Wednesday Onsite Presentation Session 2

Teaching Experiences, Pedagogy, Practice & Praxis

Session Chair: Christine Walsh

11:25-11:50

68629 | Teaching K-12 via Online in the Time of COVID-19: A Tale of Two Cities

Karen Manaig, Laguna State Polytechnic University, Philippines

Chester Alexis Buama, Laguna State Polytechnic University, Philippines

Wai Ching Adrian Ting, University of Salford, United Kingdom

Alberto Yazon, Laguna State Polytechnic University, Philippines

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused chaos worldwide. In many countries, face-to-face teaching was suspended on and off in the past two years. Online delivery was seen as a solution to teach schoolchildren during this period. For the first time in history, technology was employed to deliver synchronous and asynchronous lessons on a massive scale. Teachers in particular were at the forefront of this situation where they had to deal with these issues firsthand. While there are many benefits to using technology to teach students during these difficult times, there exist many practical issues that might seriously affect the quality of education. Although some countries might have better IT infrastructures in schools than others, it is argued that this might not be useful when it comes to online delivery. This study aims to give school teachers a voice to tell their stories. Six school teachers from Hong Kong and The Philippines provided their accounts of their experience teaching students online in the past two years. Using narrative inquiry methods, the data were analyzed and compared. The results suggest that the perceived digital divide might not be as vastly different between wealthy and developing societies. It is hoped that the findings will add to a growing body of research related to teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and offer an in-depth insight into teachers’ individual experiences.

11:50-12:15

69163

| Emergency Remote Teaching and Alternative Platform for Online Class: Experiences of English Teachers in Indonesia

Rahmila Murtiana, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia

In this presentation, I will share the narratives of English language teachers in one region of Indonesia as they navigated into emergency remote teaching. It is part of a larger study that I conducted for my PhD. Data were obtained through in-depth interviews with a cohort of English teachers who just began their teaching career. The findings revealed that the issue of the digital divide and inequity became a challenge for teachers to engage the students. Learning management system (LMS) provided by the school as well as Google Classroom application did not work optimally for the students. Poor internet connection in some areas became the main factor that affected the teaching and learning process. To respond to the challenges, the teachers took some efforts by adjusting their teaching approach and selecting an appropriate online platform. Mobile instant messaging media such as WhatsApp was found more effective during emergency remote teaching. The features in WhatsApp could be used by the teachers for delivering the materials and maintaining interactions with the students. It also became a solution for the students who lived in disadvantaged areas where internet connectivity was limited. This presentation is expected to offer some insights for teachers and educators about alternative media that could be utilised for teaching during this unpredictable era.

12:15-12:40

67971 | Digital Storytelling in Teaching and Learning: Lessons Learned in the Virtual Classroom and Virtual Research Environments

Julie Drolet, University of Calgary, Canada

Christine Walsh, University of Calgary, Canada

Digital storytelling is the practice of using digital media to tell stories. It has been shown to promote deep reflection, help make sense of experience, encourage cooperative activity, build confidence, and create a powerful product that can have a transformative effect on the maker and viewer alike. This paper shares the use of digital stories in the virtual classroom and in virtual research environments. The Transforming the Field Education Landscape (TFEL) is a project that aims to better prepare the next generation of social workers in Canada by creating training and mentoring opportunities for students, developing and mobilizing innovative, promising and wise field education practices, and improving the integration of research and practice in field education. Students and postdoctoral scholars are being trained and mentored to create digital stories to document and share their training, mentoring, and research experiences in field education. The TFEL project has three streams: 1) digital storytelling, 2) national study to inform the development of sustainable models of field education, and 3) applied practice research. The guiding research question for digital storytelling is: In what ways does the storytelling process enhance student learning about research training and mentorship? This study provides an overview of the partnership, and how the project supports the use of digital storytelling in teaching and learning difference. Digital stories are shared, including a course assignment and rubric. Implications and recommendations are provided.