Language teacher education, Trondheim, Norway

1. Erfarsingsseminar for engelsk i strategien Kompetanse for kvalitet Nord Universitet, Trondheim, Norway 8-9 May 2018
Making connections: open practices
in technology-mediated ELT
Shona Whyte
Université Côte d’Azur, CNRS, BCL
!1

2. Shona Whyte
• English department, University of Nice,
France
• Scottish-born, PhD Linguistics Indiana
University
• EFL, TEFL, CALL, ESP
• primary and secondary school
language teacher education
• European projects ITILT & ITILT2
• research in CALL teacher education,
task-based language teaching (TBLT),
open practices
whyte@unice.fr
@whyshona
efl.unice.fr
!2
https://bit.ly/2roZwYE

3. Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18 !3

4. 4
petit bout
de la lorgnette
little end of
the spyglass
teacher survey:
• more on methods &
teaching plans
• more feedback &
reflection on practice
4 core elements
of new curriculum
•language learning
tasks in
second language (L2)
learning
fagfornyelsen

5. What makes for good use of technology
in the language classroom?

6. Making connections
✤ among learners
✤ across classes
✤ with colleagues
https://bit.ly/2roZwYE
!6Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18
video examples of task-based
language teaching with
technologies

7. Digital tools
Basic technology
for language educa3on
Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18

8. 1. Passwords
LastPass is a password manager that saves
your passwords online and lets you access
them from one master password (the *last
pass*word you’ll need from now on). It can
generate secure passwords, but I don’t risk
this (if you have connectivity problems you
can’t retrieve these from memory). Instead I
create my own passwords with a keyword
system and save them to LastPass.
I suggest this as my first tool for learning
because it’s the obvious first hurdle to using
almost any platform, tool, or application and I
find until students or trainees are confident
logging in and out of multiple sites, it’s
difficult to build up confidence or expertise.
An associated tool is Xmarks, which lets you
synchronise bookmarks across browsers and
devices, which I also find useful for moving
between machines, though if you share
computers it might not be so relevant.
Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18

9. 2. Google apps
Once you have your password manager set up, my next recommendation is Google Drive, where you have e-mail
(Gmail), online storage (Google Drive), online wordprocessing (Google Docs) and spreadsheets (Google Sheets),
as well as Calendar, Slides, and Forms (for online surveys, questionnaires, and tests). Also worth a look are Sites
for building your own websites or getting learners to do so, and Communities for working with groups.
I find these work well for planning my teaching, administration (attendance, grades), giving feedback on student
writing (Docs), or collecting links to sound files, for example (Forms). We have run telecollaborative projects on
G-Drive, using a private folder to save student-teacher video selfies, with sub-folders for class tandems to share
their learners’ productions and prepare collaborative papers and presentations.
If you have multiple Google accounts it’s worth associating one account with one browser (work gmail on Firefox,
home gmail on Chrome, for example) to avoid problems signing in and out. I have never found the offline
functionality anything close to effective, so only for use with good internet connectivity.
Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18

10. 3. Padlet
The next most useful tool for
language teachers is an online
message board like Padlet.
This platform allows you to create a
single page and add short texts, links,
audio files or PDFs like post-its.
Teachers can use it to prepare
resources to share during class or for
homework, and learners can post
assignments or collaborate in
brainstorming activities.
The platform offers a range of
options, including private and public
boards.
Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18

11. 4. Link shorteners
Once you begin sharing links to
resources with your learners, you
soon need a good way to
communicate addresses quickly and
easily.
Tools for making long urls shorter
can save a lot of trouble. Just copy
your long link to generate a much
shorter one which learners can copy
without mistakes.
• goo.gl
• bit.ly
• ow.ly
• is.gd
And if you find you need to copy a clean
link found via Google search without the
Google redirect, try duckduckgo.com
Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18

12. 5. Google docs
Google docs is useful for your own
writing, but also for use with
learners. They can edit their own
documents, prepare translations in
groups, or submit work for
evaluation and you can set access to
private (sign-in), public (no sign-in)
or an intermediate option with files
accessible only via link.
I find the Docs interface (there is also
one for Sheets, etc) less easily
navigable than Drive. Also be aware
that you need a computer for full
functionality – on smartphones and
tablets comments are not accessible,
for example.
Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18

13. 6. Evernote
Evernote is very useful for taking
notes offline and saving all sorts
of bits and pieces which you can
tag and sort into Notebooks or
leave unorganised to search. The
search function is great and it
works offline.
There’s an app for your phone
but the free version limits the
number of devices you can
connect to 2, and I use Evernote
on my laptop and home
computer.
Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18

14. 7. Dropbox
After Google apps perhaps the single most
useful tool, Dropbox lets you save files
and synchronise across devices. I use it to
save teaching materials (slides, handouts)
but also for collaborative research writing
with colleagues in other countries.
Accessible offline, syncs in the
background, usable like a drive or folder
on your own computer.
One thing to be careful about: the default
drag and drop which copies a file from
one drive to another in other
circumstances moves the file on Dropbox.
So if you download a file from a shared
folder you delete that file for others.
Doesn’t work well on an external drive;
you must save your local version on your
local hard drive.
Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18

15. 8. Weebly
This free website platform lets
you make your own website with
images, media, and other links
very easily and intuitively.
It has the advantages over
Google sites of
a) letting you create classes with
your students’ names and e-
mails, and
b) making comments on pages
easy to see.
Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18

16. 9. VLC
For language teachers, you need
the digital audio player VLC,
which plays any format you can
imagine.
Another useful digital audio
editor is Audacity. Most
language teachers use this tool to
create short audio clips for class,
and it is also good for editing
learner recordings.
Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18

17. 10. Soundcloud
This open platform is a good
place to share audio files, which
you or your learners can upload
and save privately, share to a
select audience, or open to the
world.
With adult learners you can
outsource the recording
(smartphones), uploading
(SoundCloud), and sharing
(Google Forms) so you can focus
on the feedback.
Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18

18. 11. TwiOer
I use the microblogging site to
find and communicate useful
resources for teaching (educator
blogs, tools, pedagogical
resources) and research
(conference and journal calls for
papers, new publications).
Many teachers find Facebook a
more convenient alternative;
Twitter may suit those who
prefer to keep professional and
personal networks separate.
Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18

19. 12. scoop.it
I save online references to curated sites to
help me keep track of resources and tools.
The advantages include the possibility of
• tagging for future retrieval by me or others
• highlighting key information and posting
comments
• immediate sharing on networks.
My sites are here:
• Teacher Education in Languages with
Technology
• Learning technologies for EFL
• au service de l’innovation
pédagogique
I notice service for the free version of Scoop.it
has fallen off and it may not be worth starting
there now, though you can still find many
useful resources.
Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18

20. Low-tech classes
Finally, special mention for
technology you can use in class
without technology: with
Plickers, learners hold up paper
cards to answer pre-set or
spontaneous multiple choice
quizzes, and the teacher records
them via smartphone.
Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18

21. Digital tools
Basic technology
for language educa3on
https://goo.gl/MBj3rX
Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18

22. Open practices
✤ free digital tools
✤ open repositories for resources
✤ collaborative practice
!22Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18
technology
pedagogy

23. 1.Technology
TEACHERS WANT
tools
materials
activities
evaluation grids
examples
feedback(?)
TEACHERS NEED
theory
tasks
community
!23Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18

24. Technology acceptance
model (Davis 1989)
USEFULNESS
EASE
OF
USE
easy to use and
offering many
new possibilities
Do you think it
will improve teaching
and learning?
Are you sure it
won’t be too hard to
learn?
!24Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18

25. Technology acceptance
model (Davis 1989)
USEFULNESS
EASE
OF
USE
easy to use and
offering many
new possibilities
Do you think it
will improve teaching
and learning?
Are you sure it
won’t be too hard to
learn?
!25Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18
USEF
difficult to use
for doubtful
benefits

26. Technology acceptance
model (Davis 1989)
USEFULNESS
EASE
OF
USE
easy to use and
offering many
new possibilities
difficult to use
for doubtful
benefits
!26Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18
easy to use to do
what you
already do
difficult to
learn to use but
opens up new
possibilities

27. 2. Pedagogy
✤ instructed second language acquisition
✤ culture in multilingual societies
!27Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18

28. Task-based language teaching: what is a task?
• a task is a workplan
• the plan engages learners
in authentic language
use
• the task includes
materials to help learners
achieve an outcome
• the outcome is specified in
communicative, not
linguistic terms
in the
Heart Transplant
Task learners are given
information about four
people requiring a heart
transplant, told that only one
heart is available, and asked
to decide who is most
deserving of the
transplant.
Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18

29. Second language acquisition research suggests
• language learning is best achieved not by treating language
as an ‘object’ to be dissected into bits and learned [..],
but as a ‘tool’ for accomplishing a communicative purpose.
• ‘learning’ does not need to precede ‘use’, but rather
occurs through the efforts that learners make to understand
and be understood in achieving a communicative goal.
• the interactions resulting from the performance of tasks in
a classroom resemble - in many respects - those found in
child language acquisition in the home
Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18

30. !30
TBLT does not just serve
as a means of helping
students to use the
linguistic knowledge
they have already
acquired but serves as a
source of new
linguistic knowledge.
They do not just
contribute to the
development of learners’
fluency and confidence in
communicating in the L2
but also as a means for
building on and adding
to existing linguistic
resources.
Tasks, then, serve
a dual purpose.
Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18

31. Culture in multilingual FL education
Kramsch 2018
On one hand,
globalisation brings with it
the prospect of increased
participation, sense of
community, plurality of voices,
and human agency. It makes
space for people to be heard and
to change the culture of their
everyday lives.
On the
other hand,
globalisation ushers in the
instrumentalisation of
language, a consumerist,
touristic mindset, that goes hand
in hand with greater
competitivity, and ultimately,
greater and more
invisible power and
control.
Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18

32. Culture in multilingual FL education
Kramsch 2018
Such monolingualism of the stereotype is
particularly pervasive in FL education, where most
textbooks and online teaching materials adopt a ‘tourist
gaze’ that defeats the purpose of multilingualism […] This
tourist gaze flattens the foreign culture, and transforms it into the
panoptic vision of the National Geographic. One can argue that
such stereotypical representations of the foreign culture are in
the very nature of the genre ‘textbook,’ together with its
expectations of normativity, authenticity and
alignment with the demands of the market.
Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18

33. Video examples
✤ learner connections: Story Slam
✤ class connections: Who’s who?
✤ connections with colleagues: Peer filming
!33Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18

34. among learners:
story slam
✤ clip: itilt2.eu
✤ pedagogical benefits
✤ tools
✤ difficulty
34

35. MEDIA & COMMUNICATION CLASS
!36Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18
➤ task-based class for second year
English majors
➤ authentic, real-world activity
➤ story slam (Moth stories)
➤ evaluation of task success
➤ story slam judging panel
➤ focus on form/reflection
➤ teacher feedback on audio
recordings
➤ smartphone, SoundCloud, Google
apps

36. STORY SLAM TOOLS
➤ teacher prepares introductory lesson
using a Moth story with transcript
prepared on storyscribe
➤ students talk in class, record on
smartphones, then upload a
recording to SoundCloud
➤ the teacher creates a Google Form
to collect SoundCloud links
➤ the teacher creates a generic
message on gmail for individual
feedback
➤ the teacher makes a webpage for
general feedback including resources
for further study (Wordpress,
Google sites or Weebly)
!37http://bit.ly/2h7gOoj

37. across classes:
who’s who?
✤ clip: itilt2.eu
overview
✤ pedagogical benefits
✤ tools
✤ difficulty
!39

38. Tools
✤ Tablet technology: to make and share their video selfies, the learners used the iPad
camera
✤ Online sharing: for exchanging videos, the teachers used Google Drive and Gmail.
✤ Classroom exploitation: to watch the videos, the teachers used
✤ iPads
✤ a laptop computer (with projector)
✤ an IWB.
✤ Video-stimulated recall: to facilitate discussion of classroom activities, the teacher
educator used
✤ camera, microphone, tripod
✤ iMovie video editing application
✤ Vimeo video sharing platform (http://vimeo.com).
!43Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18

39. In video-stimulated recall on this activity, the teacher
recognised a problem with the implementation of this part of
the task sequence. The pupils’ task was to name the German
pupils in a class photo where each child held up a number,
by watching the German video selfies and putting a name to
each number. The French teacher divided the task among her
pupils by assigning each a number and instructions to note
information for only that pupil.
!44Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18

40. But to alert the French learners to the correct video, the
teacher performed the actual identification of German
learners herself, thus robbing the task of much of its purpose.
In discussion it was agreed that it might have been better to
distribute copies of the class photo for all pupils to examine,
or to make several photos of small subsets of the German
pupils for learners to work on in groups.
!45Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18

41. This example illustrates a common problem with task-based
language teaching, where it is often necessary to prioritise
the communicative meaning of a task (naming pupils by
understanding a video) over the pedagogical purpose
(listening comprehension).
!46Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18

42. across classes:
phubbing project
✤ clip
✤ benefits (TBLT)
✤ tools
✤ difficulty
!47Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18

43. with colleagues: video
in open practice
✤ clip: peer filming
✤ pedagogical benefits
✤ tools
✤ difficulty
!48Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18

44. Peer filming with student teachers
Peer filming can help bridge the gap between school and university
during the school placements in pre-service teacher education.
The student teachers
✤ design tasks in groups
✤ teach and observe the activity in school
✤ film the activity on their smartphones
✤ share critical incidents at university
✤ write a reflective paper on the experience.
!49Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18

45. Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18

46. video examples of technology-
mediatedTBLT
✤ task-based language teaching offers useful framework for instructed
second language acquisition (L2 research)
✤ controlling task demands for young beginners is particularly
challenging (Who’s who?)
✤ managing learner and teacher expectations regarding assessment
requires special care (Story slam)
✤ culture need not conform to target language traditions (Who’s who?)
✤ video recording facilitates observation and development (peer filming)
✤ digital tools and classroom examples are important, but ongoing
professional development thrives on collaboration and open practice
!52Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18

47. What makes for good use of technology
in the language classroom?
Whyte https://bit.ly/2roZwYE Trondheim, Norway; 9/05/18

48. C
G
I
A
E
H
B
D
F
project
engagement
IWB efficacy
beliefs
IWB experience
& access
9 French teachers in iTILT project

49. !55

50. Ongoing professional development
!56

51. Making connections:
open practices in technology-
mediated ELT
Shona Whyte
Université Côte d’Azur, CNRS, BCL
Erfarsingsseminar for engelsk i
strategien Kompetanse for kvalitet
Trondheim, Norway
9 May 2018
whyte@unice.fr
@whyshona
efl.unice.fr
https://bit.ly/2roZwYE