Preparing teachers to support language learners with digital learning in and beyond the classroom

In recent years, as technologies evolve, there has been an explosion in the number of digital resources available to support learning, and the nature of the learning opportunities they afford. It is incumbent on language teachers to act as guides for learners in their efforts to exploit these resources (Godwin-Jones, 2019). This may involve teachers first needing to develop their own knowledge of the everchanging world of online learning resources, and to understand that learners may not be as digitally savvy, nor as uniformly positive about informal learning, as often assumed (Mullen, 2021).

This presentation documents efforts to develop these literacies among a cohort of postgraduate TESOL students at a university in Scotland. This 4-week process involved individual and group experimentation with various online resources such as websites and apps, completing and sharing their reflection on these experiences in terms of the resource’s potential to support language learning inside or outside the classroom, and ultimately, collaboratively developing a bank of tried and trusted resources and activities.

The presentation also describes the successes and challenges of this digital literacy development programme. Due to a range of factors such as their own digital competence, and their teaching environment, some students were more or less ready to, and motivated to, support learners in this way.

The presentation concludes with a series of recommendations regarding how this process could be most effectively implemented by practitioners interested in supporting the development of digital literacy among their learners, and how any pitfalls regarding design or delivery of the programme could be best avoided.