A Narrative Inquiry of Autonomy Development and ICT Use: The Story of an ELT Colombian Department. By: Jenny Mendieta Department of Applied Language Studies and Linguistics, University of Auckland

Inquiry Aims What stories of change do teachers live by when participating in the implementation of a Blended learning program? In what ways are these experiences of change shaped by available institutional stories on language teaching/learning and ICT use? Examine how teachers make meaning of the “new work order” established by the (technology-mediated) innovation Examine how teachers’ experiences of blended learning are circumscribed by, but also situated within broader sociocultural and institutional contexts. AIMS Personal Organizational Institutional

We have to know what change looks like from the point of view of the teacher, student, parent and administrator if we are to understand the actions and reactions of individuals; and if we are to comprehend the big picture, we must combine the aggregate knowledge of these individual situations with an understanding of organizational and institutional factors that influence the process of change such as government departments, universities, teacher federations, school systems, and school interact. (Fullan, 1991: xi).

Setting and Participants Private tertiary Colombian institution EFL blended program for undergraduate students of non-English majors (Second implementation stage ) 9 Participants * 4 teachers * 5 management members * Students (4 classes- 80 sts)

Methods NARRATIVE INTERVIEWS OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS CLASSROOM OBSERVATION QUESTIONNAIRES

Autonomy Development and ICT Use: The Story of an ELT Colombian Department Learning and teaching location Program mode/orientation Activities implemented Resources Teacher’s knowledge Teacher’s roles PrintedTechnologies Institutionalization of English I remember seeing English teachers with a bag full of portfolios mainly because the strategy was misunderstood. The strategy they used was to pick them up at three points and give a mark, but originally it was not thought that way. In fact, I was one of the few people that never took portfolios home. I checked them in class. (SAC Director) Classroom Home/ library Language learning strategies Strategy training integrated into learning tasks Class handouts; Learning Pathway * Cassettes * Videos *Overhead projector * Tape recorder * Internet ( ) Explicit strategy instruction; Independent learning Language expert (resource); Facilitator

Learning and teaching location Program mode/orientation Activities implemented Resources Teacher’s knowledge Teacher’s roles PrintedTechnologies And self-access center And self-access learning And action planning; Self-assessment Whole CALL lesson And independent study guides; Action Plan And high tech self-access center (Satellite television, Internet, interactive software, cd rom, audio books, etc.) And SALL; CALL And language advisor; IT expert (educational software) Adoption of credit system/ curricular reform They were not doing a transition between environments, thus repeating what they used to do in their lessons in a place with computers and self- access resources. (SAC Director) I remembered the existence of a software package structured to guide students’ writing process, which was seldom used by teachers. Unsurprisingly …the University decided not to purchase additional software until what was already available had been put to good use. (SAC Director)

Learning and teaching location Program mode/orientation Activities implemented Resources Teacher’s knowledge Teacher’s roles PrintedTechnologies And the Web (LMS) And Web- facilitated language learning And provide access to resources and information about the course. Online (teacher) support And re-designed class handouts; Independent study handouts *And LMS; Wi-Fi connection; Computers, video beams and audio system in all classrooms And course management systems And course manager; material designer Institutional Development Plan The moment wireless internet connection was installed in the University and students started using personal computers, “there was no point in telling them, you must go to the center” (SAC Director).

Learning and teaching location Program mode/orientation Activities implemented Resources Teacher’s knowledge Teacher’s roles PrintedTechnologies And the WebWeb-facilitated language learning And content creation and sharing through the web. Online support and feedback Re-designed class handouts; Independent study handouts And Web 2.0 technologies (blogs, wikis, webpages); Personal computers And Web 2.0 tools; web- facilitated pedagogy And producer of media resources Students’ response to IW/ Developments in technology Are students spending more time on the use of the tool than on the use of the target language? How do we do follow-up to activities that are not housed in the institutional platform? What about issues of institutional image and the risk of students indiscriminately publishing content on the web? (RJ, 6 May, 2012)

Learning and teaching location Program mode/orientation Activities implemented Resources Teacher’s knowledge Teacher’s roles PrintedTechnologies AnywhereBlended learning And combination of CALL tasks and FtF instruction. *Digital learning objects And Web conferencing Software; Social media tools And CMC; online teaching and learning And online tutor; course designer Winter wave Something negative was that maybe we didn’t know how to carry it out, and so at first it was somewhat chaotic and did not have the impact we expected” (Int. 1, Teacher 4).

Phase Learning/ teaching location Program mode/orientation Activities implemented Resources Teacher’s knowledge Teacher’s roles Role of Technoloy (Bax, 2003) Approach to AD (Benson, 2011) PrintedTechnologies Classroom Home/ library Language learning strategies Strategy training integrated into learning tasks Class handouts; Learning Pathway * Cassettes * Videos *Overhead projector * Tape recorder * Explicit strategy instruction Language expert Facilitator Monitor Restrictive Learner- based And self- access center Self-access learning And action planning; Self-assessment; Whole CALL lessons at SAC And Independent study guides; Action Plan And high tech self-access center (Satellite television, Internet, interactive software, cd rom, audio books, etc.) And self-access language learning; CALL And advisor at SAC; IT expert (educational software) Open And resource- based And the Web (LMS) Web-facilitated leaning And provide access to resources and information through LMS And re-designed class handouts; Independent study handouts And LMS; Wi-Fi connection; Computers, video beams and audio system in all classrooms. And course management systems And course manager; material designer Open And technology- based And the Web (Web 2.0) Web-facilitated leaning And content creation and sharing; Online support and feedback And Web 2.0 technologies (blogs, wikis, webpages); Personal computers And Web 2.0 tools; technology- enhanced pedagogy And producer of media resources Integrated AnywhereBlended learningAnd combination of CALL tasks and FtF instruction. And Web conferencing Software; Social media tools And CMC; online teaching and learning And online tutor; course designer Integrated