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Online pedagogy: beyond digital "chalk and talk".

Article Excerpt
Abstract

Courseware provides efficient data-management for higher education; however, less clear are the ways it serves pedagogical innovation and democratic practice. This article illustrates the challenges of creating an authentic online pedagogy through a case study of a graduate level teacher education course. While professional felt needs drive in-service teachers to achieve online interdependence, lack of proficiency with the technological side of courseware and tension between process and product pose significant challenges to developing an authentic and democratic online pedagogy.

Introduction

Courseware, also referred to as course management systems, is software designed for faculty and students to use in teaching and learning in higher education. Common examples include WebCT and Blackboard. Academic courseware affords students access to course content from anywhere and at anytime. Courseware is user-centered, as it affords information access and delivery outside the boundaries of time and space. Yet, as a "plug-n-play" model of delivering content to an end user, courseware by itself cannot provide meaningful learning experiences for the individual student. Posting course syllabi and reading materials online for students to access may technically qualify as an educational use of technology; however, it rarely signifies the use of technology to teach. Student-centered uses of courseware move beyond administrative uses into the more unpredictable processes that comprise teaching and learning.

As an online template, courseware can provide a centralized location within the decentralized medium of the World Wide Web and provide a conventional structure that offers familiarity to novice students (and instructors) who experience unpredictability and ambiguity of an online environment. Courseware can provide instructors with formalized features to assist them in the administrative side of teaching (e.g., class roster, assignments, quizzes, grade book) yet often these features dictate a top-down management of data, rather than student-centered inquiry. There is also an inefficiency associated with the use of courseware. Katz (2003) observes a socialization curve in implementing courseware within higher education, "accompanied by a short-term loss in productivity as new tools, methods, and processes are assimilated" (p. 54). Higher education faculty cite as the main reason for using courseware to solve a pedagogical problem or challenge, yet at the same time find the use of this technology time consuming, inflexible and difficult (Morgan, 2003). Using courseware...

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