Going digital

The Consultants e-community has been offering interesting live events for those who have attended their online courses.  The last one, streamed in Elluminate last June 25th, was about digital coursebooks. It was moderated by Ana Falcao and having as guest speaker Lindsay Clandfield talking about Flexible learning in a digital age. 
This presentation was about how the digital components of a coursebook should flexible to the needs and expectations students may have when learning a foreing language.

Lindsay said, at the beginning of his talk, that coursebooks and (their) workbooks are becoming digital each day around the world. This is in response to the access language learners have got not only to loads of materials online ranging from (free) websites offering students the possibility to practice a foreing languge as well as sofware and hardware (hand-held devices) to listen to audios or videos either offline or online. This hasn’t escaped the publishers’ eyes.  

During this presentation Lindsay talked about:

1) the traditional components of a paper-based book (Teacher’s book, student’s book and workbook)

2) digitized components: digital book for projection, teachers’ resource discs and website, e-workbook.

The digital coursebooks and interactive whiteboards.

It has to do with the possibilty of projecting digital material using an IWB. Shamelesly, in Venezuela we are lagging behind (and will be for a long time) when it comes to using IWBs and needles to say digital coursebooks to project in the classrooom using this kind of interactive display. As far as I know, the British Council here has got a IWB and some few private schools located in afluent areas in Caracas.

The teachers’ resource site/disc.

I find it quite appealing to have a teacher’s resource website. However, some colleagues might still hang on to the teacher’s paper based format. Why do I find it appealing? You can have access to the website anywhere. It can be improved and updated easily and if this done following teacher's feedback much better. Also you’ll never lose your material. Lessons or extra-material will always be available on the site.   

The e-workbook

It is a CD-ROM and students can carry it anywhere (this might be not such a good idea, though). Students can practice and repeat activities as many times as they want.

Before Lindsay showed us an example of a digital material, he said that it will be accesed from handheld devices in a very close future.

Global: the e-workbook and teacher’s resources site.

To illustrate all this, Lindsay Clandfield showed us, as lead writer, a good example of a digital material: Global and its e-workboook (the first of its kind I understand).

During the walkthrough, he showed us the different contents of the workbook. From its location and format  to how the student’s work was saved and shown in the markbook.

What did I like the most about this e-workbook?:

1) It is attached to the student’s book as a sort of User's Guide booklet having the CD-ROM inside.

2) It can be installed in the student’s PC or laptop.
3) Some exercises can be printed (PDF) and videos downloaded (MP3).

4) Captions can be removed from videos.

5) There are videos for practicing language and authentic videos (like BBC programs)

6) There’s a literary section for reading.

7) You can click on a word , phrase or sentence and listen to it several times (It reminds me of Speaker text).

8) There’s the markbook. It keeps track of what students have been doing so far and results can be exported as a PDF file.

9) Material is scormed compliant so it can be delivered to Moodle.

10) The layout is nice with sober colours. The desing is quite minimalistic to put it some way. That is, it's simple in design but elegantly and professionally executed.

 

What I’d like to see: interactive activities for videos.

The teacher’s site is also great. Teachers  can download lessons, read about some other people’s experiences using Global and there's even a sort of trial session. The blog is an excellent idea and texts are easy to read especially for a busy teacher. You can also keep updated about changes in this site following Global Twiter or Facebook. Apart from this, there's a teacher's book with a CD-ROM as well.

Musing about…

1)  There are still some teachers and students who do not have access to computers or even have access to Internet in some parts of the world. It is a pity wonderful materials like Global cannot be used for teaching and learning yet.

2) It is a bit expensive for an EFL teacher in Venezuela. Student’s book / CDROM + Teacher’s book / CDROM + Audio CD is about BF 537 (USD 125). Not to mention the Global Digital Beginner which can be used with IWBs (not an option here) and projectors (most schools & universities have got at least one here). It is USD 102 which is about BF 441. Because of the economic and political situation we are living in Venezuela, this might be affordable for some private schools and/ or universities. If I'd like to buy Global I won’t be able to buy any since we are only allowed USD 400 annually (unless I buy separate units per year - sad, isn't it?). And this is the raw price. I can’t image how much we would be charged if it is finally imported and sold in our country. Price doubles. That is if you want to have the whole package, it’d be about BF 2.000  (UDS 466).

It is always good to know wonderful people are doing wonderful stuff out there anyways. 

If you want to know more about this topic, I'd encourage you to join the SEETA course on digital books moderated by the very same Lindsay Clandfield. Although, the course has finished already you can still register and read the interesting posts about this issue.

Should we frown on lurking?

I understand people’s concern on lurking, “listening” or “browsing”, but I do not think there’s a magic formula to fight this off in a group like VENELT unless we are talking about an online community devoted to education and/or training where participants have to pay a fee, for example. In the former, participation is spontaneous, voluntary. In the latter, it’s kind of compulsory (a closer follow-up of participants can be done by the e-moderator without subjecting them to “police harassment”, to put it some way). But what is this lurking thing that worries people in some virtual communities? Is it really a sort of devil we should get rid of at all coasts or learn to deal with it? Why do some people tend to lurk? Why some people are afraid of it? 

What is it? We can understand lurking as the reluctance to initially participate in an online community or the rare participation in a group, chat, forum, message board, etc. Some refer to lurking as “browsing” and/or “listening” (Salmon, 2005) and even “peripheral participants” (Wenger, 2002). Some people see it as a threat. Some people, on the contrary, see it as a natural part of online communities and should be encouraged while the member gets used to it, feels like participating or overcomes any technical training he may need to actively participate (Salmon, 2005). But why do people lurk? What causes their “silence” in most virtual spaces: chats, message boards, blogs, wikis, Yahoo groups, etc.?  

Why do people lurk? There might be several reasons for lurking:  

1) Let’s start with the sinner. I’m a lurker myself. Well, a type of lurker: a constructive-benign one to call it some way. The reason: I have no time to post messages every day or I think I should know more about issues discussed in the group. I also participate in some other virtual communities. Depending on issues raised I might be an avid participant or a lurker at heart. One of the things that I like from free, virtual communities is that I’m not harassed to participate. Enough with the pressure we have out there: office, home, school, university, etc. 

2) Being a lurker in an e-course is different to being a lurker in a community of practice set up for free, professional discussion. In the former, you paid and expect a score. So you must participate (otherwise you lose your money). The moderator can check the history and contact the lurker when he/she has been somewhat silence. In the latter, the reward is sharing / building up knowledge. The moderator, co-moderators and participants themselves should keep a lively, non-threatening, imposed environment to encourage the active participation of most members. Some will be more active than others. We can not expect total participation from each posting made by members (Some people are quite busy working; others may have no access to Internet easily or are busy writing research papers, you name it).

3) Some other reasons: Lurkers… 
□ may have no time to participate frequently (constructive lurker) 
□ may not find discussion interesting yet and may step in once he/she has something to say. 
□ may have not enough information on the topic (benign lurker) 
□ were recently invited and is exploring the group 
□ have never participated in a group and is getting around 
□ kindly accepted the invitation but have no interest in participating (He or she should unsubscribe, but for some reason they don’t generally do and keep on getting e-mails from the group) 
□ are not used to writing and does not know how to “say” something without hurting someone else’s thoughts (flaming) so he/she rather remains quite. 
□ sometimes have technical problems (That is do not know how to reply, etc) 
□ some browse for some time before participating. 
□ reply only to satirize others’ comments (smart-ass lurker) 
□ reply when he or she feels politically or morally offended to someone’s comment ( malevolent lurker)


For more reasons, check *McDonalds (Let’s get more positive about the term lurker)

Why are people afraid of lurking? I have no idea! If I come across a research on why people feel threatened by this peripheral participation, I’ll let you know. However, I can venture to say that people think lurkers may benefit from getting ideas, info, lesson plans, etc. from posts without contributing at all and even use them without acknowledging the source. This would be quite unethical. Now if they do (acknowledge) I see no problem. If you check **stats on people participation in virtual communities, you’ll see something like: -90% of users are lurkers (i.e., read or observe, but don’t contribute).-9% of users contribute from time to time, but other priorities dominate their time.-1% of users participates a lot and accounts for most contributions. 

Suggestions: 
1. Find strategies to encourage people to participate (suggesting activities to do: writing summaries, announcing events, posting interesting quality questions, etc.)  
2. Provide a wide range of topics to discuss that may encourage shy or reluctant members to participate in the group.  
3. The bigger the community, the more lurkers there will be. So tolerance must be the key word. Unless we want to start banishing or harassing people in the community. This, I think, is counterproductive!  
4. Your suggestion.
 
Reference Salmon, Gilly (2004). E-moderating: The Key to Teaching and Learning Online. London: 

Taylor & Francis. Wenger,E., McDermott, R., & Snyder, W. (2002). Cultivating communities of practiceA guide to managing knowledge. Harvard Business School Press

* “Let's get more positive about the term 'lurker' http://www.groups-that-work.com/GTWedit/GTW/lurkerprojectcopworkshopspring03rev.pdf  

**Are you a lurker or a contributor? http://blog.bookyourselfsolid.com/2006/10/are_you_a_lurke.html  

“In face-to-face or team settings, “lurking” or sidebar conversations are discouraged but successful online communities build benches for them. There is an ebb and flow with core members drifting to the sidelines as topics change. Peripheral members drift into the center as their interests are stirred. Successful communities create “fires” in the center to invite involvement.”

McDermott, R. Building Spontaneity Into Strategic Communities