Group items tagged

541, obstacles, technology

541, obstacles, technology

Examines 4 common obstacles that teachers and administrators face

Discusses research in social studies including technology integration issues.

"It's not enough to purchase the equipment, it is also important to have support. A technology coordinator must organize training and provide ongoing support in the computer room so that teachers gradually learn to feel confident in the computer room. " Wow!! This article is old too and still this statement rings true!!

Even though this article was written back in 1997, it still has some really great info. Loved the line about how when the teacher did not know how to work the technology it never occurred to her to ask her students! Also another great line was Computers are not our future, they are our present!!

This article is focused on making development projects successful with using communities of practice. Organizing technology is believed to enhance efficient sharing of knowledge, but still involves obstacles to overcome.

obstacles and solutions to integrating technology in ELA

Explains challenges with incorporating and implementing technology

This article looks at some of the possible obstacles of forming communities of practice. The article broadly looks at communities of practice in organizations. The limitations include hierarchical organization as well as socio-cultural backgrounds. The authors make a well-researched case that both elements must be taken into account when forming effective communities of practice.

This case study examines which factors play into a successful MOOC (Massive Open Online Course). Some of these factors include peer interaction, professor engagement, and accessible course resources. The researchers concluded that these factors are as important in MOOCs as they are in traditional classroom settings. The article implies that classes based on the philosophy of connectivism are effective, but a number of factors must be taken into account when planning instruction.

It is difficult to maintain continuous student engagement in a traditional class setting. It is doubly so when the setting is online. This study researched what characteristics promote student engagement in online classes. Course takers identified 5 characteristics of MOOCs that encouraged their continued participation in the course. For the most part, courses that focus on problems and clear solutions, contain high levels of peer interaction and teacher participation, and include many active learning activities with accompanying course resources are well-liked by MOOC participants. The authors are certainly right to suggest that future research examine courses that are not as highly participatory as the MOOCs that are focused on in this study. I wondered as I read the article if the same level of engagement can be seen in other courses.

As this study emphasized, online courses have a unique challenge when compared to traditional brick-and-mortar courses because learners are physically separated from an instructor by a computer screen. Instructors do not just have to overcome motivation barriers, but also administrative obstacles. The article's "Table 2: Summary of Strategies Used" presented some well-designed methods to increase instructor accessibility---from the "Code Clinic" to weekly live interactive discussions.