Online Community for the Service of Language Learning

Master Project Designed By

Wuping Lu

Learning, Design, and TechnologyStanford University School of Education

07/28/06

Agenda

Learning Problem Learning Theory Design Process Solution and Prototype Assessment/Evaluation Summary

Learning Problem The students of the Beginning

Conversational Chinese classes at Stanford lack opportunities to develop communicative competence, especially with native speakers, in a real social context in which the language is really used.

The English learners in China are experiencing the same learning problem.

Learning Theory

Language Learning

Communicative Language Teaching/Learning

Intercultural Competence

How People Learn

Learner centered Knowledge centered Assessment centered Community centered

Learning Theory - Communicative Language Teaching

Key Points

Emphasizes real-life situations and communication in context.

Makes use of communication to teach languages

Implications to Design

The Audio-Lingual Method (grammar, drills, repetition) should not be overemphasized, which is the case in current in-class learning

CLT can balance ALM Learning activities should

at least mirror real life

Learning Theory – Intercultural Competence

Key Points

Refers as the capacity to mediate multiple cultural identities and situations.

Focuses on interactions among people from different cultures

Implications to Design

Encourage dialogue

and communication among differing languacultures

Emphasize cultural issues in language learning.

Learning Theory – How People LearnLearner Centered

Key Points

Pay careful attention to the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs that learners bring to the educational setting.

Help students make connections between their previous knowledge and their current academic tasks

Implications to Design

Learners decide what, how, and when to learn based on their level, background, and prior knowledge with guidelines and suggestions from experts.

Learning Theory – How People LearnKnowledge Centered

Key Points

Help students become knowledgeable by learning in ways that lead to understanding and subsequent transfer.

help students develop an integrated understanding of disciplines - an overall picture rather than isolated parts.

Implications to Design

Skit writing, which mirrors real life situations, and conversation with native speakers can help students become knowledgeable by learning in ways that lead to integrated understanding and transfer

Learning Theory – How People LearnAssessment Centered

Key Points

Provide ongoing opportunities for feedback and revision

what is assessed must be congruent with one's learning goals.

Implications to Design

Encourage self-assessment and peer assessment

Emphasize the alignment between the assessment and the learning goals

Formative assessment as sources of on-going feedback to improve teaching and learning

Summative assessment to measure what students have learned at the end of some set of learning activities.

Learning Theory – How People LearnCommunity Centered

Key Points

Especially important are community norms for people learning from one another and continually attempting to improve

Connections to experts outside of school can have a positive influence on in-school learning.

Implications to Design Build a community to

connect learners who are experts of their own native language

Encourage learners to develop community rules and norms which foster learning

opportunities to interact receive feedback freedom to make

mistakes in order to learn.

Design Process The idea of this design originated the curriculum

designed by Angel and I for Beginning Conversational Chinese at Stanford: identified the learning problem in the winter quarter.

Further developed in Cliffod Nass' Computer and Interfaces class in winter quarter

Inspired by Roy Pea's The Online Community for the Service of Learning in the spring quarter.

Formed the initial design at the end of the spring quarter with extensive literature review and feedback from Deedee, Shelley, Susie, and LDT peers

Prototyped at the beginning of the summer. Refined iteratively with the feedback from

Deedee, Decker, Kihyun, and LDT peers and the data from ongoing user studies.

The Solution

An online community to connect distributed learners and develop their communicative competence in one another’s expert language, which is enabled by various Internet and web 2.0 technologies.

The Solution - Illustration

Alignment among Learning Activities, Theories, and ProblemsServices Features/Activities Learning Theories Learning Problem

Skit CenterTLLT E-Portfolio

Connect learners

Community centered

Provide learners opportunities to develop communicative competence, especially with native speakers, in a real social context in which the language is really used.

Skit Center

Write skit mirroring real lifeNegotiate the meanings, grammar rules, expressions, and cultural issuesCommunicate with people from different culture

Knowledge centeredCommunicative competenceIntercultural competenceTLLT

Communicate with people from different culture, it is real life. Serve as a model Help to understand Help to expressGive info about culture and life

Skit CenterTLLT

Learner decide what to learn Learner centered

Skit Center

Revise others' writing and be revised Compare with others' writing Assessment

centeredTLLT Correcting

E-Portfolio Feedback

Support Tools

How to UseAudio DictionaryLearning/Teacher Tips

Prototype Wiki site for Skit Center (online, platform provided by

JotSpot, I developed the user interface) “Talk to Learn and Learn to Talk” and Recording Tool:

Skype with PowerGramo (free download from the Internet, installed on learners’ computer)

Blogs for E-Portfolio to hold learners’ work and feedback (online, users decide which blog to use)

Supporting Tools Audio Dictionary (free download from the Internet,

installed on learners’ computer) User website (online on LDT server, I developed)

Suggested How to Use Learning tips Teacher tips

Quick User Guide

Go to the User Website (http://ldt.stanford.edu/~luwuping/tllt/) and read the user guide.

Download and install Skype (voice messaing), PowerGramo (recording tool), Kingsoft’s Powerword 2006 (audio dictionary) on your computer

Open an account at http://www.blogger.com/start/ to have your blog Register at http://chinaus.jot.com/ and post the contact info on the

member page Collaboratively contribute to the bilingual skits at

http://chinaus.jot.com/ Meanwhile, contact the other learners on the member page to find

your language learning partner After having found your learning partner, negotiate what, when, and

how to learn with your partner Talk to learn and learn to talk one another’s language via Skype. If

needed, use the bilingual skits and audio dictionary to scaffold and support your learning.

Record the conversation by using PowerGramo and post it on your blog for feedback

Also give your feedback to your partner on his or her blog.Enter

Learner Assessment

Services Activities Type of Assessment Assess What

Skit Center

Revising others' writingBeing revisedComparing with others' writing

Formative assessment (occur continuously)Self/Peer assessmentImprove teaching and learning

Use the language correctly and appropriately in a way which is culturally sound

TLLTCorrecting Being corrected

TLLTE-Portfolio

TEST

Summative assessment (occur at a key time) Peer/Teacher Assessment Measure what learners have learned at the end of some set of learning activities

Effectiveness Study

Study Methods Research Questions Purpose

User Study

Qualitative:ObservationsInterviewsQuestionnaire

Is the user guide clear?Do they use the tool as expected?Is it easy to use?Any feature particularly conducive to their learning?Are they engaged in the learning activities?Any difficulty?Any suggestion?

To improve the design iteratively

Program Evaluation

Experiment: Experiment & Control groupPre-test at the beginning of the quarterPost-test at the end of the quarterIndependent variables: participation (amount of entries and conversation time) and intervention.Dependent variables: performance gain (post-test minus pre-test)

Do the group using the tool achieve higher performance gain than the group not using the tool.Is the tool group subjects' participation positively correlated with their performance gain.

To evaluate the effectiveness of the product

Summary

The strength of this design is not attributable to the technology itself, but how to use the technology for the service of second language learning – integrating appropriate pedagogical approaches into the learning activities by wisely harnessing the affordance of the technology.

Strength

Theory-based design iteratively informed by learner feedback

Harness collective intelligence

Alignment among what to learn, how to learn, and how to assess

All technologies are free and easy use

learner-generated content to meet the learner’s needs and release the burden imposed on teachers/developers

Spread by words of mouth

Thanks

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