Opportunities in digital and distance language learning

Photo: (Creative Commons license)

Niall Curry explores the direction education was heading towards before the pandemic and the opportunities available through remote teaching, including virtual reality and virtual exchange.

The sudden shift to online teaching and learning over this last year has meant teachers have had to create virtual spaces for language learning, often without adequate training or support. For many of us, this has meant long days in front of a screen teaching our students, whilst looking for any and all guidance that could help make that transition smoother.

This work done by teachers across the world is commendable. However, I think it is important that we recognise that the COVID-19 pandemic has ushered in changes in digital pedagogy practices at an unprecedented rate. Adedoyin and Soykan¹ identify our collective response to ‘moving online’ as a crisis-response and say that the: crisis-response migration methods adopted by universities are limited to delivery media without taking cognizance of effective online education theories and models. Thus, the crisis-response migration due to the pandemic should not be equated with effective online education […] but rather be seen from the perspective of emergency remote teaching platforms.

While this is a generalisation, I found it quite comforting. We did not have to be digital education specialists. This got me thinking about how we might develop our approaches to digital pedagogy and which elements of our crisis practices merit continued attention.

Where was education going?

To look forward, it is often useful to think about where we have come from. Insights from the OECD², indicate the trajectory we were on before COVID-19. They concluded teachers need to prepare students for the unknown and unexpected; future challenges are social, economic and ecological in nature and education will play a key role in developing “knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that enable people to contribute to and benefit from an inclusive and sustainable future”. So, before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the future aims outlined by the OECD seem to respond to the global challenges we are facing right now.

We need to support interdisciplinary thinking, broader critical and creative thinking, and support students in a myriad of ways so that they will be capable of dealing with such challenges. As language teachers, we are well placed to do this, given the transdisciplinary, linguistic, and cultural nature of our work³. Furthermore, there are calls from academic studies to embrace new ways of developing skills and knowledge in language learners⁴.

The impact of COVID-19 on education

Cut to the COVID-19 pandemic. I do not want to understate the devastating impact COVID-19 has had on the education sector, globally. According to The Edge Foundation⁵, the youth employment sector has been decimated, leaving students who rely on student jobs at risk. We have seen a rise in student mental health issues and gaps in access to education have widened, with more disadvantaged students missing out. These issues are not new, but they have been exacerbated by the pandemic. Online education is seen as a potential solution, with calls for widening access to digital teaching considering how digital pedagogy has improved.

So, does the transition online mean we cannot develop our learners as planned? Are there any opportunities in the move to online teaching? I am going to focus on a particular opportunity in using digital pedagogy to develop intercultural competence. Interestingly, while the OECD⁶ report that online platforms were used in nearly all OECD and partner countries, there was a marked and negative impact on the intercultural development of learners. Arguably, this is owing to the crisis-response, rather than it being an inherent weakness of digital pedagogy. I say this because developing intercultural competence in language education has long profited from technology.

I will now briefly discuss two examples of this practice: virtual exchange and virtual reality.

Virtual exchange

Virtual exchange or telecollaboration refers to the use of technology to bring learners together from different cultures and contexts to collaborate and interact. Nowadays, this usually happens online and if you want to know more about this topic, I find the work by Robert O’Dowd enlightening. When compared to contexts in which virtual exchange is not used, virtual exchange does not seem to have any better impact on developing learners’ language proficiency. However, the clear benefit appears to be in the raising of interest in different cultures, for developing global citizenship, implementing culture at the centre of the language learning process, and developing digital literacy skills, authentically⁷,⁸,⁹. So, while the OECD sees the lack of international travel as having a negative impact on the development of intercultural and global learners, there are clear opportunities to offset this shortcoming by using technology to facilitate cultural exchanges.

Virtual reality

The second example, virtual reality, may seem inaccessible to many. But, with modern smartphones and a little cardboard, it is possible to use and create virtual spaces for learning. Before COVID-19, travelling across the world to learn a language was not realistic for most people, anyway. So, finding a way to virtually transport us is a worthy endeavour. Virtual reality has increased learners’ senses of cultural involvement, significantly¹⁰ and has sparked learners’ interest in virtually presented places.¹¹ Virtual reality lets us see the places linked to the language we study and we can use storefronts, signposts, and even annotated videos to add information about the language and culture. Again, this approach pre-dates COVID-19, and reflects a clear opportunity to use digital pedagogy to foster inclusive, international language learning.

The opportunities in digital pedagogy

Overall, there is a range of opportunities in digital pedagogy. The approaches discussed in this blog not only foster digital literacy and intercultural competence, but in addition, they develop learner autonomy, they are cost-effective and inclusive, and they create authentic and culturally immersive online spaces for language learning. We need a wide set of skills to address the problems of both today and tomorrow. And while digital pedagogy may be a “Panacea in the Time of COVID-19 Crisis”¹², it can serve so much more.

As language teachers, our practices are always changing. I am reminded of Marckwardt’s¹³ designation of language education being impacted by changing winds and shifting sands – arguably language education’s perennial state of being. Overall, while the negative impact of the pandemic on education should not be understated, Covid-19 offers opportunities to advance language education, globally, through digital pedagogies.

References

1 Adedoyin, O. B., & Soykan, E. (2020). Covid-19 pandemic and online learning: the challenges and opportunities. Interactive Learning Environments, 1-13.

2 OECD (2018). Future of education and skills 2030: Curriculum analysis. OECD.

3 Liddicoat, A. J. (2018). Language teaching and learning as a transdisciplinary endeavour: Multilingualism and epistemological diversity. AILA Review, 31(1), 14-28.

4 Tuzlukova, V., Al Busaidi, S., & Burns, S. L. (2017). Critical thinking in the Language Classroom: Teacher Beliefs and Methods. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities, 25(2).

5 The Edge Foundation (2020). The impact of COVID-19 on education: A summary of evidence on the early impacts of lockdown. The Edge Foundation.

6 OECD (2020). The impact of COVID-19 on education: Insights from education at a glance 2020. OECD.

7 O’Dowd, R. A transnational model of virtual exchange for global citizenship education. Language Teaching, 52(4) 1-14.

8 O’Dowd, R., & O’Rourke, B. (2019). New developments in virtual exchange in foreign language education.

9 Schenker, T. (2013). The effects of a virtual exchange on students’ interest in learning about culture. Foreign Language Annals, 46(3), 491-507.

10 Cheng, A., Yang, L., & Andersen, E. (2017). Teaching language and culture with a virtual reality game. In Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 541-549). Association for Computing Machinery.

11 Xie, Y., Ryder, L., & Chen, Y. (2019). Using interactive virtual reality tools in an advanced chinese language class: A case study. TechTrends, 63(3), 251-259.

12 Dhawan, S. (2020). Online learning: A panacea in the time of COVID-19 crisis. Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 49(1), 5-22.

13 Marckwardt, A. (1972). Changing winds and shifting sands. MST English Quarterly, 21(3), 3-11.

Photo: (Creative Commons license)

Niall Curry explores the direction education was heading towards before the pandemic and the opportunities available through remote teaching, including virtual reality and virtual exchange.

The sudden shift to online teaching and learning over this last year has meant teachers have had to create virtual spaces for language learning, often without adequate training or support. For many of us, this has meant long days in front of a screen teaching our students, whilst looking for any and all guidance that could help make that transition smoother.

This work done by teachers across the world is commendable. However, I think it is important that we recognise that the COVID-19 pandemic has ushered in changes in digital pedagogy practices at an unprecedented rate. Adedoyin and Soykan¹ identify our collective response to ‘moving online’ as a crisis-response and say that the: crisis-response migration methods adopted by universities are limited to delivery media without taking cognizance of effective online education theories and models. Thus, the crisis-response migration due to the pandemic should not be equated with effective online education […] but rather be seen from the perspective of emergency remote teaching platforms.

While this is a generalisation, I found it quite comforting. We did not have to be digital education specialists. This got me thinking about how we might develop our approaches to digital pedagogy and which elements of our crisis practices merit continued attention.

Where was education going?

To look forward, it is often useful to think about where we have come from. Insights from the OECD², indicate the trajectory we were on before COVID-19. They concluded teachers need to prepare students for the unknown and unexpected; future challenges are social, economic and ecological in nature and education will play a key role in developing “knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that enable people to contribute to and benefit from an inclusive and sustainable future”. So, before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the future aims outlined by the OECD seem to respond to the global challenges we are facing right now.

We need to support interdisciplinary thinking, broader critical and creative thinking, and support students in a myriad of ways so that they will be capable of dealing with such challenges. As language teachers, we are well placed to do this, given the transdisciplinary, linguistic, and cultural nature of our work³. Furthermore, there are calls from academic studies to embrace new ways of developing skills and knowledge in language learners⁴.

The impact of COVID-19 on education

Cut to the COVID-19 pandemic. I do not want to understate the devastating impact COVID-19 has had on the education sector, globally. According to The Edge Foundation⁵, the youth employment sector has been decimated, leaving students who rely on student jobs at risk. We have seen a rise in student mental health issues and gaps in access to education have widened, with more disadvantaged students missing out. These issues are not new, but they have been exacerbated by the pandemic. Online education is seen as a potential solution, with calls for widening access to digital teaching considering how digital pedagogy has improved.

So, does the transition online mean we cannot develop our learners as planned? Are there any opportunities in the move to online teaching? I am going to focus on a particular opportunity in using digital pedagogy to develop intercultural competence. Interestingly, while the OECD⁶ report that online platforms were used in nearly all OECD and partner countries, there was a marked and negative impact on the intercultural development of learners. Arguably, this is owing to the crisis-response, rather than it being an inherent weakness of digital pedagogy. I say this because developing intercultural competence in language education has long profited from technology.

I will now briefly discuss two examples of this practice: virtual exchange and virtual reality.

Virtual exchange

Virtual exchange or telecollaboration refers to the use of technology to bring learners together from different cultures and contexts to collaborate and interact. Nowadays, this usually happens online and if you want to know more about this topic, I find the work by Robert O’Dowd enlightening. When compared to contexts in which virtual exchange is not used, virtual exchange does not seem to have any better impact on developing learners’ language proficiency. However, the clear benefit appears to be in the raising of interest in different cultures, for developing global citizenship, implementing culture at the centre of the language learning process, and developing digital literacy skills, authentically⁷,⁸,⁹. So, while the OECD sees the lack of international travel as having a negative impact on the development of intercultural and global learners, there are clear opportunities to offset this shortcoming by using technology to facilitate cultural exchanges.

Virtual reality

The second example, virtual reality, may seem inaccessible to many. But, with modern smartphones and a little cardboard, it is possible to use and create virtual spaces for learning. Before COVID-19, travelling across the world to learn a language was not realistic for most people, anyway. So, finding a way to virtually transport us is a worthy endeavour. Virtual reality has increased learners’ senses of cultural involvement, significantly¹⁰ and has sparked learners’ interest in virtually presented places.¹¹ Virtual reality lets us see the places linked to the language we study and we can use storefronts, signposts, and even annotated videos to add information about the language and culture. Again, this approach pre-dates COVID-19, and reflects a clear opportunity to use digital pedagogy to foster inclusive, international language learning.

The opportunities in digital pedagogy

Overall, there is a range of opportunities in digital pedagogy. The approaches discussed in this blog not only foster digital literacy and intercultural competence, but in addition, they develop learner autonomy, they are cost-effective and inclusive, and they create authentic and culturally immersive online spaces for language learning. We need a wide set of skills to address the problems of both today and tomorrow. And while digital pedagogy may be a “Panacea in the Time of COVID-19 Crisis”¹², it can serve so much more.

As language teachers, our practices are always changing. I am reminded of Marckwardt’s¹³ designation of language education being impacted by changing winds and shifting sands – arguably language education’s perennial state of being. Overall, while the negative impact of the pandemic on education should not be understated, Covid-19 offers opportunities to advance language education, globally, through digital pedagogies.

References

1 Adedoyin, O. B., & Soykan, E. (2020). Covid-19 pandemic and online learning: the challenges and opportunities. Interactive Learning Environments, 1-13.

2 OECD (2018). Future of education and skills 2030: Curriculum analysis. OECD.

3 Liddicoat, A. J. (2018). Language teaching and learning as a transdisciplinary endeavour: Multilingualism and epistemological diversity. AILA Review, 31(1), 14-28.

4 Tuzlukova, V., Al Busaidi, S., & Burns, S. L. (2017). Critical thinking in the Language Classroom: Teacher Beliefs and Methods. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities, 25(2).

5 The Edge Foundation (2020). The impact of COVID-19 on education: A summary of evidence on the early impacts of lockdown. The Edge Foundation.

6 OECD (2020). The impact of COVID-19 on education: Insights from education at a glance 2020. OECD.

7 O’Dowd, R. A transnational model of virtual exchange for global citizenship education. Language Teaching, 52(4) 1-14.

8 O’Dowd, R., & O’Rourke, B. (2019). New developments in virtual exchange in foreign language education.

9 Schenker, T. (2013). The effects of a virtual exchange on students’ interest in learning about culture. Foreign Language Annals, 46(3), 491-507.

10 Cheng, A., Yang, L., & Andersen, E. (2017). Teaching language and culture with a virtual reality game. In Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 541-549). Association for Computing Machinery.

11 Xie, Y., Ryder, L., & Chen, Y. (2019). Using interactive virtual reality tools in an advanced chinese language class: A case study. TechTrends, 63(3), 251-259.

12 Dhawan, S. (2020). Online learning: A panacea in the time of COVID-19 crisis. Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 49(1), 5-22.

13 Marckwardt, A. (1972). Changing winds and shifting sands. MST English Quarterly, 21(3), 3-11.

Photo: (Creative Commons license)

Niall Curry explores the direction education was heading towards before the pandemic and the opportunities available through remote teaching, including virtual reality and virtual exchange.

The sudden shift to online teaching and learning over this last year has meant teachers have had to create virtual spaces for language learning, often without adequate training or support. For many of us, this has meant long days in front of a screen teaching our students, whilst looking for any and all guidance that could help make that transition smoother.

This work done by teachers across the world is commendable. However, I think it is important that we recognise that the COVID-19 pandemic has ushered in changes in digital pedagogy practices at an unprecedented rate. Adedoyin and Soykan¹ identify our collective response to ‘moving online’ as a crisis-response and say that the: crisis-response migration methods adopted by universities are limited to delivery media without taking cognizance of effective online education theories and models. Thus, the crisis-response migration due to the pandemic should not be equated with effective online education […] but rather be seen from the perspective of emergency remote teaching platforms.

While this is a generalisation, I found it quite comforting. We did not have to be digital education specialists. This got me thinking about how we might develop our approaches to digital pedagogy and which elements of our crisis practices merit continued attention.

Where was education going?

To look forward, it is often useful to think about where we have come from. Insights from the OECD², indicate the trajectory we were on before COVID-19. They concluded teachers need to prepare students for the unknown and unexpected; future challenges are social, economic and ecological in nature and education will play a key role in developing “knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that enable people to contribute to and benefit from an inclusive and sustainable future”. So, before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the future aims outlined by the OECD seem to respond to the global challenges we are facing right now.

We need to support interdisciplinary thinking, broader critical and creative thinking, and support students in a myriad of ways so that they will be capable of dealing with such challenges. As language teachers, we are well placed to do this, given the transdisciplinary, linguistic, and cultural nature of our work³. Furthermore, there are calls from academic studies to embrace new ways of developing skills and knowledge in language learners⁴.

The impact of COVID-19 on education

Cut to the COVID-19 pandemic. I do not want to understate the devastating impact COVID-19 has had on the education sector, globally. According to The Edge Foundation⁵, the youth employment sector has been decimated, leaving students who rely on student jobs at risk. We have seen a rise in student mental health issues and gaps in access to education have widened, with more disadvantaged students missing out. These issues are not new, but they have been exacerbated by the pandemic. Online education is seen as a potential solution, with calls for widening access to digital teaching considering how digital pedagogy has improved.

So, does the transition online mean we cannot develop our learners as planned? Are there any opportunities in the move to online teaching? I am going to focus on a particular opportunity in using digital pedagogy to develop intercultural competence. Interestingly, while the OECD⁶ report that online platforms were used in nearly all OECD and partner countries, there was a marked and negative impact on the intercultural development of learners. Arguably, this is owing to the crisis-response, rather than it being an inherent weakness of digital pedagogy. I say this because developing intercultural competence in language education has long profited from technology.

I will now briefly discuss two examples of this practice: virtual exchange and virtual reality.

Virtual exchange

Virtual exchange or telecollaboration refers to the use of technology to bring learners together from different cultures and contexts to collaborate and interact. Nowadays, this usually happens online and if you want to know more about this topic, I find the work by Robert O’Dowd enlightening. When compared to contexts in which virtual exchange is not used, virtual exchange does not seem to have any better impact on developing learners’ language proficiency. However, the clear benefit appears to be in the raising of interest in different cultures, for developing global citizenship, implementing culture at the centre of the language learning process, and developing digital literacy skills, authentically⁷,⁸,⁹. So, while the OECD sees the lack of international travel as having a negative impact on the development of intercultural and global learners, there are clear opportunities to offset this shortcoming by using technology to facilitate cultural exchanges.

Virtual reality

The second example, virtual reality, may seem inaccessible to many. But, with modern smartphones and a little cardboard, it is possible to use and create virtual spaces for learning. Before COVID-19, travelling across the world to learn a language was not realistic for most people, anyway. So, finding a way to virtually transport us is a worthy endeavour. Virtual reality has increased learners’ senses of cultural involvement, significantly¹⁰ and has sparked learners’ interest in virtually presented places.¹¹ Virtual reality lets us see the places linked to the language we study and we can use storefronts, signposts, and even annotated videos to add information about the language and culture. Again, this approach pre-dates COVID-19, and reflects a clear opportunity to use digital pedagogy to foster inclusive, international language learning.

The opportunities in digital pedagogy

Overall, there is a range of opportunities in digital pedagogy. The approaches discussed in this blog not only foster digital literacy and intercultural competence, but in addition, they develop learner autonomy, they are cost-effective and inclusive, and they create authentic and culturally immersive online spaces for language learning. We need a wide set of skills to address the problems of both today and tomorrow. And while digital pedagogy may be a “Panacea in the Time of COVID-19 Crisis”¹², it can serve so much more.

As language teachers, our practices are always changing. I am reminded of Marckwardt’s¹³ designation of language education being impacted by changing winds and shifting sands – arguably language education’s perennial state of being. Overall, while the negative impact of the pandemic on education should not be understated, Covid-19 offers opportunities to advance language education, globally, through digital pedagogies.

References

1 Adedoyin, O. B., & Soykan, E. (2020). Covid-19 pandemic and online learning: the challenges and opportunities. Interactive Learning Environments, 1-13.

2 OECD (2018). Future of education and skills 2030: Curriculum analysis. OECD.

3 Liddicoat, A. J. (2018). Language teaching and learning as a transdisciplinary endeavour: Multilingualism and epistemological diversity. AILA Review, 31(1), 14-28.

4 Tuzlukova, V., Al Busaidi, S., & Burns, S. L. (2017). Critical thinking in the Language Classroom: Teacher Beliefs and Methods. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities, 25(2).

5 The Edge Foundation (2020). The impact of COVID-19 on education: A summary of evidence on the early impacts of lockdown. The Edge Foundation.

6 OECD (2020). The impact of COVID-19 on education: Insights from education at a glance 2020. OECD.

7 O’Dowd, R. A transnational model of virtual exchange for global citizenship education. Language Teaching, 52(4) 1-14.

8 O’Dowd, R., & O’Rourke, B. (2019). New developments in virtual exchange in foreign language education.

9 Schenker, T. (2013). The effects of a virtual exchange on students’ interest in learning about culture. Foreign Language Annals, 46(3), 491-507.

10 Cheng, A., Yang, L., & Andersen, E. (2017). Teaching language and culture with a virtual reality game. In Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 541-549). Association for Computing Machinery.

11 Xie, Y., Ryder, L., & Chen, Y. (2019). Using interactive virtual reality tools in an advanced chinese language class: A case study. TechTrends, 63(3), 251-259.

12 Dhawan, S. (2020). Online learning: A panacea in the time of COVID-19 crisis. Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 49(1), 5-22.

13 Marckwardt, A. (1972). Changing winds and shifting sands. MST English Quarterly, 21(3), 3-11.

Photo: (Creative Commons license)

Niall Curry explores the direction education was heading towards before the pandemic and the opportunities available through remote teaching, including virtual reality and virtual exchange.

The sudden shift to online teaching and learning over this last year has meant teachers have had to create virtual spaces for language learning, often without adequate training or support. For many of us, this has meant long days in front of a screen teaching our students, whilst looking for any and all guidance that could help make that transition smoother.

This work done by teachers across the world is commendable. However, I think it is important that we recognise that the COVID-19 pandemic has ushered in changes in digital pedagogy practices at an unprecedented rate. Adedoyin and Soykan¹ identify our collective response to ‘moving online’ as a crisis-response and say that the: crisis-response migration methods adopted by universities are limited to delivery media without taking cognizance of effective online education theories and models. Thus, the crisis-response migration due to the pandemic should not be equated with effective online education […] but rather be seen from the perspective of emergency remote teaching platforms.

While this is a generalisation, I found it quite comforting. We did not have to be digital education specialists. This got me thinking about how we might develop our approaches to digital pedagogy and which elements of our crisis practices merit continued attention.

Where was education going?

To look forward, it is often useful to think about where we have come from. Insights from the OECD², indicate the trajectory we were on before COVID-19. They concluded teachers need to prepare students for the unknown and unexpected; future challenges are social, economic and ecological in nature and education will play a key role in developing “knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that enable people to contribute to and benefit from an inclusive and sustainable future”. So, before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the future aims outlined by the OECD seem to respond to the global challenges we are facing right now.

We need to support interdisciplinary thinking, broader critical and creative thinking, and support students in a myriad of ways so that they will be capable of dealing with such challenges. As language teachers, we are well placed to do this, given the transdisciplinary, linguistic, and cultural nature of our work³. Furthermore, there are calls from academic studies to embrace new ways of developing skills and knowledge in language learners⁴.

The impact of COVID-19 on education

Cut to the COVID-19 pandemic. I do not want to understate the devastating impact COVID-19 has had on the education sector, globally. According to The Edge Foundation⁵, the youth employment sector has been decimated, leaving students who rely on student jobs at risk. We have seen a rise in student mental health issues and gaps in access to education have widened, with more disadvantaged students missing out. These issues are not new, but they have been exacerbated by the pandemic. Online education is seen as a potential solution, with calls for widening access to digital teaching considering how digital pedagogy has improved.

So, does the transition online mean we cannot develop our learners as planned? Are there any opportunities in the move to online teaching? I am going to focus on a particular opportunity in using digital pedagogy to develop intercultural competence. Interestingly, while the OECD⁶ report that online platforms were used in nearly all OECD and partner countries, there was a marked and negative impact on the intercultural development of learners. Arguably, this is owing to the crisis-response, rather than it being an inherent weakness of digital pedagogy. I say this because developing intercultural competence in language education has long profited from technology.

I will now briefly discuss two examples of this practice: virtual exchange and virtual reality.

Virtual exchange

Virtual exchange or telecollaboration refers to the use of technology to bring learners together from different cultures and contexts to collaborate and interact. Nowadays, this usually happens online and if you want to know more about this topic, I find the work by Robert O’Dowd enlightening. When compared to contexts in which virtual exchange is not used, virtual exchange does not seem to have any better impact on developing learners’ language proficiency. However, the clear benefit appears to be in the raising of interest in different cultures, for developing global citizenship, implementing culture at the centre of the language learning process, and developing digital literacy skills, authentically⁷,⁸,⁹. So, while the OECD sees the lack of international travel as having a negative impact on the development of intercultural and global learners, there are clear opportunities to offset this shortcoming by using technology to facilitate cultural exchanges.

Virtual reality

The second example, virtual reality, may seem inaccessible to many. But, with modern smartphones and a little cardboard, it is possible to use and create virtual spaces for learning. Before COVID-19, travelling across the world to learn a language was not realistic for most people, anyway. So, finding a way to virtually transport us is a worthy endeavour. Virtual reality has increased learners’ senses of cultural involvement, significantly¹⁰ and has sparked learners’ interest in virtually presented places.¹¹ Virtual reality lets us see the places linked to the language we study and we can use storefronts, signposts, and even annotated videos to add information about the language and culture. Again, this approach pre-dates COVID-19, and reflects a clear opportunity to use digital pedagogy to foster inclusive, international language learning.

The opportunities in digital pedagogy

Overall, there is a range of opportunities in digital pedagogy. The approaches discussed in this blog not only foster digital literacy and intercultural competence, but in addition, they develop learner autonomy, they are cost-effective and inclusive, and they create authentic and culturally immersive online spaces for language learning. We need a wide set of skills to address the problems of both today and tomorrow. And while digital pedagogy may be a “Panacea in the Time of COVID-19 Crisis”¹², it can serve so much more.

As language teachers, our practices are always changing. I am reminded of Marckwardt’s¹³ designation of language education being impacted by changing winds and shifting sands – arguably language education’s perennial state of being. Overall, while the negative impact of the pandemic on education should not be understated, Covid-19 offers opportunities to advance language education, globally, through digital pedagogies.

References

1 Adedoyin, O. B., & Soykan, E. (2020). Covid-19 pandemic and online learning: the challenges and opportunities. Interactive Learning Environments, 1-13.

2 OECD (2018). Future of education and skills 2030: Curriculum analysis. OECD.

3 Liddicoat, A. J. (2018). Language teaching and learning as a transdisciplinary endeavour: Multilingualism and epistemological diversity. AILA Review, 31(1), 14-28.

4 Tuzlukova, V., Al Busaidi, S., & Burns, S. L. (2017). Critical thinking in the Language Classroom: Teacher Beliefs and Methods. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities, 25(2).

5 The Edge Foundation (2020). The impact of COVID-19 on education: A summary of evidence on the early impacts of lockdown. The Edge Foundation.

6 OECD (2020). The impact of COVID-19 on education: Insights from education at a glance 2020. OECD.

7 O’Dowd, R. A transnational model of virtual exchange for global citizenship education. Language Teaching, 52(4) 1-14.

8 O’Dowd, R., & O’Rourke, B. (2019). New developments in virtual exchange in foreign language education.

9 Schenker, T. (2013). The effects of a virtual exchange on students’ interest in learning about culture. Foreign Language Annals, 46(3), 491-507.

10 Cheng, A., Yang, L., & Andersen, E. (2017). Teaching language and culture with a virtual reality game. In Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 541-549). Association for Computing Machinery.

11 Xie, Y., Ryder, L., & Chen, Y. (2019). Using interactive virtual reality tools in an advanced chinese language class: A case study. TechTrends, 63(3), 251-259.

12 Dhawan, S. (2020). Online learning: A panacea in the time of COVID-19 crisis. Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 49(1), 5-22.

13 Marckwardt, A. (1972). Changing winds and shifting sands. MST English Quarterly, 21(3), 3-11.

Photo: (Creative Commons license)

Niall Curry explores the direction education was heading towards before the pandemic and the opportunities available through remote teaching, including virtual reality and virtual exchange.

The sudden shift to online teaching and learning over this last year has meant teachers have had to create virtual spaces for language learning, often without adequate training or support. For many of us, this has meant long days in front of a screen teaching our students, whilst looking for any and all guidance that could help make that transition smoother.

This work done by teachers across the world is commendable. However, I think it is important that we recognise that the COVID-19 pandemic has ushered in changes in digital pedagogy practices at an unprecedented rate. Adedoyin and Soykan¹ identify our collective response to ‘moving online’ as a crisis-response and say that the: crisis-response migration methods adopted by universities are limited to delivery media without taking cognizance of effective online education theories and models. Thus, the crisis-response migration due to the pandemic should not be equated with effective online education […] but rather be seen from the perspective of emergency remote teaching platforms.

While this is a generalisation, I found it quite comforting. We did not have to be digital education specialists. This got me thinking about how we might develop our approaches to digital pedagogy and which elements of our crisis practices merit continued attention.

Where was education going?

To look forward, it is often useful to think about where we have come from. Insights from the OECD², indicate the trajectory we were on before COVID-19. They concluded teachers need to prepare students for the unknown and unexpected; future challenges are social, economic and ecological in nature and education will play a key role in developing “knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that enable people to contribute to and benefit from an inclusive and sustainable future”. So, before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the future aims outlined by the OECD seem to respond to the global challenges we are facing right now.

We need to support interdisciplinary thinking, broader critical and creative thinking, and support students in a myriad of ways so that they will be capable of dealing with such challenges. As language teachers, we are well placed to do this, given the transdisciplinary, linguistic, and cultural nature of our work³. Furthermore, there are calls from academic studies to embrace new ways of developing skills and knowledge in language learners⁴.

The impact of COVID-19 on education

Cut to the COVID-19 pandemic. I do not want to understate the devastating impact COVID-19 has had on the education sector, globally. According to The Edge Foundation⁵, the youth employment sector has been decimated, leaving students who rely on student jobs at risk. We have seen a rise in student mental health issues and gaps in access to education have widened, with more disadvantaged students missing out. These issues are not new, but they have been exacerbated by the pandemic. Online education is seen as a potential solution, with calls for widening access to digital teaching considering how digital pedagogy has improved.

So, does the transition online mean we cannot develop our learners as planned? Are there any opportunities in the move to online teaching? I am going to focus on a particular opportunity in using digital pedagogy to develop intercultural competence. Interestingly, while the OECD⁶ report that online platforms were used in nearly all OECD and partner countries, there was a marked and negative impact on the intercultural development of learners. Arguably, this is owing to the crisis-response, rather than it being an inherent weakness of digital pedagogy. I say this because developing intercultural competence in language education has long profited from technology.

I will now briefly discuss two examples of this practice: virtual exchange and virtual reality.

Virtual exchange

Virtual exchange or telecollaboration refers to the use of technology to bring learners together from different cultures and contexts to collaborate and interact. Nowadays, this usually happens online and if you want to know more about this topic, I find the work by Robert O’Dowd enlightening. When compared to contexts in which virtual exchange is not used, virtual exchange does not seem to have any better impact on developing learners’ language proficiency. However, the clear benefit appears to be in the raising of interest in different cultures, for developing global citizenship, implementing culture at the centre of the language learning process, and developing digital literacy skills, authentically⁷,⁸,⁹. So, while the OECD sees the lack of international travel as having a negative impact on the development of intercultural and global learners, there are clear opportunities to offset this shortcoming by using technology to facilitate cultural exchanges.

Virtual reality

The second example, virtual reality, may seem inaccessible to many. But, with modern smartphones and a little cardboard, it is possible to use and create virtual spaces for learning. Before COVID-19, travelling across the world to learn a language was not realistic for most people, anyway. So, finding a way to virtually transport us is a worthy endeavour. Virtual reality has increased learners’ senses of cultural involvement, significantly¹⁰ and has sparked learners’ interest in virtually presented places.¹¹ Virtual reality lets us see the places linked to the language we study and we can use storefronts, signposts, and even annotated videos to add information about the language and culture. Again, this approach pre-dates COVID-19, and reflects a clear opportunity to use digital pedagogy to foster inclusive, international language learning.

The opportunities in digital pedagogy

Overall, there is a range of opportunities in digital pedagogy. The approaches discussed in this blog not only foster digital literacy and intercultural competence, but in addition, they develop learner autonomy, they are cost-effective and inclusive, and they create authentic and culturally immersive online spaces for language learning. We need a wide set of skills to address the problems of both today and tomorrow. And while digital pedagogy may be a “Panacea in the Time of COVID-19 Crisis”¹², it can serve so much more.

As language teachers, our practices are always changing. I am reminded of Marckwardt’s¹³ designation of language education being impacted by changing winds and shifting sands – arguably language education’s perennial state of being. Overall, while the negative impact of the pandemic on education should not be understated, Covid-19 offers opportunities to advance language education, globally, through digital pedagogies.

References

1 Adedoyin, O. B., & Soykan, E. (2020). Covid-19 pandemic and online learning: the challenges and opportunities. Interactive Learning Environments, 1-13.

2 OECD (2018). Future of education and skills 2030: Curriculum analysis. OECD.

3 Liddicoat, A. J. (2018). Language teaching and learning as a transdisciplinary endeavour: Multilingualism and epistemological diversity. AILA Review, 31(1), 14-28.

4 Tuzlukova, V., Al Busaidi, S., & Burns, S. L. (2017). Critical thinking in the Language Classroom: Teacher Beliefs and Methods. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities, 25(2).

5 The Edge Foundation (2020). The impact of COVID-19 on education: A summary of evidence on the early impacts of lockdown. The Edge Foundation.

6 OECD (2020). The impact of COVID-19 on education: Insights from education at a glance 2020. OECD.

7 O’Dowd, R. A transnational model of virtual exchange for global citizenship education. Language Teaching, 52(4) 1-14.

8 O’Dowd, R., & O’Rourke, B. (2019). New developments in virtual exchange in foreign language education.

9 Schenker, T. (2013). The effects of a virtual exchange on students’ interest in learning about culture. Foreign Language Annals, 46(3), 491-507.

10 Cheng, A., Yang, L., & Andersen, E. (2017). Teaching language and culture with a virtual reality game. In Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 541-549). Association for Computing Machinery.

11 Xie, Y., Ryder, L., & Chen, Y. (2019). Using interactive virtual reality tools in an advanced chinese language class: A case study. TechTrends, 63(3), 251-259.

12 Dhawan, S. (2020). Online learning: A panacea in the time of COVID-19 crisis. Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 49(1), 5-22.

13 Marckwardt, A. (1972). Changing winds and shifting sands. MST English Quarterly, 21(3), 3-11.

Photo: (Creative Commons license)

Niall Curry explores the direction education was heading towards before the pandemic and the opportunities available through remote teaching, including virtual reality and virtual exchange.

The sudden shift to online teaching and learning over this last year has meant teachers have had to create virtual spaces for language learning, often without adequate training or support. For many of us, this has meant long days in front of a screen teaching our students, whilst looking for any and all guidance that could help make that transition smoother.

This work done by teachers across the world is commendable. However, I think it is important that we recognise that the COVID-19 pandemic has ushered in changes in digital pedagogy practices at an unprecedented rate. Adedoyin and Soykan¹ identify our collective response to ‘moving online’ as a crisis-response and say that the: crisis-response migration methods adopted by universities are limited to delivery media without taking cognizance of effective online education theories and models. Thus, the crisis-response migration due to the pandemic should not be equated with effective online education […] but rather be seen from the perspective of emergency remote teaching platforms.

While this is a generalisation, I found it quite comforting. We did not have to be digital education specialists. This got me thinking about how we might develop our approaches to digital pedagogy and which elements of our crisis practices merit continued attention.

Where was education going?

To look forward, it is often useful to think about where we have come from. Insights from the OECD², indicate the trajectory we were on before COVID-19. They concluded teachers need to prepare students for the unknown and unexpected; future challenges are social, economic and ecological in nature and education will play a key role in developing “knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that enable people to contribute to and benefit from an inclusive and sustainable future”. So, before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the future aims outlined by the OECD seem to respond to the global challenges we are facing right now.

We need to support interdisciplinary thinking, broader critical and creative thinking, and support students in a myriad of ways so that they will be capable of dealing with such challenges. As language teachers, we are well placed to do this, given the transdisciplinary, linguistic, and cultural nature of our work³. Furthermore, there are calls from academic studies to embrace new ways of developing skills and knowledge in language learners⁴.

The impact of COVID-19 on education

Cut to the COVID-19 pandemic. I do not want to understate the devastating impact COVID-19 has had on the education sector, globally. According to The Edge Foundation⁵, the youth employment sector has been decimated, leaving students who rely on student jobs at risk. We have seen a rise in student mental health issues and gaps in access to education have widened, with more disadvantaged students missing out. These issues are not new, but they have been exacerbated by the pandemic. Online education is seen as a potential solution, with calls for widening access to digital teaching considering how digital pedagogy has improved.

So, does the transition online mean we cannot develop our learners as planned? Are there any opportunities in the move to online teaching? I am going to focus on a particular opportunity in using digital pedagogy to develop intercultural competence. Interestingly, while the OECD⁶ report that online platforms were used in nearly all OECD and partner countries, there was a marked and negative impact on the intercultural development of learners. Arguably, this is owing to the crisis-response, rather than it being an inherent weakness of digital pedagogy. I say this because developing intercultural competence in language education has long profited from technology.

I will now briefly discuss two examples of this practice: virtual exchange and virtual reality.

Virtual exchange

Virtual exchange or telecollaboration refers to the use of technology to bring learners together from different cultures and contexts to collaborate and interact. Nowadays, this usually happens online and if you want to know more about this topic, I find the work by Robert O’Dowd enlightening. When compared to contexts in which virtual exchange is not used, virtual exchange does not seem to have any better impact on developing learners’ language proficiency. However, the clear benefit appears to be in the raising of interest in different cultures, for developing global citizenship, implementing culture at the centre of the language learning process, and developing digital literacy skills, authentically⁷,⁸,⁹. So, while the OECD sees the lack of international travel as having a negative impact on the development of intercultural and global learners, there are clear opportunities to offset this shortcoming by using technology to facilitate cultural exchanges.

Virtual reality

The second example, virtual reality, may seem inaccessible to many. But, with modern smartphones and a little cardboard, it is possible to use and create virtual spaces for learning. Before COVID-19, travelling across the world to learn a language was not realistic for most people, anyway. So, finding a way to virtually transport us is a worthy endeavour. Virtual reality has increased learners’ senses of cultural involvement, significantly¹⁰ and has sparked learners’ interest in virtually presented places.¹¹ Virtual reality lets us see the places linked to the language we study and we can use storefronts, signposts, and even annotated videos to add information about the language and culture. Again, this approach pre-dates COVID-19, and reflects a clear opportunity to use digital pedagogy to foster inclusive, international language learning.

The opportunities in digital pedagogy

Overall, there is a range of opportunities in digital pedagogy. The approaches discussed in this blog not only foster digital literacy and intercultural competence, but in addition, they develop learner autonomy, they are cost-effective and inclusive, and they create authentic and culturally immersive online spaces for language learning. We need a wide set of skills to address the problems of both today and tomorrow. And while digital pedagogy may be a “Panacea in the Time of COVID-19 Crisis”¹², it can serve so much more.

As language teachers, our practices are always changing. I am reminded of Marckwardt’s¹³ designation of language education being impacted by changing winds and shifting sands – arguably language education’s perennial state of being. Overall, while the negative impact of the pandemic on education should not be understated, Covid-19 offers opportunities to advance language education, globally, through digital pedagogies.

References

1 Adedoyin, O. B., & Soykan, E. (2020). Covid-19 pandemic and online learning: the challenges and opportunities. Interactive Learning Environments, 1-13.

2 OECD (2018). Future of education and skills 2030: Curriculum analysis. OECD.

3 Liddicoat, A. J. (2018). Language teaching and learning as a transdisciplinary endeavour: Multilingualism and epistemological diversity. AILA Review, 31(1), 14-28.

4 Tuzlukova, V., Al Busaidi, S., & Burns, S. L. (2017). Critical thinking in the Language Classroom: Teacher Beliefs and Methods. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities, 25(2).

5 The Edge Foundation (2020). The impact of COVID-19 on education: A summary of evidence on the early impacts of lockdown. The Edge Foundation.

6 OECD (2020). The impact of COVID-19 on education: Insights from education at a glance 2020. OECD.

7 O’Dowd, R. A transnational model of virtual exchange for global citizens壯陽藥
hip education. Language Teaching, 52(4) 1-14.

8 O’Dowd, R., & O’Rourke, B. (2019). New developments in virtual exchange in foreign language education.

9 Schenker, T. (2013). The effects of a virtual exchange on students’ interest in learning about culture. Foreign Language Annals, 46(3), 491-507.

10 Cheng, A., Yang, L., & Andersen, E. (2017). Teaching language and culture with a virtual reality game. In Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 541-549). Association for Computing Machinery.

11 Xie, Y., Ryder, L., & Chen, Y. (2019). Using interactive virtual reality tools in an advanced chinese language class: A case study. TechTrends, 63(3), 251-259.