but the threat they bring to artistic culture. From his opening mockery of the literary establishment’s tendency to theorize the world in terms of desire or gender to his disapproval of those who venerate art while denying its validity in the same breath, Jonathan Dollimore has created an easily understood, albeit at times too theoretical, synthesis of the literary and the experiential in Sex, Literature and Censorship. His arguments on critical theory do not necessarily reject the concept of theory; rather, he argues that critical theorists should strive to understand the contradictions within our lives and our literature and explore the daemonic power of the subjects that offend our sense of tradition.

Multimodal Discourse: The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication:

The purpose of this research was to explore teaching and learning when mobile computing devices, such as cellphones and smartphones, were implemented in higher education. This paper presents a portion of the findings on students' perceptions of learning with mobile computing devices and the roles social media played. This qualitative research study focused on students from three universities across the US. The students' teachers had been integrating mobile computing devices, such as cellphones and smartphones, into their courses for at least two semesters. Data were collected through student focus group interviews. Two specific themes emerged from the interview data: (a) advantages of mobile computing devices for student learning and (b) frustrations from learning with mobile computing devices. Mobile computing devices and the use of social media created opportunities for interaction, provided opportunities for collaboration, as well as allowed students to engage in content creation and communication using social media and Web 2.0 tools with the assistance of constant connectivity.

Mobile computing devices in higher education: Student perspectives on learning with cellphones, smartphones & social media

/pdf/online-communities-designing-usability-supporting-1rx78h3t04.pdf

Online communities – Designing Usability, Supporting Sociability

Mobile devices such as laptops, personal digital assistants, and mobile phones have become a learning tool with great potential in both classrooms and outdoor learning. Although there have been qualitative analyses of the use of mobile devices in education, systematic quantitative analyses of the effects of mobile-integrated education are lacking. This study performed a meta-analysis and research synthesis of the effects of integrated mobile devices in teaching and learning, in which 110 experimental and quasiexperimental journal articles published during the period 1993-2013 were coded and analyzed. Overall, there was a moderate mean effect size of 0.523 for the application of mobile devices to education. The effect sizes of moderator variables were analyzed and the advantages and disadvantages of mobile learning in different levels of moderator variables were synthesized based on content analyses of individual studies. The results of this study and their implications for both research and practice are discussed. This is a meta-analysis and research synthesis study for mobile-integrated education.110 published journal articles that were written over a 20-year period were coded and analyzed.The application of mobile devices to education has a moderate mean effect size.The effect sizes of moderator variables were analyzed.The benefits and drawbacks of mobile learning were synthesized.

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The effects of integrating mobile devices with teaching and learning on students' learning performance

Language and the Internet

Mobile learning is undergoing rapid evolution. While early generations of mobile learning tended to propose activities that were carefully crafted by educators and technologists, learners are increasingly motivated by their personal learning needs, including those arising from greater mobility and frequent travel. At the same time, it is often argued that mobile devices are particularly suited to supporting social contacts and collaborative learning-claims that have obvious relevance for language learning. A review of publications reporting mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) was undertaken to discover how far mobile devices are being used to support social contact and collaborative learning. In particular, we were interested in speaking and listening practice and in the possibilities for both synchronous and asynchronous interaction in the context of online and distance learning. We reflect on how mobile language learning has developed to date and suggest directions for the future.

/pdf/an-overview-of-mobile-assisted-language-learning-from-29mg2d47i7.pdf

An overview of mobile assisted language learning: From content delivery to supported collaboration and interaction

The Open University (OU) is UK's largest modern foreign language learning provider with a current enrolment of approximetely 8000 students, all of whom study individually at home, at a distance from each other and their tutors. However, while most OU students work with trditional course material such as books, video- and audio-cassettes and face-to-face tutorials, research at the centre for Modern Languages (CML) has also investigated alternative methods in order to account for those learners who might be unable to attend face-to-face tutorials. The study described in this paper outlines work in progress that is part of a larger, long-term project seeking to establish a framework for the use of networking technologies in distance language learning with a particular emphasis onl the ldevelopment of scenarios – that is task design and learning environments – which will enable participants to improve their spoken and communication skills in the target language.

Real-time audio and email for fluency: promoting distance language learners' aural and oral skills via the Internet

Crystal (2001: 47–48) has suggested the [text-based] language of the internet, including MOO (Multi-User Domain Object Oriented)-discourse, is “a new species of communication” that is “more than an aggregate of spoken and written features”. Since some researchers and teachers (e.g., Chun, 1998) believe learners’ spoken performance in L2 (the target language) to have been enhanced by using synchronous text interaction, we have been engaged in analysing and describing MOO-discourse corpora according to “written” versus “oral” linguistic indicators in an attempt to address the question as to whether MOO can really be considered an appropriate rehearsal arena for face-to-face interaction. As reported elsewhere (Weininger & Shield, 2001), our analysis of NS (native speaker) MOO-discourse has suggested that while this may be classified as 'written speech', the discourse model advanced by Koch and Oesterreicher (1994), which places MOO-discourse towards the 'proximate' end of a continuum ranging from language of...

Promoting oral production in a written channel: an investigation of learner language in MOO

This paper explores the usability of e-learning websites, with particular reference to foreign language learning. Notions and concepts of usability are analyzed, and a definition of 'pedagogical usability' is proposed. The key issue is whether there are aspects of pedagogical usability that are discipline-specific. The paper examines the way in which language learning and teaching, in particular Technology Enhanced Language Learning (TELL), has approached usability as an area worthy of consideration when developing technology-enhanced learning materials. We propose three elements of a research agenda that should be taken forward - pedagogical usability, intercultural usability and website evaluation - to generate a more complete picture of what constitutes usability in language learning websites.

https://telearn.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00190340/document

Usability and Pedagogical Design: are Language Learning Websites Special?

With the intention of defining an initial research agenda for discipline-specific factors in the usability of e-learning websites, this paper focuses on the example of foreign language learning First, general notions and concepts of usability are analyzed, and the term 'pedagogical usability' is proposed as a means of focusing on the close relationship between usability and pedagogical design Then, to address the key issue of whether there are aspects of pedagogical usability that are discipline-specific, the paper examines how language learning and teaching, in particular Technology Enhanced Language Learning (TELL), has approached usability when developing technology-enhanced learning materials Three elements of a research agenda are identified: pedagogical usability, intercultural usability and website evaluation In conclusion, it is suggested that just as language learning websites may require a discipline-specific approach, so in other disciplines pedagogical usability may also need to be considered in relation to the specific requirements of the discipline, and that a debate around these issues is timely

/pdf/are-language-learning-websites-special-towards-a-research-139nowqqkw.pdf

Lesley Shield

Papers

An overview of mobile assisted language learning: From content delivery to supported collaboration and interaction

Real-time audio and email for fluency: promoting distance language learners' aural and oral skills via the Internet

Promoting oral production in a written channel: an investigation of learner language in MOO

Usability and Pedagogical Design: are Language Learning Websites Special?

Are Language learning websites special? Towards a research agenda for discipline-specific usability