Social presence of inservice teachers in distance learning

Currently, various innovative uses of synchronous or asynchronous learning platforms to stretch the boundaries of traditional courses have been adopted for inservice teacher training. This paper aims to report a web-based distance learning course for teachers of secondary and primary schools in remote areas in Taiwan. Fifty-eight in-service teachers who teach different subjects participated in a four-week course on English reading strategies. Three reading texts were selected. For each text, video-based instruction was provided, followed by exercises and homework. The participants were required to participate in online discussions. The participants’ social presence in the forum was investigated. Based on the findings, implications for teacher training were presented.
目前各式創新的同步及非同步學習平台被採用以延伸傳說之教師在職課程進修，使其不受時空之限制。本研究旨在報導為台灣偏遠地區之中小學教師開設之網路遠距教學課程其中一門「英語閱讀策略」中，針對學員參與線上討論之「社會臨場感」加以探討。共有58位在職教師參與此為期4週之課程。其中三課課文選讀及閱讀策略均以視訊進行教學，學員並需於非同步討論區中互動。根據研究發現，提供教師在職訓練之相關建議。 Copyright © 2010 臺北市立教育大學人文藝術學院英語教學系.