Asynchronous Tools
Online Trends and
Advanced Tools
By Prof. Jonathan
Acuña Solano
Sunday, October 4,
2015
Twitter: @jonacuso
Post 191
As
part of online learning, it is necessary to use asynchronous tools that can
allow students to comply with coursework tasks based on their own schedule and with
ample time to reflect upon the subject-matter. Flexibility in their schedule
and enough time for reflections can guarantee some more in-depth response when
one gets to remove the time constraint provided in a F2F teaching environment.
For these three essential reasons in hybrid learning and teaching, I have
constantly employed blogs and wikis to help students achieve course objectives
and some sort of work-readiness training in language teaching. For these
reasons, since “there are a number of technologies that can be used with online
instruction to facilitate communication among students and the instructor” (West Virginia University, n.d.) , knowing some characteristics
of these tools such as wikis and blogs, “enables an instructor to adopt the
best tool for his or her purpose” (West Virginia University, n.d.) .
Common
Tool Chart (West Virginia University, n.d.)
As
most of us know, blogs and wikis can be used to account for a lot of different
learning tasks with one’s students. Though most teachers may be employing blogs
to share information with learners, I actually have students create their own
blogs for reflection and for posting coursework. Because of the many different
features a platform like blogger.com, or weebly.com,
provides users, their projects can turn more interactive and creative than a
simple static printed page on bond paper. They have found the training in this
tool useful considering that in language teaching they can also use this
asynchronous tool to work with their future students. A blog can also be used
as “an on-line journal that can be made public or private. Students can use blogs
to create an online portfolio, post reflections, turn in projects or
assignments and receive feedback from the instructor” or their peers (Angelo State University, n.d.) . Blogs can have
indeed many uses within our online, blended or hybrid teaching scenarios.
On
the other hand, wikis are another interactive and different way to have
students work on projects and submit coursework. “Wikis are similar to other
types of online communication tools, such as blogs and threaded discussions, in
that these are all asynchronous forms of communication” (West & West, 2009) . As a language
professor teaching the potential uses of technology in English language
teaching (ELT), I like students to sample a bit of what a wiki can do for them
as instructors or as learners. Wikis can become a good substitute of an LMS at
a small scale when you have just a limited number of students in the classroom.
They can be used to share information in various formats (video, pdf, mp3, you
name it), and they can be used to have students post their homework to be
graded. In terms of work-readiness, by the time they finish our teaching
program, their technological is superior to students in other local
universities.
The
possibilities in the use of asynchronous tools is endless. We just need to
assess what needs to be achieved in a course to find the tools that can be used
to have students efficiently achieve course learning goals. At the beginning,
the use of these tools can be a bit difficult, but with a pinch of patience and
another pinch of desire to have students learn, lots can be achieved in a
hybrid or online course.
References
Angelo State University. (n.d.). Online Learning Tools: Asynchronous
Communication Tools. Retrieved from ASU e-Learning: https://www.angelo.edu/services/e-learning/faculty_resources/Online_Teaching/section_31.php
West Virginia University. (n.d.). WVU Online and
Extended Campus. Retrieved from Tips of Teaching Online: http://online.wvu.edu/Faculty/Resources/TeachingOnline/
West, J., & West, M. (2009). Using Wikis for Online
Collaboration: The Power of the Read-Write Web. San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass.
Sunday, October 04, 2015
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