Category Archives: Reflections

Teaching & learning in the Covid-19 era

There is a reason why The Open University is still going strong some 51 years after it was founded in 1969; it was created for the specific purpose of distance learning, and based all its principles on sound pedagogy to reach the learning objectives they set out.

Distance learning and online teaching and learning are nothing new in today’s technology rich society, so why is it proving such a challenge to find effective learning solutions in a world engulfed by physical confinement within the four walls of our homes? The answer is quite simply that there is a major difference between online learning and emergency remote teaching (ERT).

Online courses have been specifically designed to be delivered online, in a self-paced learning mode, to learners that have not and maybe never will meet the tutor delivering the course. The expectations of learners can only come from themselves as the medium of learning immersion; the more learners are prepared to put into a course, the more they will get out of it. They can be passive learners that ‘lurk’ in the background scrolling through the course forums and absenting from any synchronous interaction, or they may be active learners that actively contribute to threads in the forum and are keen to participate in live sessions held with the tutor and others on the course. The motivations for choosing a distance course could be due to geographical location or other work and/or family commitments, so online learning generally offers flexibility with very few timed or location commitments.

ERT refers to courses that have been developed for face-to-face instruction, however through force majeure, they have been transferred to online delivery. The intention is for the same content to be included and completed in the same time frame as it would with live delivery, and for the learning objectives to be met regardless of the change in medium of delivery. What I am hearing from colleagues, and experiencing myself, is that this is most definitely not the case, and I think this needs to be given consideration when re-designing courses for online delivery.

Often times, less is more, and in the case of the Covid-19 emergency remote teaching and learning contexts that many of us find ourselves in, the role of empathy and compassion for our learners is increasingly important. We are all suffering imposter syndrome, anxiety, social and family pressures that are debilitating our motivation, strength, self worth and productivity. So I think we need to lessen our expectations of our learners and offer more support. The 3 things that this global pandemic has taught me with respect to teaching and learning online are:

1: Increase the task completion time.

2: Don’t be disappointed if what was on the agenda is not completed.

3: Lower your expectations.

4: Take lots of breaks and reward yourself often.

Okay, I know I said 3, but number 4 is really important. While it pains me to admit this, we are not robots (yet) so we need to factor in the human side to this rather odd situation we are all living in.

Is EdTech trying to reinvent the wheel?

I attended the Digital Learning Colloquium at Cambridge last week, and it was a fascinating insight into the future landscape of EdTech painted by a broad spectrum of attendees from different backgrounds: product development, research, academia, consultants, product design, and the odd ELT teacher and trainer.

While there were clear threads of discussion regarding the normalisation of the tech we are using today in ten years time, AR and VR to name a couple, there is one clear question that springs to my mind: Is EdTech trying to reinvent the wheel?

My opinion regarding the use of EdTech for teaching and learning is the same as it is for any activity a teacher or learner engages in: sound pedagogical reasoning. For me, it is not so much what is being done to learn something, but the rationale for how it reaches the learning objective. If an activity which incorporates an AR app really does improve the learning outcomes, or facilitate reaching the pedagogical goal of the lesson, then I’m all for it. I do, however, strongly believe that a lot of products and tools are trying to tap into the multi-billion dollar industry that EdTech has become.

Penny Ur (1996) claimed that there is a difference between a teacher with twenty years’ experience and one years’ experience repeated twenty times. I wholeheartedly agree with this, because I believe that teaching professionals need to learn, adapt and grow along with their experience, teaching context, and learner needs. So, yes, EdTech could well be a part of this growing and development as a teacher, but just because a tool looks good, doesn’t mean to say it actually is. The tool needs to achieve the learning goal that has been set, this can be by motivating learners, or improving interaction, but I reiterate, the main motivation for using any tool, digital or not, should be pedagogical grounds, and the tool must be exploited effectively.

The talk I gave looked at 3 simple tools I use in the classroom to promote interaction and provide learning solutions to some of the problems I encounter with learners in specific contexts. The tools were: Padlet; IM apps (Whatsapp & WeChat); and Dictaphone apps on smartphones. Gone are the days of recording ourselves on a TDKC90 cassette to see how we sound when we speak a foreign language, but this practice is so effective. The modern day version is a Dictaphone app which I regularly incorporate into my lessons, and encourage learners to record themselves out of class to playback and identify action points to work on with their pronunciation and speaking skills. I use IM apps for a range of collaborative tasks (more information to come in future posts!), and Padlet I use as a visual live collaborative tool both inside and beyond the classroom.

So, that said, the literature has been telling us for years what good pedagogical practice is, we just need to stick with that, and map it onto current language learning contexts.

Ur, P. (1996). A course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

From RALL to chatbots

I began the year with a strong desire to continue my research into RALL, and while that is still the case, my research has lead me to investigate the benefits and pedagogical potential of using chatbot teachers to assist in language learning.

The research examines the use of a speech-to-speech interface as the language-learning tool, designed with the specific intention of promoting oral interaction in English. The computer (chatbot) will assume the role of conversational partner, allowing the learner to practice conversing in English. A retrieval-based model will be used to select appropriate output from predefined responses. This model will then be mapped onto a gamification framework to ensure an interesting and engaging interactional experience.

Speech is one of the most powerful forms of communication between humans; hence, it is my intention to add to current research in the human-computer interaction research field to improve speech interaction between learners and the conversational agent (the chatbot) in order to simulate human-human speech interaction.

IM: words in the air or recorded forever?

IM: words in the air or recorded forever? How many times have you misread a text or IM, or been misinterpreted yourself? Written spoken discourse leaves itself open to misinterpretation because the suprasegmental features are not apparent and neither is body language.

When we speak face-to-face with others, we are careful about what we say for fear of misinterpretation or offending the person/people you are conversing with. We therefore carefully and diplomatically communicate our message and use body language and features of connected speak to express ourselves.

Ironically though when we message others using one of the plethora of online messaging apps and services, or a mobile phone service providers’ texting service, we often send the message before we have had time to re-read it. It seems to be the case that the immediacy that instant messaging has brought the global messaging community has affected the way we communicate.

The written word is recorded, and the spoken is ephemeral discourse in the air, yet we pay attention to the ephemeral and not the recorded!

Reflective video

Reflective video is an element of reflective practice I have waxed lyrical about for a long time. The ability to see oneself and analyse how we come across when we communicate, and if we are capable of transmitting a clear and succinct message that learners and/or attendees at a workshop/seminar can comprehend.

I was asked to make some ‘short’ videos about the future of teaching and learning, if technology influences and shapes how we communicate, and therefore the teaching and learning of languages.

Here is a trial run of one of the videos – it was supposed to be 2.5 – 3 minutes long. Reflective practice note to self – get to the point and make your message clear.

Reflections 2017

Reflections of 2017: The debate regarding the dangers of spending too many hours glued to an electronic device continue to bubble. The unknown abyss and potential of AI in its many guises continues to be explored. The fears of a robot-controlled world continue to rise. What will 2018 bring?!

Personally, I find all the above extremely exciting. Do I use my phone too much? I know I work too much, and because 80% of my work is online, I am obliged to use a digital device. This has become part of the natural shift in the plethora of work that has become created as geographical boarders are transcended by cyberspace and the power of technology, telecommunications, and IT. Just as technology is shaped by the society that uses it, tech very much shapes society and the way we interact and go about our day-to-day. I view technological developments as portals to opportunities that can be enhanced or were not previously available, especially in a teaching and learning context (whether that be English or dancing to Michael Jackson’s Thriller!!).

I will continue to explore how ed tech can support language learning this year, as I delve deeper into the AI and machine learning chasm. I will also wonder that if smoking hadn’t been banned in pubs and bars, if smartphones wouldn’t be the go to company we choose as we sit alone sipping a coffee contemplating the week, or waiting for a friend.

Learn to dance Thriller with NAO

Exams Catalunya 5th Annual ELT Conference – Reflections

Last weekend I attended the Exams Catalunya 5^th Annual ELT Conference at ESADE in Barcelona. The theme of the conference was how to maximise interaction between learners and teachers to optimise learning outcomes. I was pleased to see that the role of Ed Tech as a tool to scaffold learning was given some attention. The audience was asked at the opening plenary to complete the following sentence, one which for me brings up many ideas:

Learning is ……………… with technology

Answers included, ‘fun’, ‘real’, ‘meaningful’, and ‘learner-centred’. Personally I think learning becomes attractive with technology, if, and that’s a large if, the learners use tech in their daily lives outside the classroom. I think this is an important factor to take into consideration when using educational technology for teaching and learning. Not all 50-year olds, and 6-year olds own their own, and/or feel confident with using technology, so its use needs to be specifically employed with clear pedagogical goals in mind.

One of the most interesting talks I attended, shared research about a project carried out with learners in a secondary school in Barcelona. The teacher was faced with a teaching puzzle where she had many proficient teenage learners, some with English-speaking parents, studying English in her Baccalaureate class, and was stuck for ideas about what to teach, that would include all levels. She took the brave decision to hand the teaching over to her students as a peer-teaching project, and the project was a huge success. Differentiation is an issue in many classrooms, and the obvious solution is to mix students with more and less proficient peers for different activities, so everybody learns from each other. This project took that idea further and demonstrated outstanding creativity from the learners.

The two main messages I took away from the conference were useful reminders to…

1: Never underestimate the creativity of the learners you have sat before you in the classroom.

2: Think carefully who your learners are and their background use with digital technology, before presuming they are happy and agile with its use.

Thank you to Exams Catalunya and all the presenters that gave the talks I attended.

Assessment for learning

Recent talks with colleagues working in the public education sector in the UK about SATs (Suite of Assessments), and my own experiences tutoring on pre-sessional courses, have given me a first-hand insight into the exhaustive measures some institutions employ to ‘promote’ learning through continuous formative assessment. The term they have coined is ‘assessment for learning’. Experience has demonstrated to me that the learning gains are limited compared with the time taken to prepare for the testing, the testing process, and of course the marking and feedback sessions.

A typical writing test could include learners being given several extracts from source texts to read and make notes on a week prior to the actual test. On test day, these notes are not permitted into the classroom and a new set of notes is given with a question to analyse. In my humble opinion, while learners will have read the texts and have a deeper understanding than seeing them for the first time, the test is in fact an evaluation of memory where they are desperately digging deep in their brains to retrieve the information about the points they deemed worthy of remembering. The question is analysed in groups, a draft plan is drawn up individually, and finally a 90-minute test is undertaken. Learners are notably exhausted after a testing process, which has essentially been drawn out over an entire week.

As an experiment, I tried an alternative approach where I gave learners 4 short extracts. In pairs each learner read 2 different texts and made notes. The notes were swapped with their partners who used them as a springboard to understand the 2 texts they did not read. Each learner proceeded to read the texts to accompany their partners’ notes to discover if they had identified all the key themes. A group discussion was held, a question was given, and learners wrote a short piece of discourse with a 40-minute time limit, to answer the question referring to the key themes identified previously, and citing as necessary. When the writing was completed, learners exchanged their scripts with a peer, and it was reviewed for content, accuracy of answering the question given, coherence, cohesion, stance, and argumentation. Another group discussion was held, and at this point I also participated with language support and academic guidance. This ‘think tank’ approach appeared to be effective and the feedback I received from the class this was tested with was positive. Including comments such as ”I learnt from my friends so it helped me feel confident to write”, “she was able to notice some additional points I didn’t see”

To tech, or not to tech? That is the question!

At seminars, conferences, and workshops recently, my attention has once again been drawn to the technology debate. I was asked why I blog and how often, if I feel it is important to have an online presence, and how exactly I harness technology for teaching, training and learning purposes.

To coin Bax’s ‘Normalisation’ term, for me personally, technology is so embedded into my day-to-day, that I use it automatically without giving it a second thought, just as I do a pair of glasses.

The bottom line, is that I like tech, so I have an inherent curiosity to explore what it can do for me, if it can facilitate my teaching practice, and more specifically, how. This is greatly reflected in my teaching and training, and furthermore, I endeavour to transmit this at talks, in the classroom, and in online teaching and training context. I understand that digital tools will not appeal to everyone, but if fear is present, then the watershed between being a technophobe and a tech user will become more ingrained. That is not to say that digital tools can provide all the answers to our pedagogical goals and challenges, but my message here is that if we don’t even give them an opportunity and experiment, then we will never discover what tech could do for us, and more importantly our learners, whether they themselves are millennials, screenagers, digital natives or non-tech users.

So, in answer to the questions above, I blog when I have time and when I have ideas and/or reflections I would like to share. I feel an online presence supports who I am and what I do. It enables people to gain a sense of the development ideas I am interested in and I feel I am contributing to the online community that so many of us take for granted when curating resources and ideas. As I have previously said, I like to experiment with technology, so I share any new ideas I discover or learn from others in my teaching and training contexts as and where appropriate.

To tech, or not to tech? The answer is up to you!

Reflections of giving a plenary at Innovate ELT

As a teacher I don’t give standing in front of a class a second thought, it’s what I do. The students “want” to learn English or study skills so I do what I can to help them. Giving a talk at a conference is slightly different, while the people that attend your talk want to listen to what you have to say, they have based their decision on a very short description of what you will say which is often only 60 words long. The attendees are a mixture of professionals in the filed; teachers, materials writers, ELT consultants, editors, academic directors and the list goes on. You deliver your talk, hope your message has reached some of the people in the room and they will take something away, you check the conference programme for the next talk you’d like to attend, and off you go!

On Friday 6^th May I was given the opportunity to give my first plenary at the Innovate ELT conference in Barcelona. Needless to say, the difference between talking to a smaller group of people that have chosen to listen to your talk, and the entire crowd of conference attendees is quite different.

The chance to put my neck on the line in front of the entire conference was made possible due to its format which allowed speakers the opportunity to apply to give a plenary, quite unusual for a conference but a prospect I jumped at, so I applied, and I got accepted.

Despite being very nervous prior to standing on the edge of a 2-metre wall in front of a sea of people, I chose to put myself in this position because I believe it’s good to put ourselves out of our comfort zone every now and again, and challenge ourselves. I attended some great talks at Innovate ELT that gave me plenty of new ideas to consider, but along with making new friends and catching up with others, giving a plenary was probably the highlight for me on a personal level because it was exciting and pushed me to do something I had never done before. My only regret is not having a recording so I can look back, reflect and learn from my experience. Next time!