Article review - 'Lost in translation: Importance of effective communication in online education'

You might have seen the movie, well now it's time to read an interesting article about online education with the same title!

In a recent article published in the Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, Kristen Betts has written an excellent article about the importance of effective online communication. Betts highlights the importance of effective communication in online education in order to maximise student engagement. In addition, she also cites statistical evidence indicating that around 12% of students who dropped out of a particular university program did so because of poor communication with their instructor. This leads Betts to refer to the term 'Lost in translation', which she defines as follows:

'the misinterpretation or communication breakdown of the message or stimuli between the sender/receiver (Communicator 1) and the receiver/sender (Communicator 2). Within an educational setting, the role of sender/receiver and receiver/sender can change regularly and frequently between students, faculty, administrators, administrative staff, technical support staff, and academic advisors. Therefore, as communication increases, simultaneously there is a greater opportunity for the message to be lost in translation due to technical or semantic interference'. (Betts, 2009).

In the remainder of the article, Betts proceeds to provide a review of the research on different types of communication (both face-to-face) and (online). She also offers some suggestions for achieving more effective online communication.

In this article, Betts has come up with a very clever means of highlighting a real problem in online education - how to ensure effective online communication. As she notes in the article, the growth rate of online education is booming, so this issue is one that needs the attention of educators. The suggestions that she offers are a step in the right direction.

Reference
Betts, K (2009) ‘Lost in translation: importance of effective communication in online education’, Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, Volume XII, Number II, Summer 2009, [online] http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/summer122/betts122.html (accessed 31 August 2009)

Twitter Feeds gadget

Have just added a gadget for my  Twitter feeds to this blog. I'm still making my mind up about Twitter, but I have found it to be a very interesting tool to use. At the moment the balance is probably leaning towards using it for fun and recreation. For example, I got a lot of enjoyment following 'bumblecricket' and 'aggerscricket' on Twitter during the Ashes Test cricket series, but I can see how it can simultaneously be a very useful social networking and communication tool. In this sense it is one of those Web 2.0 tools that blurs the boundaries between work and play.

Another aspect of my use of Twitter is that I found it much more useful to use once I set up Tweetdeck on my deskop computer so that I could track a range of different search feeds simultaneously. On my Windows mobile, I have tried a number of different clients, but have so far settled on pocketwit as the best option.

ClustrMaps

It is interesting to see the ClustrMaps gadget working on this blog. It gives one a sense of how the potential exists to connect with other learners throughout the world.

My evolving PLE

In recent times, there has been a lot of discussion about Personal Learning Environments as opposed to the Virtual Learning Environments provided by educational institutions. Following the initial example set by Martin Weller, and others such as Lesley Boyd and John Haren, I have created a model of my current personal learning environment using the Compendium software. In preparing this model, I have tried to present it as a combination of both the hardware devices and software that I use as part of my learning and work practice. It doesn't include all of the elements of my PLE, but it is a start. I have also tried to include start dates where relevant to give a sense of how new devices and software have been coming into my personal learning environment. Looking at the last couple of years, one noticeable trend that is apparent to me is the shift towards devices that enable mobile learning and software that enables communication using web 2.0 technologies. It will be interesting to revisit this map in a year or two from now and see if the elements of my PLE have developed further.

Philip.

Welcome

Hi,

Welcome to my blog.

Philip.