chap 7 concept map

http://mywebspiration.com/view/312419a1df70

distance learning analysis

I read a study by Bernard, Abrami, Borokhovski, Wad, Tamim, Surkes and Bethel (2009) which did a meta-analysis on Moore's three types of interaction in distance education. They looked at 6,000 studies and after refining their definitions of what they required of the study to be included, they analyzed 74 of these studies. What they discovered was that if student-content interaction was high quality and either student-teacher interaction or student-student interaction was moderate, the student learning would be positively affected. The student-content interaction was key. At least one other method of interaction needed to be included at a moderate quality.

ways of knowing

Chapter 7 introduces the idea that there are different ways of knowing. Science is looking for facts -- factual knowledge. But participatory action research is not just looking for facts. The author, Peter Park is drawing a picture that this type of discovery is much more like hermeneutics -- which I understand. My cousin, Norm Arnensen was the toughest professor at Bethany Bible College because he taught hermeneutics and demanded that his student used the proper steps in arriving at their interpretation of scripture. You not only need to know what the original language said, but the entire context in which it was spoken . . . cultural, situational and relational. This is also like the process that lawyers go through to prove their points in court based on legal precedents. The other analogy that Park ties to this is the Chinese language . . . which I found so fascinating. The classical Chinese letters are not letters at all, but symbols that are put together to convey an action. The symbol is more like a stop sign or a bathroom sign, telling the reader something they should do. Their whole language is action oriented rather than abstract thought or ideas conveyed by letters of an alphabet. I remember when Leighton and I were in Japan and I was looking at a book about the Japanese language and how they had three ways to write a message -- they could use classical Chinese figures, Japanese figures which looked a lot like chinese symbols and then they had a more modern Japanese alphabet system which most people understood and used today. Participatory action research uses relational knowledge which emphasizes community and common sense knowing in order to discover the actions that must be taken.

three types of interaction within the online learning environment:

1. learner -- teacher interaction via webex meetings

2. learner -- content interaction via questions to be answered through reading/resources

3. learner -- learner interaction via discussion forums, either blackboard or webex meetings

Intercultural competence domains

Munoz, Dobroka & Mohammad listed five:

1. Cultural awareness

2. Cultural knowledge

3. Cultural skills

4. Cultural encounter

5. Cultural desire

Sercu listed four:

1. knowledge

2. skills

3. attitudes

4. traits

Byram listed four "savoir"s

1. Savior-comprendre

2. Savoir-apprendre/faire

3. Savoir-s'engager

4. Savoir-etre

Arasaratnam listed five:

1. empathy

2. motivation

3. attitude toward other cultures

4. experience

5. listening

interactive learning

In looking at the articles that I found through the Fielding Library search, I discovered many articles that described various assessments to be used to determine the amount of intercultural competence an individual possesses.

common to many of these articles are:

-- IDI Intercultural Development Inventory which is based on Bennett's DMIS developmental model of intercultural sensitivity

-- MES Multicultural Teacher Efficacy Scale (Guyton & Wesche)

-- TES Teacher Efficacy Scale (Gibson & Dembo)

-- MDI Multicultural Dispositions Index (Thompson)

There was also a great article by Lies Sercu which outlined the criteria by which a research can examine an assessment tool for its quality.

Course construction ideas

I read an article by Robert Weigl that discussed his construction of an open ended course for intercultural competence which was used by the Peace Corps and the U.S. State Department's Foreign Service Institute. He constructed a course that uses as a text, McGoldrick, Giordano and Garcia-Preto (Eds.) (2005). Ethnicity and family therapy, 3rd Ed. The only assignment is that the student completes a 2400 word paper that focuses on how the student, their family and their larger cultural reality is described from 8 different conceptual patterns.

Weigl strongly upholds the idea that the process of self-discovery will open a larger door of cultural awareness that will lead the learner to further examination of other cultures and understanding.

Michael Moore

Michael Moore – main issues were structure and dialogue. “The primary interest is in . . . constructing an environment inn which the individual learner . . . can learn” (Moore, 1986, p. 8). He describes a situation where 90% of adults are interested in learning something on their own and looking for environments where this can take place. Many times educational institutions ignore these students because they do not fit their educational definitions because they do not place much importance on self-directed learners. Moore emphasized the need for the “institution of distance education [to] modify its teaching in order to give each learner the chance to exercise autonomy” (Moore, p. 19). He placed importance on creating an environment where the individual adult learner can not only structure the program learning objectives, but can also determine the resources and projects where “discovery learning . . . give the learner a chance to be actively involved” (Moore, p. 19). The overall idea for distance education is “to serve others, not to serve the machine” which means that the educational system is structured to support “learner freedom, individualism and self-direction” (Moore, p. 22).

Reason & Bradbury -- chapters 2-6

Chapters 2-5 were an ongoing explanation of the historical roots of action research. It was interesting to understand that action research was brewed in the turmoil of the late 60's and 70's. Some of the main goals at that time was that: 1) ideas should be communicated in common language and not academic language so that "ordinary people could be a part of the scientific process" (p. 28).

2) action research should move away from the idea of science = truth and therefore being important in and of itself without having a moral conscience. Scientific knowledge needs to have "a moral conscience and reason . . . [needs] to be enriched with sentiment and feeling" (p. 29).

3) the distinction between "researcher and the researched" should be discarded in favor of both groups being empowered to fully being part of the process of discovery (p. 30).

Chapter 4 described how race became part of the motivation and discussion on how to liberate underempowered groups in America and the world. Chapter 5 described how feminism was added to the discussion and the empowering of women. Both of these ideas were historical movements from the 70's.

Chapter 6 outlined and reinforced these historical roots with the present practice of empowerment of regular people by allowing them to being a part of the process and in control of the knowledge generated through the research. There is a balance between three primary ideas: knowledge, action and consciousness (p. 76).

Moodle

I went into Moodle and created an account. I tried to assign a new theme without success. I was able to set up the profile and attach my google blog page to the front page.

I investigated Moodle and took the tutorials. It looks like a powerful tool and a little overwhelming. I was encouraged that Fielding has it's own Moodle site, but it looks like it is restricted to professors and staff use. I'm looking forward to learning more about it.

Leighton and I used a moodle site when he taught a course for the Asia Pacific Theological Seminary. In looking at their moodle page, I realize how complex this site can be. Their moodle page was:

Online Learning (e-learning)

We welcome you to browse APTS' E-Learning Module but we are NOT offering courses on-line yet. However, we are definitely moving in that direction. Meanwhile, most of our faculty on campus use Moodle as a content delivery program to facilitate and supplement their class activities.

Please click here to visit our dedicated e-learning website

http://www.courses.apts.edu