Digitally-Mediated Language Learning (DMLL)

From completing the 20 DMLL modules, it is clear that the more effort put into creating an engaging and meaningful DMLL activity provides better results, better formative feedback (for the teacher as well as the student), and can be used and modified for future groups of students. In terms of accessibility, DMLL could be useful in certain contexts where there is ready access to electronic devices that can store and reach these resources (more on the challenges of this later in the reflection). I think the benefit of self-paced material engagement that DMLL provides is extremely helpful. For example, in the Interactive Listening module, many of the apps allowed for videos or audio to be played at different speeds as well as had the function to pause and replay. This allows for students to go at their own pace and review or relisten as they need to. Because of the physical and temporal accessibility, DMLL is useful for a flipped classroom. When we spoke about needs analysis during the program, we often discussed the practicality of completion, distribution, and collection of evidence. With having this digital record on student progress (as in the Interactive Listening and the Interactive Reading modules), it is not only serving as a learning tool that gives formative feedback to students, but is also a simple way for a teacher to keep track of this information all in one place.

While DMLL is beneficial in the many ways I have already described, there are some issues I find that are still emerging. As Stephanie Knight pointed out in the Interactive Listening module, DMLL (like videos) can fall into limited modality and can be decontextualized if not careful. Of course, there are ways to contextualize these tools with some strategic extension from the teacher, but it is something to be aware of. In terms of accessibility, I mentioned how DMLL can be a great way to implement accessibility. Although, I have assisted in a Zoom context where the students had a difficult time accessing Zoom, let alone apps or internet resources. In this context, half of the students lived in an underserved rural community that often lost electricity due to floods. All of the students lived in poverty and often had to share one or a limited number of devices among their family members and, with it being during COVID 19 times and parents taking priority with needing the devices for work, this proved to be more of an obstacle. While I still think DMLL offers accessibility in many ways, I think it's important to remember that this may not be true in all contexts.

With COVID lockdowns requiring education to move online, many (students and teachers alike) were forced to navigate a synchronous digital classroom over Zoom. The artifact I chose to demonstrate my application of DMLL concepts is actually something I created in my undergraduate years during my LT437 Talking With Ducks (TWD) teaching practicum class. I will reflect on what I did at the time and how I may do things differently knowing what I know now after completing the program. This artifact is my LT437 Final Project #1 titled “Talking With Ducks Redux” pertaining to the topic: Folk tales, Fairy tales, Superstitions, Urban Legends, & Ghost Stories. In the lesson plan, you can see that conducting a class on Zoom gives unexpected challenges to time management, one of the main issues being the unforeseen amount of transition time needed due to technological issues or delays. In this lesson, I have shown this consideration by factoring in this time and mapping it out in the plan itself. Throughout the lesson, diversity of input and output is achievable through using Zoom chat alongside audio. This promotes accessibility to students who don’t feel comfortable speaking up in class. They are still able to meaningfully contribute their thoughts through writing. Giving students the option of either communicating through writing or speaking aloud promotes more student engagement. This aspect is also more student centered in that it accounts and gives space to students to choose how they engage and express themselves. If I were to redesign this lesson, I would incorporate the whiteboard function for students to illustrate their answers to their peers. This would allow for students to not only connect the picture to what they are saying, but also allows for the listeners to have multiple modalities of input to increase uptake. As an example, this could be used in a task describing an urban legend figure. Maybe a student draws horns but doesn’t know the word for it. Their peers can see the picture and assist the speaker with the word.