Graduation day!

Many congrats to our students who graduated today Eugenia Balseiro, Chantelle Bartolo Cremona, Leonardo Bermudez Chingate, Irena Bielicka, Agata Cyrklewicz, Christopher Evans, Sean Gallagher, Nisreen Karhili, and Federica Spigarelli.

Tutorial on Active Worlds

Today we had a very vivid discussion today on our virtual park on Active Worlds about the features and the possible use of virtual worlds for language teaching.

Tutorial on Active Worlds

Great tutorial on Active Worlds today, guided by Angelos Konstantinidis, with lots of questions answered, while students explored dance moves, flying, and costume change! Towards the end of the session, students freely explored a space created by one of our former students, Neill Wylie.

Presentation of the implementation of the COMP-PLETE framework

Dr. Cecilia Goria, director of the Master of Arts in Digital Technologies for Language Teaching programme, and Sally Hanford presented at the ICERI2019 conference how Microsoft Teams is used for a COMP-PLETE online learning experience in the Master of Arts in Digital Technologies for Language Teaching, University of Nottingham.


The presentation slides: https://www.slideshare.net/cgoria/iceri-2019-presentation-shared-on-twitter

Presentation on the design of the Telecollaboration in Language Learning module

Angelos Konstantinidis, team member of our Master of Arts in Digital Technologies for Language Teaching, presented the research design and development process of the Telecollaboration in Language Learning module at the Virtual Exchange and 21st Century Teacher Education Conference (Leon, Spain, 4-6 September, 2019).
The presentation slides:
https://www.slideshare.net/angelntini/developing-an-online-course-on-telecollaboration-for-teachers-a-reflection-on-the-design-and-implementation

Dissertation talk: The use of leaderboard: Effects on time-on-task and learner achievements

Don't miss this Friday (26 July) at 11:00am (UK time) the dissertation talk "The use of leaderboard: Effects on time-on-task and learner achievements" by our student Saw Lean Khaw.
Saw Lean will present her dissertation, talk about her experience, and reply to questions related with the research subject.
Please fill in the Doodle to register your attendance: https://doodle.com/poll/p73vd843gzicir9h
The link for the virtual room: https://uni-of-nottingham.adobeconnect.com/r8fi3nk0ena/

Dissertation talk: The influence of a digital game walkthrough on the retention of English vocabulary in young learners

Don't miss this Friday (21 June) at 11:00 (UK time) the dissertation talk: "The influence of a digital game walkthrough on the retention of English vocabulary in young learners" by our student Ronan Kelly. Ronan successfully completed his dissertation in 2018.

Ronan will present his dissertation, talk about his experience, and reply to questions related with the research subject.

Please fill in the Doodle to register your attendance: https://doodle.com/poll/t242uhnynckbqy2e
The link for the virtual room: https://uni-of-nottingham.adobeconnect.com/r8fi3nk0ena/

Just released: Professional Competencies in Language Learning and Teaching

The book entitled "Professional Competencies in Language Learning and Teaching", edited by Cecilia Goria, Lea Guetta, Neil Hughes, Sandra Reisenleutner, and Oranna Speicher is now released and it is freely available online: https://doi.org/10.14705/rpnet.2019.34.9782490057399

This volume examines many of the complex issues regarding the language skills and professional competencies acquired by students studying Modern Foreign Languages at universities in the United Kingdom and across Europe. It also outlines the innovative pedagogical strategies, methods, and resources employed by language academics to help graduates transition from university into the world of work through their MFL studies.

Dissertation talks: "Gamified Twitter and the Willingness to Communicate" by Bryan Kilvinski and "How Does Academic Voice Arise in Internet-mediated Communication?" by Christina Markanastasakis

Don't miss this Friday (17 May) at 14:00 (UK time) two dissertation talks.
How Does Academic Voice Arise in Internet-mediated Communication? by Christina Markanastasakis
Gamified Twitter and the Willingness to Communicate by Bryan Kilvinski

Both Christina and Bryan successfully completed their dissertations in 2018. Bryan, in collaboration with his two supervisors Angelos Konstantinidis and Ivan Lombardi, submitted and will publish part of his dissertation research in an edited volume by the IATEFL Learning Technologies Special Interest Group. Christina will present part of her dissertation at the 28th ICDE World Conference on Online Learning in Dublin.
Bryan and Christina will present their dissertation, talk about their experience, and reply to questions related with their research subject.
Please fill in the Doodle to register your attendance:https://doodle.com/poll/fufutgizfef3qkei

The link for the meeting room: http://uni-of-nottingham.adobeconnect.com/r8fi3nk0ena/

Hope to see you all on Friday!

Dissertation talk: "Getting the Vocabulary to Click" by Daryl Ross

Don't miss this Friday (12 April) at 14:00 (UK time) the dissertation talk: "Getting the Vocabulary to Click: Evaluating the Use of Collaborative Multimedia Content Creation in a Korean Freshman English course with the use of Interactive Images created on Thinglink" by our student Daryl Ross. Daryl successfully completed his dissertation in November 2018.

Daryl will present his dissertation, talk about his experience, and reply to questions related with the research subject.
Please fill in the Doodle to register your attendance: https://doodle.com/poll/e4vna98gsk3dcdw4

Studentships for the MA in DTLT

The School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies is offering a number of studentships and fee waivers for students of the Master of Arts in Digital Technologies for Language Teaching. Masters studentships include home fees-only awards and home-fees plus stipend awards. Application deadline: 10 May 2019

To be eligible to apply for School funding, you must be holding an offer of a place to study at the Master of Arts in Digital Technologies for Language Teaching of the University of Nottingham. You are advised to apply at least one month in advance to be eligible to apply for the studentship.

More info about the Master of Arts in Digital Technologies for Language Teaching and application form: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/language-centre/teaching/dtlt.aspx

More info about the studentships: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/clas/prospective/funding.aspx

Call for abstracts for the "Radical Electric Teaching: A Conference and Showcase"

Future innovations in teaching and learning will evolve where new thinking in teaching, new approaches to curriculum design and management, and new technology come together in alignment. This two-day conference brings together university teachers and educators, learning technologists, practitioners and students to share the concepts, practices and technical applications that will form the educational settings of the future.

The conference is organised as part of the University’s development of ‘Applied English in the Augmented University’, a project based in the School of English that aims to develop a unique future vision of international education at distance, enabled by curricular and technological innovation.

Conference website: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/conference/fac-arts/english/radical-electric-teaching/index.aspx

Call for abstracts: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/conference/fac-arts/english/radical-electric-teaching/documents/retc-cfp-2019.pdf

Deadline for abstract submission: Wednesday 17th April 2019

Just published: Personal learning environments and personal learning networks for language teachers’ professional development

We are proud to see our tutors and students in the Master of Arts in Digital Technologies collaborating and publishing a book chapter on Personal Learning Environments and their potential for supporting our students’ learning and for creating professional development opportunities for our students.

Link to the chapter: https://doi.org/10.14705/rpnet.2019.28.872

#BalanceforBetter - Cecilia Goria

Cecilia Goria, academic leader of the Master of Arts in Digital Technologies for Language Teaching, actively guides and supports teachers around the world in integrating technologies in their classrooms #BalanceforBetter

Neill Wylie: Language Acquisition in a Virtual World

Our student Neil Wylie shares a brief report about his study in a Virtual World.
You may read the article by clicking the following link:
https://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/news-events/newsletters/article/SmqcUJT_f2r7yQlJgR0xtw

Dr Cecilia Goria talks about her poster in the Finding The Student Voice in Assessment Conference

Applications are now open!

The distance learning Master of Arts in Digital Technologies, University of Nottingham, offers an excellent opportunity for enthusiastic language teachers to engage with new learning technologies and develop their skills, creativity and knowledge.

Applications are now open: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/language-centre/teaching/dtlt.aspx

Students' reflections on the activity on SmallWorlds

Our students Chantelle and Nisreen at the Master of Arts in Digital Technologies for Language Teaching collaboratively reflect on their experience on doing activities on an online Virtual World. Read their thoughts:


When we entered Small worlds, we had a lot of questions about its nature and application as an educational tool in language classrooms. In the beginning we were confused with the so many avatars appearing and disappearing, and then we got engaged creating our own avatars. Our 3D lifelike avatars were reflecting our own identities, their looks, style; even the nicknames were very similar to us in real world.

During the session, we were thinking about our students all the time, about the affordances and shortcomings of Small Worlds. We started realizing how the anonymity related to avatars could really help reluctant students to reduce their language related anxiety. Although there is no opportunity for expressing emotions and reactions properly, yet there is some sense of real immersion and tempting engagement in these worlds. Moreover, Small Worlds can be effective in creating a community of people sharing ideas collaboratively. As for us as students in Small Worlds, we were relaxed, happy, and most importantly did not feel the time. It was so real and engaging!

Students' reflections on the activity on SmallWorlds

Our students Chris and Kieran at the Master of Arts in Digital Technologies for Language Teaching collaboratively reflect on their experience on doing activities on an online Virtual World. Read their thoughts:

I found the tutorial in Small Worlds incredibly engaging, if a bit surreal! We first met in the “MA for DTLT” space and sat around discussing the pros and cons of using SW for language learning. What struck me was how engaged I was when in this virtual world and also how less self-conscious I was. I liked the informal manner of the discussion too, and Kieran (or “Captain”, as he named his avatar) was on form and the humour being used by us all had me laughing a lot at my computer screen. Learning should be fun, so that is another positive aspect of SW.
The picture below is from the first tutorial and shows us (or our avatars rather) relaxing on the virtual beach. Although this looks like we are doing nothing, the discussion was about language learning believe it or not!
There are obviously many positives and negatives when using virtual worlds for learning and I think Kieran may be more vocal about the drawbacks (so over to you Kieran :-)). The lack of an audio option was noticeable, as was the slight frustrating occurrence of speech bubbles overlapping, although this can be overcome by opening the chat box at the bottom of the screen.


Chris

As Chris has pointed out, I am usually the more critical one when it comes to applications as such. Firstly, I found this application, although somewhat fun, a bit outdated (the software). It was running at 10 FPS at best and I found myself more focused in trying to get my avatar to move and follow simple commands than engaging in the discussion with the group. I agree with Chris and found that the lack of audio in this communicative software was a negative, particularly for the purpose of our MA in DTLT meeting. However, live forums, and discussions ages have been around for years and they all rarely include live audio chat. A discussion board could hold over 100 users so an audio input may cause more chaos than what these platforms already have.
I tried to step away from my negative attitude to see how this can benefit language students. To summarise, I feel that this would be great as an additional project for students to interact with each other and practice the target language. This platform can be one that allows mistakes and promotes peer to peer correction. This would be particularly appropriate for those students who lack confidence and have anxiety. This could be a way for them to engage with their peers, while maintaining anonymity.
From a teachers perspective, it would be great if a platform could record or send a feed of the discussions to the teacher so that the language can be monitored. This would of course need to have each student's consent, but would this effect the way students interact if they know they are being monitored? Can a teacher really involve themselves at all? If students are aware of this, they could fall into the Hawthorne effect, by demonstrating fabricated behaviour to appease the teacher, which will effect their language input.
Overall, this was a good activity and I feel that if developed correctly for the purpose of language students, a platform like this could shape a whole curriculum for those studying from overseas.

Students' reflections on the activity on SmallWorlds

Our students Irena, Leo, and Federica at the Master of Arts in Digital Technologies for Language Teaching collaboratively reflect on their experience on doing activities on an online Virtual World. Read their thoughts:

The virtual environment showed in the picture was created for the tutorial in SmallWorlds and was a familiar setting to everyone. It consisted of a cozy outdoor space where we could all sit together, drink a coffee and eat a snack. Our first meeting in the game was visually well planned, as choosing such an environment made us feel more at ease with the technology, no matter what our age, origin, gender, background or familiarity with SmallWorlds was. Cecilia encouraged us to sit together and this reminded us of a physical classroom arrangement (U-shape). The learning environment played an important role in the teacher's scaffolding as it introduced us to the activity.
The three of us found creating and personalisation of an avatar as one of the advantages. Most of us chose our lookalikes; we tried to make them similar to our true selves. They also reflected our personalities (e.g. Kieran brooding by himself by the beach in the Pirate Bay; Irena quietly observing and listening to others; Chris cracking jokes; etc.). It was fun trying to recognise who was who. It was also interesting to explore what avatars could do (dancing, eating, drinking).
On the other hand, we felt that even though this activity provided the opportunity to interact and collaborate with our peers, it was challenging to develop discussions related to the weekly topic since the conversations were difficult to follow and a few times some of us got quite distracted. This could potentially represent an issue for our students if we used VW for Language Teaching, as they would probably get distracted because the original purpose of such online games is in fact distraction and enjoyment.
As it can be seen in the screenshot, the avatars are talking about different topics (almost like monologues). Furthermore, since the activity was mainly visual, we  did not really understand the learning objective of the session in terms of content, but we mainly focused on skills like moving around the environment.