DISTANCE LEARNING AND GROUPWORK ACTIVITIES: A CASE STUDY

THE BAMBURGH PROJECT

Tandem language learning has been successfully used within MOO environments  It brings together distributed groups of learners who are native speakers of each others’ target language and is based on clearly-described principles.

The aim of the Bamburgh Project was slightly different from that of tandem MOO: individual, geographically distributed learners worked together at Schmooze University MOO, an EFL/ESL/cross cultural MOO,  using only the target language to identify a topic, design, develop, draft, redraft and publish a web-page.  Publication of the web-page entailed using a specially-designed, easy-to-use web-editor to produce a well-formatted web-page and to publish it on the World Wide Web as the final outcome of the activity. This served to enhance student motivation by providing a concrete outcome and turning the collective writing activity into an authentic communicative act, as opposed to an activity whose outcome was intended solely for the facilitator..

Aim and Focus

To provide a focus and common but flexible topic area for the project, a work area, set in a virtual representation of the north-east coast of England - the project was named after a town in this area - was designed.  A wide choice of in-MOO and web-based tools was offered but learners were not constrained by the tools or materials provided  – they could use other resources if they wished.  In their groups, they negotiated web-page content and assigned specific tasks to individual group members.  Thus, learners took collective responsibility for a successful outcome.

The learning environment

The learning environment developed comprised a: Tools and ‘rooms’ in a MOO can be restricted to named players.  The Bamburgh Project is mostly open to all, with the exceptions described below.  To promote a sense of community, each group was provided with its own work area.  This comprised a communal workroom, project bulletin board and bookcase complete with books containing references to websites which had been identified as being relevant to some aspect of the type of research learners might undertake. Only tutors or project designers could write on the bulletin board, and books were programmed so they could not be removed from the work area.

Three study areas, leading from the main workroom, were also developed; each contained a MOO-based whiteboard which learners could use for brainstorming and making notes about their research.  Once groups of learners had been established, whiteboards were ‘locked’ so only group members could use them.  Access to study areas were not restricted at first, but some  project participants asked that this be done, so they could work undisturbed.

Facilitators were also provided with a meeting area.  Initially, only they could use it, but, on their request, it was opened to all.

Users of the work area can see their location easily at any time by typing <look>, Unlike hyperlinked texts, where it is possible to become ‘lost in hyperspace’, the type of extra detail offered in the MOO project area does not require learners to change virtual location - room descriptions are no longer than one screen in length to avoid the need to scroll, while extra detail is provided using the @detail command.  Words which have extra detail are identified by being enclosed in asterisks.  The extra information about such words can be accessed by typing <look <word>> and may include hotlinks to web-based text, audio or graphics files.

Project trials

When the virtual space had been designed and built and the supporting web-site and web-editing tool completed, volunteers were requested from two sources; Participants negotiated that both learners and tutors would have scheduled meetings once a week, while learners could arrange to meet at any time outside those times in order to socialise, get to know each other and to work together on the activity.  The project's designers were online during scheduled meetings in order to answer questions.  It was made clear to all participants, both teachers and learners, that how the project was used was entirely a matter for negotiation, that there were no lesson plans and that the purpose of the activity was to provide learners with an opportunity to use the target language to work with others in different locations and to produce a web-page about a topic area which interested them as a group.  It was stressed that while the topic area could be related directly to some aspect of the virtual space in which they would work together, the link might be as tenuous as, for example, a comparison of the fishing industry in several different cultures.

Two sets of trials were run during a 12 month period, with a total number of 18 learners and 6 facilitators.  The small number of participants makes it impossible to draw any but the most general of conclusions  The activity was intended primarily as an introduction for language learners to MOO and its possibilities.

Outcomes

What was emphasized during the course of the activity is that groups of this sort must include at least one member who is MOO-competent and is prepared to help less competent members to use the technology.  Facilitators, although physically in the same place as their own groups of learners, were not asked for help as frequently as were other, distributed group members. Peer-knowledge shared in this way appeared to increase learners’ confidence greatly, and also added to the sense of community within the groups – group members could frequently be seen online with each other outside official meeting times.

From the point of view of learner-collaboration then, the project appeared to be successful - project participants started autonomous real time interaction in-MOO, and engaged in reflective meta-communication by MOOmail.   Further, they used the tools and materials provided to engage with the learning environment in a way meaningful to them.

Lessons learned

In spite of these operational difficulties, the project appears to have achieved its goals – learners worked collaboratively with each other towards developing web-pages based on information in the project area

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Last updated 30th January 1999
Authors: Lesley Shield and Markus J.Weininger