Group 5 - Facilitation-Motivation

Group 5 - Facilitation

This Groups topic is Collaborative Learning Wikis

Three questions were posed for discussion:

1. What software is your school district using to help students with academic difficulties?
2. Has collaborative software increased performance ability in your students?
3. Have you been presented with data that supports the use of collaborative learning?

Though three questions on the topic of Collaborative Learning Wikis were posed, the discussion remained centered on the software that a particular district was using. To aid the group in beginning a new discussion thread pertaining to one of the other proposed topics, the response was not great. It seemed that the majority of the participants were unwilling to relinquish the original topic, though clearly evidenced that the thread of discussion had been exhausted and no new or valuable information was being exchanged.

This group could have used more scaffolding and directing by the course instructor to redirect and facilitate a couple of discussion thread that would have enticed the participants to explore their assigned topic in more depth for understanding and application.

Some activities that would have aided the learning experience:

• A demonstration of how a collaborative wiki works for communication.
• A listing and description of various wiki products and/or applications.
• A case study on the use of collaborative wikis in the K12 public school educational settings.

The participants of this group were lacking direction and a reason that would have made the information valuable to them.
The member of this group were lacking sufficient base knowledge that would have provide a connection of usefulness to the acquisition of the new knowledge.

In John Keller's ARCS model the R is representative of " Relevance". Relevance, based on review of the discussion thread is an issue for this group. It seems that many are not yet in a school system working as an educator. Possibly the members are not very interested in the application of technology. Those that are in the class room do not and/or have not actively employed technology as a learning tool in their class room.

Where Are We Now?

Well, this adventure of learning to facilitate online learning and the various theories, technological enabling tools is very vast and also interesting.

So far, in this endeavor we are being acquainted with best practices and methodologies from the aspect of " The Facilitator" or "The Moderator". At first glance, you would think that participating in this role would be an easy, effective method, performed effortlessly by the online facilitator. Think again!

For the facilitator there are nuances, knowledge, theories, models, strategies and challenges to cognizant and knowledgeable of. This knowledge and awareness is crucial for creating a valued and valuable experience for on-line learners. With respect to preparation and arming of the appropriate knowledge to facilitate an enriching and valuable experience for the on-line learner, an instructional model called "R2D2" has been introduced.

R2D2 Model
The R2D2 model is representative of Read, Reflect, Display and Do and is a framework that promotes the development and application of appropriate information, activities and learning tools to facilitate learning in an on-line environment or as (Bonk, Zhang, 2008) have titled it:"the web of learning".

The R2D2 model is presented as a tool to facilitate the selection and usage of available tools that will most appropriately promote achievement in "the web of learning. The R2D2 model consists of four phases: Reading, Reflecting, Displaying and Doing, aligned to learner preferences and suggested learning activities.

My Next Post . . .

It is worth while to explore each of these phases in brief. In my next post, I will provide more insight into the purpose and application of each of the phases of R2D2.