Today is Yolanda Day

Please join with me in celebrating Yolanda Day. This is a day dedicated to academic writing about technology, online learning, and distance education praxis.

Online Learning Environments

Paper vs Electronic Writing and Learning
Paper is good for: kinestetic experience of knowledge creation, such as mind-mapping/outlining and drawing. Variations in coloration and writing instruments help the creative process. Portability is limited to size and how much you can/want to carry. Immediacy is a valuable asset of paper, books, articles & no batteries required! Non-mediated, high technology.
Computers are great tools that save time and can be used on or off line. Software avails the writer/creator to mix media, edit, and save large amounts of data for multiple projects. The learning environment depends on user, software, and technical knowledge of how to use the products and selection of the best media for the activity.
Online environments bring resources to the user via internet. The conduits through which media arrive can be e-mail, websites, libraries, universities, people, business...and repositories of information that is available for free or purchase. Associations of common interests often facilitate access to information which optimizes users' experiences and time.
Creation of online learning communities, such as wikipedia, wikiversity, blogs, YouTube, MySpace, Skype, Wikispaces, SecondLife, and Open Source proponents example just a few areas where online learning experiences imitate life, through knowledge creation--communal or otherwise-- of its users.

Feminist Epistemology Link

Article on Feminist Epistemology

New Technologies

I forgot to mention two technological progresses achieved today--my acquisition of a video camera to make the online experience in Webex and Skype more interesting tomorrow. Also, my reading notes may appear a bit succinct and/or linear because I dictated them, via microphone, into my word documents. This was fun, but time-consuming...I learned a lot...some of what the computer thought I said was quite humorous--I must spend some more time "teaching" my voice patterns and enunciations to this machine! All in all, dictation and voice commands improved as I practiced.

Workshop Notes

I met with several of my workshop invitees--in person--Thursday. I did not provide a handout but had meaningful dialogue that raised the comfort levels of several people present. Once again, my assumptions went unsupported: non-participation was simply because people were busy--one was out of town, one was finishing up a contract position and in the middle of job interviews, one forgot because of other distractions, one did not think she had anything of value to say (now convinced otherwise). I am in the process of re-inviting them all as a renewal practice of the transactional distance theory--the structure is pretty low, so the dialogue must, of necessity, increase--that is my responsibility. Also, I see the theories for instructional design useful here--especially in teaching the wiki elements with mastery in mind--so I see the Structural Learning Theory might work for that--a structural analysis of the wiki knowledge and breakdown content into the learning paths--building onto the prior mastery as we go, and each learner can achieve the mastery in their own way--yes, I see the value here...however, the behavioral approach is also relevant, as I must do some "shaping" to set up the lesson--prior to stepping the path of the routine process--what the learner needs as a background--and looking at the component skills beforehand that will stimulate the knowledge creation through practice...so this is what I will have to do next--The lesson plan extraordinaire--and the decreasing of the transactional distance, as well. Also, my increased practice in posting--serves as what Moore calls "internal didactic conversation" and decreases transactional distance between myself and my mentor at Distance Education Village.

Reading Notes on Moore: Theory of Transactional Distance

This is a brief note concerning Moore's Theory of Transactional Distance.
Learning across distance--the transaction involves actors (learners/teachers), environments, behavioral patterns and communication techniques. Structure and dialogue determine transactional distance, i.e., low transactional distance occurs under conditions of more dialogue and less rigid structure (flexibility in responsiveness to needs), whereas high transactional distance occurs when teacher-learner dialogue is minimal or nonexistant, within a highly structured format. Learner autonomy represents another aspect of transactional distance, whereby the learner benefits from appropriate levels of ongoing dialogue and structure to facilitate a greater comfort level in various high-transactional distance situations, where autonomous inquiry decisions and modifications occur frequently.

Reading Notes on Stevens & Scandura: Structural Learning Theory

Chapter five in the Reigeluth Book:

A Lesson Designed On Instructional Prescriptions From The Structural Learning Theory

By George H. Stevens and Joseph M. Scandura

Scandura: A cognitive theory of learning that led to a theory of instruction intended to accommodate other theories. His focus is on what to teach.

Selection of content—should be taught in the form of higher order rules when possible; testing for mastery and teaching only paths to mastery not yet attained.

[ page 161] …”equivalence classes represent the unique way of operationalizing and identifying the categories of divergence.”

[ page 162] … sequencing prescriptions: teach the most simple path and proceeding to more complex unmastered paths, until the entire rule has been mastered.

Reigeluth notes similarities between Scandura’s sequencing prescription and Landa’s level of elementary operations as well as Gagne’s entry level of skills.

S. L. T., also known as structural learning theory states that all knowledge is represented in terms of rules, i.e., cognitive processes. But structural analysis of content from a body of knowledge is the basis for designing the learning path rules to lesson mastery.

[ page 163] “ …a path, then, is that sequence of atomic rules that results in the satisfaction of an objective to a specific level of difficulty”

Divergence describes the many possible paths a solution rule can take.