INFORMATION GAP TASKS: Their Multiple Roles and Contributions to Interaction Research Methodology

This article describes how information gap tasks can be designed as instruments for data collection and analysis and as treatments in interaction research. The development of such tasks is illustrated and data are presented on their role in drawing learners\u27 attention to second language (L2) forms that are difficult to notice through classroom discussion alone. Because the tasks presented here are closed-ended and precision oriented and require the exchange of uniquely held information, they promote modified interaction among participants and orient their attention to form, function, and meaning. These processes can be observed by the researcher during task implementation. Thus, the tasks reduce researcher dependence on externally applied treatments and analytical instruments not integral to the interaction itself. To illustrate this methodology in use, we report on a study in which six pairs of intermediate-level English L2 learners carried out three types of information gap tasks in their classrooms. They first read passages on familiar topics, whose sentences contained L2 forms that were low in salience and difficult to master but developmentally appropriate. To complete the tasks, the learners were required to identify, recall, and compare the forms, their functions, and their meanings. Data revealed close relationships among learners\u27 attentional processes, their recall of form, function, and meaning, and the interactional processes that supported their efforts

The Role of Pedagogical Mentoring in Virtual Exchange

[EN] Virtual exchange, or telecollaboration, is a well-known pedagogical approach in foreign language education that involves engaging classes in online intercultural collaboration projects with international partners as an integrated part of their educational programmes. This article focuses on the role of the teacher as pedagogical mentor in virtual exchange and examines the impact of the strategies and techniques that teachers use in their classes to support students’ learning during their online intercultural projects. The article begins with a proposed categorization of pedagogical mentoring reported in the literature to date. It then reports on the outcomes of a virtual exchange project carried out by three classes of initial English teacher education in Israel, Spain, and Sweden that involved two types of pedagogical mentoring. Qualitative content analysis enabled the identification of the impact of mentoring that took place before the exchange and also revealed insights into what students learned when their own online interactions were integrated into class work. The article concludes by discussing the limitations and challenges of different types of pedagogical mentoring in virtual exchange and by outlining a list of recommendations for carrying out pedagogical mentoring in such projects.SIThe research reported in this article was supported by the project Evaluating and Upscaling Telecollaborative Teacher Education (EVALUATE) (582934-EPP-1-2016-2-ES-EPPKA3-PI-POLICY). This project is funded by Erasmus+Key Action 3 (EACEA No 34/2015): European policy experimentations in the fields of education, training, and youth led by high-level public authoritie

The Blogging Hobbit

Curatorial note from Digital Pedagogy in the Humanities: Sauro and Sundmark incorporated the practice of online fandom into the classroom to help learners enhance their understanding of literary texts through the development of critical literary analyses and blog-based collaborative writing (“Report”). For this project, learners were divided into groups and focused on underdeveloped moments from The Hobbit. By compiling visual materials to support their plots, learners (re)produced a fictional space in which the story was set, allowing the writer-reader to associate the event with a specific time and place. Whether working on a blog, a fan-fiction Web site such as Archive of Our Own, or using another social media tool, the learners, who each assumed the role of one of the characters, used their characters’ voices to collaboratively construct their stories (ultimately uploaded to the class Web site). Requiring learners to employ visual and textual modes along with collaborative writing using social media enhances their multiliteracy competencies

Preparing Students for Successful Online Intercultural Communication and Collaboration in Virtual Exchange

[ES] In the context of Virtual Exchange (VE) it is often assumed that participants will be naturally prepared to interact online successfully with their international partners. However, there is ample evidence in the literature to suggest that VE participants are usually unaware of effective communicative strategies in synchronous and asynchronous online communicative contexts. Through action research, this article investigates how teachers can provide scaffolding for both these communicative modalities in online intercultural environments. It reports on a qualitative content analysis of conversational and self-reported data from a corpus of three VEs that were collected and triangulated in order to identify when, in what areas, and in what ways students could benefit from pedagogical mentoring. The article then presents key mentoring stages and strategies that were identified and provides insight into the type of scaffolding that VE teachers can provide their students to help them achieve successful (a)synchronous online intercultural interaction

The Systems Biology Research Tool: evolvable open-source software

BACKGROUND: Research in the field of systems biology requires software for a variety of purposes. Software must be used to store, retrieve, analyze, and sometimes even to collect the data obtained from system-level (often high-throughput) experiments. Software must also be used to implement mathematical models and algorithms required for simulation and theoretical predictions on the system-level. RESULTS: We introduce a free, easy-to-use, open-source, integrated software platform called the Systems Biology Research Tool (SBRT) to facilitate the computational aspects of systems biology. The SBRT currently performs 35 methods for analyzing stoichiometric networks and 16 methods from fields such as graph theory, geometry, algebra, and combinatorics. New computational techniques can be added to the SBRT via process plug-ins, providing a high degree of evolvability and a unifying framework for software development in systems biology. CONCLUSION: The Systems Biology Research Tool represents a technological advance for systems biology. This software can be used to make sophisticated computational techniques accessible to everyone (including those with no programming ability), to facilitate cooperation among researchers, and to expedite progress in the field of systems biology