Distance Teacher Education with Problem Based Learning
Rolf CARLSSON
Rolf Carlsson Datakonsult AB
Huddinge, Sweden
E-mail:.
Roza DUMBRAVEANU
Institute for Continuing Education
State University of Moldova
Chisinau, Moldova
E-mail: ,
Ulla HÖGBERG
Division for Educational Sciences
Karlstad University
Karlstad, Sweden
E-mail:
Göran KARLSSON
Dept. of Mechanics, KTH
Stockholm, Sweden
E-mail:
Alvar LÖFSKOG
Office for Educational and Research Planning, Karlstad University
Karlstad, Sweden
E-mail:
Bengt OLSEN
Centrinity AB, Uppsala, Sweden
E-mail:
ABSTRACT
We present the KTH course 5C4502 Distance Teacher Education with PBL, financed through course fee. It considers training trainers/instructors/teachers to design their distance education by having them to work individually as well as in various teams with Problem Based Learning (PBL).
The participants’ main task is to design their own distance course. Since 1995 we have experience from the course, which has been given eleven times reaching about 350 participants (mostly teachers). The whole course lasts for 13-14 weeks and starts and finishes with one-day face-to-face meetings. There is also a mid-term videoconference meeting with expert lecturing on PBL theory.
As main medium the FirstClass computer conferencing system is used. We also present how to perform Internet integration with hypertext links and FirstClass conferencing via computer designed mind maps and; a technique that we have used in an EU Leonardo project.
KEYWORDS: Distance education, teacher training, constructivism, problem based learning, PBL
SOCIETY AND EDUCATION CHANGES
The technological developments and the modern pedagogical view of learning coincide with social changes promoting flexible learning and use of distance education. The modern society continuously requires more qualified and competent citizens. The rapid economic and technological changes in the society imply increasing need for continuing education. Continuing education is most rapidly growing at the tertiary education level in the Occident. But there is also an increasing interest in the rest of the world. EU program efforts are directed to the use of flexible learning such as distance education both at schools, the tertiary level and for continuing education purposes.
Distance education using Internet offers tremendous opportunities not only for continuing education but for education in general to break down the barriers of place and time that otherwise limit access to education.
At the same time the school and university system have reached a crisis. The nowadays university students show lack of concentration, lack of proper oral and written language and lack of necessary mathematics. As a consequence we have to meet great difficulties in the teaching situation and decline of exam results. In Sweden, where about half of the state funding is based upon examination results, this decline together with the extreme increases in rental costs for university premises have led to financial problems for departmental budgets. Thus there is a need for change not only leading to better study results but also in finding a new infrastructure meeting the need for less expensive teaching.
Another important point is the need to operate on the increasing competitive global education market. The time is not far away when a university not longer will be able to speak of "our students". Students will search for courses and study programs which suite them and "unfaithfully" compose their own curricula with courses from different universities. Distance and networked education will simplify this but there are also organized study programs exchanges (promoted within different EU programs as Socrates and bilateral university agreements) and individual exchanges with students spending half a year or a year at a foreign university campus.
All these require new student and teaching staff roles, as well as new organizational education infrastructure using more peer-to-peer cooperation both at schools, at campuses, at the local area network, and on Internet. Students must be trained to have responsibility for both their strategically educational planning and their tactical studying.
CONSTRUCTIVISM AND PBL
In pedagogy there is a strong tendency to require learners to take accountability for their own learning. Piaget, Dewey and Lewin [1] laid the foundation for constructivism and experience-based learning. Bringuier [2] and Papert [3, 4] have described the process of constructive learning. The basic idea of constructivism is the own construction of knowledge by the learner. During the last decade constructivism has found a specific application with Problem Based Learning (PBL) [5] where real world problems are used to support critical thinking and problem solving skills. The concept of PBL nowadays is quite accepted as a way of meeting the labor market need of operational applicable skills but there is a vast group of teachers who needs training in its application. There is also a need for training in the use of distance education among active teachers.
Course design
The main intention of the course "Distance Teacher Education with PBL" [6] is to train those with responsibility for continuing and distance education to use Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and PBL and to design distance education courses. The course has so far been offered eleven times.
As communication medium we used FirstClass® from Centrinity Inc. in Canada and Centrinity AB in Sweden [7]. This system handles email, computer conferencing, file attachments, and software downloading. For information purposes Web resources were used.
Connected to a FirstClass server is a Web server that can be run and administrated through the FirstClass client and server. Direct URL links can be reached from FirstClass messages in the conference area. Users lacking the free FirstClass client could connect to a FirstClass server from a Web browser.
Logging on the system opens a desktop window where our course can be found at the marked conference icon DLU11 med PBL:
Figure 1: Initial desktop window
Clicking on that icon opens the course desktop:
Figure 2: Course desktop window
The information related to the course was structured within FirstClass conferences. We have designed 13 main conferences and several sub conferences appearing after clicking the main conferences.
The main conferences are (in the same order as on the above image): The Café (for non-course related matters), the Instructors´ Conference (to which participants can send messages but not enter), the Bulletin Board, the Participant Conference (to which the instructors have no access), the Directory (with personal descriptions and photos taken at the introductory meeting), the Seminar Conference (with three consecutive sub seminar themes), the Assignment Conference (with assignment conferences), the Group Meeting Conference (with separate meeting rooms for the different groups), the Library, the FC System Help Desk Conference, the Pedagogical Discussion Conference, the Evaluation Conference (for both formative and summative evaluations), the Quiz Conference (motivation competition with proverbs rewritten into formal administrative language).
The marked Assignment Conference DLU11 Ins.uppgifter consists of one information conference and then seven conferences, one for each assignment relating to designing an own distance course (Arguments, Project, Pedagogy, PBL, Assignments, Conference Structure, and Study Guide.
Figure 3: Assignment conferences
The Seminar Conference DLU11 Seminarier consists of one information conference and the three seminar conferences each running for 3-5 weeks: Society and Organization, Reproduction and Construction, and Technology.
Figure 4: Seminar conferences
Opening the seminar about Society and Organization DLU11 Samh Org, we get access to the discussion in it. Each seminar is lead by a responsible group that introduces themes to discuss, triggers discussion and then summarizes it. The group has a special conference room DLU11 Semled Samh for planning its actions.
Figure 5: Seminar discussion titles
If one clicks on the first discussion message, one can read it.
Figure 6: Seminar discussion message
Course logistics
At least one week before the course start, the client software, course program, course description and software manual can be downloaded from a Web site [8]. There is a manual about how to use FirstClass and a help desk can be contacted to receive answers to installation problems. The participants are also asked to try the system to become familiar with it.
The course starts with a one-day face-to-face meeting when participants learn to know each other and the instructors/facilitators. They are given the possibility to express their course expectations and what they plan to do with what they learn. Groups are formed and the participants are more extensively informed about the need for continuing education, distance education, the history of distance education, the 3rd generation distance education, Internet, the course conference structure, etc.
Then the participants work during five weeks at a distance. Participants receive a copy of the course book by Bååth [9] and some other literature, gathered in a binder (course objective and overview, instructions, study guide, study material, articles, booklets and books on computer conferencing, moderatorship, PBL, recommendations on how to write study guides etc.
After about five weeks a new meeting follows with a lecture on pedagogy and PBL is given via a videoconference from University of Karlstad. Then the distance part continues for about nine weeks.
The course then finishes with another one-day meeting, where experiences are discussed and summarized and further hints are given.
Experiences
Most participants (about 95 %) finish the course. During the first courses the constructivist idea that the group has the accountability for its activities and the learning of its members was difficult to reach; there were in fact strong expectations that the instructors should trail the participants through the course. Eventually this has changed, and nowadays we find a good understanding of this concept
Some experience points to remember
· Check that everybody has got functioning access and has been able to log in.
· Clear admission requirements (in subject, computer experiences and the English language – since many entered links refer to sites using English).
· Be sure that everybody has understood the course aim, its goal and its objectives.
· Inform about the necessity to devote daily time to course.
· Optional course/s in general computer training, word processing etc.
· Check (and if necessary train) general computer literacy.
· Not too many participants (max. 40).
· Not too large groups (3-5 participants per group).
· Introduce group members to each other at first course meeting.
· Appoint a responsibility leader for each group.
· Let the group members sign a contract about their responsibilities to the group and peers.
· Continuously stress participant accountability.
· Assist so that client-server connectivity functions.
· Inform about activity need and consequences (for the inactive and others) if that is not followed.
· Do not encourage participants to send you personal e-mails, but rather use group communication with the fellow learners. In this way distance learning does not require more instructor effort than conventional teaching.
· Support individual searching but collaborative learning.
· Request absent messages (in e.g. a specific conference).
· Give technical support, particularly in the beginning.
· Check participant presence and contact if necessary.
· Not too many conferences in the beginning, better to split or start new ones later.
· Not too large homework assignments.
· Assist participants to reduce their too high personal self-demands on form quality.
· Check quality of work and react if necessary.
Participant's pros and cons
Pros
· Distance studies can be combined with other activities.
· Lower cost for companies; ordinary job can partly continue.
· Access to a large pool of available course via the network.
· Individual curriculum can be designed.
· Social contacts through meetings, network group work and discussion conferences
Cons
· Instructors not trained for this form.
· Still teaching colleges continue to train for traditional teaching.
· Distance studies require more participant discipline.
· Increased dropout risk.
· Companies do not understand what it is.
· Companies believe it is very expensive.
· Companies believe in intensive courses at isolated places.
· Lack of human social contacts.
ICTI Virtual Consultancy
An EU project ICTI Virtual Consultancy was developed within the framework of the Leonardo Program. The participants shall not only get new knowledge, skills and insights, but also create concrete results to guide decisions for the daily activities. Another goal is to work in work groups and through these groups handle projects.
The main aims are:
· Participants shall obtain competence to design and perform a plan for ICT integration as a part of action developments in a participant’s own organisation;
· Participants shall get insights into different ways to make work more effective and education more efficient with ICT support. This applies to the learning process, the evaluation of the learning results, and the administration of educational institutions;
· Participants shall get competence to use in a pedagogical creative way the possibilities of ICT and to get experiences to foresee and meet those problems which may appear when education make use of ICT;
· Participants shall obtain insights about the different components of a successful plan for ICT introduction: Action Plan, Competence Development, Technology, Organisation, Pedagogy (including changed labor roles) and Economy.
The whole course structure was designed with MindManager from MindJet LLC [10]:
Figure 7: MindManager generated mind map
The mind map can include links (also to FirstClass conferences) and can be used directly, but also converted to text lists or HTML code:
Figure 8: MindManager generated HTML presentation
References
1. Piaget, J. The Construction of Reality in the Child, Basic Books, New York, N.Y (1954).
2. Bringuier, J.C. Conversations with Jean Piaget, The University of Chicago Press (1980).
3. Papert, S. The Children’s Machine; Rethinking School in the Age of the Computer, Harvester Wheatsheaf, Hetfordshire (1993).