#18 Learning Science vs. Learning Technology

“Learning Science(s)” vs. “Learning Technolog(ies)” (the latter replaced Instructional Systems and Technologies in 2005)

When I reviewed Dabbagh et al’s Online Learning-Concepts, Strategies, and Application, the concept of “Learning Technologies” in the book reminds me a curiosity that has been lingering in my mind for a while.

As we understand, to define a term in the era of a burgeon science or a differentiation of knowledge is a challenging if not a daunting endeavor. In the book, they refer "learning technologies" as the various types of interactive technologies, such as hypertext, hypermedia, asynchronous and synchronous communication tools (email, listservs, desktop conferencing, virtual chat, groupware, digital and streaming audio-video/rich media, FTP, web developmental tools and LMS, CMA…and so on. Seemingly, in their “operational” definition, “learning” is designated as an adjective and “technologies” is a noun (instead of treating the phrase as a unit -like a discipline), which refer the physically applicable objects and devices ("pedagogical tools") run on a LAN or a WAN?Generally speaking, they propound via these "learning technologies", open or flexible learning, distributed learning, learning communities, communities practice, and knowledge-building communities that are all becoming possible.

One of my questions is -"Is there potential nuance differentiating “learning technolog(ies)” vs. “Learning Technolog(ies)” where the latter might broaden and enrich the educational technologies beyond the confinements of the “systematic and instructional” concepts and embrace the constructivist epistemology, learning theories and pedagogy/andragogy?"

Then the idea of “Learning Science(s)” in Reiser and Dempsey’s book popping into my mind that might answer part of my aforementioned perplex. From D. Jonasson at als' ideas -“Over the last decade of the 20th century, constructivist epistemologies ushered in the learning science as an alternative to the instructional sciences. The learning sciences examine from a substantively different set of assumptions and scientific perspectives than do instructional sciences, such as instructional design. Learning from a learning sciences perspective, is activity or practice based, rather than communicative. Learning sciences are the convergence of design of activity systems, cognition, and socio-cultural context. The learning sciences apply theories to design of technology-enriched learning environments that engage and support learners in accomplishing more complex, authentic (contextual mediated), and meaningful learning activities with the goal of meaningful learning and conceptual change.”

“From the perspective of learning sciences, the learner is an intentional, active, and reflective agent who is responsible for construction personal mental models, the Learning sciences also rely heavily on social theories of learning and meaning making, such as social cognition, activity theory, motivation, and case-based reasoning that examine the social, organizational, and cultural dynamics of learning processes. The learning sciences also ascribe agency to groups who collaboratively con-construct group mental models. Finally, the learning sciences draw from computer sciences, especially computational modeling an artificial intelligence, as a means for designing technology-enhanced learning environments. Because of different theoretical emphases, learning outcomes from a learning sciences perspective are often of a different nature than the type of learning outcomes often specified in the instructional sciences. The instructional sciences usually emphasize the acquisition of behaviors and discrete skills. In contrast, learning outcome in the learning sciences tend to focus on knowledge building, conceptual change, reflection, self-regulation, and socially co-constructed meaning making.”

In short, there are distinctive themes reflecting the term “Learning Science” which is less ambiguous yet broad (enough for many debates to come) than the term “Learning Technologies” – just from my personal narrow point of view:

1. The learning sciences are theoretically and pragmatically based and research oriented.
2. Reify the basic constructivist epistemology (as long as people or learning cummunities embrace or endorse it!) via its derivative learning theories, pedagogies/andragogies, instructional design theories and practices.Saying this, the “Learning Sciences” versus “Learning Technologies” does remind me the critiques between Merrill and Wilson’s vision (straight vs. broad – on the road wildly vs. less travelled??) on the identity and future development of ID (IDT) at the end of the book.

#17 Reflection on “Factors Affecting Technology Uses in Schools:

#17 Reflection on “Factors Affecting Technology Uses in Schools:
An Ecological Perspective” published in American Educational Research Journal
Winter 2003, Vol. 40, No. 4, pp. 807–840 by Yong Zhao and Kenneth A. Frank

Here are the summary and my reflection

Summary:

The interesting idea in this paper came from the understanding Zebra Mussels that rapidly invaded the Great Lakes ecosystem. Simulating themselves as ecologists, the authors adopted the concepts of the interaction of ecological conditions, including characteristics of the invading species, characteristics of the existing species, temperatures, and other geographical characteristics. They then applied their understanding into computer uses in schools. In short, they intended to correct the traditional ways of studying discrete factors in isolation.

The authors used the ecosystem as a metaphor to construct an interconnected framework and tested their model by selecting schools that had made significant investments in technology between 1996 and 2001.
Their criteria for selecting districts for participation in the study included (a) recent passage (between 1996 and 2001) of a bond referendum or receipt of a community foundation grant for implementation of technology;(b) willingness on the part of the superintendent of schools to participate in the study; and (c) a district size that would allow us to include all of the elementary schools in the district.

Metaphors they created are: (a) Schools are ecosystems; (b) computer uses are living species; (c) teachers are members of a keystone species; and (d) external educational innovations are invasions of exotic species. These metaphorical bridges are intended to help them apply what they learn from ecological examples to their current task of understanding technology uses in schools (p.811).

As we know that an ecosystem has the tendency or ability to maintain internal equilibrium. The introduction of new species, whether intentional or unintentional, affects the equilibrium to varying degrees. When a new species, such as the zebra mussel, enters an existing ecosystem, it essentially is an invader from outside. The invading species may interact with one or more existing species.

Depending on the properties of the invader and of the existing species, as well as on the types of interactions, several consequences may result: (a) The invader wins and wipes out the existing species; (b) both win and survive, in which case some other species may perish or the ecosystem may eventually become dysfunctional because of its limited capacity; (c) the invader loses and perishes; and (d) both the invader and the existing species go through a process of variation and selection and acquire new properties.

In this case, the techno-enthusiasts are viewed as invading species. Whether they are successfully adopted and become permanently established depends on their compatibility with the teaching environment.

The variables they constructed and employed were (1) the ecosystem, (2) the teacher’s niche in the ecosystem, (3) teacher–ecosystem interaction, (4) teacher–computer predisposition for compatibility, and (5) opportunities for mutual adaptation.
For the implications for policy and practice the authors provided the following suggestions: teacher-level change; recruitment/selection; training/socialization; providing opportunities to explore and learn; leveraging change through the social context and programmatic possibilities (p.831)

In part of their research, they used real life example to illustrate 3 phrases of interaction between a focal teacher and the new technology. Initially, the technology has certain capabilities, represented by its shape as depicted. The teacher’s perception of the value of the technology may reflect his or her history, pedagogical practices, and so forth, and may include an assessment of the costs associated with use.
In the second phase, the teacher and the technology change shapes as they co-evolve. Note that the teacher’s modifications are influenced by the help received and by perceived pressure from others (shown by the dotted lines).The other teachers may, themselves, be reacting to institutions or other forces exogenous to the school. This process is analogous to the settlement process of an invading species as it interacts with native species, which in relation to the invader may become food sources, competitors, or predators. The compatibility between the invading species and the native species influences their ability to survive. When new computer uses “invade” a school, the forces of the larger ecosystem are conveyed by relationships within the subsystem of the school.
In the last phase, the technology begins to conform to the teacher, as teachers develop the capacity to modify software and hard-ware to suit their needs. At the same time, the teacher can also change her ways of interacting with the computer, which may demand different teaching practices. This is the stage of co-evolution, in which the invading species and the native species adapt to each other by changing themselves. In other words, the teacher may change her role to become more of a facilitator than an instructor, while the computer becomes a tool to support that. Or the teacher may find the intended uses of the computer completely incompatible and stop using it. In a very unlikely scenario, the computer uses could become so pervasive that the teacher’s role in the school is transformed and her old role becomes extinct.

The authors identified the factors influencing on computer use in schools are: location of exposure; teacher–computer predisposition to compatibility; playfulness, perceived complexity; perceived relative advantage; opportunities for mutual adaptation (Teacher Professional Development) and others.

They concluded that their ecological model took them beyond simply identifying and correlating factors and focused our attention on interactions, activities, processes, and practices. They suggested that by accepting ecological metaphor make the concept of innovations more clear by taking a holistic view. That is innovation cannot be implemented without regard to both internal structures of schools and/or external social forces that challenges the schools. Finally they concluded that an evolutionary rather than revolutionary approach to change in school computer use would be more appropriate.

Reflection:

One thing that echoed my thought from this paper is the issue concerning the nature of school teachers. Dan Lorti has detailed dissection on this issue in his classic Schoolteachers- A Sociological Study. Where do these teachers come from, why they want to be teachers, what are the criteria to recruit the teachers, how are they idiosyncratically and conservatively socializied, what does the school ecology and policy foster their development and so on, all were scrutinized in his book.

In this article, the authors also mentioned researchers who pointed out the root of the above concerns from various angles such as from case studies (Cuban, 2001; Schofield, 1995; Zhao et al., 2002), to historical analysis (Cuban, 1986), to large surveys (Becker,2000a, 2001). They offer various accounts of why teachers do not frequently use technology to its full potential or in revolutionary ways that could truly lead to qualitatively different teaching and learning experiences (p.808).

Some researchers believe that education is one of the most conservative social institutions that are directly at odds with new technologies. The authors quoted that the goal of schools as organizations, according to Hodas (1993), is “not to solve a defined problem but to relieve stress on the organization caused by pressure operating outside of or overwhelming the capacity of normal channels” (p. 2). In other words, schools naturally and necessarily resist changes that will put pressure on existing practices (Cohen, 1987; Cuban, 1986).
Look at the reality, it is the business world, or industrial-military complex that spearheads the revolutionary phenomena. It was astonishing to me when the first time encountering this statement “Those who can – do; those who cannot-----teach---- and “please teach well”!
Hopefully, this is a finger pointing moment. If we want both quantity and quality, democratization and capitalization, believing in everyone can teach and learn, as well as teach and learn well, then more and more research like this will continuously reminds of the fundamental uniqueness of the structure and functions embedded in the education systems

The other minor observation from this paper can be a bias of mine- I notice some research or disciplines inherited from European tradition or certain regions in Asia have a tendency to employ holistic or eclectic approaches in the studies. Both micro and macro views are important to gain insight into human complexity. Multi-level analysis and bio-ecological/system approach point out the interconnectedness of human conditions, while discrete ( isolated conditions) approach provides certain degree of causal or relational explanation.

#16 A conceptual framework for the development of theories-in-action with open-ended learning environments (OELEs)

A conceptual framework for the development of theories-in-action with open-ended learning environments (OELEs) -by Susan M. Land and Michael J. Hannafin ERT&D. Vol.44, No.3, 1996, p.37-53 ISSN 1042-1629

Land et al’s “ conceptual framework for the development of theories-in-action with open-ended learning environment (OELE)” (1996), though written 12 years ago, is still an important framework added to currently available learning environments. This paper provided unique perspective for pondering. The following are my reading summary and reflection/questions.

Summary:

The authors proposed five elements of OELEs to represent the theory-in-action development process. They are:
1. Learner and system context
2. System affordance
3. Intention-action cycle
4. System response/feedback; and
5. Learning processing.

They also detailed the conceptual framework with a real life example -ErgoMotion to illustrate the processes of theory-building via their model.
The authors concluded that open-ended learning involves learning process that was mediated by the “unique” intentions and purposes of individuals.

Reflection:

The word “unique” in the article caught my attention. These groups of individuals with unique intentions and purposes of individuals, from my observation of learners that I have encountered with, tend to be at the high end of individual characteristic spectrum. For example, they tend to possess non-normality of motivations, endeavors, preferred learning styles, specific interests, self-efficacy, problem solving strategies and skills, prior experience and knowledge, goal-orientation and so on personal characteristics. These non-mediocrities are what Cervone & Wood refer to – the background context that influences the choices learners make in the environment, and the extent to which they persevere on a task and the types of goals they set (1995).
This is what I meant – Land and Hannafin’s framework is a unique one.

Observations/questions:

Contemporary theoretical constructs such as constructivism (Jonassen, 1991), situated cognition (Brown, Collins & Duguid, 1989), and cognitive flexibility (Spiro, Feltovich, Jacobson, & Coulson, 1991) emphasize learners’ active learning processes. The ideas of microworlds (Papert, 1993a; 1993b; Rieber, 1992), anchored instruction (Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt, 1992) were linked to contemporary pedagogical approaches initiated by Vygotsky and Piaget. In their views, the learner is perceived as AN ACTIVE CONSTRUCTOR of KNOWLEDGE. Thus, the whole tout of self-directed learning, experiential learning, situated/anchored learning comprise a range of empowering learning theories and frameworks to provide learners with the optimal learning environments.

I did not pose an inquiry on such a theory or assumption relating to constructivism or OELEs model that whether all the learners, majority of learners, some of the learners, or just a small group of learners are viewed as active constructors of knowledge (sounds like an anti-democratic -elitism obscurant?!) Furthermore, to what extent of activeness and constructiveness the knowledge is generated or claimed is my another question. For in the era of Piaget and Vygotsky, the elements of systematic contexts , system affordance, intention-action cycle , and system response/feedback might not have been added into the scenario. Not until Bronfenbrenner did bio-ecological system approach appear in the larger picture of human processing learning.

Personally, I see the merits of constructivism, particularly in the cyber knowledge explosive era. Constructivism and its sister theoretical pedagogies open the venues for the cyber knowledge aggregation (such as networking and learning communities) and knowledge generating. In our Joomla assignments, we adopted much of adult learning theories into our project reflecting such a preferred approach. Nevertheless, even within our mini higher education learning community, the ideals of collaborative and self-directed learning essence is still facing many challenges in terms of different levels of prior knowledge (or individual experience), self-regulations and endeavors, and different perception, interpretation, evaluation, and extrapolation in the intention-action cycle (i.e., levels of process in theory-in-action).

I understand and appreciate OELEs model’s richness and uniqueness. Diversity or variability, like collaboration, cooperation, group work, even as well as team work, is a double edged sword. It brings up kaleidoscopic points of views and challenges the homogenous monotony, as well as stimulates deeper understanding and problem solving capacity, but it also accompanies with some cumbersome or undesirable effects that tolls time and energy.

Comparing our mini Joomla collaborative adult learning group to my experiencing in engaging with my much diverse student body, ranging from having reading and writing challenges to the mature, authentically self-directed learners; from the young high school drop-out to the silvery 60+ grandparents; from the once wearing jump suit guys to the single mom/dad all gathering in the same online or f2f classrooms , the OELEs model indeed, is a unique one if it is applied into my teaching and learning environment with great caution and endeavors.

#15 Reflection and question on experiential learnign with working adults

Continuous, Interactive, and Online: A Framework for Experiential Learning with Working Adults by Eric Riedel, Leilani Endicott, Anna Wasescha, and Brandy Goldston published Volume 3 issue 6, August/Septermber/2007

When I was studying some quality assurance issues on adult learning, this article showed up during my browsing. It is like a case report. I gleaned over it and picked some good points for reference.

Summary:
The article started with retrospection on the response to the criticism that universities were either dangerously aloof from the practicalities of the workplace or aligned with the military-industry complex. Later the higher education picked their new roles in facilitating students’ internships, field experiences, and service-learning to demonstrate some functionalities in preparing citizens for meaningful work and participation in the larger society.

The central theme of this article focuses on Walden University’s practice as a showcase. Walden is a distance learning alternative to traditional graduate schools, enrolling over 22,000 masters and doctoral students seeking several of degrees. The programs at Walden are administered through online courses, faculty-guided independent study projects called Knowledge Area Modules (KAMs), or a mix of the two approaches:

A. Lead faculty develop courses and are administered by full and part-time faculty who guide discussion, provide feedback on assignments, and supplement standard course materials.
B. Faculty mentors guide student work on KAMs through e-mail, telephone, and an online forum providing continuous support to all of a mentor's students. Doctoral students are also required to attend 20 days of in-person residencies with faculty and other students held at temporary meeting spaces each year.

The school applies the intersection between experiential and online learning relies on those professional and social experience the students bring to the learning environment from their lives beyond the classroom. This scholar-practitioner approach contrasts with the traditional university model whereby a young adult with little work experience withdraws from the wider society to focus primarily on learning. The opportunity costs for older adults already engaged in professional, community, and family life often preclude such a withdrawal.

Reflection:

A significant point in Walden’s practice is that their admissions policy requires doctoral students having 3 years of practice within the field in which they seek a degree. Master's students are not required to have experience in their field at the time of admission, although these students typically do have such experience above and beyond the requirements they otherwise must meet. The average age of the Walden student is 37.6 years old, and nearly all of them are employed full-time during the period in which they are enrolled.

I can see the functions of the admission standards that obtain a certain degree of homogeneity in terms of age, educational level and occupational elements among those online students. From my observation, they comprise several aspects of adult learning theory: self-directed, transformative, experiential and contextualized learning within and beyond their learning communities. And like most of the busy adult life style, they juggle against time constraints in engaging in the multitasks among family, career, or communities.

Questions:

One of my puzzles in engaging in online teaching and learning is that there are population under various circumstances, seemingly having or seeking the possibility to do more with less resources (both the quantifiable and unquantifiable resources, in particular, time and money, and others, such as the emotions and relations etc.- the cost and effectiveness consideration). Time constraint is a typical factor in many people’s teaching and learning experiences. In Bransford et al’s (1999) “How people learn: mind, brain, experience and school”, pointing out an important component for learning to be transferred to new problems and situations is the time element. The same point was also presented in Lindsey Godwin and Soren Kaplan’s “Designing ee-Learning Environment” as posted in my previous reflection. They honestly addressed an important challenge that confronted the ee-learning: the time commitment from both participants and facilitators. Time spending is a measurable factor. Some research and experienced on liners claim that online teaching and learning are time consuming. According to this line of understanding, then it presents a contradictory scenario that people seek to save time and other resources by selecting a time consuming mechanism to fulfill that goal. I am not referring to the issue of short change of the educational quality. My question is about under what kind of conditions that people can do more with less, in particular, in term of the time constraints – the quantifiable equalizer – because we all have the same 24 hours a day!

Here is a vivid example to illustrate my question- some of my students – such as parents or single parent with young kids, dealing with many other family affairs (sick child, old relatives, personal illness and so on physical and emotional issues), juggling a couple of paid jobs, taking full time loads, busy with other communities issues, and expect to be an “A” student! Sometimes, I am thinking that most of them are supermen and superwomen!! In my case, as a slow bloomer, I have to sacrifice so many things and time in order to get one thing to be done a time!

#14 on AI+ee learning

Via our XtremeJoomla discussion, I decided to make a synopsis on Lendsey Godwin and Soren Kaplan’s Designing ee-Learning Environment-Lessons from an Online Workshop, published on Innovate Online Journal (http://innovateonline.info/?view=issue) Volume 4, Issue 4, April/May 2008. I suggested to our team to well document the processes and maybe it can end up into a potentially publishable work.

Here is my summary and reflection:

The whole concept of ee-learning came from some program offered in the field of organizational development . The program innovated a term-the appreciative inquiry which is an approach in the OD learning. Cocreated by David Cooperrider, appreciative inquiry is a strength-based management philosophy and whole-system change methodology (Cooperrider and Whitney 2005) that is said to be "revolutionizing the field of organizational development” (Quinn 2000, 220) through its application of guiding principles that focus an organization's energy on success and possibility.

Before going to next section, I quoted the definition of appreciative inquiry (AI) from this paper as follows:“Appreciative Inquiry is about the coevolutionary search for the best in people, their organizations, and the relevant world around them. In its broadest focus, it involves systematic discovery of what gives “life” to a living system when it is most alive, most effective, and most constructively capable in economic, ecological, and human terms. AI involves, in a central way, the art and practice of asking questions that strengthen a system’s capacity to apprehend, anticipate, and heighten positive potential. It centrally involves the mobilization of inquiry through the crafting of the “unconditional positive question” often-involving hundreds or sometimes thousands of people. In AI the arduous task of intervention gives way to the speed of imagination and innovation; instead of negation, criticism, and spiraling diagnosis, there is discovery, dream, and design. AI seeks, fundamentally, to build a constructive union between a whole people and the massive entirety of what people talk about as past and present capacities: achievements, assets, unexplored potentials, innovations, strengths, elevated thoughts, opportunities, benchmarks, high point moments, lived values, traditions, strategic competencies, stories, expressions of wisdom, insights into the deeper corporate spirit or soul-- and visions of valued and possible futures. Taking all of these together as a gestalt, AI deliberately, in everything it does, seeks to work from accounts of this “positive change core”—and it assumes that every living system has many untapped and rich and inspiring accounts of the positive. Link the energy of this core directly to any change agenda and changes never thought possible are suddenly and democratically mobilized.” (Excerpted from - A Positive Revolution in Change: Appreciative Inquiry by David L. Cooperrider and Diana Whitney).

The AI ee-learning, in this article connects to several theories, such as Klob’s experientical learning (as we read in the early of this semester) and Gardner’s multiple intelligent learners as well as a little bit from Tapscott (1998) and Dede’s (2005) technology impact on the current generations. The following section provides the details of the main theme.

The concept of ee-Learning is defined by Steve Eskow (Trevitte and Eskow 2007), describing a hybrid approach to pedagogy that combines online learning with experiential, offline, hands-on learning. The electronic component was influenced by the learning platform provided by iCohere (see the note at the end of this section), the overarching design of the learning was informed by the experiential learning theory outlined by David Kolb, and a colleague of Cooperrider. Kolb's experiential learning theory proposes that "knowledge is created through the transformation of experience” (Kolb 1984, 41). While many discussions on experiential learning focus only on the experience portion of the theory, Kolb's model suggests that learning actually takes place through a four-step process called the experiential learning cycle in creating an experiential learning in online environment. I transferred it to our current on-going project- Xtremejoomla.(Note: iCohere, it is an organization that provides web collaboration software tools for association, governmental organizations, and communities.)

The steps in the experiential learning cycle include
1. having a concrete experience- such as we are going through the Joomla learning process with real minds on and hands on concrete experience.
2. reflecting on that experience- we reflect on our blogging on the way through each step in our Joomla learning
3. conceptualizing abstractly about the experience- during the Joomla journey, we meta-cognitively construct concepts and the hands-on experience about our learning, such as reifying each step according to the 7 AL learning principles by adding theoretical foundation, pedagogical practice aligning with curriculum design with outlined lesson plans, using Internet, and media enhancement in the pedagogy and curriculum via collaborative processes in synched manner and so on.
4. actively experimenting with a new behavior- we are actively playing out various collaborative roles and learning different kinds of behavior in our learning process.

This workshop provides the following weekly learning agenda, some of which relate to our project:
1. A weekly "live meeting". We did a couple of times. But we did not set up a weekly agenda.
2. Learning activities. These offline activities required students to apply the concepts of AI to their organizational experiences and gain hands-on learning of AI as a philosophy and a methodology, either with other students or on their own. We do have our learning activities, but are in a semi-structured way – I think
3. Readings. Articles on the theory and application of appreciative inquiry, in conjunction with case studies and tools created by OD practitioners, illustrated how AI has been applied in various organizational contexts. We are focusing on AL principles. But AI is appropriate to blend into our current project. We could add a reading list for all of us to engage with.
4. Learning presentations. Prerecorded lectures from Cooperrider, along with video case studies from organizations, were available on demand to help students gain a deeper understanding of the concepts and applications of AI. In this case, we all can make a mini breeze presentation to showcase what and how we understand AL+AI in the XtremeJoomla project
5. Reflective prompts. These questions encouraged students to make links between the theory and their own experiences and invited them to share their reflections. I think our blog supposed to function in this way.

Blending Technology and Content to Support ee-Learning
In their designing the workshop, they realized that technology and content needed to work together to facilitate the range of learning experiences in the experiential learning cycle. The online iCohere environment, which includes discussion boards, live-chat tools, file-sharing options, and an expandable reference library, was designed specifically to support ee-learning. Participants began the workshop by reviewing a narrated presentation that introduced the workshop site's various features, including specific screenshots of the environment.

Bridging Online and Offline Environments
In addition to creating a virtual environment that supported a range of experiential activities, they also wanted to complement participants' online learning with offline applications. Each week students were required to engage in an offline, job-specific application project based on the weekly topic. In our case, we did it in a more less structured way of when online and when offline.

The Learning Cycle Transcends Virtual Boundaries
The question of how people learn in online environments has prompted energetic debate. Like Kolb's experiential learning theory, Gardner's (1993) multiple intelligences theory suggests that individuals have different preferences and aptitudes for different types of learning. Further, Tapscott (1998) and Dede (2005) have outlined the impact of increasingly ubiquitous technology on the current generation's learning styles and abilities. They have seen that age, cultural background, and geography (since some of our participants come from regions of the world where Internet connections are still rare or inconsistent) can all impact a student's confidence level with online tools and thus the learning experience itself.

It's Not Really About the Technology - as they proclaimed it!
They have found that successful ee-learning does not necessarily require the most sophisticated technologies available. Rather, the key factor in designing ee-learning environments is intention. Trainers and educators who use online pedagogies must create curricula purposely designed to include the various elements of experiential learning: reflection opportunities, active projects, and conceptual resources. Without such intention, technology features—rather than educational outcomes—can begin to drive content.

Virtual Connections are Real Connections
To help students make meaningful connections with each other, they began each workshop with a paired interview activity. This is similar to our peers to peers collaborative genre in our project.

Conclusion
Their workshop translated appreciative inquiry, an experiential approach to organizational change, into an online workshop, they see the potential for other theories and approaches that are typically delivered in a traditional face-to-face setting to be delivered effectively online. As long as theories and concepts are applied to specific real-life issues, there is potential for creating a vibrant ee-learning environment where participants engage in applied work offline and share their reflections online.

This article also concluded an important challenging confronting the ee-learning: the time commitment from both participants and facilitators. That is very true in our case too. Like in our XtremeJoomla project, we all have various roles to play and works to be done which sometimes make a gathering either synchronously or asynchronously both online and F2F very challenging, not to mention a group of 94 participants across 17 countries in their workshop!!!

Reflection:

The ee+AI learning as I call it, is another innovation added to the online learning environment. I appreciate the creative and pragmatic idea of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) searching for the best in people, organizations, and the relevant world around our daily lives. It involves systematic discovery of what gives “life” to a living system when it is most alive, most effective, and most constructively capable in economic, ecological, and human terms. AI involves the art and practice of asking questions that strengthen a system’s capacity to apprehend, anticipate, and heighten positive potential. In this sense, I consider that AI tend to facilitate the high end of population and condition, because I have a tendency to look at an innovation that has the potential to narrow the disparity among human being's developmental possibility.

The AI concept also reminds of my reading through Reiser and Dempsey’s “Trends and Issues in Instructional design and Technology, 2nd ed.). One of the chapter details the framework of HPI/HPT tying to Shultz and Becker’s (the Nobel Economics winners) concept of Human Capitals. They proclaim that it is human or non-instructional factors that need to be well addressed, investigated as well improved in the performance. They explicate that knowledge and performance capabilities of population (more than the natural resources) correlate to the economic success of a country. I perceive the relevant idea in Cooperrider et al’s AI.

The Al and AL do focus on the zone of optimal performance of human capacity, but AI seems gearing toward one end of the spectrum.

I also observe some similarity to what we learned in class across AI and AL, such as learner-centered (i.e., based on Gardner’s multiple intelligence and learning style/preference in AI), collaborative and interactive learning, experiential leraning (Kolb), online synched environment (more in AL's GoNorth), pedagogy aligned with constructed curriculum with detailed outline lessen plan, media enhancement, which are also more articulated in the AL. AI also has adventure ingredient with online and offline features, depending on the aspect of adventuring. The other minor difference is that AI tends to focus on adult learning experience, for the reflective and inquiry components are more emphasized in the meta-cognitive or abstract/conceptual level.

#13 on design-based/experiment research readings

Summary

Design-based research (Brown, 1992; Collins, 1992) has been emerging for the studying of learning in context through the systematic design and study of instructional strategies and tools. This research paradigm shifting brought in many vision, revision and arguments.
My current reading includes a series of monographs and papers surrounding around this theme- call it experiment design research, design-based research, or teaching experiment - in the CI8395 list. These eight articles provide an array of advocate and critique of its structures, functions, limitations as well as potential solutions.

Most of these articles either champion or espouse the new possibilities and contribution to improve and innovate the educational theories and practice. One of them, Shavelson et al’s “On the Science of Education Design Studies”, on the other hand, argues that design studies must comport with guiding scientific principles and provide adequate warrants for their knowledge claims. They acknowledge the nature of the messiness of the educational ecology study. For design studies are complex, multivariate, multilevel, and interventionist, making warrants particularly difficult to establish. They critique on the typically heavy usage of design studies on narrative accounts to communicate and justify the findings. They argue that narratives often purport to be true, but there is nothing in narrative form that guaranteed veracity. The solution they propose is to provide a framework that links design-study research questions as they evolve over time with corresponding research methods. In this way, integration can be seen of research methods focused on discovery with methods focused on validation of claims. That is what I agree upon- the tough task that a well designed design-based research needs to envision and to employ the fittest methods and documentations from an array of available research methods and methodologies into the ongoing research processes. It, by nature, also tests the heuristics and wisdom of researchers and teams to deploy appropriate multiple methods and triangulation to provide warrants and knowledge claims.

The above article is the major critique from the eight on design-based/experiment research. The rest of papers are mainly supporting or implementing (such as model building or framework constructing based on the tenet of design-based research) this methodology. In the article, “Design-based Research: An Emerging Paradigm for Educational Inquiry”, the Baumgartner et al remark that design-based research blends empirical educational research with the theory-driven design of learning environment, is an important methodology of understanding how , when, and why educational innovations work in practice. Design based researchers’ innovations embody specific theoretical claims about teaching and learning, and help us understand the relationships among educational theories, designed artifact, and practice. Design is central in efforts to foster learning, create usable knowledge, and advance theories of learning and teaching in complex settings. Design-based research also many contribute o the growth of human capacity for subsequent education reform.

I think I might have an opportunity to carry out a small scale of design research in my coming semester if I choose to teach the brand new LiveMeeting with Sociology. The following sections are my study notes to reinforce such a temptation from these articles:

Prospects for design-based research in education: the promise the design-based research can provide: a exploring possibilities for creating novel learning and teaching environment b. developing theories of learning and instruction that are contextually based c. advancing and consolidating design knowledge, and d. increasing or capacity for educational innovation.

Be careful! Challenges faced by design-based research methods: the issues of reliability and validity of data collection and interpretation are different from the controlled experiment. Design based research relies on techniques used in other paradigms which I am familiar with are case study, ethnography, hermeneutic phenomenology, historiography, ethnomethodology, which depend on thick description datasets, systematic analysis of date with carefully defined measures and consensus in building within the field around interpretation of the data. When trying to promote the objectivity, while attempting to facilitating the interpretation, design-based researchers regularly find themselves in t he dual roles of advocate and critic. It is possible to employ specific research methods to question the designer-researcher’s tacitly held assumptions. The methods of documenting process of enactment with triangulation of multiple sources to provide critical evidence to establish warrants for claimed outcomes.

In “Design Experiments in Educational Research” , Cobb et al Cobb et al (2003) propound that design-based research can help create and extend knowledge about developing, enacting, and sustaining innovative environments.
A good design-based research has the following characteristics, according to Cobb et al’s suggestions:
1.The central goals of designing learning environments and developing theories or “prototheories” of learning are intertwined.
2. Development and research take place through continuous cycles of design, enactment, analysis and redesign (Cobb, 2001; Collins 1992).
3. Research on designs must lead to sharable theories that help communicate relevant implications to practitioners and other educational designers (cf. Brophy, 2002).
4. Research must account for how design function in authentic settings. It must not just document success or failure but also focus on interactions that refine our understanding of the learning issues involved. The development of such accounts relies on methods that can document and connect processes of enactment to outcomes of interests.
5. Design experiments are pragmatic as well as theoretical in orientation – both of the design and of the resulting ecology of learning- is at the heart of this methodology.

The range and settings vary in both research type and scope:
1. One on one (teacher-experimenter and student)design experiments in which a research team conducts a series of teaching sessions with a small number of students. The aim is to create a small scale version of a learning ecology so that it can be studied in depth and detail (Cobb & Steffe, 1983; Steffe & Thompson, 2000). I think I might try this one if things come together for me to do it!
2. Classroom experiments in which a research team collaborates with a teacher (who might be a research team in which a research team collaborates with a teacher (who might be a research team member) to assume responsibility for instruction (Cobb, 2000; Confrey & Lachance, 2000; Gravemeijer, 1994).
3. Preservice teacher development experiments in which a research team helps organize and study the education of prospective teachers (Simon, 2000).
In-service teacher development studies in which researchers collaborate with teachers to support the development of a professional community (Lehrer & Schaulble, 2000; Stein, Silver, & Smith, 1998).
4. School and school district restructuring experiments in which a research team collaborates with teachers, school administrators, and other stakeholders to support organizational change (Confrey, Bell, & Carrejo, 2001).

They also identified 5 crosscutting features of design study:
1. The purposes of design experimentation is to develop a class of theories about both the process of learning and the means that are designed to support that learning. It can be the learning of individual students, a classroom community, a professional teaching community, a school or school district as an organization. The means for supporting learning encompass the affordances and constraints of material artifacts, teaching and learning practices, and policy levers etc.

2. It is necessary to document learning ecologies at multiple levels (Kelly & Lesh, 2000). Example: A research team focuses on the norms and practices of a professional teaching community, the participating teachers’ pedagogical reasoning and instructional practices, and their students’ reasoning in a particular content domain.

3. The highly interventionist nature of the methodology- design studies are typically test-beds for innovation. The design developed while preparing for an experiment draws on prior research and attempts to cash in the empirical and theoretical results of that research. The process of engineering the forms of leaning being studies provided the research team with a measure of control when compared with purely naturalistic investigation. Design experiments have two faces: prospective and reflective. On the prospective side, designs are implemented with a hypothesized learning process and the means of supporting it in mind in order to expose the details of the process to scrutiny. On the reflective side, design experiments re conjecture-driven tests, often at several levels of analysis.

4. The above two aspects result in the iterative design.

5. The pragmatic nature-theories developed during t he process of experiment are humble in terms of domain specific learning processes, and also are accountable to the activity of design. The theories do real work. General philosophical orientations to educational matters- such as constructivism – are important to educational practice, but they tend to fail to provide detailed guidance in organizing instruction. The question is Does theory informs prospective design and in what way? Design experiment also tend to emphasize and intermediate theoretical scope (diSessa, 1991) that is located between a narrow account of a specific system.

Preparing for design experiment, according to Cobb et al’s perspective:
1. Clarifying the theoretical intent: What is the point of the study? Example: the relationship between classroom norms of a discipline and student learning, or diversity of students’ prior experiences can be capitalized upon as a resource to ensure that all student have access to significant disciplinary ideas.
2. Specify the significant disciplinary ideas and forms of reasoning that constitute the prospective goals or endpoints for student learning. This usually involves drawing on the synthesizing the prior research literature to identify central organizing ideas for s domain.
3. Specifies the assumptions about the intellectual and social starting points of the envisioned forms of learning. These works include current student capabilities, practices, their initial interpretation and understanding as part of the pilot work.
4. Formulate a design that embodies testable conjectures about both significant shifts in student reasoning and the specific means of supporting these shifts.

Conducting a Design experiment
A primary goal for the study is to improve the initial design by testing and revising conjectures as informed by ongoing analysis of both the students’ reasoning and the learning environment. There are 4 functions they require ongoing direct engagement in the research setting and the associated planning and interpretive activates:

1. A clear view of the anticipated learning pathways and the potential of support must be maintained and communicated within the research team,
2. Cultivation of ongoing relationships with practitioners
3. Seek to develop a deep understanding of the ecology of learning – a theoretical target for the research
4. Regular debriefing.

One of the characteristics of the design experiment methodology is that the research team deepens its understanding of the phenomenon under investigation while the experiment is in progress. It is standard procedure in most engineering disciplines to keep records to support the retrospective analysis of the experiment (Edelson, 2002). Accordingly, the research team may employ audio record f meeting and logs to document the evolving conjectures, together with the observations that re views as either supporting or questioning a conjecture.

This is an interesting article! For research across disciplines and across methods and methodologies, McCandliss et al’s article propose that design-experiments might be productively combined with methods of inquiry common in more traditional elaborative science and considers the potential benefits of such a dialectic. The authors hope to promote a constructive dialogue to help formulate an infrastructure for the science of education that synthesized theoretical insights supported by a wide array of investigational methodologies (Posner & McCandliss, 1993).

The article retrospected to the recent Congressional and U.S. Department of Education policy statements mark a radical shift in the shaping of future educational research methodology, calling for randomized controlled trials as the primary source of “scientific evidence” relevant to improve practice (Shavelson, Phillips, Towne, & Feuer, 2003). There is a basic tension between the types of methods and frameworks advanced in these recent calls for evidence-based practice and those that have proven to be useful in the leading models for design experiments. Ann Brown’s (1992) research provided vision to this tension.She envisioned dynamic relationships between classroom-based and elaborative-based research. Her work provided specific examples of observations, conjectures, and artifacts that might be transported across these two research contexts. She perceived such exchange as bi-directional supporting a mutually beneficial cross-fertilization of tow very different research contexts. Unfortunately many of the dominant design experiment approaches have provide little or no provision for intellectual exchange with laboratory science methods.

After perusing these articles, the potentiality, functionalities, limitations and challenges of the design-based/experiments research come alive in front of me.

#12 Reading Reflection

Warschauer et al’s Technology and Equity in Schooling: Deconstructing the Digital Divide (in the CI 8395 Reading list) presented a qualitative study compared the availability of, access to, and use of new technologies in a group of low and high SES California high schools. In their study, the student-computer ratios in the schools were similar, the social contexts of computer use differed.

They identified 3 main patterns of technology access and use: perfromativity, workability, and complexity. They suggested a three-pronged approach to the above mentioned conditions. The first one is to ensure the low and high SES schools have higher numbers of well-trained and experienced teachers, staff, and administrators, and provide sufficient funding to the schools where large English language learners have. Second, they suggested that teacher turn their attention away from mastery of software program to use technology for scholarship, research and inquiry. And third, schools need a better approach for addressing unequal access to home computers. They also suggested that narrowing the gap in numbers of computers in high and low SES schools, both in their sample and in the nation at large, is an important first step toward helping overcome a digital divide in education.

Reflection:
The main theme of the above mentioned article-digital divide- based on SES in the education setting relating to one of my research interests- gender inquality in intersectional dimension (such as minority-race/ethnicity women-gender in rural low SES/class contexts). I conducted several literature reviews, and some of them was tied to information technology. In this review, a couple of concepts (such as investigating on rural women's predicments) were inspired by my particiapting in a Rural Families Talk research project with Dr. Walker. The following one was one of my study notes. There are two parts of this review: One was from the global perspective and the other one focused on the U.S. domain.

Part one- Global perspective on the relationship between rural low income women/populations and information technology

Information technology has changed dramatically over the last few years. In particular, Internet, has provided a medium for instantaneous exchange of information. And while many societies are facing the sea change via the unleashed electronic transformation, there are growing concerns regarding whose who are left out or behind. Generally speaking, the poor and the poorest tend to live in the far remote rural areas. It is a global pattern; no matter they are in the underdeveloped countries, such as Bangladesh, or in the post-modern societies, such as America.
Statistics shows an enormous gap in the rural-urban-suburban areas where socio-economic status, gender, and racial background distinguish the digital divide.There is now comprehensive evidence demonstrating gender differences in access to opportunities, resources and participation across the range of civic services and social and economic life chances. In particular, rural low-income women are the weakest link represented in decisionmaking. They are disproprortionately burdened with task loads, have least mobility with which to access resources and services such as heath care, child care facilities, social supports, education, and job opportunities, just to name a few.

Among the poor, gender inequality in particular, deepens the poverty. Women are socially excluded from their proportionate share of the health and wealth of their societies: including women in decisions about rural infrastructure services is a precondition to ensure scarce public resources positively affect the livelihood. (June, 2002, Final report of the World Bank, retrieved from http://www.geocities.com/transport_and_society/ruralinclusion.html ).

In short, it is necessary to identify and rectify the rural low income women’s gender disparities which have negative socio-economic effects on individuals, communities and society as a whole. The social inclusion and rural infrastructure services entail government intervention and policy making to provide effective practices via projects, programs and incentives. Such discourse has developed in Europe, and has been widely incorporated in rural and resource planning in the international communities.

The following section briefly introduces the above mentioned discourse in Europe.

Europe
The rural areas of the European Union are varied in terms of social and economic structure, geography and culture. Rural women too are not a homogeneous group. They have different roles and occupations, on farms and in family businesses, in employment and in community activities. Their needs and interests differ too, particularly from one age group to another, and depending on the size and composition of their family and age of their children. The economic and social changes that rural areas are undergoing do not affect all women in the same way: offering opportunities to some, to others they bring difficult challenges.

Rural economies, particularly those dependent on agriculture, have been affected by the processes of globalization, leading to the restructuring and decline of the agricultural sector, the growth of the service sector and increased emphasis on technology. In many areas, this
has created unprecedented work and employment opportunities, as well as bringing changes in the role and status of women. These changes have also contributed to further shifts in
population, with some rural areas close to towns and cities coming under pressure, while many
remote areas continue to suffer a decline in population.

In some regions of Europe, economic recession and cutbacks in public services have led to further rural decline, remoteness and poor infrastructure. Young people, and above all young women, migrate to the towns and cities in increasing numbers. ( This section is excerpted from Assuring the future of rural Europe, 2000, http://europa.eu.int )

Some practices from the International OrganizationsInternational Labor Organization (ILO) In this section, the focal point of the ILO is to discuss why a basic-needs of technology-related framework is necessary for the low income women/populations.
Most poor people live in the rural areas. Even with an antipoverty slant in development programs, underdeveloped countries have yet to make any significant dent in poverty. It is not surprising to observe the level and growth of incomes which are not correlated with basic-needs' achievements in Africa.

Paucity of jobs, limited purchasing power, and socioeconomic inequalities contribute to the inability of poor countries, poor families, and poor individuals to fulfill their basic needs. For these reasons, the Technology Programme of the International Labour Organization has had a clear antipoverty thrust that relies on employment generation as a major instrument for improving the poor's access, particularly in rural areas, to basic goods and services. ( refer to http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-28596-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html)

The International Women's Tribune Centre (IWTC)
This organization works in partnership with the International Development Research/Eastern and Southern Africa Office (IDRC/Nairobi). This organization has developed a new information tool that offers direct access to information for women who are among the most marginalized in development --poor women with little or no reading ability. The starting place for this initiative is Africa and the starting point is a CD-ROM Rural Women in Africa: Ideas for Earning Money. ( refer to http://www.wougnet.org/News/cdupdate.html).

WIGSAT
This is another international non-profit organization. Its goal is to promote the development and dissemination of science and technology (including ICTs) which enable women, especially those living in developing countries, to contribute to and benefit from growth and development in the global knowledge society. Its range of activities include the facilitation of e-networking (including web sites and listservs); policy analysis and research; lobbying and development and management of projects. (refer to http://www.wigsat.org/gstpmap.html).

In Africa
One of the example from the research was Patrica Liths’s “Uganda: ITCs, empowerment and Women in rural Uganda” , which investigated the African women’s social, technological and information contexts. By identifying the barriers to women's full use of ICTs, and then developed strategies for overcoming those barriers.
The central inquiry concerns African women's use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). This includes issues of access, the benefits African women experience and can expect to experience from ICTs, and the role they can and do play in the production and dissemination of information. It emphasizes that information and communication technologies (ICTs) can result to socio-cultural, economic and political change. It has resulted to a shift in development discourse (The World Bank 2004, OECD 2004, CIDA 2004, Hafkin and Wild 2002, G0U 2002, Sorensen 2002, Hafkin and Taggart 2001, Preston 2001, Adeya 2000, ECA 1999). It is now common to hear about Summits, meetings and conferences on ‘ICTs for development’, ‘cyberspace’, ‘digital economy’, ‘information superhighways’, ‘the information society and ‘networked society’ (Preston 2001) among others. A number of bilateral and multilateral donor organisations have now mainstreamed ICTs in their development programmes in order to more effectively meet the millennium development goals (OECD 2003). (refer to ICTs, empowerment and Women in rural Uganda: A SCOT Perspective, A paper presented at the “to think is to experiment”; SSMAC, Centre for Narrative Research, UEL, 22nd April 2005 by Patricia. K. Litho, retrieved from http://www.uel.ac.uk/cnr/ICTs.htm).

Australia
In Australia, the community networking and interactive communication technology (ICT) projects was based on feminist or social justice principles usually aiming to include a broad diversity of community members. Groups often targeted include women, indigenous people, people of non-English speaking backgrounds or with low incomes, and people living in rural and remote areas. The inclusion and empowerment of rural people has become increasingly important in Australia as governments and community development practitioners seek new community-based solutions to the sustainability of rural and remote communities (Harrison, 1998).
Many of these communities have experienced severe economic decline and a loss of services over the past decade or more. A further factor is the likelihood of a growing ‘digital divide’ between various social groups as access to ICTs such as the Internet and email becomes more important to work, education, citizenship, community development, and social activities.
(Paper published in the proceedings of the Electronic Networks - Building Community: 5th Community Networking Conference, 3-5 July 2002, Monash University, Melbourne, http://www.ccnr.net/?q=taxonomy/term/15).

Asia
Asia is a leader in providing cutting-edge expertise to drive the global information technology industry. Yet, with the exception of a few countries, it also is the home of unmitigated poverty, overpopulation and a persistent gender gap in education and literacy. The Asia-Pacific region shows great diversity in gender-related indicators and differential gains in the advancement of women and girls. But a consistent concern shared among all the countries is one of stark urban-rural disparity in development gains, particularly in education. The rural female children face greater disadvantages than rural male children do. While prevailing social attitudes and cultural norms could explain the disparity prevalent in the communities and within the household, it is necessary to acknowledge the issue of imbalances in the allocation of national resources to serve the rural sector.

South Asia- Gender aspects of conventional technologies
In the mid-1980s, several studies looked for areas where improved technology could both reduce the workload of and generate income for rural women in South Asia. These studies found that production linkages may or may not always be beneficial for women. Some examples are the following:
The mechanization of the fishing industry in Kerala, India, has resulted in a large increase in the volume of the fish catch and increased women's employment in net making, coir and prawn processing, marketing, and trade.
An alternative technology for milk preservation introduced in the Punjab, Pakistan, has strengthened the backward production linkage with villages near a sterilization plant, but the tendency in the rural family has been for men to pocket the earnings generated by women's additional work. Field-based ILO technical-cooperation projects for women from three developing subregions (South Asia and West and South Africa) indicate that it is feasible to widen and diversify women's income-earning opportunities by introducing improved technologies. Applying improved technologies could generate women's employment in nontraditional areas, and upgrading the technologies in women's traditional occupations could simultaneously raise their productivity and reduce the drudgery of their work. Channeling improved technologies through rural women's participatory organizations contributes significantly to women's empowerment. Fostering of linkages with commercial suppliers of technology, training institutes, and marketing channels has been a key element in the strategy for women's empowerment.
The emerging experience of developing countries suggests that the kinds of jobs women will be able to get will continue to be associated with women's comparative advantage, that is, with gender traits that are not recognized, or paid for, as professional skills. When industries adopt improved technologies, the women are relegated to the industrial periphery, stressing, therefore, the core - periphery segmentation of the labor force. In traditional industries, such as textiles, footwear, and rattan furniture, the technological improvement of the production process seems to exacerbate the existing gender division of labor, where the better paid jobs with higher skills content are undertaken by men and the lower paid jobs with lower skills content are undertaken by women. (refer tohttp://www.fao.org/docrep/005/ac788e/AC788E03.htm).

The Global Challenges Ahead
The centrality of gender equality and women's empowerment goals is also recognized in the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation. The plan stresses the importance of enhancing “the role of women at all levels and in all aspects of rural development, agriculture and food security”. Similarly it recognizes that to effect needed changes, “women should be able to participate fully and equally in policy formulation and decision-making”.
The reiteration of international commitments to gender equality and to the empowerment of women contrasts sharply with the inadequate progress that has been made in reducing gender gaps. Undoubtedly, persisting gender gaps are one of the reasons that poverty-reduction targets for the year 2000 were not met. If the new targets are to be reached, efforts and resources must be significantly scaled up and better coordinated in the future. Past experience shows that doing more of the same will not be enough. Nor will economic growth be sufficient if women continue to be denied opportunities. There is in fact a mounting body of evidence pointing to the need to expand women’s rights and representation, and to bring about cultural changes in order to reap the full benefits of economic growth.
Globalization undoubtedly presents enormous opportunities in terms of increased access to knowledge (made possible by new information technologies) and to new markets and employment possibilities. However, it also poses special challenges for the more marginal groups. (Indeed, in an increasingly globalized world, income and gender inequalities are reported to be growing in many countries.) The poor, and especially women, often lack the bargaining power and organizational capacity to grapple with new markets and risks. In such a highly volatile and uneven global environment, there is a need for close monitoring of the impacts of global processes on the poorest and on women in particular. Furthermore, economic and social unrest, and conflict, can lead to the restructuring of societies and the curtailing of women's freedoms. Capacity-building of poor women and men and their institutions, enabling them to advocate for their rights, will be essential in countering the risks of increased vulnerability.(Source: Women as Agents of Change, IFAD (2003).

Part two- The rural low income populations and information technology and Information Technology in the U.S. (There are not sufficient data differentiating gender and IT in the rural contexts. So my reading mainly was focusing on the general population in rural-urban-suburban spectrum instead of specific gender dichotomy). So this part of review did not extract sufficient gender component from the data collected.

After a brief glance of the main relationships between low-income women (gender inequality) and technology in developed, developing and underdeveloped counties, the following section will come back to focus on what the scenario the U.S. looks like.

As of September 30, 2007, 1.244 billion people use the Internet according to Internet World Stats. Writing in the Harvard International Review, philosopher N.J. Slabbert, a writer on policy issues for the Washington DC-based Urban Land Institute, has asserted that the Internet is fast becoming a basic feature of global civilization, so that what has traditionally been called “civil society” is now becoming identical with information technology society as defined by Internet use. (refer to Slabbert, N. J. The Technologies of Peace, Harvard International Review, June 2006). Based on such understanding, the following data that I collected were focused on issues relating Internet.

As the proverbial saying, information technology is a double edged-sword. But without accessing to advancing telecommunications technology, rural areas will be left even far more behind. As in one of the emails sent to you a couple weeks ago, Rowley points out one of the major issues tied to rural disadvantaged status is the rural communications infrastructure. He also identified major obstacles to the above issues identified by the author are market obstacle,regulatory obstacles , physical/technical obstacles and end-user obstacles. To overcome these obstacles, he suggests the following strategies:
a. Doing nothing and hoping that the market provides the necessary services
b. Using regulatory and property management procedures to improve access to advanced telecommunications
c. Using government purchasing power to create a buyer's market.
d. Developing publicly owned infrastructure
e. Using Rural Area Networks (RANs)
f. Interconnecting to urban networks.
g. Using wireless technologies.
h.Working with alternative providers.

In short, all the nifty technology in the world won't improve the lives of rural people, if they can't or won't use it. The predicament lies in that women of the low income rural areas tend to be less benefited from the IT, thus are less likely to demand it. And the less demand from the advanced IT services, they tend not to utilize and benefit from it. So it can end up a viciously cyclical condition.

To understand the above conditions, some researchers and organizations conducted various types of surveys on issues tied to rural low income communities to give stakeholders a better outlook of such a landscape across the U.S.

There are approximately 59-65 million adults living in rural communities, or 21% of the
U.S. adult population. Researchers in this field point out that Internet penetration has grown in rural communities, but the gap between them and suburban and urban communities has remained constant over time, and the rural residents are less likely to be Internet users than those who live in suburbs or cities. According to the Pew Internet & American Life
Project survey in 2003, rural Internet penetration has remained roughly 10 percentage points
behind the national average in each of the last four years ( 67% of urban residents use the Internet; 66% of suburban residents use the Internet, and 52% of rural residents use the Internet).

Internet penetration by percentage


2000 2001 2002 2003
Rural 41 50 49 52
Suburban 55 62 63 66
Urban 51 62 58 67
National 50 59 58 63


Community types as percentages of online population

2000 2001 2002 2003
Rural 19 20 21 20
Suburban 51 53 52 52
Urban 29 27 26 29

(Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project Surveys. 2003: March-August 2003 N=3112, Margin of error is ±2%. 2002: March-May 2002 N= 4263, Margin of error is ±2%. 2001: Aug-Sept 2001, N= 4482 Margin of error is ±2%. 2000: N= 21789, Margin of error is ±1%. )

In 2002, the Pew Internet Project gauged the impact of the Internet by asking to what extent users incorporate the Internet into “major life moments” – big decisions and occasions such as making large purchases, changing jobs, or dealing with an illness – that respondents had experienced in the two previous years. Revisiting that data reveals that the Internet is less likely to be a part of major occasions in rural users’ lives than in urban and suburban users’ lives., but in terms of employment, 72% of rural users say the Internet played no role in a job change. By comparison, 55% of urban users and 61% of suburban users said the Internet played no part in their job change.

Rural residents also report a lower instance of high-speed availability to their homes than do urban and suburban residents. In October 2002, the Pew Internet Project asked, Do you currently live in an area where you can subscribe to high-speed Internet service if you want to? Responses to this question do not measure actual physical facilities in each community type, but they indicate how many residents are aware of whether they have the option of broadband access. Rural residents are more likely than their urban and suburban counterparts to say that they don’t know if high-speed connection is available. Dial-up is in decline, but a large percentage of rural users continue to use dial-up connections.

Satellite and wireless connections hold the promise to serve more remote areas, and in 2003 the Department of Agriculture and the Federal Communications Commission launched a joint initiative to stimulate wireless broadband adoption in rural communities. However, the number of wireless users is presently too small to assess the growth of wireless connections.

The cost of deployment remains a barrier to rural residents’ access, and according to Pew Internet Project numbers, access remains an issue. Nevertheless, according to the NTCA, many local telephone companies and cooperatives are already offering broadband connections. In sum, there is at times a lack of demand for high-speed services in rural areas, even when connections are available. (National Telecommunications Cooperative Association. “NTCA 2003 Internet/Broadband Availability Survey Report.” May 2003. Available at: http://www.ntca.org/content_documents/2003broadband.pdf.)

Rural Internet Demographics: Who’s Online?

Rural communities differ significantly from urban and suburban areas in terms of demographics such as age, income and educational attainment. These variables, among others, are strong predictors for Internet use. Statistical analysis that examines the principal drivers for differences in Internet penetration by geographical type suggests that some of the differences are driven by Internet adoption patterns among low-income rural individuals. Living in a rural area in itself has little or no influence as to whether one goes online. However, low-income people in rural areas are less likely to be online than low-income people living in urban or suburban areas; Internet adoption among middle and upper income people is similar across community type. In each community type, Internet users are evenly split in terms of sex. Rural residents are older than suburban and urban residents, and this probably affects Internet penetration rates.

Regression analysis shows that, in some (but not all) model specifications, living in a rural area is a modestly negative and significant predictor of Internet adoption at the 10% level of significance. The interaction of income and being a rural resident is, however, significant; this means that the significance on Net adoption of living in a rural area varies by income level. This is the basis for the finding that low-income residents of rural areas are less likely to be online than low-income residents of urban or suburban locations. (Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project Surveys, March-August 2003. General population: N = 20437, Margin of
error is ±1%. Online population: N=3061, Margin of error is ±2%. Internet penetration: N=4848, Margin of error is ±2%.)

Educational attainment is associated with Internet use in rural communities as elsewhere. Significant increases in Internet penetration accompany increasing levels of educational attainment until leveling off after completion of a four-year degree.

The Activities Rural Internet Users Pursue

Rural users also participate in a number of other online activities, including online transactions. But in most cases, rural users are less likely than urban and suburban users to perform them. This is very likely connected to the fact that a relatively large number of
rural Internet users are relative newcomers to the online world. As a general rule, newcomers are less likely than veterans to have performed transactions online.

Rural users are the least likely to bank online (28%), to make a travel reservation online (49%), or to buy a product online (57%). A lower proportion of rural users go online to do job-related research, and urban and suburban users are also more likely than rural users to conduct information searches for health, housing and employment. (Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project Surveys. See Appendix C for sample sizes, margins of error, and survey periods
for each activity.)

There are a few activities that rural users are more likely than urban or suburban users to have done online. Searching for religious or spiritual information is more popular among rural users (35%) than among suburban (29%) and urban (24%) users. In fact, among rural users, gathering religious or spiritual information is more popular than banking online (29%), looking for a place to live (26%), and downloading music (26%, June 2003). Compared to suburban users, rural users are more likely to send or receive instant messages. Even relatively experienced rural Internet users are less likely than their urban and suburban counterparts to engage online transactions.

Experienced rural users are more likely than others to send and receive instant messages, and to seek health information, and look for religious and spiritual information online. Rural users with three years of experience don’t appear to do things much differently from the rural user population in general, but there are some things they do more often. More experienced users continue to send and receive IM at rates comparable to or greater than urban and suburban users. And among experienced users, searching for spiritual or religious information continues to be more popular among rural users (36%) than their suburban (30%) and urban (24%) counterparts. Among experienced users, those living in rural communities are more likely than others to seek out health information. About 73% of experienced rural users have sought health information online.

Rural users were also less likely than suburban users to have used the Internet to deal with an illness or health condition, but more likely than urban users to have done so. While 37% of suburban users say that the Internet played no part in dealing with their illness, 46% of rural users say so. Meanwhile, 57% of urban users said that the Internet was not a part of coping with their condition. Finally, most rural and suburban users starting new romantic relationships say the Internet had nothing to do with it (75%) while 60% of urban users say so. (Source: January 2002 tracking survey. N=1,415, margin of error is ±3%)

Internet users in all three community types say that the Internet is good for a variety of pursuits. First and foremost, they say it is good for getting daily information such as weather reports, news, and sports scores. Next, the majority of users in each community type – over 80% of them – say that the Internet is a good way to send and receive greetings and invitations, and to communicate with friends and family. Third, it is a place in which to be entertained. These sentiments corroborate findings from 2002, which found that most Internet users expect to find what they are looking for when going online. (Horrigan, John and Lee Rainie. “Counting on the Internet.” Washington, D.C.: Pew Internet & American Life Project, December 2002. Available at: http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=80.)

Rural Attitudes Toward the Internet

One way to measure diffusion of the Internet is the attitudes and beliefs that users and non-users hold toward it. Rural Internet newcomers have mixed feelings about computers and technology, but more experienced users are more positive about them. For less experienced users, computers inspire mixed feelings. In all community types, larger percentages of new users than more experienced users harbor mixed feelings about computers and technology. This is especially the case for newer rural users. In a survey the Pew Internet Project conducted in October 2002, 50% of rural users with fewer than three years online reported “mixed feelings” towards computers and technology, whereas 32% of comparable urban users say this and 27% of suburban users say so. In fact, experienced rural Internet users are more positive about computers and technology than similarly experienced urban and suburban Internet users. While 23% of both urban and suburban users with four or more years experience online report mixed feelings, only 16% of rural users with three or more years experience hold mixed feelings about computers and technology. Most (84%) rural users with three years or more online report that they like computers and technology, whereas 75% of their urban counterparts and 76% of their suburban counterparts say this.

The third part of my review focused on policy domain -the U.S. telecommunication Policy relating to rural low income populations

The U.S. Policy makers have long hoped that the Internet could bring especially powerful benefits to rural areas, many of which have suffered economic problems as residents migrate to cities and suburbs. Many officials in small towns and rural regions hoped that technology that allowed people to communicate easily and cheaply with any modem owner in the world and to access all kinds of information, products and services on the Web would allow people to remain in rural settings while reaping some new social and economic rewards. Rural leaders and technology enthusiasts have dreamed that the Internet’s capacity to render physical location less meaningful would in some ways make rural life more desirable.

Connecting to the international discourse concerning the disadvantaged low income populations who are not benefited from the information technology, the U.S. Telecommunication policy includes virtually everything that an information society uses to convey facts and ideas. The U.S. telecommunication policy began in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 covering telephones, wireless telephony, ham radios, cable TV, computers, the Internet, broadcast radio, broadcast TV, distance learning, telemedicine, satellite communications, interstate trade, public morality over the airwaves, cross-ownership of media, telecommunication equipment manufacturing, and many other communication and information economic activities partially or in their entirety.

Federal policy addresses economic efficiency and equity. The policy intends to facilitate the development and adoption of new communication and information technology while addressing the universal availability of communication services. The primary policy vehicle is the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which was the first comprehensive rewrite of the Communications Act of 1934. The Act modified previous legislation, such as the 1934 Communications Act, Cable Act of 1992, and judicial actions, such as the early 1982 consent decree in the breakup of Ma Bell (AT&T). (refer to Rural Telecommunications: Rural Telecommunication Policy http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/Telecom/ruraltelecompolicy.htm).

A brief conclusion
If the public policy intends to facilitate the development and adoption of new communication and information technology while addressing the economic efficiency and equity of communication services (USDA, 2007), then rural low income women’s information lag behind would be a major concern for such policy endeavor.

Replace the previous posting (due to the blurry upload

Here are the two diagrams of DE theorists' perspectives replacing the previous blurry posting.

#11 posting

Dubin (1978) remarked that theory builders observe a segment of the world around them and search for order in the realm of experience. Due to the complexity, the observation can be bewildering. They presented various kinds of perspectives, each of which attempts to explain an important aspects of the complexity.

Overvewing through various distance learning theorists’ endeavors, I combined them into a chart which includes the theories or models of Urie Bronfenbrenner (psychologist, Ecological Systems Theory), Borje Holmberg, Charles Wedemeyer, Michael G. Moore, Desmond Keegan, Otto Peters, Randy Garrison, and John Anderson (see the above diagram).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The following is an old post appearing in another site. I put them together in one place.

This is an interesting article from the CI8395 reading list. Here are my notes:

Summary:

Aviv et al’s (2003) “Network analysis of knowledge construction in asynchronous learning networks (ALNs)” attempts to make the process of collaboration more transparent. The authors used a transcript of conference messages to assess individual roles and collaborative contribution. There were 3 aspects in assessing the ALNs:

1.The design, the quality of the resulting knowledge construction process and cohesion, role and power network structures. The design is evaluated according to the Social Interdependence Theory of Cooperative Learning;
2.The quality of the knowledge construction process is evaluated through Content Analysis;

3.The network structures are analyzed using Social Network Analysis.

Research design, samples and data:

The analysis in this research is based on recorded data from two ALNs that were part of the Open University of Israel course, Business Ethics. The first ALN (18 participants) ran during the fall 2000 semester. The other ALN (19 participants) ran during the spring 2002 semester. The designs of the ALNs were different. Neither of the ALNs fulfills all of the specifications of Social Interdependence Theory of Cooperative Learning, but the fall 2000 ALN was more structured than the spring 2002 ALN. They referred to these ALNs as the structured ALN and the non-structured ALN, respectively.

The structured ALN was a three-month long, formal online seminar; in signing up for it, students committed themselves to active participation and other requirements. A reward mechanism for fulfilling the requirements (including active participation) was employed. 18 students opted to participate in this ALN.The non-structured ALN was a three-month long online conference, open to all 300 students in the course, with no need to register or commit themselves in advance. No specific cooperative goal was defined for this ALN. Students and the tutor could raise a variety of issues related to the course topic(which were the same as in the fall 2000 course). No structure was designed and no schedule was imposed (though the deadlines for submitting assignments were reflected in the ALN), and no reward mechanism was implemented. 19 students opted to use this ALN.

The interesting item in the research was the Social Network Analysis using Cyram NetMiner —a software tool for exploratory network data analysis and visualization.

Results:
They found that in the structured ALN, the knowledge construction process reached a very high phase of critical thinking and developed cohesive cliques. The students took on bridging and triggering roles, while the tutor had relatively little power. In the non-structured ALN, the knowledge construction process reached a low phase of cognitive activity; few cliques were constructed; most of the students took on the passive role of teacher-followers; and the tutor was at the center of activity.In the discussion, the authors posed several suggesting for further studies which included position analysis, network dynamics, large group information overload, effective construction of network, stochastic modeling of ALNs, and stability of results.

Reflection:
1. This is an empirical research based on students in the course of Business Ethics at the Open University of Israel course. Though the research is comparison by nature (comparing the structured and non-structured ALNs), the methods and tools are sophisticated, in particular, the interesting Cyram NetMiner software to explore the network pathways and can be visualized see the above diagrams.

2. From Cryam NetMiner’s analysis, one can see the patterns of network dynamics among the triggers, celebrities, loners, passive actors and active actors, as well as the roles and functions of the facilitators between the structured and non-structured groups.

3. I can read that the less structured group where facilitator (P 18) has to take more responsibility (teacher-centered) to push the class going. Learners are passively waiting to be led. On the other hand, the facilitator (P1) in the structured group almost can be invisible (or less interacts with the group). At this point, perhaps, some educational stakeholders might question what the true responsibilities- roles and functions of an online facilitator are, according to the above diagrams in the structured group, if a course is well designed by a collaborative team of contents, design, media experts? Where are the show cases or the credits of pedagogies if they are part of the team efforts? Can the facilitator be spared?- James Morrison's - University will be dead, but what about pedagogies if physical universities are gone?

4. The research was conducted in Israel. I am wondering if the students are international by nature, or mainly they were from Israel, since it was an open university. Cultural differences, gender, race/ethnicity, class, personality, learning styles...etc. could play a role in group dynamics. For example, some ethnic groups/gender, tend not to be the triggers or “bridgers” which might not indicate that they were passive learners. So the characteristics of learner need to be taken into account.

5. Some researchers (in Israel?) suggested embedding the Cryam NetMiner tool into ALN support environment to enable the facilitator to monitor group dynamics closely. Cautiously, they did warn the possible contradictories if embedded, from the research perspective. From my point of view, I can also look at it from the personnel and administrative perspectives. Cryam NetMiner not just can be used to monitor learners’ activities; it also can reveal facilitator’s endeavors in an online environment. So, before what the ideal or necessary minimum and maximum of engagement of an online facilitator to partake in the teaching and learning environment, the embedding the Cryam NetMiner (if it happens) can be controversial.