Interactive and Collaborative Learning

I would like to save parts of my weekly critical summary comments to this blog:

As a famous Chinese proverb says, "No man is his craft's master the first day", the learners need the instructors guidance during the learning process where the learners will experience different stages like climbing ladders or up-and-down curves. Another expression similar to the Chinese proverb that I quoted before which is "A man can lead a horse to the water but cannot make him drink". The learners need to learn how to select valuable information which fits their online learning content, because getting distraction in the ocean of information will disvalue learners' learning outcomes and drain of their energy.  Along with the development of accessing information online and taking online courses, the systematic instructions and logical constructions should be provided to learners, otherwise, the learners cannot acquire qualified learning content and learning efficiently.

People think differently than they used to. People’s reading habits are changing. When computer or other digital devices get hooked to the internet, there is a feeling, mentally or physically, that there is a channel leads people from the reality to the virtual world. It is a different feeling when people read online and read traditional paper-books. The feeling that people can touch the paper, draw highlights between the lines is the way people got used to; compare to that, using tablet to draw lines on the touch screen may cause the feeling of not doing a serious reading or not easy to concentrate on.

Reference:

Ludwig-Hardman, S. & Dunlap, J. C. (2003). Learner support services for online students: Scaffolding for success. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 4(1), 1-15.

Menchaca, M. & Bekele, T. A. (2008). Learner and instructor identified success factors in distance education. Distance Education, 29(3), 231–252.

Carr, N. (2008). Is Google making us stupid? What the Internet is doing to our brains. Atlantic Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/6868/