WEEK 14 - ONLINE LEARNING AND THE SOUTH PACIFIC - WAY FORWARD

INTRODUCTION

This was the last week of the practicum weeks and also the last week of the course. I thought the group selected an excellent topic for the last week and aptly titled it the 'way forward'. Indeed after the 14 weeks of hard work and reflecting on online learning this was a good wrap up and provided closure. Like always we had 2 questions on the discussion forum that needed some deliberation and there was also an article posted written by our course convener as a case study on USP online learning.

KEY POINTS

 

There are 3 main delivery modes when we talk about learning: -
1.) Traditional Face to face
2.) Blended
3.) Online

The other way to look at this in terns of the degree of synchronous and asynchronous learning. For eg in face to face classrooms mainly all the learners are present at the same time and the teacher guides the learning in an interactive environment and all the students are learning the same content at the same time. As 21st century puts greater demand on our time and the advent of new developments in ICT, the enabling environment for blended and online learning has been created, giving learners teh flexibility to learn anywhere anytime !

As a learner, I love face to face instructional delivery mode and frankly what is there not to like!! If you think about it, it’s really a luxury.....to be sitting in a classroom…listening to a fantastic, knowledgeable and inspiring lecturer… who breaks down complex issues into bite size pieces for the brain to devour....who gets you all fired up for the subject at hand…who  with all their wisdom guides you in the right direction. To me ….this is what dreams are made of!! I am envious of my students who have this luxury!

But what busy lives we lead….we run after time and constantly complain about having no time. We want the best of all the worlds. We want to study but not give up the lifestyle that working life affords us. 

So we choose the next best thing available...blended!

RESOURCES

• World Bank. 2013 "An Information-communication Revolution in the Pacific"  URL: http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2013/05/17/information-communication-revolution-in-the-pacific
• Raturi et al. 2011 Learner's Preference for Instructinal Delivery Mode:  A Case Study from the University of the South Pacific.  International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning. Vol 8. No. 6. pp 17-30
• https://www.blackboard.com/resources/k12/Bb_K12_WP_BlendedLearning.pdf . This a report on compiling research on blended learning

REFLECTION
 

The infusion of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) into learning and teaching has occurred in all sectors of education and the Pacific is no different.  ICT has changed the nature of face-to-face (f2f) teaching and enabled the rapid growth of blended and online courses such as seen at USP.  The idea is very catchy as technologies enable instructors, students and others to participate in teaching and learning at a time and place convenient to them.  

From my experience I think in the Pacific if you are an academic in higher education and used to teaching in a face-to-face environment, there is an insidious pressure to embed ICTs into our face-to-face teaching and to work in blended and online modes. The changing teaching spaces with new available technologies have required us to change our approach to teaching to gain improved learning outcomes.

And let’s face it, as teachers we should be drivers of new knowledge so it will be very negligent of us if we do not use ICT in innovative ways to gain better learning outcomes.

WEEK 13 - ONLINE LEARNING IN THE PACIFIC

This week was another practicum week hosted by group 3. The learning objectives for this week were: -

1. Discuss the barriers to development of online learning in the Pacific.

2. Identify and discuss the appropriate strategies necessary to develop and improve e-learning in their settings.

 

Key Points

The following common obstacles, trends and recommendations were noted during the research on ICT in education in the Pacific nations. Although I could think of some barriers to e-learning in the Pacific (see reflection), I personally feel this site gives a comprehensive coverage of the major challenges and makes valid recommendations. This is adapted from the Pacific Elearning Observatory (PELO) which is hosted on the USP website. 

Common obstacles:

• High Costs: Equipment, Telecom rates
• Inadequate human resources
• Emigration of trained personnel
• Outdated curricula
• Hardware, infrastructure: sourcing & development
• Lack of incentives for schools and teachers, lack of job security
• Lack of awareness, uncertainty about role of ICT in curriculum
• Lack of software, collaborative platforms
• Lack of government vision, excessive beaurocracy
• Speed of change – pressure to upgrade, maintain and sustain initiatives
• Geographical isolation, wide dispersal of populations
• Evolution model: ICT in admin -> ICT in curriculum -> ICT in learning culture

Trends:

• Increase in delivery and demand for distance/flexible learning services
• Growing role of lifelong learning, multi-purpose online community centers
• Marrying old & new technology (eg. radio browsing, eco-friendly, low cost tech)

Recommendations:

• Offer incentives and Training Opportunities for teachers, personnel
• Encourage Champion teachers with rewards and incentives
• Save costs through collective planning, management
• National policies should align eLearning pedagogy & ICT practise
• Explore approaches to circumvent Telcos/monopolies
• Encourage local, district, regional coordination and experience sharing
• Develop national and regional SchoolNets to support, encourage online schools
• Support new teachers entering the system to gain ICT schools
• Encourage more Pilot Projects with clear medium and long-term goals
• Bring national senior, middle management in MoEs together to share experience
• Identify appropriate tools, software, common interoperable platforms
• Encourage and educate on FOSS
• Form broad public-private partnerships with specific ICT4D goals
• Education system data: Monitor, measure, evaluate -> chart progress
• Conduct detailed needs analysis and research on impact of ICT
• Design benchmarks for progress
• Improve community involvement in ICT in schools
• Provide scholarships for rural teacher trainees to receive high quality ICT training
• Develop local content: build on authentic values and local culture

 

 

Resources

A useful article titled 'E-Learning: A Survival Strategy for Developing Countries' by Robert Hogan & Akanisi Kedrayate

http://sta.uwi.edu/conferences/09/salises/documents/R%20Hogan.pdf

A local insightful article titled - 'Learners’ access to tools and experience with technology at the University of the South Pacific: Readiness for e-learning' by Shikha Raturi, Robert Hogan & Konai Helu Thaman

http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet27/raturi.pdf

Another useful report on the critical sucess factors of pacific learners.  http://akoaotearoa.ac.nz/download/ng/file/group-996/n4006-critical-success-factors-for-effective-use-of-e-learning-by-pacific-learners.pdf

 

 

Reflection 

For this week one of the first things to do for this week was to discuss the unique barriers that the Pacific may face in its development of online learning.The Pacific is a diverse region with many small island developing states and territories with different land sizes, populations, natural resources, economies and cultures. Geographical isolation and small population with small land masses poses even greater challenge for development of online learning. 

On top of this because these small island nations are so small, economies of scale is hard to achieve and equally hard to compete with export markets that are very far away making these small island nations to rely heavily on donor funds from bigger developed nations. To develop advanced technology and up to par with international standard of online learning, it needs significant amounts of money, money which most of these small island nations don’t have so again if the donors are not interested in developing online learning (perhaps not on their agenda or foreign policy goals) then developing  online learning becomes sidelined.

Vulnerability to natural disasters is also a significant challenge. Hurricanes and flooding are common so technology infrastructure amongst all other types of infrastructure is constantly under assault from Mother Nature. Online learning is heavily reliant on technological infrastructure, electricity and cost effective internet providers. All of these supportive factors are non-existent on most remote islands in the Pacific.

Apart of the geographical isolation and natural disasters our small island nations struggle with good governance. Some of our islands are very rich in resources and are rich in $$$ so if they put their mind to it can afford to dramatically develop the education sector including online learning but corruption and lack of accountability have put these countries again in dire straits financially.

 

Personally I do not think that Pacific learners are very different from learners all over the world but we are unique in some ways for example we are brought up in a strong culture of partnerships and collaborations (useful traits for survival in isolated communities surrounded by miles of ocean!!) and western education is based on mainly individualistic achievements and competition with your peers. This can create conflict in the minds of pacific learners.

So extrapolating from how we are brought up in the Pacific, I think it would be a good idea to create active learning communities in an online environment from the very beginning.

The ‘Critical Success Factors for Effective Use of E-learning by Pasifika Learners’ report provides a literature review and summary of research into Pacific learning and Pacific e-learning. It states that the following factors will increase a pacific learner’s success - 

• Incorporation of Pacific cultures and knowledge into tertiary education
• Peer Support
• Supportive Staff
• Students Motivation
• Initiatives to increase students’ access, participation and success with the use of student centred teaching.

 

WEEK 12 - PRACTICUM WEEK - EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP

“We hold the future in our hands, together, we must ensure that our grandchildren will not have to ask why we failed to do the right thing, and let them suffer the consequences.”

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, 2007

Key Points

The 2 leadership challenges that I think will impact on my implementing online teaching and learning and having an impact on its future are:

      1.) Lack of Good Governance Practices

Mainly when the word good governance is used we think automatically about politics and corruption. But good governance can be applied to all institutions and as such to higher education as well. In higher education when I say good governance I mean how the education institution is managed and organised.  Is the organisation managed in a transparent manner to foster trust between the staff and management and staff and the students? Are the decisions made with collective participation from all members of the staff or do some have more power than others who make unilateral decisions?

This has direct relationship with the type of leadership that is fostered. Good governance also encompasses efficiency of processes and procedures in place. This has even more importance for online courses and whether the University is actively working towards integrating technology into the existing institutions and various departments strategy. Moreover it is important whether there is an accountability framework in place so funds go to strategic areas like improvement for infrastructure and staff capacity to support increasing number of students studying via the online mode.     

2.) Rigidity and Fear of Change

Our world is changing everyday and with the advent of technology this change is somehow even faster. Higher education institutions need to be flexible and be adaptable so it can remain relevant and effective to address societal needs and sustainable development. There needs to be a paradigm shift in thinking so that new things (like technology) are embraced and prioritised. Like Darwin said “its not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”

Resources

This paper discusses the impact of educational leadership in e-learning and the need for serious efforts on the part of leaders to engage in a meaningful way.
http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1122/2150

This article highlights six ideas developed by Bernard Bull to help you hink differently about faculty perceptions of distance education by encouraging discussion and being mindful of individual ideas and viewpoints.
http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/distance-learning/a-better-way-to-talk-with-faculty-about-teaching-online/

An interesting article that suggests ways that teachers can adopt to integrate online learning in a sustainable manner.http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/brisbane05/blogs/proceedings/03_Applebee.pdf

 

Reflection

During this week I thought about what I and the administration can do embrace the potential of online learning.

The first thing would be to prioritise online learning and make this an integral objective of the institution and departments’ strategic plan. Once online learning is given formal recognition by the institution then implementation steps could be articulated. Sometimes it’s just rhetoric that online learning is important but there should be funding and flexible budgetary allocations to make sure that these objectives are achievable.

Administration should also make sure that it works with other institutions so together there can sharing of resources, a easily searchable repository of online courses for students to choose courses from  and a system in place so students can use the credits from the online courses to get cross credits at other universities without any hassle. This means that there will be fewer barriers for students to achieving their academic goals. Collaboration and integration is the key here.

As online teachers we must also reflect on our mindset and ‘be the change’ we want others to adopt so there is a paradigm shift as we embrace completely new tools of communication and lifelong learning for the next generation who can be engaged in learning anywhere anytime!

Lastly just wanted to share a picture that made me smile and feel proud....i hope it makes you feel the same.