group to promote equal participation and ensure everyone knew what they needed to do , e . g . leader , annotator , time-keeper , and presenter . 4
• After approximately twenty minutes , students were invited back into the main seminar room on MS Teams to discuss and debate the annotations as a whole group . Each small group ’ s annotations were visible to the whole group , so long as they were added in the ‘ class comments ’ section as per instruction .
This process was repeated , though the activities varied , in each seminar throughout the module , which not only created a sense of familiarity for students at a time of uncertainty during a global pandemic , but also enabled us to co-create a bank of knowledge that students were encouraged to return to and develop beyond seminars and in their assessments . On that note , let us turn to some of the pedagogical outcomes and implications of integrating Talis Elevate into this first-year English module , with particular focus on how it promoted critical pedagogic practices .
Pedagogical outcomes and implications of using Talis Elevate in seminars
There are multiple pedagogical benefits of using Talis Elevate in teaching and learning , including the promotion of active participation and ‘ deep reading ’ ( Wood et al . 2021 , 66 ). In what follows , I identify a series of additional outcomes and implications from a critical pedagogic perspective following my integration of Talis Elevate into seminar teaching for Playing Parts . The discussion focuses on two overarching areas : 1 ) Talis Elevate ’ s role in creating inclusive learning communities that empower students to participate actively in seminar discussions and 2 ) the potential for Talis Elevate to facilitate collaborative reading practices that enable diverse students to share their perspectives and gain insight into new and multiple interpretations of social issues in literary texts .
1 . Accessibility
The pandemic has made students ’ learning practices and circumstances more visible , with a recent survey demonstrating that a significant number of students are accessing learning on their smartphones either by choice or necessity ( Killen et al . 2020 , 6 ). However , as Jenae Cohn ( 2021 ) and Christine Fyfe ( 2014 ) demonstrate , students were engaging in learning activities , including academic reading , on smartphones and other devices long before the pandemic . 5 Having an awareness of the contexts in which students learn is vital for educators if we are to create accessible learning materials that all students can engage with . Talis Elevate can be accessed on a range of devices , including smartphones , which meant students could access and interact with the collaborative reading activities during and beyond seminars regardless of what device they were using .
However , access to technology is not the only barrier some students – and educators – face when learning online . Internet access has also been an issue ( Barber et al . 2021 , 65 ), one that has negatively impacted some of the students I taught in Playing Parts . For example , some students were unable to access MS Teams on several occasions throughout the module due to internet connectivity issues , hindering their learning by preventing them from participating in the synchronous seminar that week . In these instances , Talis Elevate provided a means for students to engage in seminar discussions asynchronously by enabling them to access , respond , and add to the group ’ s annotations on the sources by logging into Talis Elevate once they had a more stable internet connection . 6 Talis Elevate was integral to this process ; as a low bandwidth activity , it enabled students to engage in collaborative reading activities without incurring expensive broadband or mobile data costs . As a result , Talis Elevate helped to create an accessible learning community by making it possible for students to access the seminar discussions and engage actively with the readings both synchronously and asynchronously .
The ability to access resources on Talis Elevate before and after scheduled seminars additionally benefited students who had to miss seminars due to illness or time differences ( i . e . living in another time zone ), as well as students whose first language is not English . Students generally appreciated Talis Elevate for creating opportunities to access and interact with the sources within and outwith seminars at their own pace , especially because it gave them ‘ time to think about ideas rather than being put on the spot ’ ( as one student reported in the anonymous feedback form ). The accessibility of Talis Elevate not
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