Teaching Approach
I believe in creative pedagogy that leverages technologies
I approach pedagogy and technology concurrently. It’s not a matter of priority. For me, it’s a matter of the possibilities of infusing both to achieve greater learning design harmony. While pedagogy can stand on its own without any intervention of technology, marrying them together is an intricate art of its own, that merits a proper understanding of its value and potential.
This is a documentation of an approach I am currently implementing for a class of 24 TESL students, for the subject KPD3016, conducted fully online during the pandemic COVID19 lockdown.
P/S: I have shared this approach at ASEAN level during the AsTEN Webinar on November 2020. Here's the link to the recorded video.
The Context.
The year 2020 has been the most challenging year for academics, to date. For the large majority of academics who are not familiar with delivering fully online course pre-pandemic, they had to jump into the bandwagon, and started delivering their lectures online. Many opted to transfer what they have prepared for the face-to-face classes, to online lectures, doing live telecasts using various teleconferencing tools such as Google Meet, Skype, Cisco Webex, and the like. Here, we can see an exponential take-up of technologies in education that happened almost overnight. While this can be taken as a positive development of modern instruction, we can't ignore the fact that this transition has not always been smooth, for most of the academics.
When reviewing the repercussions of pandemic over the educational delivery, we often neglected a particular voice, who sits at the receiving end of the spectrum, trying their best to plough through the semesters, when all the subjects that they have registered for the semester are carried out online, with a scathing schedule of back-to-back live teleconferencing lectures, probably delivered in a uniformed, monotonous, and repetitive way.
Viewing the possible impact of such instruction over the students' moral made me think, is there a better way to deliver the contents of a course over the wire in a more dynamic, fun, and engaging format?
My take of instructional delivery might not be favourable to everyone, as I often defy the conventions/norms. Most people would agree that pedagogy comes first, then technology. In the world where technological advancements opened up many opportunities, this statement is true, and a very useful approach to sort things out.
On the other hand, I view pedagogy and technology concurrently i.e. to bear the same importance.
Pedagogy First, Technology First.
To understand why I put the same importance to both pedagogy and technology, we need to understand first, why a lot of people are supporting pedagogy first.
Many educationists who are too quick to adapt technologies into education, left a very big pedagogical gap. More and more educationists champion the use of technology in education, by reviewing and promoting its use, and failed to establish a plausible and convincing connection between technology and pedagogy. This left a gaping hole to other educators who have not yet have a proper grasp of the whole pedagogy-technology continuum, with a tech-first, pedagogy-gone approach to teaching. This is a no-no to any sane mind, as pedagogy should be placed at the forefront of any educational decision.
For these folks, it's better to introduce pedagogy first, and from there, adopt certain technologies that can fit the pedagogical design(s).
With that being said, I would like to offer another perspective on the matter.
Disclaimer: This approach is to be used only by people who have understood the many different variety of pedagogical designs, strategies, and approaches, and are aware of the plethora of technological tools and its features, plus the many different ID and technology integration models and frameworks.
For me, we need to plan lessons with both pedagogy and technology in mind. Because if we set the pedagogy first, without considering what are the possible forms of interaction using technology, we will be limited to the superficial integration of technology into teaching and learning.
"Each technological tool has its own affordances based on available functionalities. Each pedagogical design also has its own traits, procedures, and scopes".
Marrying these two components together requires for us to 'see' through features from both components, and find points of convergence - workable combinations, that may not only serve towards the attainment of learning objectives, but further enhances it and opens up more opportunities.
Instructional Design & Technology field has several models that can be a guide on how to integrate technology into teaching and learning. Easiest to follow is the SAMR model.
The 2020 Limitations.
Since March 2020, Malaysians had to endure intermittent movement control order (MCO) due to the widespread of the novel Coronavirus, or better known as COVID-19. Educational institutions were asked to limit their educational operations, impacting millions of students nationwide. UPSI decided, for the interest and benefit of everyone, to close all physical classes, and move/transform everything into online lectures/instruction.
The Approach.
When looking for ideas on how to turn a boring online lectures, into a format that students are excited to participate and be part of, I looked for inspiration at the most unconventional places of all - the movies. But why movies you ask?
I am a cinemaphile.
I like arts, graphics, good storytelling, and good cinematography. It has been a long-time dream to direct a feature film of my own. I had the opportunity to tap into my creative side when I was in Warwick, UK. Shot and produced 2 videos have helped me find my strength in creativity. >>LINK TO MY WARWICK VIDEOS<<.
So, to adapt what's on the screen into real life is like a second nature to me.
One way to adapt movies to lesson designs is through role play.
But before I start adapting movies into any instructional design plans, I need to also take into account the end-users i.e. the students, and the suitability of the contents. Few questions popped in my head:
Adaptability: "Will the students be okay if I conduct my classes using this approach?"
Familiarity: "If I choose a movie, how familiar are the students with the chosen movie?"
Compatibility: "How far I can stretch the contents to fit the selected approach?"
Adaptability.
To answer this question, I need to look at the background of my students. They are all 24 TESL students from the Language and Communication Faculty (n=24). Alhamdulillah, I am very fortunate this semester, to be given TESL students, as I was also a TESL student back when I did my bachelor degree.
Yes, I am a proud UPSI Alumni. Graduated in the year 2008.
I leveraged the knowledge I have about their TESL programme, banking on the points of similarities and core TESL knowledge. I, for once, know that most of TESL students are agile, adaptable, responsive, fun, engaging, and if not, the very least, committed to tasks and projects bestowed upon them.
I also know that in TESL programme, we have undergone several pedagogy-centric courses throughout the years, and some materials development courses.
Familiarity.
Choosing a movie to be used as a base for my instructional design is not an easy feat, but I had few options already in my mind. The options might looked a little bit geeky. That's because I am at best, a geek.
I had to choose between:
Star Trek; or
Harry Potter.
... and looking at the background of the students I am going to help this semester, I opted for the latter. Harry Potter is known as one of the greatest literature ever written, and it has been translated into many languages, adapted to the silver screens, and is backed by a huge fanbase which called themselves as the 'PotterHead'.
Judging from this, Harry Potter has a higher chance of familiarity as compared to the more scientific Star Trek.
Hoping to adapt Star Trek in future setups.
Compatibility.
This is another huge consideration that involved a lot of thinking, tinkering, and conceptualising. Basically, I need to envision how the original contents of the course KPD3016, which comprises of three distinct components i.e. Pedagogy, Technology, and Assessment, can fit into the Harry Potter narrative.
I found the overlapping point - that Harry Potter has much of its setup in a school called Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry, and in that school, like any other schools, there are teachers, classrooms, students, and the interactions between them.
From here, everything fits into places:
Pedagogy - I can relate pedagogies that was portrayed in the Harry Potter's classes in films adaptation. Reviewing them with excerpts from the actual movies will add to the richness of the contexts.
Technology - This I relate it to the materials used in the franchise, metaphorically. For example, I used the 'Portkey' (enchanted materials that can be used as teleportation device to any location) metaphorically to portray websites that can transport its viewers to 'anywhere', providing different types of knowledge and information in it.
Assessment - Again, drawing from different aspects of assessment that can be found throughout the films e.g. the TriWizard Tournament, the Quidditch Matches, and my favourite - using the Marauder's Map to metaphorically introduce educational assessment as a component that can be mapped out.
For tests and quizzes, I adapted them as Quidditch Matches, with groups, and individual modes.
"There's always room for a story that can transport people to another place"
- JK Rowling
- JK Rowling
The Case.
The Parameters
No physical classes. 24 TESL students. Instructions must be carried out online. Assessments must be adapted to suit students affordances.
The Pedagogy
Extended Movie-based Roleplay Approach.
Summary: Assumed the roleplay and characterisation, plots, materials, events, for the whole duration of the semester. Using elements/components found in the movie to enhance the instructional strategies.
Purpose: Adding different teaching and learning setup and experience, amidst all the online lectures which had to be done subsequent to the face-to-face classroom closure due to Pandemic COVID-19.
The Technology
Primary tool: Discord (https://discord.com/).
Usage: Discord is used to provide a different platform and experience for the students, with added/enhanced features such as roles, custom channel access, GIFs, Emoji feedbacks, and memes, which are not present in the UPSI's homegrown e-learning system i.e. MyGuru.
Complementary tools:
YouTube
Google Forms
Google Sheets
Google Sites
EdPuzzle
Coursera
The Hogwart's Setup.
Hogwarts School of Teaching Crafts and Technologies, an extended, movie-based roleplay approach to teaching and learning.
As explained earlier, the course has been divided into 4 distinct sections, corresponding to the number of components in this course i.e. Pedagogy, Technology, and Assessment, plus one extra section nearing the end of the semester, to provide enough time for the students to reconcile all those components into one cohesive, interrelated framework for designing impactful teaching and learning.
This course is also designed to provide real life example to the students, on how a creative teaching and learning instruction is designed. Students are frequently asked to reevaluate the current course design, and to reflect how integrative and illustrative is the course to them.
"It's our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
- Albus Dumbledore
- Albus Dumbledore
Setting Up The Tech.
Discord.
Discord is originally designed for gamers and gaming community. It is developed to support low latency communication between team members, which is extremely important when playing team-based online game.
Discord has been around for many years, and have been used as an alternative platform for teaching and learning by several of my friends from outside of UPSI.
Before pandemic COVID-19 lockdown, I hadn't had a strong motive to try out Discord, as the current homegrown system MyGuru was enough to handle the blended mode of teaching and learning.
When the lockdown kicked in, I had to search for alternative platforms that can support the nature of interactions that I have planned, and MyGuru can't fulfill my needs at the moment. Hence the switch to Discord.
"An invite-only place with plenty of room to talk"
- Discord.com
- Discord.com
Features.
Discord allows several customisations that have proven to be handy for me:
Custom roles - this is a feature that comes by default with Discord. Server owners are able to create custom roles, and assign it to different members of the server. For this, I have created roles that corresponds to the movie setup - the Hogwarts houses.
By creating these different roles, I have granular control over the activities inside the 'school', as I am able to assign different tasks based on the four Hogwarts Houses.
By setting up houses like this, I have also unlocked the highly motivated gamification mode among students, as they are seen to have a strong sense of camaraderie within their respective houses, and are constantly trying to outdo other houses in the tasks and the assignments I have given them.
One student even quoted, saying:
It is difficult to achieve this sense of competitiveness between students in the normal F2F classes, let alone on the online environment, but I have successfully set up a stage for this to happen.
"I solemnly swear I am up to no good"
recite this to open the Marauder's Map
2. Automated Bots - these came separate from the Discord server. A 3rd party application that needed to be installed/connected to my server. I'm using Statbot to get statistics of activities that happened in the Hogwarts School. The Statbot exposes who's active messaging and posting, the time they active, and other relevant and useful statistics to help me understand and gauge the activities in the school.
Another bot that I've installed is the MEE6 bot, which automatically handles the badges and levelling up in the school, based on students' frequency of postings. This has helped maintained the motivation level among students, to reward them based on their level of participation.
3. Text-Channel & Voice-Channel - On Discord, I can create 2 types of channel i.e. text-based, and voice-based. I often use text-based channels to initiate asynchronous discussions with the students, setting up assignments, tasks, and directions.
For voice-based channel, I initiate it whenever there is a synchronous class, on topics that needed to be discussed in real-time. Voice-based channels are useful and cost-effective, as it only takes up smaller Internet bandwidth if compared to live video streaming.
I've replaced video live streaming to voice live streaming for students' presentation, and it worked really well.
4. Weekly Activities - Discord also allows me to set up activities according to week, and create sub-channels within each week, to emulate step-by-step instructions.
Another nifty feature on Discord is that you can control access to any channel based on roles given to the students. This allows me to set up different tasks/assignments for different houses.
This enables me to create digital collaborative activities that require the students to work collaboratively within and between houses, to achieve a unified goal. I have carried out such setup a number of times, including during the 'Quidditch Game' in Week 5, and the 'Portkey Creation' in Week 6.
5. Memes - While some might say that this is not an appropriate feature in a teaching and learning environment, I beg to differ, with the best of intentions.
If we take any of the Instructional Design models/frameworks, or to certain extent, the more celebrated Design Thinking ideology, they always begin with Analysis/ Empathy - Understanding of the recipients conditions, needs, and parameters.
In the light of this, among the first steps I took when designing the instruction for this course, was to take into account students' interests, especially their culture (sub-culture) practised today. This has been proven to enable me to 'connect' with my students at a tacit level. One of the sub-cultures that I explored and frequently use during the back and forth banter with students is the Memes. The impact of this will be shown in a later section.
Strategising: Content Mapping.
The overall skeleton of the course, redesigned to suit the movie-based roleplay approach.
Some modifications to the original curriculum had to be made, as an attempt to make the subject, which is known to be one of the 'heaviest' subjects, into a more bearable and fun curriculum, which can be carried out online.
This decision came to me, after judging the restrictive conditions to conduct a fully online instruction.
Some of the adaptations include selection of certain contents to be included in the instructions, while making sure that the students have the basic skills and knowledge to explore other domains; realignment of Course Learning Outcomes (CLO) to suit the new curriculum setup; and adding flexibility to assessment - which I have successfully sustained the original assessment components, but delivered strategically within the curriculum and planned activities.
"Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if only one remembers to turn on the light"
- Albus Dumbledore
- Albus Dumbledore
The Impact.
Here are some excerpts taken from an early feedback session with the students, and random discussions that happened within the Hogwarts' School compound.
