NET*Working 2002 Presentation

From the Rock to the Outback: Musings About Tele-Teaching and Tele-Learning

            The Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador is commonly referred to as "the Rock."  Over the past decade, this province has lead Canada and much of the world when it comes to tele-teaching and tele-learning in both the K-12 environment and the post-secondary environment.  Over the past five years, I have had the good fortune to be involved in a number of initiatives and research projects that have been a art of this innovation.  This presentation is a collection of things that I have encountered during this time.

            I guess the first thing that I should do is tell you a bit about myself.  Over the past three years, I have been a teacher with the Vista School District.  I recently completed my Masters in Education from Memorial University of Newfoundland.  My research interests are primarily in the areas of tele-teaching and tele-learning.  More specifically, I have conducted research into the introduction of web-based courses into a secondary school environment.  This research has focused upon the effects of different learning styles of tele-learning and the nature of online discussion forums. In addition to my research with secondary students, I have also working with Michael Collins at Memorial University of Newfoundland for the past three years on the characteristics of electronic messaging in second year, non-major Biology courses.

            The first thing that I would like to do is to give you a bit of background on some of these initiatives and research projects.  I have summarised them in the links below:

• Centre for Advanced Placement Education

• Centre for Distance Learning and Innovation

• Characteristics of Electronic Messaging (research by Michael Collins and Michael Barbour)

• Uses and Value of Electronic Discussion Groups (thesis by Michael Barbour)

            The other thing that I wanted to do was to provide some various musings about tele-teaching and tele-learning:

• Student Usage of Electronic Messaging by Course Delivery Format (Collins and Barbour)

• Student Usage of Asynchronous Discussion Groups - K-12 Environment (CDLI)

• Student Usage of Asynchronous Discussion Groups - Post-Secondary Environment (Thesis)

• Content Analysis of Electronic Messages - Post-Secondary Environment (Collins and Barbour)

• Content Analysis of Asynchronous Discussion Groups - Post-Secondary Environment (Thesis)

• Student Performance Based Upon Course Delivery Format (Collins and Barbour)

• Student Participation in Asynchronous Discussion Groups and Student Performance - K-12 Environment (CAPE)

• Student Performance and Electronic Messaging - Post-Secondary Environment (Collins and Barbour)

• Tele-Teaching and Different Student Learning Styles (CDLI)

• K-12 Students and Instant Messaging (CDLI)

• Bibliography

• Appendix A

• Appendix B

            Finally, I invite you to the asynchronous discussion forum that has been created for this presentation.  I have posted an initial comment, however, for the most part I will step back and let the NET*Working 2002 participants hash out some of the things that I have discovered over the past four year and presented above.