Collaborative Learning Tools for Enhancing Language Learning

In this workshop, we will explore collaborative learning tools for the creation of digital artefacts within the social constructionist approach as well as tools that can be used for classroom and project collaboration.

• Learn how to work collaboratively online
• Learn how to use social technologies
• Learn how to use collaboratively writing tools
• Learn how to assess collaborative writing
• Learn how to use tools that promote collaboratively reading
• Learn how to assess collaborative reading

García, M. (2018 ). eTools: Using Coggle in the Classroom.  Download: PDF. 

Soulé, M. V. (2021). Students’ attitudes towards digital artefact creation through collaborative writing: The case of a Spanish for Specific Purposes class. In E. Kakoulli-Constantinou, S. Papadima-Sophocleous  & C. N. Giannikas, (eds.), Tertiary Education Language Learning: a collection of research, pp. 47-64. Research-publishing.net. DOI: 10.14705/rpnet.2021.51.1254

• Presentation of workshop content
• Introduction to Constructionism  and Social Constructionism in Language Learning
• Students’ roles in a collaborative task
• Tools for supporting collaborative learning: examples of in-class and out-of-class activities
• Uses of Google Docs: steps and group work
• Use of DocuViz: steps and group work
• Use of Coggle: steps and group work
• Use Facebook groups: steps and group work
• Use of Padlet: steps and group work
• Final thoughts

Constructionism

The learning theory of Constructionism (Papert, 1980, 1991, 1993), was defined as: “Including, but going beyond, what Piaget would call ‘constructivism.’ The word with the v expresses the theory that knowledge is built by the learner, not supplied by the teacher. The word with the n expresses the further idea that this happens especially felicitously when the learner is engaged in the construction of something external or at least shareable. . . a sand castle, a machine, a computer program, a book.” (Papert & Harel, 1991, p. 1). Based on Papert’s  framework, Resnick (1996) proposes ‘distributed constructionism’, as the design and construction of meaningful artefacts by more than one person. The author emphasises three categories: discussing constructions, sharing constructions and collaborating on constructions. The first one can be described by the use of a forum for discussing construction activities. The second one is exemplified by texts, images or videos that can be copy and/or reuse by others. And the third one involves the use of computer networks to support students “not only to share ideas with one another, but to collaborate directly, in real time, on design and construction projects” (1996, p. 282).

Constructionism in Language Learning

Rüschoff and Ritter (2004: 219) point out that “Construction of knowledge and information processing are regarded as key activities in language learning”. Since the integration of new media into language learning is a necessary step to ensure the acquisition of the kind of language skills and competencies needed for living and working in the knowledge society, Rüschoff (2001) suggests the implementation of Constructionism as the appropriate paradigm for language learning. Recent studies (Parmaxi, & Zaphiris, 2015; Parmaxi et al, 2016) have adopted this paradigm  for language learning practices. In particular, these studies propose the use of social technologies for collaborative construction of shareable artefacts, These include “social network sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Google+; social software, such as blogs and wikis; and digital artifacts sharing platforms, such as Dropbox, Evernote and Google Drive.” (Parmaxi, & Zaphiris, 2015, p. 34).

References

Papert, S. (1980) Mindstorms: Children, computers and powerful ideas. Nueva York: Basic Books (URL).

Papert, S. & Harel, I. (1991) Situating Constructionism. En S. Papert y I. Harel (Eds.), Constructionism. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex, 1-11 (URL). 

Papert, S. (1993) The children’s machine: Rethinking school in the age of the computer. Nueva York: Basic Books (URL).

Parmaxi, A. & Zaphiris, P. (2015). Developing a framework for social technologies in learning via design-based research. Educational Media International, 52 (1), 33-46. DOI: 10.1080/09523987.2015.1005424 

Parmaxi, A., Zaphiris, P. & Ioannou, A. (2016) Enacting artifact-based activities for social technologies in language learning using a design-based research approach, Computers in Human Behavior 63, 556-567. DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2016.05.072

Resnick, M. (1996). Distributed constructionism. In D. C. Edelson & E. A. Domeshek (Eds.) Proceedings of the 1996 International Conference on Learning Sciences, pp. 280-284 (URL).

Rüschoff, B. & Ritter, M. (2001) Technology-Enhanced Language Learning: Construction of Knowledge and Template-Based Learning in the Foreign Language Classroom. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 14 (3), 219-23. DOI: 10.1076/call.14.3.219.5789

Wang, D., Olson, J., Zhang, J., Nguyen, T. & Olson, G. (2015b). DocuViz: Visualizing Collaborative Writing. CHI ’15 Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 1865-1874. DOI: 10.1145/2702123.2702517