Gardening in Cyberspace: A Metaphor to Enhance Online Teaching and Learning

The metaphors we use can influence our behavior. This article proposes a new metaphor to help guide online instructors to more effective practices. The metaphor, gardening in cyberspace, is about creating an environment that fosters learning and personal growth. The practices of good gardening—posit...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of management education Vol. 27; no. 6; pp. 673 - 693
Main Authors May, Gary L., Short, Darren
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Thousand Oaks SAGE Publications 01.12.2003
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
Attitudes
Colleges & universities
Conditioning
Correspondence Study
Distance learning
Educational Practices
Effectiveness
Feedback
Gardening
Higher Education
Individual differences
Instructional Design
Learning Processes
Learning Theories
Metaphor
Metaphors
Motivation
Online Courses
Online instruction
Teacher attitudes
Teachers
Teaching
Teaching Methods
United States > US
instructor attitudes
metaphor
online learning
effective teaching practices
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Summary:The metaphors we use can influence our behavior. This article proposes a new metaphor to help guide online instructors to more effective practices. The metaphor, gardening in cyberspace, is about creating an environment that fosters learning and personal growth. The practices of good gardening—positioning, conditioning soil, watering, and controlling weeds and pests—all serve as useful analogues to good online pedagogical practices, including addressing individual differences, motivating the student, providing feedback, and avoiding information overload. Examples of instructional design and course management techniques are included to illustrate what online instructors might do differently if they took the gardening perspective seriously. The authors also extend the metaphor to explore administration’s role as gardening store proprietors.
Bibliography:Special Issue: Metaphors of Management Education.
ISSN:1052-5629
1552-6658
DOI:10.1177/1052562903257940