This week, I read several of the articles, but the two that resonated the most were the two on authentic learning. First, I read “Authentic e-learning in higher education: Design principles for authentic learning environments and tasks” by Jan Herrington. I underlined lines such as “meaningful learning will only take place if it is embedded in social and physical contexts within which it will be used” and “situated learning was defined ….as ‘the notion of learning knowledge and skills in contexts that reflect the way the knowledge will be useful in real life’” (Herrington, 2006).
I immediately thought of my experiences teaching English as a second language in Baku, Azerbaijan and then in the U.S. Teaching or learning a language in an immersive situation, using simulated conversations, real examples, modeling and authentic activities is the epitome of authentic learning. In an e-learning situation, I think of how the major language publishers (VHL, Cengage, McGraw Hill) try to put “real” conversation options into their online workbook exercises. In the Spanish courses that my husband teaches using e-books/books by these publishers, there are always simulated partner activities where the student has to record themselves in a conversation with the computer character. These are quite innovative, yet they are really only question and answer – a recorded question that then gives space for a recorded answer.
I think back to one of our guests, Rachel Koblic from 2U, who told us about a new program that grew out of the pandemic for social workers – a virtual fieldwork experience replacing placement hours. Actors came to live sessions and the students were able to practice their social work skills with those actors. This was followed by high fidelity, realistic video scenarios where the student follows a fake social work agency throughout the whole course. Now, they are vetting AI and VR companies to modify the video response asynchronous work to an AI character that adapts to what the student is saying and how the student is treating them. This is a very authentic e-learning experience that, as Rachel comments, is now an accredited course that will continue to be implemented, and it teaches the students better than even in-person field experience.
2U seems to be doing exactly what Herrington and Oliver mentioned in their article, “An Instructional Design Framework for Authentic Learning Environments”: “Reeves (1993a) considers that one of the major benefits of a well-designed multimedia environment is its ability to include ‘opportunities for simulated apprenticeships as well as a wealth of learning support activiites.’ Many of the researchers and teachers exploring the model of situated learning have accepted that the computer can provide an alternative to the real-life settings, and that such technology can be used without sacrificing the authentic context which is such a critical element of the model” (Herrington, Oliver, 2000).
As I work with my husband to create online courses for beginning Spanish learners at Ivy Tech, and continue to teach ESL online synchronously, I am looking to the best way to achieve authentic e-learning environments for language learners, when a language is so personal, and at times, e-learning can seem so impersonal.
For fun, and for personal enrichment and research, I and my three children, are using Duolingo. My kids to keep up their Spanish now they are not in a Spanish Immersion school, and myself to both be an example to my kids and investigate and learn how Duolingo is teaching language in a gamified way. I’m also trying to pick Russian back up, as it’s been a few years since I lived in Azerbaijan and learned Russian. If they had Azerbaijani, I would be picking that up as well.
References
Herrington, J. (2006). Authentic e-learning in higher education: Design principles for
authentic learning environments and tasks. In proceedings of the World Conference on ELearning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education (E-Learn) 2006,
October 13-27, 2006, Honolulu, Hawaii. Retrieved from http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/5247/1/Authentic_e-learning(authors).pdf
Herrington, J. & Oliver, R. (2000). An instructional design framework for authentic learning
environments. ETR&D, 48(3), pp. 23-48.
Hi Melissa,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experience with teaching and learning languages. As a language teacher and learner myself, your points are relatable! I can see e-learning work, or not work, depending on the specific skills or aspects we are teaching. Or perhaps I should say, in order to make language learning work in an online environment, teachers might need to teach the skills in a completely different approach from teaching them in an in-person space. Just my personal thought that sometimes teachers are adopting the same approach as an in-person class only through the use of a technology tool, and that would be challenging to sustain the same level of engagement and interaction in an online environment.
Hey Melissa,
Great analysis of week six's readings and thank you for sharing with us your experiences using authentic learning in different learning settings. My favorite part of this reflection is how you applied the theories from these readings to the work that Rachel Koblic does at 2U. I attended that Zoom meeting and recall the benefits of having high fidelity experiences readily available for the students. I am genuinely impressed with your involvement in instruction all over the world and determination to continue learning how to speak Russian. Do you see yourself applying instructional design models to facilitate your own learning?
Keep up the great work.
-Nelson Chavez
Hi Melissa,
Thank you for providing language learning as an example to clarify what authentic learning and immersive situation are. As an international student in the U.S., I have experienced the benefits of authentic learning. I have been learning English for more than 10 years since I was in primary school in Taiwan. Even though my peers and I are good at reading and listening, it has been a tough task for us to speak English fluently. However, after I went to IU, where I am surrounded by the native English speakers, I feel that my speaking ability has improved a lot over the last two months. I think that’s exactly the effectiveness of authentic learning and immersive experiences.
Pei-Shan
Hi Melissa,
Thanks for sharing your detailed thoughts this week. You touch on a couple important things I want to discuss further:
The simulated partner activities by the publisher your husband teaches from, I think you touched on something that Dr. Reeves mentioned as well. Although trying to become authentic and innovative, it's really just fancy "question and answer" components as you say or as Dr. Reeves said, the educators who want to include lots of external resources and flashy web content, just to rely on teacher output and quizzes. Although the want is there, the lack of understanding, or possibly the fear to step outside of one's own comfort zone, is hindering the authentic learning crossover.
I really enjoyed…
It is great to read about all of your examples of the authentic learning environments you have created or been a part of. It is impressive the work that 2U is doing, and I think we will see more and more authentic online learning courses in the future, even as COVID goes away. I was very surprised to hear that the online experience taught students better than in the in-person environment. Maybe creates a more relaxed learning environment since students know they can learn and make mistakes and not ruin a person’s life? I just watched a short video about how railroad signal operators are trained in Germany. There is a building that has a model railroad mock-up that trainees…