ERIC Number: EJ1017495
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2013-Jul
Pages: 25
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1492-3831
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Sustaining Teacher Control in a Blog-Based Personal Learning Environment
Tomberg, Vladimir; Laanpere, Mart; Ley, Tobias; Normak, Peeter
International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, v14 n3 p109-133 Jul 2013
Various tools and services based on Web 2.0 (mainly blogs, wikis, social networking tools) are increasingly used in formal education to create personal learning environments, providing self-directed learners with more freedom, choice, and control over their learning. In such distributed and personalized learning environments, the traditional role of the teacher is being transformed into that of a facilitator. This change inevitably means a reduced level of control on the part of the teacher. This is evidenced, for example, in difficulties experienced in retaining the necessary levels of control when the learning process moves away from institutionally maintained systems to blog-based personal learning environments. In conducting a course in a formal education setting however, it is still essential for the teacher to retain control over certain learning activities, such as course enrolment, assignments, and the assessment process. A course management plug-in for the WordPress blog platform called "LePress" was designed and developed as a possible solution to this problem. By using LePress, teachers are able to more easily manage and coordinate courses in a distributed blog-based environment. Teachers are able to regain control over some important aspects of online course management, while maintaining the learners' freedom and choice for self-directed learning. This paper documents the results of a survey of a group of 37 teachers who used LePress for at least six months. The study demonstrates that by using LePress, teachers experienced an enhanced level of control over several aspects of the course and this reinforced their perception about the ease of use of the system.
Descriptors: Electronic Publishing, Web Sites, Journal Writing, Teacher Role, Online Courses, Independent Study, Educational Technology, Web 2.0 Technologies, Locus of Control, Teacher Student Relationship, Questionnaires, Teacher Attitudes, Educational Environment, Teaching Methods, Foreign Countries, Computer Software, Difficulty Level
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education; Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Estonia
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A