The World Wide Web (Web) is the latest in a long line of technological tools which can be used in teaching and learning at universities. Current interest regarding its use coincides with increased use of different methods of teaching and learning at universities and with increasing use of the Web to deliver courses to internal and external students

Fetherston, Tony

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Research Online @ ECU

Edith Cowan University Research Online ECU Publications Pre. 2011 2001 Pedagogical Challenges for the World Wide Web Tony Fetherston Edith Cowan University, drtfecu@gmail.com Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ecuworks  Part of the Education Commons This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of: Fetherston, T (2001). Pedagogical challenges for the world wide web. AACE Journal, 9(1), 25-32. Available here This Journal Article is posted at Research Online. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ecuworks/4609 Page 1245Pedagogical Challenges for the World Wide WebTony FetherstonSchool of EducationEdith Cowan UniversityPerth, Western Australiat.fetherston@cowan.edu.auUniversities are showing increasing interest in raising the standard of teaching that occurs in theircourses. There is a growing awareness that the traditional model of lecture/workshop/tutorial/assignment maynot be the best approach in promoting learning in students. Concurrently with this change, there is increasing useof the World Wide Web(WWW) to deliver courses to internal and external students.It is timely then to examine the role of the WWW in moves towards better teaching and learning for internal andexternal students at university.Learning approachesThe first challenge is to begin regarding the use of the WWW not as a delivery medium but as teaching andlearning tool. Once viewed this way we can allow pedagogical constructs to be applied to the use of the WWWrather than just examining the technical issues surrounding the use of the WWW.The usual approach in most internal courses at universities involves a lecture/tutorial format in which material isdelivered at lectures and discussed at tutorials. The unspoken assumption is that delivery of the material (lecture)results in learning of the material. This approach is called transmissive and assumes a strong link between themeans of education and the ends. That is, having delivered the material then students are assumed to have learnt.For external students, materials delivered by the web offer access to easily updated textual materials, somelimited interactivity with programs on the WWW and access to audio and video that can be streamed in realtime. This makes it technically possible for them to watch a lecture in real time without attending the university.This is also a transmissive mode of learning.Approaches that encompass collaboration and build a sense of community would seem to be ideal for support bythe use of the WWW and are becoming an important focus of research (McMahon, 1997; Dillenbourg &Schneider, 1995; Walker &Lambert, 1996).If we start to regard the WWW as a teaching and learning tool that can support social constructivi t approachesto learning, then University lecturers will need support as they undergo personal, social and professional change.Joining the communityThe WWW has probably been the main influence that has changed the way we conceive of computers. They areno longer machines which have to be conquered or commanded but have become transparent (though maybesome operating systems and browsers make them translucent!) windows into an information world. Studentsneed a sense of this world, a sense of the audience participating and an understanding of the mostly unwrittenrules that govern its behaviour in order to successfully use the new medium. The second challenge facing the useof WWW then is to equip our tertiary students with the conceptual models and practical skills to enable them toparticipate in this community. This is necessary because, according to a social co structivist view, participationcan result in good learning. Once they can participate then we face the challenge of equipping our students withthe critical thinking skills necessary so that they can confidently use information on the web for learningpurposes..Using the technical features for learningPage 1246Students can fill in forms, watch video, complete a multiple choice test, have it marked, watch live video, listento live broadcasts, watch animations, submit written assignments, email other students, talk to other students andlook at other students through the use of the WWW. These capabilities represent clever technical achievementsand there is no reason to think that development in this area is likely to slow. However these achievements posea third challenge (related to the first) of how to best implement technical capabilities so bring about meaningfullearning. Which means finding good pedagogical practices that will build on the inherently engaging nature ofthe web and produce good learning.AssessmentTo answer this question would require a consideration of a broader range of assessment techniques currentlyused at universities in order to uncover differences in learning. Such consideration is likely also to occur ifuniversities contemplate outcome-based approaches. Assessment should be reconsidered in most universitycourses with the advent of the use of the WWW and this presents a fourth challenge of how to best use the webfor good assessment. Good assessment is valid and authentic and would mean practices like providingopportunity for assessing student’s procedural skills, allowing students to critique set problem and allowingstudents to make up their own questions.Learning to learnThe fifth challenge facing the use of the WWW in universities is to how best use the web to encourage goodlearning behaviours in students. As an example of the kind of b haviour to be encouraged, metacognition isuniversally regarded as an essential attribute of good learning. If students have good knowledge of the nature oftheir learning, of their effective learning strategies, of their learning strengths and weakness and can be givensome control over their learning then better cognitive and affective outcomes will result. Further, conceptualchange requires metacognition and metacognition helps recognition, evaluation and revision of personal views(Baird & Northfield, 1992). The WWW with its essentially individual approach to education has potential in thisarea to meet this challenge if appropriate design strategies are employed. If the design of courses allowsindividual exploration coupled with reflection and the comparison of views with others then metac gnition canbe enhanced and good learning can result.ChangeA final challenge to the use of the WWW is faced by lecturers themselves. Using the WWW means that lecturerswill have to change their usual practice. Change to embrace the WWW and to meet the above challenges wouldprobably be driven by a belief that learning in their courses is not as good as it could be and that assessmentcould be improved. It is likely that the use of the WWW for distance education students is likely to be restrictedinitially to its use as a delivery platform as good instructional design is required to meet the above challenges. Itis far more likely that the challenges can be met through the use of the WWW to support the internal delivery ofcourses as lecturers can more easily implement a different approach. For this reason the WWW is likely to beused in good teaching and learning mostly in internal courses.ReferencesDillenbourg, P. & Schneider, D. (1995). Collaborative Learning and the Internet. [on-line]Available:http://tecfa.unige.ch/tecfa/tecfa-research/CMC/colla/iccai95_1.html.McMahon, M. (1997). Social Constructivism and the World Wide Web — a paradigm for learning. [on-line]Available:http://www.curtin.edu.au/conference/ASCILITE97/papers/Mcmahon/Mcmahon.html.Walker, R. A., & Lambert, P. E. (1996). Designing Electronic Learning Environments to Support Communitiesof Learners: A Tertiary Application . [on-line] Available:http://walkerr.edfac.usyd.edu.au/henresite/aare/AARE-paper-.html.

Pedagogical Challenges for the World Wide Web

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Pedagogical Challenges for the World Wide Web

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