Learning Technologies in Education: A Comprehensive Overview

1. School of Education

2. What every teacher should know about learning technologies Gary Motteram Senior Lecturer in Education School of Education

3. What are learning technologies? What do you think? Ask a neighbour? Tell me School of Education

4. Tony Bates, a writer on distance education, pointed out that before the 1980s learning technologies were more limited, but since the 1980s there has been an explosion of different tools. Before 1980: Teachers, books, postal service, telephone, radio, film, television; Since the 1980s …. School of Education

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6. Are you a digital immigrant, or a net native? How do you know? Marc Prensky (http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/) uses the term digital immigrant to refer to people who didn’t grow up using computers as a regular part of their lives: the Net Generation (net natives). How does the answer make you feel? School of Education

7. What is Web 2.0? Talk to a neighbour Tell me School of Education

8. What is Web 2.0? Web 2.0 refers to a perceived second generation of web-based communities … which aim to facilitate creativity, collaboration, and sharing between users… it does not refer to an update to any technical specifications, but to changes in the ways software developers and end-users use webs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2 School of Education

9. Web Trends 2008 School of Education

10. What do we know about learning in general? If you were asked as a teacher: how does learning work? What would your answer be? Has your view changed? When? Why? What has influenced it? School of Education

11. The learner of the future Four articles in the Weekly Guardian (2006) considered this issue of what impact technology would have on the learner of the future: • Warschauer looks at three divides that are being broken down: • between EFL and ESL; • digital haves and have nots; • between language and technology in the classroom • I consider 21st Century tools, i.e. Social computing, making the link between the classroom and the real world. The distributed nature of learning • Graddol talks about the failure of Web 1.0 although he does consider Bax’s “Restricted CALL” • Bax himself points out that education does not utilise “normalised” technologies School of Education

12. The influence of sociocultural theory Lying behind these four articles is the social cultural theory that has increasingly been highlighted in language teaching in for example Lantolf (e.g 1994) and Williams and Burden (1997). This has at its root the ideas of activity theory via Vygotsky, or Dewey’s interests in “interaction, reflection and experience” (http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-dewey.htm) These are theories of general learning rather than specific theories of language learning and with a few exceptions have been less influential in CALL circles and this has been highlighted by Salaberry (1999) and Levy and Hubbard (2005) Warschauer and Kern (2000) suggest that there had been a development from behavioural through cognitive to sociocultural theory and NBLT put the communication back into CALL and, in a sense, opened the starting gate for other kinds of Web 2.0 technologies. Warschauer explores Vygotskian theory in more detail in a recent article (2005) School of Education

13. Sociocultural perspectives on CALL (Warschauer, 2005) Gregory Bateson – the blind man and his walking stick Vygotsky and sociocultural theory: Mediation – “…All human activity is mediated by tools and signs”. What we are interested in is “…how [tools] fundamentally transform human action.” How can “…new technologies help to transform prior forms of human activity?” School of Education

14. Sociocultural perspectives on CALL (Warschauer, 2005) Vygotsky and sociocultural theory (cont): Social learning: Vygotsky was concerned principally with child development. He believed that children start off experiencing on the social level and then the experience is internalised. He also thought that learning was mainly related to apprenticeship (ZPD). This idea of social learning has so far mainly been explored in CMC. Genetic analysis: In order to understand what we are experiencing at any moment, we need to know how we have got here. We may be concerned with the “unfolding of particular events” (micrognesis); “the development of the individual” (ontogenesis), or “even the development of the species” (phylogenesis). We can only understand learning technologies if we see them in their broader context, e.g. ideas like net natives (young undergraduates), or net immigrants (many teachers). School of Education

15. What do we know about language learning? School of Education

16. Why then are Web 2.0 technologies important for teachers? • It’s has always been difficult to build the expected applications that were part of Web1.0 (or earlier flavours of computing), although it has been/ is still being tried • We have had exercises in various flavours: BASIC, Authorware, Flash, JavaScript – Hot Potatoesis probably now the most widely known version; arguably a Web 2.0 service • The internet does provide a useful resource of all kinds of authentic material, most of it free at the point of delivery – Wikipedia; YouTube • There is a range of tools that enable us to be social in all sorts of ways: Textually (e.g. Blogs and Wikis, but also collaborative writing software – Google Docs, Chat, e.g. MSN, or VLEs like Moodle) • Orally: P2P, e.g. MSN or Multipoint, e.g. Skype, Horizon Wimba which works within VLEs like WebCT • Visually: P2P: MSN or Skype or Multipoint: Breeze, WizIQ • Aurally:Podcasting School of Education

17. Example:http://www.orivedenperusopetus.net/lifeacrosseurope/index.php?page=etusivuExample:http://www.orivedenperusopetus.net/lifeacrosseurope/index.php?page=etusivu School of Education

18. Example: Reading skills develpment School of Education

19. Example:http://bcsd.k12.ny.us/middle/Global/global.htmThe Global Coalition School of Education

20. Example: Cultural awareness School of Education

21. Example: Mandarin 2.0 School of Education

22. Example: IELTS practice School of Education

23. Example:http://www.babbel.com/start/fa_eng School of Education

24. Example:http://sambaefl.podomatic.com/ School of Education

25. So, what should every teacher know about learning technologies? School of Education

26. Potential of Web 2.0 for language teaching and learning • It can empower learners and give them a voice in lessons • Potentially allows the classroom to connect to the real world • Provides just-in-time learning • Helps promote and develop modern notions of literacy (Kress, Gee) • Can provide real, authentic communication • Can provide an authentic reason to produce language School of Education

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28. Accessibility Cheaper or Free Ease of Use Extent of potential reach of audience Breadth of variety of materials The main differences between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0: School of Education

29. It can be difficult for some of us: “We used SL in our MA course entitled "Instructional Technology in ELT" but we couldn't continue since it requires a better computer “ Colleague from Turkey, IATEFL conference - Aberdeen online “…there is no much computer labs connected to the fast Internet at the university, “ Colleague from the Ukraine, IATEFL conference - Aberdeen online “…our university has a very low technological infrastructure, which limits the students the opportunities to learn and practice. For example: There are only 11 computers with Internet access available for 4,700 students at the School of Education; the university blocked all chat programs due to a virus that damaged the intranet; and, during the last 5 months, we have been facing electricity problems that prevent us to use Moodle. The servers are frequently turned off for protection. ” Colleague from Venezuela, IATEFL conference - Aberdeen online School of Education

30. “I'm one of those teachers that do not have much facilities at work. Reality strikes hard on me...T here are two labs, the best one has twelve computers, not always working properly, very slow machines indeed and internet access for... thirty-five ss.!!...” Colleague from Uruguay, IATEFLconference - Aberdeen Online “Some universities in Japan have rejected putting SL on their servers because of this.” (pornography on SL) Colleague in Japan, IATEFLconference - Aberdeen online School of Education

31. Some ideas to get started (if bandwidth is an issue): • Use the read/write web (Blogs and Wikis) • Create student communities or join student communities for an intercultural project or other tasks on Yahoogroups • Set up a teacher blog for reporting to and communicating with students and/or parents after school • If you want to use audio or video: • Download podcasts at home and bring to school on a flashdrive, CD or laptop • Download videos on media players (e.g. google video player) and watch them offline • Set Skype accounts and find conversation partners or interact within intercultural programs by using students’ mobile phones (only a few are enough – yours too can help) • Record students on your own mp3 player or other digital recorder and upload the audio files yourself from home School of Education

32. Apply sound learning theory School of Education

33. Don’t forget • Our main goals as educators of the 21st century: • Developing Learning-how-to learn skills • Developing Critical thinking skills • Developing Communication skills • SLA theories and research • role of tasks and task design • role of interaction • role of audience • role of purpose • role of feedback School of Education

34. Thank you! School of Education