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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 186 (2015) 898 – 902

5th World Conference on Learning, Teaching and Educational Leadership, WCLTA 2014

Teaching and Learning Enhanced by Information and

Communication Technologies
Blanka Frydrychova Klimovaa*
a
University of Hradec Kralove, Rokitanskeho 62, Hradec Kralove, 500 03, Czech Republic

Abstract

This article reflects on significant changes in teaching and learning enhanced by constantly emerging new information and
communication technologies (ICT), which have altered common approaches to teaching and learning. The purpose of the article
is to explore three striking phenomena such as learner centeredness, interactivity and mobility which underpin current non-
traditional teaching and learning that is becoming a norm. In addition, blended learning as a new methodology exploiting all
these phenomena is examined.
©©2015
2015TheTheAuthors.
Authors. Published
Published by Elsevier
by Elsevier Ltd.Ltd.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
Peer-review under responsibility of Academic World Education and Research Center.
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of Academic World Education and Research Center
Keywords: ICT; learner centeredness; interactivity; mobility; cloud computing; blended learning

1. Introduction

Within the past 20 years any sphere of education has dramatically changed owing to constantly emerging
information and communication technologies (ICT). They have altered common approaches to teaching and
learning. As Bonk (2011) puts it: Anyone can now learn anything from anyone at anytime. In addition, he states that
the Web is becoming our preferred learning platform and non-traditional learning is suddenly the norm. Siemens
(2004) adds: We can no longer personally experience everything. There is too much. We create networks to learn
more than we can as individuals.

* Blanka Frydrychova Klimova. Tel.: +420-493-332-318

E-mail address: blanka.klimova@uhk.cz

1877-0428 © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of Academic World Education and Research Center
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.04.112
 Blanka Frydrychova Klimova / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 186 (2015) 898 – 902 899

2. Changes in Teaching and Learning Enhanced by ICT

Teaching and learning is becoming more:

A. learner-centred;
B. interactive; and
C. mobile (cf. Sorden, 2012).

a) The teacher is not the authority in the class anymore. S/he is a kind of facilitator, advisor or mentor (cf.
Frydrychova and Poulova, 2011). Moreover, Shneiderman (2003) claims that the teacher’s role is to activate
and develop creativity. The technology should not lead; the teacher should teach/ navigate his/ her learners how
to process and form scientific knowledge and enquiry. This reflects the so-called concept of the Community of
Inquiry (CoI, cf. Lipman, 2003) in which teacher is to stir students to think about the world when teachers
reveal knowledge to be ambiguous, equivocal, and mysterious. This theory was in 1990’s expanded to online
learning contexts (cf. Garrison, Anderson and Archer, 2000; Garrison and Vaughan, 2008). The CoI framework
was designed to define, describe and measure elements supporting the development of online learning
communities. The three principle elements identified by the CoI model are social presence, cognitive presence
and teaching presence. Social presence is defined as the degree to which participants in computer-mediated
communication feel affectively connected one to another; cognitive presence is conceptualized as the extent to
which learners are able to construct and confirm meaning through sustained reflection and discourse; and
teaching presence is defined as the design, facilitation and direction of cognitive and social processes to support
learning (cf. Swan and Ice, 2010). See also Fig.1 for its demonstration.

Fig. 1. A Model of Community of Inquiry

b) The 21st century learners cannot imagine their studies without being able to interact with the online materials or
their peers. As Jung, Choi, Lim and Leem (2002) claim, interactivity is especially important in overcoming one
of the shortcomings of traditional distance education, that is, a lack of interpersonal interaction. In addition,
Bednarikova (2013) suggests implementing the so-called ACCEL model (Activity-Co-operation-Conformity-
Entrance-life styles) when running online courses. ACCEL is an educational model for interactive online
education with the ICT support and it has the following five pillars:

x activity, which requires an active and thinking approach from students;

x co-operation, which supposes that participants will be involved into discussions, joint assignments and projects;
900 Blanka Frydrychova Klimova / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 186 (2015) 898 – 902

x conformity, which means an adjustment to students’ requirements, needs and possibilities;

x entrance, which means that the study enables a qualitative entrance to information sources; and
x life styles, which means that the study is adjusted to students’ life style, their time and financial possibilities;
independence on place and time.

c) Learners want to have an opportunity to study at anytime and anywhere. Nowadays it is possible thanks to the
cloud computing which enables learners to get things done via wire without considering hardware condition.
Thus, learning materials can be available anywhere on any device. One does not have to double duplicate them
anymore and does not be afraid of losing USB flash disc. Moreover, the cloud computing offers services such
as interactive platforms (Youtube) that allows teachers and students to extend their learning beyond the
traditional classroom environment (cf. Cui, 2014). In addition, Ishihara and Ham (2012) list certain benefits of
using cloud computing for learning, in their case for foreign language learning:

x students seem to spend more time on learning outside the classroom with the help of cloud computing;
x students are more interested in both their and classmates’ study through cloud-based activities; and
x cloud-based file sharing with students helps teachers to provide more specific and relevant comments on their
work.

3. Blended Learning

However, all the three characteristics mentioned above require new learning approaches out which the best seems
blended learning (cf. Sorden, 2012). As Sorden (2012) states, blended learning is not a mere combination of face-to-
face and online learning. It is a combination of training methodologies, which uses the best delivery method for the
successful achievement of the learning objective. It requires not only a flexible and experienced teacher/ tutor, but
also a self-regulated/ autonomous learner (cf. Frydrychova Klimova and Poulova, 2011; Paris and Paris, 2001).
Based on the literature review (Graham, 2005; or Khan, 2005), there have been identified four main principles of
the blended learning methodology so far:

x a thoughtful integration of face-to-face and fully online instructional components;

x innovative use of technology;
x reconceptualization of the learning paradigm; and
x sustained assessment and evaluation of blended learning.

1. The first principle attempts to enrich the benefits of both environments and successfully meet the diverse
students’ needs and preferences.
2. The second principle means that any technology should be applied in a pedagogically appropriate way and used
for creating and maintaining socially situated and highly interactive learning (Vaughan, 2007).
3. The third principle tries to incorporate new emerging pedagogies and learning theories such as constructivism or
activity theory, together with the new challenging roles of students and teachers in the process of acquiring
knowledge and its understanding, such as the Community of Inquiry concept.
4. The fourth principle of the blended learning methodology should ensure the quality and effectiveness of
education.
The main reasons why blended learning should be employed in teaching is as follows:

x it contributes to pedagogy because it supports more interactive strategies, not only face-to-face teaching
(Graham et al, 2003);
x it thus encourages collaborative learning; students or educators can work together on some projects from
anywhere and at any time (Bruffee, 1993);
x it deepens intercultural awareness since it puts together researchers, educators, and students from anywhere in
the world;
 Blanka Frydrychova Klimova / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 186 (2015) 898 – 902 901

x it reduces costs of teaching and learning since students do not have to undertake so many frequent travels to
complete their education (Graham et al., 2003); and
x it might match student’s learning style although there is no clear consensus on this issue (Coffield, 2004;
Gregorc, 1979; Poulova and Simonova, 2012).

However, there are also drawbacks of blended learning (see, for example, Cech & Klimova, 2003). Blended
learning is time-consuming and demanding in terms of creating materials and preparation and evaluation.
Furthermore, both students and teachers sometimes have limited knowledge regarding the use of technology, and
technical glitches are liable to happen at any moment. Finally, students’ study skills are often not sufficiently
developed to enable them to benefit maximally from blended learning.

4. Conclusion

Thus teachers inevitably must adjust their teaching to these new challenging computer-mediated teaching
conditions and explicitly instruct their students how to make their learning most effective with the help of ICT.
Therefore teachers should provide their students with a study guide which would explain to them how to proceed in
their studies. Furthermore, teachers should show their students that it is them who are responsible for their studies in
this new computer-mediated environment and who can enormously profit from networking with their peer and their
teacher/ tutor.

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