Micro-Blogging for Backchannel in Strengthening Asynchronous Learning

International Journal of Advance Foundation and Research in Computer (IJAFRC)

Volume 1, Issue 4, April 2014. ISSN 2348 - 4853

38 | 2014, IJAFRC All Rights Reserved www.ijafrc.org

Micro-Blogging for Backchannel in Strengthening

Asynchronous Learning Ronald Tombe1, Dr. Stephen Kimani2

1Computing Sciences Department ,Kisii University 2Computing Department, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology.

[email protected]

A B S T R A C T

Advances in both technology and social implementation of interactivity present a promising new

methodology to improve the learning and teaching process in academia. Lecturers present new

information to a mass of learners, disregarding their individual learning processes thus reduce

classroom-interactivity to the possibility of asking questions.Web 2.0 learners should be able to

collect and share online resources during a lecture; micro-blogging communication channel

should help to achieve interactivity on traditional face-to-face teaching environment. For the

purpose of this study, an e-learning portal was developed and hosted before it was used in the

learning process. Four Tutors and one hundred and twenty students undertaking advanced

courses in computing sciences were involved in the study and the results were collected, analyzed

and the discussions, inferences and conclusions were made. This research demonstrates that

backchannel communication can improve the cognitive presence of learners through the use of

micro-blogs hence improve on the quality of learning, quality of interaction and the quality of a

learning environment, and the quality of teaching.

Index Terms: Asynchronous learning, Backchannel, Micro-blogging, Web 2.0, Discussion mining,

Collaborative learning and, Community of learning

I. INTRODUCTION

In the recent past years, leaders in education, academia, and mainstream media have discussed the role

of the backchannel as the use of e-Communities in presentations, conferences, and the classroom (Korica,

2006). Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is an online chat environment that enables groups of people to

collaborate and chat from any physical location in the world (Harris, 1995; Dewes, Wichmann, &

Feldmann, 2003). The definition of the term backchannel varies with context and usage. To some it

suggests an intangible, clandestine community. To others, it suggests an empowering toolkit for

participation, collaboration, and interaction. The central function of the backchannel is its use as a

secondary or background complement to an existing frontchannel, which may consist of a professor,

teacher, speaker, or lecturer. Backchannel offers a unique new communication medium, a novel toolkit

through which students can create, identify, and filter new modes of learning. Advances in both

technology and social implementation of interactivity present a promising new methodology to improve

the learning and teaching process in academia (Rovai, 2002).

The social constructive theory of learning with technology (Brown &Campione, 1996) states that a learner

has to act and reflect in an environment. Action could be a task of solving a problem and reflection could

be abstracting from the derived solution and accumulating in one's experiential knowledge. The

conversation theory (Pask, 1975) suggests that for learning to be successful it requires continuous two-




way conversations and interactions between the teacher/learner and amongst the learners. The

perspectives of the social constructivist, interaction and community are considered fundamental to the

learning experience. This position is seen in the educational literature (Dewey, 1959), who maintained

that both the psychological and sociological aspects of the educational process were equally important.

Taking such a position leads to the notion that, rather than conventional conception of a class as a group

of students enrolled in a unit being taught by a teacher, it is desirable to conceive of a community of

learners who are engaged in the purposeful, mutual construction of knowledge facilitated by staff

member(s) (Ebner, Lienhardt, Rohs& Meyer, 2010).

Mayadas(1997)defines asynchronous learning as a student-centered teaching method that uses online

learning resources to facilitate information sharing outside the constraints of time and place among a

network of people. Mayadas further explains that asynchronous learning is based on constructivist

theory, a student-centered approach that emphasizes the importance of peer-to-peer interactions.

(Bieber et al, 2008) views that this approach merges self-study with asynchronous interactions to

promote learning, and it can be used to facilitate learning in traditional on-campus education, distance

education, and continuing education.

Portable, handheld devices have increasingly powerful multimedia, social networking, communication

and geo-location (GPS) capabilities and consequently, Web 2.0 technologies offer numerous

opportunities as well as challenges in education (Vavoula et al., 2007). (Motiwalla, 2007) points out that

computing devices have become ubiquitous on todays college campuses and influence the daily behavior

of higher education. One of the reasons for this success is the improvement in the devices technical

features and their low prices. The new generations of devices have wider and touch screens, built-in

digital cameras, and support Wi-Fi and 3G web connectivity. Most devices are equipped with GPS (Global

Positioning System) receivers, RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification), NFC (Near Field Communication)

readers or smartcards. All these new embedded technologies make a platform for the new generation of

applications to be used in all kinds of environments. These applications are context-aware and benefit

from the internet connection anytime anywhere. There is an ongoing need to examine the pedagogies

that are suitable for e-learning and to conceptualize e-learning from the perspective of learners

experiences rather than the affordances of the technology tools (Traxler, 2007).

A. Problem statement

With the tremendous growth and potential of the personal computers, wireless/handheld devices and

networks, learning systems are being developed. Micro-blogs are a popular way of sending individualized

comments from personal computer devices on the web. The rich features provided by the micro-blogging

technology can be utilized to enhance learning in institutions of higher learning. Lecturers are presenting

new information to a mass of learners, disregarding their individual learning processes thus reduce

classroom-interactivity to the possibility of asking questions. To improve the situation the worldwide

education research community has a long tradition of learner-lecturer interaction in huge classes (Bligh,

1971) (Gleason, 1986). Anderson (Anderson et al, 2003) mentioned that there are mainly three big

problems:

Feedback Lag: Missing feedback of the learners during the lecture

Student Apprehension: Fear to ask or talk during the lecture because of the huge class

Single Speaker Paradigm: The only-ones speaker syndrome (learner-lecturer) leads to less participation




B. Research question

How does micro-blogging strengthen asynchronous learning through backchannel?

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

A number of literature sources were reviewed. In particular, a lot is written on Web 2.0 tools in Higher

Education through personal blogs. This includes reflections on the implications of new technologies for

learning and teaching, strategies for more effective take up of technology, identification of barriers and

drivers to adoption, and critiques of impact on learner experience and teaching practices.

A. Changing learning and learners

i. Theories of learning

Mayes and de Freitas (2004) grouped learning theories into three categories:

Associative (learning as activity through structured tasks)

Cognitive (learning through understanding)

Situative (learning as social practice)

Conole et al (2004) reviewed learning theories and mapped them against a pedagogical framework. Dyke

et al (2007) built on this work by providing an overview of the main learning theory perspectives along

with an indication of the kinds of e-learning practice they most obviously support. Ravenscroft (2003)

linked pedagogical theory to specific examples of e-learning innovation. Learning theories are frequently

captured in pedagogical frameworks that emphasise a particular approach.

ii. Micro-blogging in learning

In the educational context, micro-blogging allows interaction between students and the instructor and

among students through asking questions, giving opinions, exchanging ideas, sharing resources, and

reflecting on learning (Ebner& Maurer, 2008). Examining college students using micro-blogging for

project-oriented communication, Ebner et al. (2010) found that this tool supported informal learning and

social interaction during group work. They also found that micro-blogging enhanced process-oriented

learning in which learners were able to participate and help shape each others developing ideas through

posting thoughts and information pieces. The features of micro-blogging aid instructional practice in

addition to its help with learning. As micro-blogging records the interaction in the text format, it helps

instructors document the learning process where learner participation and contribution during the

learning process can be monitored and consulted for the purpose of providing feedback and assessment

(Ebner et al., 2010).

(Kowch and Schwier, 1997) stated that technology needs to aid negotiation, intimacy, commitment, and

engagement in order to create a learning community. Micro-blogging tools coupled with learning by

doing activities can provide a meaningful learning environment for knowledge construction and

community building.

B. Learning by doing

Unlike the traditional acquisition model of learning that views learning as acquisition, the participation

framework views learning as the process of knowledge construction through interaction and discourse




among members in the community embedded in the social and cultural contexts (Sfard, 1998). When

individuals construct knowledge together, they reciprocally create learning experiences for each other,

and serve as part of each others "learning environment." Accordingly, this situated knowledge

construction emphasizes learning in context (e.g., activity, people, culture, and language) and learning is

inseparable from doing (Brown, Collins, &Duguid, 1989). Through active participation, learners

collectively inquire into specific topics, share and exchange thoughts and experiences, and make

improvement of ideas to develop deeper understanding (Lave & Wenger, 1991).

C. Community of learning

A learning community refers to a context where a group of individuals with a shared will of learning

participate in the learning process (Kowch&Schwier, 1997). Based on social constructivist view, learning

is situated in a social and cultural context where learners interact with each other to construct their

understanding of the world (Brown, Collins, &Duguid, 1989; Lave & Wenger, 1991). Learning in the

community enables learners to collaboratively construct knowledge through discussion and meaning

negotiation with peers and instructors. As members in the community possess different experiences and

skills, they could support each other to develop beyond what each individual is currently capable of doing

and to help individuals move to the next level of development. A learning community also offers learners

opportunities of learning by doing where learners apply their learned knowledge in the hands-on

activities, share their learning processes, exchange thoughts, reflections and experiences about their

learning, and grow together as a community. An important aspect of an effective learning community is

the active interaction and collaboration among the members in order for mutual knowledge construction.

The learning community serves as a context for students to engage in the conversations or dialogues that

lead to meaning making and knowledge construction (Lock, 2002).

III. METHOD

An experiment designed for the survey purposes.

Figure 1. Usage of the e-learning portal

The experiment was an eLearning portal whose URLs are http://essel.co.ke/mlearning/,Mobile Access:

http://essel.co.ke/mlearning/blocks/mle/browser.php) including all described measures took place

during the lecture Social aspects of Information Technology. The course is a compulsory one for

Undergraduate students of Information and technology and strives to develop a critical view on the way

information systems influences modern society. Each year more than 100 students attend this course,

following lectures on different topics like transaction processing systems, management information

systems, strategic information systems, decision support systems, artificial intelligence. Students should

think about how information technology helps the society and learn to achievea critical view on different

approaches and services.Due to this fact, modern and innovativetechnologies such as Weblogs or Micro-

blogsare used to observe and research their limitsabout advantages and disadvantages (Ebner&Maurer,

2008).




In three lecture units interactive lecturing was tested for the first time. First, students were encouragedto

bring their devices with them andadvised that Internet connection to the WLAN

Hot spot in the lecturing room was running; fig1 below shows that. A short introduction to the idea of

interactive lecturing and providing the hyperlink for mobile access was followed by the presentation

Weblogs at the dawning of the information age.

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

After the lectures, short oral interviews with some students took place, to get the first spontaneous

impression of their thoughts:

Question: Do you think interactive lectures have a potential for the future?

Student 1: I appreciated this kind of lecture . .and used my laptop . . great application

Student 2: I think it helps students overcomethe barrier asking questions.

Student 3: Yes, indeed; I hope to purchase my personal device such that I can be using it in these kinds

of lectures.

Student 4: The lecture became much moreinteractive I enjoyed asking questions and sharing opinions,

furthermore I can use myown device good

For the purpose of this research the lectures lasted about 35 minutes during this time approximately 35

deviceswere used which were connected to the Internet either via access points, physical connected, or

were used.Table 1 below shows a summary of the interactions.

Table 1. Number of conference attendees against number of eLearning portal users

Number of lectures No of students in for

Information systems

course

No of students

Information systems

course

No of students Software

engineering course

Days 4 4 5

Number of attendes 65 60 45

Number of individual

eLearning users

55 50 35

Number of Micro-blogs 180 157 65

Average number of

Micro-blogs

45 40 13

eLearning users as

percentage of

attendees

90 80 37

The Course information system was picked for the analysis purposes; an average of forty five Micro-blogs

were sent by the learners with the helpof the micro-blogging facility. Furthermore, 8 annotations

enhanced the existing slides with comments and useful links. About 16 studentscollaborated through

eLearning portal,7 students raised questions and 5 students noted some points on the subject.The

information was summarized as shown in fig 2: below




Figure 2. Interaction types

Each post was classified into 4 groups according to its content by the authors vision.

Comments: Thinkings, statements, proposals and objections.

Questions: Questions about exploration.

Notes: Posts reciting important points and provisions of related information.

Collaborations: Questions for an audiences post, and answers to an audiences question.

From the findings of this research, it was noted that there was much more interaction between lecturer-

students and students-students compared to a usual lecture.From an overall technical point of view, the

experiment can be stated as successful.

A. Immersive environments for backchannel in learning

Portable, handheld devices have increasingly powerful multimedia, social networking, communication

and geo-location (GPS) capabilities and consequently, Web 2.0 technologies offer numerous

opportunities as well as challenges in education (Vavoula et al., 2007). As demonstrated by the results of

the experiment, using the various environments provided by technology is a creative way to promote

discussion, demonstration and active co-creation of artefacts, rather than replicating face-to-face

lecturing as in the cases PowerPoint presentations in lecture-rooms.

Forty five Micro-blogs during 35 minutes pointed out a high participation of the learners.

The content of the contributions can bedivided into short commentsand questions. The Micro-blogs were

sent frommobile devices and laptops; no device was preferred. The huge number of contributions andthe

positive feedback of the students confirms that it was very easy to participate and send messages.

B. Attention

Due to the fact that two different communication channels had been offered, students were very busy

during the whole lecture. It must be stated that students worked with the materials related to the content

of the lecture and dealt with online slides on demand. This fact is of high importance because former

studies showed that students are working on their laptops surfing the Internet, far from the context of

the ongoing lecture. In other words, this kind of interactivity engaged students to work on the lecture




content instead of being only physically present. On the other hand, it must be critically asked if this kind

of engagement leads to poor attention as well.

C. Micro-blogging as a digital backchannel activity

As the technology of micro-blogging is adopted in a variety of contexts, its usefulness becomes more and

more compelling for educational actors (Tseng. B, 2007) and (Parry .D, 2008). Different actors from the

educational spectrum have found that micro-blogging can be successfully used / integrated in teaching-

learning process or other didactical activities (Tseng. B, 2007) and (Parry .D, 2008).

The aspects most emphasized in literature (Grosseck, G., Holotescu, C., 2010) reveal that micro-blogging:

offers the opportunity to discuss / practice different types of online discourse, to organize ideas,

reflections;

creates instant communities in unexpected environments;

promotes a collaborative virtual environment which foster process-oriented learning;

facilitates the work of multidisciplinary group;

is a useful tool for cooperation and collaboration in project management or for assessing students

opinions;

is a viable platform for meta cognition;

is the preferred support for conferences or other events;

is used in the convergence of knowledge;

facilitates the creation of a personal learning network;

allows exploration of colloquial language (important in learning foreign languages);

can be a reference service in libraries;

can be successfully used in teaching-learning process etc.

From the findings of this research, it is envisaged that for asynchronous learning to be effective a

backchannel communication is required to provide a platform which should facilitate interaction

between learners through the use of micro-blogs thus creating a community of learners who will share

knowledge through the use of web technology.

V. CONCLUSION

Micro-blogging as a Web 2.0 tool can help to strengthen students sense of community through

interactivity and active participation which seems to lead to a new learning and teaching behavior. By

using modern technologies, students knowledge about new media and Web 2.0 new possibilities can be

implemented even to large lecture rooms. Sharing and collaborating different pieces of content as well as

communication over different channels allow rethinking didactical approaches. Both students and

teachers reported a great potential for educating in big lecture rooms using new media. Finally, it must be

concluded that although interactive lecturing is a promise for the future of education, it is necessary to

consider that complete new didactical approaches and teaching challenges have to be evolved by

teachers. The aim of technology-enhanced learning must ensure that learners become more engaged and

that learning proceeds through and by conversations.

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Micro-Blogging for Backchannel in Strengthening Asynchronous Learning