critique an article

ONLINE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

2004

ONLINE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

The recent shift towards intensive use of computer technology in educational practices has already become so powerful that computer-based learning is no more perceived as something new . Whether it is computer laboratories in the primary schools or Internet-equipped computer facilities in the high-school , computers have turned into unalienable part of students ' life . However , such rapid and overwhelming spread of the new technology raised serious questions concerning positive and negative aspects , new opportunities for students and teachers , age peculiarities , and gender specifics of

computer-based learning . The latter seems to be one of the major focuses of contemporary research in computer-based learning

Article Gender differences in the use of computer mediated communication by post graduate distance students ' written by Barrett and Lally (1999 ) investigates into the gender aspect of computer-mediated education , namely the use of Computer Mediated Communication (CMC ) in a specific learning context by a small group of postgraduate (MEd ) distance learners and their tutors . Taking into consideration the fact of steadily growing audience of students involved into online educational practices , relevance of such research can hardly be questioned

Although the number of participants is rather small - probably the first and foremost drawback of the research - the authors have managed to collect comprehensive amount of data using students ' electronic diaries questionnaires and transcripts of all their online contributions Barrett and Lally (1999 ) apply content analysis - arguably the most popular method in psychology - to evaluate on-line dialogues between members of the group . Specific attention has been paid to studying learning and socio-emotional pattern of behavior demonstrated by participants , since the major hypothesis of the authors is that male and female students differ significantly on this dimension . The choice of method seems absolutely correct keeping in mind the hypothesis posed by the authors

Key outcomes of the study 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 tend to send more 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 student 's gender and his /her behavior in the online learning environment

Despite seeming plainness of this study , it seems rather difficult to give it a univocal assessment . On the one hand , there is a small sample group , which raises the issue of the study 's reliability , and simple research design , while on the other hand , there is exceptional relevance of the study (keeping in mind that it was published in 1999 ) and important findings , which have shown right direction for further research . Although there may be another point of view , the second component outweighs all drawbacks of the research : while the drawbacks relate to formal aspect of the study (e .g . insufficient sample size poor data capturing techniques , etc , the content (hypothesis and findings ) is really great . Newness of the author 's ideas has turned the article into a good starting point for other researchers , whose works help develop the most optimal learning and teaching strategies designed according to specific learning behavior of both sexes in a mixed online learning environment

Although newness is the most important characteristic of Barrett and Lally 's (1999 ) work , they apparently 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 take place in the classroom , and various educational strategies designed to make them more effective ) were written throughout the 1990s . Although of them paid serious attention to gender differences that might characterize behavior of students in computer learning environment , they definitely 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 Atlantic 's World School Program revealed that computers and the Internet significantly improved students ' motivation . Thus , 92 percent of the respondents in Richards program 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 demonstrated 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 (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 ) found 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

While 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 Lally 's (1999 ) assumption that girl pay more attention to the interactive aspect of computer-based communication and learning to explain why girls normally have little interest 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 getting into careers in the computing industry , 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 learning interfaces (in 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 Lally 's (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 involvement 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 differently the same computer multimedia affects cognitive style and performance 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 secondly , they were offered a multi-choice recall test after studying a science with the help of computer and CD-ROM (p .44-45 . Upon completion of both stages the authors compared computer-based scores of the participants with scores given for similar s 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 picture 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 work 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 being a mediocre and irrelevant study that has absolutely not scientific value . The truth is somewhere in between : the article is a well-written piece 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 Learning 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 national study . Peabody , MA : Center for Applied Special Technology

Kelly , Karen (2000 ) The Gender Gap : Why Do Girls Get Turned Off to Technology ' The Digital Classroom , ed . D . T . Gordon , The Harvard Education Letter , Cambridge , pp 154-160

O 'Hara , S .

(1998 ) A case study of attitudinal effects of Internet use in a middle school integrated science curriculum . presented at the Annual Meeting of the National Association 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 , library media specialists and students ' Masters thesis , Salem-Teikyo University (Eric document ED410943

Riding , R . and Grimley , M (1999 ) Cognitive style , gender and learning from multi-media materials in 11 year old children , British Journal of Educational Technology , 30 , 1 : 43-56

Shin , Namin Chan , Jason K .Y (2004 ) Direct and indirect effects of online learning on distance education ' British Journal of Educational Technology 35 (3 , 275-288

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