Task Design

In this study, we investigated design processes in teacher collectives, which have been made possible by new ‘‘digital’’ opportunities: platforms, discussion lists, etc. The object of our study is the French Se ́samath teacher association and its design of a grade 10 e-textbook, more precisely the design of the ‘‘functions’’ chapter. We analysed it with two theoretical lenses: the documentational approach and cultural-historical activity the- ory. We studied the activity system of a community of teachers designing an e-textbook. At macro-level, we observed a change of objects of the activities: from designing a ‘‘toolkit’’ for mathematics teachers; to interactive exercises; and finally to a more ‘‘classical e-textbook’’. At micro-level, we analysed the development of collective documents by the community, combining resources and schemes.

This TILA report addresses issues of task design and pedagogic implementation for intercultural telecollaboration exchanges between secondary school pupils from different countries. It is based on case studies of three telecollaboration scenarios: tandem conversations in 3D world environments in OpenSim, lingua franca conversations in 3D world environments in OpenSim, and lingua franca conversations in a multimodal environment combining video communication in BigBlueButton with chat and forum in Moodle. These scenarios are distinguished by relevant task design features including topic selection, blended learning task ensemble, tandem and lingua franca constellations, telecollaboration tools and communication modes, and physical locations. Pupils’ performance data, feedback comments from teachers and pupils as well as participant observations provide insights into the workings of these task design features and their affordances for intercultural communication practice:
Topics that enable pupils to talk about their own experiences, likes and dislikes, and opinions are generally well suited to foster authentic communication. Worksheets or posters with guiding questions, keywords or controversial statements help stimulate the interaction. Pupils should also be encouraged to discuss topics that come up spontaneously.
Telecollaboration exchanges require embedding in blended learning ensembles. In a preparatory phase, teachers need to make sure that their pupils are sufficiently familiar with the tools to be used. As regards the conversation topics, an evenly balanced preparation on both sides is of key importance. In a follow-up phase (in class or in a forum), pupils should be guided to reflect on their telecollaboration experience with the aim of raising awareness for the challenges of intercultural interaction, fostering openness and curiosity, and critically revising one’s own attitudes. Learning diaries and portfolios help them become more autonomous in both intercultural communication and learning; they help teachers improve pedagogic assessment and feedback.
Tandem constellations are in line with a general preference in foreign language teaching for communication with naive speakers. Challenges were observed regarding organisation of matching school classes, helping pupils to act as native speaker experts, and switching between the two languages involved. It seems advisable to adopt the “one session, one language” principle at least in the initial stages of pupils’ tandem telecollaboration experience. Lingua franca constellations, on the other hand, can be highly motivating since they offer authentic communication on an equal footing. Pupils seem to feel more confident and less worried to make mistakes; focus is on getting the message across.
The telecollaboration tools available in TILA support all communication modes relevant for intercultural foreign language communication. As regards intercultural communicative competence development, oral communication seems to be particularly strong and attractive particularly because of its positive effects on pupils’ fluency and confidence. It should be emphasized, however, that the various communication tools and modes have their respective strengths and pedagogic values. A multimodal approach, including telecollaboration from home, thus seems to be best suited for serving the full range of intercultural communicative skills required as well as for coping with adverse conditions in schools’ computer labs for spoken interactions.
The pedagogic affordances offered by telecollaboration exchanges open up new ways for intercultural foreign language learning beyond the limitations of the physical classroom. For pedagogically sustainable solutions, however, it is essential to make telecollaboration part of the regular curriculum. At the same time, teachers should be aware of the scaffolding needs of weaker and intrinsically less motivated pupils as well as of their own needs for continuous professional development.

Whereas movement-based STEM learning activities garner increasing interest among designers, researchers, and policy makers, much remains unknown regarding parameters of movement-based activity design affecting learning quality. One such parameter is task-initiation, namely the questions of who decides what should be accomplished with the resources—the designer or the student—and how movement-based STEM learning programs accommodate student choice during task-initiation. In this theoretical paper, we draw on an embodied design theoretical framework to lay out the issue of task-initiation by presenting and comparing two movement-based STEM programs. In both activities, students first perform a task and then model their performance as instantiating STEM concepts, but the programs differ with respect to task-initiation. In one program, the Mathematics Imagery Trainer for Proportion, students learn to perform pre-determined motor-control tasks by developing new perceptuomotor coordinations for enacting goal movements. In another program, Playground Physics, students use real playground equipment, such as a swing, and virtual playground play performances in the app to determine their own task, such as swinging as high as possible. As such, task-initiation design considerations are tightly related to designers’ overall rationales that, in turn, emanate from assumptions concerning, for example, the epistemic constitution of STEM content, the affective allure of STEM practice, manifestations of agency in STEM problem solving, and other contextual details, such as logistical, architectural, institutional, and curricular constraints governing student and teacher experience.