The contribution of the Gunawardena and Zittle article -> Sensory Impact

Hi Everyone,
I have read the article and tried to break it down.

Gunawardena and Zittle identify five themes:
● Learner-centered instruction; (both synchronous and asynchronous) Gunawardena changed her teacher role from that of a teacher in front of the classroom to that of a facilitator as guide and learning support. Isn’t that just following current F2F teaching trends? I think that the question is “Do learner-centered learning environments promote transfer of learning? I myself follow constructivist-learning approaches in my classroom, which is mostly F2F. I have found that this promotes faster learning, as there is less formal instruction, which suits my Digital Native learners.

● Interaction; (both synchronous and asynchronous) 3 types have been highlighted; learner content interaction, learner instruction interaction and learner-learner interaction. The learner-instructor was stated as being the most essential and highly desired. I agree with this as an online learner I am looking for confirmation and I feel that this can only really come from the instructor. I believe that this is because the instructor is one who determines the assessment. This has been the case too when using online learning with my Primary aged students all of whom tell me that it is my comment on their posts that is most awaited.

● social presence; is the ability to communicate well by using the technology. I feel that this area is often neglected in online learning and many courses just encourage text responses and some form of concept mapping. I personally would like to see a deeper exploration of using technology well to get the message across more succinctly. I encourage my students to teach the class what they know through using the technology. This is an area that I am most interested in developing further in my own practice.
Personally I feel that I can cultivate a better social presence in asynchronous than synchronous communications as I need time to think over my responses. I can’t think clearly under pressure and in a synchronous online communication I am often ‘silent’ preferring text responses rather than using a webcam. I would rather have the luxury of thinking and rereading at leisure rather than the panic of instant relay. I guess that it is the thought that I am being recorded (or could be recorded) that puts me off.

● cognitive strategies: this is an internal process by which learners select and modify their ways of attending, learning, remembering and thinking. How can the information become personally meaningful and easy to remember? For me it is similar to F2F in that I highlight text using different colours and organize my notes into folders. I try to connect to my own experience as much as possible and find ways to integrate what I am learning into my teaching practice.

● collaborative learning.
Learning in a group. Online impacts differently as difficulties to work together are impacted by technology. For example in Indonesia, the speed of the Internet isn’t reliable and this impacts when trying to attend virtual classes. Time differences also impact. I have found that online learning is enabled yet hindered by the technology itself. I can’t see this changing, as there will always be a gap in that some people will have better Internet access than others.

Sensory Impact
I can’t think of any more beyond what Gunawardena and Zittle have defined. Except this one … that online to me often feels disconnected (even with great webcams) and for me that can feel very lonely. In a F2F we can benefit from body language and being able to watch the reactions of others in the classroom. We can see by the way a student is sitting or their body language that they are using when communicating which gives the instructor clues about how the learning is progressing. We can reach out and touch one another. I also miss smells and other factors such as the light in a person’s eye that shows that they understand. I can’t pick these up online.

What do you think about this?