Archive copy.
International Conference 2018
Featured Session
What We Talk About When We Talk About Interaction
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One of the great feel-good words in education technology is "interactivity." From whiteboards to virtual environments, "interaction" is everywhere. But the term carries two implicit suggestions. First, it implies that "interaction" takes place between human and machine, rather than human and human. The second suggestion is a simplistic idea that educational technology equates with learning that involves interaction (humanㅡmachine) and is good; whereas the traditional face-to-face classroom equates with teaching that involves lecture-style transmission (teacherㅡstudent) and is bad. However many researchers find that the lack of social interaction can lead to feelings of isolation, disillusionment, and greater risk of dropping out of the online learning environment. Human-machine interactivity is not enough to maintain student satisfaction and engagement in online learning. Studentㅡstudent interaction is not only motivating and engaging but actually essential for learning to take place. However, provision for interaction in online courses often remains limited and confined to a read-and-discuss format.
In this talk, we will outline ten principles for successful interaction online, and introduce and give examples of five different kinds of online interaction: Critical, involving an exchange of opinions; Personal, involving an exchange of personal information; Factual, involving sharing information; Fanciful, involving entering into an imaginary scenario; and Creative, involving the creation of a "product." We’ll show how online interaction patterns differ from classroom interaction patterns, give suggestions for setting up and managing such activities, show examples of student contributions, and consider ways of providing feedback and assessment.
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Invited Second Session
The Changing World of Materials Design: How to Create Online Tasks
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The changing landscape of ELT means that many teachers are now using blended learning or teaching wholly online. However, both the nature of online tasks and the types of groupings and interactions are both very different from classroom tasks and groupings. In this practical workshop, I will give participants a toolkit for designing online tasks. We will discuss principles of task design and explore how the nature of online task design differs from that of classroom tasks. I will present seven types of online interaction: Confetti, Pass the Parcel, Poker, Breakout, Postal Ballot, Writers’ Group, and Creative Commons, and give participants a step-by-step process for creating their own tasks. We will also look at how noticing, feedback, and focus on form differ in online contexts because of two factors: the fact that the teacher and students can see all student contributions to the task and the fact that as most online interaction is asynchronous, the teacher has time to prepare a rich variety of feedback and language focus tasks. Participants will then have an opportunity to design and share their own online tasks and to discuss and design feedback activities for those tasks.
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Biographical Sketch
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Jill Hadfield has worked on development projects in China, Tibet, and Madagascar, and is currently Associate Professor in Language Teacher Education, Unitec Institute of Technology, New Zealand. She edits the Research and Resources in Language Teaching series, and her many publications include the Communication Games series (Pearson); Classroom Dynamics (OUP); Motivating Learning, with Zoltan Dornyei (Routledge); and Interaction Online, with Lindsay Clandfield (CUP), which was shortlisted for the Ben Warren Prize and is a finalist for the ELTons Award for Innovation in Teacher Resources.
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Jill Hadfield Resources on the Web
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Video: Interview with Jill Hadfield, Budapest, 2015.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFndQs37DCQ
Books by Jill Hadfield
https://www.amazon.com/Jill-Hadfield/e/B0034OMA7K
