Going Mobile

Today we have been in a really interesting conference “Going Mobile” by Nicky Hockly.

This conference was mainly about the advantages, different ideas and ways of introducing students’ mobile in the English lesson to raise interest and motivation among them. Most of the time we  listen to teachers complaining about the fact that students are constantly checking on their mobiles phones instead of paying attention to what the teacher is saying or on the tasks they’re given.  We found out there are many ways in which mobiles can be used to perform different tasks by the students. We think this is a really interesting idea because students, especially secondary school students, spend many hours using them, so instead of neglecting them, we can get many benefits if we start using this device as a teaching material.

We believe it’s of paramount importance for teachers to reflect on how technological advances are changing our life, and start finding new ways to help students and scaffold their learning. They are digital natives, so it makes sense to teach using devices and materials they perfectly know how to use and they feel comfortable with at the moment of working.

So, next time you plan your lessons, think about this, and you will see the differences!    

To go to the link,  click here     

Designing your own Materials

There are many times in which teachers decide not to follow the traditional English coursebooks to teach, and instead they change directions and design their own materials. But why do they decide to take that course of action? According to Jocelyn Howard and Jae Major in their article “Guidelines for Designing Effective English Language Teaching Materials” there are many advantages to do this. We would like to talk about the different advantages and add some guidelines they also think are important at the moment of designing your own materials. 

An important advantage of teacher-produced materials is CONTEXTUALIZATION. A key criticism of commercial materials is that they are generic and not aimed at any specific group of learners or any particular cultural or educational context. For many teachers, designing or adapting their own teaching material, enables them to take into account their particular learning environment and to overcome the lack of “fit” of the coursebook.

A second area in which teacher-designed materials are an advantage is that of INDIVIDUAL NEEDS which refers to being responsive to the heterogeneity inherent in the classroom. In this way, the teacher can take into account learners’ first language and culture, their learning needs and experiences at the moment of planning.

PERSONALISATION is another advantage. Teachers can add a personal touch to the material they want to use in their lessons, increasing students’ motivation and engagement in learning. There’s also greater freedom and scope for spontaneity when teachers develop their own materials.

Last but not least, TIMELINESS is a further advantage. Teachers designing their own material can respond to local and international events with up –to-date, relevant and high interesting topics and tasks.

To sum up, we can say that designing your own teaching materials would add a unique dimension to your lessons. Not only would students feel more interested and engaged in what they are doing, you would also be able to help them in the process of learning in a way commercial coursebooks and materials cannot, since you are the one who knows the students in front of you better than anybody else.

Here we’d like to share some interesting websites you can use, if you are running out of ideas at the moment of creating your own material:

Howard, J. & Major, J. Guidelines for Designing Effective English Language Teaching Materials. Christchurch College of Education.

To see the link, click here

http://www.funenglishgames.com/

www.busyteacher.com

www.eslvideo.com

www.tefl.net

Thanks for reading !!! 

Working with WEB 2.0

Web 2.0 is a second generation in the development of the World Wide Web. It is the current state of online technology, which is characterized by greater interactivity and collaboration among its users. 

One of the most significant differences between Web 2.0 and Web 1.0 is that people not only can find things on the web but also make their own contributions by uploading, sharing and editing their own and other people’s files. The social nature of this World Wide Web is another major difference between the Web 2.0 and Web 1.0  since the former combines concepts, trends and technologies that focus on user collaboration, sharing of user-generated content and social networking. Examples of Web 2.0 include social networking sites, blogs, wikis, web applications, and video sharing sites.

As regards its benefits for education, we could mention the fact that since students are highly familiarized with internet connections this kind of online technology can be used to enhance individual motivation, improve learner participation and foster social and learning skills. Besides, learning 2.0 enables students to broaden their horizons and collaborate across borders, language barriers, and institutional walls.

Here are some practical ideas to use Web 2.0 tools in the classroom:

http://lyricstraining.com/ is a free and interesting website for students to practise their listening skills while having fun. It takes the form of a game in which students can choose their level of proficiency to start playing. As they listen to any song they want, they fill in the gaps. The faster they do it, the more points they get. We could use this site as a presentation or practice stage of the lesson. It is a useful opportunity for them to take advantage of their laptops at school replacing the traditional paper and pen. Besides, we consider that it would be more motivating and engaging due to the fact that they will feel they are not only learning but also playing.

Another attractive website is http://storybird.com/ . Here, students can create short, art-inspired stories to read, share and print with this flash-based resource. First of all, they need to log in to start working. They have a wide range of different pictures they can choose to write their own stories. Once they have chosen them, they can start writing poems, short stories or longer books related to whatever they like or the task already assigned by the teacher. After they finish writing, they can publish and share what they have done. Peers and everyone have the possibility to comment on their posts. There are useful ways to work with this website in the classroom. One idea we like is to read students a story and after that they will be assigned to change the end of the story and create a different one using this website. Then, they will publish their endings and their peers will be asked to comment on them.

To sum up, we can say that integrating technology into the classroom, such as the use of websites, will help students to make learning more memorable and significant and above all enjoyable.

Retrieved from  www.whatis.techtarget.com

Technology in the English classroom

In this entry, we would like to share our experience of working with presentations with students to introduce and develop a new topic. In the first place, we think digital presentations are a valuable resource. They could not only be used as a starting point to get students motivated and interested in what they will have to do but also as a way to make learning more significant.

At the moment of planning the presentation we will show to the students, and the kind of work they will have to do at the moment they produce their own material, we took into account the TPACK (http://tpack.org/) considerations in order to integrate and work with technology in the classroom. 

In this case, we used a presentation so as to introduce to students the model for what they will have to do later, in the production stage, as a means of providing them with a model on which they can base their own work. The purpose of the final project was to use technology in a creative and interesting way. We decided to use Prezi because students could create engaging presentations using text and pictures. What's more, as opposed to traditional posters, anyone can have access to it, so in that way students will be able to share their presentations with peers, family and friends, making their work more memorable and significant.  Students are familiarized with this platform, so they won’t have many problems at the moment of using it.  We also believe this will be all students need to work with. 

The grammar point (comparatives adjectives) was new for them so we prepared a number of different activities to present the new topic in an engaging way, using a video we found in You tube. 

In order to help students with the content of the presentations, we also prepared a number of different activities to cope with grammar, and to scaffold students’ learning, so they will be ready to create their own presentations. In this way, they will be prepared to complete the task successfully.

As a final comment, we think using technology in the classroom will help students to become more interested in learning English. As they are digital natives, it is highly important to give them something they will like and that they will feel comfortable to work with!

Websites in the spotlight .-

After analyzing the websites https://elt.oup.com/?cc=ar&selLanguage=en 

and http://www.eslkidstuff.com/ under the Lesley University criteria, we considered that they are very useful and reliable since, once you know this classification, you can take them into account and see if the website you are visiting follows these criteria.

As regards the most important points within the classification, we might find:

• ·         Reliability and Responsibility: In this section, personal information about the authors is presented. You get to know them, who they are, what they do for a living. What’s more, they offer you ways to contact them by different social networks such as facebook, twitter, blog and also via e-mail, so any need that you may have will be met by their reply, once you write to them.

• ·         Currency: It is very important that the page you are visiting is updated. Websites not only must continually evolve and be refined to meet the increasing demands of your audience, but also having fresh material added regularly to your site, keeps visitors coming back to see what's new.

• ·         Accesiblity: By using headings correctly and strategically, the content of your website will be well-organized and easily interpreted by readers. Besides, you have to make sure that there are no advertisements interfering with the page, if not readers might get distracted and deviate their attention to another point of concentration such as a game or a different page.

Taking these points into account, we hope you make use of them in the next webpage you visit, even more if you are going to quote some information from there. Good luck!   

Teachers and students in this new technological era

“Should the Digital Native students learn the old ways, or should their Digital Immigrant educators learn the new?” 

          In the last decades, technology has brought about several changes, which not only had a meaningful impact on everyday life but also had a significant influence on education. Nowadays,  technology plays a very important role in students' lives and, as a consequence, teachers need to find new methods to involve their students actively in learning situations.

     Marc Prensky distinguishes two kinds of students: Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants. Making reference to the former, he considers that these students are surrounded by technology from the moment they are born. The latter, people who were born before the advent of digital technology and they need to adjust themselves to this challenge.  We may consider ourselves to be in the middle of these two generations; even though we are acquainted with this “technological world”, there are far many things we don’t know or simply we have never heard about them before. As a result, there are lots of problems we face in order to keep in touch with new technologies. However, digital natives are a great help to cope with the problems that may arise using new technological devices.

    In this technological revolution, teachers need to find ways to approach their teaching. As Prensky mentions, games are a great way to get students attracted and motivated since they are in contact with learning material even without realizing they are. This is a useful and helpful tool to introduce language and learning in an indirect way.  The educational world would do well to consider how this could be exploited in order to enhance teaching and learning experiences of learners from the ‘Playstation Age’.

We, as teachers-to-be, need to bear in mind this new coming generation, we need to understand that they are here to stay so it is our responsibility to help and guide them in order to ensure a good learning experience.

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives Digital Immigrants. On the Horizon (MCB University Press, Vol 9. N. 5)

To see the link,  click here