OF INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY - Distance …

1 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY AND Distance LEARNING October 2015 Volume 12 Number 10 Editorial Board Donald G. Perrin Executive Editor Elizabeth Perrin Editor-in-Chief Brent Muirhead Senior Editor Muhammad Betz, Editor ISSN 1550-6908 International Journal of INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY and Distance Learning October 2015 Vol. 12. ii PUBLISHER'S DECLARATION Research and innovation in teaching and learning are prime topics for the Journal of INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY and Distance Learning (ISSN 1550-6908). The Journal was initiated in January 2004 to facilitate communication and collaboration among researchers, innovators, practitioners, and administrators of education and training involving innovative technologies and/or Distance learning. The Journal is monthly, refereed, and global. Intellectual property rights are retained by the author(s) and a Creative Commons Copyright permits replication of articles and eBooks for education related purposes.

2 Publication is managed by DonEl Learning Inc. supported by a host of volunteer editors, referees and production staff that cross national boundaries. IJITDL is committed to publish significant writings of high academic stature for worldwide distribution to stakeholders in Distance learning and TECHNOLOGY . In its first decade, the Journal published more than 600 articles; 7,500 pages of research and theory by over 1,000 authors. It logged over ten million page views and more than a million downloads of Acrobat files of monthly journals and eBooks. Many authors benefited from refereed publication for retention, promotion, tenure, and advancement in their profession Donald G. Perrin, Executive Editor Elizabeth Perrin, Editor in Chief Brent Muirhead, Senior Editor Muhammad Betz, Editor International Journal of INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY and Distance Learning October 2015 Vol. 12. iii Vol. 12. No. 10. ISSN 1550-6908 Table of Contents October 2015 Page Editorial: Discipline vs.

3 Motivation 1 Donald G. Perrin Understanding knowledge network, learning and connectivism 3 Alaa A. AlDahdouh, Ant nio J. Os rio and Susana Caires Students perception of the potential of elearning practices at the University of Guyana 23 Kerwin A. Livingstone The implementation of e-learning in higher education in Saudi Arabia: case study 47 Abdelrahim .M, Al-Zabadi, Mohammad saleem alshura Using transactional Distance theory to inform online INSTRUCTIONAL design 63 Antonia Koslow and Anthony A. Pi a Criteria for selecting the appropriate mobile application development platform for higher education 73 Joongkak Kook International Journal of INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY and Distance Learning October 2015 Vol. 12. iv Return to Table of Contents International Journal of INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY and Distance Learning October 2015 Vol.

4 12. 1 Editorial Discipline vs. motivation Donald G. Perrin I remember the first lesson I taught on INSTRUCTIONAL television. It was an audiovisual course for teachers in training. The topic was Dale s Cone of experience with abstract at the top and concrete learning experiences at the bottom. I constructed a rocket with the cone at the top, and invited my assistant Jim Wallington (who was later best-man at my wedding) to be strapped to the rocket. As I tightened the belt he cocked his head and looked up and me and said, You can capture my body, but you cannot capture my mind. His profound and spontaneous response continues to challenge me as a teacher. It gives me concern about physical and verbal punishments as an inducement for learning. Punishments do not work for many students and put learning in a negative context. Fear of the teacher and fear of doing things wrong impedes one very powerful method of self-teaching learning from our mistakes and the mistakes of others.

5 I do not punish students for mistakes or for submitting homework late. I provide model answers for assignment and tests so students can know where they went wrong. I also give students the opportunity to fix errors and resubmit their work for a full grade. I remain open for student questions and offer tutoring where I consider it is needed. To me, grading tells you where learning is imperfect; more work is needed to reach criterion performance. The student should complete the coursework with a grade of A. Do you want to fly with a pilot who scored 80% on landings or 60% on navigation? The lowest grade I will accept in an academic course is 90%. That is not only for the benefit of the student. If the course is significant and necessary for his future career, it assures a satisfactory level of competency for the employer. A clever teacher can motivate a student to learn. There is a whole literature about motivation by making things relevant and important for the student.

6 Conditioning with the stimulus-response-reward cycle may need physical rewards to initiate the process, but for very practical reasons these should be quickly be transformed to more abstract and symbolic rewards. It s irrelevant here, but I remember a psychology student shaking hands with his mentor after completing his doctoral exam. As he opened his hand, he offered M&Ms to his mentor. When his mentor opened his hand, he offered M@Ms to his successful candidate. That was in the era when Skinnerian psychology was popular. Modern books on teaching methods offer a great array of teaching techniques to simulate motivation, but the current trend is to develop (or recover) the learner s capacity for self-direction and self-motivation. When a student is faced with failure, he may be tempted to cheat. In education we believe that, because cheating is taking unfair advantage, the cheater should be punished if caught. It is a classic case of inappropriate response to the needs of a learner.

7 There are many levels of cheating, from peek-at-the-answer (to clarify what the teacher required or see how to solve the problem) to submitting a copy of the instructor s answer sheet (hopelessly lost and give in on this course). The former can be resolved by instructing how to solve similar problems in class or through learning materials. The student should not be forced into unfamiliar territory before he has the basic tools and experience. The latter raises questions about prerequisites for the class, or the need for tutorial experiences or interactive multimedia to provide step-by-step instruction for the less able learner. Many problems we attribute to students are challenges to our methods of teaching and the rules by which we operate. All students have unique needs and unique abilities. It is time to relax the rules and examine student needs one-by-one. Individualized Educational Programs (IEPs) set up for learners with disabilities are one approach to increase guidance and support, and to develop an achievable curriculum to meet the needs of each individual student.

8 With the internet, interactive multi-media, learning management systems and artificial intelligence, we now have the tools to individualize the curriculum and learning for the masses. Return to Table of Contents International Journal of INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY and Distance Learning October 2015 Vol. 12. 2 Return to Table of Contents International Journal of INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY and Distance Learning October 2015 Vol. 12. 3 Editor s Note: This paper explores the theoretical foundations of Connectivism and relates it to previous theories of learning. Its focus is on networks neural, internal (conceptual) and external. It relates the role of teacher, learner and knowledge within a dynamically changing environment. The illustrations and examples clarify the position of the authors in asserting the relevance and importance of connectivity theory and practice to TECHNOLOGY supported learning.

9 Understanding knowledge network, learning and connectivism Alaa A. AlDahdouh, Ant nio J. Os rio and Susana Caires Portugal Abstract Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Constructivism and other growing theories such as Actor-Network and Connectivism are circulating in the educational field. For each, there are allies who stand behind research evidence and consistency of observation. Meantime, those existing theories dominate the field until the background is changed or new concrete evidence proves their insufficiencies. Connectivists claim that the background or the general climate has recently changed: a new generation of researchers, connectivists propose a new way of conceiving knowledge. According to them, knowledge is a network and learning is a process of exploring this network. Other researchers find this notion either not clear or not new and probably, with no effect in the education field. This paper addresses a foggy understanding of knowledge defined as a network and the lack of resources talking about this topic.

10 Therefore, it tries to clarify what it means to define knowledge as a network and in what way it can affect teaching and learning. Keywords: learning theory; constructivism; Connectivism; knowledge; network learning; e-learning, Massive Open Online Course; MOOC; epistemology; ontology; online learning; Artificial Intelligence; AI Introduction One may find it appropriate to resemble the education field as a melting pot: Philosophy, TECHNOLOGY , Science and Arts are some of the many disciplines that take part and intersect in this multidisciplinary field. Finding a tenable theory that combines and harmonizes this heterogeneous mixture is like playing an open-ended game. New discoveries and insights give place to changes in the background on which the current theories are based. Connectivism-a recent and growing learning theory-argues that there are tremendous changes happening in the learning processes and it is not possible to build on the previous theories.