CHOOSING TECHNOLOGY FOR COLLABORATIVE AND INDIVIDUALISED LEARNING IN THE ESL CR: FINDING OUR

WAY THROUGH THE WEB TANGLE.

Dr Kshema Jose The English and Foreign Languages University,

Hyderabadkshemajose@yahoo.com

Structure of this talk

1. Current state of affairs 2. Guidelines for a better education system3. Changes in the ESL classroom vis-à-vis • Pedagogy• Learning tasks • Choosing technology • Designing tasks• Assessing tasks 4. Benefits of a technology-enhanced classroom

Where are we now?

• Information Age: a period in which the movement of information through networks would overtake the circulation of goods as the primary source of value in society (Manuel Castells, 1996)

• Age of Globalisation: A world that is both globalised and globalising, and therefore interconnected (Kumaravadivelu, 2013)

So what are the implications of educational globalisation?

Roadmap for higher education in the 21st century

• Develop ability to flourish in a world that is fundamentally diverse and irredeemably different

• Focus on knowledge creation• Solve the challenges of access, equity and quality• Facilitate innovative use of information and

communication technologies (‘Making the Indian Higher Education System Future Ready,’ Ernst & Young-FICCI report)

-contd

Roadmap…

Skills for the 21st Century

• Communication acquiring and processing information • Synthesising knowledge • Creative thinking • Communication and presentation skills • Language skills

Source: EUA DOC-CAREERS Project

Roadmap…EFF Standards for Adult Literacy and Lifelong Learning• EFF Communication Skills• EFF Decision-Making Skills• EFF Interpersonal Skills• EFF Lifelong Learning Skills– Use Information and Communications TechnologyUse computers and other electronic tools to explore, acquire, process, and manage information and practice skills.

http://www.nifl.gov/lincs/collections/eff/standards/eff

Shifting Paradigms

Changes in Content and Mode of Language Education

• Collaborative education • Interdisciplinarity • Training in core transferable skills (European

University Association)• Linguistic development linked with

Sociocultural development

How do we bring this into the ESL CR?

• Review pedagogies?• Incorporate new perspectives? – accommodate lifelong learning– emphasise individual capacities and needs– learners as active and not passive recipients of knowledge

and skills– accommodate impact of social and cultural contexts on

people’s engagement with learning

Also change how we think, talk about, plan, and structure activities of learning and teaching

But does this require reinventing pedagogy?

• Changing nature of knowledge therefore changing nature of learning

• Rearticulation of pedagogies • Three fundamental shifts: – From information to communication – Passive to more interactive engagement – Individual to more socially situative learning

How can this rearticulated pedagogy be implemented in our classrooms?

Learning Objects and Learning Design

Learning Objects: Pieces of information that can be used

Types of technology-supported Learning objects in the ESL CR: • Digital assets • Information objects • Learning activities • Learning design

Learning Design: Learning objectives, roles, activities, support activities, activity structures, environment resources and methods (Beetham and Sharpe, 2007)

Considerations for choosing the right Technology

Pedagogy before TechnologyThree broad perspectives: • Associationist: learning as gradual building of patterns of

associations or skill components • Cognitive: perception, thinking, language, reasoning as output of

an individual’s attention, memory, concept formation processes • Situative: all learning is influenced by social and cultural setting

and the outcome is learning to participate in social practices successfully

In different contexts people do learn in these three different ways.-contd

Choosing the right Technology

Make Learning a Dialogue Allow interaction with • concepts (leading to conceptualization)• tasks (construction) and • people (dialogue) Essential requirement for interaction that builds new understanding is feedback (Laurillard, 1993)

Designing Appropriate TasksZPDlearnerMAP

ZPA

ZAA

Designing Appropriate Tasks Get learners to act and to think and Facilitate Dialogue

• Relate to what they know • Provide Scaffolding, Fading, Contingent scaffolding• Solve problems• Construct answers• Receive and Reflect on feedback

– Have I understood? – What should I do next? – How do I use my new knowledge?

How much can the computer do? Solutions: • Peer tutoring/ collaborative learning • Vicarious learning (tertiary courseware, Mayes et al 2002)

-contd

Designing…

Teaching approaches that can be realized online• Socio-cultural learning • Resource-based • Peer-led• Content/ instructivist led• Complex• Problem-based• Collaborative• Instructor-led (Weller, 2007)

Assessing Task Adequacy

Draw up a feature list to state pedagogic and strategic requirements of the tool:• Description of the tool• Current provision • Better prospects • Related subjects/ topics • Ease of implementation • Scope

Benefits of Technology-enhanced ESL CR

• CSCL, CSILE where focus is to promote productive, collaborative interactions with a range of technologies

• Provide tools to learners to support construction, sharing, reflection, critiquing and revision of information

• Support Lifelong Learning and Workplace Skills

Conclusion

No one factor makes use of technology effective• Integration of technology with face-to-face • Digitizing content alone does not ensure learning • Link seamlessly with our current teaching-learning

behavior • Allow Learning through interaction: with others, with

content and using tools• Satisfy a pedagogical need: within a complex socio-

cultural context, either solving a problem or amplifying a learning opportunity

Thank You

kshemajose@yahoo.com