A hybrid way of learning: Blended Learning

Hi there! Such a long time! In this post I would like to comment upon Blended Learning. It is an approach to teaching and learning which combines face-to-face classroom learning and online instruction, creating a more integrated approach for both teachers and learners. Blended learning courses are characterised by students attending traditional lessons and also carrying out tasks at home via Internet - thus, technology plays a more significant role in this approach to learning. In this way, students will have chances of learning both inside and outside the school.

The ultimate aim of blended learning is to provide opportunities for students to work both collaboratively (with teachers and their fellow students), and independently.

Blended Learning

Some advantages of blended learning are:

-it gives more possibilities for students to decide when, where and how they are going to learn. I consider this a benefit as not only is it more appealing and motivating for students, but it also offers opportunities for improving their time management skills,

-in case explanations provided by the teacher are not clear enough, students can make use of the virtual platform, and find further material so as to enhance their understanding of the topic dealt with,

-it caters for different learning styles and multiple intelligences,

-it gives more room for learner autonomy. Even though teachers could suggest some links or articles, it is the learner who has the final choice when it comes to expressing their viewpoints as regards a given topic,

-teachers can keep track of their students´ progress in a more detailed way,

-it is more in keeping with current needs for developing critical thinking in order to promote active participation in all areas of their lives,

-learners can develop necessary skills for making use of the Internet and computer technology.

On the other hand, there are some drawbacks as well:

-strong dependence on technical resources and internet connection,

-sometimes either teachers or students (or both) may expect the teacher/student to be always available for him/her at any time of the day to provide instant responses and feedback.

In my experience, during my teaching training course, we have been used to working with blended learning, which I find more than useful. We have worked with two education platforms (Edmodo and Moodle) in which not only have we downloaded information, but we have also had opportunities to speak our minds and share links, text, and information relevant for the course. I must acknowledge that it is demanding and time-consuming, but immensely rewarding. Have you ever had a teacher who has adopted this approach to teaching and learning? 

Here I post this video that will provide you with further information about this way of learning:

Dolors Reig´s Conference

Hi there! In this post I would like to comment upon a conference I attended in October entitled “Educar para las TEP (Tecnologías del Empoderamiento y la Participación).” It was held by Dolors Reig, a Spanish social psychologist specialized in the domains of Psychology and Social Media.

During the two-hour talk, Reig explained “la Evolución del Entorno Tecno-Social y del Conocimiemto” by making reference to three acronyms: TIC (Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación), TAC (Tecnologías para el Aprendizaje y el Conocimiento), and TEP (Tecnologías para el Empoderamiento y la Participación). Her standpoint is that, even though Digital Natives (Prensky, 2000) are incredibly skilful at utilizing TIC, they are not that skilful at dealing with TAC and TEP. She points out that TICs are the most widely used by adolescents since they make communication and interaction with one another straightfoward, but it is our duty as teachers to introduce the TACs and, mainly, TEPs in the school. What I mean is that by implementing these two new technologies we provide our students with an extremely powerful tool that allows them to broaden their participation. Even though she was interested in highlighting the importance of TAC and TEP over TIC, her main interest was in TEP. She strongly advised the audience to foster the development of educational environments in which students do have the possibility of speak their minds. These kinds of practices are the ones that will lead to active, well-informed and critical citizens, and will definitely bring about a positive change in society, provided we take into consideration that, together with participation and empowerment, we should teach values as well.

A further comment I would like to leave is that, even though Dolors Reig is pro-technology, she is perfectly aware of the fact that everything should attain a balance. Technology is an excellent resource when employed effectively, but, due to the current overwhelming and unstoppable use of technology, it is paramount to “Educar la Desconexión.” This consists of implement meditation in the schools as a mean of reflecting upon themselves and being conscious that face-to-face communication was, is and will always be essential.

To sum up, I would like to share with you the most thought-provoking piece of information I grasped from the conference. It shows the percentages that represent the way in which people assimilate information.

We assimilate:

-20% of what we hear,

-30% of what we observe,

-50% of what we hear and observe,

-70% of what we express by ourselves,

-90% of what we elaborate by ourselves.

Therefore, isn´t this an excellent reason for taking the plunge and support TEPs in the classroom? I would like to read your opinions! J

In case you desire to expand this topic, you can visit Dolors Reig´s Blog El Caparazón. 

Are these ones the Classrooms of the Future ?

Hi there! I would like to share a video I came across this week. It is an official video created by HP Corporation, one of the most important computer manufacturer in the world, which seeks to develop a “classroom of the future” by incorporating interactive, integrated and flexible solutions to the classroom.

Before watching the video, can you guess what the classroom of the future would look like?

This company has unveiled a whole line-up of digital devices officially called “HP Digital Learning Suite” that includes the following elements:

-HP Sketch: it is a wireless device that is connected to the teacher´s notebook, allowing him/her to have a look at the lesson plan while walking around the classroom.

-HP Pocket Whiteboard: this is another device that could turn any classroom surface into an interactive learning space.

-HP MultiSeat t150: it is an additional element that makes possible that up to ten students can simultaneously share a single host computer using just a simple USB connection.

-HP Presentation Station 1000: it is a “mobile teaching station” that enables teachers to walk around the classroom.

-20-Notebook Charging Cart and 30-Notebook Managed Carts:  they are like movable shelves designed to store and charge the portable computing systems inside the classroom.

-HP VantagePoint:  it is a touch interactive board that will replace the traditional blackboards. Below you will find another video in which Luca Di Fiore, the Senior R&D manager of HP, explains how this digital whiteboard can be used and the reasons why HP company decided to create it with educational purposes.

I must confess that this innovating classroom of the future thoroughly shocked me at first, but, after pondering about how technology has evolved in such a short period of time, this future seems to be highly likely. What do you reckon? Is this beneficial for the learning process or not? I would really like to read your opinions! 

What is Web 2.0?

Hi everybody! In this new entry I will comment upon Web 2.0: what it is, why it is different from Web 1.0 and, finally, I will outline some Web 2.0 tools that can be implemented in the EFL classroom. As theoretical support, I will make use of an informative article I found called “Evolution of the WorldWide Web: From Web1.0 to Web 4.0” (Aghaei, Nematbakhsh and Farsani, 2012). Even though it deals with four different webs, I will concentrate on Web 1.0 and Web 2.0.

World Wide Web (commonly known as “the web”), developed by Tim Berners-Lee, has evolved since its creation in 1989. The first generation of the web is called Web 1.0. It was used by just few people, mainly companies. Users could just read the information, with no allowance for collaboration. Moreover, it was unidirectional and included static HTML (HyperText Markup Language) pages that were not updated frequently. As regards the aim for which Web 1.0 was designed, the authors of this article state that “the main goal of the websites was to publish the information for anyone at any time and establish an online presence.”

Web 1.0 

In 2004, Web 2.0 (also known as “the wisdom web” or “web of communication”) was officially launched. Tim O´Reilly defines it in the following way: “Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform. Chief among those rules is this: Build applications that harness network effects to get better the more use them.” Web 2.0 is a dynamic, people-centred, participatory and collaborative web which allows us not only to read the information displayed, but also to comment on, transform information or create our own. It´s also bi-directional since, as I said before, it gives us the possibility of both reading and writing. Another characteristic is that these websites could be updated daily and that “one of the outstanding features of web 2.0 is to support collaboration and to help gather intelligence.”

Having explained briefly what Web 2.0 is about and its contrast with Web 1.0, I will continue by listing some web 2.0 tools that can be used in the EFL classroom:

-Blogs (Weblog): It is a personal website on which you can write “posts,” including pictures and videos. Furthermore, not only can you write entries and upload pictures and videos but you can also comment on someone else´s blogs. In my experience, I am using it right now with the aim of reflecting upon the different technological tools we can make use of when teaching. As teachers, we may choose either to create a blog yourselves and upload all our students´ works, or we can ask them to create their own blog in which they can express their opinions, exchange materials and experiences with people around the world.

-Wikis: it is another website that can be edited by anyone who has access. During these years I have been studying in the Teaching Training Programme we used wikis so as to construe summaries in collaboration with our classmates. Definitely, it has been an enriching experience!

-Social Networking Sites: they are websites that allow people to create an account with their own profile and arrange it as they like. Some of these sites are Facebook, Twitter, My Space, most of them being web-based. By having an account in these sites people can interact with other persons virtually, share ideas, pictures, posts, interests, events, likes, games, news and many other activities. In order to take advantage of these tools in the classroom, we can create a group in Facebook, for example. Hence, we could communicate with them inside and outside the school as well.

-Moodle (acronym for “Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment”): it is a free software e-learning platform which was developed in order to create online courses with a focus on the construction of knowledge in a collaborative and interactive way. In the Institute at which I am studying we use Moodle for the whole institute. There are ten different training courses and each of them has some “virtual classrooms” which can be accessed by entering a password. In these “Virtual Classrooms” teachers provide us with supplementary information and they also open forums for us to discuss certain topics, fostering autonomy, responsibility and collaborative work.

-You Tube: it is a website in which users can upload and share videos. As videos are engaging and motivating, we can ask our students to make a video either individually or in groups. Then, they can share it on their Facebook group or in the classroom.

-Flickr: It is an image and video hosting website in which you can upload, embed and share personal photos. If your intention is just to have access to photos and videos that appear on Flickr, you do not need to create an account, but if you want to upload photos or videos, you are required to register.

-Delicious: It is one of the most popular social bookmarking web resources that allows you to store, share and discover web bookmarks. Whenever you wish to save a link, you can do so in this website.

-Wordle: it is a website in which you can create a visual representation for text data. When you access to this site, you only have to write a definition, a sentence, a paragraph, whatever you want; then, you click on “go” and it is done! It is really easy to use and very innovative as well!

Here you can see one “word cloud” created with Wordle. Those words represent a description of my favourite animal which I used with a 4th Grade course while doing my Workshop III practices. Can you guess what my favourite animal is?

Word Cloud

-Voki: It is a website that allows you to create a customised avatar to which you can add voicing that could be your own voice or some others that are provided by the site. As regards its advantages, if you go to Voki Home Page, you can see the following ones:

-“engage students with Interactive lessons

-introduce technology in a fun way

-enhance language skills

-great for homework and projects”

Here I upload my Voki avatar with the the description of my favourite wild animal in case you could not work it out!

To conclude, I consider of crucial important to draw your attention to the fact that all these web 2.0 tools are extraordinary useful, eye-catching, appealing and motivating for students but bearing in mind your goals and the goals of the course as well, we should make informed decision as regards whether to make use of these tools in the classroom or not. Technological tools must serve some pedagogical objectives, if they do not, do not include them!

Finally, I would like to share with you a video which not only summarises and shows you what I talked about in this entry but it also leaves us some ideas and curiosities to keep on thinking about Web 2.0. and its effect. Hope you like it!

Designing Effective English Language Teaching Materials

Hi there! In this blog entry I would like to comment upon how to design effective English language teaching materials. Frequently, we ask ourselves why is it that we should design our own materials and we hesitate about whether it would be a good idea or not. For this reason, I would like to share with you an informative articled “Guidelines forDesigning Effective English Language Teaching Materials,” written by Jocelyn Howard and Jae Major (2005). This author states some advantages and disadvantages of designing our own materials, the factors that we should bear in mind when designing materials, and, finally, some guidelines for designing effective materials.

As regards the advantages, they provided the following ones:

-Contextualization: commercialised coursebooks and material are not designed for a specific group of students, they aim at a general audience and, consequently, they are not always suitable for the group we are teaching at. Therefore, many teachers decide to adapt or to create their own materials so as to make up for that lack of “fitting.”

-Resources available: we should take into consideration the resources we can make use of. In some teaching contexts we could have access to a vast array of resources whereas in some others we may not have even a board and a piece of chalk. Furthermore, there are schools in which there are no coursebooks or other already designed materials. Therefore, we should design our own. Apart from that, commercialised books are rather expensive and they could be unaffordable for the learners, the school or both.

-Individual Needs: no one can understand students´ needs better than their teacher. The authors of coursebooks have in mind a hypothetical audience when designing activities, but it is the teacher who knows her students, their needs, mother tongue, interests, strengthens and weaknesses. That´s why, many teachers choose to adapt materials so as to make them more suitable. Aside from that, sometimes the coursebooks present the topics in a certain way – almost always from a structuralist perspective – and the teacher may consider that the contents are valuable but not the way in which they are organised and approached. Consequently, teachers could adapt the materials in a way that suits both her view of language and her view of language learning.

-Personalization: teacher-produced materials are a way of adding a personal touch to our teaching. We do so by taking into account our students´ needs, interests, level of language proficiency, their learning styles, and multiple intelligences. Students will feel much more  motivated and engaged. Besides, they do appreciate our efforts!

Disadvantages:

-Organization: whereas coursebooks tend to be organised following a certain pattern, which tend to give both teachers and students security, some “home-made” materials may be incoherent and lacking a unifying theme

-Quality: Sometimes teacher-made materials may contain errors. Moreover, they could lack durability and be unclear as regards their organization and print. 

-Time: you may be highly enthusiastic about designing your own materials but sometimes, especially if you are a “taxi” teacher (a teacher who works in many schools), you don’t have much time to do so.

Factors we should bear in mind when designing materials:

-Learners: this is the most important factor to be considered. We should design our materials according to our students´ s needs, interests, motivation, specific individual needs, and their purposes for learning English.

-Curriculum and context: both of them will influence our choices when designing materials since “a curriculum outlines the goals and objectives for the learners and the course of study” (Howard, 2005). Nevertheless, it is our responsibility to ensure that those goals and course objectives stated on the curriculum are achieved.

-Resources and Facilities: when designing materials, we should think about the resources available in the context we are teaching. We should be realistic!

-Personal confidence and competence: whether we are willing to run the risk of designing materials or not will very much depend on our self-confidence and competence. Many teachers decide to rely  on coursebooks completely since they do not believe themselves to be capable of undergoing this task of producing materials. Generally, what teachers tend to do is to add activities, leave some aside, replace or adapt them, or to change their organisational structures.

-Copyright compliance: we should be aware of the lawful restrictions when directly copying authentic and published materials, and materials downloaded from the Internet.

-Time

Guidelines:

1-English language teaching material should be contextualised: Materials should be contextualised to the curriculum they are intended to address, to the students´ realities, needs, interests, experiences, reality, mother tongue and culture, and to meaningful and purposeful topics and themes.

2-Materials should stimulate interaction and be generative in terms of language: language should be used for real and purposeful communication. Language-teaching materials should aim at fulfilling this communicative purpose. In real communication we need to have something to communicate to someone with an intention.

3-English language teaching materials should encourage learners to develop learning skills and strategies: It is important that language teaching materials help students to learn how to learn not only within the classroom but also outside the classroom, fostering their autonomy and self-assessment.

4-English language teaching material should allow for a focus on form as well as function: Form is just one of the sub-systems of this system called “Language.” Consequently, we cannot focus only on one aspect. Form goes hand in hand with Function, they are intrinsically interrelated. Hence, one cannot be separated from the other.

5- English language teaching material should offer opportunities for integrated language use: commercialised materials tend to focus just on one skill at the time. Therefore, designing our own materials is an excellent opportunity to integrate the four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing.

6- English language teaching material should be authentic: they should be authentic not only in terms of the texts presented (written, spoken and visual ones) but also in terms of the tasks they should carry out. 

7- English language teaching material should link to each other to develop a progression of skills, understandings and language items: all the tasks and activities designed should be interrelated and organised following a specific pattern.

8-English language teaching material should be attractive: teacher-produced materials should be attractive as regards physical appearance, user-friendliness, durability and ability to be reproduced.

9- English language teaching material should have appropriate instructions: instructions should be clear, simple, short, to the point and one at the time.

10- English language teaching material should be flexible: These materials should be flexible in terms of content. They should offer a wide range of possibilities from which students can choose from.

After having read this article for the first time, I immediately considered it to be a must-read piece of writing as it is clear, brief and to the point. Many times we decide to design materials but we need some guidelines in order to create appropriate, practical and suitable tasks for the particular group of students we are working with.

All in all, before designing our own materials, we should weigh up its pros and cons, keeping in mind some factors, guidelines and, above all, always maintaining the focus on our objectives and  our students.

Finally, just a reminder:

Never forget your aims!!!!!!!! 

ICT in the EFL Classroom

Hi there! This year we have worked with an article called “Technology in the Classroom” (Dudeney, G.& Hockly, N). It deals with the use of technology in the classroom, making emphasis not only on its importance for the teaching and learning process, but also on the fact that technology is not new since we could consider traditional tools such as the board as technology as well. But, even though technology has been present in language teaching since the 1960s and 1970s, nowadays it plays a more important role in engaging 21st century students. Technology in the EFL classroom is already part of our EFL classrooms. Nowadays many students can access to these communication technologies, and they find it much more motivating and enjoyable working in class with these advances as they can obtain further authentic data on the Internet, listen to real native speakers talking, read English articles, newspapers, look for extra information about a topic dealt with, watch series, and so on. Furthermore, in many language schools interactive white boards were imntroduced and, as this is something fairly new, they love working with it while learning.

We, as teachers, can also take advantage of technology. They are really useful for designing appealing and attractive materials for students, looking for extra information, keeping up-dated with courses provided by different universities, communicating with our students through the Internet, keeping in touch with colleagues if any doubt arises, and also challenging ourselves to prepare more pleasurable lessons.

The authors of the  abovementioned article listed some reasons why technology became increasingly important for language teaching:

-"Internet access is becoming increasingly available to learners.

-Younger learners are growing up with technology, and it is natural and integrated part of their lives.

-English, as an international language, is being used in technology-mediated contexts.

-Technology, especially the Internet, presents us with new opportunities for collaboration and communication between learners who are geographically dispersed.

-Technology is offered with published materials, such as coursebooks and resource books for teachers.

-Learners increasingly expect language schools to integrate technology into teaching.

-Technology offers new ways for practising language and assessing performance.

-Technology is becoming increasingly mobile. It can be used not only in the classroom, lecture hall, computer room or self-access centre, but it can also be used at home, on the way to school and in Internet cafés.

-Using a range of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) tools can give learners exposure to and practice in all of the four main language skills – speaking, listening, reading and writing."

Although this article dates from 2007, all the reasons mentioned by these authors are undeniably true and all these predictions became true. However, under no circumstances should we forget that technology is one more tool and that the principal aim of utilizing new technologies in the EFL classroom is to enhance the language learning process, which could be done by using tools that our 21st century students are familiar with and attracted to; but not to implement it just for the sake of it, without having a clear purpose. 

To sum up, I would like to quote a sentence from this article that I consider thought-provoking: “(...) the use of technology in teaching becomes as natural as the use of books or pens and papers.” Even though it could sound quite weird for many people, this is our reality in the 21^st century classrooms. If you feel like, you could express your viewpoint on this topic. I would really like to read your comments!!

The old and new technologies together to enhance the learning process

Including Software Presentations in the EFL classroom: PowerPoint and Prezi

Hi there! This time I would like to comment on the second practical work we carried out for this subject. The assignment was to work in groups of three and to design an imaginary lesson based on a topic provided by our teacher (“Night Out”), including either one of these two programmes or both of them.  We took some ideas from Unit 5C from New English File Elementary coursebook and organised our lesson including both software presentations.

Concerning PowerPoint Presentations, I have already worked with it for other subjects in the teaching programme. At the beginning, as it always happens to me, I felt that it would be impossible for me to use it, but, by exploring the programme little by little, I was able to do it. Yes, I couldn´t believe it but I did it!! For the abovementioned practical work we worked with this software so as to deal with the song “Dancing Queen” by ABBA, which was related to the topic of the lesson. We wrote the lyrics and students were expected to choose the right option while listening to the song twice. Then, they looked at the official video of this song with the lyrics written on it in order to check  whether they have chosen the correct option. Apart from that, we also prepared another PowerPoint presentation aiming at practising the pronunciation of the past forms of a limited number of verbs presented in the coursebook.

Even though it took us time to prepare the two PowerPoint Presentations, I must admit that the huge challenge was Prezi. I felt rather lost as I had never used this programme before. Fortunately, one of my classmates explained to me how it works.  We prepared a presentation in which we described our last night out. My group consisted of 2 girls (Rocío and I) and 1 boy (Renzo), therefore, we described “Renzo´s Night Out” and “Rocio´s and Gisel´s Night Out.” We used the vocabulary the learners had already seen and added some new vocabulary items. The objective of this presentation was to provide a model for the students to describe their last night out as a final project which would be presented to their classmates in two weeks’ time.

 My first reaction when our teacher proposed this practical work was relief because it was in groups and you always learn from your peers. But the challenge, as I mentioned before, was the Prezi presentation. To my surprise, it is not as difficult and scaring as I thought! It is a bit more demanding and time-consuming but more eye-catching and engaging for students. Therefore, it did worth a try!

As it usually happens with technology, there are advantages and disadvantages. Some benefits of implementing this kind of presentations in the EFL classroom are that they are easy to organise ideas and modify, you can insert images, they are colourful, attractive and with innovating designs, they also break the mould (especially with Prezi Presentations) which will catch students´ attention easily. On the other hand, some drawbacks I could mention are that you need basic equipment if you want to display it for the whole class (you need a computer and a beamer), it is not advisable to use too many animations, flying letters, and sound effects since they distract the audience, achieving the opposite effect.

Having said all this, I would like to give you two pieces of advice: the first one is that it is marvellous to include technology in the classroom but don’t forget that, just like coursebooks, it just is a tool that should support the teaching and learning process and we couldn’t include it just because it is original and in fashion. We should always bear in mind the objectives of the lesson. And my second piece of advice is don’t panic, just start exploring the programme little by little by trial and error and in that way you will discover all the functions the software offers.

PowerPoint 

Prezi

Below I share with you the Prezi Presentation we prepared for this imaginary lesson. Hope you like it!