Training teachers for the multimedia age: developing teacher expertise to enhance online learner interaction and collaboration

Abstract

This paper considers the skills that enable teachers to foster interaction and collaboration in online language learning. Drawing on Hampel and Stickler's (2005) skills pyramid for online language learning and teaching, it presents the pre-service and in-service training programme that Associate Lecturers in the Department of Languages at the Open University undergo in the context of teaching languages with the help of online communication tools. Two projects are presented that shed more light on the expertise required to teach languages in complex virtual learning environments. The first project highlights the skills that are needed to teach in a complex online environment; the second one presents a teacher training study which aimed to find out more about distance teachers' experience of facilitating online group work, identify development needs, try out the potential of particular asynchronous and synchronous tools to support collaborative learning, and trial possible development activities. The paper concludes by describing the kind of training programme that tutors require in order to acquire the skills identified.

Tutors’ influence on distance language students’ learning motivation: voices from learners and tutors

“…These findings about teaching competence reflect previous studies in many ways. For example, presentation skills (Dörnyei, 1994;Tran & Baldauf, 2007), use of technology (Hampel, 2009), facilitation skills (Shelley et al, 2006), and practical relevance (White, 2007) are believed to influence students' motivation. Nonetheless, although both cohorts agreed that teaching competence influenced students' learning motivation, they differed on the importance of each particular aspect.…”

Voice over instant messaging as a tool for enhancing the oral proficiency and motivation of English‐as‐a‐foreign‐language learners

“…Although social constructivism emphasises the teacher's role as a facilitator who encourages and supports the process of building understanding, facilitator interventions are also an important factor in influencing peer interaction (Holliman & Scanlon, 2006). As Hampel (2009) concludes, success with online collaborative learning requires the instructor to pay attention to tasks, mediation techniques and feedback in order to provide for a learner‐centred approach.…”

Video-stimulated reflection as a professional development tool in interactive whiteboard research

“…In the past few years the CALL literature has shown increasing interest in the topic of teacher education (e.g., Hubbard & Levy, 2006;Meskill, 2009;Dooly, 2009;Guichon, 2009;Hampel, 2009;Stockwell, 2009;. As Stockwell (2009: 1) points out:…”

“…Several studies have focused on the skills needed for online teaching and computer mediated communication (CMC) (e.g., Guichon, 2009;Meskill, 2009;Hampel, 2009;Levy, Wang & Chenb, 2009) yet only a few Cutrim Schmid & Schimmack, 2010) have focused on classroom based technologies, such as interactive whiteboards (IWBs) and learner response systems (e.g., ACTIVote, Smartexpress). Special attention has been given to the investigation of the new competencies that language teachers need to acquire in order to be able to integrate new technologies in ways that improve student learning.…”

“…Some studies have only used quantitative research techniques and reported on findings based on the statistical analysis of questionnaire data (e.g., Mathews-Aydinli & Elaziz, 2010). Several studies have used more traditional methods, such as face-to-face interviews (e.g., and classroom observations (Dooly, 2009), while others have employed more recent ones, such as logs of online interaction and teacher reflective logs (e.g., Hampel, 2009;Meskill, 2009), and video stimulated reflection (e.g., Guichon, 2009) as their main data source. There has also been a great variety in data collection methods.…”