Meeting in the Virtual Meeting in the Virtual Middle: Blending Online and Middle: Blending Online and Human Resources to Human Resources to Generate a Year Abroad Generate a Year Abroad CommunityCommunity

Cathy Hampton and David LeesUniversity of Warwick

Learning spaces and Learning spaces and changes in learningchanges in learning

• Social networking age = age of uncertainty / open-endedness

• ‘Technology enhances learning through transformed social practices’ (Tynjälä et al, 2012)

• ‘Learning for an age of uncertainty and strangeness should not be understood in terms of knowledge and skills, but rather as a matter of human qualities and dispositions’ (Sarnivaara et al, 2012)

• Self-awareness and flexibility crucial

‘‘Year Abroaders’: radical Year Abroaders’: radical learners?learners?

Nuancing the self through / in language exchange:◦ ‘The frustrations of limited communicative abilities

force learners to develop alternative means of interaction, not only with others, but with their own self-identity. The result is a new sense of personality and purpose.’ (Aveni, 2005)

‘Liquid learners’ in a ‘supercomplex’ era (Barnett): ◦ ‘a preparedness to encounter the unexpected, a

willingness to go on even though one does not know what might be round the next bend, […] a desire to voyage further and develop in the process a will to listen to the world’ (2012)

‘‘Year Abroaders’: radical Year Abroaders’: radical learners?learners?• Open-space learners (from Monk et al, 2011): – Transgressive– Experiential / constructivist– Collaborative

‘The notion that ‘failure’ should be honoured is […] transgressive, as is the idea of adults ‘playing’ in open spaces. Related to this is the idea that proposes the transitional nature of OSL: the work exists between clearly defined spaces and, as such, is always in the process of dialectically forming and re-forming so is always provisional and never closed. […] OSL becomes, thereby, transactional, in the sense of an open and free exchange of ideas in which participants do not compete to bank knowledge as private capital but freely exchange and collectivize their learning.’ (pp. 127 – 128)

‘‘Year Abroaders’: radical Year Abroaders’: radical learners?learners?

‘Disrupted’ learners◦ ‘We learn our patterns of attention so

efficiently that we don’t even know they are patterns. We believe they are the world, not a limited pattern representing the part of the world that has been made meaningful to us at a given time. Only when we are disrupted by something different from our expectations do we become aware of the blind spots we cannot see on our own.’ Cathy Davidson, 2011.

Teacher / facilitator role in Teacher / facilitator role in Year Abroad Open SpaceYear Abroad Open Space

• Need to ‘bring the student to a succession of places where she is likely to be inspired’ (Saarnivaara et al, 2012)

• ‘Inspiring teaching can include promoting the uniqueness of each student, affirming each student’s humanity, allowing space for the development of the authentic self, fostering the connections between students and care for the well-being of students’ (Jones, 2009)

Designing the site: aimsDesigning the site: aims

• Privileging of undetermined outcomes (determining outcomes in advance ‘sets up a roadblock against venturing into strange and challenging places.’ (Saarnivaara et al, 2012))

• Space for discovery and dialogue• Scaffolded challenges (collaborative

and individual)• Mapping future learning: making

connections between this fluid year and demands of final-year study

Properties of the siteProperties of the site

• Collaboration–Forums–Self and centre-driven

• Assessed work– Individual–Targets and feedback from the centre.

Formative process; emphasis on rigour and intellectual content

• Personal reflection / self-generated learning–Mahara and portfolio use

Teacher involvementTeacher involvement1 overall co-ordinator2 postgraduates (one of which =

native speaker)Team of lecteurs (changes

yearly)Language co-ordinator (advisory)

Student as learner: the Student as learner: the essay task:essay task:• 2 – 3 x 1500 word essay

spread over year• Detailed task criteria –

cognitive• Find your own research area

and title: constructivist• Build your own resource

dossier: Mahara• Marked by lecteur team

Task = choose your Task = choose your subject; create your title; subject; create your title; must be discursivemust be discursive• DONC, quelqu'un pourrait m'aider à penser à un titre

pour ma dissertation? Je voudrais parler de l'homosexualité en France (l'égalité maritale en particulière) et expliquer la situation en France par rapport à celle en Angleterre. Je ne suis pas certaine concernant ce que je dois mettre comme titre. (JAZZ)

• En plus, on peut utiliser des citations. Alors, si tu veux encore traiter l’homosexualité et faire une comparaison entre l’Angleterre et la France n’est-ce pas possible d’aborder le thème avec une citation? Peut-être tu peux choisir deux : une d’un ressource anglais traduit en français, l’autre en français, et la suivre avec une question générique du genre : ‘Qu-est-ce que ces deux citations veulent-elles dire au sujet de la perception de l’homosexualité en France et en Angleterre ?’ (ANDREW)

Essay task: other areas of Essay task: other areas of collaborationcollaboration

Forum collaboration on:•How to reference correctly•How to use sources•Where to find information online•How to present work correctly

Individual feedback

Feed forward advice

Collective adviceCollective advice

• Essay writing forum• Shared examples of effective

writing and effective dossiers (with permission)

• Targeted languages advice sheets based on problems identified

• ‘Creating a good title’ advice document (by lectrice team)

• Essay 2: fewer detailed corrections; emphasis on self-correction of error

Mahara areaMahara area• Guided dossier building: student

teacher student • Also emphasis on democracy of

learning: shared area; blog page…

• Personal reflection space

A first attempt at dossier building

Second dossier: more reflection; better organisation

A template example: sifting and sorting; reflection

A more pictoral approach

Informal collaborative

learning: the forum

Student as task managerStudent as task manager

Target settingCajoling and encouragement:

why English not French? How can I improve?

Setting deadlines – by this stage we need to …

Self-awareness: ability to reflect on identity and limitations

Examples:Examples:• ‘I don't know about you (speaking to the

general audience) but this first two months has been a steep learning curve. This should be reassuring and even satisfying but, apart from still being alive and relatively healthy, I don't really feel that the results are showing. […] What I feel I am picking up is short cuts. My greatest fear is that, if I don't hurry up and make myself understood sharpish, my locutor will quickly get bored and either interrupt me, ask me to speak in English or walk away. As a result, my speech [sic] has accelerated but articulation still lags woefully behind, making it harder for people to understand me.’ Stephanie.

Andrew’s responseAndrew’s responseThank you so much for posting this - I was beginning to wonder if I was the only person to have this same awkward feeling that my French is resting at more or less at the same level and not progressing.  the slow progression of my abiliity to communicate orally is now beoming quite alarming (particularly as I have been out here for just over a month). I think, in part, it's actually because we're thinking too much about what to say (afraid of making mistakes, trying to think ahead, trying to crystalise ideas about what to say in our heads). The only times we've really been under so much pressure to speak French has been in oral exams (whether at Warwick or at school/college), and an oral exam is hardly ever a spontaneous occasion, whereas socialising with French people is!

We're also used - in the UK - to speaking a language fluently. I know that if I talk to another native English speaker, even if I don't quite express myself well, I will nevertheless have been successful in communicating the concept or idea that I wanted to say. We don't have that luxury in a different country (and culture) such as France.

Jasmine’s pragmatic Jasmine’s pragmatic solutionsolutionChers Stefanie et Andrew,

Tout dabord, je ne crois pas qu'écrire en anglais vous aidera à ameliorer votre français ;Bref, je vous conseille de vous entourer de Français (et seulement les Français ou ceux qui ne parlent que français) ou au moins demander à quelques Français de vous aider en organisant un (ou plus) jour de converser en français? A mon avis, il faut pratiquer, pratiquer, PRATIQUER, même si vous faîtes pas mal d'erreurs au début. J'espère que vous ayez trouvé mon conseil à peu près utile et que ce n'était pas trop (pour utiliser un peu d'anglais) " Thank you, Captain Obvious"

Student as expert: student Student as expert: student as produceras producer• Practical information (mobile phone

networks, accommodation, what to see, dealing with a medical emergency, etc…)

• What students need to know for next year– Howdy peoples.I thought maybe it would be a good idea to

have a forum where we could post things that could be of particular interest to next year's YAers. Think about things that we wanted to know last year: Phones, Housing, Second jobs etc etc and it could well help David in term 3 when he has a billion 2nd years asking him what the best available phone tariffs are? Tom

Student as ‘professional’ Student as ‘professional’ expert: more scaffolded expert: more scaffolded taskstasks

Forum seeded with targeted questions

Compulsory response required (linked with monitoring points)

‘Expert’ areas set up: ◦Assistantship forum◦Erasmus student forum◦Paid work forum

Student as ‘professional’ Student as ‘professional’ expert: the assistantexpert: the assistant

• Lesson plans• Resources: online and hard copy (using

‘Father Ted’ and ‘Gavin and Stacey’ to teach about accents!)

• Differentiation of level (primary, secondary)

• Cross-cultural comparison (teaching and language levels in Germany and France)

• ‘inspired’ activities: teaching in a prison; writing poetry in the classroom

• Dealing with discipline problems

Student as ‘professional’ Student as ‘professional’ expert: the Erasmus studentexpert: the Erasmus student

• How to deal with administration• Which courses to sign up to:–After a nice break in England for most of

January (after popping back for a couple of exams) I was ready to come back and only cheddar [sic] tear at the thought of having to do the inscriptions pedagogiques before starting semestre 2. These weren't as bad as expected as I followed Mairead's advice and looked up everything online beforehand. (Caitlin)

• How to network and make connections

Student as intercultural Student as intercultural negotiatornegotiator• Soft skills – reading others

– The social aspect of uni here (or lack of) is what we were warned about/expected, but seeing it in action is different from hearsay. It's a shame they don't have as much of student community here as campus unis tend to, there's less of a hub of activitiy in that sense, but I think this is due to the entirely different systems, for example the fact that students here tend to have at least 20 hour weeks regardless of subject, that mean that such involved extra curricular activity isn't really possible. There is a camarderie though, which has been interesting to observe, and I love seeing the differences that exist in every aspect of student life. (Jennifer)

– I have now managed to instill confidence in them [my pupils] merely by telling them how impressed I am with them when they speak. If they say something correctly, I believe it is important to give them positive feedback, not only to reward them but to make them feel happy about themselves having got something correct: they are therefore more inclined to speak voluntarily again. The most important thing, as said, is to make sure you don't lose your temper

Student as intercultural Student as intercultural negotiatornegotiator• Negotiating in difficult situations• ‘Despite being paid for only 12 hours of work per

week, I was asked to do all sorts of extra stuff for free. And when I say asked, I mean I didn't really have a choice. I found myself caught between whether to just say yes to everything (this has been my motto since working here, especially in social situations) or to stick up for myself.’ (Adam)

• Importance of unlearning (Davidson)– ‘When I began my year abroad I felt like I had all

the time in the world to get settled and start making the most of the opportunity. However, the sooner you realise that isn't the case the better off you'll be. That is the best advice I could give anyone about to undertake their year abroad, and also what I would tell the former version of myself if I could time travel.’ (Alessandro)

Student as community Student as community builderbuilder

Shared language / jokes: cheddar as interculture !Example: ‘It turned out that I had acute appendicitis so what followed was a laparoscopic appendectomy on the same day I went into hospital. I spent 5 days there recuperating. Luckily I’m feeling much cheddar now- cheese things happen!’ (KATHRYN)

•I made one reference to "Cheddar" in my second forum post as it seemed to be a trend! As I live close to Cheddar itself in Somerset it bought more memories of the town than the cheese for me•I think 'cheddar' has come up in posts as much as it has because it is typical of a 'French equivalent which is SO different'. By this I mean that there are many things that you come accross [sic] on your year abroad which should be so much like things you find at home, but just aren't!•Haha, once! I'd brie lying if I said I didn't know... You gouda love a good pun.

Questionnaire responses re Questionnaire responses re use of forum (19 use of forum (19 respondents)respondents)

• Regularity of reading:–38% = weekly / regularly–13% = fortnightly–31% - every few weeks–25% = when prompted by email

• Regularity of posting:–75% = once a term–20% = twice a term–5% = quite regularly

Questionnaire: most Questionnaire: most beneficial features?beneficial features?• Community: – ‘I have so many Facebook groups for various year

abroad criterion it's comforting to know that there is a direct link to all other Warwick students and teachers.’

– ‘Sharing experiences and advice. It's nice to feel part of a caring, interested community.’

• Language:– ‘It's lovely to be able to track people's growing

confidence in writing in French across the year.’– ‘I like the fact that everyone has shared the various

language points that they have picked up. It's also been useful to see that everyone is having similar issues, with regards to, for example, hitting a bit of a wall with language learning or feeling isolated at times or feeling like we should be speaking a foreign language constantly and if we're not doing that then we're failing dismally...The forums help to keep you grounded.’ 

The student’s perspective: The student’s perspective: ClaireClaire

Facebook vs Moodle spaceWhat are online communities for, from the student’s perspective?

Questionnaire: what is Questionnaire: what is missing?missing?Separate space for Joint Language

students not in France‘More logisitical [sic] things like

sorting out internet, gas, electricity etc. Also all of the bureaucratic things such as applying for CAF’

Finance: how to live on 800 euros a month

Direct contact with the International Office via site

How is the site different from How is the site different from other social networking tools? other social networking tools? • Academic integrity / focus– ‘The department's VLE focuses on the

cultural and educational side of living in France and encourages us to share and compare our experiences with other students all over France.’– ‘the opportunity to supplement our

language learning via written responses to questions posed’

• More reputable information?– ‘It is a place to ask academic questions and

to gain reputable advice (either from other students experiences, or in terms of recommendations)’

Weaknesses of the siteWeaknesses of the siteEase of use – especially

compared to FacebookMahara adds to complexity and

complication

Capitalizing on expanded Capitalizing on expanded horizonshorizons• Using the year abroad to transform:– Student to staff – Student to student– University to school

• Widening Participation Project– Student led – Critical analysis of text book resources and

teaching approaches (with local schools)–Gathering of teaching and learning

resources in France / Francophone countries

–Discussion and dissemination via VLE– Creation of schools resources and online

distribution

Passing on expertisePassing on expertiseFace to face and online follow

up… student workshops for outgoing students

Next year third assessment task different: body of resources for outgoing students

Too much information?

Understanding personal Understanding personal development: workshop for development: workshop for returning YArsreturning YArs• How would you define the Year Abroad in terms of

space?• As a learner, what are the differences between the

Year Abroad space and the Warwick space? • Can the Year Abroad transform you? If so, in what

ways?• Do you want to hold onto your experience? How are

you going to do that?

‘Il y avait une fois…’• The fairy tale. Brainstorm: what is

characteristic of this genre? How does it work? Why might it be a good analogy for the year abroad?

• TASK: Imagine your Year Abroad experience as a fairy tale. Examine each stage of the process in detail. Think about:– Feelings– characters– space / geographies

‘Learning transitions are not, in themselves, significant. What is significant is how those learning transitions are viewed by the learner – in the learning gains, in the learner’s personal development, that just might accrue from those transitions.’ (Barnett, 2012)

BibliographyBibliography Barnett, Ronald, ‘The Coming of the Ecological Learner’, in Transitions and

Transformations in Learning and Education (Dortrecht: Springer, 2012), pp. 9 – 20.

Davidson, Cathy, Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn (New York: Viking, 2011)

Duranton, Hélène, ‘”Wiki-mania”: enhancing student collaborative writing and peer assessment using a wiki’. Paper given at Innovative teaching and learning at unversity conference, University of Newcastle, 27th May 2011

Jones, Anna, ‘A Will To Learn: Being a Student in Age of Uncertainty by Ron Barnett’ (review), Higher Education Quarterly, Volume 63, Issue 1, Jan 2009 (112–114)

Monk, Nicholas et al, Open Space Learning: a Study in Transdisciplinary Pedagogy (London: Bloomsbury, 2010)

Robert, Christopher , ‘The Wheel Model of humor: Humor events and affect in organizations’, Human Relations,  vol. 65 no. 9, September 2012  (1071-1099)

Saarnivaara, et al, ‘Transgression in Learning: A Possible Vista in HE’, in Transitions and Transformations in Learning and Education (Dortrecht: Springer, 2012) , pp. 307 – 325.

Tynjälä, Päiva et al, ‘Changing World: Changing Pedagogy’, in Transitions and Transformations in Learning and Education (Dortrecht: Springer, 2012), pp. 205 - 222