Wiki+Outcomes+and+Research

Students will • develop higher level thinking skills • develop positive attitudes toward literacy • have increased levels of engagement and motivation • develop their oral communication skills • develop their written communication skills • develop their social interaction skills • use team approaches to problem solving while maintaining individual accountability • think critically and clarify their ideas through discussion and debate • work cooperatively and collaboratively outside their own classroom environment • criticize ideas, not people • view situations from others' perspectives • develop links with classes from other cluster schools
 * Desired Learning Outcomes**

1. The cognitive model of media choice proposed by Robert and Dennis (Lionel P. Robert and Alan R. Dennis, “Paradox of Richness: A Cognitive Model of Media Choice,” IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, vol. 48, no. 1 (March 2005), pp. 10–21.) theorizes that asynchronous communication increases a person’s ability to process information. The receiver has more time to comprehend a message because an immediate answer is not expected.
 * What the research says:**

2. Student-Centred Collaborative Learning Via Face-to-Face and Asynchronous Online Communication: What’s the Difference? By Ainslie Ellis. www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/melbourne01/pdf/papers/ellisa.pdf Advantages of online asynchronous communication as mentioned by students: • It is convenient in time and place • It is more equitable – especially for quieter students – more students participate • Details of the discussion remain. One can backtrack and reread a message • Allows the more reflective thinking student to participate more • The asynchronous nature allows for a more considered response • The lecturer is seen as a moderator rather than a teacher • It allowed for discussion with students from other class groups • The lecturer becomes just one of the group in discussion • More freedom and more likely to express opinions and comment on other’s remarks • It is possible to choose what to participate in and one can multitask

• Disadvantages of online asynchronous communication as mentioned by students: Disadvantages of the online forum listed by students were mainly to do with the lack of immediacy of response and lack of the interactive features of conversation that caused the forum discussion to be more constrained (see Table 2). About 25% of the students felt that too much opinion was expressed (posting only from existing knowledge) rather than structured analysis and research, and that a student’s written English skills may influence their participation. • It wasn’t possible to read face-to-face nuances such as body language • Took away the features of conversation (e.g. immediacy of response, interactivity) • It was difficult to get an indication of depth of feeling or a person’s response • Some students relied on others to post - only ? contributed in any one discussion • Discussion threading can become confused, allowing discussion to go off-track • There was a tendency not to post when in agreement • It is possible to opt out of the discussion, and the extended time for the discussion delays conclusions being reached or causes the topic to go off track 2

3. Vygotsky theory: socially situated learning. Vygotsky’s theory promotes learning contexts in which students play an active role in learning. Roles of the teacher and student are therefore shifted, as a teacher should collaborate with his or her students in order to help facilitate meaning construction in students. Learning therefore becomes a reciprocal experience for the students and teacher. According to Vygotsky, humans use tools that develop from a culture, such as speech and writing, to mediate their social environments. Initially children develop these tools to serve solely as social functions, ways to communicate needs. Vygotsky believed that the internalization of these tools led to higher thinking skills. http://www.learning-theories.com/vygotskys-social-learning-theory.html

Online collaboration: Sarah Haavind of The Concord Consortium describes the best kind of e-learning or webcourse as having many of the same qualities as "a well-run seminar." She continues: The key idea is that participants create their own learning through thoughtful conversation and collaboration, guided by a knowledgeable teacher who is expert in facilitating online groups. This design is pedagogically superior to other designs because it is based on social constructivist learning principles: having learners create their own understandings based on group conversations. When group-based learning is implemented online, inexpensive asynchronous technologies (typically, threaded discussion groups) are not only satisfactory, they are superior to synchronous ones. This online learning environment can be better than a seminar, because each participant has time to think about the conversation as it unfolds in slow-motion and to make thoughtful contributions. http://www.concord.org/newsletter/2002winter/online_courses.html