Teaching languages online -Deconstructing the myths

Jeg gennem snart mange år fulgt Felix Uschis foredrag og altid med stort udbytte. Dette år var vi heldige at Felix havde fået dækket sin rejse fra Australien gennem en anden konference.

Felix er en af de personer som ved mest om anvendelsen af e-learning. Hun er også dejligt kritisk overfor de enkelte systemer, og hun kan ikke mindst ofte se alternative anvendelser af eksisterende medier og materialer. Hvor hun sidste år demonstrerede Wimba systemets eget mildest talt latterlige pædagogiske grundlag, viste hun i år hvordan Wimba faktisk kan være et værdifuldt bidrag til undervisning / læring (personligt er jeg stadig af den holdning at Wimbas voice board system er ubrugeligt til seriøs undervisning, på grund af dårlig lydkvalitet, og ikke mindst enormt dyrt).

Hun demonstrede brugen af systemet "Virtual Worlds" se eksempelvis adressen http://www.digitalspace.com/avatars/index.html (mit eget forslag, ikke Felix)

Prof. Uschi Felix, Monash University

Keynote: Teaching languages online -Deconstructing the myths

The rhetoric about online learning has changed significantly over the last few years, as players have gained practical experience at all levels. Initial euphoria about the brave new world that technology was opening up led many institutions to launch into hasty and expensive developments, not just because of the giddy promises but also for fear of missing the boat. A reaction was perhaps inevitable, with the most savage critics accusing the institutions of turning themselves into 'digital diploma mills' (Noble 1997, 1998a,b). However, the more extreme criticisms were no more realistic than the more extreme hopes, and increasingly commentators have begun to take a more measured look at the potential of online learning, and to emphasise the importance of sound online pedagogy.

Providing quality online learning opportunities requires a high level of commitment on the part of all groups involved in the process. Administrators need to invest in excellent infrastructures and support, teachers need to find ways of incorporating the unique potential of the new technologies into an enriched curriculum, and students need to be open to new forms of constructing knowledge far beyond traditional expectations, contributing to both the process and the goals. That costs can be saved in this process is clearly a myth, as are expectations of saving time or replacing staff with machines. Equally in the realm of myth can be placed the assertion that students resent online learning outright and that online teaching must be inferior to face-to-face instruction. On the contrary, there is ample evidence that the most significant educational contribution of the new technologies lies in the opportunities for adding quality to what has always been difficult to achieve in the language classroom: facilitating interpersonal communication in authentic settings, sustaining meaningful information gap activities, and involving students in creative problem- and project-based learning with native speaker partners.

It is important, though, not to get carried away with the promise but to evaluate clearly the outcomes against the effort and the goals against the constraints. Most of all, in an environment where cost and time are still the greatest obstacles to success (Morrison & Oblinger 2002), we need to think seriously about sharing resources rather than duplicating efforts.

Presenter

Professor Uschi Felix is Associate Dean (IT) in the Faculty of Arts at Monash University in Melbourne. She has a research background in applied linguistics, has been a lecturer in ESL, French and German, and during the last decade her work has focussed on the systematic integration into the curriculum of tested CALL resources from stand-alone software to WWW sites. She is currently working on a ‘best-practice’ model for online language learning. She has contributed to the development of multi-media software and Websites in several languages, published many critical articles in international journals on the use of technology in language teaching, and has been invited to give keynote addresses in Australia, Korea, Sweden and the UK. Her two last books Virtual Language Learning: Finding the Gems among the pebbles and Beyond Babel: Language Learning Online became bestsellers. She also serves on the editorial board of two international Journals and holds the position of Director on the Board of Language Australia and the Australia Centre in Berlin. Professor Felix’ presentations are always amusing, yet highly informative and refreshingly critical.