What We Talk About When We Talk About Interaction: Creating Online Learning Tasks

Learner interaction. Interactive activities and games. Interactive software and interactive whiteboards. The word ‘interact’ and its various forms have been very popular in language education and especially in education technology. But it is increasingly used to talk about learners interacting with software, and not with each other. This talk aims to redress that balance, and looks a task design for online courses that involves learners and instructor interacting with each other either synchronously or asynchronously. I’ll look at different patterns of interaction and types of interaction that we commonly engage in virtual environments.  For the practically-minded, this talk will include several fun activities I have done with learners on Whatsapp, Facebook and online forums.