student teacher roles in 3d world projects in modern language and teacher education

Exploring student teacher roles in 3D world projects

in modern language and teacher education 

SITE 2013 Conference, New Orleans

Ton Koenraad, TELLConsultwww.tellconsult.eu

2011 – present

TELLConsultTechnologyEnhanced

Lifelong & LanguageLearning

2005

1990 – 2011

Hogeschool UtrechtUniversity of Applied Sciences

Faculty of Education

Presentation Contents

• 3D in Language education & teacher training:

• Educational context + 2 project cases

• Evaluations / Conclusions

• Future

Educational context

• Innovation of mainstream education: introduction of activating, learner-centered pedagogy

• Introduction of competency-based curricula in Higher and Vocational Education -- Partnerships to create Learning Blends

• Modern Language Pedagogy: - gradual adoption of task-based approaches - introduction of CEFR-related curricula & national exams

• Individualisation / heterogenity increases need for & use of ICT-mediated materials and learning processes

The ViTAAL Project

PARTNERSHIP:– 2 Secondary Schools:

PC College, OSG West Friesland

– 2 Teacher Ed. Organisations: Hogeschool UtrechtHogeschool van Amsterdam

– Educational service provider: CPS

– National Edu Networks: Surfnet & Kennisnet

The ViTAAL Project

• R & D for 3 Activity Formats:

1. Language Village: training & testing

2. Interactive narrativeLanguageQuest

3. Events and Fun Activities

Format 1: Virtual Language Village

Pupils

•Teachers

• Student Teachers & Trainers

•Fellow pupils

IRL, what is Languagevillage | Langueville | Sprachstadt ?

• RL-simulation with physical props as scenes for everyday communicative situations

• Teachers, native or competent speakers take on roles and/or assess.

• Target group at 2ndary Schools: mostly beginner to intermediate level (CEFR: A1-A2)

• A school-based, yearly event.

Virtual Language Village • Rationale:

More practice of oral skills for RL language tasks

• Design principles

Blended approach:

- techer-led f2f sessions & in-world sessions with fellow pupils and student mentors

- using additional materials alligned to textbook in use

- formative, in-world assessments by student teachers

Virtual Language Village: Organisation

• Production / Mentor TeamA’dam student teachers (n=18)

• Materials:paper based prep. activities, CEF Level A1-A2194 pp.

• Participants2 schools, 1 class eachAge: 13-14Student teacher mentored groups (size: n=3)

Format 2. LanguageQuest: an interactive detective story

The Interactive LanguageQuest

• Rationale:

Enhance the WebQuest concept using story development and embedding ‘live’ interaction

• Design principles

- LanguageQuest design criteria(Koenraad & Westhoff, 2003)

- Competitive pupil teams (n=5)- teacher-coached f2f team

sessions & in-world meetings with story characters (student mentors)

- formal assessment of interim products & final team results by teacher

Interactive LanguageQuest: Organisation

• Production / Actor TeamA’dam student teachers (n=7)

• Materials:- Original storyline, - CEF-based inputs & tasks ( A2 – B1)- specifically designed LQuest template

• Participants- 1 school, 1 class Age: 16-17- 1st year student teachers (n=7)

Evaluation & Research

General Focus: Feasibility

• Proof of concept for Learning Blend: learning potential, added value, win-win?

• Mapping of conditions

• Materials & Activity design

Evaluation: Pupil perspective

• Interesting, nice change

• Spent more time than usual after school hours

• Learned more: - vocab, - talking about self, ordering things, giving directions

• More awareness of: - relevance of grammar / pronunciation for communication - personal knowledge & skills gaps

• Did and learned equally little as in f2f lessons

• 3D world not very inviting (looks, interactive facilities)

• Technical (voice) & organisational problems (partner presence)

• extension of the virtual village needed: a wider variety of shops.

Evaluation: Teacher perspective

• Pupils enthusiastic, more motivation & time on task, less inhibition

• More authenticity in tasks, language use: attention for accuracy

• More opportunities for differentiation & independent work

• Enjoyed working with new formats

• More class-based preparation time needed for online sessions

• Success factors:- timely delivery & quality of prep materials- operational technology- teacher competences: classroom management, ICT-skills

• Allignment of class activities with student mentors agendas

Evaluation: Student teacher perspective

• Great learning opportunity:- designing materials- getting peer-feedback on design issues

• Practicing teaching skills:- giving feedback to pupils - doing assessments

• Design task very time consuming

• Organisational problems:- pupil presence- teamwork

• Technical issues: - voice- AW- interface skills

Evaluation: Teacher educator perspective

• Great chance for linking theory to practice

• Implementation of experiential learning in teacher ed.

• Collaboration with schools is vital

• Current module is too demanding: further phasing of curriculum content

• Critical trainer’s skills:- coaching student production teams- personal ICT / AW skills

(student) Teacher professional development for SCMC enhanced language teaching and research

(student) Teacher professional development for SCMC-

enhanced language teaching and research

NIFLAR project aims

• Exploring the added value of video-web communication (VWC) and virtual worlds (VW) for the development of intercultural communicative and competence in L2

Development of design principles for effective L2 tasks in VWC and VW

• Learning Blend: Focus on language learners AND student teachers

Task aims for language learners and student teachers

• Enhancing FL intercultural communicative competence (ICC): authentic and fucntional NS – NNS interaction

• Promoting pedagogical awareness on: Intercultural communicative competence Challenges and opportunities of VWC and/or VWby participation in task design and action research

Student teacher roles• task designers• task implementers• NS interlocutors• researchers of task effects:

– on interaction– on language development– on intercultural development– on motivation

• researchers of VLE-related challenges and pitfalls

Examples of tasks developed by pre-service teachers

Tasks in Second Life

Task 1

Brilliant people!

-pre-task & task-NS & FLL

Brilliant people!

-pre-task & task-NS & FLL

Scenarios:-Participants go to an

appartment: look around, exchange info, watch pictures,

eat and drink-Decide where to go: cinema,

Valencia, museum-Describe a brilliant person

Scenarios:-Participants go to an

appartment: look around, exchange info, watch pictures,

eat and drink-Decide where to go: cinema,

Valencia, museum-Describe a brilliant person

Meaningful interaction: task 1

Exchanging info about appartment

Sharing info about pictures

Example Clips

Evaluation pre-service teachers

• Use & implement SCMC-tools to enhance authentic interaction

• Task design to promote ICC

• Greater awareness of problems learners face in L2 communication

• Support learners using pedagogical strategies & multimodal affordances of the specific environment.

Some student research findings

1. task effects (CEFR grid):

+ on fluency and interaction-- on accuracy

2. tool evaluation (surveys):

+ opportunities for authentic & functional interaction-- technical problems (lag / voice quality)

3. teacher reflection (diary entries):

+ growth in task design, interaction & feedback skills-- skeptical on opportunities for future teaching practice

More info on: results, support & research

www.niflar.eu

www.euroversity.eu