Digital Literacy and Learning Styles

JALTCALL 2009

June 6 Toyo Gakuen University Tokyo

Marcel Van Amelsvoort Kanagawa Prefectural College of Foreign Studie s

Digital Natives?

Digital Literacy

USA 56% (2005)‏

“ Digital Literacy” is too simple a term Computer literacy Computer literacy Access to tools (hardware and software) Digital learning literacy

Computer Ownership Rates Percentage of Students with Computers (and Internet)‏ 75%

Digital Device Ownership Rates Digital Devices in 2007-09 (Incoming 1 st Year Students)‏ -- 3% 6% Sony PSP 26% 27% 12% Nintendo DS 49% 47% 29% MP3 Player 2009 2008 2007 % that have…

Digital Learning Experience Digital Learning Literacy in 2007-08 (Incoming 1 st Year Students)‏ 57% -- -- Social Networking (J) 13% -- -- Social Networking (E) 24% 37% 37% CALL Room 75% 64% 48% Wikipedia 22% 11% 12% Skype 6% 4% 1% Making Podcasts 27% 13% 12% Podcasts (Japanese) 22% 9% 9% Podcasts (English) 45% 53% 46% Internet Listening 2009 2008 2007 % that have done…

Digital Writing Experience In 2007-09 (Incoming 1st Year Students) 42 % 31 % 55 % Written an e-mail in English 62 % -- -- Posted blog comments in Japanese 17 % -- -- Posted blog comments in English 48 % 44 % 29 % Made a blog 2009 2008 2007 % that have…

Digital Device Ownership Students and Teachers in 2009 1/10 26% Nintendo DS 7/10 (only 2 use for language study) 49% Mp3 Player Instructors Students

Internet Learning Experience Internet Use in Language Learning in 2009 9/10 -- Reading through the Internet 6/10 45% Listening through the Internet Instructors Students

Digital Learning Experience Technology for learning in 2009 6/10 (only 2 in target language) 22% Use Skype 2/10 22% Listen to podcasts (in target language) 4/10 48% Keep (kept) a blog Instructors Students

Teachers as Learners…

Show a wide range of individual tool use (traditional, desktop and mobile)

Books and magazines (10/10)

Comp. reading (9/10)

DVDs (8/10)

TV (6/10)

Radio (5/10)

Are hard to profile

But are definitely more PC-oriented

“ I don’t use technology very often but I encourage students to.”

“ I’m a paid member at Audible.com. I also record radio programs and lectures for playback while I jog”

Problems with encouraging new tools and techniques for learning Culture of Technology Culture of Learning

Culture of Technology

PC familiarity

Typing

Mp3 players: music or more?

Culture of Learning

Teacher-centeredness

Autonomy

Focus on tests

Willingness to jump communities

Willingness to get involved

Hubbard (2004)‏

Experience CALL yourself

Give learners teacher training

Use a incremental/cyclical approach

Use collaborative debriefings

Teach general exploitation strategies (linguistic and technical).

Our Approach for Implementation

 Know Your Learners

 Institutionalize (Multi-course and required)

 Immerse (Multi-course; regular assignments)‏

 Support Actively (Multi-lingual; all stages)‏

 Allow Sufficient Time

Our Strategy

Teach and promote tool use in , across and beyond 3 courses

Goals

Improve computer literacy

Improve computer learning literacy

Promote learner autonomy

Subjects

18 (20 at start) 1 st year students in the lowest proficiency class at a junior college in Yokohama.

Tools

Blogs: As writing tool; web presence; personal learning space

Various Web 2.0 Tools:

Voki (personalized talking avatars ）

ESL Video (video learning)

Voice of America (news and listening)‏

IKnow (personalized social learning)‏

Quizlet (personalized quizzes)‏

Chatroll (interactive social writing)‏

Institutionalize and Immerse Writing 2 (1 × 90 min.)‏ Blogs (but only 1 posting required; more encouraged)‏ Workshop (2 × 90 min.)‏ Blogs; ESL Video; iKnow; Voice of America; Quizlet; Voki Writing 1 (1 × 90 min.)‏ Blogs; Quizlet; Chatroll; Voki Second Term First Term

Results: Blogs vs. Journals 0% 6% 6% 50% 37% Improved 0% 6% 19% 31% 44% Enjoyed 0% 6% 6% 50% 37% Tried hard Blogs 6% 0% 0% 19% 72% Improved 6% 0% 37% 25% 31% Enjoyed 0 % 6% 6% 31% 56% Tried hard Disagree Strongly Disagree Not Sure Agree Agree Strongly Journals

Results: Blog Difficulty

By the end of the course…

0% 28% 61% 0% 11% Difficulty Very Easy Easy Not so Hard Hard Very Hard

Blog Assessment by Learners 5% 0% 28% 61% 5% Interesting Boring Not Really A Little Interesting Very 0% 0% 61% 39% Useful Not at All Not So Much Useful Very

Learner Intentions and Reality