Category Archives: Education

Korean Flipped Writing Classes: Learning from Doing

Wall Flip, by JB London

2015 KAMALL-GLoCALL International Conference

Abstract:
Flipped learning approaches are being eyed for their potential to improve learning through reorganizing both the classroom and homework experience. Front-loading content and lower-order thinking activities normally provided during class time can free time during class to focus more on higher-order thinking activities. The purpose of this action research was to evaluate the flipped classroom model as implemented in an academic writing class at a Korean university and to use insights from student performance, student perceptions, and applied practice to revise instructional design. This action research was conducted with 137 students over two semesters of an academic English writing course. Data were collected through course assignments, end-of-course surveys, and student interviews. Findings indicate overall approval for aspects of the flipped classroom approach, including the use of instructional video and the focus on higher-order thinking activities during class. However, aspects of instructional methodology and content development were seen to be in need of modification and reconsideration. These findings will benefit teachers who are struggling to develop writing courses in a similar context.

PPT File (2015 KAMALL-GLoCALL_Korean Flipped Writing Classes)

 

KAMALL 2014 – Challenges and Opportunities in a Flipped Writing Classroom

I was happy to present on my attempt to “flip” my writing class last semester.  This presentation was really a preliminary look at the data, but the more I looked, the more interesting it became. This is the type of design-based research that both informs technology and practice.

Dan in Video Lecture

Challenges and Opportunities in a Flipped Writing Classroom (PPT)

Abstract:

This study evaluates the implementation of a Flipped Classroom approach in two academic English writing courses at a Korean university. The Flipped Classroom approach inverts a traditional class design with students viewing lectures at home and doing homework in class. It was developed in response to a perceived lack of classroom time for engagement and an increase in access to computer and Internet technologies.

Two writing courses for 67 English majors at a Korean university were flipped with the intention of reducing lecture time and increasing students’ discussion of and engagement with writing concepts and practice during class time. Instruction was designed to match these goals. For each major topic, students watched a video and took an online quiz to assess their recall of ideas from the video lecture prior to attending class. In class, students were given time to ask questions about the lectures and assignments. They were then asked to do class activities that encouraged them to come to a deeper understand of the course content. These activities included worksheets, a range of group activities, self- and peer-review of essays, and writing.

PowerPoint presentations were created for major topics in the course (7 total). From these presentations, video lectures were created. Four different screencasting programs were used (Movenote, ActivePresenter, knovio, and Present.me) in order to evaluate which of the programs best fit the development needs of the instructor and the viewing preferences of the students.

This research was conducted as a type of action research (Lewin, 1946). The researcher was also the lecturer for the two writing courses. As such, the focus of the research was to better understand and improve on the instructional design of the course.  To accomplish this, data were collected from numerous sources, including quizzes, one-on-one and whole class interactions, a research journal, and student survey responses. Preliminary findings will be presented in three categories: student perceptions, teacher perceptions, and instructional design.

Based on student and teacher experiences, the there are a number of instructional design changes that will take place in future classes. Videos will be shorter. This will be accomplished by making more videos that focus on fewer elements in each. Quizzes remain a good way to encourage students to watch the video lectures and to assess their understanding of the content prior to coming to class. It is clear, however, that a better way to push students to both view the videos and take the quizzes is needed. Lastly, more/better activities need to be developed for classes. In particular, I found that we had too few writing samples, too few opportunities to correct negative examples, and too few opportunities to write for the instructional objectives of the day.

http://tinyurl.com/kamall2014flip (PPT – Google Docs)

Preparing Teachers to Teach Listening

Ian Britton
Ian Britton
http://www.freefoto.com/images/9910/12/9910_12_2253—Stop-Look-Listen-Sign_web.jpg

In my last post (Discovering Field’s Diagnostic Listening Instruction) I explained how I am approaching listening instruction with both a listening class and a teaching listening class using Field’s Diagnostic Listening Instruction.  In this post, I want to focus on what I do with the Teaching Listening class.  I’ll include a good deal of the materials as well as some design tensions that have arisen in the past and how I’m trying to deal with them now.

My main goal is to focus students on modifying texts (audio) and tasks to best assess for gaps in listening skills and to provide skills training to fill those gaps.  In doing so, we focus largely on Field’s Decoding and Meaning-Building Processes.

Chapters 2-4 discuss beginning, intermediate, and advanced level learners (in addition to other topics mixed into each chapter).  These chapters provide for a good launching off point in the discussion of text & task modification for diverse learners.  Students in the class have to consider learner abilities at each level (ACTFL Guidelines are a helpful framework).  They then have to analyze texts (audio) for potential difficulties that learners may encounter.  Doing this for imaginary learners is less than ideal, but this lack of authenticity is address later in the course (see below).  These analyses then inform how the texts and tasks are implemented in instruction.

The activities/lessons that arise out of these activities are rather predictable.  Students tend to focus on aspects of background knowledge, vocabulary, speaker dialect and speed, number of speakers, background noise, and so forth.  This is when the students usually have to be pushed to refer to the decoding and meaning-building processes.  This takes them out of their comfort zone (based on their own learning experiences) and requires them to think about a wide range of processes that inform listening.  Follow-up assignments that required referencing the processes list tend to show a greater variety of modifications and task-types.

Take the following example.  You have a group of largely low-level English language learners.  Through initial assessments of their listening comprehension, you have found that many are unable to distinguish certain phonemes, they have difficulty finding word boundaries (isolating individual words in multiword utterances), and they have difficulty understanding many dialects that differ noticeably from the North American dialects that they have grown used to.

Knowing this about the learners, you have to choose appropriate texts and tasks to address these gaps.  While you certainly can address more than one at a time, it might be helpful here to isolate our learning objectives.  Let’s take the word boundaries issue first.   We should be addressing this specific performance gap and the processes that can help: stress-timed rhythm, stressed and unstressed words (content vs. function), pronunciation of unstressed syllables, common features of connected speech (linking, blending, elision, etc.), and so forth.

Text: Given the objective, the focus should be more on listening to each word.  In order to do this, it would probably be best for the text to be naturally spoken by a familiar speaker (teacher) or in a familiar dialect.  The text should feature content and vocabulary/expressions that learners are largely familiar with.

Task: The task is focused on these listening processes.  Teachers can explicitly teach some aspects like the features of stress-timed rhythm or these aspects can be gleaned by exposure to the language (likely mixed with some guidance by the teacher).  The tasks, however, should be focused an a particular learning objective.  For stress-timed rhythm, students can be asked to mark all of the stressed words in phrases, sentences, or paragraphs.  That task can then quickly move into a discussion about the primacy of syllables over words in listening and pronunciation.  This then leads into discussion/tasks on the pronunciation and identification of unstressed words and syllables.  This can (and should) continue until each of the learning objectives have been addressed.

These tasks are good at focusing learners on modification and role that student variables play in instructional design. However, this is largely an empty academic task.  This year, I have the good fortune to be able to offer a little more authenticity.  Learners in the Teaching Listening class will be developing lessons for actual listening classes offered by the university and taught by me.  This is the first semester that the course has been offered and I was asked to design and implement it.  I decided to eat my own dog food and attempt to apply the principles of a diagnostic listening approach to the course (I’ll write more about that experience later).  In addition, I realized that this could be a great opportunity for the English Education students to design instruction for real learners.

This semester, the Teaching Listening students will spend much of the second half of the semester developing instruction that I will implement in my classes.  The plan is to have small groups be responsible for developing lessons that address common listening problems as diagnosed by the listening class’s midterm exam.  The students will be given access to anonymized testing and assessment data, which will guide their lesson development.  Lessons (with all materials) will be submitted to me and if I think that they would benefit the listening class, I’ll teach those materials.  I’m even considering having the English Education students run the instruction, but I’m not so sure that I’ll do that.  Anyone want to convince me either way?

That’s about it for the overview.  See below for a bunch of materials related to the class.

PowerPoints that I use in the course. The chapter presentations do contain some information and  resources not in the book.

Other course materials:

 

 

Discovering Field’s Diagnostic Listening Instruction

Photo by garageolimpo
Photo by garageolimpo

When I was first given a class on teaching listening, I scoured the bookstores for a textbook.  It was at that point I realized just how little respect listening instruction receives in publication.  There are a handful of books that cover a mix of speaking and listening, including a well-respected book by Paul Nation, Teaching ESL/EFL Listening and Speaking. Most of these books short change listening, though Nation treats it better than most.  A class dedicated to the practice of teaching listening shouldn’t have to share a text with speaking instruction.  A focused class deserves a focused text.

I finally found John Field’s book, Listening in the Language Classroom.  Field’s book is an amazing take on listening instruction.  He promotes using a “diagnostic approach” to listening instruction, which he contrasts with what he refers to as a “comprehension approach.”  This changed the way that I approached language instruction and the preparation of teachers who will have to do the same. I was one of the many who treated listening as a kind of solitary unit that learners either got or didn’t get. I never thought thought about WHY they had difficulties understanding past the obvious (and overly emphasized) issues of speed and vocabulary.

I was excited to use this with my students at the time and did so in that first semester.  It was one of the biggest disasters of my teaching career.  I rightfully had high expectations for the students in the class (all English Education majors), but I so completely misjudged the difficulty of the text.  It was a rookie mistake and both the students and I suffered for it.  I ended up sidelining the book and created outlines and presentations for the students to read/listen to instead (those outlines can be found on this Posterous site until the service closes down on April 30, 2013).  While that experience soured me on using Field’s book with my students, it did nothing to dissuade me from using his ideas with future classes.

I now try to integrate Field’s concepts and approach to instruction with a much easier, accessible text for learners in my classes (Practical English Language Teaching: Listening).  This series of books is written to be as accessible as possible to novice learners in the field of TESOL.  The “Listening” book is no exception.  In the past, I’ve spread the book out over the duration of a semester while sprinkling in concepts from the Field book to add depth.

This semester I’m trying something new.  The first 4 chapters will be done primarily as self-study, while I put more of a focus on Field’s concepts and the application of those concepts with different groups of learners (in parallel with chapters 2-4 in the PELT: Listening text).  The second half of the semester students will primarily be developing lessons for two listening courses taught at the university, with a focus on diagnosing student problems and implementing instructional interventions that address these weaknesses.  I’m quite excited about this partnership and a little nervous as well.

I’ll be following up here on this project throughout the semester, discussing the challenges and, hopefully, successes throughout.

 

I’d love to hear any thoughts that you have.  What experiences have you had with teaching listening or with teaching teachers how to to teach listening (that’s a mouthful)?  Anything I should look out for? Anything I should try?  Any great lessons that go beyond simple comprehension?

Anonymous Feedback Forms for Formative Evaluation (of the teacher/class)

Anonymous Evaluation

I can go on and on about how much I love Google Forms.  These quick, easy forms can be whipped up in minutes, embedded in a Web page and you’re ready to go whether its for surveys, tests, or simply creating your own study guide for Korean phrases.

I’ve done my own end of semester evaluations for years.  I’ve always hated the ones that the university provides since they don’t have many useful questions for improving my courses.  Great, I come on time and they like the book (or lack of it).  Some of these have been anonymous and others with the students’ names (usually for use in research projects).  I always get a good sense of what students like and don’t like and then I can adjust my courses accordingly from there.

However, I’ve never requested regular feedback during the course.  This semester I’m teaching a CALL course to undergrads for the first time.  I taught a few years of the course at IU, from around 2004 to 2007, to grad students, but that was a totally different beast.  Let’s face it, I could throw 50 pages of dense research at them each week and they’d read it and get into great discussions based on the materials and their experiences.  My undergrads aren’t going to do that, and really, why would I even try.  This is more of a survey course, and that’s what it should be at this level.

This leaves me wondering how they are receiving the course only a few weeks in.  We’re going to go in the same direction until midterms so I thought it would be a good time to get feedback (so I could change direction if necessary).  I created a Google Form with just one question:

What is your impression of the course so far? Is there anything you would like to change? Anything that you’d like to do more of or do less of? Other topics that you would like to discuss?

I didn’t want or need to get more specific than this.  I wanted it to be easy and quick to answer and I think it is.

The results were ok with four people commenting from a very small class of 6 (yes, not my norm).  The feedback was generally positive with the usual suggestions for less homework (I’ll consider it).  One suggestion was for more emphasis on templates and other easy to design interfaces for immediate use in classes.  I think that this a great idea so I’m going to work this in a little more.  I’ll try to provide some templates for everything we do: Web page templates (Google Sites being one place), Blog templates (Blogger and WordPress), and I need to look for good templates for games, quizzes, and so forth.  I know where to look but I don’t have those off the top of my head.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to using this with other classes.  With the other classes, I’ll probably do it a little before midterms and modify the second half of the courses based on feedback.

Twitter for Academic Writing

 I don’t remember if, where, or when I might have posted this before.  Below is a brief paper that I did to accompany my presentation at the 2011 ETAK (English Teachers Association of Korea) presentation.  I only thought of posting it now because someone asked me today about my experience using Twitter with writing classes and I’ve had quite a few inquiries in the past.  My methods and thoughts about the process are largely in the paper below.  However, a few things have changed.

First, I’m no longer using Twitter with my writing classes.  I continue to see the value in it, but after 3 years or relatively poor end of semester evaluations (my own, not the school’s) regarding Twitter, I decided to pull it.  I still love the connection that it gave me and some of the student who did use it well. I also love it for a general communication medium for use with the students.  It was very convenient for me (yes, I said for “me”).  I might add it to my classes again in the near future given the current prevalence of students with smartphones, but for now, it remains off the syllabus.

Second, Twitter has been, well…, screwing (sorry, don’t know a better way to say it) its 3rd party developers.  This has resulted in big changes over the last few years.  One of these changes is that there are fewer (and now much more complicated) ways of archiving Tweets.  This is important for assessment, at least in my point of view.  Now, the only good way is to archive a # tag.  The problem with that is that it doesn’t capture direct messages and informal exchanges (unless they are tagging them too).  This give the teacher a much less detailed view of students’ use of the system and, more importantly, the use of the language.  You could certainly try to do all of this real-time, but with dozens of students, that gets quite difficult (I have about 60+ each semester posting 5 times a week in addition to mandatory replies and optional social interactions).

With that said, I still believe that Twitter can be used to fulfill a number of learning and classroom management objectives.

In addition, there is an underlying reason that I want to use it.  I dream of students establishing their own network (in English) and using that as a way to use the language outside of class.  However, after nearly 300 students involved in these classes, I having had 1 do this.  Either I haven’t come across the right method or it simply isn’t a compelling tool for autonomous language learning.

Edit – I did post this before, but the one below is edited better 🙂

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Abstract

The use of and interest in microblogging technologies like Twitter and Me2Day has exploded over the last year. These disruptive services are changing the ways in which the Web is written. Suddenly, the Short Message Service (SMS) format popular in private telephone communications was released into public view. 140 characters became a new boundary for public discourse. Naturally, researchers and educators immediately began to wonder what role, if any, this mode of communication has in education. Some worry about the artificially constrained limits on writing and the tendency for use of abbreviations and “text-speak”, while others highlight the benefits of interacting with authentic audiences and extending writing outside of the classroom. This paper will describe the outcomes from two years (four semesters) of experimentation with and use of Twitter with English for Academic Purposes (AEP) writing classes at a Korean university. Design-based research led to iterative implementations of an instructional system that strove to balance the needs for writing instruction, communication, and learner satisfaction. Successes, failures, and the resulting model for the implementation of AEP microblogging are discussed.

1. Introduction

Microblogging seemed to begin as a technology in search of a need.  Few people initially saw the benefits offered by the various microblogging services.  Before long, however, use cases emerged as naturally evolving systems formed around microblogging services like Twitter.  A community of users and developers took the basic platform of the service and shaped it to meet their needs.  Standards began to form around practices for replying (@), forwarding (RT), keywords (#), and direct messaging (D).  Twitter was like a ball of clay that people could form to meet their own needs in a multitude of ways.

There was, and continues to be, skepticism over whether Twitter with its 140 character limit could really benefit education.  Many language educators in particular have similar doubts, mirroring the ongoing debate over the use of Short Message Service (SMS).  Concerns reflect the perceived inability to communicate effectively in so few characters, and the accompanying abbreviations, acronyms, and slang that seem to mark much of Twitter discourse.  Others warn over the seeming lack of context and the inability to convey subtle meanings over such a text medium.  However, many who do support the use of Twitter do so primarily due to its benefits as a written medium, and its corresponding benefit for authentic written interaction in an increasingly text-connected world.

Educators are shaping both technologies and methods around Twitter (and other microblogging solutions) to fit the needs of their classrooms.  Many use Twitter for class communication, the extension of class beyond the classroom walls, and to generally build and strengthen classroom communities.  Twitter can be seen as a way to provide information and links to resources for the whole class as well as a medium for providing individualized instruction.  Social studies teachers have begun accounts for famous historical figures and “Tweeted” their lives as if they were living historical events in real time.  Language Arts teachers have done the same with characters from the literature they are addressing in class.  In addition, they are having learners write their own stories 140 characters at a time, either independently or collaboratively.  A number of creative uses of the service seem to emerge each day from a variety of educators around the globe.

Language educators in particular have taken part in both the effectiveness debate and the innovated uses of Twitter.  Given the cross-disciplinary nature of language teaching, it is easy to see how the uses of Twitter intersect with those in the content areas.  The same general instructional uses hold true for language instruction: community-building, class communication, resource sharing, and so forth.  In addition, diverse learning objectives found in most language classes can be at least partially addressed through the guided use of Twitter, including linguistic, cultural, and social objectives.

2. Literature Review

Very few academic articles have been written directly about the use of microblogging services like Twitter in education.  The literature is primarily dedicated to technical and network analyses of the technology.  A larger network of educational practitioners, however, has actively explored and published their thoughts and experiences on the use of Twitter in education using Twitter itself, as well as blogs and other online social networks.  Therefore, this literature review focuses on the theoretic constructs and rationales for the design of language instruction using Twitter and the barriers to implementation that could arise.

2.1 Educational Uses of Microblogging

Educators are shaping both technologies and methods around Twitter (and other microblogging solutions) to fit the needs of their classrooms.  Many use Twitter for class communication, the extension of class beyond the classroom walls, and to general building and strengthen classroom communities.  Twitter can be seen as way to provide information and links to resources for the whole class as well as a medium for providing individualized instruction.  Social studies teachers have begun accounts for famous historical figures and “Tweeted” their lives as if they were living historical events now.  Language Arts teachers have done the same with characters from the literature they are addressing in class.  In addition, they are having learners write their own stories 140 characters at a time, either independently or collaboratively.  A number of creative uses of the service seem to emerge each day from a variety of educators around the globe.  Tom Barrett (n.d.) put together a list of 33 interesting ways to use Twitter in the classroom (http://www.ideastoinspire.co.uk/twitter.htm), which were compiled from suggestions from his followers on Twitter. The benefits of using Twitter can be categorized as linguistic, cultural, and social.

2.2 Linguistic

The Output Hypothesis (Swain, 1985) figures heavily into linguistic justifications for the use of Twitter.  Swain pictured Comprehensible Output as an extension to and  companion for Comprehensible Input (Krashen, 1982).  She posits that there are three functions of output in second language learning: noticing/triggering function, hypothesis-testing function, and metalinguistic function.

The noticing/triggering function arises when the language learner attempts to produce language, externally or internally, and notices that their production does not convey their intended meaning adequately.  This noticing of a gap in their interlanguage requires that they produce the language.  For this reason, teachers must present opportunities for production.  Twitter provides this opportunity in written form.  It can be seen as particularly valuable for noticing as production is limited (140 characters) and focused.

After noticing a gap in language, learners then utilize the hypothesis-testing function.  In this function, learners create a hypothesis for how to form the language for which they have noticed a gap.  This modified language is then produced in order to receive feedback.  In essence, does it work as predicted or not.  Twitter provides not only for an opportunity to write, but also for the opportunity for that writing to be seen and evaluated by others.  Through the formation of “follower” networks in Twitter, learner can have dozens or even thousands of readers with the potential for receiving feedback from all.

The metalinguistic function of output takes in any feedback received to determine whether the language produced as part of the hypothesis testing was effective.  Exchanges that result from the utterance can form the learner’s understanding of which language constructions optimally meet their communication goals.  Twitter enables learners to form robust networks of “followers” who can provide the feedback necessary for learners to gage the effectiveness of their writing.  This medium also allows for one-on-one or one-to-many exchanges in order to negotiate meaning.  The potential for interaction and not simply broadcasting is the real power of Twitter.  Through these exchanges, learners can determine if the need has been met or if there is a need for further modification of output for optimal communication.

Ideally, the use of Twitter for language learning would require that each of these functions were utilized and, thus, that not only learner performed their role, but that their “followers” performed their roles.  Any attempt to design instruction using Twitter must take these requirements into account and provide clear pathways to fulfill them through appropriate scaffolding.

2.3 Cultural

There is a need for language teachers to focus on the cultures in which a language is used (Kramsch, 1995).  To truly separate language and culture is not possible as meaning is conveyed in culturally mediated spaces.  Thus, the call for authentic contexts and tasks in language learning has been a focus of much language teaching in recent years (Gilmore, 2007).

The World Wide Web has provided teachers and learners with innumerable resources from news outlets to historical documents and speeches to the latest television programs and movies.  There is more content available online than one could process in many lifetimes.  However, only with the recent focus on read/write technologies (Web 2.0) has there been relative ease in both producing content and receiving feedback regarding that content (O’Reilly, 2005).  These interactive technologies now enable us to go beyond static Web pages and media.  Now learners can easily contact others throughout the world to exchange insights.

Twitter provides a platform for communication that people use for the very purpose of engagement.  Contacting a user of Twitter is not as invasive as making a telephone call or even sending an email.  There is little expectation of privacy with Twitter as the primary purpose of the service is to form and strengthen personal and professional networks.  There is an expectation that strangers will follow and even contact you.

In this way, Twitter provides a platform for cultural exchange and engagement.  For this to be beneficial for learners, they must “follow” other users who fit into this cultural exchange agenda.  These could be other professionals in their field, international friends, relevant representatives from entertainment and politics, or even organizations.  Thus, there is a need to design not only tasks that require information gathering from and interaction with those in the target culture, but also a real need for course requirements and instruction focusing on network-building.

2.4 Social

To fulfill cultural tasks included above, it is beneficial to encourage social behaviors through Twitter.  Most language classes meet for relatively short periods a few times a week.  Estimates of the time required to learn English indicate that learning English a few hours each week would require many years to reach advanced proficiency (Thomas & Collier, 2002).  For this reason, teachers have long tried to extend learning outside of the classroom.  Twitter is one mechanism that can do so.  Twitter can be used to strengthen relationships in class networks and to interact with a larger, extended network.

Twitter can be used as both a semi-synchronous and an asynchronous social communication channel.  Depending on the Twitter client being used, users can receive messages nearly instantly or within the parameters set for the client’s refresh rate.  At the same time, Twitter does not rely on co-presence, which means that messages will remain until they are ready to be processed and potentially answered.  In addition, Twitter can be used as a social distribution channel for links to media such as text, images, audio, and video. These attributes make Twitter a flexible, powerful means for communication that goes beyond merely the text.

Sharing ideas, punctuated with a variety of media can promote cohesion within the learner’s network as well as with their class.  Social presence (Gunawardena, 1995) is a concept discussed throughout distance education literature.  The idea is that by interacting with learners and encouraging them to interact with each other, teachers can provide a more engaging and compelling virtual learning environment.  Much of this community-building happens in face-to-face classrooms; however, relationships can be strengthened through more frequent and less constrained interactions in online spaces such as Twitter.

The challenge in designing language instruction with Twitter is to actively model and support social interaction.  Modeling social interaction means that the teacher must engage learners within Twitter and encourage two-way communication.  Supporting social interaction requires that teachers provide incentives for interacting with the teacher and other students within this virtual space.  This could include grading requirements, assignments, and the establishment of regular, monitored group interactions within Twitter.

2.5 Barriers to Use

Twitter is a versatile tool that has much potential for language instruction.  However, in addition to the design considerations mentioned above, there are some barriers to the use of Twitter that must be carefully dealt with.  Some of the potential barriers are common issues regarding technology use in the classroom, such as student and teacher comfort with technology in general and lack of access to the best equipment. Other issues are unique to Twitter such as the new lexis and concepts related to use of the service and privacy concerns.

Implementing a new technology is impacted by both teachers’ and students’ comfort level with the specific technology and technology overall.  Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovation (1962) holds that for any technology there is a adoption curve.  In Twitter’s timeline, we are likely in the early majority stage of uptake (Innovator, Early Adopter, Early Majority, Late Majority, Laggard) and in Korea I would even argue that we may be closer to Early Adopter.  Given the relatively recent introduction of this technology, it is safe to assume that there are many users who will be unfamiliar and uncomfortable with it.  Therefore, it is essential for instructional designers to build familiarization activities into instruction.  Modeling, training, and time for uptake are necessary prior to optimal usage of the technology.

The use of Twitter requires the use of new lexis that, though limited, can be very confusing to new users, particularly language learners.  These include, but are not limited to tweet, follow, follower, favorite, list, @ (reply or mention), DM (direct message), RT (re-tweet), # (hash/pound).  In addition to these terms that describe the main functions and concepts of Twitter, there are a growing number of ancillary technologies that extend Twitter functionality: Twitter clients, URL shorteners, archiving services, and photo and video sharing services to name a few.  This new lexis requires attention to vocabulary and concept instruction for users that must be done before users are able to fully participate in Twitter.

In addition to new lexis, Twitter requires consideration for and reconsideration of what privacy is.  Twitter postings are generally available to the public.  While users can choose to make their accounts private and available only to those who they give permission, this is not the default.  Protected account are unlikely to acquire a substantial network, thus they limit users’ full participation in Twitter.  Both teachers and students must weigh the virtues of “privacy” and adjust expectations accordingly.  Many users consider privacy in Twitter to be privacy through obscurity, user accounts and contributions are lost in the sheer volume of activity on Twitter.  Others participate in Twitter with the full expectation that their messages can be seen by the world and they adjust the content of those messages to fit this understanding.  None the less, privacy and what kind of privacy we expect to have are considerable considerations in any implementation of Twitter and other Web 2.0 technologies.

3. Methods

The purpose of this research is not to investigate the value of a single or set of variables, but rather the evaluation of a research-based instructional intervention embedded in a rich environment with to many variables to control for.  Descriptive theory is most concerned with validity, or how well the description matches the reality of what is; whereas, the primary concern with design theory research is the extent to which one method is better than other methods for accomplishing an outcome (Reigeluth & Frick, 1999).  This is a process of establishing and modifying a design theory, which is best accomplished through developmental research (Reeves, 2000).

3.1 Design-based Research

Developmental Research goes by many names that represent the same basic tenets: to address complex problems in real contexts with practitioners, to apply established and developing design principles to products to address these complex problems, and to study and refine learning environments and design principles (Reeves, 2000, p. 26).  Similar values are applied in Developmental Research (Visser, Plomp, Amirault, & Kuiper, 2002; Richey, Klein, & Nelson, 2004), Design Experiments (Brown, 1992; Cobb, Confrey, diSessa, Lehrer, & Schauble, 2003), Formative Research (Reigeluth & Frick, 1999), and Design-based Research (The Design-Based Research Collective, 2003; Barab & Squire, 2004).

For this study, a Design-based Research process was followed.  According to the Design-Based Research Collective (2003), good design-based research has the following five characteristics.

First, the central goals of designing learning environments and developing theories or “prototheories” of learning are intertwined. Second, development and research take place through continuous cycles of design, enactment, analysis, and redesign (Cobb, 2001; Collins, 1992). Third, research on designs must lead to sharable theories that help communicate relevant implications to practitioners and other educational designers (cf. Brophy, 2002). Fourth, research must account for how designs function in authentic settings. It must not only document success or failure but also focus on interactions that refine our understanding of the learning issues involved. Fifth, the development of such accounts relies on methods that can document and connect processes of enactment to outcomes of interest. (p. 5)

The central focus here is on the iterative evaluation of a method and design theory.

3.2 Data Collection

Data collection, analysis, revision was carried out (and is ongoing) over three semesters in advanced writing classes with English Education majors at a Korean university from the spring of 2010 to the spring of 2011.  Therefore, there Twitter was implemented three times and revised twice.

Data collection included course documents, such as syllabi, assignments, and instruction related to the use of Twitter.  These were living documents that changed based on the observed needs of the students and the changes required each semester.  Surveys of students’ perceptions of Twitter and its usefulness in learning to write were collected from some groups.  Personal communications through face-to-face encounters, email, and Twitter were analyzed.  Lastly, archives of the class Twitter assignments were collected and analyzed in order to better understand how Twitter was being used and how it could be used better.

4. Design Decisions and Outcomes

Design-based research should begin with a solid foundation of both learning and instructional theory.  The design of methods are influenced by this underlying beliefs, and the outcomes can, in turn, influence these beliefs.

4.1 Design Theory

The foundation for instructional design in this course was based on constructivist principles (Vygotsky, 1978).  We cannot assume that two people understand in the same way.  Knowledge is a process of developing understanding of something in a very personal way through situated activity (Duffy & Jonassen, 1992).  Learners create meaning from their experiences that are separate and different from the meanings developed by others, even those participating in the same experience.  Understanding is based not just on current experiences but the aggregate of all experiences, thus each person brings with him/her a cache of experiences that are brought to bear in a particular situation (Ertmer & Newby, 1993).  Students were encouraged to build knowledge through interactions with the teacher, peers, and outsiders.  Twitter provided a channel for some of these interactions.

Learning should be situated in authentic contexts rather than simply contrived for classroom purposes.  Kolb’s  (1984)  Experiential Learning includes the following characteristics detailing the role of experience in learning.

  • Learning is best conceived as a process, not in terms of outcomes
  • Learning is a continuous process grounded in experience
  • The process of learning requires the resolution of conflicts between dialectically opposed modes of adaptation to the world.
  • Learning is a holistic process of adaptation to the world
  • Learning involves transactions between the person and the environment
  • Learning is the process of creating knowledge

The role of experience is further situated in social practice by Lave and Wenger (1991) in their concept of communities of practice.  They establish the importance of performing within groups of shared interests and practices for knowledge generation and modification.  Twitter is a meta-community in which exists nearly innumerable communities that learners to join, interact with, and learn from.

Lastly, the use of Twitter in writing instruction was heavily influenced by Swain’s (1985) Output Hypothesis, particularly at the outset.  As Swain acknowledges, the role of input is central to language learning, but requiring output can lead to deeper and faster mastery of learning objectives.  However, not merely any production is suitable, there must be opportunities for feedback, which drives the hypothesis testing loop.  This is addresses events 6-9 in Gagne’s (1997) 9 instructional events: eliciting performance, providing feedback, assessing performance, and enhancing retention and transfer. Twitter provides a fitting platform to foster these processes through input, production, and potential for feedback.

Given these theoretical foundations, design choices have to be made to conform to and promote these learning and instructional theories.  The iterative implementations of Twitter in a series of writing courses were evaluated and revised in a continuous effort to reach these ideals in instruction.

4.2 Instructional Processes & Activities

Twitter was implemented in three consecutive semesters in advance writing classes.  The stated aims included writing practice, informal feedback, community building, and resource distribution.  Each semester changes were make to instructional methods in order to add or  improve each of these aspects.

In this section, the instruction and activities in each of the three semesters will be described, including successes and failures and suggested changes to improve on practice.

Semester 1

Twitter was first introduced into the writing classes during the spring 2010 semester.  Twitter was globally popular at the time, but had only recently entered the Korean market.  Only a few students had heard of it and only one student out of 30 had used it.

Twitter was meant to be used as a means to communicate with the teacher and other students as well as to build a network outside of class.  The use of twitter to improve writing skills was a secondary consideration at this time.  The teacher hoped that students would naturally build up their social networks and begin to interact with them, in English, thus both producing language and receiving feedback.

Instruction: The first semester that Twitter was used, very little direct instruction was provided in the use of the technology.  An assumption was made that the service was uncomplicated and required little direct instruction.  Learners were simply directed to the site and told to register an account.  While some learners were able to do this, the majority had substantial problems using the site.  Learners reported being confused by the interface and the different lexicon required.  Ad hoc instruction was included midway through the course, but the general opinion lingered that Twitter was difficult to use.

Production: Learners were not given any specific assignment other than that they should post a few times a week.  It was suggested that they could write about the writing class, including questions and problems they were having.  This approach did not work well.  Students tended to post the minimum number of postings at one time.  This meant that they did not use the service consistently throughout the week, thus little interaction occurred.  In addition, the quality of the postings were not good, with many being short phrases that hardly communicated an identifiable idea.  Changes needed to be made that encouraged consistent usage of the service throughout the week, and students needed to have more specific goals for using the service.

Feedback: Since little was produced, little feedback was provided.  The teacher provided feedback to some users, particularly when errors interfered with communication. However, there was no feedback from peers, nor a larger external network.  Changes were needed to improve network-building and  peer-to-peer feedback.

Community-building: There was no requirement to build a network so few students did so.  Many students did not even add their classmates to their network, though they were asked to do so.  As mentioned above, learners did not post many substantial messages nor did they spend much time using the service.  This left very little potential interaction other than occasional responses to the teacher’s feedback.  Changes are needed to encourage students to both build larger networks and interact with their network.

Resource Distribution: The teacher contributed writing and content resources to Twitter, but the students contributed nothing.  In order to

Semester 2

By the fall semester 2010, Twitter was a little better known by the students.  Nearly half of the students had heard of Twitter and a few had used it.  This semester, Twitter was to take a more prominent place in the course, with changes based observations during the previous semester.

Instruction: Prior to using Twitter, and activity called “Twitter Paper” was used to introduce students to the use of Twitter.  A handout with columns for user name and message was provided to the class with instructions that they were to write a collaborative story with each person contributing only one sentence.  The were further instructed to write as fast as they could and then pass the paper to someone else in the room.  The activity was wonderfully successful and provided an introduction to Twitter without the use of a computer.

After that, direct instruction on how to use Twitter was given to students.  A handout was produced that provided a rationale for the use of Twitter, an introductory assignment, introduction to some of the new lexis, and both technical and writing resources to better support the use of Twitter.  Twitter clients were not demonstrated as Twitter can be used through a multitude of clients and the teacher did not want to privilege one over others.  Even with more explicit instructions on the use of Twitter, learners continued to complain about the difficulty of using the service, and they continued to use it incorrectly.

Production: Goals for production were not clear during the previous semester, so assignments were given during the fall 2010 semester, which complimented what was being taught during class time.  These were referred to as “Daily Tweets”. Learners were responsible for posting one message each day on Monday through Friday as well as at least one reply to another user’s message.  This increased the frequency of postings; however, learners continued to post the minimum requirements and the overall quality of postings was still quite low.  It seemed that the assignments were too simple and, thus, resulted in simple responses.  Assignments needed to be more creative and substantial.

Feedback: With more postings and a requirement that students reply to at least one other student, the level of feedback did rise somewhat.  However, the feedback tended to be simplistic and often consisted of a few words of agreement, but nothing that drove the interactions forward.  The teacher increased his feedback to the students both linguistically and conceptually.  This resulted in a good deal more interaction between the teacher and students.  At this point, users still had few people in their networks and little if any feedback from the broader network.  Given these experiences, changes needed to be made in the requirements for feedback and the ways in which the students interact with their networks.

Community-building: Students were required to “follow” at least 50 people, which included around 30 classmates.  Only a few students eventually followed as many as 50 people.  Most did follow their classmates, however, which resulted in a much better sense of community.  At the same time, this only increased complaints about the number of posts they were seeing each time they checked in.  The requirement to follow 50 is still a good idea, but consistently encouraging students to build and interact with their network needs to be done.

Resource Distribution: This semester some assignments required the change of links to writing and content resources.  Students were very receptive to this use of Twitter.  Sharing the resources made their other assignments easier to accomplish.  The only change that needed to be made to this is it increase the frequency with which resources were shared via Twitter.

Semester 3

By spring 2011, Twitter was a well-known company.  Nearly all of the students polled had heard of Twitter and nearly a third had tried it.  By this time, the number of smartphones had increased as well, which students saw as a benefit in using Twitter.  Most of the smartphone owners were already users of Twitter.

Instruction: In addition to the instruction provided in the previous semester, the teacher included demonstrations of two Web-based Twitter clients.  These demonstrations addressed the overall use of the clients as well as problems specifically encountered by the students.  A connection between the lexicon and Twitter’s features were made explicit.  This was more successful than previous instruction, but even more clients need to be demonstrated, particularly desktop and smartphone clients.  These software clients are often more robust and feature-laden that the Web-based clients.  Teaching students how to use these would likely make the experience more enjoyable and easier.

Production: More complex assignments were given this semester, including a number of research assignments and complex sentence constructions.  These are worked well.  In future classes, it would be best to increase the amount of higher-order cognitive skills required complete assignments.

Feedback: It was assumed that a great awareness of Twitter, combined with more robust assignments would spur more feedback, but this was not the case.  There was a general increase in social feedback, but not on feedback related to students writing or ideas.  The teacher increased the amount of feedback provided, but still more need to occur.  Putting more responsibility on the students is one approach, but another in a better use of their Twitter networks.

Community-building: The knowledge of and comfort level with Twitter seemed to result on many more interactions between students and even some from students extended network.  A sense of community did form between class members.  Twitter went from a homework-only space to one in which students asked questions and met socially.  However, students continue to have difficulty following over 50 users.  More guidance and oversight are necessary to encourage the building of larger networks

Resource Distribution: A greater focus on research assignments increased the amount of resource sharing considerably.  In future class, students should be encourage to share other media, including images and videos.

4.3 EAP Twitter Model

Using a modified ADDIE model, the EAP Twitter Model focuses on the iterative process of instructional design.  The key elements are below.

ADDIE stands for Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation.  The EAP Twitter Model moves through these phases with a particular focus on four key design elements: language, technology, and social interaction.

 

Figure 1. EAP Twitter Model

 

Language refers to the language skills being developed in the writing course as well as the specific language needed to participate in Twitter.  It is important to be aware of both of these types of language usage throughout the instructional design process.

Technology refers to the technical aspects of using Twitter.  This includes the general Twitter features like @ replies, re-tweets, and direct messages.  It also includes the use of Twitter client functions, which are slightly different in each client.  Some popular features include URL shortening, media uploads, and column feeds.  The better learners can use these functions, the more enjoyable their use of Twitter will be.

Social interaction refers to the process of building and maintaining a network of followers in Twitter and general interactions.  There is some overlap with the proper use of available tools, but the focus here should be more on following the right kind of the people for your particular interests, encouraging others to follow you, and engaging your network.

Through this process, successes and failures can be more effectively identified, and instruction can be adjusted.

5. Conclusion

The use of Twitter for education has real potential.  The ability to form large networks of like-minded people enables learners to both produce authentic messages for the network and to receive feedback from the network.  This makes writing an authentic task in an authentic context.  It also provides a support network that can follow learners long after completion of the class.

 

References

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My Problems with Educational Technology Hype

Anyone who knows me (or at least follows me online) knows that I am not a Luddite.  On the contrary, I’m an early adopter, particularly regarding software and Web services.  I love to use the newest and shiniest tech.  This is, at least, until I understand it better.  If I can’t figure out a use-case for my personal uses, that new thing will join the digital trash heap quickly.  As a teacher, however, the use-case has to be very strong for me to even consider using a tech with my classes.  I’ve been burned too many times over the years by my own irrational exuberance only to find the tech (or more importantly, my methods) fail miserably.

As I continue to work on tempering my own use of tech in my classes, I see what looks like a myopic rush save money via educational technology.  I’m not against saving money, mind you.  I’m rather fiscally conservative. However, I am against doing anything in an uncritical way as I believe is happening how.

What got me thinking about this was a post by TechCrunch (Anticipating a Blended Classroom Boom Led by Education Startups).  This article discusses companies that may contribute to wonderful learning environments, these kinds of systems can help with automated tracking and personalized content recommendations for students.  This can, in turn, be used by teachers to then customize instructional interventions for individual students (or more likely whole classes).  The article does a good job emphasizing the collaborative role of the technologies and educators.  However, the “Boom” got me thinking about the baser realities that are likely to emerge in this space.

Tony Bates must by on a similar wave length as he posted on this yesterday (My summer paranoia: computers will replace teachers in higher education).  He detailed a whole host of problems with the desire to automatize education.  I agree with much of what he said. My responses to his end-of-post questions are below.

1. Anyone else share my paranoia? (about computers replacing computers – anything else, see a doctor) : Shared, but I wouldn’t call it paranoia, necessarily. I can’t tell you its a bad thing until I see it implemented. Of course, computers replacing human teachers is rather unlikely. However, computers reducing the number of teachers is probably on the horizon.

2. Do you believe we should replace teachers (or instructors) with computers? What are your reasons? : As above, replacing teachers is an impossibility for much of what we currently think of as education (change the definition and I’ll change my answer). However, reducing the number of teachers is possibility. Off-loading rote learning activities and basic assessment, providing useful learning objects that address some of the needs of individual students, and reducing the time that students meet with teachers can enable teachers to work with more students in the same amount of time (ideally). Again, though, it’s all in the implementation. I haven’t seen/heard of a good one yet.

3. Can online learning improve productivity in post-secondary education without getting rid of most instructors? : It can, but it won’t. The way to move anything forward in higher ed is to show that it can save money (whether it really will or not) and not that it is a more effective educational approach.

I also share his concern over MOOCs and automated marking:

Let’s start with xMOOCs and automated marking and peer review to get around the awkward point that one instructor cannot provide adequate feedback to thousands of students. No problem: a combination of big data collection and analysis and multiple-choice testing will solve most problems, and the ones that it won’t solve will be solved by dumb students marking less dumb students.

Though, I might have stated it a little differently than ” dumb students marking less dumb students.” I’d hope that this was a bit of humor and not him saying that students (or their teachers) can’t learn from one another.

The movement to crowdsource and open education is one that is rooted in the belief that there is a great amount of knowledge and power in the crowd and a great amount of value in opening education for everyone (able to afford a computer and Internet access).  I truly belief in this as well.  I think that many of those promoting MOOCs believe this as well.  However, I cannot believe that course offerings by companies like Coursera can best a course that features healthy interaction with a knowledgeable other (teacher or peer), which is a whole lot less likely in a MOOC.  Having participated in a couple, I find them little different than course offerings I had 10 years ago that gave me a reading, required me to post a response on a discussion forum, and then required me to respond to a peer.  There is value in the approach, but when you take a knowledgeable other out of the equation, it’s little more than mental masturbation.

E-Books and E-Readers for E-Learning – Great e-Book on the topic

I was happy to come across this site. Of course, I’m a big believer in the use of technology for learning and recently, e-readers (including tablets) exploded in popularity thanks in no small part to the iPad as well as other popular options like Samsung’s Galaxy Tab/Note and Amazon’s Kindle (and more recently, the Fire). However, I get very nervous when people can only talk about how amazing the tech is and not about how it can be used (hopefully in innovative ways that make the learning environment/outcomes better).

That’s why I was so happy to come across this free e-book that features both methodological issues as well as cases across a variety of countries, including Korea, which interested me greatly.  It is a great overview of Korea’s efforts to date and plans for the future, as well as acknowledgements of the pedagogical difficulties.

The PDF can be directly downloaded here (5.45MB)

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