Loosening the reins of teacher control: Empowering student writers through web-based tools

<p dir="ltr">This chapter explores the pedagogical implications of opening up teaching and assessment practices to include guided student use of online tools as sources of knowledge. Using the author’s reflections as an action researcher in an Australian tertiary setting, it presents and evaluates a project on technology-enhanced writing in an AL context, using a specific feedback protocol that avoids direct correction in favour of encouragement of student agency, including individualised consultation of online tools such as dictionaries, concordances, grammar checkers and machine translation (MT). The paper is structured following an action research cycle of observation, reflection, planning and action. The first section describes the context in which the project is carried out and the problem requiring critical attention (observation). The second discusses the principles important to the design of the feedback protocol (reflection). This protocol is then presented (planning), followed by a description of its implementation (action). Data from a cohort of students using the protocol are presented as a second observation section, leading to further reflections. The paper concludes with recommendations for educators and students planning their own teaching and learning. Book Abstract How can languages and cultures in Australian higher education be disrupted, decentred and diversified? Contributors to this volume advance theoretical, critical (self-)reflections and position papers, pedagogical explorations of classroom practice as well as data-driven empirical investigations to challenge, resist and stretch how languages and cultures are both taught and imagined in research. From metaphorical conceptualisations of knowledge production, discussions of virtual reality, and innovation and creativity viewed through the lens of Indigenous epistemologies, to language learning curricula designed to challenge heteronormativity and cisgenderism, and a reconceptualisation of the role of language educators as designers, each chapter emphasises the vital role of innovation as the driving force of positive disruption. What emerges here is the resilience and adaptability demanded of languages and cultures researchers and educators as they navigate an ever-shifting educational landscape. Taken as a whole, this volume serves as a testament to these scholars’ collective capacity to adapt, evolve, embrace and actively drive change, fostering a more diverse, equitable and inclusive future for their field.</p>