Students' pattern of Use and Reactions to online Moodle Resources

1. FUTA
Voice to the Voiceless?:
Exploring African Digital-
Immigrant Students’
Reactions to Moodle
Resources
Peter A Aborisade, FUT Akure

2. FUTA
OVERVIEW
Power Relations & Voice
Digital Natives Vs Digital Immigrants
Context & Background to the Study
Moodle Configuration & Settings
Resources
Forums
Wiki
Results & Moving on

3. FUTA
POWER RELATIONS & VOICE
Economic & Political power divisions between
North & South reflected earlier in literacy
rates, industrial & information revolutions
reflect in ICTs access & benefits: between
states, regions, socio-economic groups
Traditional Education reflects similar power
distinction between Teacher & Student
Students’ voices are largely mute: their views
unsought, their preferences unaccounted for

4. FUTA
POWER RELATIONS & VOICE
Traditional Education
 Learning/knowledge is habit
formation (behavioural)
 Learning is acquiring
information/knowledge
 Trust & follow
teacher/authority for good
information (Mike Wesch)
 Memorisation is essential to
knowledge acquisition
C21st Education
 Learner-centred curriculum
 Creating engaging learning
environments
 Creating platforms for
participation & meaningful
connections
 Learning is doing
 Integrating learning
technologies

5. FUTA
DIGITAL DIVIDE
‘The so-called digital divide is actually
several gaps in one.’ (Kofi Annan):
Technology divide
Infrastructure divide
Literacy divide
Content divide
Skills divide

6. FUTA
DIGITAL NATIVES OR IMMIGRANTS?
Digital Natives … today are all “native
speakers” of the digital language of
computers, video games and the Internet.
As Digital Immigrants learn … to adapt to
their environment, they always retain, to
some degree, their "accent,"… (Marc Prensky,
2001)

7. FUTA
CONTEXT: NIGERIA
No Digital Natives here, all (Teachers & Students)
are Immigrants with heavy accents @ varying ZPD
levels (Aborisade, 2009)
ICT infrastructure in Nigeria is fragile; government
direction is uncertain (no ICT in Education policy)
Nigeria plays no role and has no part in Information
Age & unlikely to build a Knowledge Economy in
1st half of C21st.

8. FUTA
BACKGROUND
ESL-EAP modules:
Large class situation: 3000+ & 5 Teachers (Coleman,
1989);
Setting inadequacies: class, time-tabling, no. of
teachers vis-à-vis students
EAP necessity: EST; lack of student motivation
Low teacher & student ICT access, ability; but high
interest
FUTA provision: Intranet, cybercafés, tickets

9. FUTA
BACKGROUND: Classroom context
Growing
enrolment
Few teachers
Fewer facilities
Inadequate
resources

10. FUTA
BACKGROUND: ELT Theory
CLT: process-product, problem-solution (Dudley-
Evans, 1984; Hopkins, 1988; Bloor and St John,1988;
Hyland and Hyland, 1992)
Socio-cultural, constructivist: learning in social
context (Vygotsky, 1978)
Technology as tool (Beatty, 2003; Dudeney & Hockly,
2007)

11. FUTA
BACKGROUND: ICT-support Theory
Teaching-Learning: from behaviorism to constructivism
(Bransford, Brown & Cocking, 2001)
Development of VLEs enabling new opportunities to
personalize learning is a milestone (Barajas and Owen,
2000)
ICT-supported courses: engage students; provide opportunity
for accelerated learning; develop independent learning skills
(Boulton, 2009)
Computer-based technologies can be “powerful pedagogical
tools … [as] extensions of human capabilities and contexts
for social interactions” supporting learning (ANRC,1999:
218)

12. FUTA
THE PROJECT
Create a new learning environment adopting Blended
Learning (F2F & Online)
Use the Moodle as collaborative learning tool &
platform to support & stimulate learning;
engagement
Encourage students to make effective use of ICT in
academic work
Provide meaningful activities that enable student-
student support; foster autonomy and collaboration
Platform to give students a voice and encourage
interaction

13. FUTA
MOODLE CONFIGURATION & SETTINGS
2008/2009: Open source pbwiki
(http://futagns.pbwiki.com). It changed to
proprietary (pbworks)!
2009/2010: Open source Moodle
(www.futaelearning.com)
1 teacher + 1 Student + 1 Software technologist on
‘trial and error’ configuration
Setting includes: Resources (Notes & manuals),
Forums (news & discussion boards), Wiki (group
work pages) & Assignments.

14. FUTA
RESOURCES

15. FUTA
RESOURCES

16. FUTA
RESOURCES

17. FUTA
FORUMS

18. FUTA
WIKI

19. FUTA
RESULTS
Table 1: FORUMS
Forum Description Discussions Subscribed
News Forum General News &
Announcements
8 Yes
GNS 102
Forum
GNS 102 Forum 1479 Yes
Table 2: GNS 102 - Activity Report
Activity Views Last Access
News Forum 1476 Sunday, 12 Sept
2010
GNS 102 Wiki 5117 Sunday, 12 Sept
2010
GNS 102 Forum 12600 Sunday, 12 Sept
2010
Signal Words &
Phrases
1040 Sunday, 12 Sept
2010
Computed from logs Monday, 24 August – Sunday 12 September 2010

20. FUTA
RESULTS

21. FUTA
RESULTS

22. FUTA
MOVING ON
Blended Learning Group (BLG)
Volunteer Students ICT champions
Blended Learning Unit in offing
Internal faculty training by BLG for uptake
Need technical training (Technologists & Faculty)