Mid-semester Reflections

I am looking back at what we have been able to achieve over the past few weeks. The readings are substantial, yet, informative, insightful, and thought provoking. For example, Gill Salmon’s (2002) E-tivities discusses in detail the 5-Stage Model – a structured, paced-program that is essential to support and develop online learners/participants in their attempt to build up their expertise in learning online. The main key to the E-tivities program is "Scaffolding" – a gradual process of building on participants’ pervious experience to develop competence. It is proposed that participants will benefit from increasing skills and comfort in working, networking and learning as they “scaffold” through the online learning process. The 5-Stage Model consists of access and motivation, online socialization, information exchange, knowledge construction and development.

I find the processes practical and real as I relate them to the FIT project. Most of the participants went through these stages (as articulated by Salmon). The majority of the participnats have progressed into the fourth stage. Presently, there are course-related group discussions and the interaction is more of a collaborative process as the participants are primarily engaged in group-projects at this stage. Participants are engaged in sharing experiences, ideas and different viewpoints to solve problems and build knowledge.

Also remarkable is the real-time application of the article from the Australian Flexible Learning Framework Project. This article is particularly helpful as it defines facilitation from different perspectives and contexts: applied to managing learning, and communication (Coghlan, 2002), and student-centered pedagogical approach (Kempe, 2001). The scope of the guide, in addition to the definitions, explains the importance of facilitation and how the effectiveness of facilitation is measured. One of the challenges I find intriguing is the decision to stay back as a facilitator and allow your students to discover the power and the potential of the online medium for self and group learning, and not purposefully, dominating inadvertently or stifling the process or discussion. The question is “where is to draw the fine line?” I am not sure the criteria to use in assessing the frequency of participation of a facilitator in a group discussion. How “far” do you stay back?

Generally, it is a useful tool to define the role of the facilitator, direct the facilitation process, and provide needed resources for successful facilitation process. It is succint and well-articulated.

I will not conclude this section without referring to the Bonk & Zhang’s (2006) article on the R2D2 Model. The R2D2 Model is a framework for online learning for diverse learners of this world. I am not sure what “this world” means, but that is beside the point. What I find very significant and interesting about this model is the appeal to diverse audiences (learners) with different learning styles, in different contexts, as well as the choice and selection of strategies and media to meet the needs and requirements of the targeted audience. A variety of suggested learning activities supported by a range of e-leaning technologies have been tabulated for active and effective online learning. The R2D2 Model is dynamic, engaging, responsive and rich. Take a moment to explore the four quadrants, and you will understand what I mean.

JLA