Title
Implementation and Practice of a Project-based College English Course on a BYOD BasisAbstract
The purpose of this study is to discuss and generalize the ideas to implement a project-based college English curriculum on Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) basis from an administrative point of view. It specifically focuses on such issues as hardware, software, network environment and security, and the skills necessary for both learners and instructors to carry out the course. Among language pedagogies, English education has been closely tied with the field of ICT for about half a century as forms of Computer Assisted Language Learning and Blended Learning. Today, their relation has come to a new phase with the advent of two factors: a BYOD concept and a Project-Based Learning (PBL) method. While this combination is expected to enhance learner’s active learning process, its application in English education is still limited in Japan to a few early adopters. Ritsumeikan University is one of them. Since 2008, three colleges of the university have implemented the PBL English program on BYOD basis to more than 1,000 students through a continuing process of trial and error, which the authors are part of. Students from freshman to junior are strongly encouraged to bring their own devices (laptops, smartphones, or tablet computers) to classroom in order to work on their projects throughout the course, from preparing projects to reporting on their outcomes. Instructors, often functioning as facilitators in class, also make use of their own devices in instruction, demonstration, and evaluation. Based on the experiences acquired from the practice, this study sheds light on pedagogical and practical issues, such as management policy for the devices students bring to classroom, software and cloud services helpful in filling a gap in ICT literacy among students and among instructors, appropriate and secure network settings, digital equipment and facility condition useful in smoothing in-class activities, and so forth.S. KIMURA, Y. KONDO
https://fleatvi2015a.sched.org/event/3MzA/implementation-and-practice-of-a-project-based-college-english-course-on-a-byod-basis
