques of separating the creativity and quantitative intellectual results, and measuring the student motivation, consultation, and inspiration. The achievement records will be analysed by finding which group has the greater number of high achievers. The in person meeting records will be sifted to find the student input for guide lines. The main challenge has been to marry generic and course-specific induction materials so that the user is provided with a single set of information which is set in the context of the course that they have chosen to study.   The proposed research project is likely to face difficulties regarding detailed feedback on assignments; telephonic contact with the university whereby students can engage with tutors and administrative staff in order to solve academic or other difficulties, and assistance in the formation of study groups. Other factors that may make the study difficult include Geographical isolation or lack of a study partner, family problems, noisy neighbours and a lack of understanding of assignment questions. The technological aspect may also pose problems like difficulties with navigation and with the ease of doing some of the interactive exercises. One of the major hurdles is in the form of the lack of opportunity to plan experimental work with single variables and controls. Moral considerations prevent the notion of providing one kind of service to one cohort of students, and another, perhaps less expensive, service to another group for the purpose of research - and yet this is done in the medical profession.         Results may indicate in a context such as this, the substance and meaning of on-line activities is determined by the particular students who work together on-line. Their tutor may play a very direct role also, helping shape these interactions, sometimes designing the activities themselves in order to suit particular needs of the current group. There may be little if any fixed body of content common to all learners as indicated by guidelines. The data analyses may also leads to the inference that the courses with a much smaller proportion as compared with the traditional courses may be required. Since students may also surf the Net to find articles that fit their interests and guidelines hence there may not exist a defined body of material creating a shared framework for all students. This raises the question of where the boundaries now lie between learner support and course design and development. “Such boundaries, however, no longer hold in on-line courses where collaborative learning plays a major role. If much of the content of such a course is generated through on-line interaction and collaborative activities, how can we consider course design without also dealing with learner support at the same time? And where does one locate on-line interaction - within course design or learner support? Where so much of the content of the course cannot be specified in advance because it is the process and substance that takes place in the on-line interactions, course design and learner support start to merge. Furthermore, since learner support is no longer an add-on to a predefined course, but it defines what the course becomes, the old model of course designs first; learner support second, should be questioned and possibly reversed. Only when we have decided what can be delivered through on-line interaction, will we be in a position to design content and create course materials.” (Mills et al. 2003, pg 111) Reference: Temba C. Bassoppo-Moyo, Adel Al- Bataineh, S. Leanne Brooks, Implications of Online Teaching and Learning. Journal Title: International Journal of Instructional Media. Volume: 32. Issue: 3. Publication Year: 2005. Page Number: 285+. COPYRIGHT 2005 Westwood Press, Inc.; COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group) Temba C. Bassoppo-Moyo , Adel Al- Bataineh , S. Leanne Brooks , 2005, Implications of Online Teaching and Learning. International Journal of Instructional Media. 32(3):285) Palloff, R., & Pratt, K. 1999. Building learning communities in cyberspace: Effective strategies for the online classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc. Publishers.) Roger Mills , Alan Tait , eds, 2003, Re-Thinking Learner Support in Distance Education: Change and Continuity in an International Context. Routledge Falmer, New York, Page Number: 111,198-199.) Read More