Effective strategies for
applying multiliteracies in
collaborative learning
environments
Vance Stevens
Petroleum Institute, Abu Dhabi, UAE
The Language Centre 6th Annual ELT
Conference, 19
–
20 April 2006
Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman
http://tinyurl.com/m4ow6
Vance Stevens
-
Petroleum Institute
-
SQU ELT Conference Apr 2006
The UAE context
Hooked to the Net
by Manal Alafrangi,
Gulf News, March 2, 2006
-
http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/06/03/02/10022377.html
Vance Stevens
-
Petroleum Institute
-
SQU ELT Conference Apr 2006
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
Vance Stevens
-
Petroleum Institute
-
SQU ELT Conference Apr 2006
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).”
Vance Stevens
-
Petroleum Institute
-
SQU ELT Conference Apr 2006
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 …
Vance Stevens
-
Petroleum Institute
-
SQU ELT Conference Apr 2006
Web 2.0 as a social phenomenon
Making friends of professional contacts
http://www.homestead.com/prosites
-
vstevens/files/efi/chat2005/chat2005.htm#elderparty_marquee
Vance and Eric Baber have collaborated for 5
years online
-
met first time at this conference
May, 2001
conference in Nicosia webcast over
WMP/Encoder server (Webheads had been
experimenting with HearMe and Excite voice chat
rooms)
Eric presented via Netmeeting at the The Teacher to
Teacher 2001 conference
Stood ready to webcast CALL
-
IS Academic Session at
the 2002 Salt Lake City TESOL Conference
Vance Stevens
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Petroleum Institute
-
SQU ELT Conference Apr 2006
The Oman context @ SQU ELT conf
Samia Kara
–
IT and women empowerment (established
that female subjects felt empowered with CMC vs. F2F)
Al Dhahab and Al Ghassani
–
Join the podcasting
revolution: Walkaway content (showed how easy it is to use
podcatchers to catch podcast feeds, and have students create
them for global audiences)
Unissa Siyadath
-
Reading Skills: Traditional vs. Online
(crucial multiliteracy skills required for reading on the
Internet, strategies for teaching these)
Jacob Cheruvathoor
-
Multimedia annotations in TEFL: Role
of ICT in everyday classroom (Most number of positive
responses were in being able to integrate IT skills with LL and
communicating with others using emails and making friends
from other countries
Eric
Baber
’s plenary: Web 2.0
–
True Interactivity at Last?
(
same as this presentation?
–
question from audience: How
do teachers ‘train up’?)
Vance Stevens
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Petroleum Institute
-
SQU ELT Conference Apr 2006
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
.”
Vance Stevens
-
Petroleum Institute
-
SQU ELT Conference Apr 2006
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
(Reading Skills: Traditional vs. Online
–
Unissa Siyadath)
generate visual images that represent data relationships
accurately and convincingly
situate technology in social, political, and economic contexts
Multiliterate individuals can, for example …
Vance Stevens
-
Petroleum Institute
-
SQU ELT Conference Apr 2006
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.ht
m
This last has implications for curricula …
Vance Stevens
-
Petroleum Institute
-
SQU ELT Conference Apr 2006
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
.”
Vance Stevens
-
Petroleum Institute
-
SQU ELT Conference Apr 2006
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/
Maria Claudia Bellusci uses a Frapper slide
show at:
http://e
-
toys
-
ar.blogspot.com/
Vance Stevens
-
Petroleum Institute
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SQU ELT Conference Apr 2006
Impact on TEACHERS
4 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?
Vance Stevens
-
Petroleum Institute
-
SQU ELT Conference Apr 2006
How can TEACHERS stay current?
Costly,
time
-
bound
Attending conferences / presentations
Enrolling in face to face courses
Enrolling in online courses
Free,
any
-
time
Becoming involved in
Communities of
Practice
Harnessing
Pull
information technologies
as opposed to
Push
Vance Stevens
-
Petroleum Institute
-
SQU ELT Conference Apr 2006
Communities of Practice
A community of practice forms when participants
in an online community evolve a working
relationship that leads them to focus
spontaneous
ly 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
Vance Stevens
-
Petroleum Institute
-
SQU ELT Conference Apr 2006
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
and
http://webpages.csus.edu/~hansonsm/What_is_
EVO.html
Eric Baber’s
ExtremeTechnoELT.com
(not for the fainthearted)
RealEnglishOnline at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Real_English_Online/
a
YahooGroup with a focus on
video & hotpotatos
Vance Stevens
-
Petroleum Institute
-
SQU ELT Conference Apr 2006
Pull info technologies vs Push
What 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’
Vance Stevens
-
Petroleum Institute
-
SQU ELT Conference Apr 2006
Pull vs Push
–
RSS
Jay Cross
: Push and Pull, Informal
Learning February 8, 2006
http://internettime.com/wordpress2/?p=14
Will Richardson
Gave up daytime job to become full
-
time
blogger
RSS Quick Start Guide for Educators
http://www.weblogg
-
ed.com/rss_for_ed
Vance Stevens
-
Petroleum Institute
-
SQU ELT Conference Apr 2006
Info Management
-
Aggregators
Allow you to PULL information as preferred
Several available; e.g. Bloglines
Stephen Downes'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
Vance Stevens
-
Petroleum Institute
-
SQU ELT Conference Apr 2006
Why blog?
Anyone can publish (
students, teachers
)
Students
have a voice, an audience
For both
students and teachers
:
conducive to Communities of Practice
For serious bloggers (
tend to be teachers
)
Instant communication. Echoes
reverberate around the world,
literally
An up
-
to
-
date and
critical
literature
emerges
Spontaneous, creative commons (shared)
Vance Stevens
-
Petroleum Institute
-
SQU ELT Conference Apr 2006
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
Dave Cormier
and
Jeff Lebow
http://www.worldbridges.com
See International Edublog Awards Winners for 2005 at
http://www.incsub.org/awards/
Etc. etc.
(easily found in Google searches and references to
one another)
Vance Stevens
-
Petroleum Institute
-
SQU ELT Conference Apr 2006
What kinds of BLOGS are there?
‘Standard’ blogs like Blogger
Photo blogs like Buzznet
HTML Blogs like Live Journal
Audio blogs
Video blogs
Podcasts
Gigadial
http://www.gigadial.net/public/
Juice Receiver:
http://juicereceiver.sourceforge.net/index.php
Doppleradio:
http://www.doppleradio.com/
(thanks to Al Dhahab and Al Ghassani)
Vance Stevens
-
Petroleum Institute
-
SQU ELT Conference Apr 2006
Podcasting characteristics
Work through blogs
Essentially, audio postings to blogs
Thus, can be harvested through RSS
Can be downloaded for listening later
Pod
ogogical 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
Graham Stanley, Podcasting: Audio on the Internet
Comes of Age, Volume 9, Number 4:
http://tesl
-
ej.org/ej36/int.html
Vance Stevens
-
Petroleum Institute
-
SQU ELT Conference Apr 2006
The Voice
Michael Coghlan
: Is Voice Online for You?
http://users.chariot.net.au/~michaelc/mater/eas
y_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 Coghlan
http://www.elearn.wa.edu.au/kt/edition05/downl
oad/Coghlan.pdf
Vance Stevens
-
Petroleum Institute
-
SQU ELT Conference Apr 2006
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/UE66smL4kL3flKZHCP6f8ib
GLmlwQ8PO5iK4xjff/#cmnt6800
John Taylor
-
Johnston’s Odeo assignment
http://jtjohnston.ca/recording_odeo.php
Vance Stevens
-
Petroleum Institute
-
SQU ELT Conference Apr 2006
Other content managers
Moodle
e.g.
Multiliteracies for Collaborative
Learning Environments
http://www.opensource.idv.tw/moodle/course/vie
w.php?id=23
Elgg? (Drupal?)
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
Vance Stevens
-
Petroleum Institute
-
SQU ELT Conference Apr 2006
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
Vance Stevens
-
Petroleum Institute
-
SQU ELT Conference Apr 2006
Characteristics of
community
-
friendly 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
Vance Stevens
-
Petroleum Institute
-
SQU ELT Conference Apr 2006
Raising multiliteracy awareness
Student threatens on Facebook to kill
president
http://www.oudaily.com/vnews/display.v/
ART/2005/03/08/422db16170829?in_archi
ve=1
One issue (meaning of terms of use)
picked up in Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook%27
s_use_in_investigations
Implication: Educators may need to take
on more responsibility for raising such
awareness
Vance Stevens
-
Petroleum Institute
-
SQU ELT Conference Apr 2006
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=2
756
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/
Ajax
(I got this one from Eric
-
Used in Google home
page creator and in microsoft's live.com)
Vance Stevens
-
Petroleum Institute
-
SQU ELT Conference Apr 2006
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=d2036466210.3482
89
(recorded presentation with numerous examples)
Kerry’ Hargreaves’s
http://web.mac.com/kerryhargreaves/iWeb/Site/Photos%202.html
Vance Stevens
-
Petroleum Institute
-
SQU ELT Conference Apr 2006
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.
Vance Stevens
-
Petroleum Institute
-
SQU ELT Conference Apr 2006
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/portal
2005.htm
Presenter information:
http://vance.webheads.info
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