The 'Digital Native' in [the] Context [of ESL courses]
This coming year, I will be teaching two sections of ESL support in a local parochial high school. The courses are designed to provide international high school students (from 9th-12th grade) practice in speaking, comprehension (reading and listening), second language strategies, and writing. The job is not to teach an ELA class but to teach the communication skills necessary for students to pass their ELA and all other classes. For this reason, I found the Digital Native article especially interesting.
I have a lot of leeway in deciding exactly how to run the class, but I do have a coursebook and have the expectation that after two years, students will be able to earn a 100 on the TOEFL iBT, a pretty high standard. Considering how to integrate Web 2.0 tools is an important part of what I am doing now to prepare for the school year, and this article gave me many more issues to consider.
In the article, the authors discuss the reasons for the seeming lack of transfer of online abilities and comprehension between the home/personal life realm and the academic realm of high school students. They uncovered some compelling reasons related to four different areas: inquiry, literacies, collaboration, and publication.
Inquiry
When students use the internet for inquiry on their own, they follow their own interests wherever those interests lead them and however they branch off into different topics. At the end, there is no assignment or need to summarize, reconstruct, or report on the information they have discovered. Academic inquiry differs in that it is usually organized by the instructor with a very specific end product imagined: a report, a powerpoint, or an infographic, for example. These results require synthesis, integration, and construction of knowledge from the "flat landscape" of the internet, on which all information (real and fake news, true authorities and self-proclaimed authorities) is presented as equally valued. So what can an ESL instructor do to employ the skills that the students have learned on their deep dives? For ESL purposes, it is important to help students discover the way of determining the veracity of sources by learning the vocabulary of opinion and hyperbole, for example, and by learning the way to avoid cut-and-paste plagiarism from these sources. They can employ their sleuthing skills to follow leads to move backwards from the name of a web author to his or her supporting agency or to his or her profile. They can use a tool like Diigo to highlight, classify, and consolidate quotes and then find ways to restate them in their own words and give proper credit (OWL at Purdue for citation).
Literacies
There is greater emphasis placed on multi-modality outside of class (videos, images, memes, etc.) than in class, where the text bias pushes instructors toward text-based assignments. On their own, students can explore and consume lots of material. Withing the context of school, however, the focus is on verbal production and on assessment. For ESL classes, I think it is a good idea to allow students some options in how they express their comprehension of material, to allow them to use a variety of media and experiment with the way to explain or express their ideas.
Collaboration
Again, the difference between collaboration outside of the realm of the academic and in/for school is a difference in end result. Collaborations outside of school are motivating to students; interaction engenders more interaction and then a product may or may not begin to evolve or grow. In academic situations, collaboration must result in a product that will be judged (assessed, evaluated) based on the instructor's rubric within a set time frame. School collaborations cannot grow naturally, nor can they grow without the possibility that a student might be embarrassed, might lose focus, or might feel that the line between home life and school life is blurring. This is a tough area to address, but as an instructor I think it is important to allow students to determine how much the line between home and school disappears but to make that their option by giving them time in class to work collaboratively or to value and accept non-verbal (photos, videos, etc.) contributions to their groups until they feel free to talk. It might also be effective for students to simply pin items they find interesting to a group Pinterest board for a few weeks during class time before they evaluate the pins together and decide which sources will work for a group project.
Publication
This section is a topic which I have felt in this class. If I post this blog, assigned as a project in a class, for all to see, then I am exposing myself to comparison to others who may be more academic or more socially fluent or more creative. In an adult setting, I would not expect to be bullied for any perceived deficiencies or to bully anyone else for any perceived differences, but young people could certainly feel the danger of being bullied for showing their true selves to everyone. The lack of control over the audience or consumers of your work in a class setting worries students. On the other hand, if I have a Pinterest board on my own, I can let everyone see it or I can restrict it to those who I know will appreciate it and not make fun of me because I love Indiana Jones movies, for example. I have control over the audience and can feel free to be myself. Creating an open, respectful environment in your face-to-face class can help alleviate some of this fear, and allowing students a non-personal, more objective option in response to an assignment might also help.
I have a lot of leeway in deciding exactly how to run the class, but I do have a coursebook and have the expectation that after two years, students will be able to earn a 100 on the TOEFL iBT, a pretty high standard. Considering how to integrate Web 2.0 tools is an important part of what I am doing now to prepare for the school year, and this article gave me many more issues to consider.
In the article, the authors discuss the reasons for the seeming lack of transfer of online abilities and comprehension between the home/personal life realm and the academic realm of high school students. They uncovered some compelling reasons related to four different areas: inquiry, literacies, collaboration, and publication.
Inquiry
When students use the internet for inquiry on their own, they follow their own interests wherever those interests lead them and however they branch off into different topics. At the end, there is no assignment or need to summarize, reconstruct, or report on the information they have discovered. Academic inquiry differs in that it is usually organized by the instructor with a very specific end product imagined: a report, a powerpoint, or an infographic, for example. These results require synthesis, integration, and construction of knowledge from the "flat landscape" of the internet, on which all information (real and fake news, true authorities and self-proclaimed authorities) is presented as equally valued. So what can an ESL instructor do to employ the skills that the students have learned on their deep dives? For ESL purposes, it is important to help students discover the way of determining the veracity of sources by learning the vocabulary of opinion and hyperbole, for example, and by learning the way to avoid cut-and-paste plagiarism from these sources. They can employ their sleuthing skills to follow leads to move backwards from the name of a web author to his or her supporting agency or to his or her profile. They can use a tool like Diigo to highlight, classify, and consolidate quotes and then find ways to restate them in their own words and give proper credit (OWL at Purdue for citation).
Literacies
There is greater emphasis placed on multi-modality outside of class (videos, images, memes, etc.) than in class, where the text bias pushes instructors toward text-based assignments. On their own, students can explore and consume lots of material. Withing the context of school, however, the focus is on verbal production and on assessment. For ESL classes, I think it is a good idea to allow students some options in how they express their comprehension of material, to allow them to use a variety of media and experiment with the way to explain or express their ideas.
Collaboration
Again, the difference between collaboration outside of the realm of the academic and in/for school is a difference in end result. Collaborations outside of school are motivating to students; interaction engenders more interaction and then a product may or may not begin to evolve or grow. In academic situations, collaboration must result in a product that will be judged (assessed, evaluated) based on the instructor's rubric within a set time frame. School collaborations cannot grow naturally, nor can they grow without the possibility that a student might be embarrassed, might lose focus, or might feel that the line between home life and school life is blurring. This is a tough area to address, but as an instructor I think it is important to allow students to determine how much the line between home and school disappears but to make that their option by giving them time in class to work collaboratively or to value and accept non-verbal (photos, videos, etc.) contributions to their groups until they feel free to talk. It might also be effective for students to simply pin items they find interesting to a group Pinterest board for a few weeks during class time before they evaluate the pins together and decide which sources will work for a group project.
Publication
This section is a topic which I have felt in this class. If I post this blog, assigned as a project in a class, for all to see, then I am exposing myself to comparison to others who may be more academic or more socially fluent or more creative. In an adult setting, I would not expect to be bullied for any perceived deficiencies or to bully anyone else for any perceived differences, but young people could certainly feel the danger of being bullied for showing their true selves to everyone. The lack of control over the audience or consumers of your work in a class setting worries students. On the other hand, if I have a Pinterest board on my own, I can let everyone see it or I can restrict it to those who I know will appreciate it and not make fun of me because I love Indiana Jones movies, for example. I have control over the audience and can feel free to be myself. Creating an open, respectful environment in your face-to-face class can help alleviate some of this fear, and allowing students a non-personal, more objective option in response to an assignment might also help.
Wow -- 100 is a pretty high standard. We're pleased when we see that score from an international applicant.
ReplyDeleteAnd there is a vulnerability to posting online, for sure. Some people blow right past it, but others feel it deeply. As educators, I feel that we need to find ways to support the students who feel that vulnerability, respecting their boundaries yet encouraging them to find ways to participate and benefit.