Mid-South Instructional Technology Conference
Teaching, Learning, & Technology
Transforming the Learning Environment
April 4-6, 2004
|
Dr. Gail Slye Dr. Edward Williamson Track 2 - Promoting Transformation in the Learning Environment |
Abstract
Faculty members at Drury University have been utilizing the Docutek Electronic Reserve System (ERes) since the beginning of the 1998-1999 academic year in order to provide students with essential academic materials and asynchronous communication abilities. ERes, an uncomplicated system that has helped shape the teaching and learning environments of higher educational institutions around the world, can create connected communities of inquiry in cyberspace.
Description
In a "community of inquiry everyone has a place, everyone is respected, every view is voiced" (Smith, "Meeting Claims for the Community of Inquiry", 2000, para. 1). Individuals are able to discover their "identity, meaning, and purpose in life through connections to the community" (Willison, 2003, p. 57), which coincides with the concept of experiential learning that was initially advocated by Dewey in 1938 (Starnes, 1999). The challenge for educational units is to establish learning communities and learning structures that are able to sustain the learning culture that "exists when a school's beliefs, values, and norms support adult learning" (Cosner & Peterson, 2003, p. 13). Supovitz (2002) claims that communities require systematic structures within which to organize cultures of inquiry. Drennon (2002) indicates that communities of inquiry can include: (1) critical reflections; (2) meaningful dialogue; (3) collaborative research; and (4) collective action (p. 61). A community of inquiry involves three elements relating to an educational experience: cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching experience (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2001). Cognitive presence is the ability of the community of inquiry members "to construct meaning through sustained communication" (para. 1). Faculty members at Drury University have been utilizing the Docutek Electronic Reserve System (ERes) since the beginning of the 1998-1999 academic year in order to provide students with necessary materials and asynchronous communication abilities. ERes has helped shape the teaching and learning environments of higher educational institutions around the world. Kesten and Zivkovic (1997) describe ERes as a stand-alone system that uses intuitive point and click interfaces in conjunction with context-sensitive support structure. The user-friendly format has eliminated the need for extensive technical training when using the system. Negative aspects associated with electronic instruction include a feeling of disconnectiveness from class members with no face-to-face contact, a lack of consistent communications, technical challenges, and confusing feedback (Brown, 2000). In spite of the negative perspectives, technologically mediated instruction offered at a distance is becoming an important feature in the realm of higher education.