ICT Applications in U.S. Higher Education - Teaching through Multi-User Virtual Environments - page 49

technologies for development is something often
seen in India and throughout Africa. Examples in-
clude computerized milk collection centers, the use
of personal digital assistants such as blackberries
for health data collection and recording keeping,
internet kiosks, and micro finance “smart cards”
(Cecchini & Scott, 2003; Conlon & Humphreys,
2007). ICTs are often used in these contexts
because they are efficient at solving problems of
asymmetrical information in a market; similarly,
they are also proven boosters for educational
purposes.
In the higher education sector in the United
States, growing pressure is put on institutions
and professors to augment education or deliver
educational content through ICT applications.
This lends researchers to wonder what is in fact
the educational value of using applications such
as MUVEs? Do students learn better or faster? Is
teaching improved? If the answer is yes, then we
must again ask, why? What is characteristic of ICT
applications that make them learning and teach-
ing enhancers? Answers to these basic questions
should result in building appropriate foundations
for their use in university-based contexts.

information in all learning contexts—while we do
not argue that this is incorrect, we instead claim
that the highest need for ICT applications occurs
when individuals work in collaborative and/or
cooperative groups in a class environment.
Accepting the premise that ICT applications are
of most use when facilitating team-based learning,
we can begin to explore why team-based learning
is valuable in itself. There are actually several
kinds of cooperative group contexts, some of
which yield mixed returns to teaching and learn-
ing. According to a study by David W. Johnson
and Rodger T. Johnson (1999), titled Making Co-
operative Learning Work , not all types of groups
established in the classroom yield high returns
to learning. Those groups that work together to
accomplish shared goals-as opposed to groups
established outside an individual's will-are often
viewed as most beneficial. Johnson and Johnson
argue for the cooperative learning approach over
competitive and/or individualistic learning ap-
proaches because cooperative learning results in
process gain, the greater transfer of knowledge
across situational contexts, more time spent on
task, development of higher level reasoning skills,
usage of critical thinking skills, and the experi-
ence of psychological success, greater personal
attraction, a desire to exert more effort, and the
establishment of better relationships with peers
(Johnson & Johnson, 1999, p. 72).
In fact, team- and collaborative-based learn-
ing approaches are not new. While at one time
there were fears about the replacement of good
teachers by technology, there has been an evolu-
tion of thought about ICT applications and their
ability to enhance pedagogy, collaboration, and
participation in classroom-based dynamics. Other
studies have investigated the returns to learning
as the result of using a team-based learning ap-
proach. These include valuable information and
research on the development of team and collab-
orative learning competences and the desire for
lifelong learning, improvements in attendance,

Why Use ICT Applications?

ICTs and their applications are intended to make
the transmittance of information easier, faster and
more effective. On a basic level this implies that
learning is a two-way process. Given the nature
of ICTs, we suggest that where ICT applications
are the most useful are in those learning contexts
where the effective, easy and fast transmittance
of information is in highest need: working and
learning in groups. We believe this assumption is
justified on the grounds that the most far reaching
ICT applications of our time, such as Facebook,
developed out of a perceived and applied need
for improved communication among humans and
network externalities (Katz & Shapiro, 1994). Of
course one can argue that there is always a need
for faster, easier and effective transmittance of