Anthony Brian Gallagher
Meijo University
About
With a focus on the student USER EXPERIENCE over the last ten years have I been researching on improving student learning using virtual learning environments and computer-assisted language learning. With a focus on quality assurance and an aim to help others improve their own teaching and course quality my presentations have always been interactive and explanatory, accessible and effective. This is also how I teach and what I promote others to do, i.e. good teaching practice.Sessions
Show & Tell Presentation Emergency technology implementation: A showcase of emergency remote teaching around Japan more
Sat, Jun 5, 14:45-15:15 Asia/Tokyo
Wrestling with the emergency remote teaching situation of 2020 and the immediate resultant reworking of curriculae, a variety of technology implementation was hastily put into action and the fallout quickly was upon both teachers and students. In the absence of emergency institutional policies or strategies for technological implementations, many institutions supported students as best they could with immediate solutions that were perhaps not pedagogically sound making the delivery of language teaching and learning disjointed and tremendously difficult. With limited apparent time to quality assure technology implementations, many teachers felt incredible stress and anxiety -which was shared by students- and suffered because of this lack of preparedness. In foresight to such possible situations, the Gallagher Technology Decision Matrix was developed then presented in 2019. The GTDM is a pedagogically based decision matrix that can be used to ascertain whether any new technology should be implemented depending on the situation in which the technology will be implemented. This presentation will dissect one such implementation of an online cloud-based video conferencing service implementation (Zoom) combined with 2 Learning Management Systems (1) WebClass and (2) Google Classroom. The presenter will show in detail the benefits and shortcomings of the main implementation by using the 2019 GTD matrix while going further to describe the pedagogical reasoning why good decision-making is highly relevant. Case studies from universities in each area of Japan -Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kanto, Chubu, Shikoku, Chugoku, Kinki, Kyushu, and the Ryukyus- will be showcased to reveal the variety and range of a number of technology implementations currently employed. Clear consideration will be made as to the specifics of how each scenario affected the language learning of students in real terms. The user experience from the perspective of both students and teachers will also highlight important considerations on the current situation and how best to implement the next new technologies as we move forward.