Strategies to Approach Situations with WASs in the Knowledge Society

Strategies to Approach Situations with WASs in the Knowledge Society

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano, M. Ed.

School of English

Faculty of Social Sciences

Universidad Latina de Costa Rica

Sunday, November 27, 2016

Post 308

          We are currently living in what it has been labeled as Knowledge Societies. This new vision of our current societies’ living has permeated into every single aspect of the lives we live today, especially in the area of education where it is more than evident when one considers the amount of working adult students (WASs) we get to see in our brick-walled classrooms or virtual learning environments.

But what are those Knowledge Societies we are now living in? A Knowledge Society like ours and yours is “a new society formed as a result of the contemporary societal change pushed by technological innovation and institutional transformation, which is not only about technological innovations, but also about human beings, their personal growth and their individual creativity, experience and participation in the generation of knowledge” (Knowledge-Based Urban Development, 2015) and the way they are being taught and trained nowadays through F2F sessions or through virtual classrooms to develop competencies. “The primary role of cities in a knowledge society is to ensure that their knowledge sources are passed on and advanced by each generation” (Knowledge-Based Urban Development, 2015), and that this knowledge is used to instruct the new members of these cities to guarantee success in their working spaces and economy. The panorama in which we are now teaching is particularly different to the times in which we were the learners in the classrooms.

          In the development of competencies among WASs and any other traditional student, we are faced with many situations. The situation below is quite normal now in many of my courses at the university where I currently work. Though my courses are meant to be F2F, somehow I have managed to change them to a hybrid model where most of the information concerning learning tasks is available for students since day 1 onwards. So basically, the situation presented in my courses pretty much looks like follows:

You are teaching a course with a mixed format; that is, a traditional course with virtual support for some activities. Attendance monitoring shows you that there has been a decrease in attendance, but logging on to the virtual classroom has remained stable.

          Trying to make sense of this situation, the following variables need to be considered: a) time and learning pace control, b) geographical dispersion, and c) competition vs. collaboration. Each one will be analyzed separately though the fact is they possibly intertwine with one another or just overlap.

Variable	Hypothesis	Strategy
Variable 1: Time and learning pace control	Learners are missing class not because content discussed in class is not important, but since several learners need to work to pay their tuition, they can make decisions whether they want to attend class or not and still catch up on course content and assignments by logging in on our Moodle LMS.	The suggested strategy to cope with this behavior is to prepare “executive reports” of the main contents covered in class to have them posted and available to be downloaded from the course virtual classroom. Another possibility is the chance for learners to write to me via the Moodle system to catch up on content they missed due to its absence. This helps them feel in control of their time and learning pace, and that they can continue with their development any time, anywhere.
Variable 2: Geographical dispersion	This variable intertwines with the one described above; for many of my WASs, and due to the obscene traffic jams our capital city has, it is much easier for these students to go back home than to come to the university after an 8-hr shift at work. This is indeed part of their attitudes when it comes to discuss WASs’ needs. And since they believe it is not strictly necessary to be in class at all times, they prefer to get home, log on the platform and work on course content on their own (learner autonomy).	There are two basic channels of communication that need to be opened and ready for WASs. Bearing in mind the service leadership in mind, one can foster learning in a hybrid context by having some sort of virtual student hours for learners to ask questions regarding content being covered along the course in case they get absent. On the other hand, another channel of communication with WASs is to make good use of platform forums where one can have a section such as “Ask the Instructor” for other students to benefit from this information as well.
Variable 3: Competition versus collaboration	Understanding the idiosyncransy of my learners, one tends to hypothesize that competition is by all means something they have as part of their “high school training.” Students are mostly taught to be very individualistic, and as it can be seen, collaboration is not yet part of their 21st Century skills. This soft skills needs to be develop in them as part of the Knowledge Societies.	In order to have learners really profit from collaboration and comprehend that this is a highly desirable skill at work, learners can be asked to collaborate in the creation of a class wiki where content can be shared, edited, and enhanced so everyone can use it for their understanding. There might be different kinds of wikis that can be perfectly used with WASs and traditional learners for them to collaborate in the building of their knowledge and skills.

          I have no doubt that WASs can be understood and helped to learn in the structure of our Knowledge Societies nowadays. If the ultimate reason for education is to assist students to develop their learning, finding ways to help them –by means of leadership styles- can be widely beneficial for instructors and learners whether they are in a brick-walled classroom or in a virtual learning space. Not trying to help them is an act of sabotage from the faculty member who is not interested in the learning well-being of his/her learners.

Reference

Knowledge-Based Urban Development. (2015). Retrieved from IGI-Global Disseminator of Knowledge: http://www.igi-global.com/chapter/knowledge-based-urban-development/112448