Mar 21 2007
The Leeds Blog……and being Doris Day?
Well I am the first on the Blogroll on the new Leeds University Student Blog. Which is there to give a voice to students and what it is like to study at the University whatever course and wherever you may be. The introduction of the weblog made me think about what is it like, how do I feel after a year and a half of distance learning on my Masters in ICT and Education. I would possibly summarise it as a draining, but enjoyable experience in which the amount I have learnt and digested is unbelievable. Although I have just been through a whole hour of pretending I was Doris Day in a chat seminar – hmm all in the name of learning about CMC.
Anyway I have been reviewing an article from Regine Hampel – TOWARDS AN EFFECTIVE USE OF AUDIO CONFERENCING IN DISTANCE LANGUAGE COURSES which sets out to see if an audio conferencing tool called Lyceum (used at the Open University) can contribute effectively to distance learning language courses. It also looks at the practicality and problems facing an institution that sets this type of system up.
What does this paper say about online learning for language acquisition …:–
• The author discusses how the Open Universities Language courses used immersion based week courses along with occasional face-to-face interviews for language practice, but decided that with technological improvements the time was right to improve their students language practice with an Internet based audio conferencing tool
• For students to acquire language 3 elements are needed: – ‘comprehensible input’, interaction to ‘negotiate meaning’ and the production of ‘comprehensible output.’
• Textual CMC is discussed and its advantages enabling better conversations (with scaffolding from peers), equal participation and students ability to control discussion – but obviously does not support oral language acquisition.
• The author discusses how CMC can lead to collaborative tasks that look at real life situations and allow students to follow personal interests to solve problems and so acquire language often in a more motivational and interesting way. However the author suggests a downside in those environments that support this can ‘make greater demands on the user.’
• Other disadvantages can be: – irregular participation, difficulty of setting up appropriate tasks, challenges to the e-moderator, technical problems and that communication is not personal.
• The authors study will look at Lyceum, and how it is developed through students and tutors feedback. Lyceum includes: – real time audio conferencing, collaborative whiteboard, text Chatbox, virtual rooms – all tools should allow for collaborative learning possibilities. On top of this a website was designed to link activities and publishes course information.
• Learning activities were designed for the 3 elements above to happen – not focusing on drill and practice but on activities ‘to create, communicate, plan, explore, build, discover, participate, initiate and collaborate.’
• Findings:-
i. Students initially enjoyed the experience
ii. They commented on the extra amount of preparation needed
iii. Technical issues, were a cause for concern
• Tutor training was an important part of the project, with 4 sessions and it seemed at end of training tutors were keen to try the new technology
• Findings: –
i. TECHNICAL problems were the major issues – helpdesks were overrun, and most tutors thought that this impeded the learning experience
ii. The tutors were worried about lack of control
iii. Activities were interesting and opened up students ability to follow their own learning styles
iv. Students who did not prepare often did not complete objectives set, and especially true of weaker students who could end up ‘lurking’
• The author suggested that tutors especially felt that ‘a significant contribution in time, effort and sometimes even money’ needed to be recognised by the University. Student and Tutor support was a major issue along with student non attendance was also an issue.
• Even though the course created ‘a greater sense of interaction and intimacy among the students than many face-to-face courses’ – there were considerable difficulties in time needed for students to prepare and how students collaborated between sessions.
• However positively it was suggested that the ‘activities were shown to be contributing greatly towards fostering second language acquisition, collaboration and socio-cultural learning’ –when they were planned correctly.
• In conclusion apart from technical issues improvements in the format of activities so that less preparation time was needed and also less collaboration.
What are the Implications ….:–
• Additional contributions of teachers/ tutors which are often I believe overlooked. I have found now that I use VLE’s, Weblogs and a Internal Social Network that are all available 24/7 that this does add a great deal of time and energy to my average day. As part of my studies and also a technological innovator who simply enjoys using technology this may not be a problem – but I acknowledge for an average teacher/ tutor this would probably not be acceptable. I can see with the part time tutors running Units on this course the difficulties they face promoting and enabling a collaborative learning Unit within the time they have.
Personal Thoughts
• Interesting and very practical article in which many elements linked with my experiences with FirstClass and the seminar sessions. On the negative side the preparation time especially as a distance learner who is working, can at times feel daunting. Although this has dissipated with the realisation that you can turn up unprepared and still contribute.
• Collaborative activities have also been problematic over the time of the 4 Units I have participated in often either groups not managing to meet, or a group being set up only for one person to contribute and then nothing more happens. Cynically this has probably led me to avoid such activities – I believe this is specifically part of the difficulties with fitting in part time distance learning into a working life. This mix has also been difficult between full time and part time students.
• Interesting how the Open University discussed the idea of an assessment element within the tutorials – even if this was not a decision that could be used?
Strengths/Weaknesses of article/ Do the arguments resonate with my experiences?
• Focus on the technical issues – although as any teacher/researcher will find integrating new technologies within education the biggest issue is the technical and support issues – it seems the author has not discussed the pedagogical sides of the activities and there problems in the detail necessary. (Although a MFL teacher was using a Lab this afternoon, and I spent along with a technician a great deal of time sorting out the headphones and setting for them all to work! LOL)
Will leave this for now Twitter, Splashcast and I Feel Fine – blogging goodness to come soon….
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