Terry Anderson describes the role of interaction in distance education. Interaction has always been valued in education. Bates (1990) said that interactivity should be the primary criteria for selecting media for educational delivery. Also, Dewey points out that interaction is a good way to construct knowledge actively. All forms of education contains three important components. That is interactions between content, students, and teachers. I summarize the key concepts in these parts.
1. Student interaction-- student-content interaction can be recorded and displayed anytime. Student-student interaction is important based upon constructivist learning theories. Student-student interaction will enhance skill proficiency through collaborative or cooperative tasks. Student-teacher interactions can be automated.
2. Teacher interaction-- teacher interaction can be learning objects such as videos, or animations, thus changing from student-teacher interaction to student-content interaction. Deep and meaningful learning to a professional requires high levels of interaction in at least one of teacher interactions.
3. Content interaction-- the semantic Web provides an environment in which content can be formalized and manipulated, stored, searched, and computed automatically through autonomous agent technologies. The value of the content relies on the extent of students or teachers engaging in interaction, leading to relevant knowledge construction.
Reaction to Terry Anderson
Interaction in a traditional classroom is different from the interaction in a Web-based course. The differences are mainly depends on the instructional media used in Web-based courses. Technologies that Terry Anderson refers, such as two-way audio/video, and computer conferencing, are able to provide rich, dynamic communication among students. Besides, the benefit of asynchronous interaction in computer conferencing is good for busy lives of many distance learners. Also, I think using individual or combinations of media can meet various learners’ learning styles. By visual and auditory stimulation, learners can learn knowledge from real life materials and make good use of their learning styles. Thus, Web-based course designer should exercise teaching methods and activities to develop student’s intelligences. For example, auditory activities such as group discussion, brainstorming, and presentation all allow students to acquire auditory stimuli. Charts, fresh cards, videos and maps are good resource for visual learners. Besides the content in the web-based course, students’ interaction with students and teachers are enhanced because video or pictures can be a prompt for learners to discuss. Also, students have more opportunities to actively engage in the interaction with others such as giving response, critiques, team work or collaborative learning. The ways used to deliver course information will affect whether students actually learn the content. So, as teachers, we need to know how to maximize the interactions among students, teachers and contents.
Anderson, T. (2003) Getting the mix right again: An updated and theoretical rationale for interaction. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, Vol 4, No 2.
1. Student interaction-- student-content interaction can be recorded and displayed anytime. Student-student interaction is important based upon constructivist learning theories. Student-student interaction will enhance skill proficiency through collaborative or cooperative tasks. Student-teacher interactions can be automated.
2. Teacher interaction-- teacher interaction can be learning objects such as videos, or animations, thus changing from student-teacher interaction to student-content interaction. Deep and meaningful learning to a professional requires high levels of interaction in at least one of teacher interactions.
3. Content interaction-- the semantic Web provides an environment in which content can be formalized and manipulated, stored, searched, and computed automatically through autonomous agent technologies. The value of the content relies on the extent of students or teachers engaging in interaction, leading to relevant knowledge construction.
Reaction to Terry Anderson
Interaction in a traditional classroom is different from the interaction in a Web-based course. The differences are mainly depends on the instructional media used in Web-based courses. Technologies that Terry Anderson refers, such as two-way audio/video, and computer conferencing, are able to provide rich, dynamic communication among students. Besides, the benefit of asynchronous interaction in computer conferencing is good for busy lives of many distance learners. Also, I think using individual or combinations of media can meet various learners’ learning styles. By visual and auditory stimulation, learners can learn knowledge from real life materials and make good use of their learning styles. Thus, Web-based course designer should exercise teaching methods and activities to develop student’s intelligences. For example, auditory activities such as group discussion, brainstorming, and presentation all allow students to acquire auditory stimuli. Charts, fresh cards, videos and maps are good resource for visual learners. Besides the content in the web-based course, students’ interaction with students and teachers are enhanced because video or pictures can be a prompt for learners to discuss. Also, students have more opportunities to actively engage in the interaction with others such as giving response, critiques, team work or collaborative learning. The ways used to deliver course information will affect whether students actually learn the content. So, as teachers, we need to know how to maximize the interactions among students, teachers and contents.
Anderson, T. (2003) Getting the mix right again: An updated and theoretical rationale for interaction. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, Vol 4, No 2.
1 comment:
Hello Hsiao-chi,
Thanks for your comments. You have indicated another important issue of learnign styles! Usually we discuss this in spring or fall as an issue of individualism, but I found no time for this summer class this time! :( It is really important that we use technology to forster multiple intelligence or fit students' learning styles, it's really not like you use technology then all the students would automatically fall for that!A careful design based on students' needs is crucial.
Chien-han
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