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The Role of a Teacher in facilitating E-Learning

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Pushpanathan Thiruvengadam
Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Viswa Mahavidyalaya University
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4/14/12 5. The Role of Teacher... by Pushpanathan - Journal of Technology for ELT

Jou r nal of
Tech nology f or
ELT Sea r ch t h i s si t e

Hom e
Journal of Technology for ELT
Editorial Board V ol. II No. 2 (April 201 2)
ISSN 2231 -4431
Editorial

Art icles
1 . Role of
Language Lab...
THE ROLE OF A TEACHER IN FACILITATING E-
by Deepika &
kalaiarasan LEARNING
2 . The E-text... by
Shihabudheen
3 . Enhancing
Constructiv ism ... T. Pushpanathan.
by Ganatra A ssi stan t Professor of En gl i sh , Sch ool of Edu cati on ,
4 . Online SCSV MV Un i v ersi ty , En ath u r, Kan ch i pu ram – 631561
Dictionary ... by pu sh pan ath .scsv m v @gm ai l .com
Sengupta
5. The Role of
Teacher... by ABSTRACT
Pushpanat han Today nearly ev ery one is familiar with e-mail and progressiv ely we are becoming acquainted
6 . Can
with e-banking. We also hear about e-commerce, e-business and e-trading, and so it was almost
Technology
Surpass inev itable that the term e-learning would be coined. This refers to all organized learning and
Teachers?... by activ ities under the influence of an educational organization that are carried out with the help of
Vijay information and communications technologies. This paper presents the present condition of e-
learning and the role of the teachers in facilitating e-learning in Indian Education Scenario.
Contributors

Guidelines for
Subm ission Introduction a digital age (Lay ton, 2000; Wallhaus, 2000). A
E-learning is commonly referred to the comparison of some aspects of conv entional
Archiv e
intentional use of networked information and learning and e-learning are shown in the following
communications technology in teaching and table:
Join our SIG
learning. A number of other terms are also used Conv entional E-learning
Join ELT@I to describe this mode of teaching and learning. learning
They include Students attend a Classes are scheduled
school in their local according to school
Online learning,
community or attend hours and
V irtual learning,
a boarding or timetables.
Distributed learning,
correspondence
Network and web based learning. school.
Students are directed Classes are
E-Learning – definition
to work indiv idually sy nchronous. And
The term e-learning comprises a lot more
of in groups. teachers and students
than online learning, v irtual learning,
interact in real time.
distributed learning, networked or web-based
Students are generally Learning objectiv es
learning. As the letter “e” in e-learning stands
enrolled with one are set by the teacher
for the word “electronic”, e-learning would
school. and institution.
incorporate
F:/…/5. The Role of Teacher... by Pushpanathan all educational
- Journal activ
of Technology for ities that are
ELT.htm 1/4
4/14/12 5. The Role of Teacher... by Pushpanathan - Journal of Technology for ELT
school. and institution.
incorporate all educational activ ities that are
carried out by indiv iduals or groups working Teachers work in one Students participate
online or offline, and sy nchronously or school. from a v ariety of
asy nchronously v ia networked or standalone locations and may
computers and other electronic dev ices. "attend" multiple
learning institutions
Growth of E-learning and/or their local
The growing interest in e-learning seems school.
to be coming from sev eral directions. These Students may Students can choose
include organizations that hav e traditionally determine the times to work indiv idually
offered distance education programs either in a when they access e- or collaborativ ely
single, dual or mix ed mode setting. They see the learning with people who may
incorporation of online learning in their opportunities. or may not be in their
repertoire as a logical ex tension of their regular class.
distance education activ ities. The corporate lasses may be Students may take
sector, on the other hand, is interested in e- sy nchronous or classes from more
learning as a way of rationalizing the costs of asy nchronous. than one school.
their in-house staff training activ ities. E- Students may set their E-teachers can work
learning is of interest to residential campus- own objectiv es and in more than one
based educational organizations as well. They ex plore their own school.
see e-learning as a way of improv ing access to learning needs and
their programs and also as a way of tapping into agendas.
growing niche markets.

This comparison highlights some of the day -

The growth of e-learning is directly
to-day differences that may become apparent
related to the increasing access to information
according to how a school chooses to offer e-
and communications technology , as well it’s
education and the choices which families will
decreasing cost. The capacity of information
make for their children.
and communications technology to support
multimedia resource-based learning and
T eachers’ Role
teaching is also relev ant to the growing interest
The ability of teachers to communicate v ia
in e-learning. Growing numbers of teachers are
the Internet, accessing and publishing
increasingly using information and
information is v ery div erse. There are some who
communications technology to support their
are pre-e-literate and others who utilise the
teaching. The contemporary student
Internet for regular school and classroom
populations (often called the “Net Generation”,
activ ity . It is not unusual to find teachers storing
or “Millennials”) who hav e grown up using
information so that it is web-accessible but to
information and communications technology
actually make the mov e toward e-teaching is the
also ex pect to see it being used in their
nex t brav e step.
educational ex periences. Educational

organizations too see adv antages in making JoAnn Harrison (n.d.) suggested that the e-
their programs accessible v ia a range of teacher will not be "the person who knows all the
distributed locations, including on campus, answers and decides what the question will be"
home and other community learning or but it is the e-teacher who "becomes "an ex pert
resource centers. learner," who can help students solv e problems
and find answers to their questions" (p. 3). The
Despite this lev el of interest in e-learning, teacher therefore becomes as much a part of the
it is not without constraints and limitations. The learning process as their students as they learn to
fundamental obstacle to the growth of e- work in a facilitativ e and collaborativ e e-learning
learning is lack of access to the necessary env ironment.
technology infrastructure, for without it there
can be no e-learning. Poor or insufficient There are three main activ ities that small
technology infrastructure is just as bad, as it can group teachers hav e to manage simultaneously :
lead to unsav ory ex periences that can cause managing the group, managing activ ities and
more damage than good to teachers, students managing the learning. In many small group
and the learning ex perience. While the costs of teaching situations, the role of the teacher is that
F:/…/5. The Role of Teacher... by Pushpanathan - Journal of Technology for ELT.htm 2/4
4/14/12 5. The Role of Teacher... by Pushpanathan - Journal of Technology for ELT
and the learning ex perience. While the costs of
the hardware and software are falling, often
there are other costs that hav e often not been
factored into the deploy ment of e-learning
v entures. The most important of these include
the costs of infrastructure support and its
maintenance, and appropriate training of staff
to enable them to make the most of the
technology .
E-Learning and its im pact on teachers
The networked env ironment of this new
Internet-connected world has ex panded the
opportunities for teaching and learning in way s
that we are only beginning to understand. What
makes the implementation of e-teaching so
challenging is that we are asking teachers of the
dot.com age to teach in a way in which they
hav e nev er been taught when they were at
school. They will work in an env ironment in
which they hav e nev er been learners and may
hav e had few first-hand ex periences. Howev er,
without a history and a wide knowledge base to
draw on, e-teachers will hav e the opportunity to
be pioneers in their own right as they set sail.
They will hav e the chance to re-ex amine what it
means to be a teacher.
Rutherford and Grana (1 995) also focused
their research on academic staff fear in the face
of technology . They identified nine areas that
could prev ent staff from making changes that
would enable them to integrate technology into
their teaching:
Fear of change
Fear of time commitment
Fear of appearing incompetent
Fear of techno lingo
Fear of techno failure
Fear of not knowing where to start
Fear of being married to bad choices
Fear of hav ing to mov e backward to go
forward
Fear of rejection or reprisals (p. 83)
E-learning is not about screens and ICT
Inv olv ement in e-learning is not going to
mean that teachers will spend hours sitting in
front of computer screens any more than there
is an ex pectation that their students will be
doing the same. To focus on this perspectiv e is
to assume that the technology is the v ehicle for
all e-activ ity and nothing could be further from
the truth. E-learning is not going to replace
libraries, friends, colleagues and many of the
ex isting social networks that contribute to a
satisfy ing learning and teaching ex perience. In
F:/…/5. The Role of Teacher... by Pushpanathan - Journal of Technology for ELT.htm
teaching situations, the role of the teacher is that
of facilitator of learning:
leading discussions,
asking open-ended questions,
guiding process and task, and
enabling activ e participation of learners
and engagement with ideas.
Howev er, small groups function and behav e
in v arious way s and hav e different purposes.
Teachers therefore need to be able to adopt
a range of roles and skills to suit specific
situations, often during the same teaching
session. Other roles that may be adopted include
that of:
the instructor, who imparts information to
students
the neutral chair
the consultant, from whom learners can
ask questions
the dev il’s adv ocate
the commentator
the wanderer, such as in a larger workshop
the absent friend.
Effectiv e tutors are essential to ensuring
that small groups work well. Any teaching ev ent
will be more successful if the teacher:
is enthusiastic
has organized the session well
has a feeling for the subject
can conceptualize the topic
has empathy with the learners
understands how people learn
has skills in teaching and managing
learning
is alert to contex t and ‘classroom’ ev ents
is teaching with their preferred teaching
sty le
has a wide range of skills in their teaching
repertoire, including questioning,
listening, reinforcing, reacting,
summarizing and leadership.
Conclusion
Making the shift from teacher as ex pert to
facilitator is sometimes seen as diminishing a
teacher’s power and authority , but this should
not be the case. Facilitating learning is
empowering for both the learner and the teacher
and frees the teacher from many of the burdens
that hav ing to be an ‘ex pert’ might entail. It would
traditionally hav e been seen as a weakness for a
3/4
4/14/12 5. The Role of Teacher... by Pushpanathan - Journal of Technology for ELT
View publication stats
satisfy ing learning and teaching ex perience. In teacher to say ‘I don’t know, let’s find out’ or ‘I
fact many of these will be enhanced by the don’t know, do any of y ou students know the
ability of the teacher to access them in differentanswer?’ and clearly clinical teachers need to
way s. This is not an either/or ty pe of learning know more about many topics than their students
env ironment but one where the Internet can be or trainees, but medical science is changing so
used for the things that cannot be achiev ed in rapidly that no one can know ev ery thing.
any other way . The flex ibility , av ailability and
Implementing an ev idence-based approach to
adaptability of the Internet env ironment must clinical learning and to medical practice inv olv es
serv e the needs of both e-teachers and e- finding out about the latest research. The
learners. teachers can use these techniques and this
approach to facilitate their own and their
E-learning can giv e students much greater students’/trainees’ learning.
control ov er their own learning ex perience
while giv ing e-teachers an opportunity to
further meet the needs of indiv idual students in

Reference:

Alonso Díaz, L., & Blázquez Entonado, F. (2009). Are the Functions of Teachers in e-Learning
and Face-to-Face Learning Env ironments Really Different?. Educational Technology &
Society , 1 2 (4), 331 –343.

Anderson, Jonathan. (2005) IT, e-learning and teacher dev elopment. International
Education Journal ERC2004 Special Issue, 5(5), 1 -1 4.

Harrison, J. (n.d.) In TeleLearning Network of Centres of Ex cellence. New approaches for

preparing teachers. In New learning technologies, applications, challenges and success
stories from the front lines. (pp. 2-4). V ancouv er: Simon Fraser Univ ersity .

Lay ton, T.G. (2000). Digital learning: Why tomorrow’s schools must learn to let go of the
past. [Online]. Av ailable: http://www.electronic-school.com/2000/09/0900f1 .html

Naidu, Som. (2006) E-Learning: A Guidebook of Principles, Procedures and Practices. New
Delhi: Commonwealth Educational Media for Asia.

Rutherford, L. & Grana, S. (1 995, September). Retrofitting academe: Adapting faculty

attitudes and practices to technology . Technological Horizons in Education Journal, 23, (2)
82-83.

Wallhaus, R. A. (2000). E-learning: From institutions to prov iders, from students to learners.
In R. N. Katz & D. G. Oblinger (Eds.), The "E" is for ev ery thing (pp. 21 -52). San Francisco:
Jossey -Bass.

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