The BlendSync Approach to Teaching ESL: Pedagogy & Technology

Asynchronous, synchronous & Blend-Sync ESL Classes

Don Moen and Dmitri Priven

Agenda• Asynchronous vs. Synchronous

• Social Presence

• Blended Synchronous Learning

• Questions

Synchronous vs. Asynchronous• Asynchronous learning does not involve immediate

interactions (discussion boards, post links, etc.)

• Synchronous learning involves immediate interaction (web conference, F2F classroom, etc.)

• Some activities are better synchronous or asynchronous depending on the learner, not on the activity which makes learner choice paramount.

Output• Yamada (2009) argues “…voice communication

strongly affects both learners’ affective side and output. The existence of a partner’s image enhances the consciousness of natural communication, which leads to a number of self-corrections, an aspect of learning performance. However, voice communication has a negative effect on confidence in grammatical accuracy” (p. 1).

Social Presence• Does the student feel noticed?

• Social presence is about the degree of salience one feels.

• Intimacy and immediacy are the primary factors in social presence.

• Snart (2010) argues that the failure of the correspondence movement was a lack of social presence.

Social Presence in Synchronous Leaning

• You already know how to create a social environment F2F

• Smiling, gestures, and nodding on camera show engagement.

• Asking students to raise hands, do polls, comment in the chat all keep learners active.

• How do you engage learners F2F? How do you translate that into a web conference?

Social Presence in Asynchronous Learning

• In asynchronous learning, emoticons can develop emotional interaction leading to more student engagement.

• In prepared videos, social cues like smiling and nodding increases social presence.

• Monitor the discussion boards

• Creating intimacy can be sharing details of one’s life and they need not always be intimate details to create intimacy.

Building an Autonomous Course Site

• Online course web design

• Checking answers through quizzes in the Learning Management System

• Adding additional resources on the course site

• Alternative YouTube explanations

• Prescribed discussion board activities

• Make yourself less necessary as a teacher

Synchronous Learning Engagement

• Interactive white boards – get the students involved

• Students answering questions in the chat

• Breakout rooms for group work

• Project the textbook

• Do the same activities you do in a F2F class

• The tactile challenge…

Periphery Participation

• Hoadley (2012) emphasizes that those joining an educational community need to be able to lurk on the edges through “legitimate peripheral participation” (p. 291) before they feel comfortable enough to join. Many members evolve into communities rather than jump into them.

Periphery Participation• “In the physical classroom, verbal communication

is usually the only way to participate in a discussion, which can be an obstacle for introverts or those with anxiety about participation. Being able to speak through web-conferencing software or make a written comment allows some participants the ability to join, lurk around or evolve into the community of practice more fully in a way that could not happen F2F” (Moen, 2017, p. 27).

Periphery Participation• Students will not always seem engaged online

compared to a F2F classroom but that does not mean they aren’t.

• Taking polls, asking for answers in the chat, and using the raise hand function are ways to manage the periphery

• There will always be a periphery so if the teacher does not control it then the periphery is left unmanaged.

Our teaching philosophy in BlendSync

• One physical/virtual space

• Equal opportunity to participate in classes for f2f and virtual/remote students

• Instructional modalities available to f2f students are also equally available to virtual students

Web-conferencing platform used: Zoomwww.zoom.us

LECTURE MODEf2f: regular lecture mode

BlendSync:

• Audio through Zoom - omnidirectional class array mic VoiceTracker II, permanent mount

• Video• HD tracking camera that follows instructor

(self-tracking or manual – e.g., Logitech PTZ )

• instructor video feed tile can be enlarged by users

• Secondary camera • captures student interaction (any monitor-

mounter HD webcam)

• instructor can toggle between two cameras with a shortcut

LECTURE SLIDES• f2f: on screen

• BlendSync: on Zoom through the screenshare feature

Video (Web-based, DVD)

• f2f: on screen

• BlendSync:• streamed through Zoom

using the screenshare feature (sharing video player or browser window)

• audio feed shared internally through Zoom as well

• NOTE: teacher can run a video in real time (teacher control) or asynchronous (student control)

Use of media and websites for learning activities

• f2f: on screen; access through LMS on laptops

• BlendSync: screenshare (sync) or self-paced (async)

Use of black/whiteboard

• f2f• regular whiteboard (make sure

your cam is HD)• projected virtual whiteboard on

Zoom

• BlendSync: • physical whiteboard via camera;• virtual whiteboard accessible as a

shared public page on Zoom; both host (teacher) and participants can contribute

• Zoom whiteboard has annotation tools (draw, text, erase, paste)

Whole class interaction

• f2f:

T 🡪 S, S 🡪 T, S 🡪🡪 S

• BlendSync:

T 🡪 S, S 🡪 T, S 🡪🡪 S

• voice (remote students use their mics and can be heard on class speakers and on Zoom)

• Hand raise feature on Zoom – queue for Q and A

• Chat (visible to f2f students on screen)

Group work and pair work

• f2f: physical groups

• BlendSync:• virtual breakout rooms

(communication: voice, chat, shared whiteboard)

• groups can be set automatically or manually

• instructor can enter breakout rooms to facilitate

LESSONS LEARNED – BLEND-SYNC• Audio: mic quality is essential – or questions from f2f

students need to be repeated for “zoomers”

• Camera: must be HD for crisp image of whiteboard for “zoomers”; if not, use digital whiteboard

• f2f and remote students: treat as equal groups; elicit equally from both

• Chat vs voice: encourage remote students to use voice over chat; chat can be distracting/ split attention

Questions

References• Hoadley, C. (2012). What is a community of practice and how can we support it? In S. Land & D. Jonassen (Eds.), Theoretical foundations of learning environments (pp.

287-300). London, U.K.: Routledge.

• Moen, D. (2017). Democratic Implementation of Anywhere, Anytime, Anyway Learning through Blended Synchronous Delivery in a Postsecondary Institution in Canada.

• Snart, J. A. (2010). Hybrid learning: The perils and promise of blending online and face-to-face instruction in higher education. Santa Barbara, Calif: Praeger.

• Yamada, M. (2009). The role of social presence in learner-centered communicative language learning using synchronous computer-mediated communication: Experimental study. Computers & Education, 52(4), 820-833. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2008.12.007