Editor’s Note: Learning in global interactive environments is stimulated by use of computer networks. For Asian students, this requires additional skills in English and in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). These, and other skills that facilitate or inhibit learning, are the focus of this paper. 

Factors Influencing the Participation and Perceptions of Asian K-12 Students
in Global Networked Learning

C. Candace Chou, Chi-syan Lin, Mark van’t Hooft, Yi-Mei Lin

Taiwan and USA

Abstract

Strengthening Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills and English capability through networked learning environments have proved to be an effective way to motivate Asian students’ learning interest and participation. The APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Corporations) Cyber Academy is a free networked learning environment that aims at ICT skill improvement, international collaboration, and project-based learning. This study explores Asian student and teacher perceptions toward networked learning. This paper further analyzes factors that contribute to or inhibit active participation of networked learning. Teachers who facilitate the process also affirm the pedagogical values of collaboration, peer evaluation, and ICT skill improvements. Both teachers and students acknowledge the importance of teamwork and community of practice in networked learning.

Keywords: ICT skills, Project-based Learning, Networked Learning Environment, International Collaboration, English Learning, Learning Community

Introduction

Infusing Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the K-12 classrooms has become increasingly important for K-12 educators. ICT skills play an important role in student academic achievements and social skills attainment. With a wealth of information available only online, students need to know how to access, search, retrieve, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information (Serim, 2002). Learners also need to be equipped with the communication skills to face an increasingly challenging global marketplace. In many Asian countries, mastering ICT skills as well as English also provide a gateway to global citizenship.

This study will explore factors that attract students in Asia to join global online learning activities. The APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Corporations[1]) Cyber Academy (hereafter ACA) is a free networked learning environment that was created to enhance ICT skills, English, team collaboration, and international contact. Annual international online learning events were held in ACA with around 1,000 K-12 students participating in a series of activities that promote cross-cultural understanding and international collaboration. The objectives of this study are to examine Asian student and teacher perceptions of networked learning environment and factors that may influence students’ willingness to participate in online activities.

Theoretical Framework

Information literacy has become part of regular K-12 curriculum in many parts of the world. New hardware and software development have also contributed to the changing pedagogy in the classroom. McKenna (2006) postulated three trends of software development that have profound impact in literacy education. The three trends are advancement in speech recognition software, computer-assisted reading support for struggling young learners, and an increasingly sophisticated multimedia environment (including games). The development in these three areas is especially beneficial for ESL learners in Asia. ESL students could have more opportunities to polish their language skills through speech recognition, reading-assistant and multimedia. Teachers and students are increasingly utilizing information and communication technologies to enhance the learning and teaching activities. ICT has great potential to increase student engagement in learning activities. ICT also provides innovative pedagogy that goes beyond drill and practice.

Studies have suggested a wide range of factors that influence student participation in web-based activities. Interface design (Ge, et al., 2000), social cues and interaction,    (Fisher, et al., 2000 ), and psychological factors such as trusting the medium, teachers, and peers (Huges, et al., 2002) can all contribute to student participation. Cramphorn (2004) summarized four main factors that influence student participation: psychological barriers, lack of social cues, timescales, and constructivism. Psychological barriers refer to the feeling of being an outsider and a lack of confidence in posting to public forums. The lack of social cues makes it difficult to establish rapport with peers in web-based discussion. The frequent use of emoticons or abbreviations may enhance or hinder understanding depending on the cultural background of the participants. Time is also another factor that may hinder participation. For instance, the lack of synchronicity between messages and replies in discussing forums could cause anxiety in some participants. Furthermore, the time it takes to provide good writing and responses could put pressure on some participants too, not to mention the time needed on preparing artifacts and engaging in collaborative activities. Finally a web environment that encourages constructivist approach of learning may widen the gap between the weak and the strong students at the initial stage. The constructivist approach encourages critical thinking and democratic participation. The weaker students may find it intimidating to post their views in the discussion board. The feedback from facilitators should be more encouraging to build confidence in participants and bridge the gap. In short, student participation in web-based learning activities could be enhanced using multiple aspects of design including interface, instructional activity, motivation, and philosophical underpinnings.

ACA is steeped in constructivist and self-regulated learning theories. Learner-centered pedagogy is especially the essence in the design of networked learning activities in ACA. It is expected that students become autonomous learners through collaboration, peer evaluation, and project-based learning (PBL). PBL, which is the core in ACA, provides authentic learning experience that has real-world applications to students (Moursund, 2003; Thomas, 2000). The tools and various ACA components were designed to facilitate teaching and learning activities with sound pedagogy and friendly human-computer interface (HCI). The technologies employed include intelligent agent, video conferencing, forum, mailbox, text chat, speech recognition, 3D virtual learning worlds, student project showcase gallery, and tracking system for learning progress. These tools are designed to support scaffolding, social construction of knowledge, online collaboration and project-based learning (Authors, 2007).

Background of APEC Cyber Academy

The APEC Cyber Academy (http://linc.hinet.net/apec) is under the auspices of the Asia Pacific Economic Corporations (APEC) and the Ministry of Education of Taiwan. Students from the twenty-one political economies of APEC are strongly encouraged to utilize the ACA platform to improve their ICT skills as well as English capability. Annual international online learning events are held every year for K-12 students and teachers from the APEC member economies to engage in a series of structured activities for the purpose of ICT skill enhancement and English learning. More than 10,000 users have registered in ACA since its inception in 2002.

There are two main ACA programs in the annual international online learning events: ICT Cyber Camp and Networked Collaborative Learning Program (NCLP). The learning modules of each program are summarized in tables 1 & 2.

Table 1

Integration of Pedagogy and HCI in the ICT Cyber Camp Learning Modules

Table 2

Project-based Learning in the Networked Collaborative Learning Program

Both programs have strong emphases on project-based and problem-based learning. Teachers and students can form teams to participate in either the ICT Cyber Camp or one of the four projects in NCLP during the ACA annual international online learning events. During the nine weeks of the annual learning events, each team will present ICT artifacts based on the theme and requirement of each program. Online tutors are also available to provide assistance to participants in each project area. The assistance includes English correction, project comments, and technical trouble-shooting.

Methodology

ACA has held four international online learning events since 2002. The ICT Cyber Camp activities were not available in 2002 and 2003. The retention rate of the annual learning events varies every year as indicated in Table 3. In 2005, 37 teams (46%) completed all tasks in NCLP and 30% completed the ICT Cyber Camp activities. Since retention rate is one of the most significant indicators about the quality of the service in networked or distance learning (Axmann, 2007), it is important to find out what elements of the ACA learning environment or services contribute to or impede student participation in the perspectives of Asian students and teachers.

Table 3

ACA Project Retention Rate

This study employed two surveys (Appendices I & II) that include both quantitative and qualitative data. Surveys for the teachers and students were designed to examine the perceptions of the ACA participants. The teacher survey consists of ten 5-point Likert scale questions, one multiple choice question, and two open-ended questions. The student survey, including questions on learner attitudes toward the ACA learning activities and the learning environment, has twenty-four 5-point Likert scale questions, one multiple choice question, and two open-ended questions. The student survey was adopted from the Young Children’s Computer Inventory (YCCI) by Miyashita & Knezek (1992). The YCCI was tested with Japanese, Mexican, and American students with high validity and reliability. The original survey has examined children’s attitudes in the following six areas: computer importance, computer enjoyment, motivation/persistence, study habits, empathy, and creative tendencies. The student survey for this study was developed with questions that focus on computer importance, enjoyment, and other specific ACA areas. The reliability of the surveys is measured by Cronbach’s alpha. The results show high reliability of the survey instruments (student survey= .880;  teacher survey= .969).  The comments for the open-ended questions were analyzed with NVivo (QSR, 2006), a qualitative research software program. The first researcher for this study was an observer of the ACA programs who didn't participate in the actual project management or operation. The second author of this study is the project director who has designed and conducted the ACA programs since 2002.

An announcement of the surveys was posted at the ACA web site at the end of the 2005 annual international contest. Ninety-six students and fifteen teachers who participated in the 2005 learning events completed the online survey. The nationalities of respondents of the survey include Taiwan, Korea, and Thailand. The grades range is from 5^th grade to 12^th grade. The survey was provided in both Chinese and English. The objectives of the survey are: 

1. What are the student perceptions toward ACA and ICT in general?

2. What are teacher perceptions toward ACA learning programs?

3. What are the factors that may contribute to or inhibit the learner participation of ACA activities? In other words, what are the elements in ACA that might have contributed to the low retention rate in the annual learning events?

V. Data Analysis

1.      Student perceptions toward ACA and ICT:

According to the student survey (Appendix I), many students strongly agreed that they enjoy working with a computer (84%), playing computer games (77%), learning with a computer (84%), and collaborating with teammates (81%). In addition, the majority also agreed that they enjoyed writing in English (65%), chatting online (56%), using the computer (60%),  navigating easily in ACA (59%), using critical thinking skills for ACA activities (54%), having fun with ACA activities (65%), feeling rewarded from ACA activities (65%), communicating with other ACA students (51%), logging onto ACA to review projects (66%), and becoming more interested in communication in English (63%).

When asked to choose the top three favorite ACA activities, the following six items have a higher rating: showcase (60.45%), playground (53.13%), video chat (39.58%), forum (38.54%), mailbox (37.5%), and online tutors (35.42%). Showcase is the place where student artifacts are exhibited and peer-evaluation is employed. The data indicate that students enjoyed browsing each other’s projects through the showcase tool. They definitely enjoyed playing games at the play ground. They were also constantly seeking ways to reach out to each other via synchronous and asynchronous communication tools.

2.      Teacher perceptions toward ACA learning programs:

More than half of the teacher respondents agreed that ACA interface is easy to navigate (57%), students enjoyed the ACA games (60%), and the activities could encourage student collaboration (74%) and increase ICT (75%) and English communication skills (73%). The respondents have also pointed out that ACA activities require more time (60%) and much assistance from the teachers (67%). The data collected from the open-ended questions are summarized in table 4.

Table 4

Comparison of Student and Teacher Responses
on Benefits of ACA Programs

3.      Qualitative data analysis

Open-ended questions on the benefits, challenges of ACA activities and suggestion for ACA were included in the surveys. The data reveal new perceptions toward ACA activities that are not covered by the Likert scale questions. Using the NVivo program, the following themes have emerged in terms of benefits and challenges of the ACA programs. Table 4 shows a comparison of the number of responses by students and teachers at each theme on the benefits of ACA programs.

Both the teacher and student responses on the benefits of the ACA activities reveal that English improvement is the primary factor that attracts them to the ACA programs. Students need to use English to communication with peers and develop projects. They are presented with many opportunities to practice English. The second most cited benefit by the students is the sense of community. They have a chance to communicate with students from different cultures and collaborate with peers in the online community. Online tutors are also available to talk with students. Students have also reflected that they enjoyed posting and checking messages at the forum. Student comments included: “it’s interesting to chat with people from different countries,” “I have made more friends,” “The ACA participants were helpful in responding to questions.” Many students have also reported increased knowledge about the subject matter and the fun nature of the ACA learning programs.

English improvement in the students is also the most obvious benefit that is observed by many teachers. In addition, teachers also make note on the improvement of collaboration and ICT skills through the ACA learning programs. Teachers placed more emphasis on the pedagogical benefits of networked learning.

Interestingly, no students have commented on collaboration with teammates whereas the teachers have regarded collaboration as one of the benefits. Most of student responses to the open-ended questions were short sentences (one or two sentences). Their limited English skills could be one reason. Nevertheless, 80% of the students did respond favorably on the merits of collaboration in the Likert-question in the survey.

Table 5

Comparison of Student and Teacher Responses
on Challenges of ACA Programs

Table 5 summarizes the challenges indicated by students and teachers pertaining to the ACA annual international online learning events. Since all activities were facilitated by teachers in the learning events, most of the challenges were resolved by the teachers who had reported the difficulties in participating in the ACA learning events. Insufficient time was cited as the top challenge for both teachers and students. Teachers had mentioned that all projects needed to be completed in the computer lab. They had to make arrangements to use the lab, teach students how to create web pages and process digital media, monitor student progress in addition to implementing regular curriculum, and meet project timeline. All these factors make it very challenging to complete all activities within nine weeks. Furthermore, most students accessed the ACA site during lunch hours or after school hours, which slowed down the server when hundreds of students were online at the same time. Worth noting is the challenge in implementing project-based learning strategy. Many students in Asia are used to traditional lectures and teacher-centered activities. A few teachers had indicated that the students did not have the motivation to get projects started on their own at the initial stage. The students wanted to be told what to do. They needed very specific guidance for each step. It took a while for students to become somewhat autonomous in project completion. Furthermore, most ACA activities were conducted as part of the after-school program which was not tied to the formal curriculum. Students’ performance was not part of their grades which might explain why some students were not interested in completing or working on the projects. Students did not approach the challenges with the same intensity as the teachers since they could always turn to the teachers for help.

4.      Factors influencing participation:

Based on results of the surveys, quantitatively and qualitatively, ACA participants have shown strong interest and been motivated to participate in the ACA activities. Factors that positively influence the participation of Asian students in the ACA learning programs are summarized as follows:

• Sense of community: Students enjoy interacting with each other and the online facilitators. The majority indicated that they enjoy online chatting and visit ACA learning environment to review different projects. Although most of the students are not confident with their English capability, the built-in social tools in ACA such as showcase (for peer project evaluation), forum, and mailbox are all highly utilized by the students. The combined activities provide a sense of community supported by a learning environment that is highly interactive.

• Computer importance and enjoyment: A high number of respondents agreed that computers could assist them in gaining new knowledge. It is important to be good at using a computer. Students who are not motivated to use computers may not find the ACA projects interesting or have the desire to complete projects.

• English improvement through real-world content learning: Students work on projects that have real-world application in English. They also interact with other participants in English. Both teachers and students indicated improvement in English. It is important for the Asian learners to find a venue in which that they can practice English in a real-world scenario with native speakers and work on projects that further their understanding of physical and virtual learning environments. For example, they have to present school schedules, interview convenience store clerks, check out prices for various products, and compare holidays around the world. Through the knowledge construction process, they have improved understanding of the world around them and the English language.

The surveys, nonetheless, also have revealed several elements of the programs that prohibited the participation: insufficient time of engagement, lack of curriculum integration, and unsatisfactory online learning facilitation.

Conclusion

The main goal of ACA is to enhance ICT skills and English capability through project-based learning and collaboration in a networked learning environment that encourages international collaboration and intercultural exchanges. ACA has accomplished the main goal as most participants have indicated enhanced ICT skills and a strong desire to communicate with peers in English. In addition, students have also demonstrated a strong interest in computers, international collaboration, online community, interactive human-computer interface, fun activities and games, and human feedback. Having fun, establishing new friendships, and learning something meaningful are also revealed in their choice of the favorite ACA learning activities.

Teachers are the team leaders of the ACA annual international learning events and their participation is equally important. Most teachers have acknowledged the increased ICT skills in students as a result of participating in the ACA projects. To encourage more active participation of the teachers, it is important to integrate ACA activities into K-12 curriculum, allow more flexibility in project completion, maintain a robust system, reduce network bottleneck, and increase participating countries.

This study has profiled several key elements that attract Asian K-12 student participation in networked learning. The use of games and interactive tasks to engage students in active learning is essential. Further research on what students do online and how to keep them engaged while learning content knowledge should be implemented. As more teachers are integrating more ICT skills into the classroom, it is imperative to understand what motivates or discourages students in networked learning. Although the findings from this study provide a unique angle on Asian students and their perceptions toward computer and learning, some of the perceptions are applicable to today’s K-12 learners in general.

References

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About the Authors

C. Candace Chou is Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the School of Education at the University of St. Thomas. She is in charge of the Learning Technology and E-Learning Program. As the co-director of the Minnesota Leaders and Educators Technology Initiatives (MELTI), she has worked to bridge the digital divide in the K-12 schools. Her research focuses on the integration of technology into curriculum, computer-mediated communication (CMC) systems, and the design of distance learning environments.

Learning Technology Program
School of Education
University of St. Thomas
1000 LaSalle Ave., Minneapolis, Minnesota 55311, USA

Phone: 651-9624814   

 email: ccchou@stthomas.edu

Chi-Syan Lin earned his Ph.D. in Instructional Technology and Computer Science at Indiana University in 1994. He currently is a professor at National University of Tainan, Taiwan. With his compelling experience in the field of networked learning, Chi-Syan Lin frequently serves as a consultant to numerous governmental digital learning projects of Taiwan and Asian countries. Being an advocate of educational simulation since his graduate study in late 80, Chi-Syan Lin now is focusing his research on blending the strength of microworld, simulation, and role playing game to create virtual learning environments and content.

Department of Information and Learning Technology
National University of Tainan
33, Sec. 2, Su-Lin St.
Tainan, Taiwan 700

Phone: +886-932830451    Fax: +886-6-280-0675    Email: linc@mail.nutn.edu.tw

Marck van’t Hooft is a senior researcher at the Kent State University, Research Center for Educational Technology.

Email: mvanthoo@kent.edu

Yi-Mei Lin is an assistant professor at the National Chung Cheng University, Department of Communication & Graduate Institute of Telecommunications in Taiwan.

Email: telyml@ccu.edu.tw