Online learning in primary schools

Abstract

Online learning originally focused on busy working adults or students living in remote areas. Over the years though, students of all ages and backgrounds have begun using online learning to support their educational needs. In fact, online learning is now used to support the education of many primary school students in an increasing number of schools around the world. In the following chapter, the skills acquired and benefits that online learning can bring to primary aged students are highlighted as well as some of the challenges associated with online learning for this age group.

Full text

ONLINE LEARNING IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS
Chapter
ONLINE LEARNING IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS
Damian Maher*
University of Technology, Sydney
ABSTRACT
Online learning originally focused on busy working adults or students living in remote areas.
Over the years though, students of all ages and backgrounds have begun using online learning
to support their educational needs. In fact, online learning is now used to support the
education of many primary school students in an increasing number of schools around the
world. In the following chapter, the skills acquired and benefits that online learning can bring
to primary aged students are highlighted as well as some of the challenges associated with
online learning for this age group.
Keywords: online learning, primary schools, social networking systems, cyber safety, 21st
century skills
INTRODUCTION
The school bell rings and the students tumble out of the classroom for yet another
afternoon. Alex checks her smart phone to make sure the train is running on time and
then sends a text message to her Dad to let him know she will be home by four o’clock.
After she gets home and has a snack she settles down to complete her homework. First
she goes to her teacher’s YouTube page and checks out the video her teacher posted
explaining her homework. She then logs into her class blog and downloads resources for
her class project. After that, she videoconferences with her science group using Google
Hangout; they work on their presentation together using Google docs and start to put
together a movie using iMovie. She then works on her math homework and takes a
SnapChat picture of one of the problems and emails her teacher for assistance.
The scenario presented above is not uncommon. It highlights some of the ways primary-
aged students are already learning online in countries around the world. This way of learning
is likely to increase as more and more young people get regular access to the Internet.
Already though, in Australia, 93% of households with children under 15 years of age have
access to the Internet (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2011); in the United States, 93% of
children aged 12-17 have access to the Internet (Lenhart, Purcell, Smith, & Zickuhr, 2010);
and in the United Kingdom 99% of children aged 8-17 have regular access to the Internet
(Cowie & Colliety, 2010). With increased access, the Internet has become an integral aspect
of many young people’s lives mirroring at the same time the dramatic growth of online
learning over the past decade (Boulind & Mendez Coca, 2013)
* Corresponding Author address
Email: damian.maher@uts.edu.au

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Despite the high use of the Internet for learning and leisure by young people, there are
those who caution its unrestricted use. For instance, there are concerns about online safety
(Maher, 2008) as well as general health concerns such as eyesight issues (Blehm, Vishnu,
Khattak, Mitra, & Yee, 2005). But despite concerns like these, there are some very good
reasons to get students learning online—even during their primary school grades (e.g.,
socialisation and enculturation to online communities of practice).
In the following chapter, the benefits that online learning is bringing to primary aged
students are highlighted—with a specific focus on some of the skills that can be developed in
conjunction with the tools and technologies the students are currently using. After
highlighting some of the benefits of learning online for this age group, some of challenges
will be addressed with some recommendations of how to overcome them. By the end of this
chapter you should have a better idea of how online learning is being used for primary aged
students, some of the benefits, and finally some of the challenges and ways to address these.
BENEFITS OF ONLINE LEARNING
There are a number of benefits of online learning. For instance, students can develop a
new range of skills (e.g., research skills) with online learning. Online learning also provides
students the opportunity to engage in authentic experiences (e.g., contacting experts). Online
learning can also help prepare students to be successful in the 21st century. The 21st century
learning skills movement highlights skills young people need once they move into the work
force as adults (Silva, 2008), an increasingly globalised and competitive environment
(Kaufman, 2013). Trilling and Fadel (2009) categorise these as: (a) learning and innovation
skills, digital literacy skills, and career and life skills. Learning online, whether in formal or
informal environments, has the ability to help children develop a number of these 21st century
skills, specifically, communication and collaboration skills and media literacy skills while
learning in authentic settings.
Communication and Collaboration Skills
Participating in online learning environments can help develop students’ communication
and collaboration skills. This can be achieved through a variety of different platforms, some
of which are collectively known as social networking sites (SNSs). A social networking site is
essentially a web-based service that allows individuals to:
(1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system,
(2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and
(3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others
within the system. (boyd & Ellison, 2007, p. 211)
Facebook is the most popular social networking site today. In 2012, Facebook had a
billion active users (Popkin, 2012). Despite a requirement to be 13 years or older, Facebook
is also very popular with primary school-aged children. For instance, research indicates that
57% of 9-16 year olds in Europe use it (Livingstone, Ólafsson & Staksrud, 2011). But there

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are many other social networking sites such as Bebo (www.bebo.com) and WeeWorld
(www.weeworld.com) that young people access.
While specific social networking sites like Facebook might not be around or in vogue in a
decade from now (e.g., see the rise and fall of MySpace), one thing is certain, people’s desire
to connect with others online is unlikely to change. Therefore, educators need to begin to help
students of all ages learn how to use social networking sites like these successfully. Social
networking is sometimes characterised in a negative light (see Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010) but
the benefits of social networking sites are hard to deny.
One of the advantages of SNSs is that they facilitate the opportunity for students to
develop 21st century skills like communication and collaboration skills that people like
Binkley et al. (2010) stated are needed by young people once they enter the workforce.
Educators seeking a more private and safer social networking site have turned to
Edmodo, which allows teachers to post alerts, assignments, notes, files and links. Students
can then reply, discuss, and submit homework (Jarc, 2010). One of the features of Edmodo
that help to build a community of learners is that when students post homework, other
students can then submit comments about the homework, thus building on each other’s ideas
in a constructive way. The ability of students to build on each other’s ideas allows them the
opportunity to develop collaborative skills where they are encouraged to reflect upon each
others idea and then make considered responses. Through these considered responses the
students are then able to develop their own ideas and writing skills.
Twitter is another type of SNS being used for instructional purposes for students of all
ages. Twitter allows users to post a short message of up to 140 characters as well as link to
other sites. In one instance, a class in Ontario Canada spent time collaboratively tweeting with
a class in Singapore on solving math problems together (CBS News, 2013). Through this
process of collaboration students were able to build upon and develop each other’s ideas. In
another instance, a year 2 class used Twitter, which enabled them to evaluate and reflect on
their own learning through the writing process (Waller, 2010). For the year 2 class, the notion
of audience was empowering for them and gave them a sense of purpose in their writing. The
concept of communicating with someone outside of the classroom was empowering for the
students and allowed them to both develop and share their writing. In addition to this, it gave
students a sense of pride in their work.
From the two examples presented here, it can be seen that Twitter is a platform that can
support learning across a number of different subjects including English and math, which
makes it a versatile platform for use in primary schools.
Media Literacy Skills
Online learning can also help students develop media literacy skills needed in the 21st
century. Media literacy is defined by the National Association for Media Literacy Education
as “a series of communication competencies, including the ability to access, analyze, evaluate
and communicate information in a variety of forms, including print and non-print messages”
(n.d. para. 1). Given that literacy is now more diverse in nature ranging from traditional
paper-based texts to multimodal electronic texts it is important that students develop such
new literacy skills in order to participate in modern society. One way students are developing
media literacy skills is by becoming content producers through the creation of blogs
(Richardson, 2010; Zawilinski, 2009).

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A blog is similar to a journal. But unlike a journal, a blog is a multimodal text. The
multimodal (see Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2002; Jewitt, 2006) capabilities of a blog enable
users the ability to integrate written text, images, animations, sounds, and colors. Through
creating multimodal texts, students become sign-makers (Walsh, 2007), which require new
literacies. Blogs enable individuals or groups to share items of interest, news and personal
information (Williams & Jacobs, 2004) while at the same time developing their writing skills.
As suggested by McGrail and Davis (2011) and Rozema (2005), one of the outcomes of
students writing blogs is they develop their sense of a real-world audience, much like the
students experience reported earlier with using Twitter. This awareness of audience can
improve the quality of students’ writing (Corden, 2007) while further developing their media
literacy skills. Developing this sense of audience for young writers can be a challenging
process (Kellogg, 2008), but a blog, similar to Twitter, and other online learning tools can
provide an active audience and thus support the writing process. McGrail and Davis (2011)
researched a group of students in year five. They found that students’ sense of audience,
which was weak to begin with, developed as they blogged with different readers which in turn
developed their writing skills.
Blogs, as well as other Web 2.0 sites, can also enable and promote reflective practice
(Dunlap & Lowenthal, 2011). As blogs are public documents, students need to think more
carefully about the purpose of their entries and the needs of the audience (Dunlap, 2008). This
links to critical thinking skills highlighted earlier. Often, a number of 21st century skills that
students develop, link and support each other and therefore need to be systematically taught
in the classroom.
Authentic learning
Another benefit of online learning is that it can facilitate what is labeled authentic
learning. Authentic learning draws from situated learning theory, which Collins (1998)
defined as “the notion of learning knowledge and skills in contexts that reflect the way they
will be used in real life” (p. 2). Authentic learning has the following features:
1. Provide authentic contexts that reflect the way knowledge will be used in real life
2. Provide authentic links
3. Provide access to expert performances and modeling of processes
4. Provide multiple roles and perspectives
5. Support collaborative construction of knowledge
6. Promote reflection to enable abstractions to be formed
7. Promote articulation to enable tacit knowledge to be made explicit
8. Provide coaching and scaffolding by the teacher at critical times
9. Provide for authentic assessment of learning within the tasks. (Herrington & Oliver,
2000, p. 25)
While each of these features can be accomplished online, the fifth aspect, support of the
collaborative construction of knowledge, is one that stands out that can easily be achieved
through the use of online learning. Learning online can provide students with opportunities to
collaborate online with other students (even beyond their current class), their teachers and the
wider community on an on-going basis both in school and at home. An example where
students can link to and communicate with other students includes ePals (www.ePals.com)

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which is a site that links schools together to work on collaborative projects. Another example
of students connecting to the community is highlighted in New South Wales, Australia, where
some students in public schools have had the opportunity to talk with Morris Gleitzman, a
well-known author of children’s books.
Learning online can also provide students authentic links to audiences. While the
audience may initially consist of peers and the teacher, this audience has the potential to be
developed beyond these immediate links (Richardson, 2005). Other audiences can soon
include relatives of the students, from the immediate family to grandparents, cousins etc.
Students get very excited when they receive email communication from parents on their
classroom website and it encourages them do their best (Maher, 2012). The audience can also
be expanded to include students from other parts of the world who have shared interests. This
was highlighted earlier where students interacted with students from Singapore.
Online spaces such as SNSs also provide the opportunity for students to engage in
learning that is embedded in social practice (McKenzie, Morgan, Cochrane, Watson, &
Roberts, 2002) whereby they can communicate with each other and their teachers around
topics that interest them. This allows the teacher to gain an insight into students’ interests,
which in turn can facilitate learning in the classroom that is more meaningful and authentic
for the students. The use of online spaces can democratize learning so that students can have a
greater input into the design and implementation of the curriculum. This is an opportunity
though that so far, many schools have not taken up.
It is important that students have the opportunity to have input into the audiences they
interact with and be provided the opportunities to link their school work to their online
network of friends. This is by no means an easy task for teachers to facilitate and will require
many schools to rethink the way they facilitate online learning.
The teacher can take on a different role when online learning is occurring. Rather than
having the traditional teacher-centred role, the teacher can take on more of a facilitating
supporting role (Berge, 1995). This is particularly the case where students are interacting with
online experts. In this instance, the teacher becomes the pedagogical expert facilitating and
setting up learning opportunities for the students rather than being the content expert.
CHALLENGES OF ONLINE LEARNING
As outlined in the chapter, there are many benefits online learning can provide primary-
aged students. However, there are also challenges with having students learning online that
need to be recognised and addressed by teachers. Some of the issues young people can face
when learning online include inappropriate contact with people and inappropriate contact
with content.
Inappropriate Contact with People
In focusing on inappropriate contact with people, one of the biggest fears reported in the
literature is cyberbullying (Maher, 2008). Cyberbullying most often occurs between young
people who know each other and often relates to issues of power and control. Because the
young people often know each other, cyberbulling is also often linked to face-to-face bullying
which can make it difficult to manage for both parents and teachers. According to Hanewald

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(2013), the effect of cyberbullying between young people is going to have an impact on the
practices of schools. Some of the impacts include “mandatory professional development on
digital safety for school educators and the introduction of digital citizenship classes into the
curriculum” (p. 4).
Online grooming is another form of inappropriate contact with people. The Sexual
Offences Act 2003 defined online grooming as: “A course of conduct enacted by a suspected
paedophile, which would give a reasonable person cause for concern that any meeting with a
child arising from the conduct would be for unlawful purposes” (para. 1). This type of
behavior is carried out by adults against children, which is also similar to sexual solicitation
(Mitchell, Wolak, & Finkelhor, 2008). Young children are generally trusting and this allows
this type of behavior to be carried out.
A further type of inappropriate contact with people is called cyber stalking (Pittaro,
2007). “Cyber stalking is the use of the Internet or other electronic means to stalk someone....
This term is used interchangeably with online harassment and online abuse” (Jaishankar &
Uma, 2005). The intent of cyber stalking is generally to instill fear into the victim although
sometimes this can be carried out anonymously (Sen, 2013). It is worth noting that while this
is mostly a problem amongst the older population, young children are being cyber stalked in
greater numbers (Aftab, 2002).
Inappropriate Contact with Content
In focusing on inappropriate contact with content, some of the material that students are
coming into contact with is content that is violent, sexually explicit or offensive, and
encourages activities that are dangerous to the self or others. Sexually explicit content is a
major concern on the Internet and can be found on dedicated websites or in advertising
(Dombrowski, Gischlar, & Durst, 2007).
A form of inappropriate contact with content involves the practice of sexting. This
involves young people sharing sexually explicit images of themselves with each other via
mobile devices. It also includes uploading images onto the Internet (Weldon, 2011). Often the
picture is meant for only one person (usually a boyfriend or girlfriend) but can be then passed
on to other people. While sexting is not always done for malicious purposes, it can have
negative consequences for the young people involved. For example, if a person is caught
sending images he or she can be convicted for creating distributing and possessing child
pornography (Albury, Funnell, & Noonan, 2010). Sexting generally involves teenagers, but is
has been reported to occur among students as young as 11 years old (Livingstone, Haddon,
Görzig, & Ólafsson, 2010).
Given the potential challenges young people face online and that schools are now
actively encouraging online learning, it is important that schools take on part of the role in
educating young people in cyber safety. Some suggestions put forward by O’Neill and
McLaughlin (2010) were:
• children as young as seven years old should be taught about cyber safety,
• the teaching of skills to students should include basic skills as well as more creative
uses of Internet use,

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• teachers should pay close attention to student’s self-management of online content
and behavior so that they become aware the benefits and risks of posting content
online,
• develop peer-to-peer education and intervention programs as it is a friend who is first
confided in if problems arise with online use occur,
• teachers should be aware of the risks of bullying online and respond when incidences
arise, and
• schools should strengthen home-school initiatives of cyber safety, such as programs,
workshops and information dissemination.
These strategies include teachers and parents working together to help young people
safely learn online. They reflect the need to develop programs in schools to support students.
Moreover, the training of teachers needs to be on-going so they can both teach the content
and be able to recognise when problems are occurring online and effectively manage the
process. The importance of involving parents is also reflected in the statements above.
Schools can support parents by running information sessions and providing links to useful
resources.
While many young people have a good understanding of computer related uses, it is not
accurate to portray them as digital natives (see Prensky, 2001). Young people generally have
a good understanding of game sites and some social media sites. They are less savvy when it
comes to using various online sites in support of their own learning.
In a study of European youth by Livingston, Haddon, Görzig, and Ólafsson (2011),
young people were asked if they knew more than their parents about computers. Only 36% of
9-16 said yes and one in three of 9-10 years olds said yes. “Talk of digital natives obscures
children’s need for support in developing digital skills” (Livingston et al., 2011, p. 42).
Greater awareness by students, teachers and parents as well as improved education in schools
should help students to be safe when learning online. It is an area that requires constant
vigilance and communication between the school and home.
CONCLUSIONS
The learning technologies outlined in this chapter are only a small example of the types
of resources that are available to support schools in establishing and maintaining an online
learning environment, which draws on people and resources outside of the school
environments as well as connecting students, teachers, family members and experts. In this
chapter, two broad types of 21st century skills that can be developed when engaging in online
learning have been outlined. The first set of skills outlined was communication and
collaboration skills. Communication is an important element of learning and having the
ability to develop this skill set through online learning creates many new opportunities for
students to engage with new audiences who can be geographically located around the globe.
Students also develop these skills in communicating and collaborating with experts on topics
teachers may not have expertise in. This, in turn, allows the teacher to focus on pedagogical
aspects of teaching and learning.
The second set of skills outlined was media literacy skills. These skills allow students to
develop as authors and post information online that they can share with others. In using these

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skills they also develop new related skills associated with multimodal authoring as well as
critical reflective skills. In focusing on this set of skills, it is clear how the different types of
21st century skills link with each other as part of writing involves an audience.
In providing links between the school and the home as well as the broader community, it
is possible for both formal and informal learning to be part of the educational experience for
young people. In combining these two areas, learning can be a more authentic experience
where students have genuine opportunities to have input into the curriculum. The
opportunities for this type of engagement by young people can only come about with some
re-engineering of the curriculum, which requires school leaders to allow for these
opportunities to occur. It is clear online learning is increasing in schools and will continue to
do so, which will allow for new educational opportunities for students and will require
teachers and educational authorities to continue to develop pedagogical practices to ensure
these technologies are used in the most safe and beneficial ways for students.
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