These are the slides from my closing plenary keynote at the 10th LLAS elearning symposium in Southampton, January 2015. Abstract: This presentation will discuss the notion of connected practice in language teaching and learning, drawing upon the speaker’s experiences as a language tutor in Higher Education. It will adopt a double focus, looking at teaching practice as well as professional development, and how these two areas are interconnected. It will aim at providing practitioners with ideas and approaches to support themselves in their teaching and in their own professional development. The speaker will look at how technology has evolved from being a tool serving a set pedagogical purpose to becoming a defining pedagogical element underpinning the current shift to connectivist learning principles observed in language teaching. Practical examples of networked learning will be discussed, on topics including the use of Twitter and blogging for professional development, and their possible applications to teaching, and the use of open discussion forums to encourage students to engage in open learning, reflexivity and critical thinking. Further examples will include collaborative vocabulary learning activities using Google documents and the production of open education resources. The presentation will conclude with reflexions on the role of the language tutor in the current context, suggesting the need to position oneself as a networked practitioner and life-long learner in order to transmit a learning ethos to present and future students.

1. @BenGuilbaud
Connected practice:
A language tutor’s journey through
digital and networked technologies
Benoît Guilbaud
LLAS elearning symposium 2015, University of Southampton

2. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence
(CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
@BenGuilbaud

3. Outline

4. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
Personal background
Teaching with technology
Conclusions
Connected practice
Case studies

5. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
Personal background
Conclusions
Teaching with technology
Case studies
Connected practice

6. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
Personal background
Conclusions
Teaching with technology
Case studies
Connected practice

7. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
Personal background
Conclusions
Teaching with technology
Case studies
Connected practice

8. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
Personal background
Conclusions
Teaching with technology
Case studies
Connected practice

9. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
Personal background
Conclusions
Teaching with technology
Case studies
Connected practice

10. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
Personal background
Conclusions
Teaching
practice
Professional
development
Teaching with technology
Case studies
Connected practice

11. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
Personal background
Conclusions
Teaching with technology
Case studies
Connected practice

12. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015

13. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
Designing cartoons
Recording music
Creating websites
Playing games

14. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
Playful design, learning curve scaffolding,
failure management, motivation (gamification)
Document layout, word-processing
AV resource editing, exam recording
VLE, online learning
Designing cartoons
Recording music
Creating websites
Playing games

16. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
Personal background
Conclusions
Teaching with technology
Case studies
Connected practice

17. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
Teaching with tech
Pablog61
Walter Parenteau Moodle

18. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
Unit tutor
VLE
VLE unit
Unit students
Other tutors
Other students
Institution
Outside world
Guilbaud, 2012

19. VLE discussion forum

20. VLE discussion forum

21. Web 2.0 discussion forum (Ning)

22. Web 2.0 discussion forum (Ning)

23. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
• helps students acquire IT skills (alongside literacy & numeracy)
• develops digital literacy
• helps students familiarise themselves with tech tools
• uses media students know
• enhances motivation
• is fast, ubiquitous, efficient
‘Traditional’ teaching + tech…

24. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
• can be limited in time, size and scope
• is sometimes overly controlled and/or too passive
• tends to feel artificial
• does not take advantage of the affordances of web 2.0 technologies
• can lack real-world relevance
‘Traditional’ teaching + tech…

25. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
1 - Computer literacy - "general fluency and comfort in navigating
around and using a computer”
2 - Information literacy - ability to access, evaluate, sort, etc.
information online
3 - Multimedia literacy - interpret and create multimedia content
4 - Computer-mediated communication literacy - netiquette -
argumentation and persuasion with a variety of Internet media -
establish and manage online communications between groups of
people
Digital Literacy (Warchauer, 2003)

27. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
Personal background
Conclusions
Teaching with technology
Case studies
Connected practice
(Networked learning, Couros, 2011)

28. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015

29. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
Constructivism
Based on Vygostky, 1978

30. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
Connectivism

31. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
• Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions.
• Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources.
• Learning may reside in non-human appliances.
• Capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known.
• Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual
learning.
• Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill.
• Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist
learning activities.
• Decision-making is itself a learning process. […]
Principles of connectivism
Siemens, 2005

32. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
• Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions.
• Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources.
• Learning may reside in non-human appliances.
• Capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known.
• Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual
learning.
• Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill.
• Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist
learning activities.
• Decision-making is itself a learning process. […]
Principles of connectivism
Siemens, 2005

33. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
The connections created by a learner are more valuable than the
resulting knowledge.
What matters isn’t possessing information, it’s knowing how and
where to find information.
Learning with networks

34. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015

35. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
Learner

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Personal Learning Network (PLN)

37. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
Personal Learning Network (PLN)

38. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015

43. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
It’s about helping students:
• make sustainable connections for future learning
• develop independent learning habits and critical thinking
• become creative, resourceful and adaptable
• join or develop local and global learning communities
• gain confidence in accessing, curating and sharing information
• participate!
What’s in it for us, then?

44. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
Personal background
Conclusions
Teaching with technology
Case studies
Connected practice

45. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
Learning in the open:
Web 2.0 discussion forums for translation
Guilbaud, 2012

46. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
Sharing part of the
homework on the forums
Commenting on one
another’s contributions
Weekly task

47. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
• Collect student feedback on use of OADs for peer-feedback
• Measure student engagement with OADs
• Evaluate impact on performance (contributions / marks)
• Gauge if interactions lead to deep, collaborative learning (Wheeler, 2012)
The study

48. Murphy’s collaboration
model (2004)

49. Download it, use it!
Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
Guilbaud, 2012

50. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
Learning as a participatory process:
Collaborative vocabulary lists
Guilbaud, 2014

51. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
Traditional vocabulary teaching
(and maybe learning)

52. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
Better vocabulary learning

53. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
+
Google drive Quizlet

54. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
Google drive

55. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
Quizlet

56. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
• Increasing breadth of vocabulary
easily and systematically
• Active participants in their learning
process
• Collaboratively involved in content
design
• Engage with outward-facing
learning & OER production
• Reduces need for specialist
knowledge
• Keeps students engaged
outside of contact hours
• Increases class motivation
• Saves time
What’s in it for … ?
Students Tutors

57. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
Personal background
Conclusions
Teaching with technology
Case studies
Connected practice

58. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
• The future is Open
• All teachers and students are learners
• Networked learning and open learning are becoming prevalent
• Connectivist principles do not solely apply to MOOCs
• Small steps can be taken in everyday classroom teaching
• Education is about participation, not consumption
• Beyond formal education: life-long learning and civic engagement
Conclusions

59. Benoît Guilbaud - LLAS elearning symposium 2015
Couros, A. (2010). Developing personal learning networks for open and social learning. In G. Veletsianos (Ed.), Emerging
technologies in distance education. Athabasca University Press.
Couros, A. (2011). Why networked learning matters. Presented at Education in a Changing Environment (ECE) 6th International
Conference, Creativity and Engagement in Higher Education, 6-8 July 2011, University of Salford, Greater Manchester, UK.
Guilbaud, B., (2014). Bring your own vocabulary: Engaging students in vocabulary learning with mobile & collaborative
technologies. In: Reshaping Languages in Higher Education Conference 2014. Southampton, Grand Harbour Hotel, 9-
10th July 2014.
Guilbaud, B., (2012). Using Online Asynchronous Discussions for Peer-Feedback: a Case-Study. In: Langages – Cultures –
Sociétés : interrogations didactiques. Université Paris 3 – Sorbonne Nouvelle ‐ DILTEC, Paris 20, 21, 22 June 2012.
Murphy, E., 2004. Recognising and promoting collaboration in an online asynchronous discussion. In: British Journal of
Educational Technology, 35(4) pp.421–431.
Siemens, G. (2005). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. In: International Journal of Instructional Technology &
Distance Learning, 2(1). Retrieved from http://itdl.org/ journal/jan_05/article01.htm
Siemens, G. (2006). Knowing knowledge. Retrieved from: http://www.elearnspace.org/KnowingKnowledge_LowRes.pdf.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher mental processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Warschauer, M. (2003). Technology and social inclusion: Rethinking the digital divide. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Wheeler, S., 2012. Digital Pedagogy: Content is a Tyrant, Context is King. In: NAACE 2012 Annual Conference, 9 March 2012,
Leicester, United Kingdom.
References

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Any questions?
@BenGuilbaud