Pedagogy

Success will require:

A better understanding of the pedagogy required from successful knowledge-building in on-line environments.

New distance technologies such as Web-based courses or on-line learning are causing teachers and learners to re-examine their roles. Faculty using on-line models are moving away from knowledge transmission to more learner-controlled systems requiring reciprocal teaching, discourse, collaborative meaning-making and higher level thinking skills situated in real-world contexts (Gunawardena, 1992).

Dede (1996) proposes that "...the field of distance education should invent its future by rethinking fundamental assumptions about teaching and learning" (p.5). These assumptions about teaching and learning are being guided by new technologies such as hypermedia, virtual reality, and wireless technologies that can distribute the process of learning to wherever the learner may be. New terminology such as computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL), distributed, and resource-based learning characterize distance learning systems that are complex, non-linear, dynamic, open, learner-centered, interactive, and collaborative. Dede further suggests learning by doing, analogy, and assimilation as increasingly important pedagogical forms in this new era.

Knowledge building and higher order learning occurs when learners explore issues, examine arguments, question positions from new or different perspectives. The collaborative and interactive nature of non-linear learning is supported by new constructivist learning paradigms. Constructivism characterizes learning as subjective, contextualized, relative, and connected to real life problems and experiences. Objectivist epistemology of traditional cognitive psychology is based on Skinner's behaviorism theory whereby structure is modeled and mapped onto the learner, and the goal of the learner is to mirror reality as interpreted by the instructor.

Constructivism therefore, is concerned with the development of tools and learning environments that foster meaning-making and discourse among communities of learners in the context of real-world problem solving, rather than objectivist instructional models that control the sequence and content of instruction with minimal interaction and collaboration.

Dede, D. (1996). The evolution of distance education: Emerging technologies and distributed learning. The American Journal of Distance Education, 10(2), 4-36.

Gunawardena, C.N. (1992). Changing faculty roles for audiographics and online teaching. The American Journal of Distance Education, 6(3), 58-71.