The adoption of digital technologies with my ESOL teaching experience has had a both a modification and a revolution. I have been using forms of passive learning such as podcasts, videos and online texts in face-to-face classes for some time however, during the Covid19 lockdown my teaching had a revolution as I had to move an entire course online.
The lockdown was an immense time for professional development as using zoom and conducting a synchronous online class was new not only for me but also the learners. We all had to learn to use a new digital tool and try to use it effectively very quickly. It is clear that in digital environments learners not only have to be able to use the language but also manage the technology (Pandey, 2021) but for some very low level students this was challenging.
During the zoom classes there were a lot of technical difficulties for the learners. Some were due to lack of internet connection, phone quality and digital literacy. This resulted in lot of ‘dead time’ in the lesson trying to rectify issues that should have been spent on learning.
ESOL classes are usually very interactive and active, but this was difficult to create as I needed to talk more than usual to monitor the class interactions while the learners were on mute until they planned to speak. It was also a struggle for the lower level learners to get a discussion moving one, because of language limitations and the other due to shyness. Often learners are not confident in using English because they are afraid of making mistakes and feeling shy (Souriyavongsa, Zainol Abidin & Leong, 2013).
When the learners were put into groups to do speaking activities it was harder to move around and monitor and assess the language used.In a f2f class speaking activities can be monitored by walking around the class without interrupting the learners. With the zoom breakout function it was never as subtle as when in the classroom as the students would know when I had ‘dropped in’.
This experience can be an opportunity for me to modify curriculum to the learners needs. There might be opportunity for learners to use apps for speaking practice or create more asynchronous lessons using podcast and videos that students can create themselves. It is a chance to rethink the current teaching methods and to step out of the traditional instructors role and serve as a learning consultant, collaborator and facilitator.
Pandey, G. P. (2021). Are We Prepared to Teach English in a Digital Age?. Ars Artium. 9. 59-69.
Souriyavongsa, T., Zainol Abidin, M.J. & Leong, L.M. (2013). Factors and causes students low English language learning: A case study in the National University of Laos. International Journal of English Language Education, 1(1). http:// www.academia.edu
We are teachers of the language of global communication. And that communication is increasingly digitally mediated. …If our learners are to be fully functional citizens in the 21st century, they need digital skills. We can promote these skills in parallel with teaching English. Digital skills and English can help many of our adult learners get ahead in the workplace, or prepare our younger learners for better future job opportunities. And equally important, they can make our classes a lot more relevant and interesting in the here and now.
Henry Jenkins (2009)
As an educator I need to encompass digital technologies to maintain motivation and interest for students in learning English. I am aware that now many of my students are millennials and so-called digital natives who have easily interacted with digital technology since early childhood. Even if these same students are limited with how to navigate themselves around technology they expect to see it in the course. However, by creating a virtual collaborative learning environment in a language classroom we are embracing a Constructivist learning principle acknowledging that ‘people construct new knowledge with particular effectiveness when they are engaged in constructing products that are personally meaningful’ (Resnick, 1997, pp. 23–24 as cited in Crisp, 2014.)
Having these multimodal collaborative virtual environments in an ESOL classroom, such as the project trialled in the article, would be revolutionary as students could be using all their senses in their learning experience. The idea that there are 3 dimensions of immersion: spatial immersion, emotional immersion and temporal immersion (Doumanis et al., 2018)and being able to create virtual environments where the learners could interact in real-time and have real-time responses would produce this immersion.
Imagine in either a formal classroom setting or in an informal context the language learner having the opportunity to move in a virtual world in a country where English is spoken and interact with people in real-life situations. This is related to t Connectivism with learners having seemingly unlimited access to resources creating unique language learner experiences. Suddenly the language would become relevant and meaningful. I also think that with the students having some sort of anonymity it would ease some of the confidence barriers, while the students having the opportunity to practice chunks or dialogue without the feeling that someone is watching and monitoring. Virtual games could also be collaborative creating a community where the students can peer review and give and get instantaneous feedback. Due to this it can allow teachers to scaffold the development of skills and competencies. (Crisp, 2014).
Gamification and virtual reality in Next generation learning spaces (NGLS) (Crisp 2014) are areas that have a place especially in an ESOL context. However, as it stands at the moment I think it has limitations. Something that I found interesting the TESOLANZ EAP/Assessment Symposium that I attended in July, was that digital technologies even in 2019 seem to be hardly addressed in the ESOL world. It seems to me that many are seeing the barriers such as budgets, resourcing, time and access more than the potential to help with giving students vital feedback and peer review by using technology. There is also the concern that even though the learner engages with the online learning materials it doesn’t “guarantee that the intended learning will occur” and there are often little opportunities for the students to get involved.” (Doumanis et al., 2018, p. 122) These considerations will be impertinent in my classes so that I can align the learning outcomes with the entertainment of the technology.
As James Gee states in his video Learning with video games “the game is only half the picture: understanding the game, explicating it, discussing it, researching the specialised language” this can also be applied the English language classroom and something that needs to be considered.
References:
Crisp, G. T. (2014). Assessment in the next generation learning spaces. In K. Fraser (Ed.), The future of learning and teaching in next generation learning spaces (pp. 85-100). Bradford, UK: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Ho, C. M. L., Nelson, M. E., & Müeller-Wittig, W. (2011). Design and implementation of a student-generated virtual museum in a language curriculum to enhance collaborative multimodal meaning-making. Computers & Education, 57(1), 1083–1097. https://doi-org.ezproxy.massey.ac.nz/10.1016/j.compedu.2010.12.003
Education is about making learning alive and relevant. Therefore, don’t confine education to the walls of the classroom but connect it to the real world. In our information age, it doesn’t even have to be limited to your immediate community. B Johnson
B Johnson (2010)
There has been a shift in the way they we view the 21st century learner. We now have the four C’s (critical thinking, collaboration, creativity and communication) which highlight the predicted skills needed for our learners in the future. It is now up to the educators to embrace these skills and create learning environments which are synonymous to these.
Theoretical framework of the flipped classroom. The Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Texas at Austin .
The idea of flipping the classroom, is one that will be important for ESOL educators as they move into a harmonious relationship with digital technologies. By incorporating this more in the future ESOL teachers will be able to give the students more speaking opportunities in the classroom by getting the students to come together with their peers while checking that they understand the task.
I have never been more aware of “the sage on the stage” this especially when I am teaching the IELTS preparation course. Most of the students come into the class having already sat the test or have done extensive practice tests and activities informally online. I have had to modify my classes so that I am not the giver of knowledge but to lead and particularly for this course motivate and create confidence that they may have lost while not getting the required ‘band’ needed. I agree with Amol Padwad that in the future ESOL teachers will no longer be a ‘mere English Teacher’ but the ‘thermostat’ who controls the environment of the classroom.’ (Dr. Brad Johnson and Tammy Maxson McElroy, 2010) With the future students potentially being more distracted it is so important the 21st century educator remains relevant and is not competing with the robots but working alongside them. In my next IELTS preparation class I would like to incorporate more technology and encourage more informal learning by providing extensive online resources.
Future ESOL teachers will also be using less course books and more materials that are tailored to each student and the skills that they need to improve. “In a diverse society, teachers should view each student as an individual and facilitate learning based on personal interests. It’s the diversity and individualisation that make the world unique and special. Even though it sounds difficult but it is not impossible.” (J, Amin, 2016) With the idea of Constructivism ideally teachers will be able to provide the unique materials for each student, take a step back and let the students independently work through an activity, while enforcing the language skills that each learner needs. I think the key will be when the students come back together to collaborate and peer review while receiving instantaneous feedback.
The role of the 21st century ESOL educator will have to be one that is collaborative and transparent not just within the institution that they are working in but globally. Connectivism will play an important role for ESOL teachers. While there is an overwhelming amount of online resources for ESOL students, the sharing of resources and forums for ESOL teachers are more limited. There doesn’t seem to be enough sharing of knowledge at this stage. Dr Brad Johnson and Tammy Maxson McElroy suggest that educators need to start looking at each other as “partners in crime” (2010) and that ‘effective teachers are a great resource of knowledge, ideas, and even activities that can be shared with teammates.’ It will be up to the institutions to ‘cultivate a community of practice perspective amongst teaching staff where ‘sharing is caring’ in the process of acquiring necessary digital competence is a fundamental pillar’ Krumsvik’(2008)
TESOL International. The 6 Principles.
I really think in English language institutions around the world that are often poorly resourced this should be a key objective and these same institutions should be reaching out globally. By creating a data base/website or app that at the very least has minimal joining fees or even better, are free to join, it will remove a lot of the strain put on teachers to find resources. In my experience I have found that with online ESOL materials educators have to pay to access these. When we discussed plagiarism and copyright in our forum it made me think that this will be a hurdle that needs to be overcome. Whether ESOL teachers pull things from the internet with disregard for the source or are afraid to source things from the internet because of it. After our discussion in Online activity 7 – Ownership, academic integrity and digital artefacts forum I now take in to consideration the idea of copyright and plagiarism more so than before.
References:
Amin, J. (2016), Redefining the Role of Teachers in the Digital Era, International Journal of Indian Psychology, 3(6) https://doi: 18.01.101/20160303
I came across the article ‘Refugee resettlement, social media and the social organization of difference,’ by Jay Marlow (2019) while I was at work (at the NZ Red Cross) and it immediately raised some questions that have been going round in my head for a while.
How can people
who have never received any formal education learn the skills needed for
sustainable employment efficiently and effectively through the use of technology?
Can the informal contexts of social media aid in this?
In his article Jay Marlow (2019) states that the “…blurring of boundaries between virtual and offline communities that assisted with creating relationships and improving settlement outcomes such as gaining employment and participating in education.” (pp. 3) I think that we need to start focusing on these informal learning opportunities to enhance resettlement opportunities. It also brings to mind the question of how does the ubiquitous nature of learning in a multimodal context relate to the ever increasing amount of displaced persons around the world? By picking up the missing loose strands of education and opportunities and teaching them skills and knowledge sets while they are displaced and/or are in camps could fast track them into the global world.
A research paper by
Thomas M. Crea and Neil Sparnon describing a
pilot programme that was introduced in Dzaleka camp in Malawi, Kukuma camp in
Kenya and urban refugees living in Amman, Jordan. This project introduced a blended
multimodal approach of having teachers monitoring a distance programme through
Jesuit Worldwide Learning.
The formal learning by having the use of digital technologies being available
while they are in camps gave them a great opportunity to continue their education. It gave them the chance to learn important skills and
the host language before they got to their new country. From this article I
thought that if the clients that I help had the opportunity to learn English
and/or study the necessary skills to gain meaningful employment how much easier
would their assimilation into New Zealand life be.
So while the idea of Connectivism seems ideal ,as presented in the pilot study, it is out without problems. Namely the simple fact of connectivity and internet access being limited or disconnected. These students also faced challenges of safety while going to class. The environmental conditions created a lot of technical issues such as flooding, food riots, cholera outbreaks and the simple fact of lack of air-conditioning in one area resulting in the computers unable to work for sustained periods.(Crea and Sparnon, 2017)
These apps are an example of Connectivism as they are connecting refugees globally and the future learning opportunities will not be confined to the country and language of their future host county.
In a UNHCR report that I found it pleads for better collaboration between the tech industry and the humanitarian actors in regard to the refugee crisis. While the media-rich nature learning is of value to groups that are digitally literate maybe it is not so appropriate to the marginalised groups. These apps will not be effective unless they are created for the needs of the users, while being aware of their computer literacy skills. With my contact working with refugees here in Palmerston North the clients nearly all have a smart phone where they are able to use Whatsapp, Facebook, YouTube, online dictionaries and various other media sources from their home country. They are relatively literate in these however, are at a disadvantage because of their lack of English skills. A Constructivist view to the refugees’ learning is vital when it comes to teaching them English. I think in NZ if we can embrace the refugees knowledge and experience in their learning it would make the process smoother and faster. Many of the clients that I speak to on a daily basis are multilingual and therefore this should be considered when we are teaching them English.
Being able to reach these groups through digital technologies
would be game changing. English language Institutes and the Red Cross should take
advantage of the digital technologies to best benefit our refugee clients. By
embracing this it will help them with learning English and giving them skills
to be work ready in the New Zealand context. If we don’t start using these, we
run the risk of creating a bigger divide between the digitally literate and the
non-literate, causing already disadvantaged people to fall further behind.
Resources:
Crea, T.M and Sparnon, N. (2017) ‘Democratizing education at the margins: faculty and practioner perspectives on delivering online tertiary education for refugees’, International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 14 (43), doi 10.1186/s41239-017-0081-y
Elsafi, A. (2018). Formal and informal learning using mobile technology. In S. Yu, M. Ally & A. Tsinakos (Eds.), Mobile and ubiquitous learning: An international handbook (pp. 177-189). Singapore Springer.
Gilhooly, D and Lee. E. (2013) The role of Digital Literacy Practices on Refugee Resettlement/; The case of Three Karen Brothers’, Journal of Adolescent &Adult Literacy, 57 (5), pp 387-396, doi:10.1002/JAAL.254
Marlow, J. (2019) ‘Refugee resettlement, social media and the social organization of difference’, Global Networks, a Journal of Transnational affairs, Vol 19 (3) 2019, doi.org/10.1111/gob.12233
UNHCR (2016, October 14 ) Is your app the best way to help refugees? Improving the collaboration between Humanitarian actors and the Tech Industry. Retreived from
In recent years, Learning Management Systems
(LMS) have become an integral part of higher education and digital technology is in all aspects
of education. Analytics are fundamental in schools whether it is for the smooth
running of the school or to track students’ progress. These systems
are ultimately put in place for educators to monitor and provide personalised,
project-based, collaborative assistance in and out of the classroom. They can
gather information about the students emotional states, their social
interactions and interests.
National Academy of Education. (2017). Big Data in Education: Balancing the Benefits of Educational Research and Student Privacy. A Workshop Summary.
Ng Wan (2015) mentions that Learning analytics are useful for educators to identify the students at risk of dropping out and/or failing the course as they are able to see who has logged on, how long they logged on for and with whom they engaged in.
In the reading ‘Affordances of New Digital Technologies in Education’ (2015) there is a section about Learning Analytics and that fact that ‘most education institutions make use of learning management systems (LMS) such as Moodle to monitor the progress of students’.
As a parent starting out in the
NZ school system I find it somewhat alarming that all our children’s work is
put into Big data without much knowledge as to whether this information will be
passed onto unauthorised people or put to nefarious uses. The information that
is collected will follow a child through school, be analysed and monitored and
then could subsequently profile a child
in the future to a particular profession or further study. I also have concerns
that there will be privacy breeches, hacking and the use of my children’s data
being used for software developers without my knowledge.
This is particularly evident with the Learning Platform Linc-ed that was created by Paul and Amie Sibson (as a start-up but now has funding by Vodafone). The creation of an easily accessible app to gauge of your child’s progress is ultimately made to help teachers and whanau to address any immediate needs that the student may have. However, in New Zealand schools how many parents are particularly concerned about their 5-year olds’ digital footprint? Is there a naivety that parents, educators and policy makers have about this matter?
This idea is not something particularly alarming for me at the secondary or tertiary levels however it does concern me when we are discussing Primary and Intermediate levels of education. The theory of Siemens (2004 ) noted, “The starting point of Connectivism is the individual. Personal knowledge is comprised of a network, which feeds into organisations and institutions, which in turn feed back to the network, and then continue to provide learning to the individual.” Knowledge acquisition in this model ins ongoing and more importantly, changing”. Although in Primary schools in NZ this is not quite the case and students are not so globally connected however, I think they will be in the future. If this does occur then the foundations and issues relating to privacy need to be solid and clear.
Who gets to decide how much a 5-year-old
child can be monitored and how much data can be generated using digital
technologies? Does a child have the right to have their digital footprint
started at such a young age?
Bill Cope and Mary Kalantzis (2016) compare a lot of “learning management and other education software, where users effectively consent for their learning experiences to be used as data, including manipulation of those experiences for research and development purposes” (p.13) similar to a user agreement for Facebook where the company owns personal data.
The privacy policy in schools is extensive and it discusses privacy and the non-disclosure of any unauthorised personal data and openly says that “there is no guarantee of confidentiality or security, despite the use of firewalls or other security measures including access code numbers for families” (Dalziel, 2009 p. 16). It however doesn’t mention information about students’ work, progress or the collection of information for research. Is this because in New Zealand there is no risk yet or it hasn’t been considered, and if this is the case does it need to be addressed?
I think moving forward with digital technologies and the rapidness of its introduction into New Zealand schools it is a vital area that needs to be explored and deeply considered for the protection and privacy for our children. The person responsible for buying technology to be used at the school needs to be very savvy about what they are using and ensuring that the information is secure. Schools should also carry out a data protection impact assessment (DPIA) that should look at how they will protect the data, where they are storing it and the strength of their password policy. Schools also need be very proactive in destroying the child’s data when they stop using the platform to prevent any breeches that may occur.
Dalziel, K. (2009). The Privacy Commission Te Mana Motapono Matatapu. Privacy in Schools: A guide to the privacy act for principals, teachers and board of Trustees.
Doumanis, I., Economou, D., Sim, G. R., & Porter, S. (2019). The impact of multimodal collaborative virtual environments on learning: A gamified online debate. Computers & Education, 130, 121-138. doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2018.09.017
Cope, B., & Kalantzis, M. (2016). Big Data Comes to School: Implications for Learning, Assessment, and Research. AERA Open. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858416641907
Haniya, S., & Rusch, A. (2017). Ubiquitous learning: Spatio-temporal dimensions of e-learning. In B. Cope & M. Kalantzis (Eds.), e-learning ecologies: Principles for new learning and assessment (pp. 46-64). London: Routledge.
Heath, J. (2014). Contemporary privacy theory contributions to learning analytics. Journal of Learning Analytics, 1 (1), 140-149.
Morrision,
N. (2019).Too much information, Tertiary Education Magazine, 5353 (31 May).
Ng, W. (2015). Affordances of new digital technologies in education.In New digital technology in education: Conceptualizing professional learning for educators. (pp. 95-123). New York, NY: Springer.
Zeide, E., & Nissenbaum, H. (2018). Learner Privacy in MOOCs and Virtual Education. Theory and Research in Education, 16(3), 280–307. https://doi.org/10.1177/1477878518815340
Our hunger for knowledge can be at the roots of our failings or our successes. It can distract us or it can keep us engaged in a lifelong quest for deep learning and understanding. Some learning enhances our lives, some is irrelevant and simply distracts us. Successful people are expert at categorising useful versus distracting knowledge. How do they do it? Daniel .J. Levitin
In Assignment 1 (Theoretical Foundations Organiser) I came across the very pertinent theory of cognitive overload. When we consider digital technology and multimodal learning it is vital to keep in mind “the total levels of intrinsic and extraneous cognitive load within the learners working memory limits.” (Wong, A., Leahy, W., Marcus, N., & Sweller 2012, Page 450). While we are faced with more and more sophisticated technology which give us new and exciting ways of learning and teaching, I feel that sometimes these have unintentional negative consequences.
An example that I personally came
across was informally learning the concepts of setting up a website for WordPress.
It seemed that in every step there was a decision that needed to be made (the
colour of the background, the website theme, the font size for example). With
all of these decisions that at the time seemed that I needed to make the
decision then and there. I was unable to prioritise what was relevant and
decipher the important information and what could have been side-lined for
another time. Due to all this extraneous load it was a cumbersome and arduous
journey to learn the basic fundamentals of setting up a website on WordPress. Due
to all the distractions it was difficult to have meaningful learning which
often requires substantial cognitive processing.
Coming away from this I think of
Darren Ncnelis in his TEDxtalk Cognitive overload — rewire your brain in the digital age. He talks
about how ‘time is our tech commodity
and if we don’t take back our attention, technology will take it and it’ll take
your time as well.’
Due to this experience it made me consider as educators we have this pressure to use technology effectively and efficiently so then how do were process this cognitive overload and categorise the information that is relevant and which is not? While it is very common to identify this as a learning theory, I think that it is more important to really focus on how we overcome this. How can we as learners and educators retrain our brains that have not been hard wired to confront these difficulties? Should educators be focusing more of their instruction on organisational skills and how to categorise and prioritise large amounts of information? Multimedia learning is exciting, but it does go hand in hand with cognitive overload theory. This has been repeatedly identified in digital technology and I believe that in the future more attention needs to be paid in how to help educators and learners with this. They need to be given tools and skills to be able to reflect on what is necessary to be able to move into a metacognitive realm.
This can also be the same to educators when they are faced with digital technologies. They are often forced to adopt these technologies due to a management decision. Because of this, teachers have no time to learn these new technologies and therefore are reluctant or refuse to use it. I have seen this with ESOL teachers who don’t see the benefit and find learning the programmes a waste of time. Sometimes too much Professional development can cause cognitive overload and educators don’t have time to reflect. As Mark Burns aptly says “ slow thinking is the best learning.” As a ESOL teacher I hope to overcome the overload that technology can bring to the classroom and I hope I will be able it aid my students in this when I am finding resources from the internet that can at times be overwhelming.
References:
Burns, M. (2018, December 19).
The learning Imperative.Radio EDtalk.
Low, R., Jin, P., & Sweller, J. (2010). Learners’ Cognitive Load When Using Educational Technology . In R. Van Eck (Ed.), Gaming and Cognition: Theories and Practice from the Learning Sciences (pp. 169-188). Hershey, PA: IGI Global. doi:10.4018/978-1-61520-717-6.ch008
Virginia Forbes Learning Design Portfolio 