Category: EDCI 570/1

Throughout this term, I have been able to engage in research and really refine my topic of interests. I think much of my area of interests for my research relies on my passion for French Language Learning and Professional Development. The purpose of my final project has become more clear.

I truly believe that my project can benefit teacher candidates as well as teacher to promote French Language initiatives and create a French community. Within my School District I know the connections are already strong. Victoria is small and the French community and teaching community is even smaller. Therefore, digital badging can help promote the participation in French events such as the Société Francophone, the French Conferences (notably I will be attending another one on Monday Nov 20th at Arbutus Global Middle School). I hear that some French teachers are doing other Pro-D opportunities and hope that in the future the badge promotion may motivate them to do more in French. As in my opinion there is never enough French opportunities where you can speak French with others and learn pedagogies for French specific Education.

Here is a TedTalk from Joyce Seitzinger that discusses the relevance of Open Badges.

Here is another video that further discusses Badging in Elementary.

Furthermore to discuss about the literature a bit more and to further discuss my group project’s findings. I really valued the idea of an ARIS system for encouraging French Language Learning. It seemed to motivate and engage learners at a Post Secondary Level and I have read through this process it is similar from K-12. Badging is become more and more predominant and is starting to be seen in multiple apps and games notably Duolingo as we saw throughout our research. Moving away from certificates allows us to create digital backpacks and share our learning.

There are many benefits to this and here are just a few key ideas I read about and that are well summarized in this blog post.  Although I do not want to design an Augmented Reality App, I do value the benefits and impacts it has on education and I hope similarly badging in terms of French (Language Learning) can have a positive impact for teachers as well. Although we all chose articles, it was the process and leading discussions that made our learning so interesting and connected.

We were able to learn about the subject of gamification and language learning while also keeping in mind our final projects and potentially figuring out final project links and purpose.

Some other acronyms that will be relevant to my research include.

• ARIS: Augmented Reality Interactive Storytelling
• CALL: Computer Assisted Language Learning
• CMC: Computer Mediated Communication
• TELL: Technology Enhanced Language Learning
• MALL:: Mobile Assisted Language learning (and language learning in virtual worlds)
• CLIL: Content and Language Integrated Learning

There are so many angles to develop my research. As such, I am excited to continue this journey and am grateful for this class and the ability to collaborate and learn from my peers. This term, we started our Masters process, we were able to learn a bit about everyone’s areas of interest and then engage with each other during some amazing group presentations. My next steps are to contact the University of Alberta to discuss their FrancoPass initiative more and look into some more research to further outline my project goals.

As I hope to create a system called “Mon Passeport Franco” to promote French Language Learning amongst teacher candidates and teachers. Here is the logo, I have created and I am hoping to use as I continue to develop my ideas.

When thinking ahead at design: some key questions that I still have are as follows.

• Is there an app making tool that is better and supports all phone models/ will be easily available on App stores?

or

• Would creating a website and login system using open source potentially be more accessible?

In terms of research, I am really interested in the benefits that technology can have in a French Language learning context.

When working on our group project, I was able to dive into more about what the literature says. It also specifically looked at the benefits of digital badging (which is an area of great interest to me).

A few key aspects that made me choose this article included the context of the research. Firstly, while looking at research articles it is tricky enough to find French Language specific articles. This article, however, conducted its research in Victoria at the University of Victoria. It lacked an elementary context, but the contents of it seemed to be easily translated to the context and Perry (2015), even stated “In regards to education, gamification has seen successful implementation in a range of subject matters, and age groups, from K-12 learners to university level courses.” (p.2310).

I believe that with time and trials that this app Explorez could be effective in elementary grades. Although during the case study only 11 students participated and they were from a first year university French class. The participants described it as “fun”, “useful” “motivating” and “relevant”. Therefore reinforcing that gamification is useful to support French language learning. Some even, shared that the game made it more exciting to learn and helped learning become social and beyond just the walls of the classroom. Something I really liked about this app is that is allows users to be immersed in an environment that then becomes French. In a place where French is not the dominant language, this feature is very beneficial to making learning authentic.

As I dove into understanding this app, I found myself researching it more and trying to download it to try it out. I have emailed the author in hopes to receive an answer to some of my questions. One of my major questions at this time is, the app ARIS (Augmented Reality Interactive Storytelling) that was used to create the game Explorez is no longer available in Canada and therefore wondering what other creation tools exist and if I can access Perry’s work somewhere…. It is quite sad that this game is no longer available and that the work of Perry is no longer accessible, as I see many benefits to this tool .

Here is a video that looks at the app Explorez, more in depth :

This makes me start to think about opportunities for my final project. I may be interested in creating a game or an app. I have never done anything like that but I am open to the idea especially when there seems to be a lack thereof. I think many teachers would use it as long as I share training with them to help support the process.

All in all based on various articles I have viewed, it seems that there is an emphasis on motivation in terms of the game based learning and digital badging. A large portion of the articles, tend to focus on vocabulary acquisition, however the Explorez app seemed to have more meaningful learning environments through social interactions with the completion of quests, which I valued. On another note, some articles focused more on the idea of inclusive practices and technology which helped support personalized learning. Therefore, between these articles it looks like there is potential to explore this topic more in depth and I am looking forward to this process.

References

Perry, B. (2015). Gamifying French Language Learning: A Case Study Examining a Quest-based, Augmented Reality Mobile Learning-tool. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 174, 2308–2315. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.892

I am looking forward to starting my learning journey in the Masters of Educational Technology. We began our journey as a cohort on Tuesday September 12th 2023. This process will be one of curiosity and collaboration that will span over 2 years. I feel as though we have already started to establish a wonderful learning community where we are able to learn and support each other along the way. I think the diversity of the group will help us create some interesting and inclusive research studies.

Since graduating from by Bachelor’s degree, I have always had an interest in technology and therefore completed a Certificate in Communication and Informational Technology. As a result, my interests and curiosity blossomed from there. My current jobs, have also been an asset to gaining experience and finding my passion for research. I believe that research is important as it helps us as educators learn and grow, while understanding why things work. It is one thing to teach and it is another to continue to learn, understand and discover new techniques. As a new teacher, I value that I am constantly learning and collaborating.

My work

I am currently teaching part time Gr 1/2 French Immersion, working for the Digital Scholarship Commons and working on the new French Education Program. These three jobs outline some of my key interests I wish to dive into throughout this program. As of right now, if I were to answer the following question I would have two overlapping themes: Generally speaking I am interested in technology and French Immersion.

What education technology issue, topic, or theme are you most interested in?

Below are some more specific examples of my interest related to these larger topics. As of right now, I am most interested in the benefits of digital badging specifically related to French Immersion programming and language acquisition in Higher Education. Feel free to link to some of my personal digital badges here or outlined on my About Me section of this WordPress.

Some other key elements of interests include

• The benefits of technology related to language support, accessibility and diversity and more generally what are the benefits of technology for French Immersion language learners.

Here is an example of some of the potential of this project based on a new Francopass program at the University of Alberta (I could only find the video in French, so if you are interested feel free to watch with English subtitles).

This idea also goes alongside one of the projects I am currently working on for the Faculty and aligns with a previous article I co-wrote.

See link to an article, I co-wrote with Rich McCue regarding digital badges Makerspace Workshop Badges: Student Perceptions & Uses of Informal Credentialing

Overall throughout this program, I know I will gain new skills and experiences that will help guide my research. I am excited to start this process and eventually share my key findings. Education and Technology is a long term commitment, there is never one method and thus it is a never ending journey that is constantly evolving.