This video presents a simple explanation and example of translanguaging. Translanguaging is now a well debated concept in the language teaching arena and with the support of digital technology can be effectively used in an ESOL classroom. Traditionally the best ESOL teaching practice has always taken the view of a monolingual classroom focusing on the target language. Learners are strongly encouraged not to use their first or other language while they are in a formal education environment. It is seen as a somewhat of a language deficit if the learners are not using all the class contact time to utilise all the English opportunities.
McCaffrey & Taha (2019) state that there is a concept of “two-brains” with language learning, that is moving between separate linguistic systems and that in order to learn one language the other needs to be switched off. It has now been researched that rather than “switching” between languages, speakers should “mesh” and weave repertoires together as they select from established and emerging languages. (McCaffrey & Taha, 2019) It has also been discussed that the very nature of a monolingual brain and a multilingual brain are very diverse.
As with all learning practices I have used this notion of only using target language in the classroom comfortably until I taught multilingual former refugees and my practice was disrupted. I have had to rethink and reinvent my teaching practice to support them. A strategy that deserves consideration is to utilise digital technologies such as social media and translanguaging in the formal context of a classroom. While the use of social media and apps are common in the informal learning context it could be an idea to bridge this or ‘bring the outside in’.
Most former refugees use smart phones and are active online as part of their life for practical, social, and psychological reasons (McCaffrey and Taha, 2019). Many of the students are translanguaging in the informal context as they learn to understand their everyday lives in their new country.
A way to bring the outside in is by promoting the internet and social media apps as a multilingual resource to learn content and conduct research (Celic & Seltzer, 2012). This could be done in the form of chats, posts, finding images, watching videos and listening to podcasts. By having constant exposure to translingual utterances on social media channels we can encourage language learners to look up and use words and phrases from other languages. Dumrukcic (2020) suggests that a translingual sentence with words in the learners’ first language and a target second language might not be as intimidating to a language learner as a monolingual sentence entirely in their second language.
Both the idea of translanguaging and using social media in the formal classroom are provocative for some educators but I feel need some consideration and thought to support non-traditional learners such as preliterate, multilingual learners.
Dumrukcic, N. (2020). Translanguaging in social media. Output for FLT didactics. In: heiEDUCATION Journal 5, 109-137.
McCaffrey, K.T., Taha, M.C. (25 July 2019) Rethinking the Digital Divide: Smartphones as Translanguaging Tools Among Middle Eastern Refugees in New Jersey. https://doi.org/10.1111/napa.12126
Tzirides, A. O. (2021). Translanguaging and Digital Technologies in the Realm of Language Learning. In Montebello, M. (Eds.), Digital Pedagogies and the Transformation of Language Education (pp. 137-148). IGI Global. http://doi:10.4018/978-1-7998-6745-6.ch007
Otheguy, R,. García, O,. Reid W. (2015) Clarifying Translanguaging and Deconstructing Named Languages: A Perspective from Linguistics. Applied Linguistics Review 6(3): 281– 307.
One of the first new understandings that I have about this trend sits with the understanding of terminology. Initially, I understood that MOOCs (Massive, Online, Open Courses) and OER (Open Educational Resources) are somewhat interchangeable. According to Piedra et al. 2014 (as cited in Czerniewicz et al. 2017), there are actually few studies that usefully explore the relationship between the two apart from OERs requiring the “5 Rs” (the ability to Retain, Reuse, Revise, Remix and Redistribute content for educational purposes) and MOOCs that are not as open as they don’t release their materials under Creative Commons (CC) licences.
After researching, I did have doubts about Domestika being defined as a MOOC. It is a Massive, Online, Course but I wasn’t sure whether it was technically open as I needed to pay a small amount. The definition of MOOCs I have discovered does extend to courses that need to pay a small fee and are still categorised as open.
The most significant debate around MOOCs is the very definition of Openness. Some regard open as limited to the access to the course content; however, there is more to open than financial access. Collier and Ross (2017) suggest that we need to reframe the conversation and move beyond open-access but to other possible forms such as the mindset that the students are co-explorers and the classroom is more of a space that crosses the typical dominant boundaries and embraces the different voices within the class. They extend this further by stating that in the nature of Openness, there is the need for quality. They state that “metaphorically, the current focus on content means that an ‘all-you-can-eat’ ethos underpins the drive towards openness-as-access, with little attention paid to the situations or appetites of the diners” (p. 130).
This sentiment takes me to another new understanding of MOOCs and the thought that they need to embrace a more personalised approach. An affordance could be the quality of a particular MOOC’s components that could be adapted and tailored to a participant’s personal characteristics. An example could be the interface, content, activities and assessment could be adapted to the participant’s personal characteristics such as abilities, preferences, timeframe and combined with their device’s characteristics to achieve a specific educational goal (Economides & Perifanou 2018).
cMOOCs and xMOOCs:
Another learning with this inquiry is the distinctions within MOOCs. Early Connectivist cMOOCs focus on the co-creation of knowledge and community-based learning, rather than the knowledge transfer itself. cMOOCs are also said to take a step away from the pedagogy and focus more on getting the knowledge to as many people as possible. (Stacey, 2013, as cited in Contact North/Contact Nord, 2016)
xMOOCs, however, are objectivist and behaviourist in their approaches to learning and lack a sense of presence from the learners or teachers. Paul Stacy (2013) suggests that some MOOCs such as Udacity don’t enrich our understanding of learning and simply replica the traditional classroom in an online setting (Anderson & Stacey, 2013 as cited in Contact North/Contact Nord 2016).
Due to these definitions and the categories of MOOCs, I needed to understand where the Domestika platform lay. From my understanding, it would fit under both the xMOOC category as it was heavily video-based with the teacher demonstrating techniques. However, there was a Connectivist component emphasising the learners adding to the forum and building an online community.
MOOCs need effective forums for collaboration:
From participating in an informal MOOC, I have also learnt that even the most carefully thought out online course is only as effective as the students that participate in it. De Laat (2012), Dawson & Siemens (2014) state that learning in the twenty-first century is most effective when it is collaborative, social and connected in networked structures. The course was designed to encourage learners to participate in the online network by posting what they had created or learnt after each unit.
I found that the social forum was one dimensional, the learners post their progress, and at best, the teacher commented. Still, there was very little connection or no connection between the learners or the learning community. Therefore, it is fundamental within MOOCs that the learners actually participate with the online community and take advantage of the global network and not solely rely on a teacher who is trying to connect potentially hundreds of diverse students. Goodyear et al. (2004) identify an effective learning community is where information and technology is used to promote connections “between one learner and other learners; between learners and tutors; between a learning community and its learning resources” (Goodyear et al. 2004, p. 2 as cited in Carvalho et al., (2016).
The overload that a teacher may feel in a MOOC course (as shown in the Domestika course) results in no or inadequate feedback. According to Abawajy & Kim (2011 as cited in de Lima et al., 2019) if adequate feedback doesn’t happen then only low levels of engagement occur and students may feel isolated, which in turn can result in limited participation or discussions may lack depth (Watson 2008 as cited in de Lima et al., 2019).
MOOCs also need to adjust to the ever-changing technology and practices, especially the online community that fosters social learning. Maybe a reason for the lack of participation in the course was that people are using social media more and more as a way to engage and collaborate. Wise et al. in 2012 (as cited in de Lima et al. 2019) report that online forums haven’t changed with the current pace of asynchronous communication technology and that the social interaction that worked previously in forums are now in groups such as WhatsApp. It was also found that students found distance learning platforms like a task environment. I feel this could be a reason for the lack of interest or disconnect from the online community from partaking in the course.
MOOCs need Self-Directed Learning.
While both the massive and open aspects of MOOCs create challenges to the design and delivery of online courses, they also create opportunities for enriching the learners and teacher experiences. Lin (2008) stresses that educators need to explore how they can engage learners to embrace self-directed learning (SDL). Bonk (2016) states that to be able to locate the necessary learning resources, contents and tools, learners need to be more attuned to the way that learning is changing. There is no doubt that learning is becoming more blended, more hands-on, more mobile, more global, more immersive and more massive (Bonk 2016). Due to these factors, learners need to have enough motivation, whether intrinsic or extrinsic or even a combination of both, to explore and best utilise the available platforms. SDL skills (such as self-management, self-monitoring) are and will become even more important for MOOC learning success. (Zhu, 2020)
The challenges and barriers of many SDL environments include less immediate feedback and guidance, a high degree of personalisation, learner procrastination, and being overwhelmed by the resources made available by the instructors or learning designers (Graham, 2006). If MOOC instructors and designers understand the components of SDL, it could prove effective in increasing retention of learners and completion rates as well as learner satisfaction and learning outcomes. (Zhu, 2020).
Next Steps as a learner and a Professional:
The next steps for me as a learner is that MOOCs seem to be the perfect place to go if you are looking for knowledge in a specific area because you don’t need to surf through a boundless sea of information such as that on YouTube. Domestika provided a stress-free learning environment for a skill that I wanted to take my time in learning without the pressure of having to complete it in a specific timeframe. I enjoyed the course that I participated in and felt that I learnt more than I thought I would. In the future, I will continue to participate in informal MOOCs as an out of class activity even if I fail to complete the entire course. Until MOOCs are tailormade and more personalised towards the learner, I feel that it is vital that we move away from focusing on the dropout rates and the number of incomplete courses and view sub-learning as equally important as the structured course outcomes. The certificate is not as important as some of the skills that are learnt. It could be argued that you need to complete the course to gain all the necessary skills, however, it could be counter-argued that some of the skills may already be achieved or not relevant to the learner.
In a professional sense, MOOCs are valuable to informal learning by connecting a diverse range of learners at a very low cost. MOOCs can also be of immense benefit if they are used in conjunction with formal learning. The global network could allow learners to go beyond their learning by creating a more inclusive learning environment by supporting learners to feel connected to a course. Cha & So (2020) state that MOOCs have been increasingly positioned as a platform to integrate traditional formal courses with informal learning experiences in higher education. The way to do this is by combining the characteristics of traditional instruction, blended learning, and flipped learning. As a teacher and future learning designer, this combination, as well as creating more personalised courses could see more success with MOOCs in the future.
Overall, what is essential is that there needs to be an extensive investment in learning design for MOOCs to ensure the quality of the course and content are kept to a high standard. This design needs to consider what we know about adult learning, including insights from neuroscience, communities of practice, crowdsourcing of ideas and the emerging lessons from innovative assessment (Contact North/Contact Nord, 2016).
Domestika is an online learning platform for creatives that features paid courses such as crafts, illustration, design and photography. There are two options to take a course, one is to purchase a course individually ($10-$40) or purchase the pro subscription which is paid monthly. I paid $10 for the course “Photo Embroidery on Fabric” which totals 3hours 17mins to complete and broken down to 19 lessons. One big positive from this course is that it doesn’t expire and once you have enrolled and it is open until you choose to complete it.
Video trailer about the Photo Embroidery on fabric course.
Overall, the course is presented and produced to a very high quality, and I found that the camerawork, auxiliary materials, and content layout were excellent. It is very easy to navigate as each of the lessons has the outcomes above the video and a short description of the video below. The format is very structured, with the entire course overview on the righthand sidebar, which helps to understand the progression of the course. The course is designed to scaffold the learner from the basics of design, photography, embroidery tools and techniques to the final project.
Screenshot of the course interface.
Most of the courses, including the course I chose, are presented in Spanish but has the option for auto-generated subtitles in English, Portuguese and German. This could be seen as a disadvantage, but as the videos show you what to do, it was easy to get by with subtitles.
The challenges and constraints of the course.
difficulties with resources:
I started the introduction to the course with no problems, especially with the photography open websites and inspiration. It was easier to complete as it required study skills that I already have; however the barriers presented themselves when I needed to produce a tangible product. The first challenge was that I needed to have a subscription to adobe photoshop to be able to adjust the photos and complete the lesson on photography. In my excitement to start the course I didn’t listen to this part of the introduction video explaining the course. As I don’t have this tool installed, I could not complete the lesson.
My motivation also slowed when I needed to go and buy the embroidery. This was something entirely new for me that I felt overwhelmed with what materials I needed to buy. While the course has an extensive resource list, I still struggled to find the materials. As Domestika started in Spain and has since moved to San Francisco, all the suggestions were based either in Spain or the USA. I then moved onto the online community to ask if they could support me with ideas. As shown, I didn’t get a sufficient response to my query as I was directed back to the course lists.
Screenshot of the Domestika forum.
I eventually found that Spotlight stocked printable fabric, but I ended up searching for this independently, defeating the purpose of a collaborative and networked online community.
Screenshot of the twitter post with learners from Massey Course.
I didn’t buy the fabric sheets from spotlight as the store I went to was out of stock and I didn’t have time to buy online. I did however, buy the embroidery kit to start the lesson on different stitches and found that the video was very easy to follow and clear. This is the last lesson that I have completed to date with the course (lesson 4 out of 6) as I am unable to continue without the fabric to print the photo at the moment.
Screenshot of the twitter post with learners from Massey Course.
Collaboration and networked learning disconnect:
The course attempts to foster learning through networks and community as there is a requirement to post on the online forum. However, this forum didn’t seem to flow. When I inquired about finding the resources in NZ, the teacher responded, and this is an example of the forum in general. It only went to one layer from the learner posting and the teacher responding with a simple, supportive comment.
Screenshot of a typical forum post with a reply.
It seems that people post what they need to in order to complete the task rather than enhance their learning. An observation is that there is no conversation with the posts because there are no alerts when people post. Some people completed the course eight months prior, so they probably won’t respond to any queries unless they log back onto the course forum. This challenge is due to the openness of the timeframe to enrol in the course as well as openness with completion.
Overall learning of participating in a MOOC:
The overall learnings that I can take away from participating in this MOOC are that I was the stereotypical participant. It could be said that I dropped out of the course and failed to complete it according to the learning outcomes. Graham, 2006 pp 39, as cited in Bonk & Lee, 2017) points out that many “self-directed learning environments include less immediate feedback and guidance, a high degree of personalisation, learner procrastination, and being overwhelmed by the resources made available by the instructors or learning designers.”
This sentiment seems to sit well with my overall learning of participating in this course. I would like to argue that although this may be the case, I felt that the learning was not a waste of time. In fact, I learnt interesting topics such as colour palettes and interesting tips on embroidery and printable fabrics. Because of the open nature of the course, I will continue to ‘tap’ into it when I feel inspired, and I think that having this option is a huge positive of the course design.
Another overall learning in participating in a MOOC is the importance of the community and the collaboration between the learners. As this was an informal course and the issues I had with delayed or non-existent feedback, it wasn’t such an issue as I used my own resources to find the answers. This would not be the case if I needed the information urgently and didn’t have the resources to find it independently. It also made me realise that a community doesn’t simply happen because there is an option to participate. It takes the collective motivation from the learners, not merely feedback from the teacher, to create an online community.
Another overall learning about participating in a MOOC with a course that requires tangible materials, it can somehow be a challenge being so global. At the time when I needed some help to buy materials I wanted some support from someone locally. With courses such as the one I participated in, how can this be achieved without it being a burden on the teacher and cumbersome for the learners having to sort through resource lists from so many different countries.
“Openness is the breath of life for education and research. Resources created by educators and researchers should be open for anyone to use and reuse. Ultimately this argument resonates with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states: ‘Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages” (United Nations, 1948, Art. 26, para. 1). D’Antoni and Savage (2009, p. 138)
There is no doubt that OER (Open Educational Resources) and MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course) have disrupted the traditional classroom settings. Never in our lifetimes have courses, resources and information been so readily available to us. The first MOOC, offered by Stephen Downes and George Siemens at the University of Manitoba in 2008 (Downes, 2017), was not simply to change the access to learning by making it freely available to all but also to change the experience of learning.
MOOCs are significant to all current teaching and learning because they provide opportunities for flexible lifelong learning, are designed to be accessible to everyone and cover an immense range of topics and interests. (Green et al., 2015; Missopoulos et al., 2018 as cited in Henderikx et al., 2019) Previously to the global pandemic, there were claims that MOOCs were dying and that they were overhyped technology (Warner, 2017). However, EdSurge (2020) states that 2020 was MOOC’s most consequential year since 2012 which, has been coined the year of the MOOC. A report by Class Central, a company that tracks MOOCs, found that one-third of learners that ever registered to take a MOOC joined in 2020 (Shah, 2020). Coursera, the largest MOOC, had four times the number of users, moving from 8 million in 2019 to 31 million in 2020, a rise of 387 percent (Schaffhauser, 2021).
Interestingly I was somewhat part of this statistic as I enrolled in a Domestika course during the lockdown in 2020. According to (Belanger & Thornton, 2013 as cited in Cha & So. 2020), there are a variety of motivations to take a MOOC, to gain more knowledge of a particular topic, to explore a field of interest, to participate in social interactions and to have a fun and enjoyable experience without any expectation of achievement and completion. These motivations were true for me because, at this time, I needed some creative outlet for the stress of lockdown juggling work life, family life and study at home. Ironically, when I enrolled in the course, we came out of lockdown two weeks later, and it has since been on my to-do list. By exploring Openness while incorporating this course, I hope to have a more in-depth learning experience.
MOOCs are unlike regular face-to-face or other online courses in the sense that they are incredibly heterogeneous in terms of ages, education level, native languages, prior knowledge and reasons for enrolment (Doo et al., 2020). Because of all these factors, open networks mean that there are different types of engagement and ideally a shift to more learner-centred approaches to teaching. Educators and MOOC instructors have had to adopt other pedagogical practices and be as inclusive to their learners as possible while managing not only a vast group of learners but a very diverse one (Czerniewicz et al., 2017).
For the learners, it has also meant that they have had to adapt to a more self-directed learning style. In general, MOOCs do not have the same deadlines and teacher focused motivational aspects, creating a more flexible learning environment. While the Openness and flexibility of MOOCs sound like a utopia for learners, they are also well known for their incompletion rates and many of the students not succeeding in pursuing their personal learning goals (Green et al., 2015; Missopoulos et al., 2018, as cited in Henderikx et al., 2019).
Although MOOCs are not a new phenomenon, I realised that I had not actually participated in one. In my inquiry I want to explore the structure of a MOOC and the learning opportunities such as participation and course completion. Initially, I was not entirely convinced whether it was worth enrolling in one, especially for an informal crafting course. There are many free and accessible videos on YouTube, so why should someone choose to do a ‘formal’ informal course instead.
On commencing my inquiry, I viewed videos on the art of craft and embroidery on YouTube. I found this ‘how to video’ on YouTube but found that while it was interesting and informative, the content was confusing, with a large amount of talking about unrelated topics.
While YouTube and its accessibility and extensive content is undoubtedly an ever-popular educational tool, it is not without its limitations. I discovered that there are very talented people making videos, and the list is far-reaching. Still, many of these people, it seems, are demonstrating their knowledge rather than creating a space for people to learn. Some of the videos are very long, with a lot of discussion instead of explaining how to do something. Using YouTube as an educational resource, it is often necessary to sift through inaccurate or inappropriate content to find exactly what you need to learn. Furthermore, the sideline content, such as comments or related videos, can be distracting.
The term “Third Space” is used to refer to out-of-school learning that occurs in social contexts. The ‘First Space’ is the place or institution where formal learning may occur, the ‘Second Space’ is a place where informal learning takes place, such as the home or library and the ‘Third Space’ lies somewhere “in-between.” (Schuck, Kearney, & Burden, 2017). It does not only imply the physical surrounds and Soja (1996) suggests that the Third space also encourages the rejection of binary relationships and helps us to consider new hybrid social sites for collaboration.
Third space sits well with digital technologies and especially mobile technologies as the nature of ‘anywhere, anytime’ allows learning to occur that is not restricted to formal institutions or to the home but across various boundaries and contexts.
It is hard to imagine what the role of the educator would be in this context as the focus of the teacher being the source of the knowledge will lessen as the learners will rely on digital tools such as the internet to source information. To consider this in my teaching practice, it would not be the concern of losing the focus of knowledge but how to keep up with what information the learners are finding and want to explore.
For effective teaching the educators would need to move to a facilitator and/or a co-collaborator to support the learner to use the information, critically evaluate it and then support them to enact the projects that are chosen.
(Hedberg & Stevenson, 2014; Rushby, 2012; Toh, So, Seow, Chen, & Looi, 2013 as cited in Crompton & Traxler, 2020) use the term ‘seamless learning’ which is the transition of learning across contexts, usually between formal and informal learning spaces. The students would be able to connect between school and out of the classroom activities such as field trips acting as a bridge between the two. For an educator to support seamless learning would require extensive needs analysis and a flexible learning environment to allow the learners the space and independence to fully benefit.
Mobile learning and the concept of third space would also mean a shift in curriculum and assessment. Due to the learners being independent and interdependent with their peers it would mean that learning would be more project based. Assessment would need to be adjusted especially at the tertiary level which still require high-stake exams and assessments (Schuck, Kearney, & Burden, (2017).
It is clear that the third space and mobile learning is a reaction to the current digital education trends. Just as the distinctions between formal and informal learning are becoming blurred, asynchronous and synchronous learning are fusing, and expertise is being broadened to include the cultural capital of more learners (Schuck, Kearney, & Burden, 2017, p. 137).
Kearney M., Burden K., Schuck S. (2020) Seamless Learning—Mobile Learning in the Third Space. In: Theorising and Implementing Mobile Learning. Springer, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8277-6_4
Schuck, S., Kearney, M., & Burden, K. (2017). Exploring mobile learning in the third space. Technology, Pedagogy and Education, 26(2), 121–137. https://doi.org/10.1080/1475939X.2016.1230555
The Community of Inquiry framework (Cleveland-Innes, Garrison, & Vaughan, 2019) is to create deep and meaningful online learning experiences through social presence, cognitive presence and teaching presence (Garrison, 2009 as cited in Tolu &Evans, 2013). Each of these key elements need to overlap to create deep and meaningful learning in online courses.
It is a framework that due to its roots in social learning and social constructivism and collaborative learning (Tolu & Evans, 2013) it can be well utilised in an ESOL learning environment. This is because the basic nature of any ESOL class stems from connecting with students, creating a safe learning environment, creating engaging lessons, and being adaptable. (Teachaway, 2020).
In learning about this framework as a language teacher and considering in an online distance course there are some important considerations that need to be explored that may differ from other subject classes.
Social Presence
The most common way for teachers to immediately create a social presence in an online distance class is by initial getting to know you activities. These are often in the form of posting on forums and are text based which can be very difficult for a low-level language learner. It is therefore important to consider strategies such as video recordings, digital storytelling or a synchronous meet and greet class. Social presence in a face-to-face ESOL class often happens outside of the course, often it is in the digressions of the class or made in the breaktimes. When a class is online this can be harder to create so a strategy could be to encourage peer to peer connections through class forums.
Cognitive Presence:
For a language teacher, as all teachers, it is important to design meaningful learning activities, triggering questions and effective assessment (Tolu, 2013). It is important for the tasks and questions to be carefully designed to promote critical thinking. This can be utilised by resources that are graded and scaffolded such as multimedia materials, and websites. Also by timely assessment and feedback (Tolu, 2013).
Teaching presence can be considered as the key element that facilitates the establishment and growth of social and cognitive presences. Studies identified that teaching presence strongly correlates with student satisfaction, perceived learning, and sense of community (Akyol & Garrison, 2008; Arbaugh, 2008; Shea & Bidjerano, 2009 as cited in Tolu, 2017).
In an ESOL environment this is especially important to give the students as many different opportunities to engage. This could be with synchronous classes, clear times to discuss with the teacher either by writing or speaking.
This framework is one that would be beneficial to adopt and use in future classes and shows just how education pedagogy is multifaceted and needs to be flexible.
Tolu, A. T. (2010). An exploration of synchronous communication in an online pre-service ESOL course: Community of inquiry perspective (doctoral dissertation). University of South Florida, USA.
Tolu, A. T. (2013). Creating Effective Communities of Inquiry in Online Courses. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences.(70),1049-1055. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.01.157.
In my journey with the Post Graduate Diploma I have reflected on inclusive digital environments especially when I cocreated a teaching resource for older learners. As a group we identified issues such as vision and hearing with our resource and accommodated that by having larger fonts and a clear volume adjustor and subtitles on videos. I have since reflected on this further in regard to my future projects and classes to think about nuero-diverse learners and how we can create inclusive courses for them by utilising digital technologies. As it stands traditional, didactic, methods of teaching can create significant barriers for some learners. These can lead to learners being disengaged and excluded.
In my current teaching practice I am working with learners from diverse backgrounds, cultures and languages and creating an inclusive environment and a sense of community is essential. One area that I have failed to recognise is adopting teaching practices for nuero-diverse learners. I find that ESOL teachers are so focused on the literacy and numeracy barriers that it is not often considered. I don’t think that my situation is uncommon in the education arena in fact Rice (2021) points out that in some tertiary organisations the teaching faculty whose lack of knowledge about neurodiversities, inclusion and universal design result in the teaching methods, curriculum and assessment lacking inclusivity.
In the podcast (Addy, Dube, Mitchell, and SoRelle, 2021) mention that contrary to many peoples thoughts the importance of the syllabus as a tool for inclusive teaching. This concept goes against what I thought an inclusive classroom would look like as I thought that moving away from the syllabus and creating individual and student lead courses is what would immediately create an inclusive classroom. The authors reiterate the syllabus by identifying that inclusivity doesn’t happen by accident and that you need to use the syllabus to put together a strategy, roadmap and to be thoughtful about it.
A consideration for my teaching practice could be to adopt Universal Design for Learning framework. UDL emphasizes flexible approaches to instruction and content presentation, which make it easier for students to customise and adjust content to suit their individual learning needs (CAST, n.d). Some examples which I could consider are multiple means of presenting information, offering a range of assessments, networked inclusive technology, accessible virtual learning environments (VLEs) and provision to record classes (Draffan et al., 2017a; Hockings, 2010; Lawrie et al., 2017; Powell, 2013 as cited in Rice, 2021).
There has never been a time before where the opportunities for educators to fully embrace inclusive learning, with digital technologies, frameworks such as the UDL and the continuing adaption of pedagogy. For effective teaching practice this needs to be supported by school/institution administrations through making training and resources available for educators.
It is therefore important that schools and learning institutions offer training and support for teachers in order to create a more inclusive learning environment by adopting the UDL framework.
Amezcua Aguilar, P., Flores Melero, C.,Marín Perabá, C., (2020) Neurodiversity as a teaching tool for educational inclusion. Revista Internacional de Apoyo a la Inclusión, Logopedia, Sociedad y Multiculturalidad, 6,(1), 88-97.https://revistaselectronicas.ujaen.es
Learner Agency is a widely used term in the education arena and seems to be gaining traction. Learner agency refers to the feeling of ownership and the sense of control that learners have over their learning (Whitten, 2019). Agentic learners are able to self-manage their own learning and autonomously engage in, and solve, challenging problems (Larsen-Freeman, Driver, Gao & Mercer, 2021).
There is however a presumption that learners are their own agents of learning and it is something that comes naturally to any learner.
I always thought that learner agency was simply the learners being motivated and engaged to learn. After researching further I now understand it to be something that is fostered and requires nurturing and skills from the educator to help develop. There is common consensus that there are four components:
Setting advantageous goals;
Initiating action toward those goals;
Reflecting on and regulating progress toward those goals and;
It is important therefore in my teaching to foster student agency to set the students up for lifelong learning and not only in the language classroom. As a teacher currently involved with preliterate ESOL learners whom have never been in a classroom environment before, the idea of agency is more of a challenge to interpret. Although the learners are very motivated to succeed they can be passive, dependant learners with little agentic learning behaviours (Whitten, 2019).
Digital technologies can support this by overcoming challenges created by physical space and class size by giving learners alternative ways of enacting their agency. An example is students that rarely participate in the classroom interaction may be more willing on an online platform. Mobile technology and apps could be utilised to enact their agency such as project based learning or inquiry based learning as these will encourage the learners to have independence, choice, ownership and create interest in topics that resonate with them (Whitten, 2019).
Another important aspect of learner agency that I feel needs to be addressed especially in an ESOL context is not viewing student agency through a dominant cultural frame of reference (Poon, 2018).
As an educator I need to be aware of all the factors involved in setting agency with my students and to encourage a reciprocal discourse and to give students time and space to be supported in creating it.
Larsen-Freeman, D., Driver, P., Gao, X., & Mercer, S. (2021). Learner Agency: Maximizing Learner Potential. www.oup.com/elt/expert
Whitten, D. (2019) Learner Agency in Adult Foundation-Level Education Exploring adults’ lifelong-learning capacity through the integration of learner agency, language, literacy and numeracy. Ako. Aotearoa. https://ako.ac.nz/
I wanted to include this forum post into my learning portfolio as it is an example of how inaccurate theories and information can stay relevant. It is surprising how much information about learning styles there is and how often it is referred to in literature.
Screenshot of 261766 Teaching for Digital Education forum post.
I wanted to include this forum post into my learning portfolio as it is an example of how inaccurate theories and information can stay relevant. It is surprising how much information about learning styles there is and how often it is referred to in literature. The acronym “VARK” (visual, auditory, reading/writing and kinaesthetic) (Fleming & Mills, 1992) is used to describe four modalities of student learning. This study is found in many forums/websites and even current literature to support teachers in their teaching. There is an assumption that teachers, trainers and learning designers should take the learning style that learners say they have and design curriculum based on this. If this is done it should optimally facilitate learning and allow learners to achieve optimal learning outcomes. (Kirschner, 2017)
Riener (2010) adamantly points out that:
The fields of cognitive psychology and neuroscience consider them [learning styles] a “neuromyth” and disavow the practice of matching instruction to individuals’ preferred learning styles to promote learning. In these fields, believing in learning styles has been compared to believing in fortune-telling.” (pp. 33)
As an educator I feel that it is more important to assess and adapt curriculum based on an individual’s skills and knowledge rather than “pigeon-hole” (Kirschner, 2017) them into learning style categories. This is particularly important because a student may only act on their dominant learning style and avoid trying other learning strategies or even subjects that they feel are a better fit. They may also try to process information in their preferred style even when the method does not fit the task. (Riener, 2010). Not only will the learner miss learning opportunities, the teacher may try to adjust the lesson around a particular learning style/s rather than on the most effective methods related to the specific material. This could potentially negatively influence student learning by causing cognitive overload. (Riener 2010).
For some educators the notion of learning styles has meant a reason to include digital media in the classroom for example, showing a video for the visual/audio learners. Rienner (2010) states that while this is the right thing to do, it should be because of the value of the media to the content of the lesson rather than whether the learner has a visual or auditory learning style preference.
This was a new learning for me to understand the limitations of learning styles with students. I have never thought about these when writing curriculum for my students but started to consider them after seeing them mentioned in various educational resources.
Riener, C., & Willingham, D. (2010) The Myth of Learning Styles, Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 42:5, 32-35, DOI: 0.1080/00091383.2010.503139
‘A model for digital learning is a set of integrated ideas, concepts and frameworks that help us build hypotheses and make sense of data.” (Maloney and Kim, 2019)
The adoption of theories, models and frameworks such as TPACK and the Community of Inquiry framework are important to any digital education teacher. At its core it is about the teacher having the opportunity to reflect on design for learning in a way that will ideally improve student learning as well as the quality of their teaching. One concept that is essential for effective digital teaching is that the individual is not tabula rasa, the blank slate or empty receptacle. (Hickey, 2014). The learner just like the educator comes with their own set of bias, assumptions, personality and learning behaviours.
There is no doubt that technology has increased communication and enabled people to communicate more rapidly and more widely than before but it is argued that technology doesn’t necessity improve learning outcomes and should be applied carefully (Hickey, 2014).
What is important about theories and frameworks is that they support teachers to be informed of different resources, best practice and knowledge that could be applied to their teaching context (Oliver & Conole, 2003 as cited in Hrastinski, 2020).
A key therefore for effective teaching is to identify the most relevant framework for the particular learning environment and consider that there is no ‘one-size fits all.’ The applicability of the learning framework will depend on variables such as teaching philosophy, classroom environment, course objectives, student demographics, and challenges to teaching (Yale Poorvu Center for teaching and learning, 2021).
It is important for the educator to consider all the theories and frameworks and how these can be supported by technology. When a teacher is utilising technology in the classroom three questions need to be asked: (Lynch, 2018)
What are my instructional goals?
How will technology enhance our ability to reach these goals?
How can you use technology to help students make connections?
Often in my teaching I can get inspired to use a new digital tool and it can detract from what is really important, the learners and their learning needs. These questions are a simple consideration for effective teaching as they direct the teacher back to the learners.
Each framework and theory adds to our understanding of digital education. However, no single framework can provide all the answers (Mishra & Koehler, 2006 as cited in Kidder, 2015) but they can all support effective teaching if educators adopt, adjust and reflect on them.
Hrastinski, S. (2020) Informed design for learning with digital technologies, Interactive Learning Environments, DOI: 10.1080/10494820.2020.1815221
Hickey, G. (2014). The importance of learning philosophies on technology selection in education. Journal of Learning Design, 7(3), 16-22.
Virginia Forbes Learning Design Portfolio 