flex-e-bility

Collaborating online. Learning together in community (Palloff & Pratt, 2005) is designed for faculty, designers and developers interested in using online technology to support learner collaboration. The authors acknowledge that the notion of collaboration can bring both opportunity and difficulty. Problems associated collaboratively activities are identified as little resistance to working groups, the difficulties associated with creating a equitable and productive teams, variations in participation and difficulties in assessment of group and individuals. Alternatively, collaboration assists with deeper levels of knowledge generation; promotes initiative, creativity, and critical thinking; allows students to create a shared goal for learning and forms the foundation of a learning community; addresses all learning styles and issues of culture (Palloff & Pratt, 2005, pp.6-7).

There is an assumption that the development of a community and the presence of collaboration are mutually dependent. And, that both are dependent on involvement or “social presence” (Palloff & Pratt, 2005, p.7). Stages of team development are identified as normative, problem solving, disagreement or conflict, action and termination phases. That's a strong sense of community can assist groups in meeting through these phases more effectively.

It is the responsibility of the instructor to: set the stage; create the environment; model, guide and evaluate the process. These responsibilities can be assisted through clear communication regarding the reasons for collaboration, guidelines regarding participation and expectations, and assisting tends to agree on the rules of engagement. Despite all the efforts some learners may still resist working collaboratively. Instructors need to self-aware as well as monitoring the activities of the group.

Whilst this text provides useful advice on how to establish collaborative activities and stresses the importance of good planning and monitoring it fails to provide adequate guidance on what to do when things go horribly wrong. This criticism may be seen as unjustified as even experienced practitioners struggle with this issue. However, a second shortcoming of this book is that whilst difficulties associated with group assessment are acknowledged and chapter 4 is titled Assessment and evaluation of collaborative work the issue individual assessment of group work is not considered.

Palloff, R., & Pratt, K. (2005). Collaborating online. Learning together in community. San Fracisco: Jossey-Bass.

Engaged learning with emerging technologies (Wang & Kang, 2006) is an edited book of 12 chapters which addresses the question of ‘how learning, both in formal and informal setting, can be engaging or meaningful through the integral accomplishment of learning and educational technologies’. A premise that underpins all chapters is that engaged or meaningful learning occurs through learner-centered const that are consistent with the ideas of Vygotsky.

Engagement is described as a ‘blending of intellectual, affective and social relations’ (Wang & Kang, 2006, p.ix), that ‘truly engage learners are behaviourally intellectually and emotionally involved in and learning tasks’ (Wang & Kang, 2006, p.225 citing Bangert-Drawns & Pyke, 2001). ‘Engagement is a multidimensional phenomenon that varies from setting to setting: Time-on-task, self-regulated learning, intrinsically motivated involvement of integrated cognitive process, learning environment (quality of the dialogue), and production of tangible result (Wang & Kang, 2006, p.225 citing Bangert-Drowns & Pyke, 2002).

Meaningful learning is described as social, collaborative, intentional, authentic (in terms of the context and the problem) and active resulting in a cognitive residue (in the learner) in the form of a mental model These mental models take the form of ‘rich, complex, interconnected, interdependent, multi-modal representations of what someone or some group knows’ (Jonassen & Jonassen, 2006, p.1). Engaged learning is correlated with active learning where ‘learners take responsibility for their own learning … actively developing thinking/learning strategies and constantly formulating new ideas and refining them through conversational exchanges with others’ (Hung, Tan, & Koh, 2006, p.30). Authentic (problem and process) problem-based and situated learning are advocated (Hung et al., 2006) and differences between the workplace and educational institutions in respect to the availability of tools and conditions which support engaged learning are identified(Collis & Moonon, 2006)(Opperman & Specht, 2006).

The place computer supported collaborative learning technology in the classroom environment (Tan, Hung, & Scardamalia, 2006), user interface design to engage learners (Hedberg & Metros, 2006) and the use of online threaded discourse as an approach to knowledge building (Yuen, 2006) are explored. A model for placing engagement at the center of the learning transaction is proposed (Pritchard, 2006). Confusion about the use of technology in Australian schools is considered and suggestions for overcoming this confusion are provided (Romeo, 2006) with changes at the levels of the teacher, schooling environment and learning activities required if ICT enriched learner centered environments are to be created (Lee, 2006).

The term cybergogy is coined to represent ‘strategies for creating engaged learning online (Wang & Kang, 2006, p.225). This shows similarities with a model proposed by Garrison and Anderson (2003) but is not directly acknowledged.

The scope of this text is largely limited to the school environment (K-12). Although two chapters relate to workplace education there is no consideration of institutional education at the post secondary level. A strength of this book is that it begins to unpack the meaning of 'engaged learning'. A number of models and frameworks that are useful in conceptualising the use of e-learning are provided. However, the importance of such an approach is asserted rater than proven. Ultimately the general message in the book is summarised in the citation below.

For teaching to be effective, cognitive, in OT and social factors must work together. For online learning experience to be successful, students must have sufficient prior knowledge, you know device to an, and positively engaged in the learning process. In addition, they must also comfortable with the learning environment and feel a strong sense of community and social commitment. Finally, in emotive factors heavily affect students’ engagement in the learning. Thus, instructors must be sensitive to students’ emotional state and must take initiative to channel students’ emotions to the good “zones” such as the son of curiosity, design of the flow, and zone to a productive path. (Wang & Kang, 2006, p.247)

Hung, D., & Khine, M. S. (Eds.). (2006). Engaged learning with emerging technologies. Dordrecht: Springer.

The central assumption of Interactions in online education. Implications for theory and practice (Juwah, 2006) is that interaction is at the centre of learning’ (p.xv). This book is designed to critically examine as well as contribute ‘to the debate on the important phenomenon of interactions in online education from the theoretical, pedagogical, design, educational and sociocultural perspectives’ (p.2). Educational interactions are categorised as mainly learner to learner, learner to tutor to and learner to content. Learning is theorized as a cyclical phenomenon of three stages: conceptualization (interacting with concepts); construction (interacting with tasks); and dialogue (interacting with people). It is claimed that ‘technological developments, sound pedagogical underpinnings and the effective use of a diverse range of media now make it possible for designers of learning to create a sophisticated modes of interaction which engage, motivate, stimulate and ‘delight’ the learner’ (p.2).

Divided into four sections: theoretical and pedagogical perspectives; design and learning environment; practice; and professional development this text provides a valuable contribution to an understanding of interaction and instructional/education design using online technology.


Juwah, C. (Ed.). (2006). Interactions in online education. Implications for theory and practice. London: Routledge.

The educational potential of e-portfolios (Stefani, Mason, & Pegler, 2007) notes a range of interpretations associated with the idea of e-portfolios and their application in an educational environment. The work provides practical advice on the implementation of e-portfolios to support teaching and learning. The authors suggest that ‘the technology is still immature; the uses are still fluctuating, and even the definitions, the concept of what an e-portfolio is, are hugely varied’ (p.9). The text provides some guidance in these matters.

Stefani, L., Mason, R., & Pegler, C. (2007). The educational potential of e-portfolios. Supporting personal development and reflective practice. London: Routledge.