Eliminate Physical Distance as a Barrier to Learning
Contrary to the old perceptions regarding distance learning, DEL is not just about overcoming the inability to meet face to face. In many cases, it is about the ability to make distance either irrelevant or at least less important to the learning process. It is about connecting students with previously unavailable learning opportunities, thoughtful instructors, dynamic resources, and engaging classmates in a platform of connectivity that produces a morphing cauldron of creative, new learning. It also creates more opportunities for classroom-based teachers and students to connect with each other outside of the classroom. To that end, the modern web-connected laptop has the power to bring learners the richest, most dynamic, and diverse learning experiences in human history.
Signal the Emergence of Learning- and Learner-Centered Facilitation
In a webinar, we invited Louisville, Kentucky, professor and pedagogy expert, Terrence M. Scott, to address an audience of teachers regarding approaches to creating highly engaging learning environments. During this live session, he presented several recommended classroom configurations designed to strategically maximize student engagement. Interestingly, each of his recommended configurations was designed to maximize learner-to-learner interaction and to try to create conditions where the teacher is the facilitator with learning at the center of what he or she does.
What we have found in a digital learning environment is that the platform itself serves to challenge the entire teacher-centric approach to education. Where traditional classrooms setups, with seats facing the instructor, are based on the premise of the class hinging on the facilitator’s actions, modern-day learning platforms are constructed primarily around the content. Furthermore, although learning platforms aren’t all the same, we have found that most of these learning platforms offer easy access for opportunities to dialogue with fellow classmates, encouraging connections.
Additionally, with powerful online platforms, educators can facilitate learning experiences by demanding much higher levels of learner engagement. These platforms and approaches to distance learning allow for greater degrees of personalization and opportunities for a teacher to intervene when the learner is struggling (Huang, Liang, Su, & Chen, 2012). They also allow for advanced levels of study once a student reaches basic competency. Using Khan Academy as an example, a mathematics teacher could provide virtual observations and interventions with a class full of students, each of them accessing different digital tutorials. While each student either seeks to reinforce learning by achieving prescribed competencies, or seeks advanced applications to promote even deeper learning, the teacher emerges as a facilitator for this process. As such, the teacher can use multiple tools to formatively assess students on a continuous basis to prescribe practice, resources, and other learning opportunities for students to meaningfully engage with content at their own pace and with earnest motivation to absorb the new learning. The mere fact that there are so many tools and opportunities available to diagnose learners and their needs makes DEL a must-use feature in traditional classrooms and gives it an advantage over traditional classrooms.
Provide Unlimited Learner Choice and Personalization
Giving learners a choice and opportunity to personalize their learning environment is an effective way to maintain student engagement. In many cases these choices or approaches to personalization come down to the student’s preferred learning method and learning conditions (Spector 2013).
The learning method typically refers to the type of experience that stimulates student engagement in the learning. For example, a lesson that requires hands-on activities or is entirely visual has very different methodologies for instruction. For example, some methods might include the use of audio files or some type of simulation. Whenever possible, the choice in methodology allows learners to pick an approach that represents some unique novelty, perhaps in comparison to what they have been doing recently. The choice often represents a preferred way of processing information. Some learners for example, learn best by one or more of these approaches, or a blend of several at once.
Learning conditions refer to elements like the time of day, the length of engagement, and perhaps even details such as room temperature, body position, and so on. Many of you reading this book probably remember scheduling college classes and trying to pick learning opportunities that coincided with times of the day that met with your emotional and learning priorities. Indeed, some of us do like morning classes!
This discussion of methods and learning conditions is important because the allowances of technology provide learners the opportunity to put themselves in the situation where they can pick and choose their preferred learning method and condition. For example, a lesson may be posted in written form, with audio and video support, while simultaneously requiring some type of hands-on experience or experiment. In this case, the learner would engage in that activity and pick an approach that was most consistent with his or her preferred learning style. In terms of learning conditions, some students may find themselves logging in at the time of day when their energy is at its peak and can take breaks at a pace consistent with their personal levels of engagement. Clearly, allowing students to make these choices prepares them to be engaged with their own learning trajectory and capabilities.
To further illustrate this, we, your authors, use ourselves to reflect on the degree to which DEL provides each of us with options to personalize our own ongoing learning. Crystal Guiler is a digital native. When she seeks to learn something new, she first finds a blog on the topic and reads it to ascertain context. She then reads contributor feedback and may immediately post a question. After interacting in that space, she finds and listens to a posted lecture, followed by diving into the course readings, if applicable. Lisa Reason prefers to read the text first, then experience the noise of learner interaction on a discussion board or blog. Casey Reason would much rather listen to a lecture or debate, read the book, and then jump right in and participate in an asynchronous discussion.
Of course, there are many other routes a learner could choose on his or her way to digesting the content. Up until the era of DEL, K–12 learners had to largely rely on the dexterity of their instructor to provide learning opportunities commensurate with their natural, hardwired learning preferences. Think about how much more our students could learn if they could more seamlessly and strategically identify and make use of their learning preferences, thanks to the availability of varied digital learning opportunities.
In addition to giving learners more choice, DEL gives facilitators even greater opportunities to personalize the learning and individually prescribe activities for learners that allow for remediation and extra support as well as acceleration, if proficiency is already established. In a traditional classroom, the teacher is always playing “beat the clock,” facilitating instruction and hoping an opportunity to personalize will manifest. Many DEL opportunities simply expand what’s possible, minimizing the challenge of eroding time and maximizing the focus on finding the best set of activities and engagements for the learners who need them.
Offer the Advantage of Timeless, Asynchronous Learning
One of the loftiest aspirations we have for this book is to shine a huge spotlight on what we believe to be the underestimated and largely underutilized advantage of asynchronous (or cyber-asynchronous) learning, the ability to participate in the learning process at any given time. Tech advocates champion asynchronous learning as being transformational due to its convenience (Ge, 2012). However, the true gift of timeless, asynchronous learning is in the degree to which it aligns with the natural learning rhythms of human beings. With technology and strategically constructed asynchronous learning experiences, learners can participate and engage in learning and reflecting experiences in a much more flexible time frame, potentially leading to deeper learning and engagement (Koutsabasis, Stavrakis, Spyrou, & Darzentas, 2011). For example, a teacher could post a trigonometry problem online for the entire class and open it up to student debate in relation to possible approaches and resolution. In a brick-and-mortar,
