International
Journal of
Educational
Technology

Online Learning in Schools:
Some Lessons from Pole-Vaulting

- Cher Ping Lim, National Institute of Education
at Nanyang Technological University

Abstract

Drawing a parallel between the introduction of Internet technologies in schools and the introduction of a new vaulting pole to pole-vaulting, this paper explores key issues of successful integration of online learning in schools. It highlights the need for a paradigm shift in learning to build a learning culture in schools and a strategic plan in schools to enculturate their students to be lifelong learners.

Introduction

As we move into the new millennium, the spectacular proliferation and integration of computers and networks have fuelled the creation of a global information environment. In the face of this continuing and rapid technological change, the job market requires people who are adaptable to change, and who can discard obsolete assumptions without trauma. To survive in the marketplace, schools need to enculturate their students to be lifelong learners – to learn how to seek out new information, think critically and show initiative to meet up with the challenges of the fast-changing world.

Over the last few years, online learning has been perceived to be springboards for successful enculturation of lifelong learning in schools. Online learning is the asynchronous or/and synchronous facilitation of learning over the Internet to the learners’ computers. Online learning has the potential of allowing students to access up-to-date information anywhere and anytime, promoting active and independent learning, and supporting communication between experts and novices (Rosenberg, 2000). Attracted by these opportunities, schools began to focus on the technological challenges of buying the right courseware, getting enough bandwidth allocated to online learning, and obtaining state of the art learning tools. However, a successful online learning strategy must be more than the technology itself or the content it carries. The strategy must address the important question of: ‘How do we make online learning part of the culture of the organization, and optimise its opportunities and address its limitations to promote lifelong learning?’

To propose a more holistic approach towards online learning in schools, this paper uses pole-vaulting as a metaphor to draw a parallel between the introduction of Internet technologies in schools and the introduction of a newly innovated pole in pole-vaulting. It describes the opportunities and limitations of the new vaulting pole for pole-vaulting and makes links to explore the opportunities and limitations of online learning for schools.  Therefore, the pole-vaulting metaphor provides readers with visual images of theoretical relationships that enable them to acquire abstract concepts and ideas of online learning in schools.  To provide the readers with a context for these concepts and ideas, this paper draws upon examples of online learning in Singapore schools (up to K-12 typed schools).

The Pole-Vaulting Metaphor

The aim of pole-vaulting, as a track and field event, is to clear the highest possible height with the help of a vaulting pole. The pole mediates between the athlete and the objective of clearing the crossbar. The pole is basically categorised according to its flexibility, weight and length. The greater the flexibility, the easier it is for the pole to bend, and hence gives the athlete a better pivot. However, it has less recoil and does not project the athlete as high. A higher weight number means greater recoil, but at the expense of flexibility. That is, a particular type of pole enhances certain aspects of the vault (for example, better pivot), but at the same time, it constrains him/her from other aspects of the vault (for example, less recoil).  For example, a pole with a higher flexibility number allows for a better pivot to propel the athlete higher; but due to the trade-off between flexibility and weight number, the pole has a lower weight number that restricts the recoil that will otherwise has propelled the athlete higher.

New technologies in material sciences may introduce an aerodynamic vaulting pole that has both a higher flexibility number and weight number. That is, without a trade-off between the weight and flexibility numbers, coupled with better responsiveness, the pole provides better pivot, recoil and response that have the potential to enhance the performance of the athlete. However, providing the opportunities for better performances may not necessarily be translated into the clearance of greater heights by the athlete.  Let us look at a scenario of the fate of two athletes using the new vaulting pole. Before the introduction of the new pole, the personal best of both athletes are the same. When the new pole is used, one athlete improves and goes on to win the national championship, and later the Olympics and manages to set a world record. However, the other athlete’s performance dips, and he resorts to steroids and gets banned for life. A similar vaulting pole is used by both athletes but with very different outcomes.

The new pole enables, and at the same time, constrains the athletes to clear a higher crossbar. A more aerodynamic pole has faster response but limits the time for athletes to execute the vault. A higher flexibility and weight number provide better pivot and recoil but marginalize athletes that are less flexible and agile, and lack upper body strength. In order to take up the opportunities and address the limitations of the pole, a shift in the mindset of the athlete and his/her pole-vaulting community and a strategic plan for using the new vaulting pole are necessary. A shift in mindset requires reassessments of the basic understanding of pole-vaulting, techniques of pole-vaulting, design of the training programme, and sports equipment. For example, if the vault is executed in exactly the same way as before, except for the use of the new vaulting pole, the athlete’s performance is likely to dip. A strategic plan involves a shared vision of rethinking about pole-vaulting with the new pole, an audit of the strengths and weaknesses of the athlete and his/her community, and a redesign of the training programme, support and equipment.  For example, if the athlete lacks upper-body strength, he/she may not be able to take advantage of the opportunities of the new vaulting pole.

Therefore, the training regime has to change and be designed to take up the opportunities and address the constraints of the new pole. The participants in the training environment have to perceive the opportunities and constraints of the new pole, design a training regime to match the athlete with the new pole, carry out the training, reflect upon it, and adapt it accordingly. All these take place in a sociocultural setting of the culture of the society towards sports, sponsors, sporting goods manufacturers, vaulting pole developers and distributors, international and national athletic associations, athlete’s club, his/her team mates, and his/her coach or mentor.

Implications for Online Learning

Although the scenario drawn may be simplistic, it provides us with a conceptual anchor to ground and communicate key issues for online learning in schools. Just like the new pole, Internet technologies do not exist in isolation; they are interwoven with the rest of the tools, and participants in the working environment. The strategies of online learning in schools must focus on the whole configuration of events, activities, contents, and interpersonal processes taking place in the context that online learning is carried out. Therefore, the implications for successful online learning in schools are:

• Shifting the paradigm of learning to build a learning culture in schools
• Developing a strategic plan that situates online learning to enculturate students to be lifelong learners

Shifting the Paradigm of Learning to Build a Learning Culture in Schools

Very often in schools, Internet technologies are merely bolted-on to existing classroom teaching and learning activities, leaving the traditional curriculum, learning objectives, teaching strategies and student learning activities more or less intact. For example, from textbooks to web-based books, or from Powerpoint presentations in class to Powerpoint presentation via the Internet. The learning medium may have changed, but the learning paradigm that the medium is situated in remains constant.  For example, the learning paradigm adopted by the Powerpoint presentations of certain concepts in the classroom is a cognitivist one, where learning is associated with the transmission of knowledge.  The same paradigm may be adopted when the same concepts are being taught via the Internet where the same Powerpoint presentations are made available online.  Although online learning may facilitate independent self-paced learning, the potential of online learning may not be optimized if there is no shift in the learning paradigm.

Human beings have a tendency to maintain order and control in their lives that many will unconsciously alter innovations to fit into their existing ways of doing things. Faced with pressures to adopt online learning, school administrators and teachers may deal with the situation in terms of the existing paradigm. Paradigms are well-accepted sets of rules that lay boundaries for our thinking, and provide a set of guidelines for problem solving within those boundaries. The existing paradigm may serve as a filter, preventing schools from experimenting with approaches that are contrary to prevailing wisdom (Kay, 1996).

Therefore, there must be a shift in the paradigm of learning in schools. Learning is a continuous, cultural process and not simply a series of lectures or tutorials. The basic idea is expressed in the ‘general law of cultural development’, where Vygotsky proposes that cognitive function appears “twice, or in two planes.  First it appears on the social plane and then on the psychological plane.  First it appears between people as an interpsychological category and then within the individual child (learner) as an intrapsychological category” (Vygotsky, 1978, p.57). Learning is the appropriation of a particular way of thinking (for example, thinking like a scientist or economist) where students learn through participation in joint activities (Rogoff, 1990).  Therefore, learning encompasses more than education and training; it includes broad-based experiences from interactions and exchanges among students to trial and error when undertaking a project. Such a shift in paradigm ensures the openness of schools and their participants to new ideas, as well as enables them to understand and accept the need and opportunity to change.

With a shift in paradigm, schools can then begin to build a learning culture; one that encourages knowledge generation and sharing, supports an atmosphere of learning from mistakes, and assures that what is learnt is incorporated into future activities, decisions, and initiatives of the students. Schools need to design and carry out learning activities that reflect acceptance of and relevance to the students’ world: Firstly, engage students in challenging yet personally meaningful problems. Secondly, embed basic skill ‘instruction’ in a broader and more authentic problem-solving context. And thirdly, draw on students’ conceptual and cultural world of experiences (Fisher, Dwyer, & Yocam, 1996). With such a culture in place, it is then more likely that online learning will be successfully carried out in schools.  

Developing a strategic plan that situates online learning
to enculturate students to be lifelong learners

Schools need to view online learning as providing a unique opportunity to redefine themselves and their role to enculturate students to be lifelong learners. It is at the school level that programs are put into operation, changes get introduced, and policies get translated into programs and activities. Although the school is the centre of change, some schools may not perceive the opportunities of online learning, and other schools may perceive the opportunities but refuse to redefine themselves.  The challenge for these schools will be a willingness to consider the ways in which network technologies can provide better learning opportunities. It is only when this challenge has been addressed that schools can start developing a strategic plan for online learning. 

A strategic plan involves "the process by which the guiding members of an organisation envision its future and develop the necessary procedures and operations to achieve that future" (Goodstein, Nolan, & Pfeiffer, 1993, p.3). Envisioning is a process by which individuals or groups develop a vision of a future state for their organisations that is both sufficiently clear and powerful to arouse the actions necessary for that vision to become reality. The vision statement of schools, with respect to online learning, may be: Through the integration of online learning in the schools, students are enculturated to be lifelong learners in an information-based society. This vision has to be shared by all members of the school community. Successful envisioning breaks the existing paradigm by testing it and moving outside one’s usual assumptions.

However, to avoid a misalignment between culture and vision, there is a need to conduct a culture audit. The culture audit is a focused effort that involves the simultaneous study of the school’s internal strengths and weaknesses that may positively or negatively affect the school in its efforts to achieve the desired future (Pierce & Robinson, 1991). It assesses the level of resistance to change, and whether it is spread, like mist, uniformly throughout the organisation or lies in pockets associated with specific job levels or functions, or staff characteristics (Becker, 1996). It will definitely be painful for some members of the school, but it is a critical issue of strategic planning that must be tackled. It is be worth noting that in the case of network technologies, many schools are still asking themselves where and how can they be used most effectively for learning.  There are issues of equity and privacy, as well as issues of alternative tools (network and non-network tools) that need to be considered beyond simply rooting out the resistance.

After the cultural audit, there is a need to develop a specific operational plan for each organisational element – namely organisation, operations, human resource and financial. These unit plans that have been separately developed are then knitted together into a seamless whole (Goodstein et. al, 1993). The operational plan may incorporate re-engineering efforts, academic program changes and administrative support alignments. These action plans, grounded in a realistic assessment of the current state, with an equally acute vision of the future goals, become the new strategy and conceptual framework for the successful integration of online learning in schools.

For example, the cultural audit may serve as a platform that allows teachers to re-examine both their roles and their students’ roles in the classroom. By reflecting on their own strengths and weaknesses and their students’, teachers are then more likely to become fellow learners rather than authoritative experts, and guides rather than information dispensers in the online learning environment. While teachers who prepare the online activities may determine what is learnt, students have substantial control over the rate and style of learning. This cultivates a learning culture dominated by the search for explanation, justification and proof of various concepts and theories discussed.

The successful implementation of a strategic plan requires the initial creativity and energy to develop the plan, the courage and commitment to introduce it, and the persistence and thoroughness to see it through to its implementation. However, implementation is not the final phase of strategic planning, it is an ongoing process throughout the other phases. Schools must continually monitor both their internal and external environment that may threaten the successful implementation of their strategies.

Conclusion

The pole-vaulting metaphor has provided this paper with explanation structures that articulate key implications to successful online learning integration in schools. The implications highlight the need for a paradigm shift in learning to build a learning culture in schools and a strategic plan in schools to situate online learning to enculturate students to be lifelong learners. However, these implications must be treated as tentative guides that provide issues for readers to think about the situations they are in.

I’ll end this paper with the following quote: ‘When the wind changes, the cynic complains about the wind; the idealist expects the wind to change; but the realist shifts the sail accordingly to optimise the potentials of the wind’. To enculturate our students to be lifelong learners requires us to be realists, who share the vision of taking up the unique opportunities of online learning and formulating successful online learning strategies for our schools and society.

References

Becker, F.D. (1996). Cultural audit. International Workplace Review. February Issue.

Fisher, C., Dwyer, D.C., & Yocam, K. (1996). Education and Technology: Reflections on Computing in Classrooms. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Goodstein, L.D., Nolan, T.M., & Pfeiffer, J.W. (1993). Applied Strategic Planning: How to Develop a Plan that Really Works. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Kay, A. (1996). Revealing the elephant: The use and misuse of computers in education. Educom Review. 31, July/August.

Pierce, J. & Robinson, E. (1991). Strategic Management. Homewood: Irwin.

Rogoff, B. (1990). Apprenticeship in Thinking: Cognitive Development in Social Context. New York: Oxford University Press.

Rosenberg, M.J. (2000). E-learning: Strategies for Delivering Knowledge in the Digital Age. New York: McGraw-Hill.