Emergent patterns of teaching/learning in electronic classrooms

Abstract

Novel patterns of teachingflearning have emerged from faculty and students who use our three teachingflearning theaters at the University of Maryland, College Park. These fullyequipped electronic classrooms have been used by 74faculty in 264 semester-long courses since the fall of 1991 with largely enthusiastic reception by both faculty and students. The designers of the teaching~learning theaters sought to provide a technologically rich environment and a support staff so that faculty could concentrate on changing the traditional lecture from its unidirectional information flow to a more collaborative activity. As faculty have evolved their personal styles in using the electronic classrooms, novel patterns of teaching~learning have emerged. In addition to enhanced lectures, we identified three common patterns: (a) active individual learning, (b) small-group collaborative learning, and (c) entire-class collaborative learning.

Reshaping teacher and student roles in technology-enriched classrooms

“…These are uses that no one (including the designers) could have predicted, and the space of these is vast and unexplored. Shneiderman, Borkowski, Alavi, and Norman (1998) describe settings in which teachers have evolved personal styles in using an elaborately fitted out "electronic classroom": New patterns of interaction emerged which, while retaining characteristics of personal styles, have in common a more collaborative approach. Each of these entailed combining the technology resources and human interaction to develop methods that were not obviously the precinct of the hardware design.…”

“…Emergence in the sense described here is a product of the interaction between human and technological agencies. In consequence, it is not surprising that those who have been involved with some of the most innovative uses of technology (Shneiderman et al, 1998) are among the most definite in rejecting the teacherreplacement concept, the very antithesis of the concept of emergence:…”

“…For example, instead of functioning as a transmitter of teacher input, an overhead projection panel may be a used to engender otherwise non-existent participation (Shneiderman et al, 1998) or to act as a medium 'for the presentation and examination of alternative mathematical conjectures. A defining characteristic of this metaphor for technology is that "the locus of control never passes from user to machine" (Templer, Klug, & Gould, 1998).…”

“…Nerida even imagined her calculator spoke to her: "It tells me there's a dimension error". Not only did the calculator output provide a stimulus for peer discussion, but the students also invested the technology with human qualities--an interesting counterpoint to the claim of Shneiderman et al (1998) that educational use of technology can strengthen human relationships but never replace them.…”

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“…Therefore, the current study will provide a basis for future studies that focus on a comparison of ODL students with traditional students regarding their perceptions of the two modes of training teachers. Shneiderman, Borkowski, Alavi and Norman (1998) found that ODL students were highly satisfied with their experiences and indicated that they would take another distance education course. In a study of 288 undergraduate college students in distance education classes at remote sites, students reported overall satisfaction with the courses (Biner, Welsh, Barone, Summers & Dean, 1997).…”