Ubiquitous Learning
Lived Experiences of Students and Professors in a Blended Learning Graduate Program: A Case Study of a Canadian Faculty of Education
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Maurice Taylor
The purpose of this study was to explore the current experiences of students and professors in a Faculty of Education graduate program that has adopted blended learning. It was also intended to uncover some of enablers and constraints faced by faculty administration in implementing a university wide blended learning initiative. Using a qualitative case study research design, a large faculty of education in a mid-sized university in Eastern Ontario, Canada was the site of the investigation. A constant comparative data analysis technique was used on three data sources were: key informant interviews, artifacts and field notes. Results indicated that the graduate student has specific learning requirements that necessitate attention to certain aspects of this new teaching method and that professors who teach in a blended learning format are working towards meeting the needs of such students. Enablers and constraints from an administrator’s perspective in further developing blended learning are also addressed.
Changing Shape of Sites of Learning
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Janis Massa
Centrally-planned educational policies, pedagogy, and practices, are evolving, no longer limited to teachers standing in front of a room delivering content to students. The ubiquity of the internet, wireless networks and other technologies have torn down the walls of the classroom, morphing it into a variety of unconventional, location-independent, learning settings. New models of online and hybrid learning can provide learning options and individualized instruction for students, with the goal of increasing engagement and achievement. School settings can be adjusted to respond to complexities of increased diversity, globally, by drawing on daily, lived experiences of students. Project Learning, to be presented, here, serves as a model of inquiry-based learning, designed to bring students’ realities into the classroom while actively linking new concepts and skills to the existing knowledge base. The Project has been field-tested by this researcher at the two diverse sites in the U.S. Implications confirm that students’ background and current realities must constitute the basis of policies, practices and pedagogy for teaching and learning to occur (Massa, forthcoming). Students in classrooms located in highly distinct areas of the U.S., conduct joint research on a common aspect of their respective communities, ranging from historical, cultural, urban/rural development, or other. A collaboratively written Research Paper provides opportunities for partners to negotiate a common topic, develop research questions, organize the paper, showcase communities in which the students live-- and bring that reality into the classroom. Digital technology facilitates students in creating a secure web site to disseminate information via Instagram. Two team members video conference via Google Talk, participate in threaded dialogue, and exchange pertinent documents. Google Earth permits students to display aspects of their communities with 3-D present-time geographic representation; local Project liaisons coordinate the time difference in both diverse areas.
Generating Opportunities for Learning in Online Higher Education: A Digital Learning Ecologies Perspective
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Mitchell Peters
In the rapidly evolving world of online higher education, there is an urgent need to actively and reflexively examine the interconnections and complex relations between what is learned in formal university scenarios and the everyday informal learning that happens in online contexts. Among the most significant (and solvable) challenges impeding technology adoption in higher education is connecting learning across formal and informal scenarios. The connectivity and ubiquity of digital culture have become integrated into our daily lives, changing our behaviours and everyday learning habits, while also offering expanded and emerging learning scenarios. The current study uses a qualitative multi-case study to examine and systematize the components that configure the digital learning ecology of online higher education students. It will use in-depth semi-structured interviews, online ethnographic techniques, and a digital survey to identify and systematize how students configure and activate the different components of their digital learning ecologies to generate opportunities for learning across formal and informal contexts. This paper presents initial results of a multi-case study through discourse and content analysis of initial interviews and online participant observation of case study participants. As the majority of all learning in present and future settings will be both online and situated in ever-shifting physical and online contexts, it is the argument of this research that an ecological perspective in online higher education, represented through a digital learning ecologies conceptual framework, will prepare students for the demands of a complex, dynamic and interconnected global society.
