Charting a Collaborative Course Online:Learning in the Community

CAROLYN KRISTÁNSSON & NATHAN HALL

TRINITY WESTERN UNIVERSITY

TESL CANADA CONFERENCE, REGINA, SK

MAY 9-10, 2014

Perspectives on Teacher Education

Traditional

➤ Teacher learning as individual cognitive endeavor

➤ Teacher-learner responsible for acquiring & applying what is taught (Burns & Richards, 2009)

Sociocultural

➤ Learning as situated social practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991)

➤ Second Language Teacher Education (SLTE) – conceptualizing SLTE as emerging community of practice

➤ Learning is mediated through participation (Freeman, 2009; Singh & Richards, 2009)

Question:

➤ What might this look like in a SLTE course mediated by online technologies and informed by online collaborative learning theory?

Online Collaborative Learning (OCL)

➤ OCL Theory: “OLC refers to educational applications that emphasize collaborative discourse and knowledge building mediated by the Internet: learners work together online to identify and advance issues of understanding, and to apply their new understanding and analytical terms and tools to solving [addressing] problems, constructing plans or developing [multi-perspectival] explanations for phenomena. OCL emphasizes processes that lead to both conceptual understanding and knowledge products.” (Harasim 2012, p. 88)

OCL & Community

➤ The community-centred lens allows us to include the critical social component of learning in our online learning designs. Here we find Vygotsky’s (2000) popular notions of “social cognition” relevant… Lipman’s (1991) “community of inquiry,” and Etienne Wenger’s (2002) ideas of “community of practice”…. Wilson (1997) has described the characteristics of participants in online communities as having a shared sense of belonging, trust, expectation of learning, and commitment to participate in and contribute to the community (Anderson, 2008, p. 51).

OCL & Interactivity

➤ Interaction – or its derivative term interactivity – serves a variety of functions in the educational transaction… interactivity is fundamental to creating the learning communities espoused by Lipman (1991), Wenger (2002), and other influential educational theorists who focus on the critical role of community in learning. …Finally, the value of another person’s perspective, usually gained through interaction, is a key learning component in constructivist learning theories (Shank, 1993), and in inducing mindfulness in learners (Visser, 2000). (Anderson, 2008, p. 55)

OCL & Knowledge in Community

➤ OCL Theory: ➤ Learning activity

➤ Informed by discipline norms & discourse process that emphasizes conceptual learning and knowledge building.

➤ Ss have a relationship to the knowledge community mediated by teacher/mentor who represents the community

➤ Learning & Knowledge Building ➤ viewed as meaningful to society and not driven only by

personal interest or to fulfill class assignment

OCL & Process

➤ Distinction: Cooperative vs Collaborative

➤ OCL: Collaborative Process & Product

OCL Technology

➤ Distinction:

➤ Technology as online learning tool(s)

➤ Technology as online learning environment

➤ OL environment: shared space for discourse & interaction = heart of OCL

➤ TWU MATESOL CMS - wiki

TWU OL MATESOL Program

➤ Program Structure: ➤ Virtuous Cycle of Knowledge Creation

(Tichy & Cardwell, 2002)

➤ Modular Approach➤ Didactic (“Offering” x 1)

➤ Collaborative (“TPOV” x 3)

“This is a collaborative paper in which the group presents a clear, workable, negotiable position on what has been learned and researched. It includes a dimension that only the students can bring to the process and a central point or thesis and a set of reasons or arguments for that position. The TPOV is reviewed by all students…"

TWU OL MATESOL - Orientation

Product

Process

Praxis

Transmission

Transaction

Transformation

Cummins, 2007, p.45

Curriculum Course

➤ Student Roles & Responsibilities

➤ Week 1

➤ Individual + Some Collaborative

➤ Weeks 2 & 3

➤ Collaborative + Some Individual

➤ Collaborative guided by rotating roles

➤ Manager, Fingers, Seeker 1, Seeker 2

Curriculum Course

➤ Lead Instructor➤ Determines module focus, readings, “offering” content, and TPOV project (in dialogue

w/ collaborating instructor to extent possible)

➤ Provides feedback on draft TPOV

➤ Provides feedback & grade on module reflective reports and course paper

➤ Collaborating Instructor (a.k.a. “collaboratti”)➤ Provides Ss with feedback on summaries of key readings,

monitors/prompts/facilitates group interaction, responds to student questions

➤ In this course – tech expert!

➤ Provides feedback on draft TPOV each module

➤ Provides feedback on proposal & outline of course paper

Curriculum Course: Overview

➤ Content Focus➤ Understand POLEs & related theoretical frameworks

➤ Apply knowledge in analysis of existing curriculum

➤ Apply knowledge in creation of curriculum

➤ Service Learning Projects➤ After-school curriculum for refugee youth

➤ ProD curriculum for EFL teachers at beginner level English proficiency

ProD EFL Curriculum Project

➤ M1: POLE in context➤ Adopt assigned perspective (3 Ps)

➤ Reflect on (imagine) view of LE in assigned context from this perspective

➤ Reflect on pros and cons of designing curriculum from this perspective

➤ M2: Student Needs in Context➤ Needs analysis from various perspectives

➤ Their view of situational & Ss’ language & non-language needs

➤ Type of needs analysis that might get at Ss’ view of the same

➤ Tentative decisions of which needs to address or not

ProD EFL Curriculum Project

➤ M3: Introduce Project Parameters (recent iteration)

➤ Curriculum: 3-week ProD course for primary school ELTs

➤ Scope: Language in 3 areas➤ Classroom Talk (i.e., teacher talk—language skills needed to conduct and manage

an English class),

➤ Lunchroom Talk (i.e., small talk/casual conversation with colleagues—language skills needed to interact informally on a social level with fellow teachers), and what we are calling

➤ Conference Talk (i.e., formal professional talk—language skills needed to interact in formal professional settings with visiting professionals/scholars/dignitaries).

➤ Scope: Technology ➤ Skills to safely and effectively use technology for educational purposes (e.g., mobile

phones, computers, tablets, the Internet).

ProD EFL Curriculum Project

➤ Foreword

➤ Table of Contents

➤ Introduction

➤ Selected External Standards

➤ General Scope & Sequence

➤ Language Focus Overview

ProD EFL Curriculum Project

➤ M3: Module Scope

➤ Decide on basic POLE orientation

➤ (Write assigned introduction section)

➤ Formulate aims & outcomes (with reference external standards as appropriate)

➤ Brainstorm potential module activities

ProD EFL Curriculum Project

➤ M4: Intro & Module Creation

ProD EFL Curriculum Project

Challenges?➤ In general

➤ Amount of work involved / time

➤ Different personalities / needs

➤ Different understanding of what needed to be done

➤ Creating for others but no firsthand knowledge of students or teachers involved

➤ Understanding the limitations, especially cultural

➤ Design Perspective➤ How to distribute the curricular components across groups while

maintaining coherence

➤ Right balance of support (e.g. starter ideas, templates, timeline)

➤ Time

Rewards?

➤ Writing for a purpose, not just an assignment

➤ Working together and navigating how to work with others

➤ Generating ideas and developing skills that can be directly applied to own classrooms (in-service teachers)

➤ Group knowledge

➤ Sense of confidence in how to approach curriculum work

➤ Sense of accomplishment—incredibly rewarding

Adding it up

➤ The course➤ how we have charted and navigated our online collaborative course

➤ Learning by participation in the community

➤ the SLTE community

➤ the MATESOL OL learning community

➤ the ELT community of practice

➤ EFL ProD project: legitimate peripheral participation (Lave & Wenger, 1991)

➤ Learning to think as professionals and colleagues of EFL teachers working within challenging real world constraints

➤ Leading to growing ongoing participation in the ELT community

Insights

➤ Charting an online collaborative course?

➤ Learning in the community (Community of Practice)?

➤ See the handout

Final questions & comments

References

➤ Anderson, R. (2008). Towards a theory of online learning. In The theory and Practice of online learning (pp. 45-74). Edmonton: AU Press. Retrieved from: http://www.aupress.ca/books/120146/ebook/99Z_Anderson_2008-Theory_and_Practice_of_Online_Learning.pdf

➤ Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated earning: Legitimate peripheral participation, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

➤ Harasim, Linda. (2012). Learning theory and online technologies. New York: Routledge.