Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Parker and Ingram (
2011
) point out that there are a variety of micro or macro
issues that may affect participatory rates. Classroom ambience and social dynamics
can affect the development of class community - an important factor for teachers to
take into account considering their focus on collaborative tasks.
if technology is truly experienced differently by different users, then the effects may
vary by user as well, and studying its effects at multiple levels of analysis is a necessity.
[One option] may be to examine how instructors can best move students beyond learning
the chosen technologies to learning how to use their functions to collaborate effectively, no
matter what technology is used. Parker and Ingram (
2011
)
Some telecollaboration involves different time zones. Students in a Japanese
secondary school have little chance to communicate live with peers, for example at
a North American school, forcing them to fall back on delayed methods of
telecollaboration. Class scheduling can exacerbate this issue.
Many students' access to CMC is restricted outside the classroom for a variety of
reasons: bandwidth, hardware, parental concerns. Consequently, accessibility
through either bandwidth or portal outside the classroom can often be problematic.
...
8.4 Philosophical Frameworks
Rod Ellis in a foreword to Thomas and Reinders (Ellis
2010
) elegantly details what
he describes as interactionist theories that underpin the raison d'etre of SLA within
CMC environments. He considers that most research to date in this field has been
informed by 'negotiation-of-meaning sequences that support learning by providing
comprehensible input, feedback and opportunities for learners to self-correct'
(Ellis
2010
). He goes on to point out however, that learners using CMC have
communicated in different ways from traditional classrooms, requiring researchers
to understand and describe why this is so. Although the research to date may well be
grouped in terms of 'interactionist theories', there are big differences within this
purview.
Research into international exchanges with CMC was initially framed in terms
of cognitive approaches. More recently, this has been superseded by socio-cultural
frameworks (Lantolf and Thorne
2006
; Lamy and Hampel
2007
). A third approach
has been to focus on tasks within the CMC moderated exchange.
The cognitive approach, championed by Chomsky's assertion that mind and
matter were separated, considered information technology to epitomize the move of
thought and rationalization from meatspace to cyberspace. Language represented
rationalization, and thus, CMC would empower people from different cultures to
minimize their socio-cultural restraints and enable them to improve their language
learning without socio-cultural 'hindrance'. These theories quickly dissipated from
the realization users' actions, and apparent thoughts, could not be divided so easily
into the dichotomy of mind and body. Rather their thoughts seemed to reflect their
environment or past influences. This quickly led to the development of frameworks
that could better explain these phenomena.
