Interest #1 – e-portfolios
The program that I teach in is called LINC – Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada, and it has been using portfolios to document student progress for about 9 years. Before the federal government mandated portfolios for LINC, students were allotted a certain number of hours, depending on the level they tested at, and when those hours were finished, they would have a summative test to determine if they could move to the next level or not.
Once the portfolio binders were rolled out, teachers had to begin giving ongoing assessments instead of the summative test, so that students could collect artefacts. This evaluation is called PBLA – portfolio based language assessment. Students require 8-10 assessments in each of the 4 language skills – listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Assessments are evaluated on the CLB – Canadian Language Benchmarks scale. Teachers found it difficult to go through training and begin all this evaluating in a program where there really hadn’t been any testing apart from the summative test at the end of the student’s hours.
During this time when schools were taking on the portfolios, some teachers/schools began using an online Moodle LMS called, at the time, learnit2teach. Teachers had varying levels of success getting students involved with it and learning to use it themselves. I gave it a try with one of my classes, but didn’t get very far.
Then when COVID shut schools down the creators of learnit2teach.ca began improving their Moodle platform, renamed it Avenue.ca, and added an online e-portfolio that would replace the binder version. And this is where I am now. I have not yet begun using the new site with its e-portfolio but would like to start trying it out.
So, some of my questions include: is an e-portfolio useful for all levels of language learners, or only the higher ones who often have better digital literacy? Will switching to an online portfolio enhance my learners’ experience or frustrate them? How can I make it an easy and positive transition? How can I get my coworkers on board with e-portfolios so that students moving through the language levels have more of a uniform experience? Or does that even matter?…..
Interest #2 – digital literacy and multimodality in adult language learners
After the online years of the pandemic, many teachers in my program quickly snapped back to their physical textbook, photocopying, and paper and pencil ways. But I didn’t miss the wasted piles of copies stacked on my desk or the long lines at the copier. I wanted to keep with many of the new digital skills I had been using with my learners. LINC focuses on real world tasks and I realized that paper and pencil are no longer the primary go to for real world tasks. Email, online forms, websites, QR codes, social media contacts, usernames and passwords – you name the real-world task and chances are we need to use a device to interact. And with this interaction comes a need for digital literacy. ABClifeliteracy.ca states on their website that 84% of jobs in Canada require the use of a computer and basic technology skills. And so, in my opinion, not continuing to teach with technology and the skills needed to interact with it in our everyday lives, is a disservice to my students. Now with this move to the digital, I can see a change in how we will need to teach, learn, and interact using the 4 language skills. K. Donaghy’s paper (2023), Multimodality in ELT: Communication skills for today’s generation found the following:
…we need to keep pace with the world in which our students live: a world full of images and sound, blended with text – a multimodal world. We must reconsider what contemporary ‘communication’ means and teach students to communicate in a realistic way with the world around them. Students need to learn how to ‘read’ multimodal texts (viewing) and convey meaning themselves through multimodal texts (representing). This new literacy is vital if students are to learn English in a way that is relevant to the way they live and how they interact with others. (p.2)
Donaghy, K. (author), Karastathi, S. (consultant),
Peachey, N. (consultant), (2023). Multimodality in ELT:
Communication skills for today’s generation [PDF]. Oxford
University Press. www.oup.com/elt/expert
So, some of my questions at this point include: As I continue to teach with technology in the classroom, am I doing it well? How can I improve my practice while also making a move to use a more multimodal approach? Can I incorporate digital literacy and multimodality and keep an even playing field for students who may not have key components such as reliable internet at home, devices that are relatively up to date and the tech skills to use them?….
Interest #3 – the importance of recreation and leisure for newcomers to Canada – photovoice integration
Another mandate on the LINC program is monthly field trips. Sound great, right? Well, it’s debatable. Different teachers will say different things. We must work around many criteria. We must often take children of students who are in the LINC daycare, we must adhere to only 50-60$ per month for classes of 20 – and we cannot ask students to pay out of their pockets, we often need to stay on transportation routes as many students do not drive, we must not go too far as time is a factor for busy parents who need to drop off or pick-up children – to name a few. So, field trips, though they sound great, take a lot of planning and thought.
Last year for the annual ACE Conference in Coquitlam, a coworker and I did a poster session on LINC field trips – showcasing different ones we have taken in the past. We wanted to highlight the positives and possibilities. Even after the conference, my coworker began researching into the importance of recreation and leisure in newcomer settlement. We believe that field trips are an extension of this, and the LINC classes are very much a community – often the first one that our learners join. But what is the technology connection? Well, one of the articles I’ve been reading: Picturing Recreation: Newcomers’ Perspectives on Experiences of Recreation H.Lauckner et al. (2022) mentions photovoice – a way to engage participants with shared experiences and stories. Last time I checked, all of my students have cellphones with cameras.
So, a few of my current questions are: How can I incorporate photovoice into the mandated LINC field trips? Will this give voice to the quieter students and what other positives could this bring about? What is the best way to display results?
Connections?
Can I tie these three interests together? Using photovoice as a multimodal display of learning in an e-portfolio? More study is needed on my part, but I think I may have the start of something…
Resources
Donaghy, K. (author), Karastathi, S. (consultant), Peachey, N. (consultant), (2023). Multimodality in ELT: Communication skills for today’s generation [PDF]. Oxford University Press. www.oup.com/elt/expert
Lauckner, H., Gallant, K., Akbari, M., Tomas, G., nee White, T. P., & Hutchinson, S. (2022). Picturing Recreation: Newcomers’ Perspectives on Experiences of Recreation. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 23(4), 2101–2123. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-021-00921-2
What is Digital Literacy? | Digital Literacy in Canada. (n.d.). ABC Life Literacy Canada. Retrieved November 12, 2023, from https://abclifeliteracy.ca/digital-literacy/
FSN Network (Director). (2022, December 20). qualKit: Photovoice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnCdzTS4b10
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