Technology and educational empowerment: Students' perspectives

Saye, John W.

doi:10.1007/bf02299522

Cited by 23 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…The experience of individual learners, as they negotiate this new way of learning, communicating, and sharing information, has not been a large part of educational technology research (Saye, 1997), but learner experiences may affect the efficacy and viability of online courses. Understanding learner experiences and perspectives is important because students most likely make individual decisions about the value and sustainability of online learning for themselves based upon their experiences and impressions of those experiences.…”

Section: Social Interaction Is a Natural Human Need And Is Acknowledgmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It may facilitate participation and allow the participants the ability to be reflective and to compose thoughtful rather than spontaneous responses (Edelson, 1998;Whitworth, 1998), as well as have a democratizing effect that prevents discussions from being dominated by a few articulate or verbose speakers (Saye, 1997). Although in one study (Cravner & Michael, 1998) it was discovered that in classes which met both face-to-face and online, students who occupy face-to-face discussion also dominate the computer-mediated discussion.…”

Section: Online Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An examination of social presence in an online learning environment.

Crim

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Section: Social Interaction Is a Natural Human Need And Is Acknowledgmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Online Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

An examination of social presence in an online learning environment.

Crim

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“…3 Saye ( 1997) emphasized the need to collect, to code, and to analyze data simultaneously and recursively.…”

Section: Technologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The children entering school in the twenty-first century and their teachers will be increasingly technophile. Saye (1997) have found that the daily problems and unpredictability do wear me down. Belief in the ultimate value of the experience and sheer enthusiasm for the future of writing on the web keep me going.…”

Section: Online Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Writing on the web: online technology and the writers' workshop in the junior secondary classroom

Woods¹

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Schools are places where students are required to perform writing acts and submit written products. A writers' workshop (WW) is one method used in schools to encourage students to write. Most would include the peer conference, the time for a student to talk about her/his writing, face-to-face, in various stages, one to one or in small groups of three to four peers. Graves (1983, 1985), Calkins (1986), and Atwell (1987 gave encouraging descriptions of their WW classrooms. Others have illuminated some of the challenges (DiPardo and Freedman, 1998;Lensmire, 1992Lensmire, , 1994Morse, 1994;Rouse, 1988;Zemelman and Daniels, 1988). In particular, implementation of the peer conference has been problematic. Issues of teacher control are forefront and reinforced by the need to maintain a safe and productive classroom environment. Unlike the traditional teacher-talk dominated classroom, the peer conference creates less closely supervised opportunities for students to speak. In this restructured learning environment, the immediate peer culture becomes an important concern. The teacher cannot be sure that the classroom is a safe place for every student to share her/his work with peers (Lensmire, 1992).Despite these realities, constructivist theory stresses the importance of context and encourages active participation of students through talk and writing (Schaafsma, 1996;Doolittle, 1999; Schallert, Dodson, Benton, Reed, Amador, Lissi, Coward & Fleeman,1999). Online technology opens a new range of alternatives, and several features seem applicable to the problem of safety in the peer conference. Tornow (1997) and Bonk, Malik:owski, Angeli, and Supplee (1998) described the use of the online conference in a university setting. These authors defended the benefits of learning in a social context. Bonk et. al. (1998) saw web-based conferencing as "an electronic apprenticeship," an application ofVygotsky's negotiation of meaning within students' zone of proximal development. Three ofBakhtin's (1981) key perceptions are embodied in the WW: Through writing, the individual is able to to develop a dialogic awareness of his/her own place in the community (Brandist, 1997;Lensmire, 1994). Student stories are utterances in context, socio-linquistic narratives with an intertextual nature (Schallert et. al., 1999). However, with the reduction of autocratic control, the peer conference, like Bakhtin's carnival, has the potential to open the darker Writing on the Web Ill underbelly of the adolescent nature, and further serves as a caution to maintain a safe classroom environment.As researcher, I had a dual role as the teacher of the classroom under study. My goals were:( 1) to create an online learning environment for the peer conference; (2) to peruse the peer responses to monitor class climate; (3) to assess the value of the peer conference; ( 4) to obtain students' evaluations of the online conference experience; and (5) to assess the value of the peer conference as indicated by revisions made between the draft and fmal copy of o...

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Displacing Student–Teacher Equilibrium in Virtual Learning Environments

Black

The International Handbook of Virtual Learning Environments

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A great catalyst causing considerable change in our 21st century classrooms is the recent implementation and usage of the now ubiquitous computer; this new technological innovation in the secondary school classroom has had a tremendous over-riding effect on traditional learning environments. With digital technologies supplanting older ones, the computer has had an impact within schools. Not only are computers instrumental in the creation of virtual learning environments, but also within these new environments they also affect student-teacher social dynamics. Consequently, what are being altered are the learning environments themselves as well as the pedagogical and social relationships forged between educators and their pupils.In the new virtual classrooms, frequently educators rely on their "techsavvy" students for technical assistance while these "whiz kids" often have developed digital competence far surpassing their teachers (Black, 2002;Negroponte, 1995;Tapscott, 1998). However, it is often assumed (and hoped) that teachers in training have systematically developed a rich and extensive knowledge base in their area of technological expertise before being professionally hired to disseminate their knowledge to future students. Unfortunately, this is not the case. With the rapid change from analog to digital technologies within the last decade, with the embracement of many of these new technologies within educational institutions, and with the swift technological advancements perpetually occurring, many teachers find themselves in complex and tenuous situations. Both new and experienced educators have an extremely difficult time obtaining proper training in order to keep abreast of digital technologies in the schools.In this chapter I will discuss case study research in which I examined the relationships between teachers and students in virtual learning environments (Black, 2002). For this study, I interviewed both educators and pupils in order to obtain their perceptions of the complex interactions and dynamics they have forged. One of the teachers I interviewed, Mr. Ross observes that good technology teachers obtain much respect because the prevalent student attitude is that mastering technology is not only important but also "cool". The ideal situation is for teachers to have acquired a firm foundation studying computers and technology at university. The condition for this model foundation is superb technological teacher training at a teacher's college; one can then supplement 497

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Technology and educational empowerment: Students' perspectives

Cited by 23 publications

References 27 publications

An examination of social presence in an online learning environment.

An examination of social presence in an online learning environment.

Writing on the web: online technology and the writers' workshop in the junior secondary classroom

Displacing Student–Teacher Equilibrium in Virtual Learning Environments

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