Sarah Guth's (University of Padova, Italy) observations were based on a blended English as a Foreign Language (EFL) course for graduate students in International Communication Studies. The course focuses on the use of Web 2.0 tools to promote language learning, intercultural learning and learner autonomy.
Her main point was that the increased contact with other cultures made possible by digitally networked technologies does not guarantee that intercultural learning happens. She quite rightly reminded us of the fact that it is the educators/tutors' responsibility to raise the students' awareness of cultural differences and similarities, and potential areas of conflict, and to promote discussion and reflection around those both f2f and online.
Sarah also stressed the fact that learners use Web 2.0 tools in their private/social lives does not mean that they are aware of how these tools can be/are used for learning. Again it is the tutors/educators' responsibility to harness the technology in motivating and learner-centred ways so that the students can step-by-step acquire the skills and competences they need to exploit them for lifelong learning.
More interesting stuff to be found here:
Interculturewiki
Friday, 13 June 2008
Restless digital natives
Colleagues from the University of Oslo led by Susanne A. Kjekshus Koch made the point that not all teenagers are digital wizzards and that not all parents and teachers are 'digital immigrants' (marcprensky) left behind by the rapid pace of technological change.
They also reminded us that the way most young people learn is quite different from what our educational institutions were built for and what our tutors and lecturers were trained for and drew on three examples to illustrate how radical the difference can be.
More here .....
The natives are restless
and here ...
dmlgruppen
They also reminded us that the way most young people learn is quite different from what our educational institutions were built for and what our tutors and lecturers were trained for and drew on three examples to illustrate how radical the difference can be.
More here .....
The natives are restless
and here ...
dmlgruppen
Swordfish, sardines and minnows
As usual the sun is shining brightly and the water is glistening here in Lisbon where we are holding the EDEN conference on elearning and distance education. It is day two of the conference and I am sat in the morning plenary session to listen to the four keynote speeches. More of this later....but first:
Last night several of us stayed out until the small hours to sample the atmosphere in the middle of the mayhem, mania and madness that is the Feast of San Antonio. Parades, concerts and general merry making in the streets of the city are the norm and no-one is allowed to be unhappy. We arrived via the metro, which was our first mistake, as the entire platform and the metro train itself were a seething mass of humanity. (Hand on your wallet, avoid the elbows, and try to keep standing upright – if you start falling over during the sudden stops, you are finished). I admit I felt a little like the proverbial Portuguese sardines, with far too many people crammed into too small a space, yet in a strange kind of way, it was fun. We finally managed to reach the centre of old Lisbon and took the funicular up to the Bairro Alto, where all the best cafes and bars are situated. The aromas that assail the nostrils in the pleasantly warm evening air of Lisbon have to be experienced. Every step it seems brings new ones, charcoal burners, roasting meat, the scent of the flowers in the trees, and even some less savoury ones – all add to the ambience of this beautiful and captivating city. Walking through the back streets, you also see the less palatable character of Lisbon. I was approached by a rather unsavoury looking character who half whispered ‘Cocaine?’ ‘I’m sorry,’ I replied, ‘I don’t have any to sell you...’ He looked a little bemused to say the least.
The restaurant was excellent with a choice of several kinds of exotic sounding fish and meat dishes. I have now sampled swordfish, calamari and monkfish and am now looking forward to trying out some of the dishes I can’t even begin to pronounce. The service was excellent also, but the company at first was a little subdued, and for good reason. We had three Germans in our party you see, and we had just sat cringing in a riverside bar to witness their soccer team being defeated by the Croatian team, who until yesterday could best be described as ‘minnows’ in the Euro 2008 competition. My German buddies put on a brave face, and I tried to encourage them by saying that the Croatians had actually put the English team out of the qualifying round, so were probably stronger than we thought. At least the German team were actually playing I said. I don’t think it worked. They cheered up significantly when the wine arrived however, and a jolly good time was had by all.
Finally arriving back at my hotel at stupid o’clock, my pillow was a very welcome sight, I can tell you.
Last night several of us stayed out until the small hours to sample the atmosphere in the middle of the mayhem, mania and madness that is the Feast of San Antonio. Parades, concerts and general merry making in the streets of the city are the norm and no-one is allowed to be unhappy. We arrived via the metro, which was our first mistake, as the entire platform and the metro train itself were a seething mass of humanity. (Hand on your wallet, avoid the elbows, and try to keep standing upright – if you start falling over during the sudden stops, you are finished). I admit I felt a little like the proverbial Portuguese sardines, with far too many people crammed into too small a space, yet in a strange kind of way, it was fun. We finally managed to reach the centre of old Lisbon and took the funicular up to the Bairro Alto, where all the best cafes and bars are situated. The aromas that assail the nostrils in the pleasantly warm evening air of Lisbon have to be experienced. Every step it seems brings new ones, charcoal burners, roasting meat, the scent of the flowers in the trees, and even some less savoury ones – all add to the ambience of this beautiful and captivating city. Walking through the back streets, you also see the less palatable character of Lisbon. I was approached by a rather unsavoury looking character who half whispered ‘Cocaine?’ ‘I’m sorry,’ I replied, ‘I don’t have any to sell you...’ He looked a little bemused to say the least.
The restaurant was excellent with a choice of several kinds of exotic sounding fish and meat dishes. I have now sampled swordfish, calamari and monkfish and am now looking forward to trying out some of the dishes I can’t even begin to pronounce. The service was excellent also, but the company at first was a little subdued, and for good reason. We had three Germans in our party you see, and we had just sat cringing in a riverside bar to witness their soccer team being defeated by the Croatian team, who until yesterday could best be described as ‘minnows’ in the Euro 2008 competition. My German buddies put on a brave face, and I tried to encourage them by saying that the Croatians had actually put the English team out of the qualifying round, so were probably stronger than we thought. At least the German team were actually playing I said. I don’t think it worked. They cheered up significantly when the wine arrived however, and a jolly good time was had by all.
Finally arriving back at my hotel at stupid o’clock, my pillow was a very welcome sight, I can tell you.
Questions, questions ...
How do we learn? Where do we learn? These were the questions addressed this morning at the EDEN Conference in Lisbon.The hugely impressive Grande Auditorio is the venue for the plenary sessions. It soars high above the audience and there are illuminated balconies rearing up four stories on both sides. It is an arena in which the invited speakers must attempt to set the tone of the conference and address the themes. Were they successful? Some of us are not so sure.
The first speaker, Anna Kirah, who is from ‘Future Navigator’ and based in Denmark, talked about exploring people centred concept making and was particularly scathing of existing education systems, because they stifle creativity. She made an appeal for schools to bring back the ‘why?’ in learning so children can see connections between what they are learning and what they are actually doing in real life. Where e-learning is concerned, she advocates that we should no longer be making content for people, but with people – which of course is a central tenet of the social web. Borrowing shamelessly from social constructivist theory, Anna boldly declared that e-learning which does not involve conversation is not worth the space.
Alan Tait from the Open University of the United Kingdom was more circumspect in his address entitled ‘Where do we learn? At work’. The title said it all really, and Alan dwelt on the idea that work is core to human experience and that it is inevitable for learning to occur at work. He wanted us to move away from competencies and skills to see learning at work as a part of the lifelong learning process and a means of managing one’s livelihood. Learning at work contributes significantly to personal well-being he said, and it is important to move beyond the fruitless distinction between training and informal learning.
Some people complained that there was nothing new in these presentations. Others were more enamoured with the content, but it is a decidedly difficult task to try to please all of the people all of the time. By far a more pressing question today is: are we going to have sufficient access for everyone on the wireless connection today. Probably not...
Posted by Steve Wheeler. Follow Learning with E's.
The first speaker, Anna Kirah, who is from ‘Future Navigator’ and based in Denmark, talked about exploring people centred concept making and was particularly scathing of existing education systems, because they stifle creativity. She made an appeal for schools to bring back the ‘why?’ in learning so children can see connections between what they are learning and what they are actually doing in real life. Where e-learning is concerned, she advocates that we should no longer be making content for people, but with people – which of course is a central tenet of the social web. Borrowing shamelessly from social constructivist theory, Anna boldly declared that e-learning which does not involve conversation is not worth the space.
Alan Tait from the Open University of the United Kingdom was more circumspect in his address entitled ‘Where do we learn? At work’. The title said it all really, and Alan dwelt on the idea that work is core to human experience and that it is inevitable for learning to occur at work. He wanted us to move away from competencies and skills to see learning at work as a part of the lifelong learning process and a means of managing one’s livelihood. Learning at work contributes significantly to personal well-being he said, and it is important to move beyond the fruitless distinction between training and informal learning.
Some people complained that there was nothing new in these presentations. Others were more enamoured with the content, but it is a decidedly difficult task to try to please all of the people all of the time. By far a more pressing question today is: are we going to have sufficient access for everyone on the wireless connection today. Probably not...
Posted by Steve Wheeler. Follow Learning with E's.
Shift happens again (and this time it's personal)
In the EDEN plenary session this morning, Lani Gunawardena talked about language, identity and gender in synchronous cybercultures. She's from the University of New Mexico and her research focuses on how students and the general public from two cultures, Moroccan (n=55) and Sri Lankan (n=50), communicated through live chat with people they didn’t know. Lani argues that identity plays a key role in trust building, self disclosure and the way language forms were used to generate a sense of immediacy. Identity she says, is expressed by age, sex and location. The continual shifting and malleability of personal online identities seemed to be a pervasive phenomenon, she discovered.
Anonymity gave participants more freedom to express themselves online and enabled them to avoid all of the above. Stereotyping she claims, takes place more easily in text only environments. Mohammed for example, was labelled a ‘terrorist’ by some other users, so a change of name to ‘Green Python’ sanitised his identity and enabled him to connect more readily. Some users changed their online identities to appeal to, and connect with different audiences. Some posed as Europeans and even changed their gender so they would not be marginalised by other online users.
The techniques online chatters use to detect imposters involve asking a series of questions and then repeat them later on to check consistency. Mobile phones are also used to verify the authenticity of the person at ‘the other end’. Over emphasis and exaggeration is often an indicator that someone has manipulated their identity online.
Self disclosure and trust building enhance social presence Lani argued, and interestingly, anonymity increased the ability to self disclose personal details. However, it also encouraged superficial relationships to grow at the expense of deeper social ties. The use of idioms increased when users felt they could begin to trust each other. Emoticons were used to convey meaning when text alone was insufficient, but interestingly mobile phones and other devices were used to increase a sense of social presence and immediacy.
This was quite an interesting study, but it remains to be seen how this kind of knowledge can be used to improve or even transform the delivery of e-learning. It is a limited study given the small samples size, and may be overly prescriptive in its conclusions. However, it highlights some important principles for educators to consider when they embark on the use of synchronous methods.
Posted by Steve Wheeler. Follow Learning with E's.
Anonymity gave participants more freedom to express themselves online and enabled them to avoid all of the above. Stereotyping she claims, takes place more easily in text only environments. Mohammed for example, was labelled a ‘terrorist’ by some other users, so a change of name to ‘Green Python’ sanitised his identity and enabled him to connect more readily. Some users changed their online identities to appeal to, and connect with different audiences. Some posed as Europeans and even changed their gender so they would not be marginalised by other online users.
The techniques online chatters use to detect imposters involve asking a series of questions and then repeat them later on to check consistency. Mobile phones are also used to verify the authenticity of the person at ‘the other end’. Over emphasis and exaggeration is often an indicator that someone has manipulated their identity online.
Self disclosure and trust building enhance social presence Lani argued, and interestingly, anonymity increased the ability to self disclose personal details. However, it also encouraged superficial relationships to grow at the expense of deeper social ties. The use of idioms increased when users felt they could begin to trust each other. Emoticons were used to convey meaning when text alone was insufficient, but interestingly mobile phones and other devices were used to increase a sense of social presence and immediacy.
This was quite an interesting study, but it remains to be seen how this kind of knowledge can be used to improve or even transform the delivery of e-learning. It is a limited study given the small samples size, and may be overly prescriptive in its conclusions. However, it highlights some important principles for educators to consider when they embark on the use of synchronous methods.
Posted by Steve Wheeler. Follow Learning with E's.
Session C4 - Workshop
The workhop "Facing Culture Diversity and Importance in e-Learning" has started on time (12/06/08, 16:30).
Three presentations were delivered by Alfredo Soeiro, Maria Pinto and Sebastian Foti.
The participants together with presenters tried to answer the following questions:
1. Can one concrete measure be indicated to hande culture diversity (learners, tutors, pace learning, cheating) in learning?
2. What factors relate to developing trust in a culturally diverese virtual group?
Example reflections are here:
working in mixed groups, using language which is accepted by all, coping with different habits of learners, assigning reporters for all students groups.
And finally the project "A practical Guide to Implement Intercultural Education at School" presentet by Alfredo Soeiro (Porto University) was a winner of the first prize Evens Foundation. See http://inter.up.pt/ to know more.
Thursday, 12 June 2008
INTERESTED IN COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH?
This post is about a research proposal on intercultural e-learning, and to invite expressions of interest. First, thanks to everyone who came to my presentation in session A1 this morning - a scattered audience in a big room doesn't exactly invite discussion but your attention was appreciated! Basically I see an excellent opportunity for a number of us to get together and conduct some research with our students, inevitably from a variety of cultures and backgrounds, to assess their attitudes to e-and-distance learning, how they engage with it, learning preferences an so on. Built into the survey could be one of the typologies of cultural styles - Hofstede's is one example, there are others, and they've all been criticized one way or another. My feeling is, we know there are issues, and plenty of the papers today pointed to what they might be: I'm indebted to the first presenter today (Bernd Kleiman) for the reminder that subjects have cultural differences too. We know what some of the questions might be but until we test them out then we will just be posing questions, not driving the field of knowledge forward. I know that with a few collaborators we can't get comprehensive coverage of cultures and nationalities but if we can just make a start, that will at least deepen our understanding. And like I said, we may even attract some research funding! Anyhow, I came away from the presentation feeling I hadn't said half of what I wanted to say - I'm always really nervous at conferences - and that from a lecturer with 25 years experience! Hey-ho. Glad to hear your views, or to have direct contact on andrew.rothwell@coventry.ac.uk. Thanks for reading this.
B3: E-learning Policy and Strategy: Social:Learn!
In their presentation Grainne Conole and Tony Walton from the Open University/UK outlined an ambitious project which aims at harnessing and applying the best in web 2.0 to any given educational context. The overarching vision of Social:Learn is to apply the best in current patterns of behaviour in technology developments (social networking in particular) to a learning context in order to provide a flexible and innovative, technology-enabled framework for learning.
The slide show on Social:Learn and the one from Grainne's Learning Design workshop (Session A4) can be viewed here:
Grainne's slides
The slide show on Social:Learn and the one from Grainne's Learning Design workshop (Session A4) can be viewed here:
Grainne's slides
B2: Learning Styles and Identities: Enhanced proficiency in Italian as a Second Language through Web 2.0 technologies
Giovanna Carloni from the University of Urbino in Italy made a very convincing case for effective individualised online learning of Italian based on the use of Web 2.0 technology and on a systematic approach to raising the students' awareness of their sensory preferences and cognitive styles. She found that the variety of modes for communication that are at our disposal today - both for input and output - cater more appropriately for individual differences in language learners and allow us to tailor courses more efficiently to their needs.
Her power point presentation can found here ...
Eden2008 Carloni
Her power point presentation can found here ...
Eden2008 Carloni
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