Maximising the use of your VLE for language learning and ......Group task of ‘deconstructing...

Maximising the use of your VLE for

language learning and teaching

Marina Orsini-Jones

Joint Associate Head

Department of English and Languages

m.orsini@coventry.ac.uk

Association of the University Language Centre

12th Annual Conference and AGM: Enhancing

Quality. University of Reading, 5th January

2012

Virtual Learning Environments and Language

Learning and Teaching: students can (from

Web 1 to Web 2 and beyond)

• Find more opportunities to plan their discourse

• Reflect on their production

• Compare their production with that of their peers and their teachers

• Share language learning knowledge

• Obtain immediate feedback on their learning

• Acquire useful ICT transferable skills (myth of the “digital native”)

• + connect to other learners globally/use their mobile phones – or other mobile devices - to connect to the VLE anywhere/anytime

Virtual Learning Environments and Language

Learning and Teaching: teachers can (from

Web 1 to Web 2 and beyond)

• Explore new ways of assessing students

• Reflect on their students’ production

• Research use-function-opportunities offered by the VLE with peers

• Compare their students’ work with that of students in previous cohorts in an easier way

• Maximise the opportunity for examples of good practice (displaying students’ output from one year to the other)

• Obtain immediate feedback on their teaching if needed

• Acquire useful ICT transferable skills

• Detect web plagiarism easily (Turnitin)

• + learn on the way their students interact with other learners and incorporate learners’ ‘tips’ on language learning into their teaching

New horizons in CALL (becoming MALL): 4

skills anywhere/anytime + 5th skill

(multilingual digital literacy)

• Online speaking and listening : Skype, audio-

conferencing and discussions (synchronous and

asynchronous)

• Online virtual world creation: games, Second

Life, World of Warcraft

• Online knowledge sharing: Language learning

exchanges (SNSs like Livemocha and Busuu)

Engaging with new media: digital

multilingual multiliteracies

• ICT literacy

• Employability

• “Reading the world”

Research evidence that effective use of e-

learning/blended learning can “empower the

learner”

Which VLE?

overall principle - 1

An e-learning activity must be very carefully designed

and is defined as a specific interaction of learner(s)

with other(s) using specific tools and resources,

orientated towards specific outcomes”.

(Beetham 2007, 28, italics in original)

overall principle - 2

As implied by McLuhan (1967) the medium (or media)

chosen for the task affects the students’ learning

experience and cognitive journey.

overall principle - 3

Learning, as argued by Vigotsky, “is a socially

mediated activity in the first instance, with concepts

and skills being internalized only after they have been

mastered in a collaborative context”.

(Vigotsky 1986, cited in Beetham 2007, 36).

overall principle - 4

Do not confine your children to your own learning for

they were born in a different time.

[ Hebrew proverb ]

Adapted from Dudeney (2009), EuroCALL

Plenary, “Beyond the Book”, used with

permission

overall principle - 5

Build metacognitive activities supported by e-

learning tools into your language learning tasks:

thinking on how one learns is proven to help with

learning (and it fosters employability skills too)

and link them to assessment

Voice tools

embedded in

Vista 4

Tip 1: Personalise the environment

e.g.: Blackboard and Wimba

Tip 1: Personalise the environment

e.g.: Moodle and Nanogong

Free and open source audio applets

(IMS and SCORM)

Free conferencing – Big Blue Button (OR Wimba

collaborate)

How? Tip 2: Organise your material by maximising the tools

within your VLE (and using a digital repository)

How? Tip 3: Ask your students for suggestions on what to

include

How? Tip 3: Ask your students for suggestions on what to

include: e.g. BECTA extensive tutorials nln http://go.nln.ac.uk/content/tata4_FK12_Future%20tense%20using%20Goin

g%20To/harness/frameset.htm

Tip 4: don’t reinvent the wheel

Useful packages exist

already (e.g. EAP toolkit

and Clarity materials for

EAP/EFL respectively)

Useful websites too

There is not much point in

spending time re-creating

‘drill and kill’ behaviouristic-

type tests when they are

available for free on the

web and are proven by

research not to improve LL

but include some in your

course, they keep the

students happy…

Tip 5: be creative

Allow for effective interface of the VLE with

the ‘world outside’, e.g. options with

hypertext creation: examples of text-

reconfiguration – exposing students to

different e-genres of Italian texts (Elena

Polisca – University of Manchester)

Tasks aimed at fostering learners’

autonomy and multiliteracy

awareness

Good practice from Manchester: CAMILLE 1 –

Hypertext (Elena Polisca)

CAMILLE 2

Streamed

MP3 tracks

embedded

video from

Youtube

CAMILLE 3

Core text

contains

auto-generated

glossary terms

linking to Media

Library

CAMILLE 4

Included

images, audio

and video in

some question

types (using

HTML)

Options with hypertext creation: examples of

text-reconfiguration 2 (MOJ/CU 1998-2008)

T

u

t

o

r

Group task of ‘deconstructing text’ following

guidelines on translation contained in Ulrich (1992)

with links to online dictionaries and online

corpora/concordancers

Analysed texts ‘taught’ to peers in assessed

‘microteaching’ translation sessions

Evidence from relevant literature (e.g. Klapper 2006)

that adult learners learn languages better via project

work carried out over a number of weeks

Cycles of action research to evaluate impact of tasks

on students’ learning experience (qual and quant

data)

Student group translation (constructivist task

shared via the VLE and discussed f2f and

online) – Language and Literature (CU) also

suitable for history of art courses run by LCs

Tip 6: explore your VLE and make creative use of other

platforms that can be launched from within it, e.g. e-

portfolios like PebblePad and Mahara

• The LC at Warwick is piloting an interesting assessment

model with Mahara

• The Common European Framework can be used in

conjunction with an e-portfolio

Assessed ‘Group grammar analysis’ – Built

with the webfolio tool in the e-portfolio

PebblePad and shared via a ‘gateway’ –

French example (CU)

Metacognition – reflecting on how grammar

is learnt on blogs in PebblePad (CU)

Positive feedback

T

u

t

o

r

Analysing a text in this way highlighted to us

linguistic aspects that we had not noticed on

the paper version of the text

Tip 7: bear in mind accessibility issues

No-nos: animations/non accessible

fonts/illegible colours (e.g. red/yellow;black

and blue)….

Your tips?

Emerging new ‘hybrid’ environments

for language learning: the personalised

classroom online - Social Networking

Sites to learn languages (also available

as phone apps)

’disruptive technologies’ in that they allow for

new and different ways of doing familiar tasks.

Godwin-Jones (2005) (quoted in Brick 2010)

Tandem learning in ‘controlled conditions’:

MentorIT Manchester (Elena Polisca)

VLE-based tandem learning secondary

schools/unis

BB

BB

Language Learning SNS

Functionality (Brick 2010)

• Web-based – no downloads.

• Synchronous voice and asynchronous

text chat

• Learning materials

• Peer review of written and spoken

submissions

• Profile matching (languages, levels)

• Motivational tools BB

Pandora’s box of multilingual

multiliteracies?

Ultimate user-centred model of LL?

Finally: apps/open VLE models

• Twitter feeds?

• Facebook?

• SNSs?

Difficult to handle assessment via non

proprietary platforms, ethical issues,

but…possible and happening

The FREEE – Fluid Role Evolving E-learning

Environment

(© Orsini-Jones 2009, in Orsini-Jones 2010: 357)

Affordances of multifunctional personalisation of the e-learning zones

inhabited by students in a connected ‘global village’

References can be emailed on demand

Based on two forthcoming chapters

• Orsini-Jones, M. (2010) Shared spaces and ‘secret gardens’: the

troublesome journey from undergraduate students to undergraduate

scholars via PebblePad In J. O’Donoghue (Ed.) Technology

Supported Environment for Personalised Learning: Methods and

Case Studies Hershey, PA: IGI Global. (pp. TBC).

• Orsini-Jones, M. (2010) Task-Based Development of Languages

Students’ Critical Digital Multiliteracies and Cybergenre Awareness.

In M.J. Luzon, N. Ruiz and L. Villanueva (Eds.) Genre Theory and

New Literacies. Applications to Autonomous Language Learning.

Cambridge: Scholar.

Any questions?

• m.orsini@coventry.ac.uk