This section discusses the terminological choices made for the purposes of this study as regards some of its key concepts. These concepts are a) network-based teaching as the object of the study; b) foreign language and business communica-tion as the context of the study; and c) affordances both as an overarching concept embedded in the study and specifically, as used in one of its research questions.
a) Network-based teaching and learning
As terminology related to educational settings mediated or supported by technol-ogy varies in different parts of the world, clarification of the way pertinent termi-nology is used throughout the current study is needed. As an example of varied terminology in use, network-based teaching itself is a case in point as, indeed, many other terms are being used to describe the same concept or related aspects of the concept. In Finnish educational contexts, the current emphasis seems to be on network-based education (“verkko-opetus” in Finnish) (Tella 2001, 19). Under the umbrella concept of network-based education, the current study makes frequent references to network-based teaching as the study approaches its central themes largely from the teacher’s perspective. In addition, the use of the term network-based is in line with the concept of network-network-based language teaching (NBLT) ad-vocated by Warschauer and Kern (2000). Conceptually, teaching is understood as part of a larger concept that includes studying and learning as well, as discussed in Chapter 3. When this study refers to learning instead of teaching, the emphasis in general is on the learner’s perspective.
Since the current study covers a period of several years, changes in the use of relevant terminology are apparent throughout this research report. For example, some of the research data in the earlier stages of the research makes references to telematic2, telematics or telematics-based environments instead of network-based or networked environments, terms which emerged during the later stages of the research project. However, within the context of the present study, no conceptual difference in meaning is intended between the terms telematics-based and network-based.
As for the varied terminology in use, Bates (2000; 2001) argues that termino-logical variances reflect the major structural changes taking place in the manage-ment and organization of teaching. As Bates (2001) puts it, the state of termino-logical flux is one indication of the fact that the field is in a period of transition. He points out as an example that, in North America, current technology-enhanced edu-cational developments are commonly placed under the heading of distributed learning, whereas in the UK, similar developments may be referred to as net-worked learning, and, in Australia, as flexible learning.
As for the concepts of distance learning and online learning, they generally refer to educational contexts in which the participants come from geographically dispersed locations and utilize various telecommunications media for attending their classes. However, as online courses are increasingly also offered on campus
2 French researchers Alain Minc and Simon Nora first used the concept of telematics (télématique) in 1978 in reference to such teleinformatics that serves individual users rather than organizations (Tella 1994, 9). As such, the term ‘telematic’ refers to the integration of telecommunications and computing (Martin 1981).
and often include face-to-face sessions, the term “distance” has started to lose its original connotation. Instead, terms such as multimodal, multi-mode, flexi-mode, hybrid, and blended are increasingly used to describe course formats that integrate classroom teaching and technology-mediated modes. This study chooses to use the term multimodal when referring to such an integrated format. As for the term on-line, it is used in the present study in reference to such modules or sections of a multimodal course placed in technology-mediated environments that use, for in-stance, e-mail or computer conferencing as communication channels.
Furthermore, yet another example of the prevailing terminological flux can be seen in the use of the term virtual. Although the term is used in the names of such current national initiatives as the Finnish Virtual University and the Finnish Virtual Language Center, it seems that, in many cases, more concrete terms such as ‘net-work-based’ or ‘web-based’ are currently often replacing the term virtual, which was in common usage throughout the 1990s (cf. e.g., Hiltz 1990; Tiffin & Rajas-ingham 1995). Consequently, as the data for this study was collected in the latter part of the 1990s, some of the data also includes references to ‘virtual’ as in ‘virtual classroom’.
Throughout the current study, the technologies utilized in network-based teaching are referred to as ICTs or information and communication technologies although the study also refers to media. When the term media is used instead of ICTs, the communication aspect is being emphasized. In the context of this study, ICT, or Information and Communication Technology, in the singular is used when reference is intended as an umbrella term for the general concept of the application, methods, theory and/or practices of a variety of relevant technologies. Not perhaps least because of the wide use of the term by the European Union, the term ICT ei-ther as a noun or a modifier (as e.g. in the compound ICT-enhanced) seems to be commonly used in European contexts in particular.
During the process of writing up this research report, yet new terms and con-cepts have come about. One of them in frequent use at the time of present writing, e-learning, seems popular not least because the business sector and other institu-tional sectors seem to promote its use. Furthermore, the convergence of e-learning technologies with mobile technologies has generated the concept of m-learning.
However, in order to maintain terminological and conceptual coherence, the psent study attempts to avoid the use of terms not yet coined during the action re-search project reported in this study.
b) Foreign Language and Business Communication Teaching
Throughout the current study, references are made to the concept of foreign lan-guage and business communication teaching in connection with the field of study in which this research is embedded. Although there is no actual separate discipline
called “foreign language and business communication”, the choice of the concept has been deliberately made for the purposes of the study. Its use emphasizes the fact that the context of this study is not general language teaching, but teaching business communication that mainly takes place through a foreign language. The focus of the study is narrowed down to English business communication taught to higher education business studies students, who are advanced level, mainly non-native speakers of English.
c) Affordances
From the perspective of this study, the choice of the concept of affordances in con-nection with the use of educational ICTs calls for clarification. The concept itself was introduced by Gibson (1979) in his ecological approach to visual perception.
According to Gibson (1979, 127), “[t]he affordances of the environment are what it [the environment] offers the animal, what it provides or furnishes, either for good or ill.” In his adoption of Gibson’s concept of affordances, Norman (1993, 105–107) explains that the affordances of an object refer to its possible functions.
He applies the concept of affordances to technologies and argues that different technologies afford different operations. Norman (1993, 107) points out that when a technology attempts to force a medium into a usage that violates its affordances, the medium gets in the way. As a result, a reasonable idea can thus be made inhu-mane by the affordances of the media.3
Interestingly enough, various ecological approaches including the perspective of affordances have been introduced to both language education, on the one hand, and to the field of educational media technologies, on the other. In the field of guage education, van Lier (2000) introduces the ecological perspective into lan-guage teaching and learning and proposes replacing the notion of linguistic input by the ecological notion of affordances, which refers to the relationship between properties of the environment and the active learner. van Lier (2000, 252) stresses that if the language learner is active and engaged, he/she will perceive linguistic affordances and use them for linguistic action. On the other hand, in the field of media education, Allen and Otto (1996, 201) (cf. also Ryder & Wilson 1996) de-fine affordances as opportunities for action. It is this definition that the current study adopts when exploring affordances yielded by educational media.
3 As an example of a reasonable idea made inhumane by the affordances of the medium, Norman (1993, 107–108) refers to impersonal telephone voice-messaging systems used by many compa-nies, which a large number of customers find annoying.
2 ICTs as an Educational Innovation
“The more complex the change, the less you can force it.”
(Fullan 1993, 22)
This chapter will examine ICTs—information and communication technolo-gies—as an educational innovation. It will first review various definitions of an educational innovation, then focus on the diffusion of such innovations, and finally, it will explore some common barriers to adopting the use of ICTs in higher educa-tion.