In contrast, when the participants wanted to explain the rationale behind the design of their blended activity, and its connection to how to resolve a challenge or problem they were having with their students’ learning, they chose images that could be used to explicitly signal actions or situations where discrete actions could be described. For example, one participant, [P11], chose an image of a person holding a clock to indicate
a lack of time, and of a mouth being taped closed to indicate a lack of communication or engagement.
In another example, the participant [P11] used an image of a DJ to represent her students’ task of introducing a Korean song as a radio DJ. However, the details of the activity as explained in the participant’s narrative suggested a deeper integration between the online and face-to-face component of the learning activity.
[The l]ast activity is being a radio DJ. In this, the students introduced their favourite K-pop song and explained why they choose the song and what's the story about it? The students record the story for one to two minutes and [make] lots of comments to two other students through the discussion board. I left a comment on every student.
This participant also highlighted how the process of the blended learning activity concluded with the amalgamation of a recipe book for her students that she had produced based on the Korean-language activity she had developed. The image she chose to use is shown together with the narrative:
Also, I prepared [a] surprising present for them. [The [l]eft one is [a] blog of group work, and the right one is my present. I print here all of group recipes and bound it as a recipe book. I wanted my students to see how […] obtaining the knowledge can produce something real. Through this process, I think students could feel more achievement.
These very action-based orientated narrations appear to have more connections and relevance to the corresponding images the participants selected for their presentation. In another example, one participant [P9] presented the idea of having to evaluate their blended learning activity or to collect feedback and comments from their students through the image of a clock and additional text to signal an action to evaluate and to indicate responses from the students.
In another example, the actions or decisions participant [P2] took in designing and implementing their blended learning activity were made more explicit through a series of action-implied images together with specific phrases or words attached to the image. For example, the idea of starting or beginning their design was referenced as “Dive In!” and the activity itself where the students were asked to make a series of decisions to complete the task was referred to as “Breakdown into Sections”.
Another participant [P9], highlighted their use of discussions to promote the idea of bilingualism using images of computers connected to the word “Forum”:
This occurred during the highly mediated event of Occupy Central4 when her students
were not attending classes. Though the context of her activity occurred at a time when political issues were highly debated and controversial, the participant later chose more iconic images as separate slides taken during this time of Occupy Central to demonstrate the feelings of her students on their online discussion activity. These images are easily recognised as the events and actions that happened during this period.
4 Occupy Central, also known as the Umbrella Movement was a political movement in Hong Kong during 2014.
In contrast to the levels of emotive-reflection that is evidenced through the images chosen by participants when they referred to their learning experience and perception, those chosen to describe their blended activity are more descriptive and provide a more analytical visual narrative. These very tangible, and action orientated images create the impression of a task-orientated approach to their Pecha Kucha presentations and give a more informative narrative of their blended learning activity. In addition, the images selected were quite ‘literal’ and their corresponding narrative could be partly matched to these images. For example, images used to describe either the challenge of the task being time-limited depicted by an image of a clock or the use of certain LMS features, such as discussion forums depicted by the image of the word itself or speech bubbles. Participants used more active or action-orientated images to describe the blended learning activity and this may suggest how they perceived blended learning approaches as a form of external intervention applied to their teaching practice. This may have been due to how they made active considerations and decisions to the outcomes of their subject and their students’ learning. Participants viewed their learning on the DBLT course as having an element of ‘doing’ and an active sense of participation which they
were able to recognise and reflect upon. During this process they were able to apply this action and adapt it to within the cultural context of their teaching.