Granada’s
Art School, Granada, Nicaragua - Photo by Jonathan Acuña-Solano
Videoconferencing
in Online Teaching:
The
case of ELT
By Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano, M. Ed.
School of English
Faculty of Social Sciences
Universidad Latina de Costa Rica
Saturday, May 12, 2018
Post 319
After taking part of an online session
with Prof. Janet Bianchini from the Consultants-E in which we were discussing
the questions below, she sparked my interest for deepening myself into trying
to put in words what I think about different areas of online teaching in
English Language Teaching (ELT). And now that I am involved in piloting a
synchronous language course fully online with a flipped learning approach, I
feel the need to see, in black and white, what I am thinking of all this
project at this moment.
The areas that I want to explore
through my writing are the following, as the one suggested by my instructor on
our synchronous session:
a) Videoconferencing
chat and why to use it,
b) Benefits
and challenges for learners,
c) Benefits
and challenges for instructors, and
d) Any
other thought that can pop up in my mind.
Let us
explore together then a bit each of these areas based on my current experience
and gained expertise.
1
|
Why would you decide to use videoconferencing chat
in an online language course?
|
Now that I am piloting this
flipped-learning English program and teaching one its courses, many ideas
gallop into my neurons making lot of noise trying to climb to the surface when
videoconferencing in online course is named. In this course that I
instructionally designed and continue to develop even today, videoconferencing
plays an important role in student oral production. To start with, my students,
e. g., have to work on the course platform and must cover certain amount of
content before they show up to our virtual classroom to practice it. The LMS we
are currently using allows my learners to review vocabulary, watch short videos
with grammar explanations, get lots of controlled exercises to practice the new
content, and are exposed to reading exercises based on a thematic unit. And as
their instructor, I can see their progression and achievements inside the
platform.
But what about
oral production? Having a system where a
virtual classroom can be created to have a “regular, live” session with my
language trainees is the place to work with them and to have them produce.
Depending on the system that it is being used, breakout rooms can or cannot be
part of one’s session. Its presence or absence will guide how you will organize
the session to have even participation, to set up a take-turning technique for
speaking in class, the use of tools provided by the platform to work
collaboratively, and so on. In my situation, I have the chance to create
breakout rooms to pair up pupils, to have them work in small groups, and to
coach them individually or as part of a small segment of the whole cohort of
students in my class. Videoconferencing is a great addition because it allows
me to work with students despite their location and time zone.
2
|
What are some of the benefits and challenges for
learners in videoconferencing chats?
|
Bearing in mind the flipped learning
model I currently use with my online ELLs, there are different benefits I can easily
identify. As an instructor, who expects learners to have covered the content
they have been requested based on the course chronogram, I can work with
students in various areas; to start with I have the freedom to help them with
new vocabulary in terms of its pronunciation and right use in a conversational
context. The new structures they are studying autonomously are also practiced
with semi-controlled and free-production activities/tasks during the
videoconferencing sessions. Students can also take part in conversations where
I can monitor the use of new lexical items linked to the thematic unit being
studied, intonation why formulating questions or providing answers, and
intelligibility while communicating in conversational tasks. Learners profit
from these videoconferencing chats because they can be coached to improve their
production since they can be scaffolded from the beginning to the end or our
virtual sessions.
Though our first impression can be
that videoconferencing with partners can be tough for an online learner, this
can actually be handled without much trouble or anxiety. As the old dictum
states, “humans are animals of habit,” and like in any other routine activity
in life, the use of a videoconferencing platform can be mastered with a few
sessions. My language trainees, for instance, now ask me to activate the
virtual room’s whiteboard tools to write, to draw, to include a smiley, or to
upload a document or presentation for the class. And how did we get to this
point? We all arrived up to this point since part of my working sessions with
them allows pupils to grow more confident in the use of the virtual classroom
features and functionalities. That is, if they use it once, twice, three times,
they then know what to do the next time they are asked to do something on the
whiteboard. Though there are technical challenges for students, they can be
fixed with patience and with some good troubleshooting training carried out by
the instructor.
3
|
What are some of the
benefits and challenges for the online teacher in videoconferencing chats?
|
When I help in the training of new
teachers where I work for the online program, there are two things I never get
tired in repeating over and over again that can be capitalized as benefits or
can turn into challenges. Both of these things were well learned by me as a
webinar presenter time ago and as an online instructor. 1) Whatever you plan for a videoconference
with students may be “too much” to be covered in a single session.
As suggested by my many current and former online instructors, an agenda needs
to be planned to have good timing for the transition from one activity to the
next one. Time flies, but it flies faster when you are working with students
online. The dynamics is not exactly the same compared to when you are in a F2F
class; adjustments need to be made in one’s pacing. Therefore, the advantage of having this session agenda
(or lesson plan, if you prefer this term) is an advantage towards organizing
videoconferencing chats to be fruitful for both language trainees and their
instructor.
2) Do keep a notepad with you! Why? Well, it all
depends on the number of participants you have in your virtual classroom and
how the system displays them for you, the instructor. The challenge any instructor is going to face is the assurance of even
participation in a videoconferencing chat. Google Hangouts, Zoom,
Blackboard, GoToMeeting, Wiz IQ, Skype, etc. have a different way of allowing
the teacher to see people in the classroom. You will soon discover that
something needs to be done to assure some kind of even participation in the
virtual classroom. Regardless of the way these videoconferencing systems do it,
the notepad can help you monitor yourself and your language trainees by ticking
the number of times students participate in class. If you are the one asking
the questions, then the notepad can help you see who you are asking the most
and who you are forgetting in a corner of your virtual classroom.
4
|
Any other comments, thoughts or questions on using
videoconferencing with language learners.
|
The videoconferencing chatroom is a safe
place for both pupils and instructor. If it is well-managed by the instructor
(who we suppose has been well-trained to face technical difficulties), nothing
strange has to happen. As a concluding anecdote to what I have lived as an
online facilitator, I remember I was about to start class and my permanent
virtual classroom disappeared from the system. I had to find a quick solution
to begin my class, so I generated a new room, uploaded the instructional
material for the class, and went into my email to contact each and every
student. And, of course, I asked the first people to arrive to get in touch
with their peers to let them know of the new link for our video conference.
How would you have reacted towards
this situation? Another of our teachers had the same kind of problem the other
day but could not react in the same way. He contacted his supervisor, who in
turn reached me to ask for help. In the end, as I had discovered about my
“tough” situation was linked to the “cookies” and browsing history in my
laptop, something that can be easily fixed if proper training is provided to
teachers. It is for reasons like this that the instructor has to be ready to
face unexpected situations before or during a live session.
Journal
Entry 02 BlendIt Course
Saturday, May 12, 2018
Post a Comment