INDEX
INTRODUCTION
Course description
Rationale
Audience
Aim
Objectives
Content
Media
REDESIGN
OF COURSE
EVALUATION
Start-up questionnaire
Frequency of e-mail contact
Course evaluation
CONCLUSIONS
FROM THE EVALUATION
Tutor dependency
The 'house of learning'
PROCESS
Course structure
Motivation
Learning style
Community of learning
SCHEDULE
FOR 2001-2002
MEDIA
FOR 2001-2002
JUSTIFICATION
OF MEDIA
Course book + CD-ROM Dictionary
Issues in English + CMC
Online group chat application
Final Project
CONCLUSIONS
REFERENCES
BIBLIOGRAPHY/RESOURCES
Course
description
English Online
(Anglais en ligne) has been running for 2 years: 1999-2000
and 2000-2001.
The course lasts 8 months, with one face-to-face meeting per month
on average, called the Communications Workshop. The programme
is based on Computer Assisted Learning (CAL), using a CD-ROM,
Issues in English, lent to each learner. Regular e-mail
and telephone contact between individual learners and the course
tutor enable the preparation of the workshops, which serve to
discuss the topics on the CD-ROM.
The course,
run by the Adult Training Centre of the Jean Moulin-Lyon 3 University,
Lyon, is still in its experimental stages. The greatest difficulty
to date is in communicating the concept of e-learning to a French
audience - hence the very small cohorts: 1999-2000: 2 learners;
2000-2001: 3 learners
Rationale
The rationale
for offering the course lies in the vastly influential role of
English in present-day French society. Mastering English is now
recognised as essential - after many years of strong resistance
to the potential hegemony of the language - in order to meet the
international challenges facing French industry, commerce and
tourism.
The cultural
influence of the language - via American, British and Australian
cinema and popular music - has anchored 'la langue de Shakespeare'
(as the French affectionately call it) firmly in their own culture,
whether they like it or not.
Audience
The audience
over the past two years has been mixed gender-wise: 2 women and
3 men. The average age has been late 30s to early 40s. Of the
five learners, three were self-financing; the other two having
their courses paid for by their employers.
Computer-literacy
has not proved a problem in general. Nonetheless, prospective
enrolees need to be informed of the degree of computer literacy
required for the course. Some form of pre-entry evaluation of
basic Internet navigation skills needs to be implemented. And
if necessary, a brief start-up course in these skills should be
offered to those who need it.
Aim
The overall
aim of the course - anchored in a lifelong learning perspective,
but with no external summative assessment - is to offer adult
learners the means to revise and improve their skills in spoken
English.
Objectives
When questioned
at the outset of the course, learners request the core skills
such as those advocated in the European Language Portfolio. These
skills, when prioritised, can be translated into the following
objectives:
- Listening:
the ability to decipher short blocks of information of an everyday
nature;
- Reading:
mastering - with the help of a dictionary if necessary - texts
of general interest, such as newspaper articles, webpages, etc.;
- Spoken
Interaction: the ability to maintain a fluent conversation in
an everyday context;
- Spoken
Production: the ability to communicate spontaneously with no
'prompting' due to prior interaction, e.g. asking for directions
in the street;
- Strategies:
coping with making oneself understood in unforeseen contexts,
i.e. 'muddling through'.
Content
- CD-ROM
Issues in English, Protea Textware, 1996.
- CD-ROM
Dictionary: Oxford Advanced Learner's or Longman.
- Test
Your English Idioms, P Watcyn-Jones, 1990, Penguin Books.
- Websites,
notably the BBC and sites of general or specific interest, subject-oriented
and grammar-oriented.
- Audio
and video material.
- Print-based
documents.
Media
Learning
media
- CD-ROMs
- Internet
- Print
- Video
and audio recordings
Dialogue
media
- 3-hour
monthly face-to-face workshops
- E-mail
- Individual
telephone conferencing
- Online
forum (This was introduced in January and sheltered on the then
eGroups site - now taken over by Yahoo! and called Yahoo! Groups.)
In
format, the course may be compared with the 'Content + Support'
model that:
'relies
on the separation between course content […] and tutorial support
(which in its simplest form is delivered by email or alternatively
by computer conferencing).'
(Mason,
1998)
The
CD-ROM is the core autonomous learning medium. E-mail and individual
telephone conferencing with the tutor provide linguistic backup
and extrinsic motivation. The monthly face-to-face workshops afford
the learners the opportunity to put into practise the newly acquired
vocabulary and concepts they have met in the CD-ROM. The debates
serve as extrinsic motivation as learners compare and confront
their individual interpretations of the topic under debate and
the web-based research each one of them has carried out beforehand.
The
redesign of the course aims to 'bring learners together' over
the intervening four weeks or so between workshops. Past experience
has shown that isolation and professional commitments have been
the source of poor motivation.
Learner
2 (JD): I'm still at the office with tons of things to
finish. I won't be able to ring you at 7:10pm as planned. |
Learner
3 (DV): Ooops I forget our last telephone call. I was in
Ibiza (for holydays) last week and I'm going to Perpignan
(for work) where I organize a congress. […] And I'm trying
to call you during the week but don't wait me […] If not,
see you on next Friday |
Start-up
questionnaire
This questionnaire
- in month 2 of the course - enables the tutor to see where the
learners are having trouble in self-directing. Follow-up discussion
in an ensuing phone call is necessary to probe this feedback.
Learner 3 (DV), for example, rated his 'Keeping reasonably
up-to-date' in his studies as 'B', on a scale from 'A' to
'E', where 'B' indicates 'I feel reasonably competent about this'.
It is regrettable to have to record that DV had not at that stage
submitted any of the e-mail exercises that were already overdue,
nor did he manage to do so over the ensuing 6 months.
This instance,
early on in the course, highlights the weakness in the design
of the these exercises, i.e. submitting to the course tutor, via
e-mail, the answers to questions from the course book. An alternative
task design for these exercises will be implemented in the Justification
of Media section.
Frequency
of e-mail contact
These statistics,
slight though they appear, nonetheless enable us to identify the
troughs and peaks in learner-tutor communication. They confirm
several points:
- The
need for a break during the 8-month period because of fatigue,
demotivation, isolation, personal/professional commitments,
poor time management.
- The
difficulty in 'circumnavigating' holiday periods. Face-to-face
workshops fall on a Friday often preceding extended weekend
holiday periods or before school holidays.
- The
burst of enthusiasm at the outset of the course; the 'rush'
to make the most of the course before the end of the year.
- February
and March constitute a very slack period, with poor learner
commitment. A distinct reorientation in the learning cycle is
needed at this point.
Course
evaluation
The
following results outline the degree of learner satisfaction with
the autonomous learning media, on a rating scale from 0 to 10:
MEDIA |
RATING
FROM 0 TO 10 |
CD-ROM
Issues in English |
9.3
for listening comprehension
6.6 for
self-correction exercises |
CD-ROM
Dictionary |
9
for learners 2 and 3
learner
1 did not buy it |
Recordings
on audio cassette lent to learners
Sound files
attached to e-mails |
9 |
Texts
as basis for discussion uploaded to forum |
9 |
Internet |
7.6 |
Video/TV |
5.6 |
Exercises
submitted by e-mail |
5 |
The
eGroups forum proved to be a mitigated success due to its implementation
three months into the course. Despite a face-to-face training
session to familiarise learners with the application, it proved
difficult for learners to integrate it into the learning mode
they had, by then, constructed. This learning mode reposed essentially
on learner-tutor communication, and while the forum did provoke
and encourage the exchange of e-mails among the three learners
and the occasional uploading of documents in preparation for the
face-to-face workshops, it was impossible to instigate any form
of valid computer mediated conferencing (CMC). This was due to
the limited number of participants, aggravated by the limited
computer skills of Learner 1 (BA):
Learner
1 (BA): I think I didn’t help the other learners to communicate
with me especially through the forum because I wasn’t used
to computers’ technic. |
Moreover,
when the learners were questioned on the media for dialogue with
the tutor that were available to them, the forum was rated very
poorly:
MEDIA |
RATING
FROM 0 TO 10 |
Workshop |
9.6 |
Telephone |
9.3 |
E-mail |
8.3 |
Forum |
4.6 |
This
brief attempt at CMC through the forum highlights the unfavourable
dichotomy in the 'Content + Support' model pointed out by Mason
when he states that:
'these
online elements tend to be added onto the course and students
of such courses frequently report conflicts with learning the
materials and participating in the online activities.'
(Mason
1998)
CONCLUSIONS
FROM THE EVALUATION
back
to INDEX
Tutor-dependency
The course
is not sufficiently learner-oriented. A top-down structure imposes
a schedule and content that ultimately causes demotivation. Furthermore,
the stress on learner-tutor communication encourages an attitude
of tutor-dependency that causes learners to remain ensconced in
schoolish attitudes towards learning. When meeting deadlines for
submitting work, learners manifest a 'getting the work in to please
the teacher' approach. This scholarly perception of the tutor
was highlighted when one learner, upon being reminded of a telephone
call she had missed, drew a telling picture of herself and her
fellow learners when she replied in an ensuing e-mail with the
phrase:
Learner
1 (BA): I just would answer we are naughty adults. |
To
counter this situation, the creation of a community of learning
at the outset of the course is needed, in which the function of
the tutor is perceived as that of a facilitator. The learners'
motivation must not be tutor-dependent, but find its raison d'être
in their responsibility towards the other learners in the community.
Higher
Order Thinking
The orientation
away from conditioned attitudes to learning can be equated with
the concept of Higher Order Thinking (HOT) qualified as:
'[…]
the capacity to go beyond the information given, to adopt a
critical stance, to evaluate, to have metacognitive awareness
and problem solving capacities […] to be an autonomous thinker
and make reasoned judgements.'
(McLoughlin
& Luca, 2000)
HOT
in a language learning context should encourage the learner to
go beyond the rote-learning mechanisms of memorising new vocabulary
and grammar rules. Its aim is to stimulate learners to restructure
the mind map of how they learn and to support each one of them
in finding their own learning style with regard to a foreign language.
Collaborative learning - and notably Computer Mediated Collaborative
Learning (CMCL) - opens the way to this new awareness. McLoughlin
& Luca (2000) state that:
'[…]
the social, participatory and shared verbal activity in online
environments is a trigger for higher order thinking'.
(McLoughlin
& Luca, 2000)
In
support of this, they cite McKendree, Stenning, Mayes et al (1998):
'Learners
can see their peers and tutors modelling the process of interpretation
and application; they can analyse and compare their own understanding
to that of others'.
(McLoughlin
& Luca, 2000)
It
is, however, important to stress that the learner is not being
asked to 'wipe the slate clean'. The 'learning to unlearn' concept
prevalent in distance education theory should not blind us to
the importance of encouraging learners to build on certain elements
they already possess and which they may feel to be positive in
the development of their learning style. In short, beware of 'throwing
out the baby with the bathwater'!
The
'house of learning'
By rubbing
shoulders with other learners - albeit in a virtual space - learners
assemble the bricks of a structure that is their own personal
'house of learning'. Some bricks from past experience will be
kept, others removed and replaced by new bricks.
Taking the
metaphor further, entire walls of the edifice will at times collapse
and rebuilding them may be painful and long. And, as with a real-life
house, the structure is assembled to suit the inhabitant, which
means that, with time, walls sometimes have be knocked down to
make room to accommodate new concepts.
Creating a
community of learning - as in CMCL - brings together the 'houses
of learning' of all its participants. Through windows we may glimpse
what is inside a house. Some doors will open more easily than
others. Some 'inhabitants' will be eager to 'roam the streets'
of the community and visit other houses; some will require time
before venturing outside their own house. And ultimately, inhabitants
will invite each other 'back home', when the time is right. And
it will be this socialising that will bring participants the opportunity
to compare the architecture of their houses and enable them to
pursue the construction - involving perpetual deconstruction and
reconstruction - of their 'houses of learning'.
Finally, pushing
the metaphor of this virtual village of 'houses of learning' to
its limits, collaboration between learners may be seen as the
paramount social gesture of 'lending a hand' or 'mucking in'.
Building or rebuilding a wall is easier with the help of those
who have done it before; and clearing out the rubble of walls
that have collapsed is easier in teams….
The symbol
of a 'house of learning' is rooted in constructivist theory, according
to which 'people are active learners and must construct knowledge
for themselves' (Barclay 2000). Barclay develops this posit and
introduces the repercussions on task design by stating:
'Instructors
should encourage students to engage in active dialog and discover
principles by themselves […] to be more self-regulated and take
a more active role in the learning process by setting their
goals, evaluating progress, and exploring interests beyond basic
requirements (Bruning et al, 1995). Constructivistic concept
(sic) such as these are suggested to provide a theoretical and
practical foundation for e-learning processes.'
(Barclay,
2000)
Four
areas are under discussion in this section to lay the groundwork
for CMCL in the English Online forum:
1.
Course structure
2. Motivation
3. Learning
style
4. Community
of learning
1.
Course structure
'The
educational effectiveness of computer conferencing depends on
a balance of task design, facilitation and scaffolding of participant
interactions so that higher order thinking can be achieved.'
McLoughlin
& Luca (2000)
With
a view to achieving the balance put forward by McLoughlin and
Luca, the course as it stands must shift from its present 'Content
+ Support' model to the 'Wrap Around' model, in which:
'[…]
the online interactions and discussions occupy about half of
the students’ time, while the predetermined content occupies
the other half […] giving more freedom and responsibility to
the students to interpret the course for themselves.'
Mason
(1998)
This
represents a veritable sea change in the present distribution
of media.
Time-wise,
online communication via the forum will represent approximately
one third of the course; another third will be devoted, as in
the past, to face-to-face learning in the workshops; and autonomous
learning will make up the rest.
The CD-ROM
will constitute, in months 2 to 5 of the course, the core resource
for the learner to revise and revitalise the basic notions of
English grammar and syntax, as well as the vocabulary pertaining
to the topics under debate. This usage may lend itself to criticism
as being behaviouristic, but it is justified in that learners,
in a French context, need some form of lifeline to their past
learning habits. It is utopian and perilous to aim to coerce them
into a constructivist approach to learning overnight when they
have - for the most part - a lifetime's rote-learning behind them.
Salmon touches upon this dilemma, when he poses the question:
'Does
the use of English imply acceptance of a certain cultural traditions?
In the United Kingdom for instance, the model of teaching and
learning is based on acceptance of a certain level of independence.
Other cultures' teaching traditions may give the impression
that the 'teacher is king', thus posing a challenge to e-moderators
aiming for democratic and collaborative approaches'.
(Salmon,
2000: p92)
As
an offline medium, the CD-ROM is also justifiable in that it entails
no outlay for the learner, as opposed to material accessed through
the Internet which involves extra cost. Laurillard pinpoints this
argument, among others, when she stresses the need for diversity
in learning media:
'The
efficiency and enjoyment of study will be optimised if media
fit the learning objectives, if the choice of method for each
medium is well matched to study logistics such as time or place
constraints, access to equipment, etc., and if an appropriate
balance is achieved across the range.'
(Laurillard,
2001: slide 10)
Developing
Laurillard's premise, the computer conferencing element in English
Online can be equated to the 'enjoyment' factor she evokes. The
exchange of opinions on the issues raised on the CD-ROM enables
learners to 'play' with ideas: in short, to debate; while the
CD-ROM furnishes the 'efficiency' factor in Laurillard's equation,
i.e. the linguistic grounding necessary to support debate.
2.
Motivation
For
the tutor, managing motivation in a CMCL environment may best
be defined as simply keeping one's ear to the ground. No one rule
or set of rules can be applied. An alert, discriminating and open
mind is the moderator's greatest asset in apprehending the motivative
'make-up' of any one learner.
Any element
the moderator introduces to trigger motivation is worthless unless
careful and permanent attention is paid to the repercussions that
that element provokes. In a face-to-face environment, the tell-tale
signs of flagging interest are easily perceived and remedying
the situation can be swift. In a CMCL environment, however, the
time lag, which asynchronous communication inevitably generates,
dulls the signs of demotivation, be it in any one participant
or in the group as a whole. The moderator may consequently lose
precious time in identifying the demotivation and, in turn, lose
or misjudge the means of supporting learners.
These opening
remarks on motivation are born of the dilemma facing the course
moderator in juggling what may summarily be called the two extremes
of 'too much, too soon' and 'too little, too late'.
How does the
CMCL course designer eke out support for learners in such a way
that they neither rest on their laurels nor fall by the wayside?
An advanced organiser, as advocated by Ausubel (1968), may stimulate
learner motivation; yet an overblown and intricate programme coming
too soon in the learning cycle may dismay and diminish motivation
if learners feel overburdened at the prospect of the programme
before them. Some form of staggered advanced organiser is therefore
necessary, especially for novice self-directed learners, because:
'Human
beings are equipped with a built-in tendency to notice and react
to novelty. This natural curiosity is an aspect of intrinsic
motivation. Too much novelty, however, may make an experience
disorientating and confusing. […] An interesting experience
then, is when novel inputs are arriving and are being assimilated
to our existing cognitive structures at our preferred rate.'
(University
of Surrey, UK, undated webpage)
It
follows then that it is the moderator's ability to perceive and
measure the 'preferred rate' of 'novel inputs' of any one individual
or a group that will ensure stable and constant progression in
learner motivation.
At present,
learners with English Online receive an advanced organiser at
the first workshop outlining all eight months of the course. Experience
has shown however that learners lose sight of the architecture
of the course as it progresses, forgetting deadlines and telephone
appointments, for example. Furthermore, confronted with the entire
schedule, learners may perceive this very detailed overview of
the course as something monotonous or mechanical. The course therefore
needs to be broken up into 3 trimesters and, at the first face-to-face
meeting, learners should be given nothing more than the dates
for the workshops. Instructions for the three trimesters would
be staggered over the year, with learners receiving details of
how each trimester functions only when it begins.
3.
Learning style
Distance learning
theory has always encouraged the designer to allow the learners
the freedom to 'find their feet' in the range of media at their
disposal. Learners analyse and hone their learning style by incorporating
the media that - at any given moment - may suit their personality.
The first weeks of the English Online course therefore should
be devoted to getting learners to review their learning style
through dialogue - be it synchronous, asynchronous, online, face-to-face,
telephone or chat - to enable them to construct that style. Howell-Richardson
stresses the role of dialogue and the task of activating dialogue
that is incumbent on the tutor:
'Laurillard
[…] speaks of the importance of dialogue in learning. […] Through
questioning the theories you start a dialogue with yourself,
which makes you examine the theories more deeply and develops
critical thinking. […] and she sees it may have to be prompted
by the tutor to check understanding and to set off new trains
of thought.'
(Howell-Richardson,
2001)
Quoting
Leino's remark (1999) that 'Chatting increases belongingness',
Salmon (2000: 29), for his part, underlines the value of informal
dialogue among learners, yet in vaguely muted terms, stating:
'It
is also important that the e-moderators are tolerant of "chat"
conferences and online socializing'.
(Salmon,
2000: 29)
McConnell
attaches far greater importance to informal dialogue saying that:
'[…]
the talk indulged in need not be formal or structured for learning
to occur. Informal talk, or chat, can help many learners make
the link between their present understanding of a topic or issue,
and a more meaningful understanding:
"[…]
Tentative and inexplicit talk in small groups is the bridge
from partial understanding to confident meaningful statement.
Present talking is future thinking." (Barnes et al, 1969,
p126).'
(McConnell,
undated webpage)
Such
considerations as these lead us to debate on the extent to which
a tutor can model a course in order to support learners in the
quest for each one's preferred style. The emotional intelligence
or EQ (=emotional quotient), that governs this capacity to self-direct
one's learning is distinguished from IQ by Goleman (1995), and
is summarised as:
'[…]
that which shapes how we use our intellectual ability through
self-control, zeal and persistence, and how we motivate ourselves.'
(Hocking
College, undated webpage)
Barclay
describes how emotional intelligence underpins the construction
of a learner's preferred style, and while favouring its adoption,
she nonetheless admits the difficulty of providing such extensive
support:
'
[…] introducing materials through an individual’s preferred
learning style will improve processing time to learn new matter.
[…] the constraints of technology will affect an instructor’s
abilities to provide for multiple styles of any category, but
awareness of learner diversity may foster more meaningful, challenging,
and relevant training.'
(Barclay,
2001)
In
conclusion, this debate brings us back to the centrality of the
learner in CMCL and to the concept of keeping an 'ear to the ground',
with tutors supporting learning through their own reserve of emotional
intelligence.
Spector (1999)
reminds us that the very virtuality of CMCL obliges designers
to be cautious before erecting this or that framework or theory,
and, in view of the newness of the medium, encourages us to be
unceasingly on our guard.
'Designing
environments to support collaborative learning is a new enterprise,
and we, as a community of professional practitioners, have yet
to develop widely help competencies and frameworks for this
praxis. Fjuk (1998) argues that:
"…a
distributed collaborative learning community is a ‘place’
that is created by the individual students through their individual
and collective actions […] These ‘places’ are not developed
by the systems designer. The designers’ role is to support
the students’ work of creating that community, and in such
a way that the computer systems become integrated parts of
the students’ activity" (Fjuk, 1998, p. 70).'
(Spector,
1999)
Fjuk's
statement introduces the tutors' delicate role, with one foot
in, and one foot out of the learning community they are moderating.
Fortunately the role of 'the tutor as evaluator and assessor (punishing
and rewarding)' (McConnell, 2000: 137) is absent from the English
Online programme, as no summative assessment is conducted on the
course. This simplifies the task of moderation in one respect,
thus enabling the tutor to interact on an equal footing with learners
and to concentrate with them on developing and nurturing a community
of learning.
4.
Community of learning
Building a
community of learning in the English Online forum will repose,
from the outset, on learner-learner dependence, that is to say:
'[…]
based on concepts of social constructivism related to Vigotsky's
concept of the zone of proximal development, where students
working together can "scaffold" each other to achievements and
understanding beyond what could occur with the student working
individually.'
(Collis,
1997)
Salmon
(2000: 25-26) views teaching and learning online through Computer
Mediated Conferencing (CMC) in a highly linear, hierarchical fashion,
with an 'upward' progression through 5 stages:
1.
access and motivation
2. online socialisation
3. information
exchange
4. knowledge
construction
5. development
He
states that:
'
[…] at stage five, e-moderators and participants are essentially
using a constructivist approach to learning. Constructivism
calls for participants to explore their own thinking and knowledge
building processes. (Biggs, 1995).'
(Salmon,
2000: 36)
This
however begs the question: Should self-directed learners not be
exploring their 'thinking and knowledge building processes' from
the very outset of a CMC course? Granted that initial exposure
to the medium is challenging and at times unnerving, nonetheless
why suppose that learners cannot, at an earlier stage, evaluate
the means of communication and self-instruction that is at their
disposal? As is common in CMC, a Feedback area can be implemented
for this purpose. This is not enough however. Learners must be
given the opportunity to give voice to analysis of their learning
style through other media. This is where the tripartite environment
of mixed-mode distance courses, especially those with access to
synchronous communication through regular face-to-face sessions
and individual telephone conferencing can prove a distinct advantage.
Furthermore, the medium of online group chat can also serve this
purpose of spontaneous collective debate with a view to supporting
learners in the construction of their 'thinking and knowledge
building processes'.
The
course will be divided into three distinct trimesters.
Trimester
1, Stage 1: Start-up
Stage 1, lasting
4 weeks, will be devoted to exposing learners to the media at
their disposal and encouraging them to set up and use multi-channel
peer-to-peer dialogue facilities: shared telephone numbers, e-mail
addresses, online chat, conferencing and socialising through the
forum.
Trimester
1, Stage 2: Groundwork
Throughout
the 10 weeks of Stage 2, learners will test the research and debate
formats at their disposal, such as multi-participant conferencing
and peer collaboration in groups of 3 or 4, with a view to supporting
the development of their preferred style of learning. Towards
the end of stage 2, learners will also be invited to evaluate
the course to date and to run some form of evaluation of their
evolving style of learning.
Trimester
2: One-to-one collaboration
Trimester 2
is designed to cultivate peer responsibility through a tighter
format, by inviting learners to work in pairs. This approach is
dictated in part due to the difficulties experienced in physical
participation and motivation of the whole group at this time of
the year. It is also a step calculated to remove the stays of
peer-group scaffolding used during trimester 1 and to allow participants
to develop the social bonding on a one-to-one basis that will
by then have occurred within the group.
The first 6
weeks of trimester 2 will allow for a certain amount of 'slack'.
The schedule will be flexible; those participants that wish to
'forge ahead' will be encouraged to do so; those who are in need
of a lighter schedule will be allowed to free wheel to some extent.
This approach will move the onus from the constraints of physical
participation thereby enhancing, we hope, online participation
and collaboration. It is also necessary in order to allow for
the two-week school holiday that falls during February, when participants
may be away from home.
The remaining
3 weeks of the trimester, in March, will require learners to prepare
intensely for chairing face-to-face debates on the subjects they
have prepared over the preceding six weeks.
Trimester
3: Developing learning style
Lasting 12
weeks, trimester 3 is entirely devoted to learners preparing a
Final Project of their own choosing and carried out individually,
but with open preparation and tutoring via the forum. The project
- produced in any format the learner wishes - is presented at
the final face-to-face session mid-June. The only criterion governing
the project is the obligation that the finished product be in
English.
MEDIA
FOR 2001-2002
back
to INDEX
Choice
of media
- The
same learning and dialogue media will be used as in 2000-2001.
- The
Yahoo! Groups site will be used for CMC.
- ICQ:
synchronous chat application. An online group chat through ICQ
will take place once a month (on a Friday, i.e. the same day
of the week as workshops in order to help learners regulate
their learning schedule.)
- The
various media will be introduced in a staged approach, i.e.
not all at once, in accordance with the 'novelty inputs' theory
evoked earlier, thus maintaining intrinsic motivation.
Course
book + CD-ROM Dictionary
The idiom exercises
from the course book which familiarise learners with dictionary
research techniques are maintained. However, to eliminate the
tutor-dependent aspect of the correction of the exercises, learners
will be requested to simply post up their exercises each week,
before Friday, to the forum; solutions to the exercises will then
be published on the forum the following day. This approach establishes
a form of tutor-independent routine and deadline for the work.
Issues
in English + CMC
As prescribed
by Mason's 'Wrap Around' model, the CD-ROM, Issues in English,
constitutes the 'content element' of the course, in tandem, with
the online conferencing of the issues that figure on the
CD-ROM.
Online
group chat application
Online group
chat is favoured for its value in encouraging group cohesion,
but particularly for the opportunity it offers for immediate yet
reflective expression. As Faber points out:
'Through
writing in a communicative fashion, such as Y-talk , RTA , or
even
e-mail
(although it is not in 'real time'), the student writes in an
informal discourse that allows for negotiation of meaning. Also,
he or she has the extra time needed to create language at a
comfortable pace, while getting the feedback of direct communication.'
(Faber,
undated webpage)
Chat
session content may be based on issues under debate from the CD-ROM,
or be devoted to learner-led topics. It will also be a valuable
medium in supporting
self-assessment.
Working on the assumption that there will be between 6 to 10 enrolees
in the course, the chat will be divided into two consecutive sessions
of 20 minutes with half the group online (3 to 5 participants)
per session. As the course progresses, chat sessions involving
all the participants will be tested. To avoid confusion with 8
or 9 people in a chat function, the session will be designed with
3 or 4 learners debating while the others 'listen'. Those 'listening'
can intervene silently at any given point with emoticons (McConnell,
2000: 81). The moderator may then invite the new participant to
join the debate and ask someone already debating to step down
for a while.
An essential
reinforcement element of chat is to request that learners save
the whole chat transcript in order to read it with hindsight,
to analyse the language in play and to spell-check it.
Final
Project
The open tutoring
of the Final Project by the moderator via CMC with the opportunity
for peer viewing and comment of the process or content fulfils
the overall pedagogical objective of the course, i.e. raising
learners' awareness of their preferred styles of learning.
Keeping awareness
of learning style centre-stage is the thread that weaves throughout
the course
'...to
maintain a narrative, in collaboration with the learner' [...]
It is the responsibility of teacher and designer to […] motivate
their own [the learners'] articulation of what they know, motivate
them to refine it, and enable them to assess for themselves
the extent to which they are achieving the goal.'
(Laurillard
et al, 2000).
The
new design of English Online aims to cultivate awareness of learning
style through its scaffolding of the learner, where scaffolding
is seen as:
'[…]
a commitment to be in harmony with the students' thinking, and
then fade when the scaffolded knowledge is internalized.'
(Brattan,
B et al, undated webpage)
Throughout
the course, the learner will run the gamut from working as many
- in the start-up multi-participant conferencing sessions, followed
by the one-to-one peer collaboration in trimester 2 - to ultimately
working independently, yet not alone, in the open environment
of the Final Project in trimester 3. The scaffolding does not
'fade' as such, however, because the principle of scaffolding
will itself be internalised. Learners will learn that one can
scaffold oneself, and that one can - with time - become the architect
of one's own learning.
Ausubel,
D P, (1968): Educational Psychology: A Cognitive View, New
York: Holt, Rinehart and Wilson, Inc.
Barclay,
K (2001):Humanizing Learning-at-Distance
http://www.stratvisions.com/dissertation/dissertation.html
Barnes,
D, Britton, J, Rosen, H & the L.A.T.E. (1969): Language,
the learner and the school, Penguin, England.
BBC
website:
http://www.bbc.co.uk
Biggs,
J (1995): The role of metalearning in study processes,
British Journal of Educational Psychology 55, pp185-212
Brattan,
P, Durrah, S, & Uecker, J (undated website): Scaffolding
Student Learning, Instructional Approaches and Issues
http://hale.pepperdine.edu/~pcbratta/scaf4.html#anchor525864
Bruner,
J. (1966). Toward a Theory of Instruction, Cambridge, MA,
Harvard University Press
Collis,
B (1997: Experiences with Web-based environments for collaborative
learning and the relationship of these experiences to HCI research,
Presentation at "HCI and Educational Tools", Working Conference
of IFIP WG 3.3, Sozopol, Bulgaria
http://users.edte.utwente.nl/Collis/papers/bulgaria.htm
European
Language Portfolio:
http://www.eaquals.org/Portfolio_Web_Final.htm
Faber,
K (undated webpage): Technological Web Page Curriculum for
First-Year Spanish Classes
http://www.oberlin.edu/~kfaber/resources.html#WRITING.2
Fjuk,
A (1998): Computer support for distributed collaborative learning.
Exploring a complex problem area. PhD dissertation, Department
of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway
http://www.ifi.uio.no/~ftp/publications/dr-scient-theses/AFjuk.pdf
Goleman,
D (1995): Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than
IQ, New York, Bantam Books
Hocking
College, USA, webpage: Emotional Intelligence
http://www.hocking.edu/~aaffairs/EQ.HTML
Howell-Richardson,
C (2001): Summary of Learning Theory Discussion, Computer
Mediated Communications in Education module, MA in ICT in Education
Module/MA in Distance Education, Institute of Education, University
of London
ICQ
website:
http://web.icq.com/
Laurillard,
D (2001): Rethinking University Teaching in a Digital Age,
Digital Learning Tools Conference, Oslo 3 April 2001, Open University,
UK
http://www2.open.ac.uk/ltto/lttoteam/Diana/Oslo/Oslo_files/frame.htm
Laurillard,
D, Stratfold, M, Luckin, R, Plowman, L & Taylor, J (2000)
Affordances for Learning in a Non-Linear Narrative Medium,
Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 2000 (2)
http://www-jime.open.ac.uk/00/2/
Leino,
A (1999): Virtual United: Online course to 22 countries by
an international team, Proceedings of Online Educa, Berlin
Mason,
R (1998): Models of Online Courses, ALN Magazine Volume
2, Issue 2 - October
http://www.aln.org/alnweb/magazine/vol2_issue2/masonfinal.htm
McConnell,
D (undated webpage): Computer Supported Cooperative Learning:
What is Cooperative Learning?
http://www.idb.hist.no/mecpol/pol0297/lessons/12/cscl.htm
(link now outdated)
McConnell,
D (2000): Implementing Computer Supported Cooperative Learning,
(2nd edition), Kogan Page, London
McKendree,
J, Stenning, K, Mayes, T, Lee, J & Cox, R (1998): Why observing
a dialogue may benefit learning, Journal of Computer Assisted
Learning, 14(1), 110-119.
McLoughlin
C & Luca, J (2000): Cognitive engagement and higher order
thinking through computer conferencing: We know why but do we
know how? In A. Herrmann and M.M. Kulski (Eds), Flexible Futures
in Tertiary Teaching. Proceedings of the 9th Annual Teaching Learning
Forum, 2-4 February 2000. Perth: Curtin University of Technology
http://cleo.murdoch.edu.au/confs/tlf/tlf2000/mcloughlin.html
Protea
Textware, Australia
http://www.proteatextware.com.au/
RTA
home page:
http://davinci.cs.ucdavis.edu/
Salmon,
G (2000): E-Moderating: The key to teaching and learning online,
Kogan Page, London
Spector,
J M: Teachers as Designers of Collaborative Distance Learning,
Paper Proposal for SITE '99, Department of Information Science,
University of Bergen, Norway
http://www.eist.uib.no/Papers/site-99.htm(link
now outdated)
Université
Lyon 3, France, website:
http://www.univ-lyon3.fr/
University
of Surrey, UK, undated webpage: Applied Professional Studies
in Education and Training, Module S46, Introduction to Interactive
Multimedia Training Systems, Unit 2: The Learner
http://www.surrey.ac.uk/Education/APS/s46/s46unit2.htm(link
now outdated)
Yahoo!
Groups website:
http://fr.groups.yahoo.com
A
Review of Issues pertaining to Farm Business Management Education,
prepared for The Canadian Farm Business Management Council by
Knowledge Connection Corporation:
http://www.farmcentre.com/english/downloads/distance.pdf
Faerber
R, Enseignement et apprentissage collaboratif sur un campus
virtuel : les leçons d’une expérience, ULP Multimédia
: Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg 1:
http://faerber.u-strasbg.fr/publi/cned99/papier%20cned.htm
Felix
U, Language Learning on the Web: Finding the Gems among the
Pebbles, Language Centre, Monash University, Australia:
http://cedir.uow.edu.au/ASCILITE98/asc98-pdf/felix.pdf(link
now outdated)
FlexVoice
2 text-to-speech engine:
http://www.flexvoice.com/demo.html
Johnson,
D & Johnson, R: Cooperative Learning
http://www.clcrc.com/pages/cl.html
McConnell
D, Adults@learning.net: a reflexive critique of cooperative
networked learning:
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/000000006.htm
Rosen
L, Teaching with the Web - compilation of ideas for using WWW
resources as a language teaching tool:
http://polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/lss/lang/teach.html
The
Efficiency of Instant Messaging:
http://www.david.weekly.org/lite/writings/aim.php3
University
of Glasgow English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Unit:
http://www.efl.arts.gla.ac.uk/Links.htm#info
Warschauer,
M. (1996): Computer-Assisted Language Learning: An Introduction,
in Fotos, S. (ed.) Multimedia Language Teaching, Tokyo: Logos
International [Online]
http://www.gse.uci.edu/markw/call.html
Warschauer,
M. (1996): Computers and Language Learning: An Overview, Language
Teaching
http://www.gse.uci.edu/markw/overview.html
Wegerif
R, The Social Dimension of Asynchronous Learning Networks:
http://www.aln.org/alnweb/journal/vol2_issue1/wegerif.htm