The Nature of Teaching and Learning
in the Multimedia Laboratory Classroom:
Process, Activity, Problem-Solving, Engagement
Linda Best, Ph.D.
Abstract
In Spring 1996, I sought and received funding for a multimedia interactive
laboratory classroom that would serve ESL students from their beginning
level
course work through their advanced studies in composition and research.
Reasons for seeking funding were many, the most compelling being the nature
of teaching and learning in the College's ESL Program and the literature
on
computer-assisted learning. An overview of the project, from its conception
to
implementation, follows. Special emphasis is placed on the facility itself
as it
has transformed the teaching and learning experiences of those using it.
The
discussion includes descriptions of special class activities, software,
and use
of e-mail and the Internet for instruction. Information presented is applicable
across content areas and skill levels.
Introduction: Project Design
In Spring 1996, I sought funding from the State,
through its Language Minority Student Grant Program, to develop a classroom
with state-of-the-art hardware and software which would transform the College's
ESL Program into a model for computer-assisted interactive language learning.
The philosophy and mission of the Program presented, it seemed, an optimal
environment for implementing a project of this nature successfully. The
Program stresses active learning, student engagement and responsibility,
self-reflection, empowerment, and contextualized learning so that its students
will develop the capacity to monitor their work, retain and use what they
study, and relate it to their long-term goals. The Program's faculty and
staff attend to individual students' learning styles and strategies. Overall,
it seemed that practices in the Program
would be compatible with and enhanced by a technological environment which
would place students at work stations to emphasize critical thinking, problem-solving,
and self-monitoring and to engage them in active learning; would enable
teachers to "tap into" their students' work via a server and appropriate
software in order to respond to language in process rather than language
products; would offer students and teachers opportunities to write, revise,
and read together via appropriate software and a projection screen in order
to expose, examine, and strengthen strategies for reading and writing; would
foster the decision-making collaborative activity involves without creating
biases or imposing penalties.
From the start, project design focused on equipment that would expose the
students' language learning processes and skills and enable the teacher
to model language forms in use. In light of important literature, technology
was perceived as an integral part of a curriculum for fostering language
rather than an add-on or supplement in the tradition of the word processing
computer lab
outside class time, from which students developing their language skills,
especially ESL students, derive little benefit. (Ching, 1990) Incorporated
into the project's design were certain specific goals for students: to develop
English language skills in all areas: reading, writing, listening, and speaking
to compete in both the academic environment and the work place; and to measure
these skills through the in-house pre- and post- measures the Program currently
utilizes; to participate in interactive, computer-assisted language learning
activities to gain self-confidence as well as linguistic competence; to
receive a full orientation to the laboratory's hardware and
software; to use the laboratory's equipment to practice reading, writing,
and
critical thinking skills; to receive immediate feedback about skills development
through
both the interactive software and input from others through a server; to
improve, as a result of immediate feedback, individual self-monitoring and
self-assessment skills; to review and respond to literature about technology;
to understand technology as a tool for learning, communicating,
and competing in the work place; to overcome, in cases where applicable,
any pre-existing, negative views about technology; to become familiar and
comfortable with the laboratory in order to recognize its significance to
their success in both the ESL Program and the content areas;
to participate in collaborative learning exercises to understand the challenges
and benefits of team work; to discover individual learning strategies and
skills for improved academic performance both within and outside the ESL
class.
With notification of funding in Summer 1996, the Program's faculty and staff
began the process of creating the laboratory classroom and meeting the goal
of integrating technology into instruction.
Implementation: Facility Design and the Classroom Experience
The Facility
At the moment, the laboratory classroom is in a temporary location, which
is actually too small for the furniture and equipment the ideal lab would
have.
With the announcement of the grant award, the lab was established in a room
already wired for equipment. Plans are underway to renovate a larger room
for
the lab prior to the start of the 1997-1998 academic year. When the lab
is re-located, it will be fully furnished.
In its current state, the lab is furnished with 20 work stations for students. These stations house CD ROM PC's which are nested inside the work stations under a view-thru glass. Keyboards rest on pull-out trays. The computers' central processing units are specially-designed to stand on their sides, length-wise, in cabinets on the side of the work stations. Unlike labs with desk-top computers, this facility frees the work surface so that teachers and students do not feel compelled to use computers for an entire class period or have equipment interfere with normal classroom activity, such as discussion or work in pairs. Most important, the recessed equipment makes the students visible to the teacher. They are not hidden behind PC monitors. Furthermore, the furniture facilitates interaction among students, it gives them the choice to use paper and pen for class activities when desired, and it places them in the natural position for composing--with their heads bent downward rather than tilted upward.
Right now due to limitations in space, the students' work stations are arranged in 2 islands of 10 units, with 5 work stations in one island facing another 5 stations. Face to face and sitting side by side, students interact a great deal more than they do in the traditional lecture-style classroom. This is particularly noticeable to those teachers and students whose classes meet in the lab one day a week and in a lecture-style room for a second weekly meeting.
A new lay-out for the lab will be developed with its re-location for Fall 1997; a proposed design will be to have 5 groups of 4 work stations in which 2 work stations face another 2 work stations.
Other changes for Fall 1997 include the installation of a white board, the set-up of a desk-top projector, the addition of a locking case for manuals and reference materials, and the addition of the teacher's station, a full-sized work station with a view-thru glass. Funds for these are currently available; space is not.
An additional computer in the room now serves as
a virus scanner and as the teacher's work area. It rests on a traditional-style
desk. Students disinfect their disks in this unit before inserting them
into the computers at their work stations. Teachers utilize this additional
computer to interact with and monitor individual students in electronic
conference-like activity through various
classroom management applications. All computers in the room are linked
to a hub, which connects the lab's equipment to the room's laser printer
and a server. The facility's server is located off-site in a technical assistant's
office area. This server links the classroom to the College's network, making
the use of e-mail possible and establishing access to the Internet via Netscape.
Over time with additional software applications, the server will transform
the classroom further into a complex self-contained as well as global communications
network.
What makes this lab unique is the way in which technology assumes a central role. The equipment is visible and accessible at all times. It leaves users with the impression that technology is an important part of the classroom experience. It is part of each course's content; it is also a medium through which students access other material relevant to the course and practice reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills.
This laboratory classroom is open six days a week:
Monday through Thursday, 8:00am through 10:30pm; Friday, 8:00am through
3:00pm; and Saturday, 10:00am through 4:00pm. Instruction takes place in
the lab the majority of the time. When classes do not meet in the lab, open
hours are held. Currently, the lab is open to walk-in traffic 171/2 hours
per week. During these
hours, scheduled events as well as drop-in practice for both students and
teachers take place. Scheduled events include keyboarding classes for students
who lack typing skills, tutorials, training for lab assistants, and faculty
workshops. A technical advisor and I train the lab assistants. Topics covered
include responsibilities, certain technical skills, engaging/disengaging
the alarm,
security issues, and review of software applications for classroom practices.
In the classroom, lab assistants share their knowledge with teachers; they work together to develop a technological component for instruction.
Faculty workshops fall into two categories--large orientation sessions,
where information about procedures, software, and classroom practices is
shared and opportunities for hands-on practice exist. Smaller practice sessions
target specific areas that will help faculty improve their skills and/or
develop course materials. Small practice sessions review e-mail and/or the
Internet at the introductory, intermediate, and advanced levels; they focus
on specialized topics like how to prepare a pie graph; they review software
for specific skills and levels; and they offer hands-on practice.
Walk-in traffic during open hours has kept the lab at an 80% occupancy rate when classes are not in session. Faculty stop by for practice or to prepare lessons. Students stop by to work on papers or assignments, to check their e-mail, or to browse the Internet.
An Overview of Classroom Experiences
On a day-to-day basis, the ESL students at Kean
College engage in a number of activities grounded in technology. With the
passing of time, we have begun to see patterns of activity for particular
skill areas and levels. At the same time, we see variation in what occurs
in our different courses. Students' as well as teachers' orientations to
technology and individual instructors'
perspectives on how technology relates to instruction explain the differences
we see. We do not regard these as detrimental to learning since we have
only begun to implement this project and since we recognize that individual
differences across teachers and students will always impact the nature of
instruction.
Regardless of the course and level, however, students
who have class in the lab are enthusiastic about the opportunity to use
technology for learning activity. It is clear that using technology is a
new experience for many students at the high-beginner level. While some
are facile with the equipment, the majority need an orientation to a range
of procedures and practices, from
formatting a disk to saving on a disk to creating files and inputting as
well as revising text. At this level, students use the equipment for dictation
exercises, to free-write or brainstorm, and to compose essays. These students
will receive an introduction to e-mail and often enjoy their first access
to the Internet. Their faculty have the opportunity to review and try appropriate
writing/grammar software.
Technology is a more integral component in the intermediate and advanced courses. Even though some students at this level are developingtheir technical skills, technology plays its role in instruction in a number ofways. It must be noted that those students who lack computer skills are not left behind at any time. Capable lab assistants staff the facility, offering individualized support for users.
Technology emerges as an essential element at the
intermediate and advanced levels, for writing is the focus of all course
work. Communication is stressed. Students and teachers use e-mail for distributing
syllabi, for submitting and responding to assignments, for offering a preview
of the next class meeting, to obtain information about class protocols,
such as group assignments for an upcoming peer session, tutorial assignments,
or work covered during an absence from class. E-mail also supports global
interaction.
Additionally, students access the Internet to participate
in chat rooms or to obtain supplemental reading material, and they utilize
software for practice with writing. They enjoy the benefits of software
that enables teachers to comment on their students' work electronically.
From the comment function on Word Perfect to applications like CommonSpace,
which divides documents into columns to allow for writing and responding
activity from self and others, to applications like Dadaelus, which creates
a mail exchange among members of one class, provides prompts for brainstorming,
and includes a function for formatting documentation in research papers,
teachers have found that technology offers students hands-on, individualized
practice at a rate they can
handle as well as enjoy. Complementing the software purchased is the vast
number of language skills practice exercises that can be downloaded from
the Internet.
Teachers also author their own course work. At the moment, our efforts in this area are quite primitive; we prepare disks for installation on the server and have students access them during class time. We are also reviewing ToolBook 2, which is licensed to the College and realizing its potential, as well that of the authoring formats available on the Web.
Nowadays, students are likely to submit work on disk or save it in a common class directory. Course work in composing involves writing, revising, editing, and peer collaboration, all of which are supported effectively in this technological environment. More oriented to computers, students at these levels not only produce their texts; they also work on their presentation and develop elaborate cover pages as well as appropriate visuals.
The laboratory classroom plays a unique role in
one specific course in the Program: the research course. Equivalent to a
general education requirement, this course enables students to develop requisite
investigative skills while continuing to hone their language skills. The
lab plays an important role in this course. First, students at this level
most likely have experience with computers. Second, the emphasis on research
makes access to the Internet relevant. In
the most technologically-advance course sections, students practice importing
information from the Internet and paraphrasing, summarizing, and directly
quoting it. Students begin to understand how to forward mail and include
attachments, recognizing why someone may have the need to perform these
actions. They get hands-on practice with the process of integrating texts
and
documenting sources. Supporting this work is the writing software with documentation
functions, which has already been mentioned. Third, since course requirements
have students investigating topics and reporting findings, students discover
the importance of charts, tables, and graphs. They develop these products
in the research class, enhancing their technical skills and, more importantly,
coming to a fuller understanding about how to interpret information plotted
on visuals.
Across levels, there are common experiences as well as subtle distinctions in the use of technology. Generally, teachers find that students engage in and respond to learning activity in this technological environment, that they interact more readily with others, and that they enjoy opportunities--especially through software and with help from lab assistants--to work at their own pace and level. Additionally, the students in the Program have found that opportunities to enhance their technical skills exist outside class time.
Comments about Teaching and Learning
Activity and Engagement
Few discussions about educational practice take
place without mention of John Dewey. To many readers, his insights on education
leave quite an impression. In his time, Dewey argued against developments
in mass education, observing students' detachment and expressing his belief
that they were passive in the classroom--empty vessels waiting to be filled.
Dewey described ideal learning situations where materials were authentic,
instruction was student-centered, lessons involved doing, and teachers served
as mentors or facilitators. (1916) Today, we continue to move towards process
instruction, which parallels Dewey's insights. Certainly, in the experience
of creating, implementing, and teaching in the laboratory classroom, I have
seen how technology is a critical tool for achieving the ideals Dewey envisioned.
No matter how little or how much exposure students have to technology, a
curiosity as well as certain positive assumptions about it exist. To use
any part of it requires action, and it has seemed that when students act--when
they take that step to use the equipment available to them--they connect
with the classroom
experience. Students are stimulated further when they realize that learning
through technology offers more options than the traditional classroom experience
can.
The Roles of Teachers and Students
Assuming an active role in the classroom, students
are more visible, and oftentimes, they are more vocal as well. In Kean's
lab, where the physical lay-out places students in work teams for learning,
there is a great deal of interaction. With learning activity taking place
due to the students' active role
in the class, teachers find their role undergoing a transformation. In the
environment described in these pages, teachers no longer find themselves
performing the "one-woman/man show" for an entire class period.
Rather, in addition to providing certain lessons and presentations, teachers
find
themselves circulating among students, checking certain assigned tasks.
Also, the teachers find that they are responding to writing as it is being
produced. They guide the process rather than grade a paper after it is written
and leave their students with overwhelming and unmanageable revision tasks.
Additionally, these teachers oversee group projects and sit with different
teams
to hear their progress reports. Teams eventually report on their work, taking
some responsibility for class instruction into their own hands. Instructors
find that they are able to conduct conferences during class at times, record
notes about individual students' progress, orient groups to the next phase
of learning activity, and shape curriculum for the next day, week, or month.
In classrooms where learning activity rather than
the transmission of information takes place, teachers experience a new role
as facilitator and mentor. In this capacity, they are able to monitor individual
students, which, in turn, makes students themselves assume more responsibility
with regard to the course, its expectations, and its requirements. People
who have experienced
this new role in the classroom have found it both refreshing and rewarding.
The Nature of Knowledge
With a focus on activity and with both teachers and students involved in learning processes, the laboratory classroom has broadened the scope of knowledge in the domain. While the traditional class shaped the knowledge to be studied, making it feel fixed and rigid, the laboratory classroom is open to the pursuit of knowledge. In this context, knowledge appears dynamic and can be perceived as authentic as well. Certainly, fundamental principles about language guide instruction. However, the many options for learning make it possible for individual students to access new information relevant to the topic under review. Discovery occurs in the laboratory classroom. It introduces a critical thinking component; students find themselves reporting the information they access, evaluating its significance, connecting it to other information, and integrating it into their conceptual framework for the course.
A Few Words about Assessment
Teaching in the laboratory classroom introduces unique questions about assessment. When instructors participating in the project were asked to describe their students' progress, they spoke in qualitative terms. Consistently, instructors' evaluations stress how technology has enabled their students to produce more language, to concentrate on global rather than local problems, to revise frequently, to take risks, and to incorporate sweeping changes into their final drafts. Additionally, instructors indicate that due to their opportunities to practice writing on certain applications, students' abilities to develop ideas, to know their personal strategies and skills, and to monitor their work showed significant improvement.
The data the faculty participating in the project
offer are not the standard pre- and post- test score statistics. Rather,
they are comments which capture the quality of what their students tend
to do. Their evaluations, which focused on learning processes rather than
course products, suggest that instructional technology can play a significant
role in our efforts to reform assessment in
education.
The ESL Laboratory Classroom has kept the faculty busy this year. It has
opened instruction to a vast range of techniques and an ever changing content
base available through the Internet. Everyone involved has come to understand
the magnitude of the project and the time it will take to integrate technology
fully into the Program's curriculum. The faculty remain enthusiastic and
adventuresome, realizing this facility can be enhanced further. Along with
current efforts to create the laboratory classroom proposed for the grant
award, I will continue to seek funding to support enhancements we are enable
to envision today. Specifically, we see the need to support our teachers'
ability to participate in the project. Teachers' authoring stations, which
consist of
notebook computers, would give all teachers fair opportunities to develop
course materials regardless of the type of equipment they have at home.
Additionally, the current facility, whose ultimate purpose is to integrate
all language skills, is heavily oriented to reading and writing. There is
the need to explore its potential for oral skills practice, to obtain microphones
and headsets,
and to examine as well as select software for this aim. Since the lab's
critical component is its interactive nature, we also seek sophisticated
software to extend collaboration in the classroom beyond the composing process.
Certain GROUPWARE applications are under review for this purpose. Together,
these enhancements will transform the laboratory classroom into an extraordinary
facility for teaching and learning.
References
Ching, R. and others. (1990, March). Making connections: computers,
tutors, and ESL students. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of Teachers
of English to Speakers of Other Languages. San Francisco, CA.
Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education. NY: Macmillan.
Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. NY: Seabury.
Pennington, M. (Ed.). (1996). The power of CALL. Houston: Athelstan.