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| It's time to realize and use blogs wisely for learning |
Creating weblogs is not a big deal. However, when I designed it, it really took my times because I had to consider many things including its interface, contents, and interactivity.
What I have learned from designing a weblog is that it is potential for creating a flexible learning environment for my students, particularly flexibility in terms of place and time for learning.
Previously,
I used several blogs for several purposes. At first, I created a blog at www.webs.com for learning how to design a blog. Second, I was
assigned by my teacher to make a blog at www.blogger.com as one of the course
assignments, and finally I created a blog at www.edublogs.org for my own expression.
At the first time, I found
blogging was difficult because I had to learn many things of it. I gradually
knew the dashboard and how to use it. Since I am teaching and a secretary
of a department in my university with 1066 students under my management, time
is my big challenge now. But, I think this webs skills online course is a good
opportunity to manage my time well between working and learning at the same
time. Working is better when it goes along with learning as part of my
professional development.
What should be flexible in learning?
The nature of what is meant
by flexibility could mean
different things to different people, and the term used for it suggests that there is no universal
agreement among theoreticians and scholars about its definition. However, a
nice definition given by Khan (2007, p. 1) could better serve flexibility in learning:
Flexible
learning can be defined as an innovative approach for delivering well-designed,
learner-centered, and interactive learning environments to anyone, anyplace,
anytime by utilizing the attributes and resources of the Internet, digital
technologies, and other modes of learning in concert with instructional design
principles. Can we do what learners want?
With
regard to this flexibility, Khan further maintains that a
well-designed flexible learning course allows learners to become actively
involved in their learning processes (p. 4). Furthermore, as flexible learning
is not only necessarily related to distance education, several flexibilities could
be offered in the light of learners (Collis & Moonen, 2001):
- Learning
modes: Offering learners with options such as on-campus or off-campus learning
modes characterizes flexibility in learning. These alternatives are provided
for learners to fit their needs in order that they can learn more
flexibly. Rapidly evolving
information technology dramatically influences the way educational institutions
(e.g., universities) serve their students; distance learning becomes possible
for those who want to learn at distance. Learners can learn from any places
with this kind of learning mode through Learning Management Systems (LMS).
- Social
organization of learning: Understanding
learners’ learning styles is important for it is basic information for learning
organization. Some learners prefer working individually and some others
collaboratively. Offering inappropriate learning organization would hinder
learning. This social learning organization could be in the forms of
individual, group, or the combination of both types.
- Content: Flexibility in learning
content might be offering choices to learners what they want to learn. In this
case, learners are involved in selecting course contents.
- Learning materials: Learning materials
are not only limited on textbooks. Learners are provided with various learning
sources, such as journal articles, web-based materials, videos or audios, and
other authentic materials.
- Interactivity:
As learning is an active process, interactivity becomes a basis to engage
learners. Providing learners with several methods of acquiring information,
knowledge and skill would make learning more flexible, for examples,
human-to-human interaction, human-to-computer-interaction, and so on.
- Media to support learning (technology):
A variety of media can be offered to learners with which learning is supported
and flexibly done, such as computers, PDAs, smart phones, etc.
- Language:
Some learners are better at certain language, and the others prefer another
certain language to use for their learning effectively; therefore language is
also another component that can make learning more flexible by offering some
language choices for learning (e.g., English, Indonesian, and Dutch).
