Comparision of two pedagogic models

In this mindmap I have compared two pedagogic models that have been developed to support multicultural e-learning. I have used the following questions in my reflection: How do the models support multiculturally culturally sensitive delivery of e-learning? What does the pedagogic viewpoint in question bring to multicultural e-learning? What are the development needs? Is there evidence-based empirical documentation of their applicability? I chose connectivism and universal design to my comparision. 

According to connectivism learning occurs as a distributed process in a network. The learning process is influenced by the four elements of the semantic condition (diversity, autonomy, openness, connectedness). The main idea of universal design is that products and environment should be usable at the very beginning by all people. This is done with the help of three main components of Universal Design Language (UDL), Dynamic Instructional Design (DID) and the learning types.

Reflection on my development task from a multicultural perspective

Here I have reflected my development task that how cultural issues are evident in my sustainability course and how the cultural issues should be taken into consideration. In my reflection I have used design principles (McLoughlin and Oliver 2000) that emphasize the importance of minimizing cultural misunderstanding among teaching and learning groups.

Design principles for a culturally inclusive curriculum for online learners Principles	My reflection
Adopt an epistemology that is consistent with, and supportive of constructivist learning and acceptance of multiple perspectives.	I think that epistemology in sustainability course is authentic learning, and that should support constructivist learning and accept multiple perspectives. I think that sustainability as a task almost demands multiple perspectives.
Design authentic learning activities that build on existing knowledge, values and skills of all learning groups in the learning community. Create flexible tasks and tools for knowledge sharing to enable the notion of online learning. These tools include shared workspaces, discussion forums and other web-collaborative tools for study and social interaction.	Sustainability course aims to gain the skills and knowledge which can be applied to own personal life in order to make sustainable choices. Aim is to keep the course content flexible. Students can plan to work themselves. Students can choose the topics they want to work with and decide the working order. Tools planned for knowledge sharing in online learning are online discussion forums for working groups and blogs for writing the diary.
Establish responsive student roles and responsibilities to provide a sense of autonomy and ownership for students. This includes creating self-direction tasks and having methods that encourage students to take charge of their own learning paths.	Purpose is that work is done in self directing groups. Students plan themselves how the work is done. Roles and responsibilities in groups are agreed and they are also changing between the members. Group members will be positively dependent on each other.
Provide different forms of support, both within and outside of the learning community. This includes online help tools or provision for students to contact one another using web-based tools as well as providing flexible tutoring and mentoring roles. Another way is to provide various access means to different resources to promote students’ efforts to obtain information from multiple sources and perspectives.	There are student available for coaching who have already passed the course. Teacher is available also to provide support. Accesses to expert support is provided e.g. with online discussions. Groups have also online discussion forums and the blogs they are writing will be commented by other groups. Also the public presentations are arranged in common discussions online.
Provide flexibility in learning goals, outcomes and assessment modes. Using learner contracts with mature students or guidance.	The product will be a refined article to the magazine. Assessment will be integrated with the activity; there will be no separate testing. There are multiple measures of learning during the course, e.g. collaboration and article.

Reflection on authentic learning from a multicultural perspective

In this development task, I have here compared authentic learning elements and online education delivery principles by McLoughlin and Oliver (2000). They have used authentic learning approach in their principles and emphasized the importance of minimising cultural misunderstanding among teaching and learning groups. I wanted to understand what´s the difference. A summary of my reflection is shown below.

Authentic elements	Design principles for a culturally inclusive curriculum for online learners	My reflection
	Adopt an epistemology that is consistent with, and supportive of constructivist learning and acceptance of multiple perspectives.	Constructivist learning and multiple perspectives is part of the cultural understanding,
Authentic  context Authentic activity and tasks	Design authentic learning activities that build on existing knowledge, values and skills of all learning groups in the learning community. Create flexible tasks and tools for knowledge sharing to enable the notion of online learning. These tools include shared workspaces, discussion forums and other web-collaborative tools for study and social interaction.	Authentic learning is emphasized also in design principles. Tasks need to have a real-world relevance and meaningful to a learning group. Principles are also taking into account the flexible tools in online learning which are suitable for study and social interaction.
Expert performances		Networking, use also external expertise and more experienced learners. Can be part of the multicultural understanding.
Multiple perspectives		Important part for multicultural understanding was also present in a first principle added to epistemology definition.
Collaborative construction of knowledge	Establish responsive student roles and responsibilities to provide a sense of autonomy and ownership for students. This includes creating self-direction tasks and having methods that encourage students to take charge of their own learning paths.	Collaborative learning is emphasized in authentic elements. Design principles are more defining the independence and the responsibility of students. Earlier there was a mention about web-collaborative tools in principles but collaborative or peer-to-peer learning is not visible in principles
Reflection		Didn´t find reflection from design principles. I wonder why it has been left out. Isn´t that important for learning.
Articulation		Articulation is only emphasized in authentic elements. This could be part of taking responsibility of their learning anyway that design principles emphasize.
Coaching and Scaffolding	Provide different forms of support, both within and outside of the learning community. This includes online help tools or provision for students to contact one another using web-based tools as well as providing flexible tutoring and mentoring roles. Another way is to provide various access means to different resources to promote students’ efforts to obtain information from multiple sources and perspectives.	Support is noticed in elements and principles. Principles are defining how students can get support. Also teacher´s role would be good to define.
Authentic assessment	Provide flexibility in learning goals, outcomes and assessment modes. Using learner contracts with mature students or guidance.	Flexible assessment is defined. Principles don´t tell here if it´s an individual or group assessment.

Issues in multicultural online education

It seems that even if there are theories, guidelines and checklists concerning multicultural online teaching; it needs a lot of effort to implement multicultural e-learning environment properly. Main task is to get learners participate and engage to a course that learning can happen. There are several things to consider in implementation e.g. learning cultures, language and ICT which in online learning play the important role. 

 
ICT has already a big role in young people´s lives, and virtual interaction is natural for them. Children adopt easily functions from computer games. The challenge is for teachers and course planners to utilize children´s competence and construct online work methods for group-based collaboration. In many schools, also ICT resources might be limited for the use of the entire class.

In multicultural e-learning experiences, also English skills were raised as one obstacle. In multicultural environment some analysis of English skills could be useful at the beginning of a course. To lower language barriers, a use of diversified activities could help and also giving the opportunities to improve English proficiency to students. Visual communication instead of just text reading can help international students in learning.

Addition to language skills and ICT, online teachers need to have cultural sensitivity. The need of cross-cultural training for online teachers has been addressed since cross cultural competencies are specially needed in online learning environment. Teachers should be able to provide extra support to the international students to help their learning experience. Also students could need some culture and way of working orientation in the beginning of a course.

In general multicultural online courses should be planned to be flexible and variable that they could meet the diversified needs of multicultural learners. In order to understand this, online teacher could conduct pre analysis in order to get an understanding of the learners´ expectations and cultural backgrounds. That could help the teacher to adjust the diversity of the course.

With all these aspects, I think that a multicultural learning environment needs a new planning since certain things like cultural understanding, language barriers and ICT need extra attention and new competencies for a teacher. Also teacher´s role for supporting learners needs attention. 

Despite the demanding implementation, the attitude towards multicultural courses has been positive. This is the direction where learning is going and it´s worthwhile to learn to do effective multicultural online learning courses. I see that it´s a challenging work for the teacher at the beginning, new shoes are needed! Shoes should support flexibility and variability, or maybe it´s enough to take away the old shoes and continue with bare feet. They might fit best for this purpose!

Referencies

Liu, X., Liu, S., Lee, S.-H., & Magjuka, R. J. (2010). Cultural Differences in Online Learning: International Student Perceptions. Educational Technology & Society 13 (3), 177–188. Retrieved 18.7.2013 from http://www.ifets.info/journals/13_3/16.pdf

English-Korean Experiences of environmental education. Educational & Technology Society Journal 15 (2), 244-256.  http://www.ifets.info/journals/15_2/21.pdf