When Teaching is Learning
A Personal Account of Learning to Teach Online
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/cj.v23i3.581-600Keywords:
Audiographic, Autonomy, Online, Pedagogy, ReflectionAbstract
This article is aimed at educators who find themselves facing the need to develop their e-teaching skills, with little or no formal training or institutional support. It explores how this can be achieved using the notion of "teacher autonomy" in combination with standard professional development measures for language teachers. The article recounts an attempt to develop my own e-teaching skills, within the framework of an 8-week collaborative project. In the course of this project, I learned to use synchronous audiographic conferencing software (Lyceum, as developed by the Open University (OU), U.K.) in combination with an asynchronous virtual learning environment (WebCT) to teach English for specific purposes to a group of 14 Masters degree students in a French university. Largely unfamiliar at the outset with the pedagogic use of the software, I consider how critical analysis and reflection (by means of a teaching journal) can be used in combination with observation by a "critical friend" to inform pedagogic decisions in pursuit of a nondirective approach to teaching and learning. I also address the affective dimension of such a process, especially the stresses to be dealt with by the novice tutor in a multimodal environment. Where there are limits to the approach adopted, I identify those limits.
References
Benson, P. (2000). Autonomy as a learners’ and teachers’ right. In B. Sinclair, I. McGrath, & T. Lamb (Eds.), Learner autonomy, teacher autonomy: Future directions (pp. 111-117). Harlow: Longman.
Benson, P. (2001). Teaching and researching autonomy in language learning. Harlow: Longman.
Buckingham Shum, S., Marshall, S., Brier, J., & Evans, T. (2001). Lyceum: Internet voice groupware for distance learning. In Proceedings of Euro-CSCL 2001: 1st European conference on computer-supported collaborative learning. Maastricht, The Netherlands. Retrieved September 10, 2005, from http://www.ll.unimaas. nl/euro-cscl
Hampel, R., & Baber, E. (2002). Using internet-based audio-graphic and video conferencing for language teaching and learning. In U. Felix (Ed.), Language learning online: Towards best practice (pp. 171-191). Lisse, NL: Swets & Zeitlinger.
Hampel, R., Felix, U., Hauck, M., & Coleman, J. A. (2005). Complexities of learning and teaching languages in a real-time audiographic environment. German as a Foreign Language, (3), 1-30. Retrieved January 17, 2006, from http://www.gfljournal.de
Kearsley, G. (2000). Online education: Learning and teaching in cyberspace. Stamford, CT: Wadsworth/Thomson.
Kress, G., & Van Leeuwen, T. (2001). Multimodal discourse. London: Arnold.
Little, D. (1995). Learning as dialogue: The dependence of learner autonomy on teacher autonomy. System, 23 (2), 175-181.
Mällinen, S. (2001). Teacher effectiveness and online learning. In J. Stephenson (Ed.), Teaching and learning online: Pedagogies for new technologies (pp. 139-149). London: Kogan Page.
McGrath, I. (2000). Teacher autonomy. In B. Sinclair, I. McGrath, & T. Lamb (Eds.), Learner autonomy, teacher autonomy: Future directions (pp. 99-109). Harlow: Longman.
Pallof, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2001). Lessons from the cyberspace classroom: The realities of online teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Pring, R. (2002). Action research and the development of practice. In A. Pollard (Ed.), Readings for reflective teaching (pp. 33-35). London & New York: Continuum.
Richards, J. C., & Farrell, T. S. C. (2005). Professional development for language teachers: Strategies for teacher learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Salmon, G. (2003). E-moderating: Teaching and learning online (2nd ed.). London: Routledge.
Sinclair, B., McGrath, I., & Lamb, T. (Eds.). (2000). Learner autonomy, teacher autonomy: Future directions. Harlow: Longman.
Smith, R. C. (2000). Starting with ourselves: Teacher-learner autonomy in language learning. In B. Sinclair, I. McGrath, & T. Lamb (Eds.), Learner autonomy, teacher autonomy: Future directions (pp. 89-90). Harlow: Longman.
Smith, R. C. (2001). Teacher education for teacher-learner autonomy. Retrieved March 21, 2005, from http://www.warwick.ac.uk/~elsdr/Teacher_autonomy.pdf
Stenhouse, L. (2002). The teacher as researcher. In A. Pollard (Ed.), Readings for reflective teaching (pp. 32-33). London & New York: Continuum.
Tort-Moloney, D. (1997). Teacher autonomy: A Vygotskian theoretical framework. Dublin: Centre for Language and Communication Studies, Trinity College Dublin.
Wallace, M. J. (1991). Training foreign language teachers: A reflective approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wallace, M. J. (1998). Action research for language teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
