For example, after nearly 30 years of teaching and using many different books and materials, I have strong preferences about the most helpful and effective ways to teach certain course content. Since those preferences are not necessarily reflected in the textbooks and materials we use in the Department, I often provide students with my own presentation and explanation of course content. I do that in class and provide students with written copies, images, and practice activities that they can access anytime through our Learning Management System. If I transform these materials using audio-visual resources, I think students will be more likely to consult them when they have questions. I am not sure how many students actually access these materials. Knowing that would be useful information.
Among the ideas and cautions that I am taking away from the readings and my reflections on my own teaching and courses are the following:
- I need to be careful not to overwhelm students with too much information and too many activities.
- It would be helpful to be able to provide some sort of tool to determine if/how well students already know "new" content and skills in Beginning Spanish and Intermediate Spanish so that there are multiple paths within a blended or online course and not every student would have to do the skill-building and practice learning activities for what they already know.
- When asking students to do activities in, for example, Conjuguemos, I should clarify for them that I created those activities for them specifically based on course content. In other words, whereas the iLrn or other publisher-created materials are "generic", other things that I incorporate were created by me for them.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I love your idea of providing many paths of completion. I am curious, though, would you let students choose from equivalent point assignments? Or would you have criteria to determine which paths students should take? My concern would be if students may under-challenge themselves to take easier path to get more points or higher grade.
ReplyDeleteWould love to hear your thoughts.
Thank you for your comments and questions!
DeleteAt the university where I teach, we do not use a placement test and allow students to largely "self select" (based on guidelines we provide) their entry course in terms of fulfilling the language requirement. Off the top of my head, I would say that a good 75% under-challenge themselves by taking a course that only covers material they have already had based on how much Spanish they have previously had. I think it is a safe assumption that students would do the same with multiple pathways. I haven't looked at data on that, but I think that only students who truly want to learn the language would *choose* a path that would challenge them.
Given that, what I envision is:
* making the range of learning materials and resources available to all students--especially since students who are strong in some areas may want or need to review things they never learned or do not remember well
* using a combination of face-to-face activities and online activities to determine which learning activities they could "skip" based on what they are already actually able to do with the language (with acceptable accuracy).
Truthfully, one of my concerns is that a "communicative" approach sometimes leads to confidence and "fluency" but with unacceptable levels of accuracy. It's fine simply to be able to "get your point across" as long as the context is informal or casual. It's not fine if one wants to use the language professionally or semi-professionally or where accuracy in communication has very real consequences. So, YES, I want students confidently communicating with me, with each other, and with native speakers on a variety of topics, but I also want them to have enough control of the language to be able to communicate well, linguistically and culturally.
Since all of this is new territory for me, what I actually want to do is to experiment with this in a blended course for beginners that is free and not for credit. My husband and I work with other friends and partners in the Milwaukee area through our not-for-profit StreetLife Communities, Inc. and other like-minded non-profits. We serve Milwaukee's most vulnerable populations (those experiencing homelessness, food insecurity, and poverty) with food, clothing, and emergency survival items--but most of all with dignity, love, community and friendship. Among those who serve with us are a number of people who would like to learn Spanish. Some have experience with learning a different language, and others have no experience. They all work full-time and spend a lot of time working side by side in our mission. I would like to learn the ropes of teaching in a blended learning environment and get a handle on the design, technology, and logistics on a small scale and where nobody is paying for the course. I have a cohort that is ready and excited to start, so #BlendKit2017 is helping me work through some of this so I can get it going. Once I have a sense of how the pathways concept works with a group of learners with varying backgrounds, with no grades at stake, I can analyze some data from the course to guide my decision-making for a university course.