Technology-Based Approaches to Teaching, Learning and Adult Education in Online Learning
Adult education over the years has brought significant changes and new demands in the educational system. One of the most substantial changes is using technology introduced by educators to implement the best instructional objectives and strategies to work with diverse learners. As stated by Conrad and Donaldson (2012), “A significant element in meeting the instructional needs of the 21st – Century learner is to discover effective ways to engage the individual in the context of diverse technology-enhanced learning opportunities” (p. 1). Changes in society, learner expectations, and technology were already motivating post-secondary institutions, faculty and educators to rethink pedagogy and teaching methods before COVID-19. The pandemic accelerated this process and left post-secondary institution faculty members with few instruction options as the virus quickly re-shaped instructor’s teaching practices. This sudden shift to online/eLearning transformed the teaching and learning landscape by providing educators and learners with few options other than to adapt, adopt, and embrace new technology in online learning.
This essay analyses the impact, efficacy, and implications of technology-based approaches to teaching, learning, and adult education in online learning. Then, it reflects on the practical considerations and innovations in the education of using technology in learning and teaching through hands-on technology use. The topic of examination chosen for technology-informed teaching, learning, and education is online learning. The form of educational technology to present this essay is a blog (https://ontaskteaching.wordpress.com/).
The Pedagogy of Online Learning
The use of technology, both face-to-face and online, has dramatically altered how we teach and learn, leading to the emergence of a new pedagogy (Teachonline, 2020). Developments in artificial intelligence for teaching and learning, virtual and augmented reality, simulations, and serious games have further emphasized technology’s importance for teaching and learning. Both instructors and learners live in a rapidly changing world, with new technology, new teaching approaches, and external pressures from governments, employers, parents, and media. Subsequently, great educators have re-shaped and enhanced their teaching environments to create the right learning conditions (Bates, 2019).
Ongoing online teaching and learning challenges include aligning pedagogy, subject matters, and students’ access and success with appropriate technologies and software. Technology allows us to teach differently while meeting both existing and emerging needs. Learners experience different ways of learning due to their access to digital content, mobile delivery systems, new forms of assessment, and communication with peers worldwide. The result allows learners to share knowledge and shape their learning actively.
The Impact of Technology on Online Learning
Before COVID-19,in Canada, more than two-thirds of Canadian post-secondary institutions offered online courses and programs and considered online learning critical to their future academic plans due to the increased need for access by students (Beattie, 2018). Instructors were hired or directed to teach online as part of their teaching contract or volunteered to experience the new media involved in instructing online (Telmesani, 2009). Nonetheless, educators face the same challenges transferring their teaching skills from face to face to teaching online. Challenges posed by WordPress, Facebook, and Wikipedia may be relatively simple to face, as it is to incorporate them into an online course, but what about animated graphical interchange formats (GIF’s) or adding humour through images and videos containing text (memes)? To support educators and learners in the growth of online learning and the use of technology, the Province of Ontario “is aimed squarely at providing faculty with the digital fluency to confidently take their teaching online” (Porter, 2019, as cited in Beattie, 2019, p. 1).
COVID-19created a wholesale, sudden shift to remote online learning, and educators had little choice but to adopt technology to teaching. Whether synchronous or asynchronous technologies are used, technology can support the work of educators in enabling learning. Technology allows educators to teach differently. With access to digital content, mobile delivery systems, and new forms of assessment, learners can take a more active role in sharing knowledge with peers worldwide and shaping their learning.
Efficacy of Technology on Online Learning
As an online educator, one may not be in a position to opt-out of designing and instructing an online course. When faced with teaching an online course, the educator has three choices 1) resist and fight the technology while instructing in the same draconian manners history has taught, 2) avoid and ignore the tsunami of change, or 3) embrace technology as a positive learning tool for both educators and learners. Technology can be intimidating, but self-efficacy and confidence grow with each new tool discovered through personal experience.
Technology contributes to critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity. It reinforces independent learning. When the proper tools are used, learners can develop the necessary life language skills for their lives through listening, speaking, reading, and writing. This active learning increases engagement through discussion groups, chat lines, online polling, or quiz questions during lectures with instantaneous results. The subject matters become dynamic and timely thanks to digital textbooks that embed links to relevant sources and materials or learner course wikis. Being well-versed in technology can help educators build credibility with learners and educators while developing communities of practice. Learners share experiences, discuss theories and challenges, and learn from each other while the educator maintains a critical role as guide, facilitator, and assessor of the learning.
Online technology allows the educator to regularly check in with learners for feedback on course materials and assignments. Educators can spot where learners might be struggling and adjust the workload accordingly. Furthermore, shy learners who would not usually raise their hand or participate in a face-to-face class may be more willing to be involved. Learner response systems help learners measure their understanding of a topic and allow educators to see what areas need to be reviewed. For example, iClicker uses multiple-choice or true and false questions to enable educators to enhance their lectures. This technology helps foster digital citizenship.
Digital citizenship is “how we should act when we are using digital tools, interacting with others online, and what should be taught to help the next generation be better stewards of this technology” (Cole, 2019). By utilizing the online world in their classes, educators have the perfect opportunity to educate learners about the digital world around them and how to be a good digital citizen. Teaching digital citizenship is essential to assisting learners in understanding digital literacy and ensuring cyberbullying prevention, online safety, digital responsibility, and digital health and wellness.
When an educator is passionate, they see it, and they feel it. Learners perceive that learning can be fun. There are countless resources to enhance education, from apps to organizational platforms to making learning more fun and effective. For example, gamification and digital storytelling using competitive scenarios and interactive lessons while distributing points and rewards make learning fun, engaging, and relatable to learners while reducing passivity and promoting healthy competition.
Technology gives learners instant access to new information that can supplement their learning experience. Furthermore, it enables learners to engage in an ongoing learning cycle: before, during, and after class, while fostering a collaborative learning environment by networking with other learners, even on group projects, sharing information, working together on group projects, and interacting with the educator. For example, the Yorkville University Moodle learning management system allows professors to upload new content for learner review online.
Although technology-based online learning approaches have many advantages, there are some disadvantages. Technology can be a distraction to learners who may find it hard to focus and concentrate when a wide range of digital devices are around them. Text messaging, visiting Snapchat or shopping for Christmas may be acceptable at times, but when they contribute to using most of a learner’s time, that becomes an issue. Hence, creating a structure, expectations, and guidelines on online technology is essential from day one.
One major obstacle to technology-based learning is that all learners may not have online education accessible to them. Consideration must be given to a learner’s geographic location, availability of the internet, and their devices’ technical requirements to install, run, or access specific learning software. For example, gamification and game programming may require learners to have a device with robust memory, storage, and video card. Furthermore, not all learners can afford the tools such as personal computers, iPods or even online texts required for their class.
To address the issue of lack of technology, options may include 1) offering laptop loaner programs, 2) distributing information via e-mail or in the Cloud (e.g., Microsoft OneDrive), 3) providing for free downloadable software (e.g., Microsoft Office 365 at Yorkville University) for creation of video lessons, online meetings, or screencast recording and videos. The key to using technology in online courses is always the educator-learner relationship because that is where education happens. Technology can be a handy tool, although that is all it is – a tool to enhance education.
The implications of Technology on Online Learning – Pros and Cons
Policymakers, educators, parents, and learners must weigh technology’s benefits in education against its risks. Using technology in education is not just about using digital devices – it relates to anything that facilitates interaction between educator and learner, but how much technology and information is too much? Aligning pedagogy, subject matter, assessment, learner access, and success with appropriate technologies, software, and online strategies is an ongoing challenge of online instruction and learning (Teachonline, 2020). Creating presentations, discriminating reliable sources from unreliable ones on the internet, and mastering proper online etiquette are necessary skills. Mobile technology is a must-have for learners to be prepared for almost any career, and educators must be willing to provide the information resources to them. Hence, accessibility to online learning is vital for everybody regardless of money, resources, and disability.
Connectivism examines the implications of online learning and the exponential growth of new technologies. Special populations and marginalized groups of learners have the same or more challenges as they experience enacting connectivism. Many special populations of learners do not have the ubiquitous access to knowledge granted by the current technological environment, such as the internet. Learning environments are often established online, and special populations of learners have to navigate through the challenges with limited guidance. What is the cost of special populations having limited access and understanding of learning technology? The answer is not simple but lies in narrowing the digital divide between those “haves” and “have nots”.
Practical Considerations on Online Learning Technology
Digital immigrants who grew up before the internet and other digital computing devices became available used a slide rule in math and physics classes instead of electronic calculators and computers. Today, most learners are digital natives – namely, they have grown up with technology. It is woven into their lives. Digital natives expect technology to be used whenever appropriate to learn, develop essential informational and technological literacy skills, and master the fluency necessary in their specific subject domain. Educators need to accept this reality and embrace technology in teaching. The onus is on the educator to satisfy a learner’s expectations by choosing learning technology-based learning models and theories to provide them with the best learning experience.
One such theory is William Kahn’s theory of employee engagement, later referred to as the engagement theory. The theory was modified from a business model to an educational model where the fundamental idea is that learners must be meaningfully engaged in learning activities through interaction with others and having worthwhile tasks. Engagement theory can be a conceptual framework for online technology-based learning and teaching due to its emphasis on meaningful learning, collaboration among peers and within a community of learners, and experiential and self-directed learning (Kearsley & Shneiderman, 1998). Ongoing advances in digital technologies, social media, and mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets give the learner much more control over access to and the creation of knowledge and learning interaction. Furthermore, these tools empower the learner while increasing their motivation and engagement.
Playwright Richard Foreman talks of information overload where “we run the risk of turning into pancake people – spread wide and thin as we connect with that vast network of information accessed by the mere touch of a button” (Carr, 2008). Content and information obtained from media and posted online are important, but careful interpretation and reflection are crucial to making the content meaningful and authentic. The learner may understand the content, but content engagement, questioning, and exploration of the content are more important. Assessing the value and relevance of new information is critical. The apps used must align with course objectives and reflecting the range of cognition levels in Bloom’s taxonomy – remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating (Darby, 2019). Examples include Zoom to help learners connect synchronously to discuss concepts in a supportive team environment. Quizlet helps them remember facts and terms, Hypothesis to help them analyze, and Google Docs and Slides to synthesize and create.
Conclusion
Online courses must meet the demands of 21st-century society by using relevant information technology and software. However, aligning pedagogy, subject matter, and learner success with appropriate technologies is an ongoing challenge of online teaching and learning. The development of such skills requires learning to unfold in rich and complex environments, with plenty of opportunities to apply, assess and practice such skills. The online teaching community must quickly adopt new technology and continue identifying what technologies are appropriate and purposeful to implement in the course. Online teaching demands educators heed the warning from Stanley Kubrick’s movie, 2001 A Space Odyssey. The essence of Kubrick’s dark prophecy was that as we rely on computers and technology to mediate our understanding of the world, our intelligence flattens into artificial intelligence.
As an educator, designing an online course using technology tools helps learners learn differently and find relevance in their courses. Technology helps drive innovation in teaching and learning; however, decisions about how best to use technology for what purposes are equally important.
As shown in this essay, technology helps drive innovation in educating and learning. It is exciting to know how the current and future technology allows experimenting in pedagogy, democratize classrooms, and improving learner engagement and effectiveness. In the end, technology in online education opens doors to new experiences, discoveries, and new ways of learning.
References
Bates, A. (2019). Teaching in a digital age (2nd ed.). Tony Bates Associates Ltd.
Beattie, E. (2019). Online learning welcomes increased numbers of Canadian students. BC Campus.https://bccampus.ca/2019/01/25/online-learning-welcomes-increased-numbers-of-canadian- students/
Carr, N. (2008, July/August). Is Google making us stupid? What the Internet is doping to our brains. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us- stupid/306868/
Cole, K. (2019, June 7). Digital citizenship: Elements, lessons, and importance. Schoology Exchange. https://www.schoology.com/blog/digital-citizenship-elements-lessons-and-importance-0
Conrad, R. & Donaldson, J. (2012). Transforming the online learner. 28th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning. Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin. Academia. https://www.academia.edu/28722633/Transforming_the_Online_Learner
Darby, F. (2019). Small teaching online. Jossey-Bass.
Kearsley, G. & Schneiderman, B. (1998). Engagement theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning. JSTOR, 38(5), 20-23. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/44428478.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3Ae86eee9e2cd63cd826dc56 0fe5031831
Teachonline (2020, August 4). A new pedagogy is emerging…and online learning is a key contributing factor. Teachonline.ca https://teachonline.ca/tools-trends/how-teach-online-student-success/new-pedagogy-emerging- and-online-learning-key-contributing-factor
Telmesani, Maha (2009). Faculty’s perception of online education: A qualitative study. University of Manitoba.
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