Personal Reflection #2

It's been a couple of weeks since the course started and though it's been hectic at times balancing this course, my work and my life outside the classroom I am glad that I have pursued this path. Since starting my Masters in DTLT I have rekindled my love for technology on a nuts and bolts level. While I always maintained a fondness for shiny new gadgets, I had lost touch with the new wave of online programmes, social media, apps etc. DTLT put be back in touch with my roots, so to speak, with the group sharing various different tools for utilising technology in the classroom, such as the popplet and QR codes.

However, I haven't just been shown new tricks and gadgets. It has sparked in me again an interest to seek out different resources and tech that I could use in the classroom and in my daily life. For example, I have downloaded a new budget app to my phone to help limit my spending and I have started to use Class Dojo in my classroom management system. The children seem to have taken to it well, and it has opened up a new avenue of communication between myself and the parents, which before was pretty much non-existent. I feel much more like a teacher now, not only having communication with parents, but also the sense of responsibility. No longer am I hidden away in my classroom. The parents can actively see and comment on what I am doing in the classroom. Time will tell if this is for better or worse but so far the results have been positive.

In a practice what you preach style approach, I felt the need to 'up my game' so to speak with my use of technology in the classroom. I found I had been getting stale and repetitive doing the same tasks over and over again. As mentioned in our tutorials, it has now become so easy to amass resources like PPTs and Word documents, store them on a USB drive and just dust them off again whenever the needs be.

Now, I have created more original content for my classes and am trying to add more elements to the lessons where the students can utilise the technological resources available to them. What differs from before though is that now I am much more conscious of technology being 'methodologically neutral' as Blake (2008: 27)  put it

"how these tools are used and to what principled ends define the scope of a methodology, but the mere use of technology by itself will not improve the curriculum."

Im not just using technology for the sake of technology's sake, but that I actually think it will improve the lesson and the material that is being taught.

Prenksy's thoughts on the Digital Native has caused me to reflect upon my teachings more. Am I teaching my students in the best way to suit their needs? Are some kid's disinterest or unruly nature affected by the way I conduct lessons or my Immigrant views on technology?

I am also quite keen to better understand VLE's and PLE's, perhaps offering the students a greater freedom to study, especially with project work and such. Im looking forward to the tutorial this Friday and the weeks to come and continuing my education in Education.

Bibliography:

1. Blake, R. (2008) Brave new digital classroom: technology and foreign language learning. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, [electronic resource]

The Digital Native Debate

The Digital Native v Digital Immigrant debate created when Prensky first coined the phrases has certainly ignited serious discussion over the years and perhaps this was his intention. That so many were enamored by his proposal without much evidence to the fact was brought up in our discussions. Such buzzwords are wont to do, with people actively searching for words to define whole groups or even generations of people such as Generation X, the Baby Boomers and so on. In fact, my first thought upon reading it was a scene from The Simpsons where TV executives are just using a series of buzzwords to make their point, rather than saying anything of substance.

Credit: 20th Century Fox

That this was my initial reaction to Prenksy's thoughts shows I wasn't overly enamoured with his preachings. And it did seem like preaching at times

"school often feels pretty much as if we've brought in a population of heavily accented, unintelligible foreigners to lecture them."

(Prensky: 2001: 2)

Natives vs Immigrants

Part of what irked me was that Prensky wrote as if we Digital Immigrants were somehow inferior to Digital Natives. I'm sure Bill Gates or Larry Page would take issue with being called an 'unintelligible foreigner' with regards to technology. Prenksy and articles agreeing with his analogy tended to take a stance that all counters to their argument were invalid and retorted with in a way akin to a petulant teenager 'You just don't understand!'

As Bayne & Ross (2011:162) put it

"Any critique of technology, its role in education, or its implementation, as long as it comes from an 'immigrant', can be quickly compartmentalised as belonging to a marginalised, illegitimate voice."

Over-simplification

Another thing I disliked about his Digital Native and Digital Immigrant analogy was that it was far too black and white. You're either a Native or an Immigrant. There was no grey area in between. In his conclusion (Prenksy 2001: 6), he urges Digital Immigrants to change their ways and that it's

"high time for them to stop their grousing, and as the Nike motto of the Digital Native generation says, “Just do it!”

I wonder if Prensky was aware that the Nike 'Just Do It' campaign launched in 1988. Again, I saw this as another way to gleam over the harsher realities and make his idea more appealing.

I also found myself again more inclined to agree with Bayne & Ross (2011:160), who were in turn quoting Kerri Lee Krause:

"experiences and understandings of technology vary significantly according to socio-economic background, age and gender - the 'assumption of homogeneity is misleading and dangerous' she concludes(2007:138)" 

Analogy, not truth

My final complaint with Prensky's writings was that it drew parallels with areas of language learning and made tenuous comparisons with them to fit into his Digital Native ideology, passing them off as truths, when in fact they were ungrounded and simply constructs of his own making. Just because something fits in a metaphor, doesn't mean it is true in the real world.

"Smart adult immigrants accept that they don't know about their new world and take advantage of their kids to help them learn and integrate."

I would assume smart adult immigrants would try to assimilate into the culture themselves, and not through their children, but remember in Prensky's world this is an impossibility. While I can see the idea he is trying to put across, where the children are immersed in a new language or culture and have an advantage over their predecessors in this sense.  Sure, little Johnny could help his grandma set up an twitter account, but Granny could also learn it from her friends, a teacher or maybe look it up herself online. Also, as stated before, this greatly depends on various factors on Jonny's ability to help at all. If Granny doesn't have previous access to a computer, perhaps neither does Jonny.


Discussion, I think, is the essence of Prensky's idea. He set up this analogy in order to stir controversy and spark debate among the Educational community and it was not all doom and gloom. I did agree with many of the points he made and the overall idea he put forward that Digital Natives learn differently is very intriguing. In fact, I found Prensky's follow up From Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants to Digital Wisdom a lot more palatable.

"Technology alone will not replace intuition, good judgement, problem-solving abilities, and a clear moral compass"

                                                   (Prensky: 2009:1)

Digital Wisdom

In fact, I found the concept of digital wisdom pretty fascinating and how simple everyday things that I have taken for granted through the use of technology has freed our minds to concentrate on the larger picture, while the computer takes care of the more mundane tasks. Prenksy's so-called Wisdom Enhancement allows us many advantages as he (Prensky: 2009: 3) outlined as such:

• We make decisions based on only a portion of the available data.
• We make assumptions, often inaccurate, about the thoughts or intentions of others.
• We depend on educated guessing and verification (the traditional scientific method) to find new
answers.
• We are limited in our ability to predict the future and construct what-if scenarios.
• We cannot deal well with complexity beyond a certain point.
• We cannot see, hear, touch, feel, or smell beyond the range of our senses.
• We find it difficult to hold multiple perspectives simultaneously.
• We have difficulty separating emotional responses from rational conclusions.
• We forget.

The last example really struck a chord with me. Something so simple as forgetting a birthday or even what date it is, can often make me feel foolish, but a computer never forgets and the simple act of a Facebook reminder to wish someone a happy birthday, or a quick check on my smartphone to jot todays date on a form, spares me this foolishness.

However, the simple act of checking my phone for a birthday doesn't make me wise. It's the fact that I no longer need to waste my cognitive effort in remembering the date and can concentrate on other areas, such as thinking about what present to buy, who to invite etc., that allows my wisdom to flow. The number crunching power of computers have allowed mathematicians to theorise permutations involving enormous figures that would be physically impossible to do by hand in a lifetime.

"scientists no longer have to make educated guesses, construct hypotheses and models, and test them with data-based experiments and examples. Instead, they can mine the complete set of data for patterns that reveal effects, producing scientific conclusions without further experimentation"

(Prensky:2009: 4)

As I said in my previous post, I am a big fan of fantasy football, and I saw many similarities between it and the world of Digital Wisdom. The sheer wealth of data available to fantasy managers to draw conclusions about players is truly staggering. Simon March, last years winner of Fantasy Football, confessed that he didn't watch many games at all last season, and made most of his decisions based off of stats.

"There obviously are advantages to watching matches, though, but not being able to can force you to think about players differently and, perhaps, in terms closer to how FPL is scored. And adopting that mindset can definitely work to your favour"

Conclusion 

Whether Prensky was right or not to segregate humanity into Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants ultimately is not the question that needs answering. Technology is an ever-growing presence in our lives, and even more so, in the lives of the younger generations. As ever, how we adapt our teaching to suit the needs of the learner is central to our progression in education. What needs to be done to create a more suitable education system for the Digital Native or Digitally Wise? I have noticed that Week 6, the next week of our course deals with Virtual Learning Environments (VLE) and Personal Learning Environments (PLE). Could these be a true benefit to the youth of today or simply pandering to the 'buzzword' of a generation? Or is it simply a case where the the teacher has one more area of integration to work with in the classroom?

Bibliography;

1. Bayne, S. & Ross, J.  (2011) 'Digital Natives' and 'Digital Immigrants' Discourses. A Critique. In R. Land and S. Bayne (Eds.), Digital Difference: Perspectives on Online Learning. 2011. Sense Publishers. pp. 159-169
2. FANTASY FOOTBALL SCOUT, Interview - Simon March - Fantasy Premier League Winner [online]. London: Fantasy football Scout, 2015. [viewed 13 November 2015]. Available from: http://www.fantasyfootballscout.co.uk/2015/05/29/interview-simon-march-fantasy-premier-league-winner/
3. Prensky, M. (2001) Digital native, digital immigrants. On immigrants. On the Horizon 9, 5. MCB University Press 
4. Prensky, (2009) M. H.Sapiens Digital: From Digital Immigrants and Digital Natives to Digital Wisdom. Innovate Online. 

Technology and the Mind

One of the key discussions this week was 'can technology truly change a persons mind?' Prensky (2001:1) argued that

"today's students think and process information fundamentally different from their predecessors"

When most of us think of technology changing the human brain, we immediately think of some cyborg-like creation of a person linked up to a computer and such. However, the reality is much less hardware orientated and much more innocuous than one may think.

One of the more extreme ways technology affects the mind was brought to my attention via this Ted Talk with Susan Greenfield.

Technology and the Human Mind | Susan Greenfield | TedxOxford

In it, she explains how technology can actually physically alters the brain. For example, the dopamine centre of the brain may grow larger in gamers and look similar to that of an addict or gambler.

However, it could be argued however, that this is not due to the technology per se, and just how people in general react to any stimulus. As mentioned in the comparison, drug addicts and gamblers show similar effects. It seems much more related to the human condition than it is to technology, but nonetheless, these peoples brains have changed due to interaction with technology and we must be respectful of this. In fact, it has been documented how many games are designed to be addictive intentionally. Dr. John Hopson, who is a games researcher at Mircosoft and holds a doctorate in behavioral and brain sciences, had this to say

"Each contingency is an arrangement of time, activity and reward, and there are an infinite number of ways these elements can be combined to produce the pattern of activity you want from your players."

However, what most intrigued me from our weekly readings was something entirely more subtle. The simplest things can often have the most drastic consequences. Simply the fact that information is not only stored outside of the Human brain but also that such data can be collected and harnessed easily has freed up the human mind from the more mundane fact checking and data collection and allows people to think more about the bigger question. No longer wondering 'what are the results?'  but 'what do these results mean?' It also allows access to huge amounts of data, allowing researchers to see the broader picture and a much greater scope to base their judgements on.

In am not simply talking about researchers conducting some science experiment in white lab coats. No, I am talking about normal human beings in their everyday life. Salesmen looking at a target demographic, stockbrokers  estimating potential market falls and rises. Even suggestions on what to view next on Netflix are based off an algorithm of what viewers of the same show were also interested in.

I myself have a keen interest in Fantasy Football, in particular fantasy.premierleague.com. I am a member of numerous groups and blogs devoted to fantasy football and some of the stats used by people to make their decisions are truly mind blowing - number of touches a player has in the opponents box, heat maps showing the average playing position of a player. No stone is left unturned. Freed from the tediousness of having to manipulate this data themselves for something so trivial as Fantasy Football, allows players of the game a much larger scope for them to adjust their teams.

Source: https://fpldiva.wordpress.com/

This is one of many stats made by FPLDiva and I have approached him on the subject of how he utilises these stats to make his deductions.  I am currently awaiting his reply on the topic.

Nonetheless, this seems to be a perfect example of of Prensky's (2009: 1) Digital Wisdom

"Digital wisdom is a twofold concept, referring both to wisdom arising from the use of digital technology to access cognitive power beyond our innate capacity and to wisdom in the prudent use of technology to enhance our capabilities"

So what does this mean for language learning?


Changes in the way people think naturally has a huge bearing on any field of education. However, we are not talking about an evolutionary trait where somehow the younger generation are more in tune with computers, but more how the world has changed due to technology and how these 'Digital Natives' perceive the world around them, and the information it holds.  If the youths of today really learn differently then it is our duty as teachers to accommodate their needs and do what is best for them. Many have grown up with Google translate and spell-checker fixing their mistakes, or creating more errors as the case may be. Who are we then to deny them access to such when on task in the classroom? Why are phones often banned entirely in the classroom? Often there is a great temptation there for the student to go off task but perhaps they are not entirely to blame. Are our lessons too long? Too monotonous or too lacking in stimulus for the modern student?

Bibliography:

1. Hopson, J. Behavioral Game Design [online]. USA: Gamasutra, 2001 [viewed 13th November 2015] Available from: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3085/behavioral_game_design.php?page=1
2. Prensky, M. (2001) Digital native, digital immigrants. On immigrants. On the Horizon 9, 5. MCB University Press 
3. Prensky, (2009) M. H.Sapiens Digital: From Digital Immigrants and Digital Natives to Digital Wisdom. Innovate Online.

The Role of the Teacher

There was a lot of talk about the role of the teacher in regards to SLA and technology in this week's readings and in the online tutorial. I found myself pressing further back to its very essence. In its basic form, just what is a teacher?

Douwe Beijaard (Beijaard et al, 2000: 751) stated that

 'teachers derive their professional identity from (most combinations of) the ways they see themselves as subject matter experts, pedagogical experts, and didactical experts.'

However, what if you were to remove any of these aspects? Has technology made these elements redundant? In our online tutorial, it was mentioned how Adelaide University had cancelled all lecture-style classes and replaced them with online video-lectures.

"If students can get the material online, they are not going to come to lectures"

                                                (Warren Bebington, vice-chancellor University of Adelaide)

I am, for the most part, self-taught in Korean, and though I am nowhere near fluent, I would say that my Korean is passable. In fact, I would nearly go so far as to say that anything can be self-taught if given enough time and opportunities. Consider a Groundhog Day-like situation. Having an infinite time to study and practice by himself, Bill Murray's character becomes adept in ice-sculpting, playing the piano and reciting French poetry.

Now this of course is a fictional occurrence, but the question still stands. Are time, money, and, in some regards, human ethics the only true factors hindering a person's learning? Give a man an endless supply of bodies, could he successfully remove an appendix? Trial and error would suggest he could, though it would leave a lot of cadavers in the morgue.

But what if you take away the unrealistic notion of countless bodies piling up and replaced it with a realistic simulation, giving the person countless attempts to succeed? Could a man learn to land a Boeing jet simply by using a flight simulator? In 2008, Polyphony Digital, creators of the Gran Turismo racing games, teamed up with Sony and Nissan to create GT Academy, a competition within the Gran Turismo games that gives winners a chance to become real racing drivers. The 2011 winner, Jann Mardenborough, is now a single-seater racecar driver for Redbull. 

            

"Interestingly, Mardenborough's video game experience means that he benefits more from simulator work than even some seasoned professionals do. Some pro racing drivers struggle to benefit from sim racing because they are so used to practicing in the real car."

                                                                  (Joseph Barron, Gamestop, 2014)

This seems a fitting example of the Digital Native v Digital Immigrant as posed by Prensky (Prensky, 2001: 2) in that the previous generation just can't adjust to the modern methodologies and tech.

 'There are hundreds of examples of the digital immigrant accent. They include printing out your email (or having your secretary print it out for you – an even “thicker” accent); needing to print out a document written on the computer in order to edit it (rather than just editing on the screen); and bringing people physically into your office to see an interesting web site (rather than just sending them the URL).'

However, it must be noted that in all these examples, these people didn't do it all alone. Currently, I am seeing a Korean tutor to improve my speaking skills. Jann Mardenborough required an instructor for his transition from gamer to racecar driver and even Bill Murray had a piano tutor. At some point, a teacher was necessary to:

1) Provide guidance and assistance
2) Accelerate the process
3) Ensure peoples safety

1) Provide guidance and assistance

Almost every Educational Theorist has now distanced themselves from the 'chalk-and'talk' style autocratic teacher of yesteryear. Beijaard stated that  'Teaching is much more than the transition of Knowledge' and that 'Teaching cannot be reduced to a technical or instrumental action that results in learning gains with students' (Beijaard et al, 2000: 751). Classes are now more focused on intrinsic learning, with the students front and centre, discovering information and knowledge, creating ideas for themselves, with the teacher acting as a facilitator to their needs.

2) Accelerating the process

Quite simply, at times it is a lot easier to be shown what to do than to figure it out for yourself. Perhaps the whole process is intricate or complex, or perhaps you just don't have the time to waste. If I'm paying for guitar lessons, then I'd rather be told where the D chord is than to spend the whole lesson trying to figure it out myself.

Now, this could be seen as a form of guidance, and a good teacher will generally know when to let the students figure it out for themselves and when to step in. However, sometimes, such as the case with Jann Mardenborough, where a lot of time and money was on the line, they simply couldn't just guide him through the process.

3) Ensure peoples safety

Safety isn't just about physical harm. It's easy to see how a driving instructor keeps you safe during a driving lesson, or a carpenter showing his apprentice how to use a lathe, but what about in a less hands-on classroom? In my last post I mentioned how social anxiety is a hindrance to language acquisition. As such, so too is it the responsibility of the teacher to ensure a safe nurturing environment for his/her students.

Conclusion:

Of course, this is quite a large simplification of the role of the teacher and words such as guidance and nurturing were skimmed over lightly, but make no mistake, these are huge roles to fill in a person's education. It was merely an attempt by me to deconstruct the idea of a teacher and view it fundamentally.

So what does this all mean? Another Doomsday prediction of the end of teachers? Not at all. Just simply another viewpoint highlighting the necessity for teachers to distance themselves from the 'chalk-and-talk' and step into the role that the students need them to provide. In this Digital Age where information is abundant and you can play computer games that teach you physics and how to build and land a space shuttle, the teacher needs to refine his/her role in the students learning. I am reminded again of our core reading this week of Blake's 'A Brave New Digital Classroom' in which he puts forward the notion that 'teachers who use technology will probably replace those who do not' (Blake, 2008: 30) or as David Thornburg more bluntly put it

"Any teacher that can be replaced by a computer, deserves to be."

Bibliography:

1. BARRON, J., Meet the Gran Turismo player now driving race cars for real [online]. San Francisco: GameStop, 2014. [viewed 18 November 2015] Available from: http://www.gamespot.com/articles/meet-the-gran-turismo-player-now-driving-race-cars-for-real/1100-6419397/
2. Blake, R. (2008) Brave new digital classroom: technology and foreign language learning. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, [electronic resource].
3. Beijaard D., Verloop, N. & Vermunt, J. (2000) Teachers' perceptions of professional identity: an exploratory study from a personal knowledge perspective. Teacher and Teaching Education. 16. pp. 749-764
4. DODD, T., University of Adelaide is phasing out lectures [online]. Sydney: Australian Financial News, 2015. [viewed 13 November 2015] Available from: http://www.afr.com/technology/apps/education/university-of-adelaide-is-phasing-out-lectures-20150625-ghxgozPrensky, M. Digital native, digital immigrants. On immigrants. On the Horizon 9.2001. 5. MCB University Press 

First Reflection DTLT - Introduction to the Course

Getting Started

I was very eager to get started in the course and sink my teeth into all aspects of it, particularly utilising the various technologies made available for us. I like to think of myself as tech savvy. I took I.T. as my curriculum specialisation during my Bachelor's Degree of Education. I spend a lot of time on my computer and far too much time on my smartphone. Even still, I find myself behind the curve regarding technology. I make use of Microsoft PowerPoint and Word, but rarely go beyond my comfort zone and explore new software. Oftentimes, it is a financial issue, such as not wanting to spend a fortune on Adobe Photoshop. Other times, it is simply just me being lazy and I hope to address this over the course of my Masters Degree, but it does put it into perspective just how easy it is to lag behind in the tech race, and how daunting it must seem to those who are still only coming to terms with using a 'Personal' computer.


Digital Integration

If one word was to sum up my introduction to Digital Technologies in Language Teaching, it would be 'overwhelming'. Right off the bat, we were hit with a myriad of websites to join, technology to try out and passwords to remember. They say for security purposes it is best not to use the same password on different accounts, but with the sheer multitude of accounts linked to me, I would find it impossible to remember a separate password for all.

This really made me think about the challenges faced with using Digital Technology for learning, even before you have even started utilising them. Technology's influence on our security and privacy is growing everyday. Even this Blogger account I set up was linked through Google+ and accessed via my Facebook account.

Though technology can offer a wealth of resources for the language learner, there may be some anxiety or trepidation for users, at least at first. I personally have encountered numerous scammers on language exchange apps and have met plenty of female users who told me they deleted their accounts due to being overly harassed by sleazy guys online. Time Magazine in a survey last year found that

'Roughly one quarter of women aged 18 to 24 said they have been stalked or sexually harassed online'

One point that really hit home from reading chapter 1 of A Brave New Digital Classroom was that social anxiety is a major hindrance to language acquisition and that we as teachers must ensure that all students are not just familiar with the technology being used, but also feel comfortable while using it.

First Thoughts and Expectations

Even though there was an initial wave of being overwhelmed by technological websites and jargon, any fears I had about the course were quickly washed away upon my first meeting with Cecilia and the rest of the DTLT contingent. I am glad it is a 'practice what you preach' style programme and not a hypocritical course full of lectures and reading journals without utilising any of the great advantages of Digital Technology that it preaches. I enjoyed the popplet and hope there are many more instances where the programmes we are talking about are integrated into our learning.

The online tutorial using Adobe Connect also eased my worries and comes back to the anxiety factor mentioned previously. It really did seem more like a group of friends chatting, though being the first interaction, a little awkwardly at times. It really does seem a great way to facilitate people over large distances while also engaging everyone in the content.

Bibliography:

1. Blake, R. (2008) Brave new digital classroom: technology and foreign language learning. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, [electronic resource].
2. KEDMEY, D., 25% of Women say they've been sexually harassed online [online]. New York: Time Magazine, 2014 [viewed 13 November 2015]. Available from : http://time.com/3531310/gender-online-harassment/