Episode 154 Fostering Student Engagement & Reflection in Spanish Language Learning Part 2

Welcome to Digication Scholars Conversations. I'm your host, Kelly Driscoll. In this episode, you'll hear part two of my conversation with Matthew Street, Senior Lecturer in Spanish at the University of Virginia. More links and information about today's conversation can be found on Digication's Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Full episodes of Digication Scholars Conversations can be found on YouTube. Or your favorite podcast app.

I wanted to talk a little bit, I know we mentioned at the beginning of the conversation that you've been doing more work around open educational resources as well, and I would love for you to share. You know, why that's something that's important to you, how it, how you may be developing these things for your own courses, or maybe even other faculty members that are within your program. I would love to learn more about what you're doing in that area too.

Yeah, so. Um, the Open Educational Resources has this been a big emphasis for, for a while, but at UVA for a couple of years now, there's been a big emphasis in some, some support in the term of stipends and stuff to, to create you to create your own resources.

And, you know, it makes a lot of sense because the textbooks and the programs and curricula has grown gotten so expensive, you know, when we were using like a mainstream publisher and they were coming out with a book every two or three years and the book in the online platform is over 300 dollars. I mean, that's, that's, that's a hell of an amount of money to, to pay in addition to your, Super-high tuition.

So for, from an accessibility standpoint, it makes sense from the cost aspect and also from an equity standpoint for, um, the coverage of different minority groups and, and, uh, equality aspects all around. And you're free to, to explain things that, that, that maybe may not be presented in. That more nuanced terms that aren't necessarily in the, the, the dictionaries, the Spanish dictionaries yet, but are definitely in the, definitely in the, the main, the discourse around.

And so there's some of the incentives to create open educational resources. And we've been working to create, it's, we kind of took a big undertaking to create open educational resources for three different courses, which is a lot of information. So, you know, we're, I'm slowly working on the one for accelerated beginning Spanish and some of my colleagues like Kate Neff and, um, and, and. Esperanza Goriz, they're working on developing one for Spanish 2010.

And so, you know, over time, we're going to start using these. I'm actually going to use a couple of pages from the one that I'm developing and I'm developing it. It right into Canvas.

So we're using things like H5P, which is, do you know what H5P is? Right? Like an interactive, it's an interactive sort of like, like the home, like a Duolingo sort of thing where you can drag and drop, fill in the blank. You can speak in there. It's these little activities that link to the grade book in the, in the LMS. So we're creating activities doing the H5P activities and then creating our own content or adapting content that always are is already out there from other creators of OER.

And yeah, so, you know, the, the copyright stuff is something I'm not well versed in. Um, but you know, we have the permission to use certain things if it's a certain different. A certain copyright. Yeah, so we're still kind of learning as we go with this. Um, yes. So, but what I'm creating, you know, the whole focus of, of mine, like a portfolio is just, it's integrated one to one with, with what I'm creating.

It's like the students are going to be, they're going to be putting this somewhere, their work somewhere to show it. Yeah, so I'm definitely thinking about mine through the lens of the, the work will be disseminated or the create the, the open ended stuff will be done on an ePortfolio. Oh, I'm so excited to see where that may go.

And I'm also interested, you mentioned earlier your use of some of the instruction areas. within Digication to kind of scaffold the creation process for your students. Do you ever, um, link to or embed or use that instruction area to provide resources like this in your teaching? So kind of using it as a tool to provide resources or content to the students that then they could respond to within those? Kind of corresponding pages.

So like, um, like some of the, like the H5P activities and things like that. Mm-Hmm. Yeah. So I've tried to embed H5P on Digication and I don't think it works yet. Okay. I don't, I don't think you can yet. Um, at least the last time I tried, you could not embed it in, in Digication. May, maybe, maybe that's something that, that, that's coming. Or maybe you can do it now. But we do provide our own content for some activities.

Yes, like for our open ended summative activities, those are things that don't correspond with the textbook. We create them 100%. The concept map activity created 100%. The monologue prompts, those are created. You know, the reflection prompts and, and some, and then with the first iteration of the Portfolio that we used, uh, We created all of the open ended projects there too. They were not, um, because the book that we were using at the time was not a project-based book.

We're using a program now called Contraseña – by Lingro Learning - and it is project based. So we adapt some of their projects and put them on Digication, and they know that we're doing that, and the students can respond to those activities. Multimodal ways on the, on the Portfolio. Nice. Nice. Yeah. What, what does that look like? Are they kind of text prompts or their videos that they watch? A bit of everything, right?

So there's text, the main, the main driver is text for instructions for sure, but there could be, there could be video examples. Like I'm thinking of the conversation prompts for the Spanish, um, the summer Spanish course. Yeah. So it's, you know, me doing a conversation. Um, this shows what the ideal one would look like. And it also shows, you know, maybe it's a tutorial linked, you know, I've made tons of tutorials for Digication. So it could be, here's a quick tutorial on how to whatever.

So it could be embedded YouTube videos. It could be if they need to see particular guidelines or rubrics, it could be either in, I love how Digication has, where you can put like a little, tiny little window of the. The file. Mm-Hmm. . So it could be something like that or a hyperlink, you know, that links out Mm-Hmm. to another, like a, a another PDF or Word file. So we do aloo... of a variety of those at, at some.

It would be really cool to have an option to do some H5P stuff within Digication. Yeah. I have to look into that. Yeah. And it, it may exist now. I know I tried it, um, uh, maybe, um, last summer, not this summer. But the one before that, yeah. And it wasn't, it wasn't working then, which is, it's okay.

Yeah. We are just always really fascinated and interested in, you know, other kinds of technologies that, um, you know, the people are using our platform are using too, in ways that they can become integrated. So I'm glad that that got mentioned. So I'll have to, um, share that with my team and, and see what might be possible there.

Um, So thank you so much also for just kind of sharing that because I, I think in many ways, there's, you know, passionate educators like yourself that have gotten, you know, really engaged with the ways that this technology can be used within their courses. So not only as. A place for the students to be able to kind of make their learning visible and see their growth and development over time.

Um, but really, as this kind of teaching tool that creates a kind of bridge from what you're offering to them. in person in the classroom and something that they can kind of interact with within their own time as well. So it's kind of serving as this place for them to be able to to learn from you and also respond to that.

Um, And then get feedback from you along the way in a way that I think is, is, you know, different than what a lot of learning management systems are offering, just because they're organized around the course specifically, and this is kind of organized around the individual. So you can kind of serve out these things. Are you putting them into a template that they're using throughout the course? Or do they just kind of go from scratch?

Yeah. So I, I provide the students with a template for their Spanish portfolios as well as their unprofessional portfolios. However. Um, one of the, one of the guys that was on the team, that's also been using portfolios for a long time here. So, um, he's in the French department. He's also, he's also, um, he's also a lecturer or, or teaching professor. His name is Spiros Spiridon. Have you, have you ever heard of him? No, I have not spoken to him. Yeah. So, yeah, so he.

He, he does very creative things with portfolio and he, he piloted a professional portfolio sort of thing where the students could create their own. Like he just, he just told them you use whatever source site that you want to do. And some students used Digication, some students use Wix, you know, some students use whatever. And so that was interesting.

But since Since my class is not, it's mainly like first year students or second year students, and then there's also other sections going at the same time. It's good for us to have like a Digication template. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Kind of streamline things. And are there multiple sections of your course too? There's multiple sections of my course, and then there's sections that other lecturers teach as well.

And, and, you know, in the, the, the different level of, Digication buy in from, you know, varies from lecturer to lecturer. So you got to kind of give it to them on a platter in some ways, you know, cause it's just such a valuable tool for the students, you know, it's like, that's one of the things that I've seen that we're teaching. We have to remind ourselves that we're teaching college students, not high school students.

And the big thing about the Portfolio is the Ownership and the autonomy that comes with it, even if it's not explicitly stated that the students don't explicitly know that they own this work, you can tell that they get that by the end. And that's something that makes them more, more responsible and active learners when they're When it's their work that they're sharing with the professor, it's not, it's not something that I own. They're giving me permission to look at it.

And so that sort of switch is, I think, a big deciding or differentiating factor between like teaching high schoolers versus teaching at the university level. Yeah. And you can tell when you look at the You know, pages and projects that they put together that they're incredibly proud of the work that they've done. And there's a great number of students that have opted to share those Portfolios publicly.

Um, where people can go in and, and see this incredible progress that they've made and really listen to the student. View their reflections and, and get to know them and why this course was, you know, impactful and where they hope to take this, you know, language in the future. Um, so it's always exciting to see, you know, when they do understand that kind of ownership, you know, how openly they would like to, to be able to, to share it.

And very often I find, you know, we see many, many examples of those students that are. Creating these more kind of crafted, professional oriented portfolios that they want to share outside.

But more and more students are wanting to really share, you know, this was something that, you know, may not be as polished as something that I'd be developing for my career, but it's really providing evidence of how much I was able to evolve and how much I was able to learn over really a relatively short amount of time. Yeah. Yeah. And, and I agree.

Yeah. And I, um, this was years ago, but when I did the university of Virginia study abroad in Costa Rica, I had the students create Portfolios for that because it's like, you're documenting this any way it's going on Instagram and Facebook. You're going to sit down with your grandma and show her all these pictures.

Why not have this learning tool at the same time where you're also is a place where you can dump your pictures and stuff, but also you can tell a story about your evolution of your journey in this other country for six weeks. Yeah. It's yeah. And I, I agree. I think the students that have really seen the, the effects of the professional portfolio. Just really take it to the next level.

They really kind of see themselves branching out as these critical thinkers and they identify the ways in which their thinking has evolved and, and how not just one class, but the totality of their learning has contributed and engendered this kind of new curiosity to, to, to want to, to want to put their best foot forward and show that they're their own person. And the portfolio is a great tool for that.

Yeah. And I love to see even, you know, in some of the beginning stages, how they're, you know, really tying in what they're learning in your course to other elements of who they are and, you know, what may be their core area of study, if it's not foreign language and how they're kind of making those connections from your course to other kinds of learning experiences that they have had or that they're planning for at the same time. Um, so thank you for sharing that. And, um, I wanted to.

Kind of, um, circle back to some of the points you made earlier about, um, for our listeners to hear why you think some of this active learning and project based learning is so critical for students in Higher Ed, um, as they're preparing for futures beyond college. Yeah, well that, that, that is a great question.

So, you know, I shared this with my students that I heard, um, on a news show the last semester that several countries have installed government positions like for, to deal with loneliness in their countries. Like, like there's like the Czar of Loneliness for, for a couple of countries. And so, um, So the, the, the active feature of being able to get out of your comfort zone and make these, these personal connections in this space is. is something that we need to be actively focusing on, right?

It seems like, oh, that's a no brainer, but no, you actually do need to encourage students to talk to the person next to them, because if not, they're, most of them are not going to. So I think, I think that, I think that's important. And I also think in kind of sharing the rationale with students about how important it is to be able to talk about concepts. In an elevated way is part of developing this critical thinking aspect as well.

When, you know, I remind my students that your students at the university of Virginia, you should be able to stand up and tell me about the present progressive right now. And, and, and it doesn't have to be all right. You can stumble over your words, but these are things you should be able to do. So we're going to work on practicing those things. So I think giving them opportunities to.

To kind of express their learning as they're kind of working toward mastery helps them to be able to teach each other in the active learning spaces. And when they're sitting across from each other, it's easy to, to, for me to ask for help, it's easier to ask for help and offer to help others. And when the students, the students that have the most success are the ones that say, I was really impressed with the fact that I was able to teach and help others. And that really helped me.

And I think that makes people. Really active in their own learning. And that's what you have to do. You have to always be doing the next thing instead of waiting for the next instruction. Right. And so I think some of this emphasis on creating with the language, getting out of your comfort zone, interacting, offering to help people, asking for help when needed, are, are very important aspects that could help in all realms of life. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And kind of.

Building off of that point, you know, how do you see this as something that may contribute to, you know, this kind of understanding of each other and, and sharing their stories? You mentioned kind of asking for help or, um, offering help may contribute to, you know, a deeper desire to understand.

People from other cultures, even if you may not yet speak the language, you know, getting being comfortable kind of seeking things out from people that that are may not be like you, but may be able to, or you may not initially think are like you, but finding that, kind of common ground. Yeah. Well, I think students, students, they, they often, yeah, they have to be reminded of this, but they almost every student has interacted with someone that doesn't speak English very well.

And so reminding the students that that person engaged you in conversation and while, while you understood them. So now you're that person. Right. That's you now, right? And so when they kind of see it in that way, I think it enables them to, to, to understand that, Hey, you know, at the end of the day, even if I say all of the wrong things, it doesn't really matter. It's just, I'm, I'm trying and, you know, continue, continue to try, I guess, in linguistics, it's called your affective filter.

You know, how self conscious you are to say certain things, you know, that you're not that good at yet. Um, but, you know, students work towards that, but yeah, I, I, I'm just a huge fan of just students, act... Students engaging with other students in a collaborative way. I feel like that has promoted the most success.

And, you know, bringing it back to the Portfolio and the Portfolio also contributes to this, even outside of the classroom, you know, for, for the, for I always go back to the concept map activity or students getting started on the final projects. If I don't know, or maybe I've been dragging my feet or, you know, maybe I've been partying too much, or maybe this could maybe have too much stuff going on. I just couldn't get to it.

If I, I know I can go log on to, and look at, see what Kelly's done so far and get an idea of, okay, so this is the standard. So let me see what if I can get right. Or this is some, she has some things like this. Oh, that's a good idea. You know? So I think even outside of the class, the virtual community that's provided by the. It's not something you're going to get on Canvas. Like, I just did a whole master's program on Canvas at the University of Virginia.

And every time they would ask us to go back and comment on something someone else said, it took 30 minutes to find it. You know, it's like, you don't have that issue with Digication. It's like, I know exactly where it is, what I'm looking for.

Yeah, yeah, I know that's a little all over the place, but no, but I, I think it's a good point because you know, when you are in this kind of setting, creating that community and level of comfort with one another to kind of break down the barriers of, um, You know, feeling, you know, feeling uncomfortable, but being able to engage with other people that are also in that kind of similar uncomfortable space, you know, maybe at different

levels, um, you know, it's something that, you know, it, it can be scary and sometimes people have to kind of bravely. Seek out what expectations are. And I imagine that, you know, once they start looking to see what other people in the class are doing, that they're naturally kind of connecting with some of those people when they're in the course, too.

Or maybe continually going back to look at some of the same students, kind of, work because they've seen it as an exemplar and something that they want to, you know, a level that they would like to be able to reach. Um, and I do think that, you know, because it's oriented around the individual, it's easier for students to be able to, to find each other. And get inspired by one another.

Um, you know, even within a learning management system, if you're able to kind of dig down into an assignment and see that it's something that someone submitted, it's not connected to a body of work that, that they've done. So you may be able to access an individual document, but you wouldn't be able to kind of go through and click and browse and learn about that person and see other things that they've done.

And, you know, they kind of become these launch points to learning other aspects of who the individuals are that are that are in their course, I think, in a different way. So I, maybe I also spoke about it in a roundabout way, but I completely understand what you're saying, and it's an intentional part of what we created. Right? Um, you know, when we were teaching, we wanted that kind of, um, motivation that happens when you can see the success of other students.

You know, it creates a, it lights a fire under you and helps you kind of have a vision for what you might grow into also. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. So, um, I know we're getting close to the end of our time today. Um, but I did want to just kind of touch quickly on, so we were talking a little bit about students being able to, you know, share their stories with one another.

And I was curious if you've. experienced students sharing some things that maybe you hadn't anticipated and if, you know, how other students in the course may have responded, um. You know, you touched a little bit on students kind of maybe feeling some more empathy towards each other because they were finding themselves in, in similar kinds of places, but do you have something like that, that you might share? So there's always students that, that take assignments to the next level, right?

That, that, and so like, we're talking of exceptional examples and the professional portfolio is, is one of those where I give them a pretty basic template, you know, and encourage them to, to definitely make it their own again, as their professional template. And so students have taken, take a few students over the couple of years that I've done this, have taken this to another level, right? So they've added other pages and just read.

Information in a more efficient and concise way that I've then, then adapted that into the template, right? Cause these are just exceptional ideas. Students also surprised me with the concept map activities, you know, like I give them some examples and most students either follow those sorts of examples, but you know, students will take the final project to the next, to the next level, or with topics that, I never really thought about before, you know, I give them a bunch of suggested topics.

I remember one very vividly a couple of semesters ago, a student, a student did a project on what happens to the clothes that don't sell in the world. Like where do these clothes go? Apparently they go someplace like in Chile or Columbia or something like that. There's just like this huge kind of mountain of just brand new clothes. Yeah. Yeah. And so I was like, wow, this is just such a creative, a creative topic.

I haven't had very many situations where students do any, any sort of things that, you know, maybe share something too personal or something like that on a portfolio that, um. You know, but students, students regularly, regularly comment that their portfolios, looking at other people's work on the Portfolio was a main, a main source of to gather information? Sure. But also to know where they, how they need it to perform.

So it kind of makes it like this, you have to put your best foot forward because all these other students are too. And, and you know, if you're not right, if you get a grade, if you get a C and, you know, I often tell students, if they ask like, why did I score so low? I'm like, well, why don't you go look at X, Y, and Z's portfolios and you can see. You can see where, and I'll, I always let students resubmit. That's something that I always do.

Like if I, if you're going to engage more with the material, I'll change your grade. Yeah, sure. Yeah, go do it. Yeah. So, you know, it's good for students to look at other students work, but also it kind of engenders this kind of competition in the class and yeah, and students just bond because, you know, they know they got to get through it. Yeah. Wonderful.

Well, Matthew, thank you again so much for joining me today. It was wonderful to have this opportunity to speak to you and I'm very excited to be able to share your, your stories and experience with, with our listeners. Thank you so much, Kelly. It's been an honor to, to chat with you. I'm very excited. So thanks. Absolutely. Take good care. Alright. Bye. Bye.

Coming up next, we'll be chatting with Kate Sonka, Executive Director of TeachAccess. Here is a quick preview. Everybody should know a little bit. Um, so one of the phrases that we like to use a lot is we are about breadth more than depth. Um, and you, you kind of hinted at this in a few different ways. Um, but this idea that we're really trying to get a lot of people to know at least a little bit. Um, of course that doesn't mean that it will take care of all the accessibility needs.