Digital Educational Materials and Pedagogical Paradigms to - ICBL
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Digital Educational Materials and Pedagogical Paradigms to Teach English in Online and Blended Courses EVANIA A. NETTO 1 , JOARA M. BERGSLEITHNER 2 1 Casa Thomas Jefferson/Brasília, Brazil 2 UnB/, Brasília, Brazil Abstract—The aim of this talk is to report some research on digital educational materials and pedagogical paradigms for teaching foreign languages in online and blended courses, which require not only the teacher's pedagogical knowledge but also knowledge of instructional design to meet the learners’ needs in the digital age. Instructional design directs the choices of the tools and media to be used in online, blended and face-to-face courses which use digital materials. Furthermore, it establishes how content can be developed and if the emphasis of the course is given to the transmission or storage of information or if it emphasizes the construction of knowledge through collaborative experiences. This study reports how four different digital educational activities (learning objects) are used in intermediate and advanced levels of an entirely online and a blended English course. Moreover, it investigates the pedagogical paradigms of different approaches to teaching foreign languages and how digital activities can reflect the concepts behind those approaches. Also, it analyses if the technological elements of the instructional design have been used in harmony with the pedagogical components, as well as if they allow interactions among the participants of the course. For this, we conducted a qualitative analysis of the learning objects in order to verify whether there is balance among the technological and pedagogical aspects of instructional design. The results of this study indicated that three out of the four learning objects integrated the pedagogical with technological elements of pedagogical design allowing learners to use English through collaborative experiences and in communicative ways. However, one of the learning objects showed that the language was taught through grammar rules and the tools used permitted only content-learner interaction. Index Terms—instructional design; online courses; blended courses; digital educational materials I. INTRODUCTION Computer mediated courses puts us in a differentiated situation not only in terms of technological issues but also in terms of the pedagogical aspects involved [8]. Therefore, Horton [4] claims that the instructional design translates the high-level project goals to choices for technology and content. So, in this sense, instructional design has been an important tool to create and/or analyze the digital materials used in blended and in online courses in order to check if the pedagogical and the technological elements used in the creation of those materials have been used in a balanced way [6]. Behar [2] defines learning objects as any digital material which is used with educational means. Also, it is through the choices made in the development of those learning objects that creators define which approach to language teaching (communicative or grammatical) [1] and which focus (on form, forms or meaning) [3] will be used in the material. Furthermore, it is also the decisions made in designing the learning objects that adoptions concerning the tools used will permit that the emphasis of the course be given to the transmission or storage of knowledge of if it will emphasize learning through collaborative experiences [7] by offering opportunities for interactions [5] among participants of the group. The objective of this study is to report the analysis of four different learning objects used in an online and in a blended course of a private English Language Institute in Brasilia, Brazil and show what kind of teaching approach as well as what type of focus is used to teach the language. Moreover, the study investigates whether the learning objects possesses a balance between the technological and the pedagogical elements of instructional design. II. METHOD In order to reach the objectives of the research two research questions were asked: a) What is the pedagogical approach chosen to be used in each learning object? b) Do the learning objects have a balance among the technological and pedagogical aspects of instructional design? According to the kinds of research questions made in this study, this research uses a qualitative methodological approach with a descriptive-interpretative character based on a case study methodology. The four learning objects used in the study were created and used in a blended and in an online English course given at a private Language Institution in Brasilia, Brazil. ICBL2013 – International Conference on Interactive Computer aided Blended Learning Page 83
Transcript of Digital Educational Materials and Pedagogical Paradigms to - ICBL
Digital Educational Materials and Pedagogical Paradigms to Teach English in Online and
Blended Courses
EVANIA A. NETTO1, JOARA M. BERGSLEITHNER 2 1 Casa Thomas Jefferson/Brasília, Brazil
2 UnB/, Brasília, Brazil
Abstract—The aim of this talk is to report some research on digital educational materials and pedagogical paradigms for teaching foreign languages in online and blended courses, which require not only the teacher's pedagogical knowledge but also knowledge of instructional design to meet the learners’ needs in the digital age. Instructional design directs the choices of the tools and media to be used in online, blended and face-to-face courses which use digital materials. Furthermore, it establishes how content can be developed and if the emphasis of the course is given to the transmission or storage of information or if it emphasizes the construction of knowledge through collaborative experiences. This study reports how four different digital educational activities (learning objects) are used in intermediate and advanced levels of an entirely online and a blended English course. Moreover, it investigates the pedagogical paradigms of different approaches to teaching foreign languages and how digital activities can reflect the concepts behind those approaches. Also, it analyses if the technological elements of the instructional design have been used in harmony with the pedagogical components, as well as if they allow interactions among the participants of the course. For this, we conducted a qualitative analysis of the learning objects in order to verify whether there is balance among the technological and pedagogical aspects of instructional design. The results of this study indicated that three out of the four learning objects integrated the pedagogical with technological elements of pedagogical design allowing learners to use English through collaborative experiences and in communicative ways. However, one of the learning objects showed that the language was taught through grammar rules and the tools used permitted only content-learner interaction.
Index Terms—instructional design; online courses; blended courses; digital educational materials
I. INTRODUCTION
Computer mediated courses puts us in a
differentiated situation not only in terms of technological issues but also in terms of the pedagogical aspects involved [8]. Therefore, Horton [4] claims that the instructional design translates the high-level project goals to choices for technology and content. So, in this sense,
instructional design has been an important tool to create and/or analyze the digital materials used in blended and in online courses in order to check if the pedagogical and the technological elements used in the creation of those materials have been used in a balanced way [6].
Behar [2] defines learning objects as any digital material which is used with educational means. Also, it is through the choices made in the development of those learning objects that creators define which approach to language teaching (communicative or grammatical) [1] and which focus (on form, forms or meaning) [3] will be used in the material. Furthermore, it is also the decisions made in designing the learning objects that adoptions concerning the tools used will permit that the emphasis of the course be given to the transmission or storage of knowledge of if it will emphasize learning through collaborative experiences [7] by offering opportunities for interactions [5] among participants of the group.
The objective of this study is to report the analysis of four different learning objects used in an online and in a blended course of a private English Language Institute in Brasilia, Brazil and show what kind of teaching approach as well as what type of focus is used to teach the language. Moreover, the study investigates whether the learning objects possesses a balance between the technological and the pedagogical elements of instructional design.
II. METHOD
In order to reach the objectives of the research
two research questions were asked: a) What is the pedagogical approach chosen to be used in each learning object? b) Do the learning objects have a balance among the technological and pedagogical aspects of instructional design?
According to the kinds of research questions made in this study, this research uses a qualitative methodological approach with a descriptive-interpretative character based on a case study methodology.
The four learning objects used in the study were created and used in a blended and in an online English course given at a private Language Institution in Brasilia, Brazil.
ICBL2013 – International Conference on Interactive Computer aided Blended LearningPage 83
The main instrument used to carry this research was a computer program which allowed basic Internet usage (Office package, Internet Explorer, Firefox Mozzilla, Windows Media Player) and access to the worldwide web. It was also necessary to use a special program from Microsoft called Windows OneNote to digitally copy the pages, since the digital reproductions of the learning objects serve as a form of documentation for the research.
To guide the analysis an evaluation questionnaire was prepared and consisted of the following pre-selected questions: a) What is the pedagogical approach used in the learning object? c) Does the learning object allow participants of the course to use collaborative tools and interact with each other or does it work as storage of content?
III. CONCLUSIONS
The analysis of the aforementioned learning objects showed that three out of the four learning objects integrated the pedagogical with the technological elements of instructional design allowing participants to learn English through collaborative experiences and in communicative ways. However, one of the learning objects indicated lack of balance between the technological and pedagogical aspects. It also showed that, in this learning object, the language was taught through grammar rules and the pedagogical choice allowed no interaction among participants of the course, therefore, the content was presented in the digital environment as it is presented on paper based materials. Finally, the study also suggests that through moderate knowledge of instructional design it is possible to prepare digital activities that go far beyond the simple storage of knowledge, promoting interaction, collaboration and critical and autonomous skills in the learner, being able to
make language learning an enjoyable and profitable experience.
REFERENCES
Brown, H. D. “Teaching by principles: An interactive Approach to Language pedagogy”. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Regents,1994.
Behar, P. A. “Modelos Pedagógicos em educação a distância”. In: ______. Modelos pedagógicos em educação a distância. Porto Alegre: Artmed, 2009, p. 15-32.
Ellis, R. “Investigating Form-Focused Instruction”. Language Learning, Michigan, v. 51, p.1–46, 2001.
Horton, W. “E-learning by Design”. San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer, 2006.
Moore, M. Three types of interaction. American Journal of Distance Education, USA, v. 3, n. 2, 1989, p. 1–6.
Netto, E. “Navegar é preciso: Analise de curso de inglês online com foco na instrução e no design pedagógico”, 2012. 157f. Dissertação de mestrado (Programa em Pós-graduação em Linguística Aplicada) Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, 2012.
Paiva, V. M. “Ambientes virtuais de aprendizagem: Implicações epistemológicas”. Educação em revista. Belo Horizonte, v. 26 n. 3 p.353-370, 2010.
Torrezan, C.; Behar, P. A. Parâmetros para a construção de materiais digitais do ponto de vista do design pedagógico. In: Behar, P. A.(org.). Modelos pedagógicos em educação a distância. Porto Alegre: Artmed, 2009, p. 33-65.
AUTHORS
Netto E. A. is with the <Casa Thomas Jefferson>, <SGCVS Quadra 5 Lotes 26/26 AP 605 B2 – Park Sul CEP: 71215-100 Brasilia, DF> (e-mail: evanianetto@ hotmail.com). Bergsleithner J. M. is with the <Universidade de Brasilia, < SQN 214, Bl. E, AP 316 Asa Norte CEP: 70873050 Brasilia, DF > (e-mail: joaramb@ hotmail.com).
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