The networked student model for construction of personal learning environments: balancing teacher control and student autonomy

This entry is from Curriculum Leadership 3 September 2010

Australasian Journal of Educational Technology

Volume 26 Number 3, 2010; Pages 369–385

Wendy Drexler

A model for the introduction of autonomous, networked student learning has been trialled at a K–12 independent school in the USA. This test case involved 15 students spanning the final three years of secondary school. During a nine week unit each student researched a contemporary social issue of their choice using a range of web applications, including RSS alerts, social bookmarking, personal blogs, video conferencing, web searches, podcasts, digital notebooks and a class wiki. Teachers scaffolded this learning experience, providing students with working knowledge of the web applications involved as well as the organisational skills required for independent learning online. Students' capacity to develop and maintain a personal learning environment was assessed through weekly assignments, a rubric-based evaluation at the end of the unit, an essay and a final synthesis of the topic using multimedia. At the end of the semester students were surveyed for their views about the trial. Positive responses were received from 11 students, who valued the unit for the breadth and quality of learning it offered, and saw it as a sound preparation for tertiary study. One negative response referred to the fact that ICT was not 'fun or entertaining' in the school context, while another student noted the difficulty of moving from a traditional to an autonomous model of learning. Students identified time management as the greatest area of difficulty for them, especially time free from normal classes, which students were left to regulate on their own. The researchers concluded that students' success in adapting to autonomous networked learning is likely to depend on their individual levels of motivation, technical aptitude and comfort with self-directed learning. It also depends on the teacher's ability to gauge students' understanding and progress. The unit called on teachers to find a balance between encouraging student autonomy and scaffolding students' experience of a new and challenging learning environment. Generalising this form of learning to other schools would require extensive professional development and 'a philosophy different from that of most current educators'. One of the most useful forms of such professional development would be to apprentice a teacher to a colleague who has already implemented networked learning in a classroom.

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