Innovation and identity in distance language learning and teaching

doi: 10.2167/illt45.0Innovation in distance language learning and teaching has largely focused on developments in technology and the increased opportunities they provide for negotiation and control of learning experiences, for participating in collaborative learning environments and the development of interactive competence in the target language. Much less attention has been paid to pedagogical innovation and still less to how congruence develops between particular pedagogical approaches, various technologies and the skills, practices, actions and identities of language learners and teachers. In this article I explore the process of innovation in distance language teaching from the point of view of key participants in the process, the teachers, and the ways in which their identities are disrupted and challenged as they enter new distance teaching environments. Innovative approaches to distance language teaching are analysed for the insights they provide into the sites of conflict and struggle experienced by teachers, experiences which have a major impact on their selves as distance teachers and on the course of innovation. To conclude I argue that attention to issues of identity can deepen our understanding of innovation, of the tensions that are played out in the experiences and responses of teachers, and of the ways they accept or resist the identity shifts required of them

A comparison of three interactive television AD formats

This study explores the effects of interacting with three current interactive television (iTV) ad formats, using an Australian audience panel. Interaction with iTV ads has positive effects on awareness and net positive thoughts, which increase purchase intentions compared with the influence of regular ads. The telescopic format represents the best format, likely because it makes the most of the entertaining possibilities of iTV by offering additional long-form video; its superior performance cannot be explained readily by self-selection effects. The results suggest that the effectiveness of iTV ads should be measured by their interaction rate rather than the much smaller response rate, and iTV advertisers should consider ways to maximize interaction and response rates

Interactive television or enhanced televisiion? : the Dutch users interest in applications of ITV via set-top boxes

This paper is both an analysis of the phenomenon of interactive television with background concepts of interactivity and television and a report of an empirical investigation among Dutch users of set-top-box ITV. In the analytic part a distinction is made between levels of interactivity in the applications of ITV. Activities labelled as selection, customisation, transaction and reaction reveal low levels of interactivity. They may be called ‘enhanced television’. They are extensions of existing television programmes that keep their linear character. Activities called production and conversation have the potential of higher interactivity. They may lead to ‘real’ interactive television as the user input makes a difference to programmes. It is suggested that so-called hybrid ITV– TV combined with telephone and email reply channels- and (broadband) Internet ITV offer better opportunities for high interactivity than set-top-box ITV. \ud The empirical investigation shows that the demand of subscribers to set-top-box ITV in the Netherlands matches supply. They favour the less interactive applications of selection and reaction. Other striking results are that young subscribers appreciate interactive applications more than the older ones and that those with a low level of education prefer these applications more than high educated subscribers. No significant gender differences were found

Revisiting Play School: A historical case study of the BBC’s address to the pre-school audience

Although clearly recognised in broader institutional histories of British children’s television as a significant moment in the BBC’s address toward the pre-school child, Play School (BBC 1964-88) has not been the focus of sustained archival analysis. This arguably reflects the fact that a good deal of work on children’s television in Britain adopts either an institutional or an audience focus, and the study of programmes cultures is often more neglected. This article seeks to revisit Play School using available historical documentation – including memos, scripts and press cuttings - from the BBC Written Archive Centre, as well as early surviving episodes (principally from 1964). In doing so, it seeks to explore how it fitted into BBC’s historical address to the pre-school child, how it intersected with discourses on pre-school education, and the range of institutional and social contexts surrounding its emergence. Key Words: Play School * Pre-school television * BBC * Child audienc

Co-opetition of TV broadcasters in online video markets : a winning strategy?

This article focuses on TV broadcasters adopting co-opetition strategies for launching online video services. It is claimed that the emergence of online video platforms like YouTube and Netflix is driving TV broadcasters to collaborate with their closest competitors to reduce costs and reach the necessary scale in the global marketplace. The article sheds light on online video platforms that were developed following a co-opetition strategy (Hulu and YouView). The establishment of joint ventures in online video, however, has been scrutinised by competition authorities which fear that collaboration between close competitors lessens rivalry and reduces consumer choice. Therefore, several co-opetition projects (among others BBC’s Kangaroo and Germany’s Gold) have been prohibited by competition authorities

The structural developments of regional television in Britain and Germany

This paper compares the structural developments of regional television in Britain and Germany from the early days of broadcasting to the present from an institutional and organisational perspective. Drawing on a series of interviews with policy-makers and other key personalities, it is argued that the combination of political administrative borders and regional television boundaries, as exists in the German Länder, provides a fruitful basis for a strong regional television service. During the post-war period divergences between Länder borders and Consortium of Public-Law Broadcasting Institutions of the Federal Republic of Germany (ARD) broadcasting boundaries, palpably manifest in south-west Germany, have been harmonised, leading to thorough conformity. However, in centralised England questions of regionalism have strangely played such an important role in the evolution of television, and there are evident disjunctures between regional boundaries and television regions. This applies to the regional structure of Independent Television (ITV) as well as to the regional initiatives of the BBC, which, since the mid-1980s, increasingly takes over ITV's regional duties, fulfilling primarily political demands

Nurturing enterprise in work-based learning

Laura wrote a Chapter called Nurturing Enterprise in Work Based Learning – this work brings together case studies and research that she has conducted into Work Based Learning and packages it for a wider audience, with a specific aim of informing placement providers. “To any graduate seeking employment, it is not just about getting a job, it’s being employable throughout life, something that is so important in the film and television industry because of the very nature of the work, with its ever-changing technologies, funding and patterns of work (for example, the growing use of freelances instead of employing staff). Learning the skills is all very well, but they need to be transferred effectively back into the workplace; this is why enterprise is becoming ever more important as a tangible skill and why it is important that it remains a fundamental principle of higher education.

Science, observation and entertainment: Competing visions of postwar British natural history television, 1946-1967

Popular culture is not the endpoint for the communication of fully developed scientific discourses; rather it constitutes a set of narratives, values and practices with which scientists have to engage in the heterogeneous professes of scientific work. In this paper I explore how one group of actors, involved in the development of both postwar natural history television and the professionalization of animal behaviour studies, manage this process. I draw inspiration from sociologists and historians of science, examining the boundary work involved in the definition and legitimation of scientific fields. Specifically, I chart the institution of animal ethology and natural history film-making in Britain through developing a relational account of the co-construction of this new science and its public form within the media. Substantively, the paper discusses the relationship between three genres of early natural history television, tracing their different associations with forms of public science, the spaces of the scientific field and the role of the camera as a tool of scientific observation. Through this analysis I account for the patterns of cooperation and divergence in the broadcasting and scientific visions of nature embedded in the first formations of the Natural History Unit of the British Broadcasting Corporation

Does it matter what we call them? Labelling people on the basis of notions of intellect

This paper draws on Social Model theory. It examines the nature of debates about language used to describe people who experience barriers in relation to thinking, remembering and communicating, the role this language fulfils, and its impact upon individuals