Thursday, June 19, 2014
What Do Students Want?
Recently I read an article written by Lash Keith Vance and published in the Journal of Educational Computing. It was entitled,"Do students want Web 2.0? An Investigation into student instructional preferences". Needless to say, since I'm currently enrolled in a class on Web 2.0 and have been experiencing first hand all the wonders of this new phenomenon, the title caught my attention. The results were surprising.
A survey of over 1800 students, ages 18-33 (the so-called millenials), revealed a strong preference for blended instruction utilizing both Web 2.0 or interactive, collaborative tools and Web 1.0, which encompasses the more traditional, instructor-generated material. In higher education, there was a strong preference indicated for using blogs as a learning management system and discussion boards for peer interaction. Although the article acknowledged the fact that the use of Web 2.0 for instruction is increasing, the author asked the question if this increase were possibly due to “well-intended” educators pushing in that direction rather than the students enrolled in their classes wanting it.
Opinions, please?
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That's an interesting find though not really surprising. Web 2.0 (in my opinion) cannot stand alone for education. It is, however, a great tool that can be used for enhancing the intake and transfer of education.
ReplyDeletePoint taken. How're you doing, World Traveler? Have you curated your story as yet?
DeleteIt looks like we were thinking about the same topic this week! I ran across this blog that was talking about the use of blogging in classrooms http://blog.web20classroom.org/2013/04/soyou-wanna-use-blogs-in-classroom.html
ReplyDeleteand I blogged about it earlier this week. It talks about how using blogs to share a student's work with more than just the teacher, who is usually the only person to read and review a student's work. Dr. Dennen also commented about how research shows a person is likely to perform better when they know their work will be shared. I believe many people can benefit from reviewing the work of their peers and it doesn't surprise me that survey results shows the younger generations wants Web 2.0 tools blended into their learning environment. It's the method that is most familiar with them and is likely to be engaged.
It's interesting that you mention the only choices being 2.0 or instructor-generated content. In my exploration of alternative education, I found some interesting articles promoting more learner-focused, student-propelled instructio, which I think is a relly neat concept. I wish that more people were aware that there are lots of different ways to teach and learn.
ReplyDelete