I also point out
areas for professional growth and improvement within the noncredit ESL
department, based on results of instructor self-assessments on technology for
our WIA / EL Civics grant. All such comments are to be considered non-judgmental,
and I am considered within the group, so the intention is for
reflection on further growth and development in the area of integrating
technology in teaching ESL – along with ideas for implementing such
professional growth. Also, the comments only refer to identified areas of growth; there were several areas of technology integration in which our department's teachers scored very high.
The article describes a program in NYC, and goes on to assert, using the program as a model, that “[t]hese principles are especially relevant for students in adult education programs, who have a particularly wide range of backgrounds and may have a wide variety of learning preferences. In this kind of program, students are likely to be more engaged in their learning because they can move at their own pace and not be distracted by their classmates' pace.”
Other key words and
phrases in the article are the following: relevancy, engagement, motivation, skills
attainment for career/employment preparation.
· Active learning and Problem-based learning:
I completely agree with this concept for ESL. We need to
go beyond teaching grammar rules to having students use language and
communicate to solve problems.
As the report details, this approach includes “curricula
or modules of curricula that incorporate assignments and learning activities
for which students are content creators, creating digital content and
contributing it to the Internet environment, and providing detailed information
on the resources required... These kinds of activities give students some
control over their learning and can incorporate subject-based learning with the
development of technology skills…Students are empowered in
their learning when they can choose learning materials that have a particular
resonance for their stage of development, their preferred modality, and a
subject that either interests them or is important for their work or family
life.”
Examples include: using
technologies to produce materials that are important to their work and family
lives—posting videos and photos, creating blogs, contributing to wikis, or
participating in a Facebook group; building a class website that includes
information about the community in which they live; podcasts that describe
their own successful learning strategies for future students.
· Games and simulations
I am unsure about what exists for ESL in this arena. I
have heard about some international EFL teachers and other foreign language
instructors using Second Life, but it’s a bit off-putting to me because so much
investment would be put into teaching the technical skills, I’m afraid some
students would ask “when are we going to learn English?” I do like the idea of games, and I occasionally link some
grammar or parts of speech games that are online for supplemental practice
and/or I use them in the onground class for purposes of formative assessment or
review.
According to the report, the competitive nature may
motive students, as would incentives such as a badge (including virtual rewards);
an added benefit may be an increase in the time student spend on “mundane tasks,”
such as rules review or drills.
·
Massive
open online courses (MOOCs)
As part of my
participation in MiraCosta’s Program for Online
Teaching (POT) this past fall, I searched for MOOCs for ESL but mostly came
up with Web sites rather than actual online courses. My hunch is that several fee-based
online courses for ESL exist, such as those I reviewed which are compiled
online at Resources
for Teaching ESL Online, but there do not appear to be a lot of ESL MOOCS,
free or otherwise, as far as I can tell.
According to the report, developing a MOOC entails preparing short video lectures
on a particular subject. In the adult education context, synchronous
teacher-facilitated group sessions supplement the video lectures via in-person
group sessions (for practice, problem solving, and homework) or online. The
adult education audience has two options: a totally online option that requires
students to participate in online groups that include peers and a mentor; and a
blended option that also has students attend in-person sessions where they meet
with peers and a teacher to complete homework, practice exercises, and take
exams. At present, the percentage of students who complete a MOOC-delivered
course is very low. A big benefit for adult learners is that “[b]ecause MOOCs
do not have to follow a standard semester schedule, they can be a variety of
lengths and reoffered many times. MOOC sessions tend to be much shorter than
the typical 1-hour college lecture.”
·
Mobile
technologies
As the report mentions, and as I blogged in my summary of the LINCS course I took, there is a proliferation of personal ownership of mobile technologies (cell phones, in particular). Again, here’s that info:
As the report mentions, and as I blogged in my summary of the LINCS course I took, there is a proliferation of personal ownership of mobile technologies (cell phones, in particular). Again, here’s that info:
In a 2013 study on Cell Phone Activities, the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project found that – among a sample of 2,252 American adults age 18 and older - 91% owned a cell phone. Among those who owned a cell phone, 56% owned a smartphone, with the rise of smartphones contributing to the increase in overall cell phone usage.
The authors of the report indicate that
mobile devices can benefit students in fulfilling their need for a repetitive practice because they can have 24/7 access to audio,
video, or game content on their cell phones.
I LOVE
this idea in the article (especially since my initial sabbatical
leave idea was to take the mobile apps class at MCC and create a mobile app for
my students, which turned out to be too difficult for me, I think, because of
the “math” stumbling block): Adult
education programs can sponsor contests for students to develop apps that can
be used in these programs. A contest encourages students to develop their
technology skills; as they develop content for the app, they improve their own
understanding of the subject of the app. Contests can be motivating for
students, and the award could be no-cost or low-cost; however, the ability to
include an award for creating an app on a résumé or a job or college application
might be considered reward enough. Students can work on app development as a class
assignment; support will most likely be needed and can be provided by high
school students or college service learning participants interested in a
community service project.
Technology Integration:
I especially
appreciate how the report suggests that student use of technology be integrated
with content, as I strive to do in my teaching:
If students can learn new
technologies in a way that is integrated with the content they need to master,
they will derive several benefits. In particular, technology skills have the
potential to make individuals more desirable employees. Enhanced technology
skills can enable students who are parents and adjusting to the norms of U.S.
society both to seek helpful information on the Internet and
supervise their children's responsible use of the Internet.
Managing
the Technology-Enhanced Classroom:
In our NCESL program, we need to share such
technology-integration project assignments and ideas, as the results of our fall 2014 WIA/EL Civics Tech Plan
survey of teachers’ technology skills and needs indicate that while teachers
evaluated themselves at a 75% skill level in using multiple new technologies
personally and at a 65% skill level at keeping up with new developments in
technology and looking for ways to use new technologies in the classroom and
evaluating the results, they rated only 55%
in the area of Managing the
Technology-Enhanced Classroom: assigning
class projects which integrate a variety of technologies.
Digital literacy:
Students need to
be guided to attain digital literacy, no matter the discipline.
What is digital literacy
exactly?
From the report: According to the Institute of Museum and Library
Services, digital literacy means being able to find, evaluate, and use information to achieve one's
goals. By extension, a digitally literate adult learner would be able to create, post, and link content
and contribute to community discussions. Importantly, digital literacy helps adult learners
to achieve the Administration's goals—to close the achievement gap and increase college
attendance and completion. Learning also takes place outside the classroom, and
digitally literate adults are empowered to seek out information and learning opportunities for themselves (p.
5).
Unfortunately, it
appears that a majority of instructors in our noncredit ESL department do not
feel competent to teach digital literacy. According to the results of our fall
2014 WIA/EL Civics Tech Plan survey of teachers’ technology skills and needs,
in the area of Social, Legal, and
Health Issues, our
teachers rated themselves in these areas as follows:
· share strategies and
techniques with learners to increase information literacy (65% skill level)
· cover topics digital
footprint and online reputation in instruction (40% skill level)
Personally, I have only recently begun to include discussions of these issues in my classes. In Level 6/7, we read about Facebook, discuss dangers of online sharing, and students write a pro/con paragraph on social networking. We delve deeper into digital literacy in VESL, however, with all kinds of discussions about applying for jobs online, scams, and so on. However, I don't have a lot of lesson plans or materials, so this is a plan for the summer... Obviously I -- and other
teachers -- need to see that teaching digital literacy is not brain surgery! We
need to include lessons in all levels of ESL. I plan to address teaching
digital literacy in my Fall 2015 article of our department newsletter, The
Communicator.
Online Teaching/Learning:
Benefits for learners
(from the report): Adult
learners benefit from a greater variety of rigorous but flexible alternatives,
such as brief, short-term, self-paced, and hybrid or blended courses. One
challenge is to strike the right balance of technology and human intervention
in instruction, technical support, and course administration. It is important
to combine the do-it-yourself approach that automates and customizes learning
with access to personal academic and technical assistance. Retention,
engagement, and academic success have been positively correlated with online presence and support; students
value the availability of and (occasional) contact with instructors, experts,
coaches, mentors, or course leaders (US
Dept of Ed – Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning). The synchronous human touch still makes a
difference, especially for learners new to online learning.
Blended:
The report advocates blended learning for adult education
because of the flexibility it affords to learners in fitting education into their
schedules, while cautioning that time beyond classroom time and Internet access
may pose challenges.
Fully Online:
Not yet optimum. The report cites finding from a study by
researchers at the Community College Research Center at Columbia University (Xu
& Jaggars, 2013) which “found that almost all groups of students did not do
as well (in completion or grades earned) in fully online classes as in-person courses
(blended learning was not included). Older students were less likely to
complete online courses than in-person courses, but those who completed them
achieved higher grades. This result may indicate that some subgroups of adult
learners, for example, workers who have an immediate employment-related need to
take the courses, find that the online environment suits their
needs well.”
My commentary: Fortunately,
adult ESL students are not fully ready for full online learning yet because it
appears our teachers are not fully ready, either. According
to the results of our fall 2014 WIA/EL Civics Tech Plan survey of teachers’
technology skills and needs, in the area of Managing the Blended/Online Classroom and Distance Program, our
teachers rated themselves in these areas as follows:
·
use
basic features of LMSs (65% skill level) *Actually, this percentage surprised
me, as I can count the number of NCESL instructors who currently use Blackboard
on one hand
·
employ
appropriate tools and strategies to create online community (40% skill level)
·
manage
time effectively when preparing and running online/blended learning courses (55%
skill level)
Actually, I feared
having low persistence in VESL this past fall, when I taught it for the first
time as a hybrid course, reducing F2F/on-ground class time by just 25%. I think
it ended up being do-able, but because of schedule limitations, this class was
the only option for some students in the class, so it wasn’t as if they had a
choice between fully on-ground or hybrid.
In the end, my persistence was high (X%- fill in!) but I don’t think
that would have been the case had the class been offered at a higher percentage
online.
As indicated, the synchronous
human touch still makes a difference, especially for learners new to online
learning – and that’s why I’m
eager to learn more about Blackboard Collaborate – get more practice using it
and exploring how and when I would use it in a hybrid ESL class.
Assessment:
The
report points out that testing in an online environment need not be limited to multiple
choice exams, which in fact don’t always accurately reflect students’
attainment of course outcomes. Rather, the report suggests that with the technological
tools
According to the results
of our fall 2014 WIA/EL Civics Tech Plan survey of teachers’ technology skills
and needs, in the area of Assessment, our teachers rated
themselves at a 35% skill level at incorporating technology into performance-based
assessment. I truly believe that we are underestimating our skills and not considering
what we already do – simple things, as they may be -- such as having students
produce paragraphs on word processing software and making slideshow
presentations. Perhaps there is confusion about what “performance-based
assessment” really is – it’s what all of our EL Civics assessments do: evaluate
students’ ability to use language in real-life contexts by producing language.
Anyway, the report suggests some ways in
which performance-based assessments can be conducted. One I have meant to try
before and am anxious to implement is e-portfolios. Another cool idea is assessing through
performances or work samples, which can be digitally documented through video. The
report says, “Given the variety of digital
devices available to many adult learners, it is possible to record performances
and capture work samples via video or still images to provide more pertinent information
regarding the mastery of these otherwise difficult-to-measure skills.” These hard-to-measure
skills in ESL would of course include some of the following: soft skills (in
the case of team projects), vocal tone/ volume/ pronunciation, and body language/
nonverbal communication.
I do include video projects – more for
students to practice communicating with one another and teamwork as well as fun
– in my classes. These pieces – such as job interview role plays -- could be
included in digital portfolios, too. I just need to find the best / most
appropriate tool for student e-portfolios. There are other examples of
technology-enhanced assessments for a “digital environment,” which remind me of
the content in another text I am reading during my sabbatical (Using Technology
with Classroom Instruction that Works, summary coming soon), but these are not
exactly relevant for ESL teaching, so I won’t include them here.
Two texts about
e-portfolios are included in the references of the report, which I will look
into, funds and time permitting:
Cambridge, D.
(2008). Audience, integrity, and the living document: eFolio Minnesota and lifelong
and lifewide learning with ePortfolios. Computers & Education, 51(3),
1227- 1246.
Cambridge, D.
(2010). Eportfolios for lifelong learning and assessment. San Francisco,
CA: Jossey-Bass.
Prepare: When I got my MA in Teaching English as
a Second Language in 1997, the Internet was still pretty new. There was no Web
2.0, and AOL was the browser and email provider. Of course, my teaching program
did not mention technology at all as I recall, except that one of my professors
was on a team developing the computerized version of the TOEFL exam. I need to research, but I am uncertain
whether many ESL certification programs require a technology course or
component. I had the opportunity to
teach a portion of a “Special Topics” for the TESOL master’s program at USD a
few years back and have kindly been invited back for class presentations since
then, but I think that this may be the exception rather than the norm. On the
other hand, technology is just so much a part of our everyday lives that perhaps
it is taken for granted that teachers won’t know how to incorporate technology
into their instruction – in a good way, that is!
Connect: This intro leads me to the fact that my
technology learning has been self-taught, while my technology pedagogy training
has been either trial and error or has been through professional development
opportunities. As the report states, “The
goal of connecting, as it relates to instruction, involves connecting to
teaching materials and communities of practice. Strategies
to help teachers locate peer-reviewed or highly recommended resources for adult
education minimize the time needed to identify appropriate content
and professionally evaluated resources.”
According to the results
of our fall 2014 WIA/EL Civics Tech Plan survey of teachers’ technology skills
and needs, our teachers in noncredit ESL at MCC do not rate themselves highly
in the area of professional development. I have no doubt that this fact is due
to their part-time status (all except three of us), which makes motivation and
time two obstacles to seeking professional development. The instructors scored an overall 65% skill
level for participating regularly in professional development courses or
workshops; a 45% skill level for using listservs, blogs, wikis, other Web-based
resources for professional development; and a 30% skill level for having a PLN.
A personal learning network is something I *thought* I didn’t have either, but
during the POT certification (here’s my POT
PIN blog post, which includes some of my PIN), I had a chance to reflect on
my PIN, and I realized that I have a huge number of blogs and people I follow,
though not as regularly as I like. That’s
why I included in my sabbatical leave request hours devoted to perusing my PIN.
Similarly, I believe that the teachers, like me, didn’t fully understand what a
PIN is even though they have one. Next year, I hope to share more resources
such as those in my PIN with interested teachers in my department.
Conclusion and Future Plans:
The
report ended as any journal article does: with a call for more research on
technology’s impact on learning. The report suggests the following areas for
further study: determining which types of students
achieve the most in various environments (e.g., fully face-to-face, blended,
and fully online) and what kinds of learning environments help students achieve
in specific subject areas and levels.
Personally and as a tech / department / discipline mentor,
I will further implement, apply, model, and advocate for the International
Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Standards for Teachers, whose
key standards are the following (each of which have four performance standards
outlined):
1. Facilitate
and inspire student learning and creativity
2. Design
and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments
3. Model
digital age work and learning
4. Promote
and model digital citizenship and responsibility
5. Engage
in professional growth and leadership
Especially in relation to #5 -- Recently my colleague who
is currently our WIA/EL Civics grant coordinator for our department and I,
using the data from the instructor self-assessment discussed in this blog post,
and incorporating (as required) the International
Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Standards for Students, we
formulated our annual tech plan for the coming year with three simple (and
hopefully attainable) goals for students and teachers in our program:
1. Students
will be exposed to and use a variety of online tools such as discussion boards,
voice tools, assessments, and gradebooks for learning, communication, collaboration,
and tracking their own progress, thus becoming part of an online community and
becoming better acquainted and more comfortable with online learning.
Professional development
to be provided to instructors in our department:
A) Two full-time faculty
will provide instructors access to their online hybrid courses. Instructors will
observe online and face-to-face instruction and will be mentored on developing
their own online courses.
B) Two face-to-face
workshops will also be provided on Blackboard Assignments, Assessments, and
Gradebook.
2. Students
will be able to create word-processed documents and brief slideshows on a
variety of topics and will be able to use relevant features of a spreadsheet in
order to complete class assignments.
Professional development
to be provided to instructors in our department:
Two workshops will be
offered on Microsoft Office 2013 updates (Word, PPT, Excel).
3. Students
will learn new technologies as they are integrated into class assignments for a
variety of purposes such as information gathering, idea generation, creating
original works individually or as part of team projects, communicating
information, and solving problems.
Professional development
to be provided to instructors in our department:
Instructors will be mentored on creating and
executing lesson plans which integrate technology and have an end product of
student work which will be compiled and shared online. Mentees will become mentors, and the
mentorship program will grow in the coming year.
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