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Interaction
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Learners and trainers are in permanent interaction.
ClassLeader encourages all forms of interaction
ClassLeader
uses the term interaction to designate messages sent
between the learner and the trainer in the context of the
course itself or one of the lessons. In pedagogy we use the
term interaction to refer to any communication, either
between trainer and learner or amongst the learners themselves,
that effectively contributes to furthering the pedagogic goals
of the course. The implicit pedagogic model is not limited
to the acquisition of new knowledge and skills by an individual,
but includes the notion of the organic growth of knowledge,
experience and performance within a pragmatically co-operative
social context. In this sense the pedagogy employed contains
a preparation for the use of the knowledge acquired in the
real world. An example of the interactive approach
is the way ClassLeader lends itself to the construction
of role
simulations.
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Learner
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ClassLeader has adopted the term "learner" rather
than the traditional "student".
ClassLeader has adopted the convention of designating
the two main actors in the pedagogic process learner
and trainer.
These names contain no pre-suppositions concerning role. In
some milieus the terms instructor and student
may be preferred. We believe the word learner highlights
the active role of the person who is evolving thanks to the
pedagogic experience created within ClassLeader.
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Lesson
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The "lesson" in ClassLeader is a metaphor signifying
"work phase", or a unit of work and study created by the trainer.
Although
the constructivist
pedagogic approach we recommend seeks to distance itself from
traditional classroom pedagogy and curricular notions, ClassLeader
has adopted some traditional classroom vocabulary as a set
of useful metaphors. We speak of the Electronic
Classroom
because it fulfills one (and perhaps only one) function of
the traditional classroom: bringing all the members of the
course together in one virtual place. By the same sort of
metaphorical extension, we use the term lessons to refer to
the basic units of a course. It might be more appropriate
to call them work phases, since the actual contents
of the lessons are usually the result of the combined effect
of diverse resources not directly present in the course structure
itself (online and off-line: data, books, multimedia presentations,
web sites, films, audio cassettes, sub-group meetings, conversations,
etc.).
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Link
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Links provide pathways to resources..
In
many different places within ClassLeader, the trainer
has the possibility of creating links to other resources.
The learner can also do this, particularly when communicating
with the trainer (communication).
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Multimedia
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ClassLeader provides a variety of ways of integrating
multimedia into pedagogy.
Multimedia is an essential resource in many training strategies.
The presence of good multimedia documents can make a training
experience considerably richer. In ClassLeader multimedia
figures in three different ways:
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Media
(images, video, sound) can be associated with
tests and exercises
for purposes of input or illustration |
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Certain
multimedia programs can be associated with lessons
and programmed to be launched directly on each individual
learner's machine. |
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Links
to multimedia URLs can give further depth to lessons
or assignments. |
Since
its advent multimedia has principally been used as a pure
self-access tool in training. By integrating it into an
online pedagogic system it can be exploited in a variety
of ways by experienced trainers.
The Multimedia button in the Control Panel of ClassLeader
makes it possible for the trainer to assign specific parts
of an external multimedia program (e.g. CD-ROM) and to build
additional activities by creating the equivalent of associated
tests
and exercises,
which can also contain multimedia elements (images, sounds,
video).
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Notes
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Note-taking facilities allow both the learner and trainer
to store essential information.
In
the learner-trainer interaction
function there is a note-taking facility. For the learner,
this feature makes it possible to save ideas, questions or
comments before formulating them as a communication to send
to the trainer. For the trainer, it is a means of storing
communications that may be used again as such or personalized
to meet the needs of other learners. Thus the note-taking
function is a productivity tool allowing the trainer to reply
similarly (though probably not identically) to learners with
similar problems.
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Objectives
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Establishing objectives, communicating and agreeing
them is the beginning of the pedagogic process.
It is always wise to begin a training program by defining
objectives or at least reminding learners of already defined
objectives. The trainer who devises
a new course may systematically choose to begin
by a work phase or lesson
on reviewing objectives and defining methodology. As online
learning is new to most people, reflecting on methodology
is probably an essential stage at the beginning of any course.
Objectives can be defined at the course level and built
into the first lesson. But they can also be the object of
individual communication
within learner-trainer interaction
at the beginning of a course.
Defined objectives will establish a reference for orientating
and judging future work. One of the advantages of a structured
online training system is that the training can constantly
refer back to earlier statements and work phases. This can
help learners to appreciate the progress they have made
and force them to recognize how effectively they are moving
towards their initial objectives (and eventually decide
to modify those objectives).
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Pedagogic
creation
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ClassLeader provides a variety of complementary tools
for pedagogic creation.
ClassLeader
is a complex but easy to use tool for pedagogic creation,
which takes place on several levels simultaneously. Here are
the essential areas in which the trainer will be pedagogically
creative:
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Creating
a course
(deciding on the theme, objectives
and overall contents); |
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Creating
each lesson,
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Creating
events (meetings of the electronic
class,
deadlines for projects
or project phases, etc.), |
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Creating
complementary documents (websites, slides, audio-visual
documents, etc.), |
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Creating
notes to reply to typical problems and questions posed
by learners, |
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Creating
or assembly background material (slides)
for the Electronic
Classroom, |
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Creating
exercises
and tests
associated with the contents of a multimedia,
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Creating
complementary exercises for external multimedia programs
(exercises associated with the execution of the program),
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Creating
themes for the Forum
and Electronic
Classroom. |
With all of these features, the trainer can construct interesting
and motivating pedagogic programs, always containing a new
challenge and whose variety of vectors broadens and deepens
the learning experience for the learner. Each of these acts
of creation within ClassLeader is simple (but can be
as complex as the trainer wishes: the creation of a website
or an external multimedia program, for example).
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Pedagogic
management
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The trainer's role is more to manage the learning process
than to broadcast knowledge. ClassLeader provides the
framework for learning management.
ClassLeader
was designed to provide a flexible framework for pedagogic
creation and management. In an online environment
traditional teaching cannot take place, whereas the classroom
context often prevents any kind of pedagogic management from
taking place.
By pedagogic management we mean treating a pedagogic problem
as if it were a project
to be executed and completed by a team of people: the learners
and the trainer. The trainer is responsible for providing
the specifications and the framework in which the work will
be carried. Trainers work with the learners by defining objectives,
assigning a variety of complementary tasks and helping each
learner structure or construct his or her set of skills,
competencies and knowledge into a coherent whole. The patterning
can only take place inside each individual; the trainer intervenes
to help manage the learning process for both the group and
each individual learner.
Managing means keeping track of the objectives and the means
to attain them. It also means encouraging those who are executing
- the learners - to concentrate on their work and deliver
it on time. It implies not simply judging the quality of the
work, but transmitting the ability for the learner to make
judgements of quality. That can only be achieved by helping
to manage the learner's evolution.
The variety of tools within ClassLeader and the numerous
ways the trainer can be creative to stimulate the learners'
production process are key factors in the pedagogic management
process.
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Personal
Dictionary
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Course specific glossaries can be created and used as a pedagogic
tool with the Personal Dictionary.
ClassLeader contains an optional feature called the
Personal Dictionary. This provides a means for taking
notes related
to professional vocabulary, or, in the case of learning a
foreign language, all types of vocabulary. Note-taking is
an essential activity and notes on vocabulary can be useful
in all domains. Learners can not only store information that
will be useful later but can consult it to discover the kinds
of things they felt they didn't know earlier and measure the
progress they have made in the meantime.
ClassLeader has taken the concept a step further by
allowing the trainer to create and manage a course dictionary
(Common Dictionary) that exists alongside the personal
dictionary and provides essential information to everyone
in the course.
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Projects
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ClassLeader is designed to encourage project
work. Its structure defines learning as well-defined project.
The whole framework of ClassLeader works similarly to a project
management system. It allows the trainer (the general manager
of the project) to define objectives and plan out the phases
of work. Its communication
structure makes it possible to work as a team to meet the
general project aims (complete the course successfully and
on time) as well as to execute the specific projects or sub-projects
of each learner.
Implicit in
constructivist pedagogy is the notion of building
or constructing something through a series of linked phases
involving as many particular skills as are needed, skills
that are then brought into an effective mix to achieve the
project's aim. In the process, learners use, reflect on and
acquire, in a real context of production, not only each of
the skills but a more complex appreciation of how the skills
interrelate and combine to produce their fruits.
The logical consequence of this approach is that learners
will systematically get used to achieving their learning objectives
through project work that requires them to invest, invent
and be creative. The lesson or work phase structure of ClassLeader
and its communication
facilities make this feasible for the trainer.
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Resources
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ClassLeader makes it possible to build pedagogy out
of a diversity of resources and harness their power
throughout the process.
The
learning experience will take place to a great extent through
the judicious use of a variety of resources. Learner time
should be heavily invested in the use of documents and resources.
This is hardly an original concept in itself, but ClassLeader
facilitates the access to resources and provides the means
for guiding learners in the use of those resources.
All good pedagogy requires identifying and preparing resources.
Distance trainers should index all electronic and non-electronic
resources that can be made available for use in a course.
Ideally they should be classified according the particular
usefulness they may have. Electronic resources can then be
stored anywhere and published on an appropriate Website. Those
resources can then be "supplied to" the learners by including
the URL in a lesson, an
exercise
and test
a slide
or through the multimedia
function.
The importance of resources is twofold:
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They
can be required study material. |
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They
can be avenues of research, i.e. paths that open
on to bodies of available material to explore a theme.
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The simplest form of an avenue of research is a classic
bibliography. But distance learning makes it possible to go
beyond this and, through hypertext linking, mix objects of
studies with bibliogaphical lists in a variety of ways. Sophisticated
pedagogical structures can be created with any HTML editor,
and these can be accessed through ClassLeader. But
this kind of organization of pedagogic events and resources
can be accomplished within ClassLeader by varying the
access to texts produced by the trainer, texts and electronic
documents identified by the trainer
and available on the Internet or a pedagogic Intranet, exercises
and tests
created within ClassLeader and slides
intended to provide support for the Electronic Classroom.
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