Transactional Control vs. Transactional Distance
The substance of educational transactions have been characterized differently in the literature, but there appears to be consensus on the fact that the determination of the appropriate measure of control for a given transaction may perhaps define the essence of effective instruction.
Michael Moore’s (1986, 1993) theory of transactional distance proposes that the existence and relationship of structure and dialogue in conjunction with autonomy is at the core of all educational transactions. The central idea is that the greater the structure of a learning environment, the lesser the dialogue that takes place. This principle of learning has since been tested in a variety of contexts and been found to persist among settings (Saba & Shearer, 1994; Stein et al., 2005).
Jon Dron’s (2006a, 2006b) theory of transactional control approaches the idea of control from a different perspective, focusing upon the choices afforded to learners. Dron defines the construct of transactional control as,
“The amount of control a learner has over choices intended to bring about learning. The need for control varies enormously from learner to learner and from context to context - the goal is autonomy, but the path to autonomy may be governed by constraint - sometimes we must delegate control to others…The interplay of choice and constraint helps to determine an individual learner’s learning trajectory, a trajectory that is usually at least partly determined by others, partly by external constraints, partly by internal constraints. Transactional control theory helps to explain and to make predictions about the nature of different forms of educational transaction by analysing their essential dynamics.”
Transactional control focuses on choices. The extent in which choices are made by particular individuals determines their transactional control at any moment. A measure of negotiated control characterized by interaction among participants is key to fostering balance in the educational environment.
Dron goes on to state, “Structure equates to teacher control, dialogue to negotiated control, and autonomy to learner control.” This theoretical framework certainly fits with the anatomy of a socially-constructed self-paced learning environment whereby learners are allowed the continued benefits of autonomy and equal access in conjunction with the ability to self-select and join learning communities within (or outside) the confines of the specific courses being taken. Emerging social software tools are making learning models that have previously been mere conjecture.
References:
Dron, J. (2006a). Social software and the emergence of control, The 6th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies. Kerkrade, The Netherlands. Retrieved March 23, 2007, from http://www.cmis.brighton.ac.uk/staff/jd29/papers/icalt2006.doc
Dron, J. (2006b). The teacher, the learners and the collective mind, AI & Society,
Moore, M. G. (1986). Self-directed learning and distance education. Journal of Distance Education, 1(1). Retrieved March 24, 2007, from http://cade.athabascau.ca/vol1.1/moore.html
Moore, M. G. (1993). Theory of transactional distance. In D. Keegan (Ed.) Theoretical Principles of Distance Education. New York: Routledge.
Saba, F., & Shearer, R. L. (1994). Verifying key theoretical concepts in a dynamic model of distance education. The American Journal of Distance Education, 8(1), 36-59.
Stein, D. S., Wanstreet, C. E., Calvin, J., Overtoom, C., & Wheaton, J. E. (2005). Bridging the transactional distance gap in online learning environments. The American Journal of Distance Education, 19(2), 105-118.
Drupal Configured for Education
Drupal is just one of the many content management systems that are coming on the scene and making it very easy to setup and a website incorporating a variety of rich Web 2.0 tools. Bill Fitzgerald shares in this screencast his first attempt at customizing Drupal for specific education venues.
Find more details about the screencast, including an mp3 download, here.
Informal Learning Supported by Formal Learning
While many organizations view informal learning as supporting formal learning, Teemu Arina has put together this diagram depicting an alternative approach whereby informal learning is at the center of the learning ethos. Thanks to Jay Cross and Mark Berthelemy for sharing.
6th International Conference on Web-Based Learning (ICWL 2007)
Contact: icwl2007@hkws.org
15-17 August 2007, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
ICWL is an annual international conference on web-based learning. The first ICWL was held in Hong Kong in 2002. Since then, it has been held in Australia (2003), China (2004), Hong Kong (2005), and Malaysia (2006). ICWL 2007 will be the 6th ICWL conference and held in Edinburgh, United Kingdom, a beautiful city full of culture and history. The technical program will feature keynote addresses, tutorials, and special sessions, in addition to technical presentations of refereed papers.
The PDF version of the Call for Papers can be downloaded from: http://www.cs.cityu.edu.hk/~icwl2007/icwl2007-cfp.pdf
Areas of interest include, but not limited to, the following:
- e-Learning Platforms and Tools
- Web-based Learning for Oriental Languages
- Mobile e-learning
- Learning Resource Deployment, Organization and Management
- Design, Model and Framework of E-learning Systems - E-learning Standards - Practice and Experience Sharing
- Pedagogical Issues In addition to the regular papers, there is also a special session on Security and Privacy and a workshop on Blended Learning.
More conference details at http://www.hkws.org/events/icwl2007/
Getting Started Teaching Online
This presentation by George Siemens provides a short introduction for educators considering starting to teach with technology. Recognizing the the most difficult task is often just getting started, Siemens states that the educator needs a mindset of experimentation - try different approaches, grow and develop personal understanding…and incorporate learner reactions. This cycle of progressive competence through small scale experimentation is one that will be familiar to most educators (and all researchers).
