Assignment 2

Part B

Typical class composition

The ACE setting in which I tutor runs small-group courses, typically comprising four to six students of mixed gender.  Sessions are face to face, running for two hours once a week for the duration of a semester, and participants are predominantly aged 25 and over.  Ethnicity is mainly European however due to the ethnic composition of the area (Waikato) there is a high likelihood of Maori student representation.  For generalised courses – as opposed to specific courses such as driver’s licence preparation – students typically do not have clearly defined goals beyond improving literacy, and initial diagnostic assessments characteristically position learners at level 3 or below as measured by the Tertiary Education Commission’s (TEC) learning progressions (TEC, 2012).

Lesson objective

The intention of this course is to embed literacy within the use of mobile phones, with a special focus on writing using a digital tool.  The advantages of this tactic are twofold – Fletcher, Nicholas and Davis (2011) found that feelings of embarrassment are reduced when students enrol in a course that does not explicitly refer to literacy, and secondly the course content may be more appealing due to its use of an ICT tool (Chan, 2011; Davis & Fletcher, 2010; Goh et al., 2011).  An indirect benefit of introducing students to extended functionalities of their mobile devices is that, as Attewell (2005) reported, this may act as a gateway to further exploration of ICT.  Furthermore, the course is designed with both hard and soft outcomes in mind – it is hoped that the proposed group outings and activities will help to strengthen social networks (Balatti, Black, & Falk, 2009), and that personal contribution to the creation of artefacts will give each student a ‘voice’, enhancing self-confidence and esteem (McCaffery, Mace, & O'Hagan, 2009; White, Oxenham, Tahana, Williams, & Matthews, 2009).

Beneficial though these outcomes may be, a funding criterion of the TEC stipulates that lesson objectives must be expressed in terms of the Learning Progressions (TEC, 2014).  While this course will touch upon aspects of reading, writing, speaking and listening, the proposed written activity is focal.  It is designed to improve skills across the spectrum of the ‘Write to Communicate’ strand (TEC, 2008b),  embracing the audience, spelling, vocabulary, and planning and composing progressions. The specific steps aimed for within each progression would depend upon the particular group of students, but the course structure is such that it lends itself easily to adjustment as student contributions will reflect their individual capabilities.

Mobile Phone Use

The course outline allows students to venture beyond the more typical phone use of making calls or sending texts and introduces additional functionalities of mobile phones.  The specific apps needed are either standard installations or can be downloaded free of charge, an important consideration where deprivation may be a factor.  The following apps, including the rationale for their use, are suggested:

• To capture items of interest to contribute to later discussion
• Voice recorder
• Camera
• Memo
• Google Drive
• To act as a central repository for content
• Google Docs
• To develop word processing software skills.  This app has been selected due to the comparative ease in setting up a document that can be viewed and edited by multiple contributors.

Course Outline

As mentioned in Part A, Davis and Fletcher (2010) note that content of relevance and interest to students is often that which links the student to his or her community.  With that in mind the proposed course involves visiting various locations of interest within walking distance in Hamilton – an activity that will provide authentic, hands-on learning in the context of a real-life activity (Jacobson, Degener, & Purcell-Gates, 2003; Wright, 2010).  The learning centre is located in the Hamilton CBD and there are a number of possible locations of interest within walking distance, including some that may be of special interest to Maori students, for example the Earth Blanket Nga Uri O Hinetuparimaunga (Booth, 2014).  At these sites, students would record snapshots of the outing using a mobile phone, and these snapshots – in the form of text memos, photos, or voice recordings – would be uploaded to a shared online folder created by the tutor.

It is envisaged that the first two sessions will be introductory lessons providing students with an overview and weekly structure of the course as advocated by Ally (2009) and allowing preliminary brainstorming of possible places to visit.  Time would also be spent downloading required apps, with short practice sessions in mobile phone use to record and upload items of interest.  Subsequent assistance with mobile use will be given on an as-needed basis by the tutor or peers, embracing the concept of ako (Ferguson, 2008), and allowing real-time practice.  As recommended by Mason and Rennie (2008), the activity also extends to students some independence and control of their own learning – both in selecting places to visit, and the format in which they choose to record their snapshots.

Outings would occur every three weeks, with the other two weeks’ sessions concentrating on discussion and the creation of a shared piece of writing.  On these weeks, students can listen to the oral snapshots that were recorded, with the tutor printing out the written and photographic contributions – all of which will act as foci for discussion.  Points arising from the discussion will be noted on a whiteboard and from these the students, in groups of two or three, will write two more paragraphs about the outing using Google Docs for mobiles. Tutor assistance would be given in the steps involved in planning, composing and editing a written piece, and a template provided for the exercise if necessary, as recommended by the ‘Write to Communicate’ learning progressions (TEC, 2008a).  The writings could then be printed, and, along with the pictures, used to create a collage depicting the outing. 

As increasing social capital is a pertinent consideration for LLN learners (Balatti, Black, & Falk, 2006; Barton & Papen, 2005), the course structure pivots upon social events, both in the outings themselves, subsequent group discussions, and participation in creating a finished product.  Collaborative writing ensures that the advantages of working with peers are harnessed (Grief, Meyer, & Burgess, 2007) and the sessions’ repetitive structure also provides a sense of stability and ongoing revision (Benseman, Sutton, & Lander, 2005), through repeated practice, in using a digital tool.

Learning Outcomes

Not only should students’ composition skills improve over the semester, it is also anticipated that vocabulary and spelling would be boosted – both from the whiteboard notes generated from group discussion and from using the mobile’s predictive text feature, an inbuilt component of Google Docs.  Progress could be assessed by improvements identified in the creation of writings over the course of the semester – however, more important than initial or summative assessment, it has been suggested, is ongoing formative assessment (Ladyshewsky, 2013).  In this instance formative assessment would be based not only on the tutor’s feedback and appraisal, but the students’ own appraisal of their individual contribution, participation and progress; an exercise which also gives students a voice in their own evaluations (Watkins, 2010).

Constraints and Considerations

There is the assumption if students enrol in the course they have access to a smartphone – and unfortunately this would act to exclude some students.  It may be possible for students to agree to share a phone, or to design a modified course for standard phones.  The current design also presupposes class access to a printer for generating hard copies of uploaded content. 

A valid critique would be that the course does not, strictly speaking, incorporate collaborative web 2.0 tools such as a wikis or eportfolios.  This is by design, as these tools, while they are available in mobile phone versions, are far from ideal in this context, primarily due to the small screen size.  As such, I have avoided their inclusion as I concur with Sander’s (2006) contention that technology shouldn’t be used for its own sake, but only insofar as it will enhance a lesson.  Consequently, in the interests of simplicity and ensuring accessibility to the requisite hardware and software, the course uses digital devices only to record items of interest and create a written record of the outing, but not as the direct means of creating a whole-group artefact.  In addition, as a trial course, the course outline’s comparative simplicity not only allows the tutor to become familiar with the use of mobile phones in a teaching context, but also ensures that students are not overwhelmed by attempting to master an excessive amount of new technology within a short time frame (Industry Skills Councils, 2011).

Possible Extensions

Certainly, in an environment where computers and internet access are available, the course could be extended to the students’ creation of a group eportfolio.  Eportfolios would also have the advantage of allowing voice and sound recordings to become an intrinsic part of the artefact constructed to document each outing.  A further extension could include using text-to-speech apps, which may be of particular value for students with very low literacy skills, with the caution however that these are not totally reliable translators (Alexei, 2013).  One could also introduce aspects of numeracy, for example by using Google Maps to plot a course to places visited, and calculating distances walked in conjunction with the mobile phone’s calculator.