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

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

• Cathy Hampton and David Lees
• University of Warwick

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Learning spaces and changes 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

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Year Abroaders radical 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)

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Year Abroaders radical 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)

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Year Abroaders radical learners?

• Disrupted learners
• We learn our patterns of attention so
  efficiently that we dont 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.

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Teacher / facilitator role in Year 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
  students 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)

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Designing 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

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Properties 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

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Teacher involvement

• 1 overall co-ordinator
• 2 postgraduates (one of which native speaker)
• Team of lecteurs (changes yearly)
• Language co-ordinator (advisory)

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Student as learner the 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

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Task choose your subject create your title
must 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 lhomosexualité et
  faire une comparaison entre lAngleterre et la
  France nest-ce pas possible daborder le thème
  avec une citation? Peut-être tu peux choisir deux
  une dun ressource anglais traduit en français,
  lautre 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 lhomosexualité en France et en
  Angleterre ? (ANDREW)

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Essay task other areas of collaboration

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

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Individual feedback
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Feed forward advice
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Collective 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

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Mahara area

• Guided dossier building student teacher
  student
• Also emphasis on democracy of learning shared
  area blog page
• Personal reflection space

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A first attempt at dossier building
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Second dossier more reflection better
organisation
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A template example sifting and sorting
reflection
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A more pictoral approach
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• Informal collaborative learning the forum

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Student as task manager

• Target setting
• Cajoling 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

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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.

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Andrews response

• Thank 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!

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• 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.

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Jasmines pragmatic solution

• Chers 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"

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Student as expert student as 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

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Student as professional expert more scaffolded
tasks

• Forum seeded with targeted questions
• Compulsory response required (linked with
  monitoring points)
• Expert areas set up
• Assistantship forum
• Erasmus student forum
• Paid work forum

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Student as professional expert 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

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Student as professional expert 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

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Student as intercultural negotiator

• 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

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Student as intercultural negotiator

• 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)

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Student as community builder

• 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 Im 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.

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Questionnaire responses re use of forum (19
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

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Questionnaire most 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. 

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The students perspective Claire

• Facebook vs Moodle space
• What are online communities for, from the
  students perspective?

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Questionnaire what is 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

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How is the site different from 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)

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Weaknesses of the site

• Ease of use especially compared to Facebook
• Mahara adds to complexity and complication

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Capitalizing on expanded horizons

• 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

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Passing on expertise

• Face 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?

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Understanding personal development workshop for
returning 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

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• 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 learners personal
  development, that just might accrue from those
  transitions. (Barnett, 2012)

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Bibliography

• 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 (112114)
• 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