1. SCARLET: SCAffolding Rich Learning Experiences through Technology Context & Connections: Designing a Vocab App Joshua Underwood Rose Luckin, Niall Winters
2. Contextas personal narrative “Context is dynamic and associated with connections between people, things, locations and events in a narrative that is driven by people’s intentionality and motivations. Technology can help to make these connections in an operational sense. People can help to make these connections have meaning for a learner” (Luckin 2010, p.18) But it is the learner that makes the connections and the way they do this is dependent on their interpretation of the stimuli and help offered – a learner’s context is personal and situated in an individual history of interactions with resource ecologies What methods are appropriate for understanding individual context?
7. Cycle A: Learning from narrative accounts An advanced learner of English watching aDVDat homehearsa word, he has a feel for what it meansbut no idea how to spell it and consequent difficulties looking it up. Later he brings an English speaking friend home, shows her the clip and asks her to identify the word, She says its ‘”awkward” and spells it for him and they talk about it. Later he looks it up in a bilingual dictionary. A learner of English hears the TV commentator say something like "... he's at sixes and sevens”. She’s never heard that expression before. Her interest is piqued, she asks a friend about the expression. He says it's not an expression he would use. She moves her ring from her right hand to her left hand, a strategy she has developed to help remind her to look things up. Later at home, she looks up the expression in her dictionary. A learner of English watches CNN every morning for business news. He notices the unfamiliar phrase ‘pave the way’ in the scrolling text. He thinks he understands but notes it down to check in a dictionary. Days later, talking to an English-speaking friend he tries to use the expression. Initially, the friend is confused and this leads to the friend correcting his pronunciation For example analysis of a vocab learning narrative see -Retelling Stories: Setting Learner Narratives in Resource Ecologies, In: Proceedings CSCL 2011 p.611-615
8. Cycle A: Resources, Filters & Contingencies Learners use a variety of social and technological resources to help them understand meaning, use and representations (written & spoken) of language Different learners have different access to/preferences for resources and this varies across settings, surrounding activity and current aims Vocabulary learning is contingent on encounters with appropriate stimuli, noticing opportunities, motivation, availability of resources, ability to link experiences across time and locations and sustain inquiry Learning vocabulary can be a process of linking situated (social) experiences with opportunities for reflection, (personal & collaborative) inquiry and abstraction – making connections between word senses & meanings (Vygotsky 1986)
9. Signs Friends Google Conversations Dictionaries TV Blogs Books Pronunciation tools Radio Songs + Announcements Examples Teachers Language classes Native Speakers Thesaurus Reading, etc… Etc… How can mobile phones & software help me betterconnectmy experiences, my PLE & my mental lexiconacross settings & episodes? Sustained Inquiry over settings and episodes using resources for investigating, sharing & making meaning Stimuli interactions with language in the world Capture
11. Cycle B: some personal reflections Mobile phones, social media and other software certainly can help me connect encounters with language (in context) with opportunities for later inquiry and improve my access to social and other resources (despite context) that can help me make sense of and learn from these experiences (create personal narrative context) – see (Underwood, Luckin & Winters, 2011) for analysis of the kinds of connections BUT This is highly dependent on personal resources and these vary greatly over time and across settings (e.g. initiative, motivation, energy, effort, opportunities, mood, memory => learner context) & my inclination/ability to act is strongly influenced by 1) Ease and speed of use, 2) prompts to use, 3) structure to help collect & connect language experiences with opportunities for reflection & helpful resources -> these lead to requirements for miLexicon software
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13. Cycle C: Participatory Re-design 6 independent language learners lent phones with miLexicon. Used to support vocabulary learning as they liked over periods of 1 to 6 months. Data includes: interviews, software usage history, usage questionnaire, e-mail comments and re-design workshop (on-going).
14. Cycle C: initial thoughts miLexicon can prompt and help learners to collect new vocabulary* and make initial inquiries into meaning. All participants reported adopting new vocabulary learning practices (at lest temporarily) and at least one participant continues to use the software on his own phone. *Use varies greatly across participants (e.g. < 10 words a month to > 100 words a month) and within participants over time. Amount of use may depend on multiple interacting factors like: opportunity, time available, language competence, location (in culture of target language or not), etc… Not all words added to miLexicon end up fully integrated into learners’ mental lexicons (e.g. available for fluent use). But looking through items in miLexicon is usually enough to prompt recall of experience and understanding of meaning Users most often do not take full advantage of the potential to connect new vocabulary with: media, examples of use, opportunities to revise and practice (e.g. using social media), etc… Often users stop at checking meaning
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16. However, learners often require more active prompting to exploit these opportunities and make appropriate connections. Such scaffolding might be provided by teachers (e.g. assigning and monitoring tasks using miLexicon and providing help) and/or by adaptive components (e.g. monitoring use and using notifications to prompt users to revisit items and use resources to make appropriate connections).
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18. Autoethnography helps us reflect on and understand the context of our own actions (how and why we make connections) and consequently, possibly better understand the actions of others
