For my final blog on this CMALTcMOOC and in the spirit of trying out new digital tools, I return (after 3 years away) to the new and improved Padlet.
Author: Neil
Week 6: Specialist Option(s)
The video below explains how my partner, Keiko Sakui, and I have created online English and communication courses using the Udemy platform. These can be shared for free or purchased by anybody who uses Udemy. The specialist skills include making videos, audio, animation and editing.
Our desire to create online courses arose out of research we did on expert language teachers and a desire to emulate them and make something very practical. The following are references to that research:
Cowie, N., & Sakui, K. (2014). Take your pick: Out-of-class, blended language and Web 2.0 projects, and online. The JALT CALL Journal, 10, 3, 273-286.
Cowie, N., & Sakui, K. (2013). It’s never too late: An overview of e-learning. ELT Journal, 67, 4, 459-467.
Our current focus is on motivating online learners. This is a topic which we were very interested in previously and have now come back to.
February 14th 2019. How do we keep motivating learners?: Using online platforms to teach language. SoTEL Symposium. Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand. With Keiko Sakui.
Sakui, K., & Cowie, N. (2012). The dark side of motivation: Teachers’ perspectives on ‘unmotivation’. ELT Journal, 66, 2, 205-213.
Cowie, N., & Sakui, K. (2011). Critical but neglected: EFL teachers’ perspectives on learner motivation. In G. Murray, A. Gao & T. Lamb (Eds.) Identity, Motivation, and Autonomy: Exploring the Links, pp. 212-228 Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Sakui, K., & Cowie, N. (2008). “To speak English is tedious”: Student resistance in Japanese university classrooms. In P. Kalaja, V. Menezes & A. M. Barcelos (Eds.) Narratives of EFL Teaching and Learning, pp. 98-112. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
Week 5: Communication & Collaboration
I have, I think, always collaborated in some ways with many different teachers and colleagues. For example, my master’s thesis (Cowie, 1997) was entitled ‘Collaborative journaling through email’. It was about developing teaching skills through reflective talk with a peer teacher. We communicated with each other by email which at the time was a relatively new way to communicate. If I were to do that again 23 years later it would probably involve AR, VR or something more up to date.
Whilst working at Saitama University in Japan in the 1990s, I helped to create and organize two teacher development groups: (a description of what this meant in terms of teacher autonomy is included in Barfield et al, 2001). I have also been program chair and president of two Japan Association of Language Teaching groups (JALT): the Teacher Development SIG and Okayama JALT chapter. However, it was not until 2011 when I was working at Okayama University did I start to use technology to facilitate communication with colleagues. I used Google + to create a support group called OkaDai E-learning. In the absence of an LMS I have also used Google + to create about 25 student classroom communities.
The vast majority of academic collaboration has been with my wife, Keiko Sakui. In total, we have produced about ten articles, book chapters and one textbook. In addition, we have presented together many times on technology-related issues. See Google Maps. We have also created three online English language and communication courses using the Udemy platform.
I have also published a smaller number of articles with different colleagues (Claire Ushida and Tim Cleminson) using Google Docs and one webinar (with Russell Stannard and Keiko Sakui) using Adobe Connect. I’m on one journal editorial board and review for about five others. This work is not actually that collaborative but technology is used to enable reviews to take place. Publons is a good tool to showcase your reviews.
I have researched technology use by language teachers in several different countries (see Cowie & Sakui, 2013) and that has led to great friendships and follow-up collaboration. For example, through New Zealand contacts we have been introduced to schools for interviews and observations (see Sakui & Cowie, 2017); and we have introduced Australian and New Zealand researchers to contacts in Japan.
Reflection
I am by nature a communicative and collaborative person which shows in much of my professional work. However, I have not used technology as much as I could to network and enhance communication with others in the same field. This #cmaltcmooc is a great opportunity to try out new tools to do that.
Week 4: Exploring the wider context
1. Legislation
In this first video, I discuss the issue of ‘academic integrity’ (Gray, Waycott, Clerehan, Hamilton, Richardson, Sheard & Thompson, 2010; Kimber & Wyatt-Smith, 2010; Richardson, Hamilton, Gray, Waycott & Clerehan 2012) and copyright issues. In my own practice I use online videos to teach students about referencing sources and using images and when assessing student projects I use rubrics which include a reference to citations (Cowie & Sakui, 2015; 2016).
I briefly refer to Dublin City University’s INTEGRITY project as an example of an innovative way to approach issues of plagiarism and privacy.
References
Cowie, N., & Sakui, K. (2015). Assessment and e-learning: Current issues and future trends. The JALT CALL Journal, 11, 3, 271-281.
Cowie, N., & Sakui, K. (2016). The use of rubrics for the assessment of digital products in language learning. In M. Iguchi & L. Yoffe (Eds.) Mobile learning in and out of the classroom: Balancing blended language learner training (pp. 12-17). Proceedings of The 42nd (2015) JACET Summer Seminar. The Japan Association of College English Teachers.
Gray, K., Waycott, J., Clerehan, R., Hamilton, M., Richardson, M., Sheard, J., & Thompson, C. (2010). Web 2.0 Authoring Tools in Higher Education Learning and Teaching: New Directions for Assessment and Academic Integrity: A Framework for Field-testing and Refining Good Practice Guidelines in Pilot Projects at Australian Universities During Semester One 2010. Retrieved from http://web2assessmentroundtable. pbworks.com/f/altc-asw2a-Guidelines-draft-Feb2010.pdf
Kimber, K., & Wyatt-Smith, C. (2010). Secondary students’ online use and creation of knowledge: Refocusing priorities for quality assessment and learning. Australian Journal of Educational Technology, 26 (5), 607–25.
Richardson, J., Hamilton, M., Gray, K., Waycott, J., & Clerehan, R. (2012, December 3–5). In what ways does policy on academic integrity, copyright and privacy need to respond in order to accommodate assessment with Web 2.0 tools? Paper presented at the Australasian Conference on Information Systems. Geelong, Australia. Retrieved from http://acis2012.deakin.edu.au
2. Policies
In the second video, I describe how I have tried to use digital technology to implement one of Japan’s Ministry of Education’s 16 higher education policies. This concerns the Internationalization of Japanese Universities and in particular Global Human Resource Development.
References
Week 3: Exploring Learning, Teaching & Assessment
1. An understanding of teaching, learning and/or assessment processes
I am not teaching at the moment as the new school year does not start until the beginning of April. Therefore, I will try and describe an assessment from a previous course. I mentioned in the Week 2 post about Operational Issues that my school does not have a lot of technology available to support staff or students; there is no LMS for example, and Wi-Fi has only recently been installed. As a result, I encourage students to use free software tools outside of lessons (see Cowie & Sakui, 2015, 2018).
One course I teach is for second-year students who have to take a compulsory English course twice a week for 8 weeks. They are from various faculties such as science, engineering, and environmental science. Many of them are very switched off foreign languages and do not want to take part actively in lessons – therefore using technology is a way to engage their interest without pressuring them too much to ‘perform’. I get them to produce four Powerpoint slide presentations with audio that they upload to YouTube and share on Google Community (I previously used Brainshark but this software was phased out).
Students view each other’s slideshows and complete a rubric. The rubric was created by first brainstorming ideas on Padlet (see screenshot below) and guiding the students to develop various criteria and levels of performance (see Cowie & Sakui 2016). In this way, I think that the students were encouraged to consider important features of a presentation which they could use in their own work. In theory, at least, the goals and outcomes of the course could be ‘constructively aligned’ (Biggs & Tang, 2007).
I collect the rubrics using a survey on Google Forms. In addition, I give comments to each student on Google Community (see two examples below). These generally correspond to each feature of the rubric and are formative rather than summative. I don’t give any grades online.
2. An understanding of your target learners
As mentioned above my target learners in this example are from various faculties. They may be very good at their special subject but they are often not at a high level in English, particularly in terms of speaking and listening and skills. They do, however, like to research about their own interests (e.g., robots, car engines, soil pollution) and so I encourage them to create multimedia presentations on these kinds of topics. Very often they have never used PowerPoint or any of the Google tools so I have to teach them. I do that using videos I make myself and post on YouTube.
I would like the students to use English to discuss, brainstorm and plan their projects but many of them are just not at a level where they can do this. Instead, I make two of the four projects collaborative so they have to work with a partner(s) using shared Google Slides. Again, this is new for most of them and is a motivating technological tool based on constructivist approaches to learning in general (Vygotsky, 1978) and task-based learning in EFL in particular (Ellis, 2003)
Reflection
I think it is very good that students could have some input into their own rubric although I think this works better with students at a relatively higher level of English. Google Community is a nice alternative to an LMS but it doesn’t have the option of collating student input in any easy way so using it as a tool for assessment is quite tedious. Collecting data on Google Forms is a lot easier and you can easily make a spreadsheet with student-generated data.
The projects themselves were often very good. It is not always fun to look at another teacher’s student’s work but here are two that give a flavour of the work:
a. This is a slightly humorous advice video on how to take a train in Japan. I showed it to my brother (from the UK) who was visiting and found it useful:
b. One from an agriculture student presenting about ‘supercows’
References
Biggs, J. B., & Tang, C. (2007). Teaching for Quality Learning at University (3rd ed.). Maidenhead: McGraw Hill Education & Open University Press.
Cowie, N., & Sakui, K. (2015). Assessment and e-learning: Current issues and future trends. The JALT CALL Journal, 11, 3, 271-281.
Cowie, N., & Sakui, K. (2016). The use of rubrics for the assessment of digital products in language learning. In M. Iguchi & L. Yoffe (Eds.) Mobile learning in and out of the classroom: Balancing blended language learner training (pp. 12-17). Proceedings of The 42nd (2015) JACET Summer Seminar. The Japan Association of College English Teachers.
Cowie, N. & Sakui, K. (2018). Learning English through digital projects: A Japanese university case study. Osaka JALT Journal, 5, 20-43.
Ellis, R. (2003). Task-based Language Learning and Teaching. Oxford, New York: Oxford Applied Linguistics.
Vygotsky, L (1978). Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
Week 2: Operational Issues
1. Constraints and benefits
I teach English as a Foreign Language (EFL) at Okayama University in Japan. It is called a ‘national university’ which means it is a publicly funded institution that gets its money from student fees and government support. The fees are lower than private universities. I say this because many people’s image of Japan is that it is a very high-tech place and that if you’re working in a university there it must be state-of-the-art with lots of great equipment. The reality is that, as a percentage of GDP, Japan’s spending on education is low and many higher education institutions are poorly resourced. For example, it is only in the last couple of years that Wi-Fi has been installed; there is no LMS and ‘Blackboard’ is literally a blackboard with chalk.
In such circumstances, I have used digital technology that is free for students and that they can use outside of the classroom. Examples of this include: Google Docs and Slides to make collaborative multimedia projects, Padlet for brainstorming and sharing ideas, Google Community as a kind of LMS for classes; creating Wikipedia pages for writing practice; and, Quizlet for vocabulary development. For colleagues, I created a WordPress site to share information about the curriculum, teaching approaches and so on.
2. Technical Knowledge
I feel that my technical knowledge is limited to being a ‘visitor’ to the tools that I use and share with students but I haven’t left much trace behind me. One exception to that was my use of Google Plus as a makeshift LMS – students would post their projects (usually videos and slideshows) to the class community and give comments to each other. I would also give feedback to the students on their projects using the comment function. The screenshot below shows some of the class communities made using Google Plus.
3. Deployment of learning technology
As a result of the rather limited opportunities at university to use learning technology coupled with the desire to try and develop further skills I have developed (with my partner, Keiko Sakui) online courses using the Udemy platform. We use Keynote and iMovie to make videos that are mixture of slide shows, embedded talking heads, and animation. Since 2017, we have made three courses on English and communication (grammar, small talk and meetings). We have over 500 students that have signed up from 35 countries. Perhaps the main challenge, other than how to use the various software and understanding audio/video recording, has been how to structure the courses to maintain student motivation. We never meet the students face to face and the Udemy ecology provides limited communication opportunities for feedback. This means that we have tried a number of techniques so that motivation is maximised in the course itself. This was the topic of a presentation we made at SoTEL 2019 (which led to me taking this CMALT course).
Week 1: Contextual Statement
In the video below I explain why I am interested in digital technology for education (it involves a short story about a broken leg) and the context in which I teach (Okayama University in Japan).
Other information
My partner (in life and for research), Keiko Sakui and I have written a book chapter on how we learned about the use of technology for education. It is a kind of extended contextual statement so if you have time and energy you can read it here.
There is also a slideshow on the same topic that I made for a EUROCALL conference that you can view here. I gave the presentation on my own but there are some inserted videos with Keiko talking.
References
Sakui, K., & Cowie, N. (forthcoming). Language teacher learning in Japan: Joining a digital technology community of practice. In Y. Kimura, L. Yang & T-Y Kim (Eds.) Teacher Motivation, Autonomy, Development in the Far East. New York: Springer Publishing Company.
Cowie, N. (August 23rd, 2017). EFL teacher learning in Japan: Joining a digital community of practice. Presentation at the EUROCALL Annual Conference. Southampton University, Southampton, UK.