Effective strategies for applying multiliteracies in collaborative learning environments

Effective strategies for applying

multiliteracies in collaborative learning

environments

Vance StevensPetroleum Institute

Tesol Arabia ConferenceMarch 30, 2006 Dubai, UAE

http://tinyurl.com/m4ow6

Vance Stevens - Petroleum Institute - TESOL Arabia in Dubai March 30, 2006

The UAE contextHooked to the Net by Manal Alafrangi,

Gulf News, March 2, 2006 -

http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/06/03/02/10022377.html


The survey In the UAE, 1,384,800 people use the Net It was a YouGov survey 779 UAE residents answered questions on

their online experiences. 33% Arab expatriates = 260 (rounded, estimated)

33% Asian expatriates = 260 16% Western expatriates =125 18% remaining ??? UAE Nationals?? = 140


Findings: VOIP and blog proclivities “As many as six out of 10 respondents

said they are familiar with the term VoIP.” “When it was explained, an overwhelming nine

out of 10 said they found it appealing” “With the inevitable increase in awareness and

improvement in technology, some say restrictions on VoIP usage will be difficult to maintain.”

“more than half the respondents were supportive of blogs once it was explained to them (with only one in 10 respondents being unsupportive).”


Findings: Chat proclivities Net primarily used as a medium for

communication (chat, e-mail, VoIP and blogging)

“Almost half the respondents engage in online messaging” “some (especially respondents aged below 21)

considering it a good way to make new friends”

“only 19 per cent of Western expatriates agree with this opinion (24 of the 125)”

(I think it’s good for making friends of professional contacts …http://www.homestead.com/prosites-vstevens/files/efi/chat2005/chat2005.htm#elderparty_marquee


What is (are?) multiliteracies? From:

http://www.pkp.ubc.ca/multiliteracies/index.php “The term multiliteracies was coined by

the New London Group (1996) to highlight two related aspects of the increasing complexity of texts (reference): the proliferation of multimodal ways of

making meaning where the written word is increasingly part and parcel of visual, audio, and spatial patterns;

the increasing salience of cultural and linguistic diversity characterized by local diversity and global connectedness.”


Aspects of Multiliteracies Stuart Selber. (2004). Multiliteracies for a digital age. Southern

Illinois University Press

develop file-naming schemes that can be searched meaningfully write effective email messages participate appropriately in asynchronous discussion analyze currency, authority, and reliability of website content generate visual images that represent data relationships

accurately and convincingly situate technology in social, political, and economic contexts

Multiliterate individuals can, for example …


Connectiveness Connectivism George Siemens: Connectivism:

A Learning Theory for the Digital Age http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Jan_05/article01.htm“The pipe is more important than its content”

"At first people used to say it's not the e that's important, it's the learning. I don't think that's true. I think it's the e that's important. It's networking, it's management, and it's learning how to deal with computers." - Jay Cross, in Abu Dhabi for an eMerging eLearning Conference, quoted in the Gulf News, Sept. 13, 2004, p.6

George Siemens: Connectivism: Learning as Network-Creation http://www.learningcircuits.org/2005/nov2005/seimens.htm

This last has implications for curricula …


Implications for curricula? From: http://www.learningcircuits.org/2005/nov2005/seimens.htm “Instruction is currently largely housed in courses and

other artificial constructs of information organization and presentation. Leaving this theory behind and moving towards a networked model requires that we place less emphasis on our tasks of presenting information, and more emphasis on building the learner’s ability to navigate the information—or connectivism.

Blogs, wikis, and other open, collaborative platforms are reshaping learning as a two-way process. Instead of presenting content/information/knowledge in a linear sequential manner, learners can be provided with a rich array of tools and information sources to use in creating their own learning pathways. The instructor or institution can still ensure that critical learning elements are achieved by focusing instead on the creation of the knowledge ecology. The links and connections are formed by the learners themselves.”


Manifestations in curriculum Examples … The Multiliteracy Project in Canada http://

www.pkp.ubc.ca/multiliteracies/ Cheryl Oakes’s blog (an example of putting it all

together) http://coakes50.suprglu.com/


Impact on TEACHERS4 questions to ask ourselves: Do we teach what we know (already)? Or what we should know (and others appear to

be discovering)?

But how do we figure out what is important enough to teach? (given the

plethora of information available) How do we learn new concepts ourselves,

new techniques, well enough to teach them?


How can TEACHERS stay current?Costly, time-bound Attending conferences / presentations Enrolling in face to face courses Enrolling in online coursesFree, any-time Becoming involved in Communities of

Practice Harnessing Pull information technologies

as opposed to Push


Communities of Practice A community of practice forms when participants

in an online community evolve a working relationship that leads them to focus spontaneously on shared tasks and problems

Constructivist zone of proximal development established scaffolding enhanced through developing interpersonal

relationship of the participants Model constructivist techniques to use in

teaching Friendships develop, affective filter diminished Training is by-product of queries, discussion


Communities of Practice for IT Webheads in Action, hundreds of members

since 2002 http://webheads.info TESOL sanctioned EVO (Electronic Village

Online) each January to March http://www.tesol.org


Pull info technologies vs PushWhat IS a blog and why is it PULL? It runs on ‘blog’ software installed on a

server somewhere It allows postings It archives postings It allows comments to postings Crucially, it generates an RSS feed

This is WHY is is ‘pull’


Pull vs Push – RSS Jay Cross: Push and Pull, Informal

Learning February 8, 2006http://internettime.com/wordpress2/?p=14

Will RichardsonGave up daytime job to become full-time blogger

RSS Quick Start Guide for Educators http://www.weblogg-ed.com/rss_for_ed


Info Management - AggregatorsAllow you to PULL information as preferred Several available; e.g. Bloglines Stephen's Bloglines links: http://

www.bloglines.com/public/downes Suggestion:

Have students address some assignments in blogs,

have their postings appear in your / each other’s aggregators as they are made


Why blog? Anyone can publish Students have a voice, an audience For both students and teachers:

conducive to Communities of Practice For serious bloggers: Instant

communication. Echoes reverberate around the world, literally

An up-to-date and critical literature emergesSpontaneous, creative commons


Are blogs the new literature? Stephen’s Web http://downes.ca (in hiatus) Will Richardson, Weblogg-ed Jodie Fraser Edublogs Harold Jarche’s Conversations at the

intersection of learning, work & technology http://www.jarche.com

James Farmer George Siemens Jay Cross, Internet Time Blog Etc. etc.

(easily found in Google searches and references to one another)


What kinds of BLOGS are there? ‘Standard’ blogs like Blogger Photo blogs like Buzznet HTML Blogs like Live Journal Audio blogs Video blogs Podcasts


Podcasting characteristics Work through blogs Essentially, audio postings to blogs Thus, can be harvested through RSS Can be downloaded for listening later Podogogical resources

Randy Meredith’s Podogogy http://www.podagogy.com/pedagogy.html

Learncasting & Podogogy in Language Teaching [03-04-2006] by Graham Stanley, Allan Carrington and Randy Meredith http://home.learningtimes.net/learningtimes?go=1151315


The Voice Michael Coghlan: Is Voice Online for You?

http://users.chariot.net.au/~michaelc/mater/easy_voice.htm

Michael’s Podomatic voice synthesis test:http://michaelc.podomatic.com/entry/2006-01-19T05_36_13-08_00

Finding your Voice Online – An Inquiry into the Use of Online Voice Applications in Higher Education by Michael Coghlanhttp://www.elearn.wa.edu.au/kt/edition05/download/Coghlan.pdf


Podcast and other voice examples Aiden Yeh’s

http://www.aidenyeh.podomatic.com Students post speeches others respond with recorded comments

Odeo, Springdoo, Handybits A ‘threaded’ voice chat:

http://odeo.com/a/UE66smL4kL3flKZHCP6f8ibGLmlwQ8PO5iK4xjff/#cmnt6800

John Taylor-Johnston’s Odeo assignment http://jtjohnston.ca/recording_odeo.php


Other content managers Moodle e.g. Multiliteracies for Collaborative

Learning Environments http://www.opensource.idv.tw/moodle/course/view.php?id=23

Elgg e.g. http://www.eflbridges.com Facebook (see Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook_(website) Bedo (see Emma Duke-Williams, Show and tell online:

http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/?p=390


Content management and CoPs What do Learning Mgm’t Systems do?

host some kind of content Provide teachers means of manipulating content provide means of access of that content Track student progress

Foster communities when they: allow users to maintain their own profiles associate faces with events allow tagging http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Del.icio.us It might host user’s blogs


Characteristics of content mgmt 2.0 Free Open Source

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_software Creative Commons

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons You can set them up on your own server …

Venny Su. (2005) An Open Source Portal for Educators. TESL-EJ Vol. 9. No. 1, On the Internet http://tesl-ej.org/ej33/int.html


Raising multiliteracy awareness Student threatens on Facebook to kill

presidenthttp://www.oudaily.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/03/08/422db16170829?in_archive=1

One issue (meaning of terms of use) picked up in Wikipediahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook%27s_use_in_investigations

Implication: Educators may need to take on more responsibility for raising such awareness


Web 2.0 eLearning 2.0 Links to lists of tools:

Graeme Daniel, Web 2.0 and Education (Feb 14, 2006) in WWWTools for Education http://m.fasfind.com/wwwtools/m/2756.cfm?x=0&rid=2756

Stephen Downes From EduBlogs to the Collective Consciousness: Director's Cut http://downes.jot.com/WikiHome

Some I use YahooGroups e.g.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/efiwebheads/ Frappr e.g. slide show at http://wiaoc.org PBWiki; e.g. http://baw-06.pbwiki.com/


Other technologies Buthaina AlOthman’s Easy Technologies to Teach and Learn EFL/ESL

Across Different Cultures:Using new methods of webcasts (cell phones)http://alothman-b.tripod.com/tesol06_callis_acsession0316.htm

Tony Vincent’s site on handhelds:http://www.learninginhand.com/

iPod-learning Greg Kessler’s TESOL 2006 presentation , and Duke University, in the US, has distributed iPods to 1650 new students,

pre-loaded with useful orientation information. Students can download from the Duke Web site, similar to iTunes, where they will find orientation schedules, audio books, language lessons, lectures, even the University song! http://www.epic.co.uk/content/resources/white_papers/iPod.htm

Georgia College Pushes for IPod Ingenuity By GREG BLUESTEIN http://tinyurl.com/h8hvr

Curtis Bonk’s OOPS, Did I mean to share that: Opensource, Opencourseware, and the learning objects of tomorrow https://www.elluminate.com/site/pmtg.jnlp?psid=d2036466210.348289 (recorded presentation with numerous examples)

Kerry’ Hargreaves’shttp://web.mac.com/kerryhargreaves/iWeb/Site/Photos%202.html


Conclusion Those concerned about the decreasing half-life

of information see little point (apart from the pleasure of paging through glossy photos) in subscribing to magazines or any other media that has a production run that delays news getting to you when you can get instantly updated constantly through the blogosphere.

The blogosphere has emerged as the library of quality and of record, and it's not all text, but decidedly multimedia (aud-blogs, video-blogs).

Being multiliterate means knowing where the library IS in the first place, and then organizing access to it, then utilizing and interacting with it.


PP 107: Multiliteracies for Collaborative Learning Environments This presentation has been developed over

the course of two years teaching online in the TESOL Certificate Program: Principles and Practices of Online Teaching

http://www.homestead.com/prosites-vstevens/files/efi/papers/tesol/ppot/portal2005.htm

Presenter information: http://vance.webheads.info

Effective strategies for applying multiliteracies in collaborative learning environments

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