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Research
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In 2004 I applied for and won a
research grant
offered by DECS Professional Learning in ICT programme. The purpose of
these grants is to
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provide opportunities for DECS educators to
enhance their knowledge and understanding of the beneficial
impact that ICT can have on learning and teaching
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develop educators' skills in the process of
inquiry in relation to their teaching and achievement of
student learning outcomes.
The key focus for the research is intended to demonstrate
how the use of ICT supports accelerated, more effective or more
authentic learning and how it stimulates new ways of thinking about
teaching and learning, beyond being more engaging for learners
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Research
question
Belts or
braces? Is BELTS, (Basic e-Learning Tool Set) developed by The Le@rning
Federation to enable schools to gain access to its digital learning
objects, able to support a constructivist e-learning environment for
students or is a different solution required?
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Research topic
What I intend to examine, in the light of claims made by
constructivist researchers, is whether BELTS
(Basic e-Learning Tool Set), a very
simple learning management system developed by The Le@rning
Federation “to demonstrate the
distribution, management and use of learning objects”,
[BELTS Project Overview, 2004] is able to provide an e-learning
environment that supports meaningful learning and enables students to
capitalise on the educational opportunities that learning objects are
able to provide, or on the other hand, whether its features are so basic
and inhibiting that they actually restrict or stifle student learning.
I focused my research on answering the following
questions,
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What is meant by constructivist pedagogy?
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What is the definition of a constructivist
e-learning environment?
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What features does an e-learning
environment require to support constructivist learning?
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How can constructivist pedagogy be facilitated in an e-learning
environment?
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Abstract
This research paper argues that the
e-learning context in terms of a learning management system or a suite
of elearning tools that students use as a starting point for their
e-learning is just as critical as their access to good e-learning
content. It examines what qualities an e-learning environment needs to
have to support constructivist learning and then explores how
constructivist pedagogy may be facilitated in this environment, in terms
of the types of learning resources activities and supports that it makes
available. BELTS, which is a
very simple learning management system, is then
evaluated against the above criteria in comparison with several other
learning management systems. The results of this evaluation were found
to correlate with the outcomes of a school-based learning objects and
BELTS trial in which attempts were made by groups of teachers to develop
learning activity sequences in BELTS that integrated learning objects
and other digital resources and that were designed on constructivist
principles.
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Complete Paper
The complete paper may be
accessed here.
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