Connected Educator

71
THE LANGUAGE CLASSROOM IN A CONNECTED WORLD (the grammar of the internet?) Michael Coghlan 5th International Congress on English Grammar (Hyderabad) January, 2007 This presentation on the web at http://www.slideshare.net/michaelc/connected_educator

description

Slides as part of presentation for http://www.gnits.ac.in/iceg2008.htm

Transcript of Connected Educator

Page 1: Connected Educator

THE LANGUAGE CLASSROOM IN A CONNECTED WORLD

(the grammar of the internet?)Michael Coghlan

5th International Congress on English Grammar (Hyderabad)

January, 2007

This presentation on the web at http://www.slideshare.net/michaelc/connected_educator

Page 2: Connected Educator

SUBJECT + TRANSITIVE VERB + OBJECT + ADVERBIAL PHRASE

Page 3: Connected Educator

HTML<p><a href="LA.htm"><img src="mcmarkvenicesm.jpg" width="120" height="73" border="0"></a><br> <font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="1">Venice</font> </p> <div id="Layer1" style="position:absolute; width:200px; height:115px; z-index:1; left: 103px; top: 101px"><a href="santamonica.htm"><img src="santamsm.jpg" width="120" height="78" border="0"></a><br> <font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="1">Venice</font> </div> <div id="Layer2" style="position:absolute; width:200px; height:115px; z-index:2; left: 198px; top: 156px"><a href="uga.htm"><img src="ugasm.jpg" width="120" height="79" border="0"></a><br> <font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="1">Uni of Georgia</font></div> <div id="Layer3" style="position:absolute; width:200px; height:115px; z-index:3; left: 293px; top: 206px"><a href="uga.htm"><img src="uga1sm.jpg" width="120" height="79" border="0"></a><br> <font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="1">Uni of Georgia</font></div> <div id="Layer4" style="position:absolute; width:200px; height:115px; z-index:4; left: 13px; top: 431px"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="1">Shoshi and Steve</font><br> <a href="confpix.htm"><img src="shoshistevesm.jpg" width="120" height="82" border="0"></a></div>

Page 4: Connected Educator
Page 5: Connected Educator

The Internet – more than just a book

Page 6: Connected Educator

“The Read/Write Web”(Tim Berners Lee)

Original photo by Hummanna.

Page 7: Connected Educator

eLearning 2.0/Web 2.0(Stephen Downes)

Elearning 1.0:• static packaged content • little true interactivity and learner input and • very little contact with a tutor.• represented by Learner Management Systems. (eg WebCT,

Blackboard, etc)

Elearning 2.0:• more student-centred• centred around a Personal Learning Environment using social software. • students generate and share content. • they interact not only with teachers and their peers, but with anyone in

the world they can learn from.

(this description courtesy of Sean Fitzgerald)

Page 8: Connected Educator

Expansion of the ‘Grammar of the Internet’

Javascript, XML, PHP, Ajax

Increased interactivity

and usability of Internet

pages

Image Plate from Owen Jones' 1853 classic, "The Grammar of Ornament". Photo by EricGjerde

Page 9: Connected Educator

Rewriting or Killing our Cultures?

Page 10: Connected Educator

My Story

• ESL classroom teacher 1987 – 1997• 1997 – went online• Blended ESL teaching 1997 – 2000• Volunteer teaching for EFI (English for the Internet)

founded by David Winet• ESL online 1997 – 2004• Founding member of the Webheads online English

teaching and learning communityCurrent: facilitator on the Graduate Certificate in eLearning (TAFE SA); eLearning Networks of the Australian Flexible Learning Framework; independent elearning consultant

Page 11: Connected Educator

How do I work?

• I know from my own life that something has changed. I am now a much more social learner. I like to draw on the knowledge of others who I can contact and with whom I can discuss issues... I have definitely changed the way I learn, and have found a more enjoyable way of learning. Technology, and the connections it affords, has made that possible.

• I doubt that I could study a formal ‘course’ anymore….

Page 12: Connected Educator

My ‘TAG CLOUD’

folksonomy

from http://del.icio.us/mikecogh

Page 13: Connected Educator
Page 14: Connected Educator

“technology”“future”

TAGS

Page 15: Connected Educator
Page 16: Connected Educator

A GLOBAL AUDIENCE:

YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjA5faZF1A8

• Performance by a 13 yr old Korean boy• Jan 31st: 34,770,497 million views; 142796 comments• That’s more than the populations of

Israel 5.7mDenmark 5.3mFinland 5.1mNew Zealand 3.6mIreland 3.6mHolland 16.4mAustralia 20.4m etc

Page 17: Connected Educator

WHAT’S ALL THE FUSS ABOUT?

• Is it real?• Who are these 34.7 million people?• Copyright implications? – I can reuse the content for my own purposes• Who is exercising editorial control?• Disintermediation – the decline of the gatekeepers of content• Should students have access to sites like this? (see ‘YouTube

– a Class Act’)• How do students like this feel at school?• Should we be encouraging our students

1. to create content2. To publish to these kinds of sites

• Empowerment and realisation of identity through personal publishing to social networking sites

MIT; Jason and TV shows…..

Page 18: Connected Educator

DIGITAL STORY PLAYED AT THIS POINT AVAILABLE AT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pue4FtOb3HM

Page 19: Connected Educator

PERSONAL PUBLISHING/ PARTICIPATORY MEDIA TOOLS

• Blogs• Digital story telling• Podcasts• Flickr (photo sharing)• Wikis (Wikispaces.com) – collaborative

workspaces• MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, Orkut (most popular

in India)• Video repositories: YouTube, Google Video,

BlipTV

Page 21: Connected Educator
Page 22: Connected Educator

YouTube in Chennai Media:

Page 23: Connected Educator

Indian YouTube Equivalents

• http://meravideo.com/

• http://apnatube.com/

• http://layfile.com/

• http://www.aapkavideo.com

Page 24: Connected Educator

Facebook in India

• ….these people are not your average Indian young people; they are from upper socio-economic tier of Mumbai.  But one thing is clear, there is a revolution brewing in the Internet space. 

• Environments like Facebook and MySpace offer easy publishing tools, powerful communication mechanisms using multimedia experience…

http://ngs.ics.uci.edu/blog/?p=779

Page 25: Connected Educator
Page 26: Connected Educator

Indian Initiative: babajob.com/babalife.com

NY Times, Oct 30th, 2007

Page 27: Connected Educator

Indian Technology in a Flat World

http://ngs.ics.uci.edu/blog/?p=849

Page 28: Connected Educator

It’s a Wild World

http://youtube.com/watch?v=T-t8tUED9MI

“Just remember there’s a lot of bad and beware.”

Page 29: Connected Educator
Page 30: Connected Educator

Are we sociologically ready?

What are our ethical responsibilities as educators:

• to our students?• to ourselves? (teacher sacked for posting photo on MySpace)

Page 31: Connected Educator

Who are the Webheads?

• “an experiment in world friendship through online language learning”

300 + members

Page 32: Connected Educator

Where are the Webheads?

in approximately 50 countries

To join the Webhead community send an email [email protected]

Or join in a 6 week online seminar: Becoming a Webhead in Jan/Feb - Becoming a Webhead 2008

Page 33: Connected Educator

See http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/unaccusative-verbs.aspx/ for commentary

Page 34: Connected Educator

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/default.aspx

Page 35: Connected Educator

IN A CONNECTED WORLD:

• Daily contact with the planet

• In the supermarket…..Australian made products are made offshore

• My neighbours may not be my closest companions

• Overseas call centres

Page 36: Connected Educator

LOCAL GLOBALLOCAL =

(GLOCAL?)

Page 37: Connected Educator

Implications for the ClassroomThe Local, Unconnected Pre-Global World

• all dialogue was between teacher and students with some communication between students (but who was really listening?)

Internet

• enter Internet tools: writing/speaking for an audience other than just your teacher ie authentic contexts for language learning

The Global, Connected World

• Personal publishing tools/participatory media (without boundaries)• Teachers and students can now reach a global audience• Moot point: does everyone find this idea appealing?

Page 38: Connected Educator

Why might teachers create an online presence?

• You will get wider recognition

• Wider network of professional and personal contacts

• Greater variety of options for learning activities

• Place to store and record resources

Page 39: Connected Educator
Page 40: Connected Educator

Why might students create an online presence?

For students:• Developing (soft) skills for the knowledge era* (facility with

technology, collaboration, conflict negotiation, problem solving, communication, adjusting to rapid change: ‘employability skills’)

• Access to personal publishing tools for self-expression and realisation of identity

• Excitement at publishing for a wider audience:

“Thank you so much for being such supportive, all of you! I hope to continue my learning process and get ready to speak and write in English. I was really surprised to see all the people who wrote about our wiki. It's so cool because it was from all different places of the world... I think that's so great! :)” (Maria, Venezuela)

*Soft Skills and the Net (Terry Anderson) at http://terrya.edublogs.org/2007/09/30/distance-educators-and-dogma/

Page 41: Connected Educator

“I blog therefore I am.”

Weblog search engine Technorati:

• 8,000 -17,000 new blogs created every single day. • a new weblog is created somewhere in the world every 5.8 seconds. • On average, approx 3 blogs are updated every second.http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/13/8000_bloggers_per_day/ (13/4/06)

http://flickr.com/photos/dbarefoot/5279903/

Page 42: Connected Educator

From a student of Konrad Glogowski:

“Hello Mr. Glogowski

It’s Phil, just in case you haven’t guessed already. I’d just like to thank you for a great year of blogging, and to wish you luck in the years ahead. You really managed to make a few of us into writers. I think writing/blogging will be something I’ll carry with me my whole life.”(http://www.teachandlearn.ca/blog/)

Page 43: Connected Educator

MEDIA RICH BLOGS

http://english-ad.blogspot.com/

by students of Aiden Yeh

Aiden is an EFL Lecturer, Wenzao Ursuline College of LanguagesKaohsiung, TaiwanMOVIE

MULTILITERACY DIGITAL LITERACY

ELITERACY

Page 44: Connected Educator

CONNECTIVISM: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age

(George Siemens, University of Manitoba, Canada)Principles of Connectivism:

• Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning.

• Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist learning activities.

• Choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality. While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting the decision.

Page 45: Connected Educator

THE CULTURAL CONTEXT

• Does teacher know best?

Image courtesy ofhttp://www.sussex.ac.uk/USIS/test/education/1-2-14.html

Page 46: Connected Educator

THE CROWD:

Collective wisdom?

Stupidity of the masses?

Is our culture beingre-written?

Is the Internet killing ourCulture? (Andrew Keen:the cult of the amateur)

Page 47: Connected Educator

THE MOBILE/CELL PHONE

Page 48: Connected Educator
Page 49: Connected Educator

Mobile/Cell Phone

1. Phone to web communications– Post photos to Flickr (flickr.com)– Post photos/videos to blog (moblog.co.uk)– Post audio to blog (hipcast.com)

2. Web to Phone via SMS (ipipi.com)– Lesson feedback– Spot quizzes– Anonymous contributions to controversial topics

3. SMS – may need to be taught; it is now a legitimate form of communication

Page 50: Connected Educator

http://flickr.com/photos/32912387@N00/171506548/

Page 51: Connected Educator

SLOW LEARNING

"It is going to become very fashionable at some point to be disconnected," Silicon Valley futurist Paul Saffo predicts. "There are going to be people who wear their disconnectivity like a badge.“(http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20070111/1a_tech-noxx.art.htm)

Page 52: Connected Educator

SLOW LEARNING: A Dangerous but Powerful Idea - Counter Acceleration and

Speed with Slowness and Wholeness

• Geetha Narayanan is Principal Investigator with Project Vision at the Centre for Education Research Training and Development (CERTAD) within the Srishti School of Art Design and Technology in Bangalore, India.

Page 53: Connected Educator

Geetha Narayanan - Slowness as a pedagogy

• consciously embrace the core value of slowness – both as way of being and as a way of learning

• culture of immediacy values fast knowledge which in turn runs counter to the development of both the self and the mind.

• The thoughtless and widespread use of technology as the universal solution to the rising need for fast knowledge is wrong and must be questioned. Often in developing countries, such as India, the term ‘digital divide’ is used to support the argument that the use of new technologies, alone, will create conditions of learning … That is not true

• the new digital technologies are tools that allow for learners to develop their imaginations, to be able to play and to have fun, to be able to tell stories in different and exciting ways. But in order to generate value they need to be integrated into new forms and structures in an invisible and contextual manner - one where new media arts can sustain social change.

• Slowness promotes “wellness of being”

Page 54: Connected Educator

HORIZONTAL V

VERTICAL LEARNING

Page 55: Connected Educator

Horizontal Learning (multitasking)

Instant Messaging

Instant Messaging

Assignment

SMS

iPod

Surfing

Watching video/TV

Page 56: Connected Educator

Vertical Learning (single focus)

Assignment: What were the

principal factors that led

to the Indonesian coup in 1965

and the eventual downfall of

President Sukarno?(5000 words)

Page 57: Connected Educator

Horizontal v Vertical Learning

The discerning eteacher:

• Acknowledges the nature and influence of horizontal learning (multitasking)

• Knows when to encourage vertical learning (single focus activity)

Page 58: Connected Educator

Using RSS to aggregate content

• Netvibes, Protopage, Pageflakes

Page 59: Connected Educator

The excellent eteacher:

• has an online presence/website (eg course homepage on LMS, or own website, blog, etc)

• Knows how to use technology for delivery and assessment and therefore has a blog, a wiki, or podcast site

• Includes media in delivery and production of teaching materials and student assessment

• Models and teaches digital literacy – Creates and provides digital resources– Teaches search, validation, and verification skills– Employs and models RSS as a means of aggregating and

distributing content

Page 60: Connected Educator

The excellent eteacher:

• Teaches about, and employs collaborative approaches

• Switches between sage and guide as appropriate

• Knows when to call in the wisdom of the experts to balance the wisdom of the crowd

• Acknowledges the value of informal learning• Accepts that engaging learners is necessary

(and that probably means using technology)

Page 61: Connected Educator

The excellent eteacher:

• Acknowledges that students may assess the value of a resource via their networks rather than accept the word of the expert (teacher/lecturer)

• Uses social bookmarking for collective mining and sharing of resources

• Is a good (and frequent) online communicator• Knows how to effectively combine synchronous and

asynchronous modes of delivery• Is able to teach in a virtual classroom/web conferencing

environment (eg Centra, Elluminate, etc)• Must be e-connected and draw on the resources of their

networks to remain current (and demonstrate to students)

Page 63: Connected Educator
Page 64: Connected Educator

IN CONCLUSION:

Living as a connected educator (Nancy White: ‘eliving’):

• reduces the time you have available to attend to relationships locally

• broadens your sphere of influence • widens your catchment area for

information, knowledge, and collegiality.• involves reconceptualising the way you

learn and the way you teach.

Page 65: Connected Educator

IN CONCLUSION:

Being a connected educator involves: • engaging with the world of participatory media• guiding students in this new disintermediated

world• modelling the use of technology for lifelong

learning• allowing time for ‘slow learning’ and reflection

• It’s all about connections……

Page 66: Connected Educator

Education by and large has not changed. Syllabus/curriculum is still rooted in a past paradigm of fixed knowledge. The world beyond classrooms has changed a great deal, and will continue to do so at an ever-increasing rate……

Photo courtesy of Sawrah, http://flickr.com/photos/sawrah/314474272/

Page 67: Connected Educator

Further Resources

• New Technologies Means New Learning • Designing eLearning• Thinking about the ‘M’ in M-learning (Dr Norbert Pachler) (paper to

be part of forthcoming proceedings of mLearn conference, Oct 2007)

• The 8 Competencies of Online Interaction (Nancy White)• Multiliteracies for Collaborative Learning Environments - http://

www.opensource.idv.tw/moodle/course/view.php?id=23 (log in as guest)

• Becoming a Webhead 2008

Page 68: Connected Educator

Further Resources

Two recently released books on teaching English with Technology:

• Teaching English with Technology (Gavin Dudeney, Nicky Hockley); available via http://amazon.co.uk/ for about US$31

• Teaching English with Information Technology (David Smith, Eric Baber); available via http://amazon.co.uk/ for about US$15

Page 69: Connected Educator

Some Recommended Grammar Sites for ESL/EFL Students

• http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar • http://eleaston.com/grammar.html• http://www.edict.com.hk/vlc/• http://a4esl.org/• http://english-zone.com/index.php?ID=1• http://www.englishpage.com/index.html• http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/index.shtml

Compiled list at:• http://www.blinklist.com/susanacanelo/grammar/

Page 70: Connected Educator

THANK YOU

This presentation on the web at http://www.slideshare.net/michaelc/connected_educator

Email: [email protected]

Page 71: Connected Educator

http://flickr.com/photos/7447470@N06/1345266896/