CC BY
39
Informational and Smart Technologies for Education DOI: 10.24411/2470-1262-2018-10003
UDC 14+00.4+004.7+37
Ibraim Didmanidze, Irma Bagrationi, Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University, Georgia
For citation: Didmanidze I., Bagrationi I. (2018),
The Issue of Student Distance Communication and Collaboration (for Foreign Language Teaching). Cross-Cultural Studies: Education and Science. Vol.3, Issue I, pp. 21-29 (in USA)
Received: February 03, 2018 CC BY 4.0
ВОПРОС О ДИСТАНЦИОННОЙ КОММУНИКАЦИИ И СОТРУДНИЧЕСТВА СТУДЕНТОВ (ДЛЯ ОБУЧЕНИЯ ИНОСТРАННОГО ЯЗЫКА)
THE ISSUE OF STUDENT DISTANCE COMMUNICATION AND
COLLABORATION (For Foreign Language Teaching)
Abstract
In the present paper we introduce a wide range of ways to use e-mail and computer-mediated communication in the classroom and the Internetfor communication andfor collaborative projects with students across classes in different parts of the world. We discuss the use of on-line communication in long-distance interaction - between students and miscellaneous international contacts, and among two or more classes organized in formal partnerships.
The present paper outlines that until recently the term "Distance Education" brought correspondence courses to mind. Profit and nonprofit organizations offered a wide variety of courses for students who were unable to attend, classes for one reason or another. Students could stay in their own homes, complete the assignments, and mail them to an address at a distant location. Students could take individual and independent courses for no credit or a series of courses for a certificate, a diploma, or a degree. Students were sometimes, but not always, required to complete a portion of the work at the organization's center. It was possible to receive a university degree without ever having set foot on a college campus.
The paper emphasises that the growth of distance learning offers teachers and students many new opportunities but also presents many challenges. The increasing role of commercial companies in distance education poses a threat to traditional academic institutions and may create pressure for mass, low-quality education. There is a concern that a small number of "superstars" will develop on-line course materials and that courses themselves may be taught by untrained assistants. Related to this issue is the question of who controls the electronic materials that teachers develop. If the ownership of the materials passes over to their employers, teachers fear that they might lose control over who uses the materials and how they are used.
Keywords: Process of Group Discussion, Interclass Projects, Foreign Language Teaching Technology, Academic Skills, Intercultural Communications
Introduction
It is generally known that computer-assisted language learning was a relatively specialized field in the 1970s and 1980s, attracting the attention of a small number of educators with a particular interest in computers. In the 1990s, though, with the popularization of the internet, the use of computers in language teaching expanded by leaps and bounds. For the first time, learners of the English language could practice the language 24 hours a day with native speakers or other learners around the world.
It is not difficult to see that today the significance of computer-mediated communication in society and the classroom is even greater. It is known as well, that some 3.4 trillion e-mail messages were sent in the United States alone in 1998, or more than 10,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. E-mail is also becoming a major form of business communication. In fact, in one survey of US business managers, e-mail actually ranked higher than telephone communication or even face-to-face communication as a frequent means of workplace interaction. With e-mail becoming a principal form of communication for business, academic and civic affairs, learning how to communicate and collaborate well in this medium must become a goal in its own right.
I. On Academic Skills in Distance Education for Intercultural Communications
As we know, there are several important technologies in the long-distance communication, which are important for successful development of foreign language education. It is known that keyboard pen pals, or key pals, correspond with each other via e-mail. Key pal exchanges can provide motivational benefits for beginning- and intermediate-level learners, who get satisfaction from using their new language in authentic communication. Learners at all levels can benefit from key pal exchanges if these exchanges have enough structure to keep the students interested and active. However, key pal exchanges designed without a specific purpose or task may lose their appeal and benefits over time.
Key pals can be found in partner classes or on Websites where individuals sign up for partners. We and our students should decide whether we prefer other English learners or native speakers as 22
key pals. Here it needs to be noticed that in organizing key pal exchanges, keep in mind that not all key pals are equally responsive. It can be quite disappointing when a few students in a class have not received replies from their key pals. As T. Robb points out, "students should thus correspond with more than one key pal to increase the chance that communication will be ongoing" [10, pp. 104-105]. Another way to compensate for individual dropout is to have people communicate in small groups rather than one-to-one.
It is interesting for us that expert interviews are similar to key pal exchanges, but they take place between learners of English and people who are chosen for their degree of expertise. They may be informants on cultural issues (e. g., native speakers of English or residents of a particular country, region, or state under examination) or experts in a topical area (e. g., related to science, literature, or business). Experts can be located by us or, in high-intermediate or advanced classes, by the students. We can supply the topics for the interviews, or the students can develop them. Interviews and discussion can be held on an ongoing basis or during a single on-line appearance via a Web board or a chat room. For example, a teacher of high school students in Paris who are interested in space shuttles could invite a scientist at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, to meet them in a chat room for a question-and-answer session. A teacher of elementary school students in Minneapolis who want to learn about minority groups in their community could ask a local government official to respond to students' questions on an electronic bulletin board. Students in Tokyo, Japan, who are studying about Australia might want to carry out a series of interviews which students in Sydney, Australia. If possible, we can structure such contacts into a larger set of activities that includes preliminary instruction in the types of language functions the students will need to conduct the interviews and post interview assignments in which students actively use the information gathered.
Another way to provide more structure in e-mail writing is through the planning and implementation of surveys. As Jerry Farber mentions, "We or our students can locate informants in different parts of the world through key pal sources, through chat rooms and discussion forums on the World Wide Web, or through our own contacts. Students can than work in groups to design surveys to conduct via e-mail. After conducting the surveys, the students tabulate the results and present them to their classmates in written or oral presentations" [2, pp. 127-128].
Based on our specific goal, we think that the potential dangers of commercialized distance education are catching the attention of educators. In his famous work "Distance Learning: Promise or Threat?" Andrew Feenberg1 writes: "Once the stepchild of the academy, distance learning is finally taken seriously. But not in precisely the way early innovators like myself had hoped. It is not faculty who are in the forefront of the movement to network education. Instead politicians, university administrations and computer and telecommunications companies have decided there is money in
1 Based on our scientific interest, we must note here, that Andrew Feenberg is Canada Research Chair in Philosophy of Technology in the School of Communication, Simon Fraser University, where he directs the Applied Communication and Technology Lab. He is the author of "Distance Learning: Promise or Threat?", "My Adventures in Distance Learning", and "The Question of Distance Learning Technology". He is also best recognized as an early innovator in the field of online education, a field he helped to create in the early 20th century.
it" [3, pp. 44-45]. In his famous book "Building a Global Network: Computerizing the International Community" Andrew Feenberg points out: "First, administrators and businessmen should forget the idea that distance learning systems based on video-conferencing and star professors will replace face-to-face classroom education. The dream of automating the educational process has failed so often in the past that there is little reason to take it seriously on this, the nth round. Second, politicians need to be realistic about the future costs of higher education. Distance learning is not going to be a cheap replacement for campuses. Some other solution to the parking problem will have to be found. The campus experience will remain in demand for the foreseeable future. Third, the overselling of foolish ideas about technology should not be allowed to discredit the whole field of online education. We as faculty need to get beyond defensive contempt for this significant educational innovation and look at specific designs with legitimate pedagogical objectives in mind. Fourth, the educational technologists themselves need to continue to work creatively with faculty and students to devise truly viable applications that fulfill real needs. There are good reasons for sticking with interactive text based systems and supplementing them with visual and other online resources, rather than attempting to duplicate face-to-face education online. The design challenge of improving the original text based systems is well worth pursuing" [4, pp. 121-122].
It is not difficult to see that some faculty are beginning to protest threatening trends in distance education. Faculty members at York University in Canada went on strike to defend their ownership of electronic materials they create. David Franklin Noble2, writing in "Digital Diploma Mills", describes a letter signed by several hundred faculty members in the state of Washington, in the United States, in protest to speeches given by Washington's governor praising digital education. The letter reads: "We feel called upon to respond before quixotic ideas harden into disastrous policies. While costly fantasies of this kind present a mouth-watering bonanza to software manufacturers and other corporate sponsors, what they bode for education is nothing short of disastrous... Education is not reducible to the downloading of information, much less to the passive and solitary activity of staring at a screen. Education is an inter-subjective and social process, involving hands-on activity, spontaneity, and the communal experience of sharing in the learning enterprise" [8, pp. 164-165]. In his famous work "Digital Diploma Mills" David Franklin Noble writes: "The book began life as a series of articles on the automation of higher education, written from the trenches. Having studied the automation of other industries and its consequences for the workers of those industries, especially in my book "Forces of Production" and having tried in my own way to contribute to their struggles, I suddenly and unexpectedly became witness to the very same assault on the industry in which I worked. What I had learned, what I presumed to know, would now be put to the test of practice, on my colleagues' and my own behalf. Did historical understanding and experience of the trials of others give us any advantage in our own? What were the lessons of those earlier episodes that might be applied here, to forestall and potentially reverse this latest offensive on people's lives and livelihoods? First and foremost, my knowledge endowed me with a small degree of foresight, and the conviction that all too often in
2 Based on our scientific and specific goal, we must note here that David Franklin Noble is a Canadian critical historian of technology, science and education. He is best known for his seminal work on the social history of automation. He currently teaches in the Division of Social Science, and the department of Social and Political Thought at York Humanitarian University in Toronto. 24
the past people had only belatedly realized the dimensions of the calamity that had befallen them, too late to act effectively in their own interest. Thus, above all these papers were written to sound an early alarm, a warning timely enough to provide some opportunity for defensive preparation and the envisioning of alternatives" [8, p. 207].
We may want our students to have the chance to participate in group discussions with other English learners from around the world. Some students will likely become addicted to these or other international discussion sites and spend a great deal of time communicating there. Others will become bored quickly. Either group, though, will most likely benefit from structured activities that help establish communicative goals or tasks. We can ask students to conduct interviews or surveys, post a minimal number of messages and report back on them, or otherwise participate in discussions in a way that feeds into class objectives [13, p. 95]. The types of international communication we involve our students in will depend a great deal on the level, age, and goals of our students. More advanced students, such as those at the undergraduate or graduate level, need to learn how to participate in international communication for professional and academic networking. For example, graduate students in an intensive English program at the University of Hawai'i were required to find and join an e-mail discussion list related to their own professional interests and were taught strategies for using e-mail to network effectively in their fields [9, pp. 110-111]. In this sense, electronic communication becomes more than a vehicle for practicing general English. For the students, it is a means for mastering the kinds of professional communication required of them.
II. Language Teaching Technologies for Student Distance Collaboration
It is best known that interclass projects involve two or more classes from different parts of the world working together via the Internet toward common goals and objectives. Usually, planning and implementing interclass projects requires a great deal of time and energy, and in some cases these projects achieve disappointing results because of logistical or coordination difficulties. Yet, when long-distance interclass projects are well organized among like-minded partners, the results can open up students' lives to forms of international communication, collaboration, action, and learning that they may have never experienced before. Interclass projects usually involve five stages: a) planning, b) contact, c) investigation, d) finale, and e) evaluation.
a) The many logistical and pedagogical challenges in organizing an interclass project make careful planning essential. After having worked together on several interclass Internet projects, R. Corio and C. Meloni have developed the following guidelines to take into consideration when choosing partners and launching an Internet interclass projects [1, pp. 171-172]:
1. Students' level: The two or more groups of English learners brought together for a project should be at approximately the same level of English language proficiency.
2. Schedule: The class schedules of the participating classes, including their vacation schedules, should match as closely as possible.
3. Objectives: If possible, the course objectives should be similar. If one course is a writing course and the other is a conversation course, devising a joint project is difficult though not impossible [1, pp. 190-191]. (In such a situation, the students could work together but complete different final products; e. g., an oral presentation for the other.)
b) Once the partners have been selected and the project planned, the next step is establishing contact among the students. We can use any of the media discussed in this section - e-mail lists, Web boards and chat rooms - to facilitate contact. And other non-electronic means should be considered as well. It is often effective to personalize the project by exchanging culture packets (through the postal service) that contain items such as school newspapers, or banners. In the early stages of a project, students should develop teams (at one site or across sites, depending on the nature of the project) and should be encouraged to engage in friendly introductions. Taking time for some personal communication will humanize the long-distance partners and establish better working relations, not to mention making the project a more enjoyable experience for everyone.
Our opinion is that the next stage of the project inevitably involves some kind of collaborative inquire. This might fall into one of the following categories:
1. Culture: Students exchange experiences about their own cultural backgrounds, looking at topics such as oral histories of family members; poetry, folklore, or religion in their community; or religious beliefs and values. For example, S. Gaer organized a project in which adult students of English shared folktales with middle school students, who used the folktales to write and illustrate books that they gave back to the adults [5, pp. 134-135].
2. Literature and film: Students read the same books or watch the same films. For example, B. Soh and Y. Soon organized a project in which English learners in Singapore and in Montreal, Canada, read and discussed stories in English reflecting each group's culture [11, pp. 101-102].
3. Community: Students work in teams to investigate and compare social, environmental, political, cultural aspects of their communities. For example: An American Scientist A. Hess has organized several "cities projects", in which students from several locations investigated their communities and published detailed electronic guides and videos [7, pp. 140-141].
4. Academic research: Students form teams according to their academic interests and share notes. For example, R. Vilmi organized a project involving joint academic research by teams of six to eight students with similar academic backgrounds in several countries. Comparing magazine and newspaper articles on a particular topic from the perspective of eleven different countries was one of the most interesting aspects of the project [12, pp. 182-183].
5. Simulation: Teams of students work on simulated solutions to real problems, in the process working together to prepare reports, brochures, curriculum vitae, cover letters, funding proposals, speeches, and other documents. In one elaborate simulation, students in fourteen countries worked in teams representing various national delegations and nongovernmental organizations to develop a new draft treaty for a United Nations conference on the Law of the Sea. They learned negotiation, writing, communication and language skills as well as many technical skills, such as how to upload and download documents to and from Internet.
As it turns out, interclass projects should build up to some kind of final product or presentation. This helps guarantee that "the students not only develop chatting skills but are strongly encouraged to put all their communication, language and technical skills toward producing a high-quality package". This product might be a jointly produced video, a printed newspaper, an oral presentation for other classes at their school, a simulated newscast, or a written
brochure. In many cases, the final document will be published on-line as a way of sharing it with the partner class and with others around the world.
It needs to be noticed here, that the final stage of an interclass project is evaluation. The nature of such projects, which are based on long-distance collaborative work, necessitates alternative approaches to evaluation. The following are some types of evaluation to consider:
1. Portfolios: Allow the students to submit a portfolio of their work, based on a final product, documents produced along the way, e-mail messages, and other relevant documents.
2. Self-assessment: Have the students evaluate their own work in groups.
3. Contracts: Have individuals or groups negotiate contracts at the beginning of the process in which they specify their learning objectives and activities
As Linda Harasim underlines, "evaluation of another sort takes place when students on one team judge the work of other teams in order to determine the winner of a simulation or a contest" [6, pp. 211-212]. In such cases, students' work can be presented on the Web for review and evaluation by the other international teams.
Also, we need to evaluate the overall project. This can be accomplished by analyzing print or on-line texts, surveying or interviewing students, and analyzing classroom processes with the assistance of videotape or observation notes. Including on-line, project-based into class learning as a central element of language teaching represents a substantial new direction, and interested teachers should document the strengths and weaknesses of their efforts as completely as possible. For example: In the US-Siber Link international collaborative project, students at two United States' universities (the University of California, Santa Barbara, and George Washington University in Washington) and one university in Russia (Yakutsk State University, Yakutsk, Siberia) collaborated on academic and field research. The primary objectives of the project were to (a) provide students with authentic writing and reading opportunities, (b) inform students about a particular content area (the Y2K computer problem), (c) acquaint students with the culture of three diverse cities, and (d) familiarize students with the use of multimedia on the Internet [12, pp. 170-171]. The project had four phases:
1. The students learned about each other via photos and brief autobiographies posted to the Web site. They also became familiar with the cultures of the three cities via selected informational Websites and gained the necessary skills in using e-mail and the Web.
2. The students began to gather general information on a specific content area, potential computer problems related to the advent of the year 2004. They watched and listened to lectures and read materials about Y2K for background knowledge.
3. The students were divided into net groups. Each net group focused on a different aspects of the Y2K problem (e. g., the impact of Y2K on financial institutions, airlines, private citizens). Members of each group conducted interviews with local residents in their respective cities and exchanged the results via e-mail.
4. Each net group prepared a final report, which was posted to the project's Web site.
Conclusion
We believe that, as shown by the many examples presented in this paper, on-line learning can be an "inter-subjective and social process, involving spontaneity and the communal experience of sharing in the learning enterprise", as the faculty in Washington demand. The technology available offers exciting possibilities for enhancing interaction at a distance. But such results are not ensured. Teachers need to actively participate in determining the direction of distance education so that online courses and programs are developed with teachers' and students' interests in mind. Teachers should join together to demand that distance education programs maintain standards of staffing, program quality and assessment. And educators should certainly work to keep ownership and creative control of their own products and materials.
Finally, as Simon Yates points out, "education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire" [14, pp. 203-204]. In our experience, there is no better means to light students' fire than to involve them in authentic and challenging communication, inquiry, and problem solving using computers and the Internet. To accomplish this, teachers have to rethink traditional ways of teaching. They must engage in acts of creative imagination and ask their students to do the same. The positive results achieved are sometimes matched by the frustrations of technical problems or the difficulty of trying open-ended tasks in narrowly defined academic time periods. But we believe the process is worthwhile, and necessary, if teachers are to help students achieve their full potential in the age of information technology.
From the above-mentioned and taking into consideration history of information technologies of education we may conclude that most important, as education extends from the classroom to the computer screen, we should never lose sight of the human factor in foreign language teaching. Language learning, more than almost any other discipline, is a social endeavor.
References:
1. Corio, R. & Meloni, C., (1995) The Guidelines Net Project. //Computer Assisted English Language Learning, A handbook for teachers, Alexandria, "TESOL" (In English).
2. Farber Jerry, (2009) "The Third Circle: On Education and Distance Learning", Journal "Sociological Perspectives", Vol. 41, No. 4, "California Academy of Sciences", California.
3. Feenberg Andrew, (1999), "Distance Learning: Promise or Threat?" Journal "Computer Conferencing and the Humanities", № 7, "Oxford University Press", Oxford (In English).
4. Feenberg Andrew, (2001), Building a Global Network: Computerizing the International Community, in L. Harasim, ed., "MIT Press", Cambridge (In English).
5. Gaer, S., (1995), Folktales around the world // In M. Warschauer (Ed.), Virtual connections: Online activities and projects for networking language learners, Honolulu: University of Hawai'i, Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center (In English).
6. Harasim Linda, S. Hiltz and M. Turoff, (1998), "Learning Networks: A Field Guide to Teaching and Learning Online", New York, "Robert Appleton Company" (In English).
7. Hess, A., (1995), Writing around the world-telecommunications and English: The Cities Project, New York: New York University, American Language Institute (In English)
8. Noble David (1999), "Digital Diploma Mills: The Automation of Higher Education", Digital Diploma Mills Conference, "Harvey Mudd College", Boston (In English).
9. Oberg Christopher, (2007), "The Price of Information Technology in the Future of Higher Education", Digital Diploma Mills Conference, "Harvey Mudd College", Boston (In English).
10. Robb, T., (1994), E-mail keypals for language fluency//In M. Warschauer (Ed.), Virtual Connections: Online Activities and Projects for Networking Language Learners, Honolulu: University of Hawai'i, Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center (In English)
11. Soh, B. & Soon, Y., (1991), English by E-mail: Creating a Global Classroom via the Medium of Computer Technology, ELT Journal, №45 (In English)
12. Vilmi, R., (2000), International Environment Activity//In M. Warschauer (Eds.), Network-based Language Teaching: Concepts and practice, Cambridge: "Cambridge University Press".
13. Warschauer, M., (1999), Electronic Literacies: Language, Culture and Power in Online Education, Mahwah, "NJ: Erlbaum" (In English)
14. Yates, S., (1996), Oral and Written Linguistic Aspects of Computer Conferencing: A Corpus-based Study//Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, "University of Oregon at Eugene".
Information about the authors:
Ibraim Didmanidze - Doctor of Information Technology, Associate Professor of Batumi Shota
Rustaveli State University (Georgia, Batumi, Ninoshvili Street 35, 6010)
Mobile Phone: (+995) 599 276 600.
E-mail: ibraimd@ mail.ru
Irma Bagrationi - Doctor of Philosophy is an Assistant Professor (in Philosophy) of Batumi
Shota Rustaveli State University (Georgia, Batumi, Ninoshvili Street 35, 6010)
Mobile Phone: (+995) 599 947 668.
E-mail: irma.bagrationi@bsu.edu.ge
