The e-moderating aspects of Salmon’s 5 stage framework are:

Step 1 Access and Motivation: Welcoming and encouraging

Step 2 Online socialisation: Familiarising and providing bridges

Step 3 Information Exchange: Facilitating tasks and supporting use of learning materials

Step 4 Knowledge Construction: Facilitating process

Step 5 Development: Supporting, responding

The gist with Salmon’s 5 stage framework is that it is a scaffold for learning new online disciplines. As a teacher, I cannot expect a pupil to just pick up some software and be able to use it. This may seem a little surprising since (given access) children could be learning from a young age how to use all this technology for themselves simply by doing just that, trial and error through exploratory play.

If, however, you provide an e-learning resource such as the ones we are developing in Google Classroom, you must ensure that they are able to access and use it in the way that you intend them to, otherwise the learning may miss its target.

To that end, step one, Salmon says, requires the teacher as an e-moderator, to ensure that any new ICT experience is welcoming and encouraging. There is nothing worse than a scary piece of computer software (have you seen WarGames?). For our own e-resource, we will provide stimulating audio and video so that children can easily access the material contained in our activities.

Step 2 suggests adding social and cultural elements to the resource in order to provide bridges between learning environments. Our is a Reading Club so the things they learn in other lessons, particularly Literacy, will be of value in using the e-resource. Allowing them to use this learning in a social way in the e-resource is almost passive in that merely talking with their friends or classmates about things they are interested in cements their understanding of said things.

Step 3 is all about supporting children through their use of the learning materials presented. The instructions (text, audio or video) we display before each activity go some way to providing support. But before the children even get to that, they need to be guided through using the actual platform and have an activity modelled to them.

Step 4 is further social collaboration in groups to work through such tasks. Our e-resource can be tailored to provide such experiences and encourages pupils to talk and work together through some activities.

Step 5 allows the e-moderator to encourage participants to “look for more benefits from the system to help them achieve personal goals and reflect on the learning processes”. Following the use of our e-resource, in particular, we hope a teacher could assess pupil’s ability to self-learn, reflect and adapt their own learning.