Marguerite Koole

Practical Issues in Mobile Education

Practitioners interested in integrating mobile technology effectively into distance learning programs need to consider both the benefits and limitations of such devices. This paper outlines some major limitations of mobile devices and suggests strategies to mitigate them such as chunking information, using appropriate organizational techniques, reducing the number of required actions, and improving ease of use. Properly planned integration of mobile technology also offers some distinct advantages. Learners can benefit from a dynamic and flexible learning environment with anywhere, anytime access to people and information. Practitioners can use these features to help learners enhance their skills in assessing the relevance and appropriateness of information for use in practical settings.

The Ethical and Practical Implications of Systems Architecture on Identity in Networked Learning: A Constructionist Perspective

Through relational dialogue, learners shape their identities by sharing information about the world and how they see themselves in it. As learners interact, they receive feedback from both the environment and other learners which, in turn, helps them assess and adjust their self-presentations. Although learners retain choice and personal agency, even the most neutral-seeming technological environment may encourage some ways of interacting whilst discouraging others. Taking a constructionist perspective, the authors first compare peer-to-peer interaction in online and face-to-face environments. Online self-presentation is adjusted using identity management tools. These tools may provide efficient ways to locate and interact with other learners as well as protection mechanisms for personal information. In particular, the authors discuss the effects of anonymity and pseudonymity on trust and social capital. To illustrate these concepts, the authors discuss two social networking systems, iHelp and The Landing, and how their underlying architectures may affect discourse and identity management. Throughout, there remains a tension between the individual self versus the self as part of a social group. The authors recommend careful consideration of the effects of systems architecture on both the individual and the community – thereby balancing the needs of the individual with her learning communities. From an ethical standpoint, only then can both individual and community flourish online.

A Methodology for Developing Learning Objects for Web Course Delivery.

The uploaded document here contains a URL to the International Journal of Distance Education Technologies. It is not a copy of the paper itself.

Doctoral students’ identity positioning in networked learning environments

Abstract In this study, the authors explored identity positioning as perceived by doctoral learners in online, networked-learning environments. The study examined two distance doctoral programs at a Canadian university. It was a qualitative study based on methodologies involving open coding and discourse analysis. The social positioning cycle, based on social positioning theory, was used as a theoretical lens guiding the analysis and organization of the data. The results indicate that distance doctoral students experience identity positioning across multiple aspects of their lives including, but not limited to, their social, intimate, professional, and academic contexts. The participants’ descriptions of their experiences highlight their ways of managing their relationships—through degrees of sharing, withdrawing, prioritizing, rationalizing, and changing practices. The results of this research suggest a need for additional studies of the distance doctoral experience and how institutions can better support learners and increase completion rates.