Popescu, M., Buluc, R., Costea, L., & Tomescu, S. (2013). Technology-Enhanced-Learning and Student-Centeredness in a... - 0 views

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  #1 wimichaeljsmith on 15 May 14

   

  Popescu, Buluc, Costea, and Tomescu provide an interesting case study of the National Defense University in Bucharest, Romania. The study hopes to provide answers to the question, "How does technology-enhanced-learning (TEL) and eLearning, answer the military students' training needs when it comes to foreign language acquisition?". The military has a long history of developing foreign language skills for the purposes of completing cross cultural missions on a global scale. Analysis has shown that current foreign language education and training is good but there are gaps in its capability. Language mastery always involves cultural context; learning vocabulary, grammar, and syntax doesn't always allow for effective communication. The case study experiments with the efficiency of face-to-face versus TEL to compare results. Until recently, individuals earmarked as essential for the need to learn a foreign language were sent to the Defense Language Institute (DLI). DLI provides traditional classroom based instruction for all of their languages at one centralized campus in southern California. The traditional teaching format significantly reduces the amount of annual participants, and maintains a high cost per student ratio due to location of campus, campus facilities, and full-time staffing. The study looks at shifting to an online learning format through an andragogical approach. Andragogy is a learning theory specifically developed for adult learners. For the case study, students were divided into two groups: non-intensive online students and intensive face-to-face students. At the end of the courses each student completed the same assessment and were scored on the same rubric. The conclusions showed that TEL was the best for attaining procedural knowledge and affective skills, but face-to-face learning was best for declarative knowledge. This case study provides positive indicators that TEL instruction, through andragogical formatting, is a cost effective, and efficient way to train and retrain foreign language skills for deployable individuals.

   

  <div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">Popescu, Buluc, Costea, and Tomescu provide an interesting case study of the National Defense University in Bucharest, Romania. The study hopes to provide answers to the question, "How does technology-enhanced-learning (TEL) and eLearning, answer the military students' training needs when it comes to foreign language acquisition?". The military has a long history of developing foreign language skills for the purposes of completing cross cultural missions on a global scale. Analysis has shown that current foreign language education and training is good but there are gaps in its capability. Language mastery always involves cultural context; learning vocabulary, grammar, and syntax doesn't always allow for effective communication. The case study experiments with the efficiency of face-to-face versus TEL to compare results. Until recently, individuals earmarked as essential for the need to learn a foreign language were sent to the Defense Language Institute (DLI). DLI provides traditional classroom based instruction for all of their languages at one centralized campus in southern California. The traditional teaching format significantly reduces the amount of annual participants, and maintains a high cost per student ratio due to location of campus, campus facilities, and full-time staffing. The study looks at shifting to an online learning format through an andragogical approach. Andragogy is a learning theory specifically developed for adult learners. For the case study, students were divided into two groups: non-intensive online students and intensive face-to-face students. At the end of the courses each student completed the same assessment and were scored on the same rubric. The conclusions showed that TEL was the best for attaining procedural knowledge and affective skills, but face-to-face learning was best for declarative knowledge. This case study provides positive indicators that TEL instruction, through andragogical formatting, is a cost effective, and efficient way to train and retrain foreign language skills for deployable individuals.</div>

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