Monday, April 21, 2014

Adaptation of Group 6 Interpersonal Mode Activity "Got Talent"



I chose Group 6’s VoiceThread activity using the Interpersonal mode of communication. These three teachers will have a lower intermediate level class compare and contrast American and Arab cultures as reflected through “America’s Got Talent” and “Arabs Got Talent”.

I see great potential and a wealth of opportunity for conversation by using this idea. However, I would need to break the tasks into smaller portions with more scaffolding for the level and for the goal of encouraging oral communication and interaction between students.

Before the synchronous activity, each of them will view the two links (three times each) given to them with some observation questions to consider and write their personal notes.

Initially I would have prepared a chart of basic pictures which both students will access as a Google doc. and have in front of them as they begin the Hangout. They will compare and contrast preplanned focus areas of the two shows ---  for instance, type of clothes, type of performance, stage backdrops and facial and body expressions of the judges. Students should discuss with each other first what they saw and then move on to some basic comparing/contrasting statements.   My emphasis will be on use and flow of as many Arabic phrases and vocabulary as possible without the demand for perfect grammar and sentence structure.  After the two have talked together they will be able to email a sentence or two from their comparisons to me, the facilitator.

The assessment challenge would be finding the easiest recording method for students to use so that it will not impede their ability to talk as naturally as possible with each other.  I see that Google+ Hangouts has a way to record for 15 minutes and uploads to your YouTube account. I don’t think it will allow young kids to use it but this might be a way for college and adults.  http://youtu.be/2dxREuMEF3Y

The other challenge is arranging a convenient time for both participants to be in the Hangout together.

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Distance Learning Group Work

Enriching and Challenging



      Group work is not an easy thing in the regular classroom! Instructors carefully form the groups thinking about participants’ skills, personalities, experience and motivation levels. Despite the things that can and do go wrong in the interplay, working with other people on a project that needs every member’s contribution is very worthwhile. It replicates “real world” workplace frustrations and frictions as well as the benefits of coming at a goal from different perspectives and cultures/worldviews. It is the way all projects develop ---- bumpily and with glitches.

I anticipate similar scenarios with the DL group activities I would hope to organize.

     Our current participants are all very busy but quite highly motivated to “get the job done”. It seems to me that we are all intrinsically motivated to find out more about the possibilities of cutting edge distance learning development.  But some did not realize all the ways that interaction would be required since we all have previously done online courses asynchronously with no necessity to be involved online with other participants. Most of my previous experience in a blended learning course using technology has been to meet with the instructors and participants for a day of training each month over six months. The online part was individualized, asynchronous, with products uploaded for predetermined deadlines.

     For this course, Teaching Languages Online, it was difficult to send out the first invite email as some had not gotten or maybe had not given out their gmail account address. So sending/inviting was guess work. Then people may have received the email but were not checking that account as they were unaware of the need for communication in regards to the course.

     At the first meeting the goals were misunderstood. I think I would have preferred to add an initial Hangout meeting at the front end of the course where the goal would be only to get in Hangouts  and for all participants to do a simple icebreaker conversation. That would help people to be more comfortable with their group mates before needing to get down to the business of producing a product as the result of getting together. I will look at developing a scavenger hunt – like activity that will feature exploring what Hangout can do.

     There is also the uneasiness that many people feel about making oneself known globally. Many participants do not have their actual picture posted so they will also be resistant to using the web cam in a Hangout. I think this then makes those who figured that they needed to be open about their identity in the class context almost feel foolish for allowing their face to be seen.

     I think that I will ask Hangout participants to find an image to use and make it clear that it should not be their own face. They could use an object or maybe initials or a representation from art for example. This could be the basis of the first Hangout --- explaining why I chose that image.

     Spanning several time zones and also different work and weekend days is also something to consider. Some people expect to meet on the weekend but others protect that time from any type of work. Finding out those preferences is not automatic as different cultures have different communication styles --- there is the gamut --- from blunt and direct to gracious and accommodating words of a culture that must not tell the constraints on their time because that would be deemed rude!

     You also have people who need lots of lead time to work on their part of the assignment and those who pull off a great product just in the nick of time. That can be nerve-racking on both sides.
Our group experienced confusion when one diligent person filled in the assignment because they saw the approaching deadline and seemingly no hope of collaborating. Then the Hangout did occur and a totally different activity was jointly planned. But the diligent person forgot to explain that the form was already filled in with a different activity! After a couple days that was clarified and sorted out.
Meanwhile as it is not easy to “Hangout” the group members did their best to contribute the portions agreed to/assigned. If you look at our activity you will realize that we did communicate but not enough to actually sync all our thoughts and interpretations of assessing what will be evident in students for that particular mode of communication.

     With many online experiences squished into a month of learning, our course may be somewhat more condensed and varied than courses we will design and facilitate. Some of our group members are just now finding how to negotiate the logistics of meeting in time for our last Hangout.

     I will make a rubric for the assigned group work. There will be two parts ---- group dynamic/process and then the actual product/each person’s contribution.

     Each team member will need to fill out an evaluation form on their participation and then one on each of the other participants. These will be sent privately to the course facilitator. It will include areas such as time spent, cooperation, effort, contribution to discussions around the project, and attendance as expected virtual meetings.

     I will also use the following list to design the process side of the rubric:
  • regular meeting attendance
  • equity of contribution
  • evidence of cooperative behaviour
  • appropriate time and task management
  • application of creative problem solving
  • use of a range of working methods
  • appropriate level of engagement with task
  • development of professional competencies
  • evidence of capacity to listen
  • responsiveness to feedback/criticism.

     There are many excellent rubrics online for the various online products/software use. So I will tweak one of those for the particular group project.

Saturday, April 5, 2014

PLNs for me



I was unaware of the possibilities that some of these platforms could provide for language learning.
I think that it is easier for adult learners to be invited to use these. Young students will be in classrooms under the strictures of privacy and security that need to be in place in public schools.

These PLNs give the lifelong learner incredible resources to sate curiosity and to increase it! It is also an opportunity to investigate problems together with others who confront the same professional challenges. I do want to try using the hash tag searches as well as interacting with other instructors to “talk through” possible solutions and activities to address needs.  I am spurred on to try a couple of them. Diigo would help me organize the resources I already tend to download, keeping most of the known internet on my desktop particularly when focused on a curriculum project. It has the advantage of being searchable so that I could quickly skim off the most valuable sites for language education rather than initiating every topic search in Google myself. I also really appreciate that I would be able to form a group course module with prepared pages and comments. Diigo seems to also lend itself to group collaboration and projects stemming from focusing on the pre-highlighted information. Diigo will probably be my first new login.

I liked what I found concerning educational ideas for the use of Twitter in and outside the classroom. It should work well by using the now ubiquitous phones. It also gives voice to the shy student, to having the students try communication in their new language in small bits which replicates the bits of natural conversation. I think this would also gently help Arabic learners with the script and spelling. As Enza Conforti mentioned getting grammar and spelling corrections while tweeting in Italian, this would possibly be a means of fun practice and corrections done by peers. It is a much easier beginning than having to begin with a report in Arabic. I am curious what useful hashtags I could find that would be useful for creative relevant language lessons for Arabic instruction. When looking at twitter for education last night I was very impressed with how a teacher caught the Tahrir square scenario and was able to connect with a woman who then Skyped with his class about the events just before Mubarak stepped down. How memorable for those students and bringing a far-flung significant event into their laps!

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

First Hangout with workgroup



Just completed a very nice Hangout time! We went ahead and met ---- just two of us this time as we did not hear back from our other two group members.

Hopefully the other two will be able to get their gmail connected and working this coming weekend. I think that many people found the daily expectations for the class, not what they were anticipating. I think that may felt the work would all be concentrated on the weekend. So maybe our two participants could not cope with a middle of the week call.
Before the Hangout time I wondered if I was doing all of the set-up correctly for the call. But we did succeed in connecting! For some reason neither of us were able to get the video to work. For the most part we could hear each other very clearly but there were times for both of us that the audio would break up meaning that we lost a phrase of the other person’s thought.
One thing that I learned from my colleague is that each culture also has a teaching culture of expectations and parameters set by the culture, the language institution, the course demands, etc. So the instructor will need to work with all of that to still make learning fun and relevant. There are ways to provide a “work around” for the needs of language learners if the the teacher thinks creatively about the goal and what is available to work with in the present learning environment.
We noted that even a person who is passionate about teaching and good instruction needs some camaraderie to keep up the enthusiasm as there will be classes which do not respond eagerly and can severely dampen the instructor’s motivation.