Blended Learning: what is it and is it useful?

The term blended learning was first used in American literature and following what Gynther (2005) explains,  it intends to understand the blend of traditional teaching and technology-based teaching making use of various pedagogical methods and different forms of technology.

As it was said before, blended learning is mostly understood as a way of blending face-to-face and technology-based teaching. Blended learning does not intend to replace any method in particular; as Tiirmaa-Oras & Torrao (2007) say, its main intention is to merge the two delivery modes into one, finding the right approach considering the possibilities, advantages, aspects and different priorities in face-to-face and technology-based teaching.

These two authors state that blended learning is not a new approach, instead, what they consider new is the wide range of components in a blend so the teacher’s job would be to decide the way in which these components should be blended to produce right blends, constantly striking a balance between face-to-face education and technological components in didactical methods.

Thorne (2003) suggests that blended learning, if it is to succeed, has to fit into the broader context i.e. that every time a teacher attempts to design, develop and deliver different types of blends, the learning outcome must be in focus and this could be achieved by investigating with a look at learners, culture, learning resources, electronic infrastructure, and so on. 

The potential of blended learning is almost infinite and represents a natural evolution from traditional ways of learning to a more personalized and focused way, so our task as future teachers would be to get involved and give it a try.  

Thorne, K.  (2003). Blended Learning: How to Integrate Online and Traditional Learning. Great Britain: Kogan Page Limited

Tiirmaa-Oras, S.; Torrao, S. (2007). Blended Learning: Research reports & examples of best practices. Estonia. University of Tartu.

Going Mobile

We are pretty sure that many teachers have experienced situations similar to the one you can see on the picture. Luckily, there is some discussion on the topic of mobile learning that helps us think on mobile devices not any longer as enemies of students’attention span but as tools to be included in our teaching proposal.

Recently, we had the opportunity to listen Nicky Hockly’s talk “Going Mobile”. She works in the field of EFL Teaching and Training and is Director of Pedagogy of The Consultants-E, a consultancy that offers online and face-to-face training to teachers who are willing to integrate technologies into their classroom or online teaching.

On this occasion, Nicky explained what mobile learning is and provided interesting examples as regards activities students can do with devices. An example she exposed in the talk is that, as most cellphones have audio recording and photo-taking capability, learners can record conversations and dialogues in pairs, or take photos out of class that can be used in classroom discussion, as well as part of a project.

The talk was really interesting and, as Nicky herself explained, when it comes to motivate and keep our students engaged in the tasks we propose mobile devices can be helpful tools. Moreover, it opens the door to a not less important issue in the EFL classroom: enhancing digital literacies.

You can find more interesting activities Nicky proposes in her blog.

Web 2.0



So far, we have been exploring new ways of integrating ICTs in EFL teaching, we have learned to analyze critically the sources and tools available, and we are now well aware of the relevance that digital literacies role will have in our teaching. This learning process, together with the making of this blog are part of a bigger, umbrella term: ‘Web 2.0’ and, as the name of this blog makes reference to, its influence and importance in Teaching.
‘Web 2.0 is the current state of online technology as it compares to the early days of the Web, characterized by greater user interactivity and collaboration, more pervasive network connectivity and enhanced communication channels. One of the most significant differences between Web 2.0 and the traditional World Wide Web (WWW, retroactively referred to as Web 1.0) is greater collaboration among Internet users, content providers and enterprises. Originally, data was posted on Web sites, and users simply viewed or downloaded the content. Increasingly, users have more input into the nature and scope of Web content and in some cases exert real-time control over it.’From: WhatIs.com
Among the range of web 2.0 teaching tools that are available to explore and use, we would like to comment on two belonging to Instructional Videos and Video Sharing category which we found interesting. One of them is TEDx and its youtube channel, TEDx Talks; it is an international community that organizes TED-style conferences. TED (Technology Entertainment Design) purpose is sharing riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world. The other tool, Tubechop, is an application that allows you to cut Youtube videos and share only the section that interests you, for free. It provides you with an embed code, a link, and the possibility to share the video.
When deciding to introduce a new topic with an instructional video these two sites (to see these and more tools go to: Edjudo) can be really helpful. We have chosen a talk by Michael Wesch, ‘From Knowledge to Knowledge-Able’ and we show you the most interesting part to us. Michael Lee Wesch is an associate professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State University. As you will see in the video, he is interested in the emerging field of digital ethnography, where he studies the effect of new media on human interaction. If you like to see more about Michael Wesch we highly recommend you to visit his website My Teaching Notebook.
Michael Wesch says we are headed towards ubiquitous communication and information, at unlimited speed, about everything, everywhere, from anywhere, and on all kinds of devices, which makes it ‘ridiculously easy’ to connect, organize, share, collect, collaborate and publish.We think he explains very well the web 2.0 current state we tried to describe above and its implications in students’ everyday life.

TPACK and SAMR Models

There are two useful models that help us understand the sometimes overwhelming challenge of integrating technology in our lessons, TPACK and SAMR.

TPACK is a framework that combines three knowledge areas and it looks at how they work together to increase students motivation and to make the content more accessible to students. As you can see in the image these three knowledge areas overlap.



The SAMR model describes technology integration in four levels, and categorizes those levels into Enhancement and Transformation.

Enhancement includes Substitution and Augmentation, whereas Transformation encloses modification and redefinition.

Now, this it may seem abstract and difficult to apply in an everyday lesson but if you work hard, you will be able to put all this into practice. We had to create a didactic sequence, the content to teach was “love/like/hate + -ing” and the task needed to be presented by the use of a PowerPoint presentation and/or any other technological device.

We decided to prepare a PowerPoint presentation about an ideal trip to Mendoza in which we were going to describe the activities that we like/love/hate doing and which we can do in that province. We agreed on using videos from Google Earth to show our students the different places. The final task for our students was to make a similar presentation (not necessarily using PowerPoint) in which they can talk about where they would like to travel when they finish high school.

Analysing our sequence following the TPACK model, we needed an extensive knowledge of the content and topic that we were going to deal with. We presented that content in an innovative way adapting the now technological materials to our students’ background knowledge and needs with the aim of facilitating their learning process.

If we analyse our sequence following the SAMR model, we used ‘substitution’ when we replaced the use of simple pictures by the videos from Google Earth. We also took into account that students were not going to write their presentation’s script on pen and paper but they were supposed to use Microsoft Word or any other word processor as well as when they had to show their presentations, they had to do it using any technological devices (audio files, images, photographs, videos) that they know instead of a poster, leaflet, etc.

Designing a lesson that includes technology is a time consuming activity, it demands a good predisposition on part of the teacher, a great knowledge of your students’ previous knowledge and needs, and being acquainted with the technology you are going to use in your lesson. It may seem impossible but it is not! We think that including attractive presentations in our lessons might engage our students and might make them feel that learning the language is not only “filling in the gaps” or “complete with the correct form of the verb”.

Sources:

http://www.hippasus.com/rrpweblog/archives/2011/10/28/SAMR_TPCK_In_Action.pdf

http://jaltcue.org/files/OnCUE/OCJ6-1/OCJ61%20pp%2041-51%20Taylor.pdf



Designing ELT Materials

In our previous entry, we said that analyzing websites is relevant when designing materials. In this opportunity, we would like to go deeper into this topic. Jocelyn  Howard and Jae Major, in their article Guidelines for Designing Effective English Language Teaching Materials, talk about why many teachers decide to produce their own materials, what to take into account when doing so, and finally they offer ten guidelines to apply when creating or adapting material.

Why?

The reasons why many teachers produce their own teaching materials may seem to be  related to some advantages such as the possibility to work with a more appropriate contextualisation. It is said that modern coursebooks are full of speech acts and functions based on situations that most foreign language students will never encounter. In addition, teacher-produced materials can be the best option in terms of both school and student budget and also “home-made” materials add a personal touch that students appreciate and can respond to local and international events with up-to-date, relevant and high interest topics and tasks.

However, there are certain disadvantages to bear in mind, one of them could be that teacher-designed materials may lack overall coherence and a clear progression, which can be frustrating and confusing for learners, they may also contain errors, be poorly constructed, lack clarity in layout and print and lack durability. Finally, no matter how passionately one may believe in the advantages of teacher-designed materials, a big drawback for many teachers is the lack of time.

What to take into account?

Howard and Major consider six key factors that teachers need to consider when embarking on  design:

1- First and most important are the learners, teachers must ensure they know their learners well.

2- The curriculum and the context are variables that will shape  decisions about teaching materials.

3- Teachers must be realistic about what they can achieve in terms of available resources and facilities.

4- Personal confidence and competence are factors that will determine an individual teacher’s willingness to embark on materials development.

5- Teachers need to be aware of the restrictions that copyright laws place on the copying of authentic materials, published materials and materials downloaded from the Internet for use in the classroom.

6- It is important to consider ways to make time manageable.

After reading this article, we can say that we found it extremely interesting and helpful. When considering designing our own materials, we need mainly to bear in mind that ELT materials should be contextualised according to our group of students, should stimulate real communication, be generative in terms of language, should allow teachers and students to make choices, and finally should be attractive and authentic.

Search and Information Literacies: Evaluating Websites

As we said in our first entry, we are far from being digital natives. However, this does not mean that we are not aware, as future teachers, of the greatly helpful tool that Internet sources represent when we plan our lessons. The big question seems to be: How do we know if the materials available in web pages are reliable, trustable and, most importantly, relevant to use them in possible lessons?

Luckily, there are some parameters that we can take into account when evaluating a website, such as: who the author/s is/are, available information to contact them, last time it was updated, its main purpose, etc.

To illustrate them better, we are going to present two websites that we have recently analyzed:

The first one, Pearson ELT provides tools for people of all ages and levels of proficiency. We can say that the webpage main purpose is commercial-educational because  textbooks, courses and resources are available in print, online and through multi-lingual packages distributed to teachers and students all over the world.

Pearson Catalogue

The website is owned and operated by Pearson Education S.A., a registered company in Argentina. Pearson is a well-known organization whose authors have sufficient authority to speak on the subject. They provide information to contact them.

Pearson Facebook Web page

Taking a closer look at the site, there is appropriateness of format, the content is classified into Primary, Secondary and Tertiary places, and also a place for exams, each containing downloadable material. The information is clearly presented, with colours and big clear font which is legible, formatted for easy reading. Fortunately, there are not advertisements. As far as we could see, there are no mistakes in spelling or word usage.

We can get in easily and quickly, and it is simple to move around the site, but, unfortunately, there is not another alternative for the visually-impaired.

We can conclude that taking into account the positive and negative things found, this webpage is a valuable and reliable resource for teachers.

The second web page that we analyzed is MES English, owned by Mark Cox, a teacher of English, MA in Applied Linguistics, who designs materials and resources for teachers since 2002. At first sight, the site is not attractive in design, the content is presented in categories that are quite disorganized and it contains distracting advertisements. Nontheless, the information of this website is accurate and  there are not areas under construction.

To contact him, there is an e-mail address, a link to a forum and to a Facebook web page.

Contact Section

The website covers the topic fully since there is a wide variety of resources for all ages, levels and needs. The site provides flashcards, videos, games and already made resources for teachers to download. The content is also helpful to students with different learning styles since you might choose to use flashcards, games, videos or phonic activities among others.

To conclude, we can say that both web pages are potentially useful for the classroom.

Finally, we should bear in mind that acquiring skills to recognize the authority and reliability of webpages is not only important for teachers to  design materials, but also, for students to be digitally literate members of their society.

Digital Immigrant Teachers To Be

Marc Prensky, in his article Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants assures that  “Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach”. The author explains this issue as if these two generations speak different languages. From his perspective, digital natives represent the first generation to grow up with digital technology while digital immigrants learn to adapt to their environment but retain one foot in the past.
While we are still reluctant to edit a document on screen, they are the multitask generation, they communicate and express themselves through selfies and in 140 characters, they are the YouTubers generation, they use and create Apps for almost everything, to name just some examples.
As Prensky pointed out, the single biggest problem facing education today is that Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language. Many teachers might be feeling this way when delivering their lessons, trying to adapt to a new environment all the time, and probably, this is how we might feel in our lessons too.
Following the categorization proposed by Mark Prensky, we have to face reality and consider ourselves as Digital Immigrant Teachers To Be but bearing in mind that there is still a long way to go and it will be mostly up to us to find ways to reach these new students and their new ways of learning.