As an ESL teacher in training at TC, I was taught to be as “authentic” as possible when giving a class. Teachers are supposed to provide students with abundant meaningful inputs under an authentic setting. By teaching “authentically”, teachers will provide the students with a context similar to the real life as closely as possible. This is especially important for me as an ESL teacher. Personally, I believe that “learning by doing” is essential to language learning. Students will get the hands-on experience in life-like classes, so they are very likely to be confident when they deal with the similar situations in their daily practices. For example, I was teaching abbreviations last week, and I started the class with showing them a picture of texting with my friend. I used a lot of abbreviations in that text, such as “LOL”, “idk”, etc. Then, I switch to a business email, in which I still used those very loose abbreviations, and asked my students what they thought about this. They rapidly realized what was odd there and we together made changes on those abbreviations to make the email proper to a business communication. Therefore, from texting messages to business emails, students got to know how to use appropriate abbreviations according to different formalities.

When it comes to online teaching and learning, the authentic instructions are even more important. Compared to in-person class, students have more flexibility, but at the same time, teachers lose part of control to the students on the other side of the screen. A funny example could be a student taking online class on his bed and falling asleep – that can really happen! Thus, this is where authentic teaching come to help! I will address two major advantages of authentic online instruction.

Authentic online teaching can boost students’ class engagement.
Students can get distractive very easily when having classes online. They may check their social media accounts back and forth or open multiple tabs for irrelevant contents, if the online course is given like a drill. However, an authentic context can save students from being bored and save teachers from being boring! An authentic class can effectively call to students’ attention because it is closely related to their everyday life, so they can relate and understand why that matters. Thus, they will be more likely to focus and engage in class.

Authentic online class encourages students to utilize resources to explore and solve problems.
In the authentic instructions, the questions brought up by teachers are usually ill-defined and open-ended. Students in a traditional classroom tend to work individually or collaboratively to figure out the answers. However, students in the online classroom can easily get more support from technology. They are not only able to rely on each other but also to access a large amount of comprehensible resources by simple clicks. It also works for teachers. For example, in my synchronous online class, I like showing the images on Google when the students are talking about something new or unique to the class, especially when they are addressing cultural aspects from their home countries, such as their customs and food. The timely visualization can quickly fill the information gap and make sure everyone is in the class on the same page.

We used to constrain learning in a big square box––the classroom. At that time, learning was didactic, drilling and rote. However, as the development of varied theories, our understanding of learning has significantly evolved. Learning is no longer a behavior that can happen only at school; knowledge can be acquired through every-day experience. 

This perspective on learning align with Kolb’s (1984) theory of experiential learning. It claims that learning is a process in which an individual transforms experience into knowledge. The theory of experiential learning has freed learning from a physical space. People can learn without taking classes and doing homework. As we experience, we learn. 

Connectivism further expanded the definition of learning. According to Siemens (2005), connectivism believes that learning is a build-on process in which knowledge can be connected and intertwined with experiences. Therefore, an individual do not have to acquire knowledge all by oneself, but learning can occur when connecting with the world and interacting with others.

I think the theory of experiential learning and connectivism compliment each other. Both of the theories emphasize an idea of “learning by doing” and extend learning into a life-long journey. And as the development of digital technology, people have become unprecedentedly connected. Siemens (2005) pointed out the trend that technology enables an infinite world for us to learn and explore. 

Wenger (2006) illustrates that communities of practice are formed by people who share an interest and come together regularly to help each other improve. In the digital world, there are numerous communities of practice where learning happens every moment. Our ORLD 5063 course is a good example of a community of practice. We come from varied fields of professional, but all of us are interested in online teaching and learning. We are connected with the Internet, having video synchronous lectures. We participate in online discussions to share experiences and opinions with each other. Through the interactions, we learn from each other and make progress together. 

There are billions of communities of practice like ours in the digital age. People who have access to the internet have access to learn. For individuals, online communities of practice blur the boundary between learning and experiencing, so everyone can acquire different information and knowledge through different interactions. Largely speaking, digital technology is building shared intelligence that all human beings contribute and take advantage of.

References: 

Kolb, D.A. (1984). Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development(pp.20-38). Prentice-Hall Inc.

Siemens, G. (2005). Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age. ITDL.

Wenger, E. (2006). Communities of Practice, a Brief Introduction. 

The alarm clock rang. I got up and opened the curtains. It was raining heavily. “I don’t want to go to school.” I said to myself. Terrible weather in the morning has been frustrating for me since I was in primary school. If you share the feeling with me, you may see online education as a way out. 

As the development of technology and digital media, teaching and learning are not limited in the substantial classroom. Individuals with internet access can take courses online. Many institutions have been providing online courses to students or the general public. Most of those courses are lecture-like. They are formal and well-organized. Yet, online learning happens also under informal settings. Learners are driven by their interests to snatch information they want online. I have been learning online both formally and informally and found myself comfortable with the innovative mode of study.

I took a history class when I was in undergraduate school. I was required to watch the recorded lectures every week. To participate, I needed to make discussion posts and comment on those of my classmates. There was no exam but two analytical papers. Since the lectures were recorded videos, there was no synchronous interaction between the professor and the students. I think this might be problematic. Without synchronous lectures, the students were not able to ask questions and get answers from the professor on the spot. We were also unable to share thoughts immediately to inspire each other. On the other hand, the professor could not know if we followed and if we were involved. However, this kind of online course had advantages. As long as we submitted assignments by deadlines, we could take the course at our own pace. I usually spent weekends on this online course so that I could focus on my other offline classes on weekdays. 

Outside the classroom, I also study online informally. I use YouTube frequently to assist my academic study. When I am confused about some concepts in the textbook, I would search on YouTube. There are many YouTube channels providing academic support and sharing useful resources. YouTube videos make them visual. As a visual learner, I always obtain great understanding from them. 

Not only academic resources, the online community serves people to learn with various purposes. I used to watch American TV series, such as Friends and Big Bang Theory, to improve my English skills. And it turned out to be very helpful! I also like watching TED talks online to get to know new technologies and inspiring ideas. I have learned a lot from the speakers’ experiences and insights.

Online learning does not have to be formal. It can happen spontaneously under informal settings.The benefit of online learning is far more than the superiority that I can take classes at home when the weather out there is awful, it places me in a unbounded classroom where I can dive into my interests and curiosity to get to know a bigger world.