Monday, October 31, 2011

A Real LIVE Audience this Time

Well, it was indeed a GR8 experience learning and presenting at the recent GloCALL 2011 held in Manila. I had a few participants but they were very much alive. These were teachers from Bukidnon State Unive, southern Philippines and St Paul's Pasig.  Showing the WizIQ 2010 screen cap series and the Jan 15 class recording of Dr Nellie Deutsch got them buzzing. It was a good 25-minute run, enough to share my research findings of emerging themes of teaching presence in a synchronous environment, afforded by this great platform called WizIQ.  Their questions revolved around these:  how to access WizIQ, how I eventually learned to use it,  how it was like attending Nellie's class, any free classes they can attend online to enrich their skills as teachers. 

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Live Audience Chopped, so Blog Away....

Hmmm...how should I say this.  The experience of presenting at LitCon was not as satisfactory as the process with which I came up with my study. I shouldn't feel bad, but I do. Maybe because I've worked hard on this for months then the trip was terrible on my sleep/rest cycle due to the unholy hours of arrival and waiting for my connecting flight etcetera etcetera etcetera. I had a small audience and I noticed my presentation didn't capture the essence of my study.

BUT, I am telling myself to be content after all this is how some conferences turn out to be. You got a shrinking audience towards the afternoon. Half of that shrinked portion are half-listening. There's not much to expect really. AND after all, I already was superglad enough that I was able to write what I wanted to write plus received 2 comments here in my blog.  So, I blog away here another portion of my case report...
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Engaging and Sustaining Language Learning and Interactions

At the onset, the choice of topics tackled in 'Speak English Now' appear to be practical and functional for any language learner. Examples of conversational topics in her sessions are marriage, money, uniforms, leisure time, and holidays. The interactions are facilitated mainly through the use of discussions, debates, songs and storytelling. Nellie's choice of content and techniques can be likened to that of F2F language classes as she uses a combination of direct instruction, facilitation and modelling. These techniques are aimed at oral language development and fluency in English while teaching basic spellings, vocabulary and word usage which naturally arise from the interactions based on the discussion topics or debate questions. Some of these may be directed to an individual's response but since there is a chatbox where she sometimes does this, then everyone gets to see it and benefit from these interactions.


Beyond these are responses which I refer to as language teaching points or opportune moments when Nellie decides to pick up from a salient interaction in order to explicitly teach or point out aspects of the English language. One example was when she takes the conversation to a different level when 2 student asked via chat respectively: “Why is your stress american?” and “Which english is better American/British?”. This allowed for Nellie to segue into forms or versions of English around the world as well as languages other than English. In other times, appreciation for all types of English is one aspect Nellie implicitly imparts in her classes as she acknowledges nuances of the accents.


Upon viewing transcripts which appear in the chatbox, one may think that exchanges are relatively simplistic, hardly indicative of complex language use among persons involved. However, once a learner speaks up upon receipt of audio control, the level of discourse starts to elevate and is maintained for everyone to listen to. This maybe attributed to the fact that Nellie herself gives her adult learners the chance and freedom to do so. In fact one can safely say that the learners are provided with good opportunities to control, direct and sustain the type of discourse going on. To sustain the level of discourse, Nellie herself does not water down her vocabulary nor choice of sentence patterns to use just to make herself understood. Alongside this, she is keenly able to listen to the learner on the mic and respond in the chatbox by typing key points, vocabulary words, and popping questions for everyone to see and learn from even while learners themselves may be using the chatbox for social purposes. Since learners maintain a good degree of motivation to use English, the quality of teaching-learning acts happen at a pace all participants are responsible for even if the mic control is relegated to one person at a time. A sample of the flow of 2-3 ongoing interactions, merging at some points, is illustrated as follows: (image with chat—audio response—using speech balloons)


[image needed]

Having control over the features of the virtual classroom afforded by WizIQ, Nellie tries to make use of these efficiently and uniquely to engage and sustain the quality of language interaction in her class. Uniquely to mean interactions are sustained by the nature of her responses which happens to her choice of content, resources and responses through the multimodal features of the classroom. Efficiently to mean that manipulating the features of WizIQ happens simultaneously and seamlessly with Nellie. Through the chatbox, she is able to listen closely to the learner on the mic, type important words to emphasize key points being said by the learner while showing spellings and word meanings via the chatbox. Then she can simultaneously respond to a student query via chat. She is quick to remember a technical problem raised via chat and addresses this either at once or when she finally has the audio control. Similarly, the learners also manage to follow the interactions happening, respond and sustain their engagements even during instances when technical problems arise while the class is going on.

[insert script—Nellie multitasking with audio control]


In sum, one can imagine Nellie occupying different spaces in the virtual class, as if she is also moving in her own F2F classroom to fulfill varied roles as an online participant in her class. She behaves as a master teacher taking center stage when she points out and models good and creative language use of English. She behaves as a facilitator when she asks questions, affirms or summarizes for the class to equally respond to. She exemplifies an image of a guide on the side figuratively and literally whenever she allows a student to freely speak up using the mic and she steps back as the teacher and uses the chatbox on the side while the learner's voice takes center stage. She is one with the learners when she occasionally chitchats via the chatbox and is able to sustain her focus in responding to the learner with the audio control. Add to that, she is clearly a curator when she recommends other online tools and resources she has reviewed and used herself.


This multiplicity of roles Nellie is able to fulfill is heavily mediated through communication---seen, heard and felt via video and audio, read through printed text in chatbox and equally personified through her choice of music and content. So much so that the virtual environment did not even prevent Nellie from pulling a prank on April Fool's Day. This sets an atmosphere of real time learning which is afforded by technology and Nellie's knowledge of pedagogy and technology as well as teaching style. Each class becomes an integrated act of all these roles, initially teacher directed and some equally fulfilled by the learners themselves.

Friday, October 7, 2011

NO Chopping Allowed Here!

I can imagine a panel of reviewers finding ways to chop here and there as that is their job.
But this is my space so NO Chopping Allowed here...unless you are Nellie or the learners in her class:

Still here and finding Nellie..
Validating the Online Teaching-Learning Process



Nellie's February 18 and February 25, 2011 sessions are telling of how she consciously engages her students in relevant discussions and information exchange about what it means to teach and learn online  through these questions: “What's the difference between learning online and learning ina face to face classroom?”. She spends a big chunk of these sessions to facilitate and drive the discussion towards understanding active participation, collaborative and social learning while affirming the participants' perspectives about language learning,  A learner expresses how he does not like the idea of being corrected for his language, and to this Nellie goes:


“...I like what you say about being corrected. Yes, English teachers and teachers in general, uhm....like to correct students and this could have a bad effect on many students. You're right, being corrected too much can take away your confidence. So we don't really need to correct students. I don't believe in correcting students even if some want it. I think the best thing for learning is actually to model.....and we all make mistakes and this is online interaction, interacting with people. We are all learners and we are all teachers because we are all sharing information. So let's talk about active learning because one of the differences between ah...face to face classrooms and the uhm...online class is the fact that you get active learning....”


Interestingly, it is also through these sessions that learners willingly exchange their ideas about online learning and language learning per se. Through the chatbox and audio interactions, the learners surface a variety of direct links, online tools and resources to learn English and these are You Tube, Google Docs, Facebook, MSN, LiveMocha, ICQ, BlipTV, BBC and Second Life, to include sharing about countries where a few of these are blocked.


In these sessions, Nellie manages to emphasize a valuable point by bringing in Richard Green, a New York City English teacher and his class of language learners real time. It was a good way to show to everyone the limitless possibilities of learning English 24/7 using a live synchronous platform such as WizIQ to engage in “Speak English Now”, have a F2F class join in during the live session and then later on continue learning English using an asynchronous “LEO4U” or “Learn English Online For You”. Nellie wraps up the healthy online exchange through these statements:


“This was a great class...The class is you. You make the classes what they are. I'm just here to give you a chance but you are doing everything and as Cata said people teach people. It's not one person—it's not teacher teaching. It's everyone teaching everybody. And that's what's wonderful because we are from all over the world and we're teaching, we're connecting. And I think that's what's the internet is bringing to us. And I think it's wonderful. Thank you. Thank you everyone.”


From my view, these explicit communicative efforts are what can be labelled as metacognitive acts or ways for a teacher to make learners know and reflect about the how's and why's of one's learning in an online environment. In the case of Nellie's classes, this was done in 2 substantive sessions and later on, at every chance she gets to emphasize the buzz words in online learning environments, and these are: active participation, interactive, learning collaboratively, learning via the Internet 24/7. Such acts may also be attempts to build a semblance of online class identity or sense of community among language learners which Nellie at one time labelled as “It's a global class.“ ... "Because online, there is no hierarchy. Everyone can be a teacher and everyone can be a learner.”

To Chop or not to Chop? So Blog It is!

In Quali R, I have found space to do the kind of writing I'd like to do which is basically a merging of heart and mind. This usually happens when I feel it's finally time to just let it out. In the past, I've struggled with the "I" point of view  and whether this is even acceptable in the academic world. I wring  and wrestle with my brains whenever I need to decide which portions to chop and which to make sticky due to the page limitations set by conference submission requirements.  Then I get pressured and go through an oc-oc mode. Whenever that happens, my energies are spread thin. By the time I do my presentation, I sometimes feel I sound like a robot---I stick to reading parts of my paper for fear of getting lost and failing to connect with the audience. My Fil-Am English may sound good but that simply does not make the cut for me, especially if I am carrying the name of my unive!!!


And so I blog now. I have here the freedom to include an excerpt from my initial case study report about Nellie, one of the  exemplary teachers at WizIQ. [ Why not you do the chopping cuz I just can't!]. And before you go on...Happy World Teachers' Day! Cheers to this one great teacher I met through WizIQ. Of course, I thank the WizIQ community  for your  indications of "following" and thumbs up= "recommendations" as seen in Nellie's profile page. You guys  led me to her (and to Namrata and who can even miss George of EduPunk!)

Connecting with Online Learners All over the World
Nellie (audio+video):“Ok...let's see. We got Romania, India and any other countries?
sali: iran
Nellie (audio + video): Taiwan...Lithuanian. Iran, yes. I see. Great. So we've got almost the whole world....
arun(chat): diversified session
Nellie (audio + video): Diversified session...thank you, Arun.

Nellie takes time to introduce herself  as "Dr Nellie Deutsch" or simply “Nellie”, a female from Canada, in the same way that she bothers to place her learners geographically by asking “Where are you from?”. Learners' responses are seen one after the other via the chatbox and she is quick to acknowledge their country of origin or nationality while also mentioning their usernames right after the learners do their greetings.  At times, Nellie sets the mood: “I am in Toronto and the weather is absolutely beautiful and it's snowing.....Tonight we are going to be really interactive. Elena says it's a beautiful day, it's snowing, it's cold. Ok you can share that in the chatbox. Let me try and see if we can have some background music...” Nellie is also keen when it comes to knowing her learners' names by passing on the mic to them so she can have them properly pronounce their names while she tries to listen and get her pronunciations right enough. She continues to welcome learners anytime in her class even while she is in the midst of a discussion and she quickly restates the context or topic the class is already tackling.


To a few ones, Nellie comes across with more warmth as her tone changes to greet particular learners: “Oh, hello Aka Ken!”... “Virginia, I haven't heard you in such a long time. I miss your voice and I miss seeing you very much...” After a student had his/her turn to speak over the mic for everyone to hear, she naturally pours out praise and encouragement. She does this to each and every student as a way to connect with them and reinforce speaking in English in whatever accents they bring. After all, she names her series of classes at WizIQ “Speak English Now”.


To Nellie, connecting with learners does not stop with finding out names, timezones, geographical settings or nationalities. She does this at a personal level by sharing personal anecdotes about her self, her family roots, her husband, and her daughter. She candidly expresses “I love....” then refer to an object or activity which is to her most liking. Talking about herself becomes an act of sharing that even one time she a matter of factly stated her areas of expertise in response to a student who nonchalantly inquired about her library of books as seen from the learner's video/webcam. Even stating so was perfectly done in context since this response happened in one session which Nellie devoted to facilitate a topic about online language  teaching and learning at WizIQ, and using other online tools and resources.


Connecting with learners is about Nellie revealing her personality as teacher and as a lifelong learner, including her beliefs about teaching and learning online through her online classes: “What is the common goal? It's learning English and not just listen to English but to actually speak it, live it and enjoy it!”. Her manner creates a safe, warm and fun atmosphere for learners to comfortably be who they are, share their views or experiences and even disclose their reflections about themselves as English speakers and language learners. Because Nellie comes across as a person whose curiosity is well meaning then learners equally build rapport with each other through the chatbox by typing their simple 'hi's' or 'hello's' and using the same questions to learn more about each others' backgrounds. Learners naturally respond to sharing their views and experiences due to the topics selected by Nellie which make functional, practical as well as personal use of language. Connecting with online learners all seem to be about taking actions which are grounded on the values of sincerity, sharing and trustbuilding. To my mind, these are the key ingredients which make for learners to equally engage in language use to share about themselves. Hence, communication in Nellie's class is not just about speaking English but even more about communicative acts toward building online identity and connections for all participants. And communication through the tools of technology become the primary vehicle to do just that.



Saturday, October 1, 2011

Teaching Presence: Restating Themes

Initial coding was done via:
-previewing of videos of selected teachers
-focused viewing of selected recorded videos and taking notes of 1 exemplary teacher

Then another layer of coding based on synchronized audio-chat transcripts have  finally refined themes which I'd like to identify here.

A.connecting with online learners
-sharing of personal information
-sense of geographical space/location/time
-acknowledging presence of all learners
-addressing learners by name
-remarking about accents and Englishes

B validating online teaching-learning process
-metacognition about online learning
-praise and recognition for actions

C. engaging and sustaining  interactivity
-use of relevant topics: culture related, current events, everyday culture
-choice of topic which encourages speaking and vocabulary building
-language teaching moments
-direct instruction
-modelling-
-facilitation--chat and audio and both
-providing timely information and prompt feedback
-use of online tools/resources
-level of discourse--
-
*facility in use of vc features--multitasking chat,


D.managing the virtual classroom
-troubleshooting
-comments about technology
-developing codes for vc usage

E. building identity of teacher, learner and community of learners!!!
-recognizing cultural backgrounds
-global classroom
-i love...

***This is what it means to learn language online, this is what it means to become an online teacher, this is what it means to be an online learner, this is what it means to be in a community of online teachers-learners

Batch 2 of Exemplary Teacher 1 will allow me to examine interactions more closely.