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Tugas Pak Ismu PDF
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Tugas Pak Ismu PDF
Chapter 2
Utilizing Interactive
Technologies to Engage,
Integrate, Involve, and
Increase Community
amongst College Students
Pamela M. Golubski
Carnegie Mellon University, USA
ABSTRACT
Retention in higher education is a forefront goal for most administration, staff, and faculty members.
For this goal to be achieved, college professionals must go above and beyond to ensure students are
engaged socially, successfully integrated into the campus community, and actively involved during col-
lege. When these interactions occur, students are more likely to experience a sense of belonging, as,
evident from developmental research theories, an institution could experience an increase in overall
retention rates. However, to achieve engagement, integration, involvement, and feelings of belonging,
it requires staff and faculty members to offer and encourage continuous interactions with students, both
inside and outside the classroom. While these interactions in the past usually happened through face-to-
face methods, today, the Web 2.0 and virtual technological tools have extended opportunities for college
professionals to interact more often with students. Two such virtual technologies are Google Wave and
Wimba Collaboration Suite (Voice, Pronto, and Classroom).
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60960-791-3.ch002
Copyright 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.
Utilizing Interactive Technologies to Engage, Integrate, Involve, and Increase Community
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Utilizing Interactive Technologies to Engage, Integrate, Involve, and Increase Community
Each describes how the individual interacts within challenging when adult learners are in courses
the institutional environment. Adjustment (a) is where the enrollment is primarily traditional-
the process of transitioning from one environment aged students.
to another, such as being a stay at home mother to The final cluster is isolation (d). Isolation
being a full-time college student or a high school occurs when a student cannot establish himself/
student having her own bedroom to attending a herself into a social network and lacks the per-
college out of state and living with a roommate sonal bonds that are the basis for membership in
in a campus resident hall. The transition to col- the communities of the institution (Tinto, 1993,
lege is difficult for most students regardless of p. 56). This network can include classmates, staff
age. Therefore, offering additional assistance, and faculty members. The absence of meaning-
interaction, and support during this transitional ful relationship with peers and other institutional
time to students is important to combat attrition. members contributes to this sense of isolation,
During the difficulty (b) period/cluster, a thus potentially leading to departure.
student might withdrawal if he/she cant meet The third cause of student departure accord-
minimal academic standards/requirements. A ing to Tintos research is due to the influence of
student experiencing difficulty must be tended external forces (3) that interfere with the stu-
to immediately to avoid feelings of frustration dents college experience. Tinto identified these
and despair (Tinto, 1993). For example, an adult as competing obligations and multiple roles that
learner experiencing the difficulty cluster would can contribute to early withdrawal decisions. This
be further frustrated if tutoring was only available can range from a student that is caring for small
during the traditional weekday (9 am to 5 pm), children and managing a home to a student who
when many adults are working full-time jobs. Col- has to work full-time to finance his/her educa-
leges would need to offer support services during tion. External forces causes, according to Tinto,
non-traditional hours such as evening and week- are most often experienced by students who do
ends, which can effectively happen now with the not reside on campus, such as adult students or
proliferation of virtual and Web 2.0 technologies. commuter students. This is due to their lives be-
Tinto (1993) discovered that the difficulty cluster ing more complicated by external forces such as
affects all students at some point during their col- family, work, and the community in which they
lege tenure. Therefore, faculty and staff members reside (Tinto, 1993).
must have support services and communication Lastly, Tinto never asserts that if colleges suc-
efforts in place to combat the difficulty cluster. cessfully integrate and involve students academi-
The third cluster, Tinto termed incongruence (c) cally and socially that they wont leave. He does
which refers to the lack of fit between the needs, confirm that organized college integration and
interests, and/or preferences of an individual and interaction does lead to lower student departure
the higher education institution. Students, who rates. This being stated, it is crucial that colleges
have undeclared majors are extremely susceptible use as many interactive technologies inside and
to feelings of incongruence. These students often outside the classroom to encourage students to
need individual guidance on major and career acclimate, engage, and be involved during college.
choice. When a student experiences incongruence, One way to ensure students become acclimated,
he/she doesnt feel a sense of belonging or affinity engaged, and integrated in college is through
to the college community. This incongruence is socialization and involvement with their peers,
usually reflected in peer relationships where the staff, and faculty members.
student doesnt feel his/her values and interests
match those of classmates. This can be extremely
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Utilizing Interactive Technologies to Engage, Integrate, Involve, and Increase Community
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Utilizing Interactive Technologies to Engage, Integrate, Involve, and Increase Community
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Utilizing Interactive Technologies to Engage, Integrate, Involve, and Increase Community
fection and belongingness, which includes giving and portals that include all replies, changes, and/
and receiving love, and affection. or threads in one central location. This virtual tool
The research conducted by Astin, Tinto, reduces the need for individuals to send e-mails
Schlossberg, and Maslow, highlighted in this chap- and attachments back and forth in an effort to try
ter demonstrates the importance of socialization, to collaborate on a document or project. Any of
involvement, and the feeling of belonging has on us that have tried the back and forth approach
student retention and overall satisfaction. For fac- knows that it typically becomes problematic and
ulty and staff members to increase the occurrence confusing.
of socialization, involvement, and the feelings of Through a shared wave individuals can
belonging, this requires increasing, encouraging, access a document and have mutual conversa-
and offering essential student interactions. This tions using richly formatted text, photos, videos,
could pose a problem as there are only so many and more. Within a wave a participant can reply,
hours available in a traditional college work week, edit, and add content at any given time within
usually Monday through Friday from 9 am to 5 any part of the document. Since the wave is live,
pm. However, these interactions can be extended as participants reply or access the document the
outside the four walls of the classroom or profes- other members of the wave will see those edits in
sional office by utilizing virtual methods. real time. Literately, in the wave you can watch
as a user in type (letter by letter). Additionally,
Google Wave will notify users who are members
VIRTUAL TOOLS of a wave when replies or edits occur and displays
those in chronological order. The best thing is
There are many new virtual tools that resemble that in a wave each reply or edit is recorded as
that of face-to-face interactions and communica- an individual blip and users within that wave can
tion that possess the ability to encourage student utilize the playback feature to determine the order
involvement, socialization, and sense of belong, to which blips (replies and edits) were added, as
thus leading to higher retention rates of students. well as what member was responsible for each
Educators need to be made aware of such vir- blip. Waves can also be searched by users to deter-
tual offerings, as well as provided with ample mine what blips were specific to that participant.
application-based and hands on training to ensure Lastly, waves can also be linked to other waves
effective use. The first virtual tool that will be for additional collaboration and sharing to occur.
addressed is a free tool that was developed and Thus waves increase students involvement in the
is powered by Google. course material and communication with peers.
So how can Google Wave improve and en-
Google Wave courage socialization, involvement, and sense of
belonging in higher education? Simple, through
Google Wave (https://wave.google.com/wave/) Google Wave instructors can assign groups proj-
is the newest free online communication plat- ects in which collaboration can occur effortlessly
form that is both a synchronous communication outside the classroom through a virtual method.
and collaboration document sharing virtual tool. Through working in various waves, students
Stated simply, Google Wave is like combining the can brainstorm ideas, create documents, discuss
features of e-mail, threaded discussions, wikis, concepts, assign tasks to group members, attend
and instant message (IM) with multiple users all virtual meetings, and solicit feedback in one central
in one location. The virtual tool allows users to location. The professor can observe, reply, and
create waves which act as message documents make edits as the group is working on the project.
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Utilizing Interactive Technologies to Engage, Integrate, Involve, and Increase Community
On Google Wave, ideas can come to life through cation. However, new virtual tools have made it
virtual interactions. This interactive tool will al- possible for students, staff, and faculty members
low students who are commuters, adult learners, to communicate, interact, and collaborate in rich
and traditional learners who would otherwise be environments. One such tool is Wimba Collabo-
separated by distance outside the classroom to ration Suite which was created to resemble and
work together on teams without having to meet offer similar benefits associated with in-person
in person. After each group has completed their communication utilizing a virtual environment.
project, various waves (student groups) can be
linked and classmates can comment on other
group projects in an effort to build community WIMBA COLLABORATION SUITE
and learn from each other.
Education is about learning, not only from Wimba Collaboration Suite (www.www.wimba.
the professor but also from other students. Gain- com) is a synchronous and asynchronous col-
ing feedback, which leads to increased student laboration tool that enables and supports audio/
socialization and involvement which according voice (VOIP), text, instant messaging, applica-
to Astin (1984, 1993, 1996), Schlossberg (1989), tion sharing, polling, and content display in one
and Tinto (1993) are components of that lead to location. Through the use of this suite interactions
a sense of belonging thus making a student less between faculty members and students, as well
likely to leave an institution. Google Wave is as between classmates, can be extended beyond
virtual tool that can help educators accomplish the four walls of a classroom. The options offered
the above goals. through Wimba have the ability to appeal to stu-
In education it is not difficult to locate critics dents who learn best through different learning
when it comes to encouraging students to utilize styles such as auditory, visual, kinesthetic, and
virtual communication. Though the virtual tools linguistic learners. Wimba Collaboration Suite
in this chapter are use as supplemental resources (former named HorizonLive) offers Wimba Voice,
to extend the learning that occurs in the classroom Wimba Pronto, and Wimba Classroom. Wimba,
to increase student, faculty and staff member in- unfortunately is not a free technology and does
teractions outside the classroom. However, with have a fee associated with each of the various
use of any technology, risks can be associated components. The Wimba products are integrated
with virtual communication and those will be and synchronized to an institutions Learning or
briefly addressed. Course Management Systems (LMS or CMS) such
as Blackboard, ANGEL, and Moodle.
Virtual Communication Risks
Wimba Voice
When students utilize technology as their primary
means of communication, their face-to-face ver- Wimba Voice allows for voice or audio to be
bal, non-verbal, and written communication skills incorporated into most features or functions of
are potentially reduced (Wilkinson & Buboltz, the LMS/CMS, from the discussion board to
1998). Communication often has less to do with the Gradebook. It combines speaking, writing,
the actual words, and more to do with the non- and listening in one location. Wimba Voice will
verbal cues that are incorporated into the exchange particularly appeal and benefit those who learn
(McQuillen, 2003). Internet usage has been shown best through audio information (aural/auditory
to be less effective in developing and maintaining or verbal/linguistic learners). The package has
social relationships than face-to-face communi- several features including, Voice Podcaster, Voice
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Utilizing Interactive Technologies to Engage, Integrate, Involve, and Increase Community
Presentation, Voice Discussion Board, and Voice show a word on a students computer screen and
E-mail. then properly pronouncing the word to ensure
The first feature of review is Voice Podcaster students learn correct dialect and articulation.
which enables a user to create, edit, upload, and The student could further be required to send the
distribute podcasts. Professors could record pod- instructor a message where he or she demonstrates
casts for students to use as supplemental learning the pronunciation of the word or the use of the
and instruction. For example if a student is taking word in a sentence.
a Principles of Accounting course, and the pro- Another use of the Voice Presentation would
fessor knew from previous classes that students allow an instructor to provide supplementary
often struggle with the concept of depreciation, he explanation to a challenging concept of a recent
could produce a podcast that reviews the concept lecture. For example a Physics professor could
by discussing the causes, methods (straight-line, upload audio to accompany her PowerPoint that
reducing balance, sum-of-the-years digits, or units would further explain the Theory of Relativity
of production), and proper disposal of property/ for students to access if they need a review of the
equipment. While the topic was covered in class, topic. It is not surprising that during an average
a student has the added option of reviewing the 50 to 75 minute college lecture period, there is
concept prior to the midterm exam or another stu- not enough time for a professor to offer individual
dent might have been out sick with the flu and can clarification of a topic, but through this vocal
listen to the content that she missed. Some critics feature the professor can upload this content after
may be leery of podcasting, but Jenkins, Goel, class for students to review.
and Morrell (2008) concluded technology-based Through the Voice Discussion Board, a user
instruction such as podcasting was as effective as can record and listen to audio messages on a class
traditional classroom-based instruction. Of course virtual discussion board. This feature adds more
this does not mean lecture-style teaching should depth and interactions to the typical text based
be completely replaced, but podcasting does of- postings and threads found on LMS discussion
fer a great supplemental review or explanation of boards. Higher education professionals have been
course materials for students. The added benefit worried that technology usage has the potential to
of podcasting is students can listen to the informa- reduce students speaking skills, but Wimba Voice
tion virtually anywhere, as they walk to class or has the added benefit of combining text with voice
drive home for the weekend. Lastly, Bennett and to ensure students can not only write what they
Cooper (2006) found that using podcasting in a mean but can orally communicate and articulate the
college course improved both students interest message effectively to others. As most professors
and understanding of course content. On U.S. require students to adhere to the use of professional
campuses, most students come to college equipped language and appropriate grammar on course
with i-pods or MP3 players so the technology is discussion boards, a speaking component could
readily available. be added to better strengthen a students verbal
Voice Presentation allows a professor to upload communication as well. International students
content that is accompanied by vocals to function or non-native English speakers often need extra
similar to an in-person presentation as opposed practice in oral communication skills, in that many
to static PowerPoint slides. These vocals can universities are have established programs where
reiterate important class notes, provide helpful an international student is matched with an English
tips on completing homework, or aid a student speaking as a conversational partner. The ended
in preparing for an upcoming exam. Imagine a purpose of the conversational partner is to help
modern language professor having the ability to a student practice speaking English in a casual
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