Paper short abstract:

This presentation will report on the results of an action research study into peer-learning between international and local students.　This research focuses on examining how distant peer-learning can be enhanced by using ICT tools and translanguaging methodology to foster information literacy.

Paper long abstract:

This presentation will report on the results of an action research study into distant collaborative learning between international and local students on two separate campuses at Japanese universities since 2004.

This research focuses on examining how distant collaborative learning can be enhanced by using ICT tools and translanguaging methodology to foster information literacy.

There are two approaches to information literacy teaching in language education. One concerns information technology　education (such as computer literacy) and the other deals with media literacy (for critically decoding information). These abilities are rarely integrated and treated as a unified form of information literacy.

In the present study, students' peer-learning helped to cultivate information literacy comprehensively from information acquisition to transmission. Students conducted a project that involved collaborative learning between international students and local Japanese students. They collected data using various sources, shared information that they obtained and checked the reliability of the information as they sifted through it. In addition, it was necessary to convey information clearly. Students could thus develop their general information literacy in terms of both acquisition and transmission of information.

Course surveys were conducted several times to collect students' assessment of what they learned from the course to examine how the present application of teaching methodologies and ICT tools fostered students' information literacy.

As the results will show, some differences could be observed in the students' evaluation of this collaborative learning. For instance, some students evaluated the class highly while others did not. The students' ability to communicate by distance using ICT tools mostly didn't work well. The students who evaluated the class highly understood that they needed to use different strategies for distance communication than for face-to-face communication. They understood how to use ICT tools to facilitate communication well. On the other hand, the students who evaluated this class poorly regarded their problems as technical issues or related it to their language ability.

The presentation will close by offering advice to teachers on how to enhance students' information literacy with the goal of helping students understand that they need to use different strategies for distance communication than for face-to-face communication.