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Wednesday 14 January 2015

Meet my gremlin

Scepticism


This is my main barrier to accepting new digital tools.  As I review the tools we are introduced to throughout the MA/ICT course, I'm going to allow my sceptical voice to have a say, but try to ensure that it doesn't dominate.  I hope that this will open up discussion with my peers.  This was very useful yesterday, when I couldn't see the point of Glogster.  Discussing this with someone who had used the tool to good effect really helped to convince me that it could also be incorporated into my practice.  Far too often my critical thinking turns into criticism, and wonder whether this has something to do with the digital divide, with age putting me on the wrong side of this phenomenon.  Warschauer (2004) focuses on the global, economic divide between the "haves" and the "have nots", but Hargitti's study (2002) refers to a second-level digital divide, identifying age as being negatively associated with ICT skills.  However, digital competence is not just about basic hardware and applications skills (procedure), it also consists of having an understanding of how to use appropriate tools to communicate within a digital context.  From a teaching perspective, it's not just about presenting information, but providing effective strategies for learners to find the answers for themselves. A teacher needs to use technology not just to assist language learning (CALL approach) but to provide an environment or context in which language exists and is used.



Tuesday 13 January 2015

Podcasting Tools

As I write this I'm still waiting for my trial recording to download. Every time the download is near completion, there is an error and it all starts over again. Not only is this very frustrating,  I find this tool quite complicated. However, the added value of being able to offer written feedback to student's recordings makes it worth persevering with.


All students learn English to be able to communicate in the language, and speaking is probably the most sought-after skill and sometimes the most difficult to get to grips with.  There's a lot going on at the same time - forming ideas and appropriate words, putting words in a coherent order, producing the necessary sounds and appropriate stress and intonation.  There's also register to think about.  Self-confidence also comes into play, with some students preferring to remain silent rather than utter an inaccurate sentence.  Exams focus is on accuracy in pronunciation, grammar and lexis and being fluent involves being able to keep talk flowing without hesitations.  I remember the stress of my French A-level orals and wish I could have had access to the technologies available today to practise and rehearse.

Podcasting Tools



Audio Recording

A very easy audio tool, which I can see as being useful for speaking practice, focusing perhaps on pronunciation.  Students can save their recordings and use them to track progress. The recording can be shared or downloaded onto MP3.


Audio recording software >>

Listening Skills

No more worries about archaic tapes and missing CDs!  There is now a plethora of authentic listening material on the web, which learners can access at any time and use in ways to suit themselves.  Learners can choose what they listen to and when and how they do it.  This turns them into active listeners - not the passive recipients of the outdated listening materials we have in class.  It gives them time to reflect and having control enables them to pause and replay, allowing them time to understand the content. 
Audioboo is a podcasting site, which not only provides lots of listening materials but also where teachers and students can make and post and share their own podcasts.  It could be used to send a pre-session listening task or listening materials could be sent after a lesson for students to review and develop.  
More ideas on how to use Audioboom and easy-to-follow instructions can be found on Russell Stannard's Teacher Training Videos site: http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/audio-podcasting/audioboo.html

Monday 12 January 2015

Asking the right questions

A lightbulb moment (thanks to Russell Stannard)

I think my acceptance of the implementation of new technologies into the classroom has been hindered by the need to justify it with proven added value.  Why bother, for example, to use "Tricider" to elicit ideas and promote discussion, when a simple low-tech brainstorm using post-it notes could produce the same results?
Russell put forward a very interesting idea on Friday regarding the questions we should ask ourselves......

The question shouldn't be whether or how technology improves learning.
The question should be how technology makes learning relevant for today's learners.

This is very helpful for me and I believe I can move forward in a much more positive way.


Thursday 8 January 2015

Will teachers be replaced by computers?

The Future of Educaton?


Sugata Mitra’s “Hole in the Wall” experiment (1999) aimed to prove that children nowadays do not need teachers to enable them to learn. Mitra claims that, with motivation in place and working collaboratively, children can learn from computers. Although these ideas (Mitra, 2003) have been criticised, particularly with regard maths and other skills, the fact that children needed to gain an understanding of English in order to navigate the kiosk computers does add weight to his claim that if children have interest and motivation, education will happen with or without a teacher. In Hyderabad, Mitra conducted an experiment to prove that computers can be used to adapt pronunciation. Children were observed learning to modify their speech in order to interact with the computer. Compared with the behaviourist activities of model and drill in the ELT classroom, this perhaps offers a much more effective, constructivist way to engage learners?  Mitra's TED talk is very interesting...

Wednesday 7 January 2015

Education for the 21st Century

How we need to re-think pedagogy


Heidi Hayes-Jacobs is an American educator, who in this clip maintains that we are still teaching within 19th century conditions, using low-tech materials (pen and paper) in a standards-driven climate that cannot prepare students for jobs in the 21st century and beyond.  Curriculum design is currently based on the assumption that learning is taking place and assessment serves to validate this by measuring achievement.  An upgraded curriculum should be mission-driven, reflecting the new literacies (digital, global and media-related) and be immediate and authentic in order to respond in real time to any gaps or repetitions.  Jacobs is an inspiring speaker and I particularly like her comment "people do dumb things with smartboards". The most important thing with digital tools is knowing how to use them in a way that adds value to the learning experience.   If I'm being honest, I currently only use technology to enhance presentation: a PowerPoint is more vivid than a whiteboard, and YouTube provides entertaining clips to give students an experience upon which they can reflect and subsequently work with and build on.  I use these resources to introduce new vocabulary, model pronunciation and demonstrate intonation and stress - but these are all forms of presentation.  Entertained they might well be, but are the students are still just passive recipients?   The new generation of learners live in a world where social networking prevails and they are comfortable with this form of communication and able to make immediate use of new, innovative technology and web-based applications.  The challenge for the language teacher is to align new technologies with theories of language learning. This blog will evaluate different tools, considering both the practical aspects and the benefits they offer to the language learning experience.  

Rethinking Pedagogy for the Digital Age


Changing Paradigms in Education

Let's begin by defining "to teach".
www.oxforddictionaries.com provide the following definitions:
1.  impart knowledge to or instruct someone how to do something.
2.  give information about or instruction in (a subject or skill).

Oh dear!  If this is the definition, then we're all potentially redundant!  A teacher cannot be a source of knowledge and instruction - everything anyone needs to know (and more) is available on the Internet.  I fully accept that our roles need to change.  Teaching needs to respond to the new needs of the millennial generation, who are growing up in a digital world.  This is why I have begun my journey to see how new technologies can be incorporated into my practice in ways that ADD VALUE to the learning experience.

My inspiration

This talk by Sir Ken Robinson started to get me thinking about the way we educate.  This was my starting point, and the reason I have embarked on my techno-journey.

Making Changes

Dinosaur No More

I've been teaching ELT since 2002 and over the years have accumulated a significant amount of paper:
My groaning resource shelf!

Does my ELT resource shelf need to go?  These resources have been collected over 12 years and I'm questioning whether they continue to have any relevance in the digital world.  Getting rid of these is going to be hard - they've served me well over the years.  When I was a CELTA trainee I was shown how to use photos and pictures to elicit response and bring out language and I would spend hours browsing magazines to pull out suitable images.  Thankfully, I've been able to ditch all of these dog-eared pictures, thanks to the vast image bank on the Internet.  It's so easy to find stimulating visual resources that also fit into the Equality & Diversity agenda.
The question is....
...will the digital tools and resources that we are about to be introduced to enable me to replace these old resources?  It will be nice to clear the shelf and get rid of clutter, but can all of these be replaced in a way that ADDS VALUE to my lessons?  My techno-sceptic self thinks not.