The LTD Project Blog

Thanks to Isabelle Jones for pointing out this thought-provoking video by josepicardo (2008.02.28) to the Diigo Resources for Languages Group.

Thanks to ajisababa for his take on whiteboard instructions (Audacity, 2008.01.28). What he flagged as a change of topic in mid-post precipitates these reflections. He’s right; telegraphic task listings on the whiteboard in class the other day (2008.01.26) were insufficient.

Under such circumstances, there are lots of issues instructors need to consider. For example: In that computer lab. I can display detailed instructions from a host of sources (assignments on the course wiki, for instance), but only if and when I over-ride students’ computer displays. By design, in light of cost factors, that lab lacks separate monitors for student reference while they are working at individual machines.

I chose that lab because it still serves as an part of a blended learning environment. There I can listen and speak to students with little or no technology, answer questions, provide general and individual instructions, offer suggestions, and accommodate requests for technical assistance, with little or no time-delay.

The computer monitor over-ride function in the lab probably works greats for lock-step instruction and technical training purposes. However, since one of my ultimate goals for Engl. VIII-c is creating opportunities for, and fostering students’ tentative steps towards autonomous learning, I can decide to let students stew a bit in their own juices. I often observe what they do (or have done), rather than telling them what to do (or what they should have done).

In the situation ajisaba pointed out, I noticed no one asked for clarification of the boardwork anytime soon. However some students had gmail open, and the most recent message in their mail queues was notification regarding a change on the course wiki. Some who noticed the message opened it quickly, and followed links in to the voice recording assignment. There they found more detailed instructions than I was able to list on the whiteboard, along with links to resources related to Audacity, a tool I wanted them to use in all likelihood for the first time.

Once a couple of students realized by themselves that Audacity was a computer program that they couldn’t download in the lab (rather than a personal character trait), questions and requests for help started popping up around the class. They were ready: a) to learn that the program was already on their computers, and where, b) to open it, c) to learn how to use it, and d) to teach one another about it.

Puddles of understanding burst into pools, and soon almost everyone in attendance was referring to their online profiles for content, and experimenting with microphone settings, making sound tests, and all the rest. I was at liberty to circulate and prod obstinate shells that the rising tide of on-task-ed-ness still hadn’t reached for oh-so-many conceivable reasons. It is moments like that that make blended instruction so satisfying.

Making a leap, I’ve created another Edublog for language learner development purposes. Although the companion wiki is still in a conceptual development phase, I expect to use the LLD Project Blog for modeling, journaling, and filtering posts for audiences of college-aged English as an additional language (EAL) learners, Japanese university students in particular.

I don’t expect it to remain as narrowly focused as the Writing Studio Blog that I’ve been running on Blogger for a bit over a year now. In spite of familiarity with Blogger functionality, I decided to make the leap into Edublogs and blended instruction with students in an English for communicative purposes course that I resumed teaching in April this year (2008).

After reading Sue Waters clarification of the differences between categories and tags (Edublogger, What’s The Difference…, 2008.03.02), I deliberately established three initial categories that correspond to the intended purposes of the new Edublog. Those are fostering and facilitating development of learners’ computer literacy along with their language skills, and a degree (modicum?) of autonomy in their own learning (LLD Project Blog, About).

Having grown accustomed to dedicating Wikispaces to individual courses, it wasn’t much trouble to build a course wiki for the blended course before actually deciding whether to go with another blog. However, I felt an itch to consolidate resources and tutorials less directly related to course assignments somewhere they would be equally accessible to students in all of the courses that I teach, in a venue less noticeably earmarked for teachers than the Language Teacher Development Project Wiki. Hence there now is a budding Wikispaces companion, the Language Learner Development Project Wiki.