INNOVATE ELT 2019 Roundup - The pros and cons of tech-hiking

INNOVATE ELT 2019

Roundup - 'The pros and cons of tech-hiking'

The pros and cons of 'tech-hiking'

(with apologies to Roger Waters)

 

A recurring theme of this (and previous) editions of the Innovate conference was the inexorable rise of the machines and how this will affect our working lives in ELT. A number of speakers discussed the benefits and drawbacks of technological progress. One of the Friday evening mini-plenaries, given by Scott Thornbury, was entitled, rather worryingly ‘Will innovation be the death of us?’ You can listen to some of Scott’s ideas on the subject here

 

The effects of the talk were evident in the flurry of twitter activity that followed, so had Scott touched a nerve? Are we to become redundant? Do we need to reinvent ourselves as a 'caring' profession? It was interesting to see how the keynote speakers the following morning, all talking on the topic of (tech) innovation, would react to his predictions. As it was, they rather chose to ‘carry on regardless’, each with a different take on the tech debate. Here's a summary of what the first two speakers had to say.


Keynote 1

Dr Anastasia Dedyukhina: Neuroscience of digital distractions: how tech changes the way we learn and memorize

You can watch Anastasia’s TEDx talk on this subject here

 

After 10 years in digital marketing, Dr Anastasia Dedyukhina founded Consciously Digital @ConsciDigital, to offer solutions for those trying to cope in a world of digital distractions.

 

Anastasia introduced her talk with the notion of neuroplasticity: how our brain changes depending on what we do. The first stage of addiction is to respond to triggers. Many apps are designed along Skinner’s behaviourist principles, aiming to encourage repeat visits. Notifications act as triggers. You never know what you are going to find, and the principle of variable reward releases a dopamine boost, which the brain starts to crave. To counteract this craving, the brain shuts down receptors, so a bigger and bigger ‘dose’ is needed to create the same effect.

How do we learn?

Anastasia outlined the following elements of the learning process:

- Motivation (+/- reward)
- Focusing
- Memorising (understand & process)
- Practice

 

Image credit @GL_archer

 

Devices affect these stages thus:

Motivation: the device has quick reward cycles, with almost immediate results. The shorter the reward cycle, the more likely we are to choose this option. Present-day students have become very bad at tolerating boredom and seek constant stimulation.

Focus: Students find themselves unable to focus on one task and skimming rather than intensive attention has become the new normal. In one experiment, the researcher found that in 15 minutes of concentrated activity, students were distracted, on average, every 2-3 minutes. Another study found that the frequency of visits to Facebook correlated with a lower GPA (but isn't FB a bit ‘old’ for our students now?). Deep reading is known to build executive attention and enhance critical reasoning. As we no longer read in this way, we are less able to block out distractions.

 

Memorising: Multitasking is something of a myth, as humans are generally not very good at it. The brain consumes more energy when asked to perform multiple tasks. Anastasia illustrated this with a simple experiment. Say the numbers 1-10 as quickly as you can. Then do the same with the letters A to J. Now try alternating between the two 1-A, 2-B, 3-C, etc. Chances are you will slow down considerably and/or make at least one mistake if you try to go faster. Curiously, those who claim to be good at multi-tasking consistently underperform against those who don't!

Image credit @GL_archer

Action: The mobile generation may have difficulty following through on goals and making decisions. The mere presence of a smartphone in the same room has been found to deplete cognitive abilities.

Image credit @GL_archer

 

 

Taking back control

There are four principles that recreate boundaries that technology has removed.

- Time management (limit time you spend on devices)
- Space management (don’t put your phone next to the bed)
- Relationship management (don’t be available 24/7)
- Self-management (be honest with yourself about your smartphone use)

 

Image credit @RobbioDobbio

Other points to consider:

1. Listening to music on your device is fine (especially if it’s familiar)

2. Keep devices out of sight (in another room) but allow your students regular ‘tech breaks’ (e.g. once an hour): a predictable time when they can check their devices, so they don’t feel resentful at being deprived.


Keynote 2

Nikki Fortova: Should we go back in time for class? 

Nikki Fortova @NikkiFortova is a teacher and teacher educator in Masaryk University in the Czech Republic.

 

Nikki Fortova on the Innovate ELT website

While the first keynote talk was a cautionary tale about the dangers of unguarded use of technology, the next session focussed on the potential effects of informed implementation of different technologies. Nikki looked at the past, present and possible future in four different areas.

1. AI: Artificial Intelligence

The AI that is readily available on our smartphones already has a number of uses applicable to language learning. Nikki gave the example of a Spanish speaker who uses SIRI on his device to check his pronunciation. If he says, ‘live’ (a common pronunciation difficulty for Spanish speakers is the distinction between /i/ and /i:/) and the app spells it correctly, he knows his pronunciation is clear.

While it is often claimed that AI will eventually replace teachers, chatbots do not presently pass the Turing test and Nikki predicted that a more likely innovation may be an automatic speech recognition tool which can record and transcribe the interaction between the teacher and students, highlighting the areas that need work.

2. Testing and Assessment

Computer-based testing is already widely used. There are adaptive apps, such as Quizlet which identify gaps in your knowledge: if you do not recognise a vocabulary flashcard, it will show you the item more regularly until you do. Formative assessment protocols can check what a student knows as they are learning and adapt the content accordingly. (NB, adaptive learning is not without controversy, see Phillip Kerr’s blog here



Advances in technology have already removed some of the previous constraints on computer-based testing. Facilities such as facial recognition and multiple cameras could allow students to take tests from home

3. Online/Blended Learning

According to Nikki, in 2019 we have seen the rise of the app, e.g. Babbel, Duolingo and she suggests that these will become more and more integrated into mainstream language learning (see slide below).

 

 

Companies are reluctant to publish exact numbers but Duolingo is said to have 200 million users. (NB, However, in the next talk, Geoff Stead displayed some statistics which suggest that there is a steep curve when it comes to repeated use. The vast majority of these ‘users’ are accessing the app very infrequently, so there may not be a great deal of learning taking place). In Nikki’s own context, due to the popularity of the course she teaches on, there is not enough physical space to accommodate all the students, so they have moved to a system of one week F2F and one week online, using the Moodle platform. She showed us a clip of one of her students discussing the value of being present in the classroom with others. The suggestion that new generations of learners would prefer to work from a device doesn't seem to fit here.

As Nikki pointed out, we should take heart from the fact that learning entirely online requires a great deal of self-discipline, and the F2F encounters provide opportunities for interaction and real communication, a valuable life skill.


4. Us – the teacher

We teachers hear, all too often, the warning that: ‘the robots are coming!’, and the suggestion that our jobs are under threat. Nikki feels more upbeat about this, as she is convinced that teaching is about relationships, and the emphasis on meaning over form that AI cannot (yet) recreate.

Nikki contends that we should be wary of the ‘shiny box syndrome’: the adaptation of a piece of tech because it looks good. There may be investment in technology but there is little point if there is no investment in training teachers how to use it (think IWBs). She feels that any innvovation needs evidence from informed teacher research before widespread implementation.

Her closing remarks encouraged those present to seek out the ‘sweet spot’ where teachers, students and software developers agree on the benefits of a new technological innovation.

And talking of sweet spots, I'll leave you with this rather sweet picture of Nikki in action:

@SallyTrowbridg1