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Computer Technology and Application 3 (2012) 471-476
DAVID
PUBLISHING
Blended Learning and Applying New Tools and Services of E-Learning Support Veselinka Ivanova Nedeva and Snejana Boycheva Dineva Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Automation Department, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Trakia University Stara Zagora, Yambol 8600, Bulgaria Received: November 14, 2011 / Accepted: November 28, 2011 / Published: July 25, 2012. Abstract: The strengths and weaknesses of different online technologies and learning methods have been examined by combining the blended learning program with practical work on institutional e-learning projects. There are differences between the traditional e-learning system and the new E-Learning 2.0 training. At present time, the new technologies provided by Web 2.0 better correspond to the needs of both students and teaching staff. The new Web 2.0 allows the “promoting of individual creativity”, together with the “use of collective intelligence”. A comparison of the two development stages of the e-learning tools has been completed and the advantages of E-Learning 2.0 are shown. The main components of Web 2.0 are provided and the use of wiki as an up-to-date collaboration tool for on-line teamwork is shown. Key words: E-Learning 1.0, E-Learning 2.0, blended learning, Web 2.0 applications, wiki activities.
1. Introduction This paper presents the authors’ views and their experience using Web 2.0. In the main part of the paper, a comparison between E-Learning 1.0 and E-Learning 2.0 is also provided. The authors have also presented their utilization in the e-learning system eDuTK of the Faculty of Engineering and Technology (FET), an e-learning system that has been used as a medium for additional individual and/or collective learning activities. The students at FET are thought using the blended learning paradigm. The technologies and principles of the latest version of E-Learning 2.0 and Web 2.0 are used for improving the student involvement in the learning process and stimulating the possibilities for working in groups/teams. The applications, presented in the following paper, are
Snejana Boycheva Dineva, Ph.D., associate professor, research fields: biological science, chemistry, e-learning. Corresponding author: Veselinka Ivanova Nedeva, Ph.D., associate professor, research fields: computer science, information systems, e-learning, information technology. E-mail:
[email protected].
implemented in the eDuTK environment, which is based on Moodle. The latest evolution of the Internet, the so-called Web 2.0, has blurred the line between generators and consumers of online content and has shifted the attention from access to information towards access to other people. New types of online resources, such as social networking websites, blogs, wikis, and virtual communities, have allowed people with common interests to meet, share ideas, and collaborate in innovative ways. Indeed, Web 2.0 is creating a new kind of participatory medium that is ideal for supporting multiple modes of teach [1]. This paper is organized as follows: Section 2 introduces the development of e-learning (subsection 2.1 presents the foundation of E-Learning 1.0 and blended learning application, subsection 2.2 make a comparison between E-Learning 1.0 and E-Learning 2.0, subsection 2.3 is the main Moodle set of teaching-learning resources and activity components of E-Learning 2.0 while subsection 2.4 presents systems for distributing E-Learning 2.0); section 3 gives conclusions.
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2. Development of E-Learning 2.1 Foundation of E-Learning 1.0 and Blended Learning Application The blended learning model has been established in FET and is supported by e-learning materials that include different courses in Informatics, Programming Languages, Information Technology, General Chemistry, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Ecology, etc. The results following the implementation of the eDuTK e-learning system show that the use of the system improves the effectiveness of the education as well as the motivation among students and teachers [2]. 2.2 Comparison E-Learning 2.0
between
E-Learning
1.0
and
The design of the E-Learning 2.0 courses is primarily based on the Web 2.0 features. As with Web 2.0, the motivation behind E-Learning 2.0 is not only about resorting to a new technology: It is about a different approach to learning itself. It is a change in perception [3]. With Web 2.0 the internet becomes a platform for fluid and continuous knowledge exchange. It is a dynamic social network of creating and sharing, and not only information consumption. People are engaging actively in dialogues, with a vocabulary consisting not just of words, but of images, video, multimedia and whatever they could get their hands on [4]. Despite the confirmed success stories of the application of Web 2.0 to e-learning, educators cannot fall in the temptation of using it arbitrarily. Just because it is a trend in technology, it does not necessary imply, it has to be used [5]. Authors of this paper share the view of authors of Ref. [6] (Fig. 1 concerns components of Web 2.0). According to them, the main components of Web 2.0 are as follows: y Characteristics—Participation, standards, decentralization, openness, modularity, user control, identity; y Technologies—Aggregation, AJAX, API,
embedding, folksonomy, mashups, remixing, RSS, ruby on rails, tag cloud, tagging, virtual architecture, widget, XML; y Domains—Open web, enterprise; y Emergent outcomes—Most interests becoming visible, personalized recommendations, meaningful communities, relevant content easily found, enhanced usability, collective intelligence. The second stage of the e-learning development, which is based on the Web 2.0 technology, is called E-Learning 2.0. A comparison between the main features of the two development stages of e-learning is shown in Table 1 [7]. Like many important concepts, Web 2.0 does not have a hard boundary, but rather, a gravitational core. The visualization of Web 2.0 is given in Fig. 1, as a set of principles and practices that ties together a veritable solar system of sites that demonstrate some or all of those principles, at a varying distance from that core [8]. The term E-Learning 2.0 [9-10] for CSCL (Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning) systems came about during the emergence of Web 2.0 [11]. From an E-Learning 2.0 perspective, conventional e-learning systems are based on instructional packets, which are delivered to students using assignments. Assignments are evaluated by the teacher. In contrast, the new e-learning places increase the emphasis on social learning and the use of social software such as blogs, wikis, podcasts and virtual worlds such as Second Life [12]. This phenomenon has also been referred to as Long Tail Learning [13]. 2.3 Main Moodle Set of Teaching-Learning Resources and Activity Components of E-Learning 2.0 Moodle has an important set of teaching-learning resources and activities. It is particularly useful for defining groups and working in virtual spaces. According to some authors, the most useful tools in the online courses are [14]: • Internal e-mail;
Blended Learning and Applying New Tools and Services of E-Learning Support
Fig. 1 Table 1
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Visualization of Web 2.0 [6]. Main features of E-Learning 1.0 and E-Learning 2.0.
E-Learning 1.0 Training in web environment—student consumed and transmits information Management systems training—require installation, administration and maintenance The courses are designed for groups. Still much of the management of the training are not oriented to services. Taxonomy—the course is indexed by an expert; educational resource are created top-down, one way. Personal pages—static presentation of information Ultra information on static pages The software product is ready, used only in its final version. The components of a system are strongly defined and coordinated. All rights reserved CD, web-based content
E-Learning 2.0 Training in web platform—the student has written and co-create, share, combine, used in different contexts, distributed content and knowledge Free hosted systems for E-Learning 2.0, start pages, social networks, services and tools The effect of “long tail” and the effect of “snowflakes” affect the definition of individually tailored training. Freely available and easy to use services—to encourage participation, the effect of “social networking” —the value of Web 2.0 services increases when are used by more people Organization of links to resources through participation in networks (folksonomy—sharing links), categorization of learning resources, working cooperatively, bottom-up, multidirectional Social software, the effect of “using the power of the crowd”, to encourage participation RSS, mash-up services enable the student organization dynamic accurate and specific teaching resources—to encourage individual expression of creativity Software as a Service—forever in beta version, innovation enabled the learner, which can be a software developer The system allows the assembly of components, which can be implemented flexibly, personalized and adaptive learning. Some rights reserved—students can combine and reuse resources from different sites Web content is accessible through different devices and can be delivered through various methods, such as podcasting.
Web-based applications, often with “thin” client Web-based applications with “rich” user interface desktop applications
• Generation of web pages; • Insertion of several kinds of documents and files;
• Advanced file upload; • Online activities;
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• Questionnaires; • Generation of wikis. Wiki is an unusual mechanism of communication in the way that it allows the organization of contributions to be edited in addition to the possibility for editing the content itself. Like many simple concepts, “open editing” has had some profound and subtle effects on the wiki usage. Wiki is a part of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any web browser. Wiki supports hyperlinks and has simple text syntax for creating new pages and crosslinks between internal pages on the fly [15]. Wikis offer a powerful, yet flexible, collaborative communication tool for developing content-specific web sites. Because wikis grow and evolve as a direct result of people adding material to the site, they can address a variety of pedagogical needs—student involvement, group activities, and so on. Since wikis reside on the Internet, students can access and participate from any location, provided they have Internet access. From an instructional technology perspective, wikis allow faculty and students to engage in collaborative activities that might not be possible in a classroom. Their flexibility will encourage broader adoption—by both students and faculty (Fig. 2). There are creative wiki practices using which students can include group lecture notes, group project
management or brainstorming [16]. Usually, taking lecture notes is a solitary activity, but one person can easily miss an important point during a lecture while daydreaming or while trying to understand a prior point. Students may also have difficulty deciding what information is important and what is elaboration or an example. Creating a wiki for group lecture notes after a lecture gives students the chance to combine all of their notes. Those that missed information can get it from their peers. The group can also decide what information is critical and give it the proper emphasis. Group lecture notes could be done with the entire class, if the class size is small enough, or within small work/study groups. The different groups can also their respective notes compare notes, discuss and refine them. The most straightforward use of a wiki is as a group collaboration tool for creating group projects. A teacher assigning a group project can provide the students with a place to work by creating a wiki that has the group mode enabled. This will give each group their own space to record their respective research, to develop outlines and to create the final product. The teacher may create a submission date on which the editing privileges for the students will be switched off and the teacher will be able to grade the final projects. Afterwards, the teacher may enable the visible groups
Fig. 2 Trends of wiki technology from 2004 to 2011 provided by www.google.com.
Blended Learning and Applying New Tools and Services of E-Learning Support
function, which will give everyone the possibility to view each single project assignment and final submission. Brainstorming is a non-judgmental group creative process during which group members are encouraged to give voice to any ideas they personally consider relevant to the group exercise. In a face-to-face meeting, a brainstorming facilitator will usually stand in front of a big piece of paper and elicit ideas from the participants in the room. A teacher can create an online version of this process by setting up a wiki for the entire class or for smaller student groups and asking people to submit ideas about a brainstorming topic. People can add ideas as they occur and link to other pages for elaboration. A teacher might assign to his or her class the task of contributing to Wikipedia, Wikiversity, or to another wiki on the Web, on any class-relevant topic, perhaps by dividing students into different project groups (or making it a class project if the class is small enough and the topic broad enough) and challenging them to collaboratively create an article they would feel confident posting to a public-information space. Students will use the course wiki to create drafts of the article that they will eventually publish to the community at the end of the semester. Filters allow for the automatic transformation of entered text into different, often more complex forms. For example the titles of resources can automatically become hyperlinks that take you to the relevant resource; URLs directing to mp3 files can become Flash controls embedded in the web page that let you pause and rewind the audio. The possibilities are endless and there are a number of standard filters included in Moodle and many more specialized filters available at Moodle.org. 2.4 Systems for Distributing E-Learning 2.0 E-Learning 2.0, in contrast to e-learning systems not based on CSCL, assumes that knowledge (as meaning and understanding) is socially constructed. CSCL is a
475
pedagogical approach in which learning happens via social interaction using a computer or through the Internet. This kind of learning is characterized by the sharing and construction of knowledge among participants using technology as their primary means of communication or as a common resource [17]. CSCL can be implemented in an online and classroom learning environments and can take place synchronously or asynchronously. In E-Learning 2.0, the learning process happens through conversing about the content and the well-reasoned arguments about problems and actions. Advocates of social learning claim that one of the best ways to learn something is to teach it to others [1]. Such systems are listed follows for example: y EctoLearning (www.ectolearning.com)— EctoLearning is a social, collaborative, online learning environment that directly addresses the needs of the modern learning environment by making the new communication skills and competencies for content creation and sharing central to the classroom experience. EctoLearning is also a full Learning Management System (LMS) with attendance tracking, grade book, and a sophisticated assessment engine including the use of rubrics- based evaluations; y Edu 2.0 (www.edu20.org)—This platform is an easy-to-use, free cloud-hosted LMS+, with nothing to download or install. It includes a comprehensive set of LMS features as well as Facebook-like news feeds and social networking. Edu 2.0 differs from systems such as Moodle and Blackboard. There are several important differences. First of all, Edu 2.0 is web-hosted and free: You don’t have to download any software or manage your own servers. Second, the “Resource” section allows you to graphically browse thousands of community-contributed resources by topic: You can even upload your own resources. Third, Edu 2.0’s unique personalized learning system allows students to study using their own pace and track their progress against a chosen curriculum. Finally, the “Community” section allows teachers and students to
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network and collaborate with other members that share the same educational interests; y eLearningCommunity 2.0 (www.elearningcommunity.com); y LearnHub (http://learnhub.com/); y LectureShare (www.lectureshare.com).
3. Conclusions
[3]
[4]
[5]
There are differences between the traditional e-learning system and the new E-Learning 2.0 training.
[6]
At present time, the new technologies provided by Web 2.0 better correspond to the needs of the teaching staff.
[7]
The new Web 2.0 allows the “promoting of individual creativity”, together with the “use of collective
[8]
intelligence. As Downes points, Web space has changed from the environment in which information is transmitted and consumed into a platform where
[9]
content is created, shared, mixed, used in different [10]
contexts, distributed [4]. In order to satisfy the new trends and requirements for the fast oriented, flexible and suitable education, the authors apply their efforts in developing and
[11] [12]
organizing the learning process by implementing the newest approaches and technologies available. The creation of a social network and community inside the FET as well as applying wiki-activities will be
[13]
represented in the future work. [14]
Acknowledgment This article is published with financial support from project
№
BG051PO001-3.3-05/0001
by
the
“Science-Business” fund of operational programme “Human Resources Development”.
[15]
References
[16]
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