How can constructivism be helpful for online students? By Stephanie Caballero

 Constructivist approach for online learning:

• Interactive learning:

Constructivists such as Vygotsky and Dewey believed that learners do not learn inisolation from others, and cognitive psychology has gradually established that people naturally learn and work collaboratively in their lives (Petraglia, 1998). Interactivity provides a way to motivate and stimulate learners. Moreover. It offers a way through activities and online discussion technology for instructors to cause learners to considerand reflect on the content and process of learning. No doubt, not all learners actively engage interaction among individuals in learning group. Instructors could assist them to identify and to build on active and passive participative group discussion. For instance. Instructors can set discussion plans which ask all the learners to participate in group-discussions at the same time via synchronous communication tools such as online chats.  On the other hand, instructors an also ask learners to reflect and respond learning contents every week through synchronous communication tools such as Listservs. News groups, threaded discussions or emails. After adults come to recognize and organize the perspective of their learning, critical responses and feedback emerge. Interactions between instructors. Other learners and content are a very crucial function in distance learning (Sherry et al… 1998) 

•  Collaborative learning:

For social Constructivists. Learning should involve interaction with other people or environments. Which foster potential development through instructors' guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers. Creating a social negotiation environment can foster reflective response and support collaborative construction (onassen, 1994).That is also what adult educators emphasize on the importance of critical thinking skills. On the other hand, if instruction uses cooperative learning properly, it can im-prove students' social skills or interpersonal skills. Furthermore, advanced technologies might overcome some of the barriers to learners' interaction and support collaborative work to synthesize shared knowledge. In other words, based on the principles of construct-ivism. Online educators need to find ways to promote collaborative learning through reflection and social negotiation.

• Facilitating learning:

An effective educator should create a safe environment for learners to express them-selves freely in appropriate ways. To share their ideas and to ask questions (Hamilton, 1996: Porter, 1997).While in this positive, safe and motivating environment, distance learners might feel free to fail andtry again (Chen, 1997: Spitzer, 1998). No doubt, constructivism offers students more freedom to select and arrange their learning processes with other learners, while the teacher's role changes into a process facilitator (Westera, 1999). Instructors in constructivist approaches still have a responsibility to monitor and warrant the quality of learning and peer discussions (Westera, 1999). It is still necessary for the instructor to build in sufficient support. Directions and guide-lines for online learners.

• Authentic learning:

Constructivist theory emphasizes that learning should be authentic, and that learning needs to meet real life experiences. Jonassen (1994, 35) stated, "Constructivist semphasize the design of learning environments rather than instructional sequences". Adult learners want to learn skills related to their real life or work experience. Thus, the belief for educators in teaching should be grounded in adults' experiences, and these experiences represent a valuable resource. The learning environment should provide real-world, case-based environments for meaningful and authentic knowledge. Practical learning such as games, case studies, or internship is the most important partof adult education (Brookfield, 1995). Instruction should be anchored in real-world problems, events or issues which may be appealing and meaningful to adult learners (Bostock, 1998). In order to avoid pre-authentication, instructors should consider care-fully the characteristics of adult learners. Learners can participate actively the course design including course objectives, prerequisites, the grading scheme, and teaching materials. As a consequence, the knowledge for adult learners is meaningful and authentic.

• High quality learning:

Constructivism focuses on learner's control of learning processes and it narrows the gap between the school world and real-life society. By contrast with traditional instruc-tional media, online learning environments give much greater freedom of control to the us er (Laurillard, 1998). When hypermedia are integrated with the Internet, this system allows all individuals with browsers or search engines to transfer files and information from thousands of possible real-life sources to themselves. Learners should actively absorb external inputs and construct meaningful knowledge from their prior individual experience. Brookfield (1995) emphasized that adults require critical thinking skills tobe able to challenge and guide their lives. That is, online learning should involve high-order thinking skills to learn how to determine the authenticity and quality of informa-tion by assessing the authority of the source and validating it from other sources. Learners must learn how to manage, analyze, critique, cross-reference, and Transform information into valuable knowledge (Lundin, 1998).

In the following video you can see what is a virtual education and constructivism

REFERENCES

• Sherry A C, Fulford C P and Zhang S (1998) Assessing distance learners' satisfaction with instruction: a quantitative and a qualitative measure The American Journal of Distance Education12 (3) 4-27.

• Spitzer D R (1998) Rediscovering the social context of distance learning Educational Technology March/April 52-56.

• Vrasidas C and Mclsaac M S (2000) Principles of pedagogy and evaluation for web-based learning Education Media International 37 (2) 105-111.

•   Vygotsky L S (1978) Mind in society Harvard University Press, Cambridge.

• Wagner E D and McCombs B L (1995) Learner centered psychological principles in practice: designs for distance education Educational Technology March/April 32-35.

• Westera W (1999) Paradoxes in open, networked learning environments: toward a paradigm shift Educational Technology Jan./Feb. 17-23