By Herb Centeno
Introduction
As I began thinking about the importance of interactivity in on-line learning, the memory of a green plastic screen and a conversation I had with “Clarabelle†came back to me. The green screen was my first experience with an interactive medium for learning, and it obviously had quite an impact on me. In 1990, I had the opportunity to have a lengthy conversation with Bob Keeshan, famed television actor and producer. Most baby boomers remember him as “Clarabelle the Clown†on the Howdy Doody Show, or as the beloved Captain Kangaroo. While as children we didn’t realize it but methods of communication were key to Mr. Keeshan’s teaching style. As we spoke, he often referenced the importance of positive interaction in educating children, and in all learning environments. The obvious examples of Sesame Street came up. However, what I remember most is that he mentioned by name, which now escapes me, the 1950’s TV show where as a kid I sent in for a special green plastic film to put on the television screen. With this screen, I could follow along with the TV host, tracing items, working a maze, or practicing letters right on the TV screen. It was at that time, that I became a member of a larger community of children who were interactively engaged in learning.
Though this was my earliest recollection of an interactive learning process, today’s electronic method of instruction can take a lesson from this experience by implementing multiple methods of communication, which will create student engagement and establish virtual communities for online learners in the manufacturing industry.
A major concern in today’s advanced manufacturing industry is that of an industry wide skills shortage. Additionally, employers require that new and existing employees absorb knowledge, and perform with the skills needed to do a job in a cost effective manner. Terminating those who don’t possess the needed skills and training new employees is just not good business. Moreover, industry loses revenue when employees attend traditional training during working hours. As a result, the desired method of educating the workforce is too provide just in time training that’s either completely online or blended instruction where a community of students can work at their own pace, and without the expense of travel, travel time and face two face (f2f) instructors.
The manufacturing industry realizes that in order to create online communities where students can flourish, it is vital that we develop a variety of cost effective methods of communication, and interactivity that could promote student engagement.
Educators have always known that the best way for an individual or group to learn how to do a particular task is through repetition and watching others perform the task. This preferred method of instruction is one of the oldest, and known in manufacturing as the apprenticeship model or technical education. The new challenge is how to transfer that group model of learning to online learning. For example, when a group of apprentices repeat a process such as repairing a computer, and the expert / journeyman instructor not only assists in this “hands on†activity but provides immediate feedback, the learning dynamics of social culture, engagement, and interactivity provide a learning environment that today’s web-based technology needs to duplicate.
Dr. Jeffrey Howard, founder of the Efficacy Institute has developed an interesting comprehensive model for managing obstacles that confronts teachers and learners. His model provides a framework for organizing a learner’s thoughts, efforts, and results to develop a higher level of academic proficiency and engagement of learners in the learning community. “Smart is not something you are. Smart is something you get.” (Howard, J)
Dr. Howard refers to Nintendo as a model where students are extremely engaged in a game of high standards of performance. In this game students are challenged, and when they don’t reach the pinnacle, they simply start over and apply another strategy. In other words, the name of the game is to teach learners that it’s all about formulating strategies not luck, innate ability nor the difficulty of a particular task. Nintendo players in different locations can now play against each other in this intelligent strategic “hands on†game of trial and error, not unlike the apprenticeship model that has the dynamics of community involvement, effective communication, and immediate approval for achieving the task.
This, like the apprenticeship model of instruction, speaks to developing a student’s confidence by building success incrementally and focusing on the learner’s strategies rather than their abilities. To support learner’s, educators need to adjust their communication strategies including curriculum development, instructional methods, community involvement, and assessment to meet the expected competencies. Like Nintendo and the apprenticeship model, the key online elements that need to be duplicated are engagement, repetition, and faster feedback. In the development of virtual communities the latter is important because rapid feedback diminishes misunderstandings and erroneous perceptions.
Instructional Methods and Tools for Building Online Communities
In traditional education, instructors teach, students are expected to learn, and teacher’s grade on a normal curve where some students pass and others fail. In this process the teacher knows all, and the burden of learning is always on the student not the method of instruction. This is known as the Normative Referenced Instruction (NRI) model. The development of virtual communities through online teaching requires a different method, and the best way to accomplish that is through blending the Criterion Referenced Instruction model using the Constructivist approach, where we learn from one another. Unlike the NRI model, Criterion Referenced Instruction (CRI) assumes that all the students can learn, and the burden is not on the students but rather on the instructional material.
We know that a high level of literacy is obtained through the combination and repetition of text and images. The use of video tape is an example of this. When used properly, it can be a cost effective tool that can achieve engagement, retention, and social interaction through organized repetition.
An example of video tape being properly used is the study conducted by Stanford Professor Jim Gibbons engineering class (2002), where several Hewlett-Packard employees who had been transferred and could no longer attend. Having to adjust to the students needs, the professor simply video taped the lessons and shipped it to them. The students as a group started and stopped the video every 3 minutes or so (CRI), and discussed (constructivist) what they had seen. Slowly this student community continued the process of analyzing concepts and asking questions until its completion. The surprising result of this “instructional accident†for Hewlett-Packard was that these students outperformed the face to face (f2f) in class students.
This very same “accidental†video approach in the hands of a knowledgeable online facilitator can be utilized and deployed via course management systems to achieve similar outcomes. For example, a facilitator can video tape the lesson then break it up into shorter segments, and ask questions at the end of each segment to assess students understanding. A virtual group can log into the lesson and with the help of Skype software, they could discuss each segment and come to a group consensus. This would enhance learning of the online community because of the audio synchronized discussion. In addition, the video’s audio portion can be extracted and made into a podcast, thereby making the lesson mobile. Or if desired the entire video can be converted into a PowerPoint presentation. This same process can be accomplished with PowerPoint if the facilitator is more comfortable with this program vs. video editing.
In addition, though virtual communities have been developed via discussion boards, the utilization of instant messaging or live chats helps bring community developing closer to real time group dialog.
Conclusion
Currently, manufacturing needs an adequately trained workforce but is resistant to allow employees to be trained during work hours regardless of the cost savings in travel and time of travel. The training need however, has gravitated industry toward the growing opinion that online technical education is the most cost effective training investment available. But even as they have adopted trainings to online they have failed to provide employees with (that peer to peer process, the interactivity that builds community and is essential to learning) incentives to make it attractive for the workforce.
The burden of developing virtual communities is dependent upon the facilitator’s knowledge of utilizing multiple methods communication tools. History has shown that repetition and peer interaction in education is a proven method of learning as in the example of apprenticeship training, and video tape when properly edited is an effective medium.
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