Assessing the Blackboard LMS Paperless Semester Experiment from a Communal Constructivist Lens at a Technological University in Taiwan
This article reports on some of the findings of a paperless semester experiment (17 weeks) conducted at a major technological university in Taiwan via the hyper-hybridization of the Blackboard Learning Management System (hereafter, Bb LMS) into an instructors five English-language content courses. The study was conducted with the goal of assessing computer-mediated-communication (CMC) instructorstudent and student-student interactions from a Vygotskyian-inspired communal constructivist epistemological perspective. Data were gathered ethnographically via structured and semi-structured interviews, participant observations, the researchers and student-participants reflective journals, Bb LMS synchronous (e.g., Bb Chatroom) and asynchronous (e.g., Bb Discussion Board) CMC, audiorecordings of selected courses, Bb LMS statistics, and students course evaluations, and analyzed according to Strauss and Corbins (1998) grounded theoretical (open, axial and selective) data codification procedures. Results indicate that the Bb LMS, warts and all, is more than just a trendy green alternative to traditional teaching methods or a convenient online filing repository; rather, it was found to foster student-instructor and studentstudent interactions and serve as a platform upon which interlocutors scaffolded one another in authentic target-language learning contexts. Moreover, it proffered the instructor a window through which to view students protracted interlanguage development and afforded students the chance to comment on each others written texts both synchronously and asynchronously. Viewed objectively, however, increased CMC interactions also ushered in a number of expected and unexpected challenges. Predictably, heightened online interactions required a substantial time commitment on everyones part. More surprisingly, the instructor found it difficult to surrender his revered sage-onthe-stage persona in favor of a more flexible eleaming teaching style. This report, albeit fraught with its own limitations, might be of interest to those who wish to upgrade their commitment to the creation of hyper-hybridized e-leaming contexts in Taiwan and beyond.
Blackboard computer assisted language learning (CALL) computer-mediated communication (CMC) learning management system (LMS) paperless semester communal constructivism
Robert E. Johanson Hsi-Fang Huang
Department of Applied Foreign Languages National Taiwan University of Science & Technology
国际会议
2009 International Conference on Applied Linguistics & Language Teaching(2009应用语言学暨语言教学国际研讨会)
台湾
英文
126-135
2009-04-01（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）