Technology & instructional theory

Description

University Faculty and Student Perceptions of Web-Based Instruction by Martha Daugherty and Barbara L. Funke
http://www.faculty.de.gcsu.edu/~bfunke/facres.html

Here are the results of a survey conducted by faculty member of Georgia College & State University that analyzed and reported the opinions of both students and faculty after participating in Web-based instruction (WBI). The report addresses the problems and difficulties as well as the benefits. Notably, the faculty were asked what advice they would give to colleagues following in their footsteps. Read the report to find out what they said.

The Virtual Community by Howard Rheingold
http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/intro.html

This is the online version of Rheingold's book about communication and interaction between people separated by space and connected by technology. He addresses how virtual communities can help make sense of the vast information available on the Web and the information/knowledge coming from those in the community. Also, he touches on how the absence of body language inevitably leads to online misunderstandings.

Who Owns Online Courses and Course Materials? Intellectual Property Policies for a New Learning Environment by Carol A. Twigg
http://www.center.rpi.edu/PewSym/mono2.html

A discussion of a very complex and vitally important topic. The author offers multiple case studies illustrating a variety of scenarios that highlight several of the many facets to this issue.

Web-Based Learning
http://www.keele.ac.uk/depts/cs/Stephen_Bostock/wbi.html

A listing of valuable resources regarding the subject of WBL; this is an ideal place to begin research into the subject. The links and content are current and recently updated. Get a sound basis in the theory surrounding WBL, locate and browse online courses or visit the library and look up their references.

Building Virtual Communities for Professional Development by Ferdi Serim
http://www.ed.gov/Technology/Futures/serim.html

This paper discusses how virtual communities can individualize our learning. The advice is generalized, theoretical and useful when building an intellectual foundation for the practice of online instruction. The author states "that if we are ever going to get lifelong learning to be accepted by more than 10 percent of the public, moving its pursuit from an elitist status to the foundation for responsible citizenship, teachers must rise to the highest levels of individualized learning, in order to allow their students to reach similarly high standards, and online environments, for the first time in human history, make possible the types of mentorship that will be needed."

Computer-Mediated Communication Magazine
http://www.december.com/cmc/mag/

This is a link to Computer-Mediated Communication Magazine (ISSN 1076-027X), which ran from May 1994 to January 1999. In this magazine were articles reporting about people, events, technology, public policy, culture, practices, study, and applications related to human communication and interaction in online environments. It contains a wealth of articles on a variety of topics concerning instruction on the Web, but even greater resources lie within the references and suggested readings that accompany each article.

Online Learning Communities by Marcy Bauman
http://www-personal.umd.umich.edu/~marcyb/tcc-l.html

This paper contends that educators need to pay more attention to affective, social, and cognitive functions of Web courses instead of simply trying to get something up on the Web. It "attempts to alert people to the importance of those other components of a college education, and to suggest ways to foster them online." The author includes challenges posed in creating communities online, guidelines for creating communities within individual classes, and guidelines for creating learning communities outside of class. This piece gives some very general guidelines and addresses the social aspects of interactions in the educational community.

The Impacts of On-Line Activities on Off-Line Lives by Alaina Scopp
http://www-personal.si.umich.edu/~alscopp/onvoff.html

Though dated in respect to the technology discussed, this piece presents interesting and conflicting opinions from various sources. It is brief, but touches on many aspects of computer-mediated interaction as it exists within the functioning of society.

Evolving a Distributed Learning Community: The Online K12 Classroom by Brad Cox
http://www.virtualschool.edu/cox/OnlineClassroom.html

"Technology can extend traditional teacher/learner relationships beyond the space/time limitations of the brick and mortar classroom. And it can challenge and redefine how teachers and learners have related since antiquity." The author refutes the concept of "design" and replaces it with the concept of "evolution." This evolutionary process as applied to an online course would inherently involve student assessment in the development of the course.

Hobbes' Internet Timeline v5.1 by Robert H. Zakon
http://www.isoc.org/zakon/Internet/History/HIT.html

Tracing the birth and growth of the Internet can help you understand where it's going, why Internet technologies work the way they do and some of the sources of the dominant traits of Internet culture. If you are unfamiliar with the background of the Internet, stop at this site.

Speaking of Teaching by Penelope Doob
http://www.yorku.ca/cst/spot_articles/learncom.html

This paper was written for the York University Gazette by the Director of CST at York University. The focus of the paper is learning communities in high school and college. The paper provides a sound analysis of learning communities in education.