Online Learning Environment Essay

The recent shift towards intensive use of information processing system applied attainment in instructional practices has already become so powerful that computer-based schooling is no much perceived as something new. Whether it is computer laboratories in the pristine schools or earnings-equipped computer facilities in the high-school, computers have sour into unalienable digress of pupils life. However, such rapid and overwhelming spread of the new technology raised(a) serious questions concerning positive and negative aspects, new opportunities for students and teachers, age peculiarities, and sexual activity specifics of computer-based learning.The latter(prenominal) seems to be one of the major focuses of contemporary seek in computer-based learning. bind Gender differences in the use of computer mediated communion by post graduate distance students written by Barrett and Lally (1999) investigates into the sex activity aspect of computer-mediated education, name ly the use of information processing system Mediated Communication (CMC) in a specific learning context by a humiliated root word of postgraduate (MEd) distance learners and their tutors.Taking into consideration the fact of steadily growing audience of students involved into on rakehell educational practices, relevance of such explore can hardly be questioned. Although the number of participants is rather small believably the stolon and foremost drawback of the research the authors have managed to collect comprehensive follow of data using students electronic diaries, questionnaires and transcripts of all their online contri exceptions.Barrett and Lally (1999) apply circumscribe compendium arguably the most popular method acting in psychology to evaluate on-line dialogues between members of the group. Specific attention has been paid to translate learning and socio-emotional pattern of behavior show by participants, since the major surmise of the authors is that m ale and feminine students differ significantly on this di mension. The choice of method seems absolutely correct keeping in mind the hypothesis represent by the authors.Key outcomes of the psychoanalyse supported the authors hypothesis content analysis of the available data has revealed serious difference in behavior of men and women put into the online learning environment. Firstly, male students scarper to send more(prenominal) messages than their female counterparts. Secondly, messages written by male students were on average twice as long as messages written by female students. And thirdly, male students tend to write socio-emotionally oriented messages, while female students exhibit interactive orientation.These three findings make it possible for the authors to establish strong correlation between students sex and his/her behavior in the online learning environment. Despite appear plainness of this count, it seems rather difficult to give it a univocal discernment. O n the one hand, thither is a small try out group, which raises the issue of the studys reliability, and simple research design, while on the other hand, there is exceptional relevance of the study (keeping in mind that it was promulgated in 1999) and important findings, which have shown right direction for unless research.Although there whitethorn be a nonher(prenominal) order of view, the second component outweighs all drawbacks of the research while the drawbacks relate to formal aspect of the study (e. g. insufficient take in size, poor data capturing techniques, etc), the content (hypothesis and findings) is really great. Newness of the authors ideas has turned the article into a good starting point for other researchers, whose flora swear out develop the most optimal learning and teaching strategies knowing according to specific learning behavior of both sexes in a mixed online learning environment.Although newness is the most important characteristic of Barrett and Lall ys (1999) work, they app atomic number 18ntly relied upon a number of previous studies. As soon as the overall subject of their research is concerned, the study can hardly be addressed as absolutely original a number of studies dealing with the impact of computer technologies on the learning environment of classrooms (including the learning activities that bundle place in the classroom, and various educational strategies designed to make them more effective) were written throughout the 1990s.Although none of them paid serious attention to gender differences that might characterize behavior of students in computer learning environment, they unquestionably revealed a number of specific features of computer-based (including online) learning and teaching practices. For example, Richards (1996) conducted one of the first studies of the influence of computer-based environment on student motivations. His research conducted as a part of the Bell Atlantics World School curriculum reveal ed that computers and the mesh significantly improved students motivation.Thus, 92 percent of the respondents in Richards architectural plan classified the Internet as an effective learning tool (Richards, 1996). Findings of another research performed by Follansbee (1996) and his colleagues the same year stand in line with those of Richards. Comparison of the learning outcomes of students doing a task with access to the Internet tryd much higher level of confidence in conducting and presenting the research task.Besides, the study discovered that students with access to the Internet demonstrated better diversity and inventiveness presenting their tasks, could better integrate various perspectives, and presented their answers/projects more accurately (Follansbee 1996). In 1997, Proost and Lowyck (1997) published a study devoted to gender aspect of computer-based education. The sample group of the study was impressive traditional and distance learning university students a add up of 1368 students (945 males and 416 females) over 18 years of age (Proost and Lowyck, 1997 371-372).However, that study dealt only with the gender differences in perceptions of and preferences for computer based learning environments, while Barrett and Lally (1999) went deeper into the subject. Thus, Proost and Lowyck (1997) erect out that female respondents had, on average, more negative perception of computer based technology and a preference for traditional methods than male respondents (p. 380), but did not try to answer the question whether male and female students demonstrate different behavioral patterns in the online learning environment or not. p gang of land Barrett and Lally (1999) relied on a number of previous researches, their own findings were further explored, confirmed, corrected, and extended by later studies. Kelly (2000) used Barrett and Lallys (1999) supposition that girl pay more attention to the interactive aspect of computer-based communication and learnin g to explain why girls normally have little engagement to computer science. In her account, computer does not involve a lot of teamwork and social interaction and, therefore, is less interesting than traditional communication and learning.In the same way Kelly (2000) explains why absolute majority of the computer games are designed according to tastes of male audiences and emphasize things (violence, intensive action, speed) that are not attractive to women. Therefore, boys feel more attraction to computers and computer-based learning and with more males get into careers in the calculation constancy, they perpetuate this cycle of catering for the needs of a predominantly male audience who gain an entry point into the computing world via games and later take up careers in the computing industry (Kelly, 2000 156).Similarly, Passing and Levin (2000) explored gender difference amongst pre-school students trying to reveal their preferences to various designs of multimedia system le arning interfaces (in order to improve outcomes of learning). The study involved a sample of 90 children (44 girls and 46 boys), and its major outcome was significant difference in boys and girls preferences boys demonstrated more attraction to movement while girls paid more attention to visual elements.Shin and Chan (2004) also cite Barrett and Lallys (1999) in their study of the effects of online learning on distance education students. The authors assume that there is a direct relationship between students interest in online learning and distance learning outcomes taking into consideration gender aspect as the major factor that affects online learning (p. 277). Riding and Grimley (1999) investigated how other than the same computer multimedia affects cognitive style and motion of boys and girls (11 years).The study involved 40 boys and 40 girls and was conducted in two stages firstly, participants underwent the procedure of assessment which revealed their cognitive style second ly, they were offered a multi-choice recall test after analyse a science topic with the help of computer and CD-ROM (p. 44-45). Upon terminus of both stages the authors compared computer-based scores of the participants with scores given for similar topics learned with the help of traditional educational methods.The authors reported that with regard to the mode of presentation of the multimedia materials, girls who were Wholist-Imagers and Analytic-Verbalisers were better with presentations which had ideate and sound than those which had only picture and text. Those who were Wholist-Verbalizers and Analytic-Imagers were better with presentations which had picture and text than those which had only picture and sound. The results were the opposite for boys.For both gender groups performance was best with presentations which combined picture, text and sound (Riding and Grimley 1999 55). Evidently, the article written by Barrett and Lally (1999) can hardly be addressed as a classic w ork which has already become the basic reference point of modern studies in computer-based teaching and learning. At the same time, it is far from be a mediocre and irrelevant study that has absolutely not scientific value.The truth is somewhere in between the article is a well-written append of work which stands in line with previous research, has an element of newness and, therefore, opens new opportunities for scientists. REFERENCES Barrett, E and Lally, V. (1999) Gender differences in an on-line learning environment journal of Computer Assisted encyclopedism 15, 48-60 Follansbee, S. , Gilsdorf, N. , Stahl, S. , Dunfey, J. , Cohen, S. , Pisha, B. and Hughes, B. (1996) The role of online communication in schools a theme study .Peabody, MA Center for Applied Special Technology. Kelly, Karen. (2000) The Gender pause Why Do Girls Get Turned Off to Technology? The digital Classroom, ed. D. T. Gordon, The Harvard Education Letter, Cambridge, pp 154-160 OHara, S. P. (1998) A case s tudy of attitudinal effects of Internet use in a middle school integrated science curriculum. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the National connexion for Research in Science Teaching, San Diego, CA, April 19-22, 1998 (Eric document ED417978). Passing, D.& Levin, H. (2000) Gender Preferences for Multimedia interfaces, Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 16 64-71 Proost, K. , Elen J. & Lowyck J. (1997) Effects of Gender on Perceptions of and Preferences for Telematic Learning Environments, Journal of Research on Computing in Education, Summer, 29(4) 370-384 Richards, F. C. (1996) The impact of the Internet on teaching and learning as perceived by teachers, depository library media specialists and students Masters thesis, Salem-Teikyo University (Eric document ED410943)