How to establish the conditions that would stimulate the development of a community of practice in a classroom group? How to sustain the process? How to foster the types of contributions that would lead it to function as a support, mutual-assistance and cooperation group whose goal would be to enhance learning?
The presentations demonstrate the effective uses of online discussions in post-secondary institutions. In doing so, it will show how online discussions greatly improve student participation and ensure that students think more deeply about difficult issues. Unlike online chat, online postings occur over several days and in an asynchronous mode. Online discussions give students the time to research and formulate their responses. This is in contrast to the “shoot from the hip” style of discussion which frequently occurs in class. Biographical Notes Dr. Mark Butorac has been involved in e-learning for over five years. Continually experimenting with e-learning tools and new pedagogical approaches, his work has given practical insight into the effectiveness of online learning. He has written papers on the topic of e-learning and acted as a consultant for publishers, contributed to the creation of graduate level educational technology courses, and acted as and advisor in implementing online courses. His teaching experience includes five years of online courses. He has taught at the college and university level in the United States, Quebec and British Columbia. His doctorate is in the history of Science and Technology. On occasion, he also enjoys teaching in the classroom at Dawson College in Montreal.
This work by La Vitrine Technologie-Éducation is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License.