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broadcast a session of their Thai distance-learning series
from Studio A in Knight Library's Media Services.
Joyce Winslow
jwins@uoregon.edu
“SOUND CHECK!” An authoritative voice cuts through the chatter in the studio and the hubbub instantly subsides. “Cindy, list everything in your refrigerator.”
As Cynthia Kieffer begins her droll litany of foodstuffs, Media Services producer-director Ward Biaggne and engineer Stan Nelson position the cameras and Lynette Boone sits poised for action in the control room, ready to edit the American English Institute’s latest videocast for the Thai distance-learning program.
Then, on the count of three, they’re on the air. “Sawasdeeka,” begins program developer and co-presenter Leslie Opp-Beckman, inclining her head in the traditional Thai greeting. “Welcome to session nine of our series on teaching English as a foreign language, Creating a Resource-Rich Classroom.”
This particular session is being videotaped for later broadcast, but most of the lessons in this series are live videoconferences. The series reaches every corner of the country, assisting teachers all across Thailand and the Mekong Peninsula. The lively, engaging team of the American English Institute’s senior instructor Leslie Opp-Beckman and director Cynthia Kieffer developed this program in 2003 with funding from the U.S. Embassy Bangkok, Public Affairs, and in-kind contributions from the Royal Thai Distance Learning Foundation. The program has been so successful it is now expanding to include subjects other than English.
The Thai distance-learning series is only a small part of the story of the UO’s growing involvement with videoconferencing and distance learning, however. In 1996, Opp-Beckman launched the first distance-learning project incorporating web-based tools in collaboration with Professor T. Iwabuchi at Senshu University in Japan. Professor Iwabuchi identified students who could participate and set up a research framework for the project in Japan. The American English Institute team created an online mentoring and tutoring program for those students, including an online discussion board to keep language skills fresh. Some of the Oregon and Japanese students later met face-to-face, capping what Opp-Beckman calls “an excellent cultural exchange and all-around educational experience.”
“Language departments are a natural vanguard for e-learning,” notes Opp-Beckman, whose deep background in linguistics and cultural exchange make her a natural to be in the e-learning vanguard herself. Her family moved to Japan while she was still in her teens, and the two years she lived there sparked a lifelong love of languages and other cultures.
A self-taught technology buff who “knows just enough Perl script to be dangerous,” Opp-Beckman was among the first to incorporate web-based tools in her classroom. Then advances in videoconferencing technology suddenly made it possible to bring the classroom to rural areas and more remote parts of the world. In her view, “Distance ed is not a substitute for face-to-face teaching, but a way of diversifying teaching. Distance-ed projects can target areas of need and help educators in developing countries fill gaps in opportunities for professional development efficiently.”
In the past ten years, Leslie has developed and taught programs for educators in Kuwait, Bahrain, Egypt, Taiwan, Ukraine, Slovenia, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and eleven countries in sub-Saharan Africa—as well as doing her celebrated work in Thailand. She has also taught numerous local workshops and presented papers on incorporating information technology tools into the classroom (among them, “Teaching with the Web,” “Combining Wireless Computers with Effective Language Learning,” and “Creating Effective Web-Based Materials”). Many of these projects have been supported by grants from the U.S. State Department’s Office of English Language Programs.
Along the way she and her team have learned much from their students, forged lasting international friendships, and amassed a wealth of cultural experience. They have adapted to an array of variables, including time zone differences (they broadcast at night when necessary), Muslim workday schedules (Monday through Thursday only), and, in rural areas, the exigencies of harvest-time. But talk with Opp-Beckman for only a few minutes and you realize that this work is never tiring, always exhilarating.
Even after being temporarily immobilized by a foot surgery that kept her housebound for six weeks this summer, Opp-Beckman never missed a beat. She stayed busy on her laptop, helping to organize the fall 2006 curriculum for teachers of English as a foreign language. The course, “Shaping the Way We Teach English,” is under development on the UO’s Blackboard site, and participants from more than a dozen countries—including Turkey, Morocco, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kasakhstan, Tajikistan, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Palestine, Yemen, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Israel—have already enrolled. The course will utilize video training modules that Opp-Beckman and her Media Services team made last year during their visits to schools throughout the Middle East, Asia, and Central America.
“Since teachers can’t easily visit classrooms in person, the purpose of the videos is to offer examples of real classroom teaching by other teachers,” Opp-Beckman explains. “There are observation guides that go with the videos, along with readings and opportunities to discuss the materials and apply them to local settings in practical ways.” Another feature of the fall project that excites her is that it will include some “returning” participants from previous online courses who will act as mentors for first-timers. Including in-country expertise is always an important component of the success of any project, and UO distance-learning educators make a point of working with teams of teachers in other countries, encouraging them to share resources and ideas.
UO distance-learning projects are now involving more faculty from other disciplines, a trend Opp-Beckman hopes will continue. Most recently, on July 16, lessons in green chemistry, math, and physics were broadcast from Media Services’ Studio A in the Knight Library as part of a new Thai Distance Learning Organization series. The new series was launched with great fanfare by Her Royal Highness Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol during her goodwill visit to Eugene. Aside from Opp-Beckman, broadcast participants included UO chemistry professor Ken Doxsee, senior physics instructor Dean Livelybrooks, and associate professor of math education Jill Baxter.
When asked to expand on her vision for the future, Opp-Beckman doesn’t hesitate. She sees e-learning continuing to involve faculty from diverse disciplines and expanding its boundaries in all ways. “I would love to see e-learning grow in a way that’s productive and beneficial to the UO,” she says. “Eventually, projects may grow to be an all-Oregon effort, involving other institutions in our state as well.”