Sylvi Vigmo Enheten för lärande och undervisning Institutionen för pedagogik och didaktik Göteborgs universitet

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1 Sylvi Vigmo Enheten för lärande och undervisning Institutionen för pedagogik och didaktik Göteborgs universitet Today is a good day to choose a criminal Abstract: Teachers didactic considerations and changing conditions for students technology enhanced learning activities in EFL /English as a Foreign Language, are the main interests for this paper. Primary data was produced during pilot field observations and virtual observations during a school year. Of interest are how teachers intentions structure the course (EnA) and how these intentions are represented in a virtual environment (VLE), which resources are used, how text and image are used as tools for productive language tasks and cooperative and collaborative activities in students thematic work. Introduction The research focus is on changing conditions in educational practice as texts are being mediated with and through technology. Technology is claimed to challenge educational practice in several respects: epistemology questions existing boundaries, and raises several critical issues (Kress, 1999, Loveless, De Voogd, Bohlin, 2001, Lankshear, Knobel, 2003,). The learner is exposed to more English today often in more informal contexts, through e.g. media, games, and music, rather than learn the subject exclusively at school. The subject domain which is focused is English as a Foreign Language at upper secondary level. The concept of text has been extended to include other modes of representation. With and through media, learners meet the language in several modes, and texts and images can be represented in non-linear structures. The textual mode of representation Perspectives on what is a text, verbal and non-verbal interactions, in written or spoken forms and what they bring to learning, will have to be revisited and discussed (Shetzer, Warschauer, 2000, Snyder, 2002). The diverse and often complex technology representations of knowledge include interactions, at school often focused on textual 1

2 representations as when reading and writing. Student interactions and activities out of the school agenda offer rich environments in games, simulations and virtual spaces for communication. Phillips and Hardy (2002) define the concept of text from a broad perspective including talk, written texts, nonverbal interactions, films, television programs, and other media, symbols and artifacts (p70). Furthermore, the concept is not only considered as a simple text, but as bodies of text which themselves constitute discourse. Warschauer (2004) argues that new forms of audio-visual communication in computer-mediated text production most probably will have an impact on writing. While referring to electronic literacies, he outlines four elements: (1) computer literacy (comfort and fluency in using hardware and software); (2) information literacy (the ability to find, analyze, and critique information available online) (3) multimedia literacy (the ability to interpret and produce documents combining texts, sounds, graphics and video); (4) computer-mediated communication literacy (mastery of the pragmatics of synchronous and asynchronous CMC (Warschauer, 2004). The development of technology, may lead to increasing options for the individual to influence representation. From a wider semiotic perspective, according to Kress and van Leuwen (2001), multimodal texts can be perceived as making meaning in multiple articulations. As a consequence we have to reconsider language, rethink much of linguistics and ask ourselves what do these changes of representations consist of, and what is the relation between image, text and writing. Burnett (2002) reflects on history, media, television, language labs, expectations and assumptions that were made, and what learning perspective they relied on, leading to exaggerated expectations. [ ] educators are caught up in the reality of technology use whether or not they understand the implications (Burnett, 2002, 142). This situation forces us to develop our cultural tools, which make it possible for us to become writers and readers. Registers and genres of today require a literacy tool-kit. Methodological approach Context and conditions The aim of the study was to investigate structures and tasks designed by teachers and how these were interpreted in student actions. Contexts of interest were found in the classroom and in the computer square which was used during regular lessons. The informal out-of-classroom 2

3 activity was not investigated. Data was also produced from the virtual observations in the VLE used by the teacher and the students. Interviews, group and individual, contributed to giving insights into the conditions given for collaboration, possible ways of approaching and understanding intentions and objectives, as well as how thematically created linguistic tasks were enacted by the students. Structured participatory observations of classroom interactions included the following parameters: teacher instructions and activities, student activities, location, task type and resources used. Since the beginning of 2005 all first year students are equipped with laptops and have Internet access from everywhere on the school premises. All students and teachers share the same VLE (Virtual Learning Environment). A clear majority of the students are male. Two classes and two foreign language teachers were involved in this first phase of pilot studies. Students gave several examples of diverse usage and access to functionalities not referred to as when they exemplify technology access and usage at school. Technology is easily accessed; interface and design are of importance both for the design aspect, for function and aesthetics: communication and interaction dominate as do games. Actions out of the classroom structure are often parallel, non-linear and consist of communication one-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-many, and take place simultaneously while listening to music, posting a question related to school tasks in need of help or clarifications. School, spare time, games, the sharing of information and information retrieval are blended in learner actions. MSN is mentioned as used by almost all students, and communication is frequently referred to, most students are constantly on-line and can be contacted anytime. Teacher perspectives The thematic and to some extent interdisciplinary structure adopted by the teachers are present in other subjects as is the frequent collaborative work performed in core groups. All activities have been designed by the teacher, to include diverse linguistic skills while working in the five themes. The students were given the responsibility at the beginning of the autumn term, to suggest how to perform tasks within the given themes and also argue for their approaches. These suggestions were then integrated by the teachers into the plans for the whole year. Most themes cover approximately 3-4 weeks, each lesson lasting for about 3 hours. This implies that 3

4 not all weeks have English on the agenda. Due to the irregularity of the subject structure and the fact that students at this school take have an extended study plan covering more than the compulsory courses, homework is seldom asked of the students. No course books are used by the teachers. News e.g. is watched and listened to directly from websites displayed with a beamer; online dictionaries as well as books are used as resources. The two colleagues share the same basic course structure but design for the activities quite differently in the VLE. Both teachers have a general interest in continuously exploring new approaches to their subject, in relation to the language as well as in relation to technology. Though there are some basic shared didactic assumptions and structures, the outcome in design differ when investigated during virtual observations in the platform. Teacher A adopts a simple structure built on 2 archives, one with more general course and policy documents, the other one labelled Tasks aimed for all learner interactions and productions. This is aligned with the thematic structure. Teacher B completed her VLE structure later during the autumn term, and has involved other technology features available in the VLE. Course and policy documents are retrievable as in the virtual room of her colleague. Here the Portfolio is the main archive, containing one file each for each individual student. Teacher A has adopted a classroom design where class activities sometimes are visible in the VLE with other tasks which only occur in regular class, in the physical room. Other tasks may be retrieved in the VLE, handed in during class, and handed back during class. Some tasks are requested to be sent to the VLE only, and only to be visualised and responded to there as well. Finally, others are found in both spaces the physical and the virtual room. Teacher B started with a looser structure resulting in less visible virtual activity in the VLE. However, not satisfied with this she has redirected all production to be in the VLE, hence the portfolios. These are only visible to the teacher and the individual student. All students have been asked to collect their work during the year and store it in their personal portfolio. In these personal portfolios, the Teacher B has created a sub-archive for ongoing teacher review, and the task is given back to the student in his/her personal portfolio. 4

5 Crime and Punishment - Today is a good day to choose a criminal Given the context and the student and teacher co-constructed plan for the term, the teacher instructions can be understood as a didactic invitation to the theme Crime and punishment ; the students are already familiar with the task. Choosing a criminal is framed as an authentic and contextualised school task. During the process of choosing a criminal, the students work individually but share horrors across the room as presented in text and with images found in the FBI archives on the Internet. After a process of identifying a criminal of interest, the next step is how to perform the task in relation to producing a chronicle or a column. The various rhetoric and genres in chronicles and in text columns were discussed and exemplified before starting the FBI investigation. First impressions indicate that most of these texts are characterised by information retrieval, modifications of texts following the teacher intentions. Few students combine this text with personal statements, and do so mainly as an introductory personal emphasis: I m going to tell you about this young boy that got killed in a village in the southeastern parts of England, This story is a very macabre example of how people can become if they grow up without love, First time I ve read about this murder I was chocked. I can t understand how kids can be so means. Most chronicles are followed by Internet links as references to sources used, and a majority is illustrated with images, primarily depicting the criminals. This implies that the added images have an illustrating aim (Alexandersson, Limberg, 2004). Me, Myself and I The autumn term was introduced with the task Me, Myself and I. Besides aiming at socialisation, technology was used as a tool to: present to others, create interest, inform others about a person (with less knowledge), the presentation itself to communicate well, to create an artefact, accessible in the VLE, and to use presentation software (PP, Power Point), integrate sound, illustrations, animations, and digital photos. The students interviewed each other and presented a fellow student. The presentations are characterised by a simplistic language and accompanied by photos taken with a digital camera, or retrieved from the Internet. Humour, music, and personal interests were the main recurring themes. Presentations were made in front of the class, using the teacher 5

6 laptop and a beamer. The linguistic outcome was secondary, and socialisation primary; interviews and PP-presentations were resources. The PP-slides (picture 1 and 2) were taken from two presentations to illustrate complexities in how available technology features are used by some of the students. Picture 1: Marco Picture 2: Henrik The students were given no temporal frames in relation to the number of slides. The more complex the presentations are, as seen above, text and image are presented in multi layers. The image and/or text are more or less illegible. The student intentions become legible first when they are unfolded in the hands of the students herself or unpacked by someone else using the feature slide show in the software. When shown in the presentation programme, the student intentions are visualised in a narrative, and temporal and spatial aspects have often been defined and built into the presentation, leaving few or no choices to the viewer/listener/reader. Tools and resources student perspective Student aims reflect the outspoken intentions of the teachers to make use of the technology available to accompany an oral and/or textual presentation. When given individual tasks and the options of including technology or use other resources as pen and paper, the outcome concerning student choices reflect a diverse approach. Word is used frequently for any task involving text, the tool PP is regularly used to illustrate and accompany the content and the objective of the task. These presentations are performed with an oral presentation which is 6

7 done individually, in pairs or in groups. In their presentations the boundaries between what is considered to be a text and what frames a picture tend to merge into a presentation where these are not stand-alone products of learner creation. Division of labour cooperative and collaborative Some students in the individual interviews refer to the division of labour in shared task or project, as cooperative more than collaborative. When referring to a concrete and completed project, the process related to is time-consuming at first, since the group members will have to organize themselves and negotiate labour division. The group tasks are allocated to group members matching the members specific interests and competences. The claimed group aim is to achieve a more efficient work. Group work is a natural approach to the students, and is concretised when working with the computers while performing tasks, both tasks with an individual and a collaborative objective. Situations when questions arise are solved among the group, expertise on certain functionalities is always present in the class, and the students increase their skills in the usage of accessible features while performing a linguistic task. Several students mention group formations as being problematic and frustrating, and relate to experiences when group members have not fulfilled their responsibilities. Discussion and conclusion The teachers involved are highly motivated and interested in development, both in regard to their subject domain, to professional investigation of the potential of technology and increasing their didactic awareness. Data indicates constraints which practitioners are facing today, mostly related to temporal conditions but also increased demands on professional development while constantly being at work. From interviews and field observations we know that these students participated at this time in a computer skills course, for general skills, and PP was one of the tools. In other words, they may have been challenging themselves against the available technology features to see what they could achieve with various tools. There may be other feasible interpretations and there can also be contradictions in data not yet analysed. Nevertheless, discussing the concept of linearity, non-linearity as when the slides have to be unpacked to become meaningful and intelligible to a reader, are of interest. This unfolding 7

8 implies that the teacher who wants to revisit the presentations will have to save them first and then open the file with the presentation programme. As soon as this is done, the narrative unfolds. In some of the more complex slides, this has been preset in sequences by the student, and in others the person who interacts with the computer or presents the slides will have to click to represent text and image to follow student intentions and the narrative created by the student. Text and image are thus structured spatially and temporally and follows a linear structure not visible at first. These teachers have started with didactic intentions and linguistic aims, based on their skills as professional language teachers of EFL. This becomes the foundation on which to explore what technology may contribute with or which constraints are experienced while investigating available options. As argued by Alexandersson and Limberg (2004) as an essential responsibility to adopt from a didactic perspective, these teachers seem aware of the necessity to support the learners with structures and guidance when necessary. Other researchers argue there is a need to develop skills in virtual didactics (Hansson, 2005). As the course EnA proceeds, the PP have become more elaborated, especially the PPpresentations made by individual students (as those presented here), but also in presentations made by the core groups. As suggested by Warschauer (2004), literacies involve four elements linked to various required skills: being a fluent user in regard to technology itself, hard- and software, developing a critical approach to online information, mastery of synchronous and asynchronous computer mediated communication, and finally multimedia literacy implying skills in approaching, understanding and producing text in multi modes. Though not expressed in the existing plan the teachers and students have developed, the extended notion of text which is adopted and made explicit in the linguistic task descriptions, contribute to the development of literacy skills. For a further elaborated approach questions could be raised whether student work will become more complex as the examples discussed here? Or were they isolated events? And how do the EFL-objectives address these skills in linguistic terms? References Alexandersson, M., Limberg, L. (2004). Textflytt och sökslump informationssökning via skolbiblioteket. Stockholm: Liber. 8

9 Burnett, R. (2002). Technology, Learning and Visual Culture. In I. Snyder (Ed), Silicon Literacies: Communication, Innovation and Education in the Electronic Age. ( ). London: Routledge. Hansson, T. (2005(. English as a Second Language on a Virtual Platform-Tradition and Innovation in a New Medium. Computer Assisted Language Learning. Vol. 18, 1 & 2, p Kress, G. (1999). English at the Crossroads. In Havisher, G E., Selfe, C. (1999). Passions Pedagogies and 21 st Century Technologies. English at the Crossroads. Utah: USU Press. Kress, G., van Leeuwen, T. (2001). Multimodal Discourse: The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication Discourse. New York: Oxford University Press. Lankshear, C., Knobel, M. (2003) New Literacies. Changing Knowledge and Classroom Learning. Buckingham: Open University Press. Loveless, A., De Voogd, G. L., Bohlin, R.M. (2001). Something old, something new Is pedagogy affected by ICT? (62-83) In A. Loveless, and V. Ellis (eds). ICT, Pedagogy and the Curriculum, Subject to Change. London: Routledge. Phillips, N., Hardy, C. (2002). Discourse Analysis: Investigating Processes of Social Construction. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. Shetzer, H., & Warschauer, M. (2000). An electronic literacy approach to networked-based language teaching.in M. Warschauer & R. Kern (Eds.), Network-based language teaching: Concepts and practice ( ). New York: Cambridge University Press. Warschauer, M. (2004). Technology and Writing. In C. Davidson and J. Cummins (Eds), Handbook of English Language Teaching. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer. 9