The Teacher's Roles in E-Learning

Teaching in a technology-based environment does not make faculty redundant. If anything, the teacher's role becomes more important. The article below, reproduced from Asharq Al-Awsat, sets out the roles a teacher takes on in e-learning systems.

أدوار المعلم/الأستاذ في ظل التعليم الإلكتروني

قد يتبادر إلى ذهن من يقرأ عنوان الموضوع أننا بإدخال تقنية الحاسب والتعليم الإلكتروني نلغي دور المعلم في العملية التربوية التعليمية. فالتعليم الإلكتروني لا يعني إلغاء دور المعلم بل يصبح دوره أكثر أهمية وأكثر صعوبة، فهو شخص مبدع ذو كفاءة عالية يدير العملية التعليمية باقتدار ويعمل على تحقيق طموحات التقدم والتقنية. لقد أصبحت مهنة المعلم مزيجًا من مهام القائد ومدير المشروع البحثي والناقد والموجه.

ما لا شك فيه أن دور المعلم سوف يبقى للأبد وسوف يصبح أكثر صعوبة من السابق، فالتعلم الإلكتروني لا يعني تصفح الإنترنت بطريقة مفتوحة ولكن بطريقة محددة وبتوجيه لاستخدام المعلومات الإلكترونية، وهذا يعتبر من أهم أدوار المعلم. ولكي يصبح دور المعلم مهماً في توجيه طلابه الوجهة الصحيحة للاستفادة القصوى من التكنولوجيا عليه أن يقوم بالأدوار التالية، كما جاء في بعض الأدبيات:

1. ميسر للعمليات (Process Facilitator)

إن الدور الأكبر للمعلم من خلال نظم تقديم المقررات التعليمية عبر الإنترنت هو التحقق من حدوث بعض العمليات التربوية المستهدفة في أثناء ممارسة الطلاب لنشاطهم وتفاعلهم مع بعضهم البعض، فالمعلم في نظم التعلم الإلكتروني ليس ملقنًا للمعلومات بل هو ميسر للعملية التعليمية (Educational Facilitator)، حيث يقدم الإرشادات ويتيح للمتعلمين اكتشاف مواد التعلم بأنفسهم دون أن يتدخل في مسار تعلمهم.

2. مبسط للمحتوى (Content Facilitator)

للمعلم دور معرفي، ولكن طبيعة هذا الدور المعرفي تختلف عما كانت عليه في الماضي، بحيث يكون التركيز على إكساب الطالب المعارف والحقائق والمفاهيم المناسبة للتدفق المعرفي المستمر للعلم، وما يرتبط بهذه المعارف من مهارات عملية وقيم واتجاهات بحيث تمكنهم من التعامل الصحيح مع هذا التدفق المعرفي والتقنيات المرتبطة به، لأن هذا يعين هؤلاء الطلاب على فهم الحاضر بتفصيلاته، وتصور المستقبل باتجاهاته والمشاركة في صناعته، وبذلك يتم إكساب الطلاب ثقافة معلوماتية تمكنهم من التعايش في مجتمع المعلوماتية الذي هو مجتمع المستقبل.

3. باحث (Researcher)

لا يكفي قيام المعلم باتخاذ قرارات، بل عليه تقويم جهده أيضاً، والبحث الإجرائي وسيلة تحقق هذه الغاية، كما أنه يتيح الفرصة للمعلم لاكتساب المعرفة والمهارة في طرق البحث ومنهجيته، ويكون على دراية بالاختيارات واحتمالات التغيير، كما يكسبه الرؤية التأملية والناقدة لأدائه، ولعملية التدريس في كليتها.

وهذا التوجه للبحث الإجرائي يعتبر من أفضل فرص النمو المهني المنظمة والمنهجية، فالتدريس عبر الشبكات لا يخلو من مشكلات، وبالتالي عندما يسعى المعلم تلقائياً لبحث المشكلة، بغية الوقوف على أسبابها ونتائجها متبعًا المنهجية العلمية في دراستها، فإن ذلك يعود بالنفع عليه أولاً، وعلى عملية التعليم برمتها، التي تتطلب تطويراً مستمراً، نتيجة التطور المستمر للظروف المحيطة بها.

4. تكنولوجي (Technologist)

مع التطورات التي شهدها مجال التكنولوجيا، فإن الدور التقليدي للمعلم يجب أن ينتهي أو يتغير، فهناك وفرة في المعلومات، ودور المعلم في ظل هذه الوفرة هو مساعدة المتعلمين على الإبحار في محيط المعلومات، لاختيار الأنسب، والتحليل الناقد، وتضمينه في رؤيتهم وإدراكهم للعالم من حولهم.

والتكنولوجيا تسهم في تغيير الطرق التي يتدرب من خلالها المعلمون، وكذلك طرق تعليم الطلاب، والمطلوب عمله هو القيام بدور فاعل من جانب القائمين على إعداد المعلم لإحداث هذا التغير.

5. مصمم للخبرات التعليمية

للمعلم دور أساسي في تصميم الخبرات التعليمية والنشاطات التربوية، والإشراف على بعضها بما يتناسب مع خبراته وميوله واهتماماته، فهذه الأنشطة مكملة لما يكتسبه الطالب داخل قاعات الدراسات الصفية أو الافتراضية، سواء أكانت أنشطة ثقافية أم رياضية أم اجتماعية إلى غير ذلك من الأنشطة التربوية، وعلى المعلم أن يسهم بدور إيجابي في الإشراف على بعض تلك النشاطات.

6. مدير للعملية التعليمية

في التعليم التقليدي يمارس المعلم دوره في ضبط نظام الصف والإمساك بزمام الأمور في كل ما يحدث داخل الصف، أما في نظم التعلم الإلكتروني فالمعلم مدير للعملية التعليمية بأكملها، حيث يحدد أعداد الملتحقين بالمقررات الشبكية، ومواعيد اللقاءات الافتراضية على الشبكة، وأساليب عرض المحتوى، وطرق التقويم وغيره من عناصر العملية التعليمية.

والمعلم الذي يقوم بدوره القيادي في الفصول الافتراضية يجعل منها خلية عمل بفاعلية واقتدار، سواء كان ذلك على المستوى الفردي أو الجماعي، فيكرس اهتمامات الطلاب لتحقيق الأهداف المنشودة، ويأخذ بيدهم طيلة الوقت للعمل الجاد المثمر.

7. ناصح ومستشار

من أهم الأدوار التي يقوم بها المعلم هو تقديم النصح والمشورة للمتعلمين، وعليه أن يكون ذا صلة دائمة ومستمرة ومتجددة مع كل جديد في مجال تخصصه، وفي طرائق تدريسه وما يطرأ على مجتمعه من مستجدات، فعليه أن يظل طالباً للعلم ما استطاع، مطلعاً على كل ما يدور في مجتمعه المحلي والعالمي من مستحدثات، حتى يستطيع أن يلبي احتياجات طلبته واستفساراتهم المختلفة، ويقدم لهم المشورة فيما يصعب عليهم، ويأخذ بيدهم إلى نور العلم والمعرفة.

منقول من جريدة الشرق الأوسط

https://sites.google.com/site/modernteachingstrategies/the-roles-of-the-teacher-in-e-learning

New Online Course: Process Your Translation and Revision Work Critically

I am facilitating a new short online course on ProZ.com: Learn How to Process Your Translation and Revision Work Critically and Constructively. Here is the course description.

Description

Experienced translators may translate more intuitively and quickly than a novice or student translator. But how often can a translator find the right terms to justify their choices, or write conscious, well-argued comments on a revised or translated assignment? A professional translator or reviser may well be asked by clients or colleagues to do exactly that. Critical thinking, then, deserves a place in translator competence.

The ability also enhances professional status and earns respect: you become a thinker, a negotiator and a text engineer. This course will take you to that stage and guide you to think critically as you process a translation, post-edit or revise.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Identify and critically judge text typologies in English and Arabic, and the problems that may arise in translation from the conventions of those texts and other contextual factors in both languages;
• Write in the proper genre and style of the target text;
• Justify translation choices, for yourself and for others when asked. Every choice remains relative, since nothing is absolute in the real world, and there are always several answers to the same problem;
• Revise consciously and constructively the translations and assignments you are given, drawing on insights from both theory and practice.

Course link: Learn How to Process Your Translation and Revision Work Critically and Constructively (ProZ.com)

The Human Factor in Translation Programmes

Is strengthening students' linguistic and translation skills enough for a quality translation curriculum? And what do employers actually want from a graduate translator?

A recent study carried out here in Canada at the Université de Montréal (Echeverri, 2008) found that translation companies and government organisations employing translation students under internship schemes are very satisfied with their linguistic and other text-based skills, but find them lacking in critical aptitude, reflection and interpersonal abilities.

So, if we take these results seriously and review our programmes, what should we improve?

Objects versus people

Our research shows that attention goes, most of the time, to the objects (content, curriculum, courses) and not to the human factor (faculty and students). Yet there is ample literature calling for faculty development and training schemes (Echeverri, 2008; Kelly, 2005; Kearns, 2006), because the knowledge framework needed in a translation classroom differs from the one delivered in a language classroom.

Understanding how translation students learn, and what their learning styles are, matters just as much. We need to find out what prior knowledge students bring about translation as a profession, a practice or, as some see it, an art. A clear, explicit and accessible study plan can help here, provided it is presented to students in a way that engages them and gives them a road map for their learning path. University students are adults, and educating adults requires a certain tact on the part of the educator.

Three knowledge bases

Finally, you cannot teach a translation course well if you still need further training in any of three areas:

• pedagogy;
• content (translation-specific knowledge);
• real-world professional experience.

These three poles need to be integrated for a sound translation education or training scenario in a higher education context.

Takeaway: the human factor, rather than content or subject matter alone, is in my view the key to raising quality in translator training programmes. I welcome your thoughts.

Teaching Entrepreneurship to Future Translators: A Pilot Course Proposal

My proposal was accepted for the 10th Translation Forum at Sultan Qaboos University (6–7 April 2013), organised by the university's English and Translation Society. The abstract is below.

Forum host: Sultan Qaboos University

Abstract

Innovating in translator training: a pilot course proposal on developing professional and entrepreneurial abilities for future translators

Globalisation and technology have turned the translation market upside down. New working patterns have emerged as a result, such as tele-work, online freelancing and self-employment. This kind of practice requires a combination of academic and business competencies. Yet, as far as I know, the entrepreneurial side of our practice is not taught in university translation units or departments in the Arab world. Only a few translation programmes in the West have managed to embed such courses, usually as workshops or electives rather than core courses, even though these are precisely the competencies employers insist on in the marketplace.

Our recent review of translation programmes in the Arab world found no courses or modules addressing these new practices. The focus remains on developing linguistic skills and other cognitive abilities. In this paper I present an innovative way of embedding such a course in a translation programme, and the pedagogical approach needed to facilitate it: training students to engage in online freelancing and empowering them with metacognitive competencies that will serve them for a lifetime, for example by setting up their own business, either as a team of students (an agency or company) or as an individually owned enterprise.

NB: For logistical reasons I put the preparation of this paper on hold. I may prepare it in another context, for a different audience.

Participatory Action Research: A Method for Translator Trainers

What kind of research methodology does applied translation studies, and translator training in particular, actually need? My answer, after a semester of doctoral seminars on qualitative research in education, is participatory action research led by the teachers themselves.

The Gap Between Scholars and Practitioners

Mainstream translation studies has focused heavily on the sociological, literary, linguistic and cognitive aspects of translation, borrowing its research designs from the social sciences: mostly positivist, "scientific" methods in which knowledge is produced by "the knowers" on practitioners, whether teachers or working translators. The result has been a widening gap between theory (detached scholars) and practice (teachers and practising translators).

The research models in translation studies can be listed as follows: linguistic models (Catford, Nida, Vinay, Newmark, Holmes); communicative models (Neubert); cultural models (Steiner, Venuti, Pym, Snell-Hornby); hermeneutic models (Ricoeur); functionalist models (Reiss, Vermeer, Nord, Chesterman); psycholinguistic models (Krings, Bell); and textual models (Neubert, Shreve, House) (Cravo, 2007, p. 5).

Put the Teacher at the Centre

In translation pedagogy, I would rather centre our focus on the actors on the ground: the teacher, the faculty member. There is no need for a linguist, sociologist or cognitive psychologist to tell the teacher, or even the practitioner, the artisan, how to run a class or how to translate. I believe in the capacity of teachers to understand their students' learning needs, interpret their ways of learning and act accordingly, in collaboration with the students themselves, who must be treated as partners in the learning curve rather than passive absorbers of knowledge.

Hence I find it crucial to introduce the notion of the scholarship of teaching and learning (Shulman, 1986; Hutchings, 1999) as a way of building a culture of classroom participatory research, and so cure a long-standing plague of the translation classroom. Teachers improve their practice by researching their own classroom practice and reflecting on it (Schön, 1983). This critical approach leads teachers to:

• reflect critically on the type of knowledge they disseminate in a translation classroom;
• re-examine the type of teaching approach they use.

What Faculty Need

For this to happen, faculty need further pedagogical and disciplinary training. Not training in the sense of a course or a workshop, but video-recording their classroom interventions and exchanging the footage with trained peers for feedback. Sitting in on a colleague's class as an observer is also desirable (participant observation as a research technique).

The big divide in many translation courses, where faculty hold different ideologies about how to design and manage a course (theoretical or practical), could be resolved if faculty engaged in a collaborative, participatory scholarship of teaching and learning, acting as both professional teachers and researchers.

Those who teach translation come from various backgrounds, yet how many were ever trained to teach translation content, skills and competencies? (Cravo, 2007). As I see it, translation is a profession, and its teaching methods should be aligned with the way professionals are trained: active pedagogies, coaching, and less didactic lecturing.

Action Research in Translation Studies

This is what the literature calls participatory action research. Stephen Corey (1953) introduced the term in education, and Stenhouse (1975) embedded it in teacher training. In translation studies only a few authors have referred to it.

In the Arabic–English literature, Basil Hatim (2001) stipulated that research should not be done on practitioners (teachers and translators) but by them. Others have similarly argued that action research (AR) is key to establishing translator education as a core field of research and enquiry. Cravo (2007, p. 11) puts it plainly:

A good start would be to have translation teachers with knowledge of AR working together and getting involved in classroom research.

My Own Direction

In my research I am working to extend this method into a technology-based environment: online learning and teaching. Such environments may yield promising outcomes for teacher-led AR in higher education. The online environment is student-centred and aims at significant learning outcomes through learning communities, which demands a very active and collaborative kind of intervention from faculty: more facilitating and monitoring than teaching.

My First Conference Paper in French: Moving Translation Courses Online

On 8 May 2013 I will give my first conference paper in French, at the ACFAS congress here in Quebec (Université Laval). Both the talk and the paper must be in French. I am a little nervous, but it should be fun.

The Topic

The subject is quite new in translation teaching and training, although it has been well discussed in educational technology, distance learning and e-learning: the migration of translation course content delivered face-to-face into an online environment (Moodle, Blackboard and the like). The research literature shows that teaching in traditional and virtual or technology-enhanced environments shares some similarities but differs considerably in teaching approaches, techniques and choice of material for students with varied learning styles and characteristics.

I will present the conceptual side of this pedagogical operation:

• designing a course outline with clear intended learning outcomes;
• choosing the activities that operationalise those outcomes in collaboration with students;
• planning the assessment faculty use to measure those outcomes.

I will draw on Bloom's revised taxonomy (Anderson, 2001) and on John Biggs' (1999, 2007) principle of constructive alignment between intended learning outcomes, activities and assessment. All of this will be applied to translator training in a university context, using the outline of a course on documentary research in translation practice taught by a professor at a Canadian university, who has kindly granted me permission to use his syllabus.

Programme Details

Afternoon session, 13:30–16:00, oral presentations. Chair: Marie-Christine Aubin (Université York). Pavillon Charles-De Koninck, room 1261. Fouad El Karnichi, Université de Sherbrooke, 13:30.

Abstract (in French)

Que nous apprend la conversion d'un cours en mode virtuel sur la pédagogie de la traduction ?

L'environnement des cours en ligne nécessite des compétences spécifiques et novatrices afin de fournir des conditions d'apprentissage significatives pour l'apprenant. Dans cette communication, en lien avec notre recherche doctorale, nous allons aborder la formation dans un environnement d'apprentissage en ligne des futurs traducteurs, en prenant l'exemple d'une formation donnée en présentiel et à distance. Plus précisément, nous allons examiner, à partir d'un syllabus, les changements au niveau pédagogique et structurel qui peuvent être effectués pendant la migration d'un cours de sa version en présentiel en une version en ligne. Des recherches en formation en ligne nous indiquent les conséquences négatives issues de la conversion des cours d'un mode à l'autre lorsqu'on n'introduit pas de changements pédagogiques dignes du nouvel environnement d'apprentissage. Nous proposerons une analyse des objectifs du cours, des activités d'apprentissage et des mesures d'évaluation dans le plan de cours, qui sera effectuée selon le principe de l'« alignement constructif » de Biggs (2007). Nous utiliserons aussi la taxonomie de Bloom dans sa version nouvelle publiée par Krathwohl et Anderson (2001) pour traiter des types d'apprentissages ciblés (comprendre, appliquer, évaluer, créer). Notre intention est d'adapter ces critères au contexte de formation des traducteurs dans un environnement en ligne et de présenter nos premières conclusions sur la conversion des cours en mode virtuel.

Internships for Translators: Lessons from Sherbrooke's Placement Service

Internships are one of the best extracurricular activities a translation programme can offer. A recent visit to the placement service at the Université de Sherbrooke showed me how much the ground beneath them has shifted.

A Changed Industry

As part of my ongoing research, I met the person in charge of placing student translators in organisations across Quebec and elsewhere in Canada, where they gain experience and build their self-concept and competences as future professionals. I was struck by how much globalisation and technology, mainly the Internet, have changed the Canadian translation industry.

In Canada the number one employer is the government's Translation Bureau, because all official documents must exist in both French and English. The Bureau did not only offer internships to students; it recruited them, and it gave universities financial support to maintain their translation programmes. Recently, according to the head of the placement service, that budget was cut. Why? The government went global too. It began outsourcing work to countries where translation is done more cheaply, and with quality, such as the francophone countries of North Africa.

This has forced internship services across Canadian universities to look to the private sector, where they hit another problem: placements are hard to find, especially paid ones. In Canada, students are paid for their internships, and for a small translation agency that is an overhead. Things are no longer as easy as they were with the federal Bureau.

What This Means for Programmes

Translation programmes need to be conscious of this shift and develop new content, teaching and training methodologies and pedagogies in response, gradually, but not too slowly. I am aware that as long as translation is taught in a university, it will always lag behind the industry. That is understood.

Matching our pedagogies and course content to new working patterns in the translation market will remain a concern for faculty, especially given the technological impact on the language industry (translation, interpreting, revision). It is crucial to invest in human resources and competencies through teacher development schemes, so that we can keep pace with current practice at our own rhythm as academics and professionals. But those practices must be not only market-bound but educationally sound. We are, before anything else, educational institutions that empower and build human capacity to serve a social purpose.

A Day in a Revision Classroom at Université Laval

Last Thursday my co-director invited me to sit in on her MA class in revision and proofreading at the Department of Translation, Université Laval. There were no lectures. Instead, students led five extracurricular research activities on how revision and proofreading are actually practised in the job market.

Students doing the fieldwork

Students had carried out telephone or on-site interviews with translators and revisers working in translation agencies and companies across Quebec and Canada. It was an innovative move on the part of the faculty. I thoroughly enjoyed the three hours I spent interacting with the students and exchanging the kind of knowledge that is crucial to their development and to building a 'self-concept' as translators (Kiraly, 1995, 2000). There were about eleven students, all mature, some married with children, and all taking their studies in translation and revision seriously.

Why it matters

As a researcher, practitioner and educator, I saw how powerful an extracurricular activity can be for an aspiring translator, especially one so closely tied to the professional world. Pedagogically, it unlocks students' potential and sustains the confidence they need to persevere, complete their course and reach significant learning and performance outcomes. Once in the market, they become ambassadors for a discipline that suffers from an identity crisis and needs new leaders and voices to regain its respect and status.

What this means for the Arab world

We need practices like this in the Arab world. Our social, political and economic contexts are different, but I am confident there is a way to do it with BA or MA translation students. We must review how we train future translators, learn from other practices, and work out how they can be made to fit our own socio-economic and institutional context. The focus must always be on identifying and understanding who our students are and how they learn. Get that formula right, and we can help them achieve durable, significant learning not only during their studies but well beyond them.