Symposium 15-16 October, 2020

Harnessing the Potentials of Technology to Support Self-Directed Language Learning in Online Learning Settings

Schedule and Recordings  | Keynote presentations | Poster HallProceedings

Research partners KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm, Sweden) and the Research Institute for Learner Autonomy Education (RILAE) at Kanda University of International Studies (Chiba, Japan) held a joint online symposium from 15-16 October 2020. It was open to anyone with an interest in exploring how we might design and/or use technology to support meaningful self-directed language learning in online learning settings.

Given the current global situation, this theme is more important than ever, but even before the spread of the COVID-19 virus, increasing numbers of institutions worldwide have been investing in technology and staff development in order to enhance online learning and provide better conditions for students’ learning in formal and informal learning settings. 15 international presentations examined current research and practices in technology-enhanced language learning with a particular interest in creating environments and systems whereby learners can take charge of their learning and thrive.

In addition to exploring individual learning online, we were particularly interested in how mobile technology can support not only self-regulation, but also also collaboration, an important skill for 21st century learners, and serve as a means to extend and improve language learning. 

Symposium logo long

Themes explored at this symposium were:

  • Designing and/or using technologies for supporting individual and collaborative self-directed (or self-regulated) language learning in formal and informal learning settings
  • The teacher’s/advisor’s role in the development of self-directed language learning in online learning environments
  • Learning analytics and educational data mining for measuring and supporting and self-directed language learning
  • Responsible use of learner data in language learning analytics (issues pertaining to student privacy, ethics and security)
  • Facilitating reflective dialogue in learning using online tools and environments

Keynote speakers 

Presenter full bios and abstracts

Conveners: Charlotte Lin, Jo Mynard and Olga Viberg

Program Committee: Carrie Demmans EppCharlotte LinDavid McLoughlinJo Mynard, Ward PeetersOlga Viberg,  Mohammed Saqr

Presentations will took place live via Zoom and were recorded and archived on the RILAE website. There is an opportunity for presenters to publish a peer-reviewed paper in CEUR Workshop Proceedings (ISSN 1630-0079), an open-access proceedings journal for scientific conferences and workshops. http://ceur-ws.org/. The submission date is December 1, 2020. Presenters may submit a short paper (at least 5 pages / approximately 2000 words) or a regular paper (at least 10 pages / approximately 4000 words). Further details are here.

Presenters or attendees may also submit full papers to general issues of Relay Journal (https://kuis.kandagaigo.ac.jp/relayjournal/) which is published twice a year in September and January.

The event was funded by the Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education, project “STINT”, (Dnr:MC2018-7984).