MS Teams for Teaching and Learning

                                   

        The use of e-learning platforms such as MS Teams, Zoom, Moodle, Google Classroom, Udemy etc. increased rapidly after the Covid-19 pandemic. When the covid-19 pandemic happened, all the educational institutions were closed, so, the students were unable to attend their classes, various e-learning and online learning platforms emerged. 

        According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), over 800 million learners from around the world have been affected during Covid-19 pandemic, 1 in 5 learners cannot attend school, 1 in 4 cannot attend higher education classes, and over 102 countries have ordered nationwide school closures while 11 have implemented localized school closure. This gave a huge boost to the e-learning platforms to boost up.

So, here, we will talk about MS-Teams as a means for teaching and learning. We will start from a start with a brief introduction of MS Teams.

        Microsoft Teams (MS Teams) is a learning-business communication platform developed by Microsoft, as part of the Microsoft 365 family. Throughout and after the Covid19 pandemic, Teams and other e-learning platforms gained much interest as many meetings and educational classes moved to a virtual environment. MS Teams is also a means of open and distance learning tools. ‘As of January 25, 2022, MS Teams has about 250 million monthly users.’ [1]

‘MS Teams rolled out in 2017 as part of the Microsoft Office 365 suite of work tools, which is very commonly used in higher education. Initially, Teams was mostly about distributed collaboration on shared projects. However, of late, it has been brought into play for teaching and learning, given the sudden shift to online learning in the initial Covid-19 pandemic.’ [2]

        MS-Teams has contributed greatly to the teaching and learning processes. It, somehow, replaced the traditional way of teaching-learning practices in recent times. Even in Nepal, Teams is being used for teaching-learning practices in the major university, Nepal Open University, for online and distance learning. Teams have helped both the teachers as well as the students for educational purposes. The class template for a Teams includes various base resources: posts, files, class notebooks, assignments, grades and wiki. The Assignments tab enables the creation of assignments and quizzes.

        MS-Teams have gotten particularly important features for teaching and learning. One of the major features of Teams is Chats. Teams allow its users to communicate through chats and also allow the users to format text and ask questions to the tutor. Another important feature of MS Teams is Teams which allow admins and teachers to set up specific teams for classes to join through a specific link or invitations sent by the admins or the teachers.

        Breakout rooms is also one of the major features of MS Teams which allow users to split a meeting into small groups. Users can activate this feature during or before a meeting. There are also some other key features of MS Teams which include channels, Group conversations, Telephone replacements, Meetings. 

        So, to conclude, I think that MS Teams has greatly contributed in the teaching-learning process. MS Teams has helped the students of higher level (bachelors, masters) to complete their courses and degrees in the form of open and distance learning. For a country like Nepal, it's so challenging to open universities in each part of the country, so MS Teams is helping the teachers to reach the students.

 

    References

1.)Tejaswi, Mini (July 28, 2021). "Microsoft Teams has nearly 250 million monthly active users: Nadella". The Hindu. Mini Tejaswi. Retrieved December 2, 2021.

2.)Hai-Jew,S, (2020). Evaluating "MS-Teams" for Teaching and Learning, [C2C Digital Magazine], p.7

 

Brief History of Learning Theories

                                BRIEF HISTORY OF LEARNING THEORIES            

                                  The humans are learning since they have evolved, so the learning process is always happening. Learning is a continuous and dynamic process. Learning is "a process that leads to change, which occurs as a result of experience and increases the potential for improved performance and future learning." (Ambrose et al, 2010, p.3).  Learning theory describes how a learner receive, process and retain knowledge during learning.

                Now, we will have a look at the different theories developed at the different stages. The first theories which existed before the Fifties was BEHAVIOURISM. This systematic approach assumes that all behaviors are reflexes produced by a response to certain stimuli in the environment. It focuses mainly one particular view which is : a change in the external behavior of a particular achieved through through using reinforcement and repetition. In behaviourism theory, the desired behaviour is rewarded where as the undesired one is punished. This approach focuses mainly on rote learning.

                        In the sixties, a new approach emerged which is known as COGNITIVISM. Cognitivism refers to the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience and the senses. It is the psychology of learning which emphasizes on how we think and how we gain knowledge. It is about how we learn, how we solve problems and how we memorize new knowledge.

                                Now, we will talk about the third theory which emerged in the late sixties by the name of CONSTRUCTIVISM, with the assumption that, by reflecting on our experiences, we construct our own understanding. The guiding principles of Constructivism are : knowledge is constructed, not transmitted, prior knowledge impacts the learning process and building new knowledge requires efforts and meaningful activities. It is about constructing our own knowledge which can differ from one person to another, even if the learning context is the same.

                                Now, we will focus on the most most praised and recent learning theory which goes by the name of SOCIO-CONSTRUCTIVISM. In this theory, we must mention Jean Piaget, a swiss psychologist , who rejected the idea that learning was the passive assimilation of given knowledge. Instead, Piaget proposed that learning is a dynamic process in which learners actively construct knowledge by creating and testing their own own theories with the ones of other actors. Thus, socio-constructivism extends the learning theory of constructivism by integrating the active role of learning interactions. Since, the end of the last century, the learning model of socio-constructivism is considered the dominant theory to understand the learning process, emphasizing the importance of contextualization and social interactions.

                                  

                       References:-

   Ambrose, S.A. et.al. (2010). How Learning Works Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass                       

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