Vol 23, No. 3 (May 2006)
MIRJAM HAUCK
URSULA STICKLER
The Open University, UK
One of the authors of this research is Mirham Hauck who is a Senior Lecturer and Head of German in the Department of Languages at the Open University in United Kingdom. It is said that she has been investigating of multimodal virtual learning spaces for language learning and teaching for quite some time. Apart from that, she introduces the online language tuition and training tutors in her country. Currently, she is doing a research on the role of metacognitive knowledge and strategies in the context of electronic literacy. Her partner is Dr Ursula Stickler who is a lecturer of the Department of Languages at the Open University German. She published her research in the areas of autonomous language learning, especially in terms of tandem learning and language advising, technology-enhanced language learning and also online teaching skills. She is actively training online tutors at Open University.
The aim of this research lies in the title of this research. The authors are searching for the answer on the question of pedagogy. Pedagogy is the study of being a teacher and the terms generally refers to strategies of instruction, or a style of instruction according to Wikipedia. Thus it is similar to the title itself. There are three questions that need to be answered; In what ways can online teaching benefit the language learner most?; How can online environment be designed or redesigned to suit the purpose or language learner?; And what the language teacher need to know in order to become successful online teachers?
The focus of this research shifted from quantitative to qualitative method. The authors are trying to get across the aspect of online pedagogy and what they did was bringing together articles in different areas ranging from tutorial or dedicated CALL via blending learning to tutor training and collaborative learning, and the articles investigate to the use of virtual language learning environments, asynchronous and near-synchronous text-based CMC, as well as synchronous audiographic conferencing. According to the authors, by reviewing the articles, they realized that there are a lot of loopholes in the online language education and pedagogy. They reviewed four articles on the aspect of online pedagogy. The first article is in the area of Tutorial CALL which is a subject that was taken lightly and unduly connected to the behaviourism. Tutorial call refers to the use of computer for example disk, web-based and also CD-ROM. Some author believes that this subject should be brought back into the mainstream (see, e.g., Hubbard & Siskin, 2004). The second article is from a practitioner’s perspective on the area of blended learning. Many of them see blending learning as a positive way in teaching online. The learners and teachers will work together in order to improve the quality of teaching and learning. This method of teaching and learning is ever growing because according to the article, many institutions see that blending as a solution to the practical problems of university teaching in the 21st century. The third issue is regarding tutor training. Language tutors need to be trained when they are required to teach in the virtual world. There are not many research conducted on this topic on the training requirements for online tutors thus the authors are hoping in it so that they can improve the training of online tutors. The last issue is regarding collaborative learning. The article is written by Francois Magenot and Elke Nissen from the Université Stendhal in Grenoble, France. According to the authors, they are trying to find out the solution for the lack of information flow between the research areas especially in terms of the impact of tutor involvement of collaborative versus noncollaborative settings. By linking the language learners from all around the world, it does not guarantee a successful outcome.
Mirham Hauck and Dr. Ursula Stickler are very optimistic in their research because they are developing and exploring the new ways of using online media and all the while they are learning through teaching. There are three challenges that they need to overcome which are in terms of multimodality and new literacies, open source or content and online tutor training on a larger scale. They are still trying new ideas and methods n order to achieve their aim that will answer the question of pedagogy.
Personally, this research has gained my interest because I believe that online teaching and learning is in line for our next generations in the future. Online teaching is very good because the students can connect to the World Wide Web and gain excess to the knowledge that they wanted to search. Nevertheless, I believe that teaching face to face and utilizing the computer in the classroom is more effective because the teacher can be the facilitator to the students. Even nowadays, examinations conducted using the computer including speaking and listening. It means that it encompasses every skill in teaching and learning language. It is hoped that our country can achieve this way of teaching and learning not only in tertiary education but also in primary and secondary schools.
In my opinion, unlike a quantitative research, this qualitative research was conducted quite effective. But it is not quite complete because there are no answers to the questions that were given in the first place. Nevertheless, they do find the problems that need to be solved in order to know what does it takes to teach online.
In our Malaysian context, as far as I know that online teaching is not applied widely due to the lack of finance that leads to the insufficient number of computers that can cater to every student in schools. In schools, the computer labs are provided but there are other problems occurs which is whether the teachers was literate enough to fully utilize the technology given. Thus, training the teachers is yet another important factor. However, we are moving forward in achieving it and I hope that it will not be just another dream.
The aim of this research lies in the title of this research. The authors are searching for the answer on the question of pedagogy. Pedagogy is the study of being a teacher and the terms generally refers to strategies of instruction, or a style of instruction according to Wikipedia. Thus it is similar to the title itself. There are three questions that need to be answered; In what ways can online teaching benefit the language learner most?; How can online environment be designed or redesigned to suit the purpose or language learner?; And what the language teacher need to know in order to become successful online teachers?
The focus of this research shifted from quantitative to qualitative method. The authors are trying to get across the aspect of online pedagogy and what they did was bringing together articles in different areas ranging from tutorial or dedicated CALL via blending learning to tutor training and collaborative learning, and the articles investigate to the use of virtual language learning environments, asynchronous and near-synchronous text-based CMC, as well as synchronous audiographic conferencing. According to the authors, by reviewing the articles, they realized that there are a lot of loopholes in the online language education and pedagogy. They reviewed four articles on the aspect of online pedagogy. The first article is in the area of Tutorial CALL which is a subject that was taken lightly and unduly connected to the behaviourism. Tutorial call refers to the use of computer for example disk, web-based and also CD-ROM. Some author believes that this subject should be brought back into the mainstream (see, e.g., Hubbard & Siskin, 2004). The second article is from a practitioner’s perspective on the area of blended learning. Many of them see blending learning as a positive way in teaching online. The learners and teachers will work together in order to improve the quality of teaching and learning. This method of teaching and learning is ever growing because according to the article, many institutions see that blending as a solution to the practical problems of university teaching in the 21st century. The third issue is regarding tutor training. Language tutors need to be trained when they are required to teach in the virtual world. There are not many research conducted on this topic on the training requirements for online tutors thus the authors are hoping in it so that they can improve the training of online tutors. The last issue is regarding collaborative learning. The article is written by Francois Magenot and Elke Nissen from the Université Stendhal in Grenoble, France. According to the authors, they are trying to find out the solution for the lack of information flow between the research areas especially in terms of the impact of tutor involvement of collaborative versus noncollaborative settings. By linking the language learners from all around the world, it does not guarantee a successful outcome.
Mirham Hauck and Dr. Ursula Stickler are very optimistic in their research because they are developing and exploring the new ways of using online media and all the while they are learning through teaching. There are three challenges that they need to overcome which are in terms of multimodality and new literacies, open source or content and online tutor training on a larger scale. They are still trying new ideas and methods n order to achieve their aim that will answer the question of pedagogy.
Personally, this research has gained my interest because I believe that online teaching and learning is in line for our next generations in the future. Online teaching is very good because the students can connect to the World Wide Web and gain excess to the knowledge that they wanted to search. Nevertheless, I believe that teaching face to face and utilizing the computer in the classroom is more effective because the teacher can be the facilitator to the students. Even nowadays, examinations conducted using the computer including speaking and listening. It means that it encompasses every skill in teaching and learning language. It is hoped that our country can achieve this way of teaching and learning not only in tertiary education but also in primary and secondary schools.
In my opinion, unlike a quantitative research, this qualitative research was conducted quite effective. But it is not quite complete because there are no answers to the questions that were given in the first place. Nevertheless, they do find the problems that need to be solved in order to know what does it takes to teach online.
In our Malaysian context, as far as I know that online teaching is not applied widely due to the lack of finance that leads to the insufficient number of computers that can cater to every student in schools. In schools, the computer labs are provided but there are other problems occurs which is whether the teachers was literate enough to fully utilize the technology given. Thus, training the teachers is yet another important factor. However, we are moving forward in achieving it and I hope that it will not be just another dream.
The article is not research per se, it is more of a concept paper.
ReplyDelete6/10