This document discusses the challenges of designing tasks for developing personal learning networks (PLNs) in an online foreign language course. It outlines a teaching scenario where students create a PLN using social media to augment their knowledge of Spanish language and culture. Key challenges addressed include students' emotional responses to technology-based tasks, linking mini-tasks to the overall goal, comprehending task instructions, and providing continuous feedback. Possible solutions involve flexibility, clarifying the purpose of tasks, and giving more value to student responses through discussions and blogs.
The meta task of building PLNs for foreign language acquisitionPilar Munday
Presentation about task design challenges given by Pilar Munday & Jaya Kannan from Sacred Heart University,CT,USA
at the XVIII International CALL Research Conference in Tarragona, Spain : July 6-8 2015
The theme of the conference was task design & CALL
Facilitating student-led teaching and content creation through technology: Us...RichardM_Walker
User-led design reflects a paradigm shift in pedagogic practice, re-envisioning the role of students as producers rather than consumers of learning. Implicit in this design approach is an acknowledgement that students have the skills and capability to engage in collaborative knowledge creation activities and to develop their learning as producers of content.
Through a presentation of case examples, we report on how user-led principles have been applied to the design of blended learning courses at the University of York (United Kingdom), with learning technology employed to support active learning opportunities for our students. The blended courses each incorporated activities encouraging participants to develop their own learning and teaching resources, engaging them in the mastery of key skills and concepts. We present an engagement model for active learning derived from the case examples, and use this as a stimulus for a broader discussion on effective design approaches to support student-led teaching and content creation activities.
We then go on to discuss the instructional responsibilities associated with the successful delivery of student-led activities within blended courses. Research tells us that instructional support for online learning requires differing strategies to facilitate effective group learning and participant-led activities and can lead to instructors assuming different roles in their online interactions with students. Reflecting on the case studies, we discuss common challenges that instructors may face in the design of student-led activities and present strategies for the effective delivery of student-led teaching and content creation activities, based on a five-stage blended delivery model that has been used to guide academic staff at the University of York.
The meta task of building PLNs for foreign language acquisitionPilar Munday
Presentation about task design challenges given by Pilar Munday & Jaya Kannan from Sacred Heart University,CT,USA
at the XVIII International CALL Research Conference in Tarragona, Spain : July 6-8 2015
The theme of the conference was task design & CALL
Facilitating student-led teaching and content creation through technology: Us...RichardM_Walker
User-led design reflects a paradigm shift in pedagogic practice, re-envisioning the role of students as producers rather than consumers of learning. Implicit in this design approach is an acknowledgement that students have the skills and capability to engage in collaborative knowledge creation activities and to develop their learning as producers of content.
Through a presentation of case examples, we report on how user-led principles have been applied to the design of blended learning courses at the University of York (United Kingdom), with learning technology employed to support active learning opportunities for our students. The blended courses each incorporated activities encouraging participants to develop their own learning and teaching resources, engaging them in the mastery of key skills and concepts. We present an engagement model for active learning derived from the case examples, and use this as a stimulus for a broader discussion on effective design approaches to support student-led teaching and content creation activities.
We then go on to discuss the instructional responsibilities associated with the successful delivery of student-led activities within blended courses. Research tells us that instructional support for online learning requires differing strategies to facilitate effective group learning and participant-led activities and can lead to instructors assuming different roles in their online interactions with students. Reflecting on the case studies, we discuss common challenges that instructors may face in the design of student-led activities and present strategies for the effective delivery of student-led teaching and content creation activities, based on a five-stage blended delivery model that has been used to guide academic staff at the University of York.
Building Digitally Networked Classrooms - using Google toolsJaya Kannan
This is a case study of how I used Google tools to build networked and collaborative learning spaces to promote a community of Inquiry. I share what worked and didn't. The student names have been carefully blocked out from the slides.
These slides are from Session 2 of our TIGed Empowering Student Voice in Education course offered to 6 school boards across Canada in partnership with WGSI, C21, Canadian Education Association and Canadian School Boards Association.
Building Digitally Networked Classrooms - using Google toolsJaya Kannan
This is a case study of how I used Google tools to build networked and collaborative learning spaces to promote a community of Inquiry. I share what worked and didn't. The student names have been carefully blocked out from the slides.
These slides are from Session 2 of our TIGed Empowering Student Voice in Education course offered to 6 school boards across Canada in partnership with WGSI, C21, Canadian Education Association and Canadian School Boards Association.
Friday Institute Presentation from NCTIES
Corn, J.O., Tingen, J., Halstead, E., & Argueta, R., (2011, March). Reaching digital learners through laptop initiatives. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the North Carolina Technology in Education Society, Raleigh, NC.
The EACEA invited the NIFLAR project to share experiences on ICT and Digital media for key competences at the International EDEN congress which was held in Valencia (9-12 June-2010)
Researching and Upscaling Virtual Exchange in University EducationSake Jager
Presentation on the Virtual Exchange projects EVOLVE and EVALUATE, given at the EAIE 2018 conference in Geneva by Robert O'Dowd, Sake Jager and Pilar Garces
1. TASK DESIGN CHALLENGES
Pilar Munday & Jaya Kannan ~ Sacred Heart University,CT,USA
XVIII International CALL Research Conference
Tarragona, Spain : July 6-8 2015
The meta task of building PLNs for
foreign language acquisition
3. “A task is a holistic activity which engages
language use in order to achieve some non-
linguistic outcome while meeting a linguistic
challenge, with the overall aim of promoting
language learning, through process or product
or both.
Samuda, V., & Bygate, M. (2008). Tasks in second language learning. New York: Palgrave
Macmillan.
5. THE ONLINE COURSE
Learning objectives:
➢ to achieve a higher level of proficiency in Spanish by
reviewing advanced grammar topics, which were
practiced via social media
➢ to be able to reflect on both the advanced grammar as
well as the social and cultural aspects learned throughout
the course in a personal, public blog
➢ to identify some key concepts related to digital citizenship,
such as digital footprint, content curation, privacy and
ethics and develop their own personal learning
network to be used to augment their knowledge of the
culture and language of the Spanish speaking world
14. Need Analysis Model
Technology
tasks
Language
tasks
Gonzalez-Lloret, M (2014) The need for needs analysis in technology-mediated TBLT. In
Gonzalez-Lloret, M. & Ortega, L. (Eds.) Technology and tasks: Exploring technology-mediated
TBLT (pp. 23-50). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins
15. Need Analysis throughout the course
Activities Tool Rationale
Survey to establish
knowledge and participation
about Social Networks
Google form
Gauge student interest,
mastery about these networks
in native language
Discussion about different
websites
Google Plus
Communities
Students can start learning
about their own interests
Video interviews with
instructor and students to
discuss activities to be
completed
Google
Hangouts
Students can ask questions
about elements of activity
which are not clear. Video
can be posted on class
website to clarify activities
17. ASSESSMENT
Continuous loops of:
➢ Query from instructor to verify learning
➢ Response from student through the task of
communication within the Google Plus communities or
demonstration of learning through the task submission
➢ Feedback from the instructor to clarify, provide
intervention, or guide the student forward in the process of
developing the PLN
20. CHALLENGES
➢ Emotional response to
technology based
networked learning
➢ Difficulty of students to
see links between mini
tasks and vision of meta
task
➢ Comprehension of task
instructions
➢ No continuity of
feedback
21. CHALLENGES & POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
➢ Emotional response to
technology based
networked learning
➢ Difficulty of students to
see links between mini
tasks and vision of meta
task
➢ Comprehension of task
instructions
➢ No continuity of
feedback
→
➢ Be flexible
➢ Make the PLN
not the final task
➢ Be mindful of
continuity
➢ Give more value
to “responses” in
discussion
boards or blog
posts