Flipping the Classroom

A great tool for the Flipped Classroom is mybrainshark:  http://www.brainshark.com/mybrainshark
Teachers can present language focus or ideas by video for students to work on before they come to class.  Once in the classroom, emphasis can be on group work.
Aaron Sams was the pioneer of classroom flipping and the rationale behind the flipped classroom model is explained very clearly in this YouTube clip.

I used mybrainshark to produce a short presentation to prepare my students for an upper intermediate writing skills class.  The rolling programme in my department means that students can enter a class at any time during the term.  There are frequent gaps in knowledge and learners approach language from different levels - some will be well acquainted with the language focus, whereas others might be meeting it for the first time.  Getting them to see the presentation at home, in their own time, allows each student to use the material to suit their individual needs, enabling the weaker learners to review the content as much as they need.  Students come to class prepared to move forward with differentiated group activities, with the teacher facilitating and supporting rather than presenting.

There are some obvious flaws with this model.  For example, just as we get students who don't do their homework, there will be students who come to class who haven't viewed the pre-session material.  This model also assumes that technology and internet connections are available to all.  Preparing materials is also an extra workload and burden for overstretched teachers.  However, it could be argued that presentation slides would have to be compiled for the lesson anyway and differentiated groupings in class could and indeed should be employed to allow individuals to work at their own pace.  Students who don't do the work at home, will simply not see such accelerated progress as those that do.  In theory, the  classroom that has been flipped becomes an active, collaborative, social environment, where students engage and are motivated to learn.  It sounds like a perfect model for language learning, and is something I will definitely try.  

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.

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.  

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.