Digital Language Learning and Teaching

Research, Theory, and Practice

Michael Carrier, Ryan M. Damerow, Kathleen M. Bailey

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781315523279
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: English Language
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

This carefully balanced set of studies and practitioner research projects carried out in various learning contexts around the world highlights cutting-edge research in the use of digital learning technologies in language classrooms and in online learning. Providing an overview of recent developments in the application of educational technology to language learning and teaching, it looks at the experience of researchers and practitioners in both formal and informal (self-study) learning contexts, bringing readers up to date with this rapidly changing field and the latest developments in research, theory, and practice at both classroom and education system levels.

1
Introduction to Digital Learning

Michael Carrier

What Is Digital Learning?

The purpose of this introduction is to set the wider context of digital learning—what it is, what is happening in this field, where it seems to be going—and to provide a broader perspective on the field that is the subject of this book. Digital learning is the application of technology to the learning and teaching process. It is defined by the Alliance for Excellent Education (2016) as follows: “any instructional practice that effectively uses technology to strengthen a student’s learning experience.”

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has set up its own internal Office of Digital Learning. This group is charged with improving learning and teaching across the university via digital learning, which MIT characterizes as follows:

Digital Learning technologies can enable students to grasp concepts more quickly and fully, to connect theory and application more adeptly, and to engage in learning more readily, while also improving instructional techniques, leveraging instructor time, and facilitating the widespread sharing of knowledge. Digital technologies will enable this in new and better ways and create possibilities beyond the limits of our current imagination.

(MIT, 2016)

In this book, we will employ the term digital learning to embrace all uses of technology in language education. It also serves as an umbrella term to refer to the tools, techniques, methodologies, and activities we have inherited from the researchers and practitioners of previous disciplines, such as computer-assisted language learning (CALL), technology-enhanced language learning (TELL), computer-mediated communication (CMC), and many other historical subdivisions of digital learning.

The distinctions between the various terminologies are not the subject of this book, and in any case many would consider them to be obtuse and pointless arguments. In my opinion, it is not particularly helpful to debate whether a specific practice is part of a CALL, TELL, generic edtech, or digital learning repertoire. For me, it is all digital learning.

Since 1960, when the PLATO computer learning system was developed by the University of Illinois to help people engage with learning via computers and online access using mainframe and minicomputers, educators and technologists have worked together to find new and better ways to enhance learning and teaching. PLATO made use of the opportunities that technology affords—otherwise known as the affordances of technology.

Digital learning is not as new as some people feel. The PLATO system in the 1960s already had discussion forums, online testing, email, and chat rooms. By the 1980s, it had relatively sophisticated (for the time) learning material types and activity types.

Since the advent of the personal computer in the early 1980s, there has been a massive increase in the accessibility and diversity of educational technology. Computer-assisted learning, or in our profession, CALL, developed very rapidly, and new learning materials, activities, and classroom interactions grew out of the ability of teachers to have rooms full of personal computers. On a personal level, I helped to install one of the first computer labs for English language schools in the UK in 1984 (following the lead example set by Diana Eastment at the Bell School), and I ran my first teacher training course in CALL techniques and integrating technology into the classroom in 1985. Thirty years later, the technology has changed, the types of materials and learning activities available have changed, but many of the doubts and, in some cases, some of the resistance from teachers, still remain.

Digital learning is definitely here to stay. Although there is much discussion about the range of benefits and the degree of enhancement that it provides for learning outcomes, it is clear that there is an inexorable rise in the use of digital learning tools and techniques in all branches of education.

Why is it Important? Benefits to Learners and Teachers

Some commentators have expressed a certain skepticism (e.g., Coleman, 2014; Straumsheim, 2016) and feel that digital learning is being promoted by technology companies who wish to increase their sales. No doubt there is an element of this commercialism, and skepticism about teachers rushing to use the latest gizmo is well-placed. Some teachers are still resistant to using technology in their teaching, and many of the concerns expressed by teachers are markedly similar to those I heard in the original teacher training program I ran in 1985. (See Rubadeau, Chapter 9, this volume, for more on teacher resistance to technology.)

However, the research results over many years of CALL, TELL, and digital learning approaches seem to show conclusively that the use of educational technology adds certain degrees of richness to the learning and teaching process:

It emphasizes high-quality instruction and provides access to challenging content, feedback through formative assessment, opportunities for learning anytime and anywhere, and individualized instruction to ensure all students reach their full potential to succeed in college and a career.

(Alliance for Excellent Education, 2016)

At the very least, digital learning seems to provide enhanced motivation for learners, keeping them interested and focused on the learning content because they are interested in engaging with the technology and the technologically mediated materials. At best, digital learning provides opportunities for learners to expand the learning time outside the narrow time constraints of the physical classroom (see de Groot, Chapter 3, this volume) to develop a ubiquitous form of learning—learning anywhere, anytime, and at the pace best suited to the student.

The benefits for students include being able to access authentic language learning inputs at any time, being able to follow a program of learning in one’s own time, being able to interact with learning colleagues and peers in all parts of the world at any time, and being able to constantly assess and reassess one’s learning successes, strengths, and weaknesses. Digital learning puts students in control of their own learning.

The benefits for teachers are that they can expand the classroom study time, if they wish to. For some teachers this will be an excellent opportunity; for other teachers it might be seen as an extra burden to add to an already heavy workload. The application or implementation of digital learning does raise key issues about the professional development of teachers and specifically about their professional contracts and work environments. Christensen (2011) believes the shift in the role of the teacher is key: “As the monolithic system of instruction shifts to a learning environment powered by student-centric technology, teachers’ roles will gradually shift over time” (p. 107). (Carrier and Nye address the role of the teacher in digital learning in Chapter 18 of this volume.)

There are benefits for wider society as well. According to the Alliance for Excellent Education (2016), “Digital learning advances school reform by increasing equity and access to educational opportunities, improving effectiveness and productivity of teachers and administrators, providing student-centered learning to ensure college and career readiness for all students, and recognizing teachers as education designers.”

Principles of Digital Learning

Is there a theory of digital learning? Some would claim there is, while some would claim there is no need for an explicit theory, as digital learning draws upon and supports a range of learning theories current in language education (discussed later). In practice, digital learning is an aid to teaching and learning, and as such, it can be used to support different approaches and methodologies of language education. In that sense, it is methodology agnostic and theory agnostic. However, some will claim that digital learning imposes its own theoretical constructs, emphasizing more the traditional learning skills and learning approaches (e.g., drill and kill) than the constructivist approach. It is true that early forms of digital learning tended toward the utilization of multiple-choice quizzes and rigid activities, but this is no longer a given. Digital learning can be used just as easily to support a constructivist approach to learning and teaching. Thus, a key principle is the level of control returned to students to focus on the time, place, path, and pace of their learning.

Trends and Implementations

What are the current trends in digital learning? There is a move toward more and more cost-free forms of learning opportunities. Most smartphone apps for language learning are at least initially free. Most websites offering learning resources are free, although courses paid for by subscription also form a large part of the learning landscape. The popularity of massive open online courses (MOOCs), which are primarily free, underlines this phenomenon. This approach is very positive for learners, who can enhance their learning opportunities for free or at a very low cost. It can be argued that this approach is not necessarily in the interests of teachers, because it undermines the opportunities for teachers to receive professional payment for professional work. It also undermines the concept that good quality teaching needs to be paid for, either by the government or by the student.

The implementation of digital learning in schools also varies considerably. Currently, it is unlikely that schools will invest in computer labs, filling one specific room with enough personal computers, keyboards, and monitors for students to have their own access. It is more common now for schools to consider investing in sets of tablets, either with expensive Apple iPads or more generic Android tablets.

There was a period in which the key implementation of digital learning was thought to be via the installation of interactive whiteboards (IWBs), which displayed learning material from the teacher’s computer and allowed teachers and students to interact with that learning content. Unfortunately or not, this view led to many teachers feeling overwhelmed by the learning journey involved in understanding how to utilize the IWB. For many teachers, it felt like the imposition of an old-fashioned teacher frontal lockstep kind of methodology that they were trying to move away from (see Rubadeau, Chapter 9, this volume).

Key Technologies and Affordances

Is the technology used to display new material or to present an interaction like a quiz, or is it used by students to create new material? The key technologies can be divided into different categories, which include the following:

1. Input technologies, which use technology to present new learning material to students, such as IWBs, projectors, sets of tablets, visualizers, virtual reality headsets, and so on;
2. Interactive technologies, which comprise devices and software that enable students to produce language and interact with material (e.g., online quizzes) or with peers (e.g., tablets, videoconferencing, speech translation devices, personal response devices, and apps); and
3. Portable technologies, such as phones, tablets, voting devices, head-mounted displays, and others.

New Pedagogical Models

Digital learning also requires a new approach to methodology and pedagogical models. First, the ubiquity of digital learning presumes that the teacher is willing and able to design a course that incorporates digital learning in the classroom and incorporates digital learning outside the classroom in a guided and coherent way. This approach requires the teacher to design a new curriculum that integrates in-class and out-of-class activities. The curriculum must explicitly recognize the students’ interest in and ability to learn outside the classroom and must provide explicit guidance to the resources and activities that out-of-class digital learning can provide. (See de Groot, Chapter 3, and Mehring, Chapter 6, this volume.)

In addition, digital learning in the classroom requires the teacher to adopt a new pedagogical model with a new classroom management approach. This model replaces the teacher frontal model with a peer-to-peer and student-to-device interaction that is guided and managed by a teacher circulating between student groups.

Role of the Digital Teacher

In Chapter 18, we investigate in detail how digital learning changes the role of the teacher. Despite the fears of many teachers, it does not require the teacher to become a technology expert. It does, however, require the teacher to engage with the affordances and course design components of digital learning so that he/she can enhance the learning program that the students follow. It also requires that the teacher is comfortable with moving toward a role of facilitator and guide rather than the knower of all things—“the sage on the stage.”

Research, Theory, Concepts, and Debates

There is an increasing amount of research into digital learning, and we have touched on some of that research in this book (see Chapters 2 through 10, this volume). The research topics focus on methodologies, competency-based learning, blended learning (Li and Chiu, Chapter 5, this volume), tutor feedback (Olesova and Richardson, Chapter 7, this volume), and implementation strategies.

Some theoretical models have been developed to help teachers build theoretical underpinnings to their practice. Among others, these include the following:

1. SAMR: a model devised by Puentedura (2014) to help educators integrate technology into teaching and learning. SAMR stands for substitution, augmentation, modification, and redefinition, which are seen as the stages of ever-deeper integration of technology into pedagogy.
2. TPACK: a theoretical model devised by Mishra and Koehler (2006) to help teachers see the interrelationship of pedagogical and technological knowledge.
3. UTAUT: Venkatesh, Morris, Davis, and Davis (2003) formulated the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology as a model to assess how users accept or reject technology and, latterly, educational technology.

There are so many new concepts in the field of digital learning that several guides have been developed. One example is the Key Concepts section of the Teach with Digital website (Cambridge, 2016), where digital concepts are identified and explained as part of the Digital Teacher Framework designed by Cambridge English.

Key Debates and Issues

As in many sectors of education, there are a number of debates and discussion...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• 1 Introduction to Digital Learning
• Part I The Research Perspective
• Part II The Pedagogical Perspective
• About the Contributors
• Author Index
• Subject Index