Invitation to Review a New Kind of Social Learning MOOC - Spanish Conversation
Michael Henry
Invitation to review a new kind of “Social Language Learning MOOC”
Michael Henry, M.S.Ed. University of Missouri, Kansas City
After visiting Buenos Aires recently, I personally became interested in how Spanish Conversation is taught. To learn more about the language and culture, I enrolled in a face to face class, as well as working with several apps and online resources. There are many excellent programmed instructional resources, but few that include social learning as a part of the curriculum design.
In collaboration with native language teachers skilled in classroom instruction, and a group of eLearninng designers, we put together a special combination of online teaching strategies for foreign language conversation skill development. We call it “DOTS” - Daily, Online, Task-based, Social learning.
DOTS is a dynamic approach to teaching second languages, in which participants become teachers, explore common real-world language tasks and challenges, focused on daily events. We decided not to use the standard beginner, intermediate and advanced designations, but rather ask those with more skill to help those with less skill.
Using this type of active and engaged social learning, students are inspired to obtain a deeper knowledge of the language, by sharing their work with others. Daily web-based meetings are available to promote sharing and feedback. Students learn from each other and native language facilitators who provide feedback and support to participants.
We decided to put the course together a demonstration course using this “method” and test its effectiveness. The course is running through November 2014 on the Canvas Network - “Cada Día Spanish - Daily Conversations.” There are 1500 participants in the course right now. DOTS is the principal method of learning conversational Spanish in the Cada Dia Spanish Demonstration Project.
I would like to invite you to review the course. If you are interested in supporting data collection and analysis, we are also looking for collaborators. The course is available for review now to observers, and even “lurkers” if you identify yourself as such. [Canvas Network Enrollment] We hesitate to call this a new method of language learning, however it does seem to represent a new approach, and perhaps a repeatable online learning method at best.