Incorporating Online Tasks into English Language Learning

To answer the following question after reading Chapter 6 of the required reading:
Drawing on your experience at your university, where do the language learning tasks (ideally that involve IT) fall on the flexibility continuum? Give one or more examples to illustrate. Can tasks that are "liberated" or "free" be easily incorporated into your teaching?

Incorporating Online Tasks into English Language Learning

The China Central Radio & TV University (CCRTVU) organizes 44 provincial RTVUs and up its teaching resources. The idea of founding the RTVUs system comes from the Open University in Britain. Dalian Radio and TV University, which is my work place, is one of the RTVUs.

While making use of television, radio, and computer networks and so on, efforts have been made in other forms of teaching and learning, such as self-study, tutorials, question-and-answers and practice. RTVU runs its school carrying out the policy of "lenient-in and strict-out", running school with multi-levels, multi-functions and multi-forms. It trains qualified personnel with all sorts of patterns.

In my school, the English teaching has been completely student-centered, which means a lot of online tasks are incorporated into the students’ language learning. In the following text, I will take the course English Writing as an example to further illustrate what kinds of online tasks are conducted in my current teaching.

In the current practice of my own work place in China, Dalian Radio and TV University, where most of the students are adult and not necessarily to attend every tutorial, the class attendance rate of the course of English Writing is comparatively lower than the other courses, simply because of the students’ negative attitudes, which quite effectively dampens the teaching enthusiasm on the part of many writing teachers and the learning morale on the part of the few willing and conscientious learners.

It is under such circumstances that the traditional way of testing English Writing is changed through an online assessment system called Electronic Testing and Assessment System (ETAS), mooted by China Central Radio & TV University, with the aim to encourage students to take responsibility for their own writing and to focus on the process and progress rather than on the product or even the grades alone. This system breaks the students’ grade into 70% of process assessment and 30% of final test, the process assessment consisting of 4 parts: self-study report, offline assignment, online quiz and online discussion.

This practice of online assessment is based on the principles of communicative teaching approach and process teaching approach, striving to influence the students on becoming more confident writers, being more conscious of their own writing process and strategies they employ in resolving their writing problems.

The online assessment decomposes the writing process of the whole semester into 8 self-study reports, 4 online quizzes, 4 offline assignments and 8 online discussions, which stretch along the whole semester and make writing a dynamic, flowing process.

The students, who take the module of English Writing as a compulsory course, should enroll the online testing and assessment system first by identifying their matriculation number, and then they are divided into groups according to their user names for online peer assessment. At this starting point, students begin the online assessment.

As aforementioned, students begin to accomplish a set of tasks consist of four main types (namely self-study report, online quiz, offline assignment and online discussion), and the tasks are achieved seriatim with different types taking turns. For every task, there is a time limit of 7 to 10 days, and at this period of time, students are provided enough time for drafting, revising and selecting.

Upon reaching the deadline of each task, the teacher begins revising students’ assignments, marking online quizzes, as well as evaluating their online discussions and self-study reports. After all those laboring, the students can get the feedback via ETAS.

The last step of the assessment is just like the traditional testing, to conduct a real test which requires the students to write a timed composition online. The time slot of the test is notified on the online bulletin board, and the test is conducted at exactly the same time throughout the country, down to the 44 Radio and TV Universities.

Take Measures to be a Facilitator

After reading "Distractions in the Wireless Classroom" by Michael J. Bugeja, quite a lot of ideas came upon my mind.

In fact, I had experienced such kind of situation in my work place when I taught full-time students, commonly 18-22 years' old. But the situation seldom occured in the classes of adult students, because they had limited learning time as part-time students, and they are more self-disciplined. So my first thought is whom to blame? Is it really the fault of "Technology"? Cellphone, computer, wireless network.... they are born for the convenience of human being and they did make our life easier than ever, but why we human being find so many excuses to refuse our responsibility?

Some suggestions to avoid being distracted:

1. Design more task-based lessons to make sure the students understand the important points of the lesson, thus provide more chances for students to practise what they should do;

2. Assess the tasks effectively, so that the students would be more self-controlled and concentrated on the in-class activities;

3. Be more aware of the students' performances, and take measures to facillitate the students kept on track;

4. Use some kind of control system to supervise the students' access to certain websites with the help of monitoring software.

The population of adopting wireless classes is a key point in the issue, so keep in mind whether the group of students suited for the kind of circumstance or not. Technology itself is good, the person who makes the disposal should be responsible for.

IT Educational Policy in USA

IT Educational Policy in USA

Group Division:

Liu Dongping on values given to education and IT;
Xiao Yun on roles of teachers;
Wang Xinjun on roles of students;
Yang Rong on roles of language and language learning.
(Although we assigned the tasks separately, we discussed the task for several times and finally made it a whole.)

Primary Source 1:

From http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/itsv/1297/ijse/ijse1297.htm

(This is from an e-journal article in US Society & Values. The editors comment on President Bill Clinton’s speech to illustrate the values given to American education.)

Values given to education

The American system of education, like the society that shapes it, is facing myriad challenges and opportunities. What is the role of technology in the classroom? Is there a place for voucher-funded schools? Can national standards and testing be mandated for schools which are locally controlled? At a time when education is of increasing importance, where does society find the resources to fund this expanding need?
At the same time it is facing these questions, the U.S. system of education remains committed to universal access to education for all its students. It also has long contributed to its citizens' economic upward mobility and exerted a powerful democratizing influence. Despite the challenges facing American education, and the continuing debate among politicians, educators, parents and students, there is a national consensus that high quality education must be accessible to all.

Primary Source 2:

From http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2004/2004011.pdf

(Since 1994, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has surveyed public schools to estimate access to information technology in schools and classrooms. In the fall of each academic year, a new nationally representative sample of public schools is surveyed about Internet access and other Internet-related topics. The results of this survey show what progress has been made since these data were first collected in 1994, and help assess the magnitude of tasks remaining to make the Internet available as an educational tool in all schools. A report presents key findings from the survey “Internet Access in U.S. Public Schools, Fall 2002.” by NCES shows the following :)

Values given to IT

In fall 2002, 99 percent of public schools in the United States had access to the Internet.
When NCES first started estimating Internet access in schools in 1994, 35 percent of public schools had access (table 1). In 2002, no differences in school Internet access were observed by any school characteristics. This is consistent with data reported previously (Kleiner and Farris 2002), which showed that there have been virtually no differences in school access to the Internet by school characteristics since 1999.

Roles of students in computer access

More children and adolescents in the nation used computers at school than at home in 2001
(DeBell and Chapman 2003). The survey “Internet Access in U.S. Public Schools, Fall 2002” obtained information on various measures of student access to computers at school, such as the ratio of students to instructional computers with Internet access, student access to the Internet outside of regular school hours, the provision of hand-held computers to students and teachers, and laptop loans to students.

Roles of teachers in professional development on how to integrate the use of the internet into the curriculum


Although approximately one-half of public school teachers in 1999 reported that they used computers or the Internet for instruction during class time, and/or that they assigned their students work that involves research using the Internet, one-third of teachers reported feeling well or very well prepared

Nationwide, 87 percent of public schools with Internet access indicated that their school or school district had offered professional development to teachers in their school on how to integrate the use of the Internet into the curriculum in the 12 months prior to the fall 2002 survey.

Forty-two percent of the schools that had professional development had 1 to 25 percent of their teachers attending professional development in 12 months preceding the survey. Seventeen percent of the schools had 26 to 50 percent of their teachers, 11 percent of the schools had 51 to 75 percent of their teachers, and 30 percent of the schools had 76 percent or more of their teachers attending professional development on how to integrate the use of the Internet into the curriculum in the 12 months preceding the survey (table 20). Another 1 percent reported not having any teachers attending such professional development during this time frame.

Roles of language and language learning

Primary Source 3

From http://esperanto-usa.org/node/649?PHPSESSID=bceec4ac119f9cd4091c2e3e93e86908

(A blog of Esperanto-USA)

Learning languages in the United States is something to which we all give lip-service, but which in fact is heavily ignored in our schools, and it seems to me that anything that can help should be at least looked at.

Primary Source 4:

From http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-01-09-language-children_x.htm

(By Beth Walton, USA TODAY. More children learn more than one language)

Not only is learning a foreign language easier for children than it is for adults, but children who are exposed to other languages also do better in school, score higher on standardized tests, are better problem solvers and are more open to diversity.

Comparison between the Description of Bill Gates and My Own Teaching Circumstance:

Similarities

1. The networks enable students and teachers to communicate in a more convenient way.
2. The boundary of classrooms and outside world is blurred, and the interactive learning provides the students with a wealth of information.
3. The classrooms are equipped with the digital white board as well as projectors.
4. Multimedia is used in language teaching, for example, CAI, self-made Video, and so on.

Differences

The Road Ahead

1. The cooperation will become widespread as teachers get better communication channels with other teachers.
2. Teachers will probably spend more time with small groups of students working together using a personal computer.
3. The computer controlling the white board will recognize your handwriting and will convert it into a more readable typeface.
4. The ability of students to create presentations with multimedia content will increase.

Local Circumstances

1. The information exchange between teachers is still in a traditional way, with every teacher’s own resources relatively confidential.
2. Because of the limited resources, students still have to be in a large cluster, even in the online discussion class.
3. The computers do not have the software of handwriting-recognition, so teachers usually prepared the documents for their presentation before classes.
4. Students ability of applying multimedia remains unchanged.

Possibilities

1. Teachers will communicate more often than before to form virtue teams with the help of networks and exchange information of each other.
2. Students will be divided into small groups to enjoy benefits from e-learning.
3. Students’ ability of applying IT will increase.