Provide Unlimited Learner Choice and Personalization
Giving learners a choice and opportunity to personalize their learning environment is an effective way to maintain student engagement. In many cases these choices or approaches to personalization come down to the student’s preferred learning method and learning conditions (Spector 2013).
The learning method typically refers to the type of experience that stimulates student engagement in the learning. For example, a lesson that requires hands-on activities or is entirely visual has very different methodologies for instruction. For example, some methods might include the use of audio files or some type of simulation. Whenever possible, the choice in methodology allows learners to pick an approach that represents some unique novelty, perhaps in comparison to what they have been doing recently. The choice often represents a preferred way of processing information. Some learners for example, learn best by one or more of these approaches, or a blend of several at once.
Learning conditions refer to elements like the time of day, the length of engagement, and perhaps even details such as room temperature, body position, and so on. Many of you reading this book probably remember scheduling college classes and trying to pick learning opportunities that coincided with times of the day that met with your emotional and learning priorities. Indeed, some of us do like morning classes!
This discussion of methods and learning conditions is important because the allowances of technology provide learners the opportunity to put themselves in the situation where they can pick and choose their preferred learning method and condition. For example, a lesson may be posted in written form, with audio and video support, while simultaneously requiring some type of hands-on experience or experiment. In this case, the learner would engage in that activity and pick an approach that was most consistent with his or her preferred learning style. In terms of learning conditions, some students may find themselves logging in at the time of day when their energy is at its peak and can take breaks at a pace consistent with their personal levels of engagement. Clearly, allowing students to make these choices prepares them to be engaged with their own learning trajectory and capabilities.
To further illustrate this, we, your authors, use ourselves to reflect on the degree to which DEL provides each of us with options to personalize our own ongoing learning. Crystal Guiler is a digital native. When she seeks to learn something new, she first finds a blog on the topic and reads it to ascertain context. She then reads contributor feedback and may immediately post a question. After interacting in that space, she finds and listens to a posted lecture, followed by diving into the course readings, if applicable. Lisa Reason prefers to read the text first, then experience the noise of learner interaction on a discussion board or blog. Casey Reason would much rather listen to a lecture or debate, read the book, and then jump right in and participate in an asynchronous discussion.
Of course, there are many other routes a learner could choose on his or her way to digesting the content. Up until the era of DEL, K–12 learners had to largely rely on the dexterity of their instructor to provide learning opportunities commensurate with their natural, hardwired learning preferences. Think about how much more our students could learn if they could more seamlessly and strategically identify and make use of their learning preferences, thanks to the availability of varied digital learning opportunities.
In addition to giving learners more choice, DEL gives facilitators even greater opportunities to personalize the learning and individually prescribe activities for learners that allow for remediation and extra support as well as acceleration, if proficiency is already established. In a traditional classroom, the teacher is always playing “beat the clock,” facilitating instruction and hoping an opportunity to personalize will manifest. Many DEL opportunities simply expand what’s possible, minimizing the challenge of eroding time and maximizing the focus on finding the best set of activities and engagements for the learners who need them.
Offer the Advantage of Timeless, Asynchronous Learning
One of the loftiest aspirations we have for this book is to shine a huge spotlight on what we believe to be the underestimated and largely underutilized advantage of asynchronous (or cyber-asynchronous) learning, the ability to participate in the learning process at any given time. Tech advocates champion asynchronous learning as being transformational due to its convenience (Ge, 2012). However, the true gift of timeless, asynchronous learning is in the degree to which it aligns with the natural learning rhythms of human beings. With technology and strategically constructed asynchronous learning experiences, learners can participate and engage in learning and reflecting experiences in a much more flexible time frame, potentially leading to deeper learning and engagement (Koutsabasis, Stavrakis, Spyrou, & Darzentas, 2011). For example, a teacher could post a trigonometry problem online for the entire class and open it up to student debate in relation to possible approaches and resolution. In a brick-and-mortar, real-time class, a quieter and perhaps more contemplative learner may take longer to respond and, thus, not speak up at all. However, in an asynchronous learning environment, with additional time to reflect, his or her insights may be altogether different and his or her willingness to participate significantly enhanced.
In addition, given a digital, asynchronous learning opportunity, the learner is more likely to feel comfortable providing a thoughtful and measured response (Nandi, Hamilton, & Harland, 2012). This is because the student not only has more time to think about the discussion but also to look up information and resources to support his or her perspective. Virtual, asynchronous learning also levels the playing field in terms of participation. In an asynchronous learning space, learners emerge and contribute with no regard to gender, height, voice, ethnicity, or relative vivaciousness. Strategically facilitated, asynchronous learning creates a condition where the quality of one’s ideas becomes the ultimate measuring stick.
Invisible geographical boundaries, increased learner engagement, personalization, and asynchronous learning—these are all significant benefits of DEL that we explore in this book. Of these, asynchronous learning deserves special attention before we dive into the deep end of the DEL pool.
Advantages of Asynchronous Learning
Think about how important ongoing dialogue and thoughtful verbal exchanges are to the learning process. Meaningful dialogue and dialogue-driven learning activities likely power your classroom. It powered you in college when you stayed up all night reflecting on newly formed adult values. Dialogue or communication in one form or another clearly informed Neanderthals as they scrambled to survive the northern latitudes during the cold phases of the Pleistocene Era, or the Ice Age. We are a species that works well when engaging in continuous conversation. It drives our innovations and stimulates natural learning rhythms. Technology, however, has provided us with asynchronous opportunities to communicate that may actually allow us to expand and improve this natural learning propensity.
The Ice Age notwithstanding, does a loud lecture in a room of twenty or two hundred students provide the optimal environment for communication and collaboration? Does sitting in an uncomfortable chair in a room with inconsistent sound levels and visual accessibility truly represent the most superior method of learning? How many times have you listened to a real-time lecture and wished you could ask the speaker to repeat him- or herself? In an asynchronous learning environment, each learner can play a recorded lecture back, read a classmate’s statement several times to consider its meaning, and expand his or her view if the learner missed the message. These things aren’t possible for students steering a classroom blackboard. Let us look at some advantages asynchronous learning offers students.
Asynchronous Learning and the Brain
Our brains require an indeterminate amount of time for a process called consolidation. Consolidation is literally the process of sorting out the utility or meaning behind any new learning experience (Harris, 2014; Steiner, 2009). After engaging in a science experiment, your brain releases the memory of the color of your teacher’s