Distance Learning Systems Application - Coursework Example

Distance Learning Systems Application Introduction The growing developments that technology and communications have taken so far have been an essential part of the growing system of technological applications. Along with the technological advancements, the social living of humans also is further enhanced. Both economic and social lifestyles were advancing but there was no rest in incurring the best possible progress that the developers of technological systems wanted. With the introduction of computers to the society, the easier way of living and completing everyday tasks has become a trend for many industrial workers. With the introduction of the computer technology to the human society during the 19th Century, the works or the tasks of people have been further created with ease. With the implementation of computer systems within the existing systems of completion for human tasks, the jobs of people, which can be merged with technological arrangements, were enhanced to becoming easily completed. Today, 95% of the whole population of man all around the world utilizes the computer systems for their everyday application. Even ordinary appliances are now compiled with complex operating systems based upon computer arrangements to be able to meet the best possible performance that they could render the human society. (Tanenbaum, 2006, 15) The introduction of the Internet systems to the world has been noted as one of the most successful breakthroughs that has been attempted, pursued and now fulfilled by the merging of science and technology in increasing the capability of human communication in connecting people together from a worldwide perspective. Years before the said introduction, people simply depended on snail mails and telephone calls to be able to communicate with their loved ones abroad. It could also be remembered that people who had lesser financial resource also have lesser chances of actually meeting foreign friends. Now, all those situations have already changed. The connection of people to people actually managed to step forward to the next level. Most likely enough, the situation of connecting humans from the different parts of the world has already been revolutionized through the development and continuous advancement of the Internet Systems. Certainly, the entire human systems now mostly depend on the said global connection. Economic and political arrangements are now much more effectively done through the adaptation of the said systems with the arrangements of the Internet instituted within the said human engagements. Overall, seeing the said progress on the positive side would actually suggest the fact that internet arrangements have actually brought the whole human society into the new age of communication and information burst out. Thus, computing technology has many advantages and benefits many for the betterment and advancement of the lifestyles and practical processes in the society making it very much valuable for the public. For the public to benefit for this technology, it must be made generally accessible for every people who wish to incorporate the computing technology in his or her lives. The end the dilemma of digital division, technology must be made to be suitable adaptable for the society for it to be able to bridge the gap across the humanity. The Project Based Learning and Its Basic Applications Based on Technological Advancements in the Society The project-based learning approach has been actually developed to help young learners to become inspired in being able to further understand the society in their own point of view. Naturally, this approach for classrooms activities directly emphasizes the essence of long-term learning. Through further development of the said process of teaching, PBL has been noted to encourage deep investigation among young students. Since they are usually faced within the subjects that concern the society, the students are further encouraged increasing the interest they have towards learning. True to its sense, many teachers believe that project-based learning helps the students further develop their independent sense of working on their own assigned tasks. In turn, this process further allows them to acquire a more in-depth learning and accurate informations regarding their own study topics. Through the application of project-based learning, the creation of a fine environment of learning for the students has been successfully met. PBL is mainly a form of an inductive teaching that is designed to carry on the use of problem solving as a form of teaching than simply resorting to spoon-feeding processes that were traditionally utilized by past educators. As the PBL system is being directly applied, the roles of the said system is mainly described to be much effective for the students as it is applied through the thought of carrying its roles in learning: PBL relies on learning groups that involves the students in an actual performance of investigation of the given problem PBL allows student groups to determine their projects. Most of the students are able to actually get involved in the process of learning that is further implied in the problem solving PBL helps the students realize their own social responsibility because of the fact that they are commonly faced with the actual problems that plague the society PBL helps them develop soaring self-esteems as they are able to get directly connected with the problem solving Students develop a thirst for being able to be directly connected to the social phenomena that happens in the society now every now and then. With the roles that have been listed herein, it could then be noted that PBL is indeed a break through in the field of education, and its application in the field of learning. Furthermore, Ravitz, and his colleagues in his research on the development of PBL systems comment on PBL this way: “Project Based Learning is not only a potentially effective instructional approach, but it is also an essential component of several current school reform models. There are many definitions and approaches to Project Based Learning. We define standards-focused Project Based Learning as a systematic teaching method that engages students in learning knowledge and skills through an extended inquiry process structured around complex, authentic questions and carefully designed products and tasks (Buck Institute for Education, 2003)” (Ravitz, 2004) It is then further made certain that the project-based learning system is used with the incorporation of technological inventions for communication. Through this systematic process, the effectiveness of PBL is then empowered and thus become more practical for young learners. Hence, the project-based leaning approach that is used towards students today has created an easier way in shaping the minds of the young learners towards the importance of gaining knowledge through research. It has been noted too that through this process, the young minds of the students are challenged to work; as a result, their ability in reasoning out for what they believe into is sharpened. With the introduction of the Internet and the revolution of information sharing in the human society, PBL is further exposed to practical use of online students. The creation of online, self-learning modules and other classroom-based activities that are made available online for students in the Internet, the implication of PBL system has helped so much in increasing the capability of the transfer of learning in such setups. In the said system of learning, computers are further given a high regard when it comes to problem solving. The resources that are found in the Internet are examined to have been very helpful for the understanding of the students. The information technology has much been interconnected with the PBL’s effective application. The fast-paced exchange of learning through this system has been much affected with the computer information sharing development. According to David Moursund, there are two major roles that computers play in the PBL’s actual application in learning activities. The said roles are as follows: 1. It is intended for use in non-ICT courses for pre-service and in-service teachers. There, it provides background needed as the courses focus on their main content areas. Within these non-ICT content areas, a course will emphasize both lower-order and higher-order skills. Instruction in both components of a discipline is intended to increase expertise in posing, representing, and solving the problems of the discipline. Thus, problem solving is part of every discipline. 2. It is intended for use in workshops for in-service teachers, school administrators, and teachers’ aides. Here the intent is to improve education by helping educators understanding the steadily increasing power of ICT to empower students in posing, representing, and solving complex problems. With the said roles, it is obvious that the computer information sharing systems has made it possible for PBL to gain much acceptance in the field of education. The art of critical thinking and reasoning has been further pre-arranged to work together towards a more practical learning capability that could be attained by young learners. Concerning the application of PBL in actual learning process, it has been noted that the role of computers along with the application of critical thinking on the part of the students is a crucial stage of the process. This would naturally involve the complete attention of the students as well as their excellent performance in the investigation to be able to come up with the expected results. Lauren Resnick (Moursund, 2004) says that there are mainly nine major characteristics of the inculcation of Critical thinking in the PBL system that makes it more effective for learners to grasp the lessons that they discover through problem solving. The said characteristics are as follows: • Is non-algorithmic—the path of action is not fully specified in advance -The main idea of implementing PBL in the learning scheme of students is to let the students discover the ways by which they could solve the problem in their own strategies. This would rather help them attain the capability of further understanding the problem even before they begin the investigation. • Is complex—with the total path not visible from any single vantage point - The character of a problem is naturally complex. This is the main reason why it is called a “problem”. The complexity of the matter would spur up the interest of the students to know what is there to be learned. The curiosity of the students is further awakened because of the want of being involved in the solving process of the issue that they are faced with. • Often yields multiple solutions, each with costs and benefits - Along the way of creating the possible solutions for the issue being discussed, it is normal to arrive at several ways of solving the problem. All different solutions do have their own benefits that could lead to the completion of the problem-solving process being taken. • Involves nuanced judgment and interpretation -With all the teammates working on the problem, there would be numerous judgments and interpretations that could come up along the way. With this, the ability of the team to work together would be tested and further enhanced as they are faced with the process of deciding on which interpretation is most practical for the solution of the problem being dealt with by the entire team. • Involves the application of multiple criteria, which sometimes conflict with one another -With the application of the interpretations and the judgments that have been mentioned earlier, the conflict of ideas could then arise. This is where the ability of the teammates or the students to deal with the said conflicts could be well observed. In real life chances of facing problems, the said skill of enduring the tests of conflict within the tam could be applied in real-life problems that would involve the students in the future in their professional jobs. • Often involves uncertainty, because not everything that bears on the task is known -Uncertainties makes it possible for the students to move themselves to identify what is further needed and asked for in the problems that they are dealing with. This way, the students are able to understand the problem in their own way and would be more capable of solving the problems through the application for their own skills in the process. • Involves self-regulation of the thinking process, rather than coaching at every step Self-reliance is further enhanced in this sector of the PBL application. The ability of the student to understand the necessary informations needed for solving the problem is essential in this process. Being able to understand the situation in one’s own way would help a student fully share on the team’s goal of solving the issue that they are assigned to solve. • Involves imposing meaning, finding structure in apparent disorder -Once the disorders arise, the students are able to measure their capability of thinking of a better way to fix the problems that arise along the way. With this, the students are then able to impose meanings on the structured disorders that they meet hence, they are then encouraged to use critical thinking as a tool of understanding the matters involved in the problem. • Is effortful, with considerable mental work involved -A PBL system is known for its encouragement on the involvement of the mind in learning. It has been learned through the studies that psychologists performed, that the ability of a person to utilize his mind in the process of living that is learned through early education is highly applicable in the actual life of the students as they grow older and would apply their learned skill in thinking in their own fields of profession. It has been found through the said studies that a student who is practiced early in thinking critically fares better than that of other students who were not encouraged to think well in their studying processes in school institutions. With the said characteristics, it is indeed a certainty that the encouragement of the use of the mind ion learning is the one that is mainly encouraged by the process of application of PBL systems. The enthusiasts of the said learning strategy are well indulged in their want of being able to inculcate the importance of mind utilization among young students. Instead of the traditional “spoon-feeding” system that has been used in ages, PBL revolutionizes the learning process of the students of the modern era. The ability of the mind to control the outcomes that govern a human’s decisions in life is immensely amazing. It could be noted that through the history of humanity, the use of the mind as a powerful tool of making things happen is indeed proven by the large names of men that contributed to the development of the civilization of humanity. It is indeed nothing magical. On the contrary, the mind is a powerful matter that the creator provided humans for them t be able to use their free will in deciding on the ways with which the individual should go to. In connection to this, Elert comments: “The human brain controls memory, vision, learning, thought, consciousness and other activities. By means of electrochemical impulses the brain directly controls conscious or voluntary behavior. It also monitors, through feedback circuitry, most involuntary behavior and influences automatic activities of the internal organs. During fetal development the foundations of the mind are laid as billions of neurons form appropriate connections and patterns. No aspect of this complicated structure has been left to chance. The basic wiring plan is encoded in the genes. The brains billions of neurons connect with one another in complex networks. All physical and mental functioning depends on the establishment and maintenance of neuron networks.” (As quoted by Moursund, 2004)Yes, the application of PBL in the learning activities of young students encourages the capability of the individual person to utilize his mind in the process of solving the problems that they are assigned to investigate. Through this enthusiastic goal of PBL to incite within the students the importance of applying critical thinking in learning, the transfer of learning among the educators towards their respective students are thus increased. Today, the difference between the traditional learning process and the information age learning, which involves PBL, is directly different. The information age mainly encourages the application of the ability of the students to work on their own with minimum supervision from their instructors. The said differences shall be discussed in the list that follows: Customization Unlike the standardization system, the students are now encouraged to create their own personal ways by which they are more capable of grasping their lessons. This is patterned on the fact that a person is bale to determine his capability of learning. Numerous students have their own capacity and pace of learning. Each individual student differ from each other, hence, the customization system allows them to be classified accordingly to the pace of their learning ability. This way, they are able to learn their lessons in their own capability, thus giving them the chance to learn more than how much they would naturally learn from the standardized system. Autonomy with accountability As mentioned earlier, the control of learning is among the students. The tam that are assigned to deal with a certain issue holds most of the control on how they are supposed to complete the school requirement that they have to finish. Cooperative relationships Cooperation among each team member is encouraged. Since the problem is to be solved by the whole group as one team, the application of cooperation among each member is enhanced in the PBL systems. The incitation of the ability of each member to get along with the whole group and perform great with the team would determine the success that they could attain in the said learning system. Shared decision making Decision making is an essential part of the PBL system. If a student is under a low-road transfer of knowledge, and has happened to be within a team that has a greater high-road transfer learning capability, the other student is expected to be able to gain further encouragement to perform well with the group to at least give contribution to the solution of the problem being solved by the team. Initiative Students under PBL system are expected to apply their own initiative in creating their own strategies in making the solutions possible for the problem being dealt with by the team. In this regard, the ability of the student to inculcate within himself the importance of being able to contribute to the success of the group would help him become more socially responsible as he grows older and becomes more involved in the human society. Diversity The mix up of different people within a group allows each member of the team to develop a certain measure of understanding towards others’ capability of learning and contribution. Since PBL involves everyone in the team, the students are then encouraged to adjust to then personality and the learning capability of their teammates. Networking Everyone is involved, thus everyone is entitled to communicate through Internet networking. This way, everyone is given their own chance of sharing their ideas and judgments regarding the problem being solved by the team. Through networking, inter-cultural abilities of each student are then welcomed and appreciated, earning higher self-confidence for each individual student involved in the team. Holism According to a dictionary of Webster, holism is “the theory that living matter or reality is made up of organic or unified wholes that are greater than the simple sum of their parts” (Webster’s Dictionary, 2000) Hence, holism refers to the fact that PBL implies the importance of being directly involved in the investigation process of the project that is being completed by the team. The collection of the ideas that would contribute to the successful completion of the requirement would allow all teams to gain from the work that they have done in a more beneficial way for them as individuals and as teammates. Process-oriented Everything exists in a certain pattern of application of created process by the team. The collection of the processes that are involved in the problem solving process is indeed essential for the completion of the team project. Students then who are under a low-road transfer would be able to relate to the lessons being inculcated through the problem-solving activities since the patterns of the processes that needs to be taken is made clear for the entire group working on the issue. Learner (customer) as "King This means that the students are the ones who are in control of the learning process. The educators serve as the supervisors and not as managers. They are simply there to see if the students are able to grasp the best lessons that they could from the activities that were pre-designed for them. In this regard, the students are the ones who are referred to as the “Kings of the learning process. They are the ones who are supposed to benefit from the lessons, then they are given the chance to determine which way of teaching or learning strategy would be best for them to utilize. As the process continued to get along, more and more inventions came with it, thus making the learning process more innovative and easier to grasp for the students. To be able to apply the project the following process shall be applied in the process: CONCLUSION From this particular research, it has been noted that education has been and would always be the foundation of a progressive human society. Globalization itself may not seize this truth as each individual has the right to receive ample education that he needs to be able to survive in life. However, although globalization has no intentions of seizing this particular progress, it is certainly true, that the said economic procedure of increasing the living conditions of humans in the society affect the ways by which the said factor of growth among individuals is actually provided. Moreover, this research further tried to evaluate the different aspects that are contributed by globalization procedures that it affect also affect the educational processing of the present human society. These elements further include the emergence of technology, the language structure of the present human communities, the economic status of the people and the system of teaching that are utilized by the educators to motivate their students in learning better and grasping their lessons well for further applications in the future. However, aside from the mentioned elements, there are still others that need to be given attention, this is then the recommendation of the researcher of this paper to the others who would aim to continue the study in later time. References: Hesham Alomyan. Exploration of Instructional Strategies and Individual Difference within the Context of Web-based Learning. International Education Journal Vol 4, No 4, 2004. Educational Research Conference 2003 Special Issue. Sean Cavanagh. To Tailor Schedules, Students Log In to Online Classes. October 25, 2006. Education Week. Penina Mungania. The Seven E-learning Barriers Facing Employees. University of Louisville. 2003. M.-A. Storey, B. Phillips, M. Maczewski and M. Wang. Evaluating the usability of Web-based learning tools. Educational Technology & Society 5 (3) 2002. ISSN 1436-4522. Perry Phillips. A Case Study of the Relationship Between Socio-Epistemological Teaching Orientations and Instructor Perceptions of Pedagogy in Online Environments. Electronic Journal for the Integration of Technology in Education, Vol. 6. Aida Suraya Md. Yunus, et al. Use of web casting technology in teaching higher education. International Education Journal, 2006, 7(7), 916-923. ISSN 1443-1475 © 2006 Shannon Research Press. Read More