Digital Teaching and Learning - Perspectives for English Language Education

Christiane Lütge / Thorsten Merse

Digital Teaching and Learning: Perspectives for English Language Education

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Christiane Lütgeis Professor at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich (LMU), where she holds the Chair of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). Her areas of expertise in research and teaching include digital literacy and literary learning as well as global citizenship education in EFL. For several years, Christiane Lütge worked as a teacher of English and History.

Thorsten Merseis a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the field of TEFL at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich (LMU). In his research and teaching, he engages with digital education and teachers’ digital competences, cultural and literary learning in ELT, as well as citizenship concepts in TEFL. Thorsten Merse speaks at national and international conferences and is involved in several teacher education projects.

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ISSN 0941-8105

ISBN 978-3-8233-8244-7 (Print)

ISBN 978-3-8233-0209-4 (ePub)

Christiane Lütge and Thorsten Merse

“We need to make better use of technology to make our education systems more innovative, relevant and prepared for the digital age.”

Mariya Gabriel, EU Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth; interview statement, 10 February 2020

Source: https://www.themayor.eu/de/eu-commissioner-mariya-gabriel-the-future-of-europe-is-everyones-future

“In countries where […] we expect free Wi-Fi with our coffee, why shouldn’t we have it in our schools? Right? Why wouldn’t we have it available for our children’s education?”

Barack Obama, 44 thPresident of the United States, extract from a speech delivered at Mooresville Middle School, North Carolina, 6 June 2013

Source: https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2013/06/06/remarks-president-mooresville-middle-school-mooresville-nc

“[Today’s students] can’t remember the time they were not wi-fi connected. They don’t distinguish between talking to their friends face-to-face or talking on-line, doing schoolwork in class or a coffee shop or from home. Students today don’t learn how to use technology; they use technology to learn.”

Albena Spasova, CEE Multi-Country Education Lead at Microsoft; interview statement, 22 July 2020

Source: https://news.microsoft.com/en-cee/2020/07/22/albena-spasova-students-today-dont-learn-how-to-use-technology-they-use-technology-to-learn/

“As educators we need to adapt to a rapidly changing world immersed in technology. But adapting involves much more than just purchasing the latest application and getting students to use it. […] how can we integrate particular technologies in a pedagogically sound way?”

Sophia Mavridi, Coordinator of the Special Interest Group “Learning Technologies” (LT SIG) by the International Associaton of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL)

Source: https://ltsig.iatefl.org/welcome/welcome/

“Mich macht es wahnsinnig stolz auf meine Kolleg*innen und Lehrkräfte, dass jetzt diese positive Dynamik entstanden ist und diese digitale ‘Mood’, dieses Wollen und Machen, dass man aus dieser Krise etwas herausfindet, was einen wirklich weiterbringt.”

Englischlehrerin Nina Toller (@ninatoller, Twitter) via “Marktplatzplauderei”, a Podcast by lehrermarktplatz.de; episode #6 “Homeschooling Special”, 6 April 2020

Source: https://marktplatzplauderei.podigee.io/page/3

digital education: points of entryAll of the statements collected here are united by the joint concern of bringing digital innovations to education in pedagogically meaningful ways. They work together to construct a multi-faceted dialogue on the challenges and potentials of digital education, ranging from the perspectives of political decision-making to the very concrete experience of skilled English teachers. Also, they provide insights into a process that is – above everything else – characterized by its dynamic features. Up and down this interrelated chain, an exciting field of professional development and reflection opens up that has teachers and educational stakeholders engage with the topics and concerns encapsulated in the statements above:

Has the everydayness of living in digital environments – or of enjoying free Wi-Fi with one’s coffee – also turned into an everydayness of schools having access to digital technologies and to good connectivity as a pathway into the digital world? Certainly, the availability of digital technology in schools and classrooms is a prerequisite of digital education – and a challenge that teachers cannot solve on their own as they are relying on concrete implementations issued by educational politics.

What do the promises of digital education hold in store to make 21st century teaching and learning more relevant and innovative – and geared towards the digital age? Here, the critical challenge is not to use digital technologies for digital technologies’ sake – but to employ and adjust technology in ways that are conducive to learning within and beyond a specific school subject.

How can teachers be prepared for taking up the new dynamics of digital education and embracing ‘the digital mood’ of our times – be it in exceptional situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic requiring complete digital turns for schooling, or be it as a broader professional trajectory of digitalizing education? While this should not entail a manic and uncritically enthusiastic race to ever-new digital trends, it does call upon teachers to keep their fingers on the pulse of digital developments as part of their continuous professional growth. Only then can they make informed decisions about which ‘digital trends’ do make sense in the teaching and learning opportunities they implement every day.

Against the background of these considerations, it should have become clear that the turn towards ‘the digital’ is no longer an exotic add-on to education that teachers can either embrace or avoid. It has become a quintessential component of education today – and hence of teachers’ professional lives. Yet while it is easy to claim at large that digitalization is here to stay, what must follow are concrete and productive transfers that connect digital developments with the specific demands and typical features of subjects as they are taught at schools. The purpose of this edited volume is to offer this necessary specificity for English language education, and to show how the digital turn can change and update this subject if it is in the hands of skilled English teachers.