preparing for tutor visits
Globtrotting Aston tutors | Raymond Sheehan | September 14th, 2002
The Arab Gulf region is to have its first (I believe) session of workshops on site, in Abu Dhabi in October. Thanks to Keith, Phil Q and the CPs who kick started the process during the TESOL Arabia Conference last March. Looks like we might have CPs from Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
So (a question to seasoned participants in Aston workshops in lucky places such as Japan, Greece, Potsdam...): what is the best way to get the maximum benefit from an Aston weekend workshop? What preparations can you make as a CP before the event, and what do you make happen at the event itself? Any advice (or even a brief description of a particularly successful event!) welcome...!
Raymond
UAE
Weekend workshops | John Bartrick | September 14th, 2002
When I did the DL module I collected some data on this question, I was able to make some recommendations and then get feedback from the LSU*. I think it's a really big question as the "isolation" factor can be really de-motivating, so it's important CPs are able to make the most of a workshop weekend. The distances you mention sound pretty massive and even within Greece it can take a 7 hr drive or correspondingly more expensive flight to attend a workshop. Hope this is useful.
John
*Editor's note: LSU = "Language Studies Unit", the old name for the division of Aston University our program belongs to (currently known as the EASG, "English Academic Subject Group")
Workshop weekends
The workshops provide contact, friendship and fellow-feeling (Broady). What is your opinion of this statement as it relates to your MSc experience? I think the workshop weekends could be improved in the following ways: (comments please)
• I am pleased with the way they are.
• Perhaps a handout or outline of what will be focused on to help us prepare.
• I think the workshops are valuable enough.
• We could be given a clearer idea about what we would deal with (specific topics, a few references from which we would work.)
• They could cater for various specific modules, not just one at a time.
• I am happy with them. Probably each of us could have more time about discussing his/her assignments.
• The 3 last times Fiona has been to Athens she has talked about either MET or FND. I think we should suggest one of the advanced modules and maybe we can have morning session for let's say MET and an afternoon session for CSD and a Sunday session for something else, instead of this round table.
• I enjoyed the workshop on IIC when we brought in our own data and used this. Perhaps this could be used with other modules as well.
Recommendations:
• Shortly before the workshop CPs will receive a short reading list. CPs will be encouraged to present their own work, or CPs own data can be used as teaching input.
LSU Action:
• The reading list option has been tried and proved unsuccessful, but the use of student's own work and data has featured in a number of visits in the past and has proved popular. In future this will be standard practice.
These meetings are clearly popular with CPs who responded very positively to the question and provided similar responses to those found in the data produced by Broady (1995: 54). Exactly what type of support is being offered, however, is more difficult to pin down. If the workshops do provide contact, friendship and fellow-feeling, then the value of this is to establish participants as part of a community of like-minded people with similar agendas and difficulties. The affective support that is given in this way helps to overcome the feeling of isolation distance learners may otherwise feel.
CPs felt improvements could be made in the teaching input to the workshops. One problem CPs face is that they have limited opportunities for collaboration as they are working on different modules (see also Cowan 1995:17) Likewise participants at the workshop have often covered different ground and finding a focus may prove problematic. It was suggested that a short reading list could be sent to CPs that would create some common ground for discussion.
Furthermore, CPs felt that bringing in their own data or samples of work was a valuable addition to the workshop. This should create opportunities for peer feedback, otherwise largely absent for distance learners, as well as face-to-face tutor feedback. At the same time, the principles of data collection and presentation, a matter at the heart of many of the modules, would receive attention.
Re: Globetrotting Aston tutors | Jerry Talandis Jr. | September 15th, 2002
I found that the best way to prepare for an Aston workshop is to bring an A4 sized paper with whatever you happen to be doing at the moment. You could bring an outline of a potential assignment, a summary of one you've done, or just an interesting question you'd like to discuss. Make enough copies for everyone, and then go around the room giving each person a chance to talk. This is a very interesting process, for you can learn a lot about what other people are doing and get an idea of what a particular module is like. And, since everyone else always seems smarter and more articulate than you, you can benefit from a stimulating environment. For me, it was also a chance to dust off my English speaking skills. I live here in Japan with a very basic 2000 word vocabulary and have gotten used to grading my speech instinctively. Being around a group of smart, articulate people was a total rush. My head was spinning with new words, concepts, and ideas. Have fun!
Jerry
Re: Weekend workshops | Raymond Sheehan | September 16th, 2002
Thank you, John, and Jerry, for those splendidly detailed replies, getting across a lot of the ethos of those workshops as well as some good practical tactics for getting the most out of them. It is, indeed, because they represent precious opportunities, and are exceptions in the loneliness of the life of the DL learner, that we need to be in a state of learner-readiness to extract max benefit from them. The one common thread (actually, there's more than one!) that emerges from John's and Jerry's messages is the importance of CP-provided data/input rather than common reading-list input! I can totally relate to that...that learning from each other in interactive ways, facilitated/steered by the visiting tutor, beats the hell out of 'learning' from the library tomes of published gurus.
One suggestion to add, developing this thread (or maybe it already happens?). How about circulating an agenda of topics to CPs before the workshops, along with email addresses of participants, so that relevant CP work could be exchanged among CPs themselves before the event as well as at it??? I'm all for gut reader-reactions, but a more reflective time-spent response to somebody else's work might have its place too.
Raymond
UAE
PS: Agenda not meaning straitjacket, of course; allowing time for lots of spontaneous exploration/discovery too) Makes me sorry I didn't opt to do the DL Module... role of the distantly situated workshop ... but the MSc program is full of such regrets.
Re: weekend workshops | Jerry Talandis Jr. | September 17th, 2002
Hello Raymond,
Your idea of emailing CPs before the workshop begins is a good one, but I see it as making work for somebody. Someone would have to collect and circulate the agenda. Is this possible in your situation? Perhaps, if we had a "Forum" style website, a special topic could be created for an up and coming workshop. People interested in coming could begin communicating about what they and others are doing. Anyway, more communication can't be a bad thing.
Good luck with it!
Jerry
Re: weekend workshops | Raymond Sheehan | September 17th, 2002
Yes, the Agenda would be quite a bit of work, but I envisaged the Aston tutor doing it (!!!) on the basis of receiving responses to his/her invitation to CPs to express preferences about what they'd like to see covered in the workshop.
And I really liked the idea 'of a "Forum" style website, a special topic could be created for an up and coming workshop.' Could this be an interesting way for Phil to extend his site??? Or for a DL CP to develop as a project? So even those who can't go to workshops at least have the benefit of 'virtual' workshops.
with 
and 
