Implementing Authentic Tasks in Web-Based Learning Environments

36 Students studying a computer simulation of global warming share ideas about factors influencing global temperatures. They vary the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by vehicles and factories or manipulate the quantity of green plants in the simulation. They observe that reducing industrial emissions or adding trees to the environment makes global warming less of a threat.1 This scenario describes students collaborating to carry out an authentic task, in this case reducing global warming. Under the influence of social constructivist learning theories, many educators have become interested in students’ active construction of meaning grounded in their own experience.2 To support the construction of meaning, students need to interact with one another in accomplishing authentic activities in social contexts similar to those in which these activities will actually be used.3 Peer interaction can enhance the construction of meaning and advance students’ intellectual growth.4 Innovative instructors have implemented authentic activities in physical classrooms for decades, and advances in Web technology make the use of authentic activities in fully online or blended courses increasingly feasible. The Web enhances access to experts and real-time data and enables multiple forms of communication among collaborative teams of learners.5 Many higher education instructors (as well as K–12 teachers) are becoming interested in using authentic activities in their online teaching. Before they can do this, however, educators must acquire confidence in the efficacy of the approach. They may even need to develop new mental models of what it means to teach. They can start by formulating individual answers to fundamental questions, such as the nature of authentic activity.