Day 6. Technology takes you on a journey

Today was our sixth day and at the end of the day we saw that technology takes us on a journey.

First of all we need a central repository to organise our course. We are using Edmodo as the main repository and then all the technology tools that Edmodo offers such as creating quizzes, polls, discussions or assignments. And we are also including external tools like google docs, blogger and YouTube.

The basic principle we have to keep in mind is what we want to achieve as teachers and use the technology tools that best suit our students.

We discussed the SAMR model which is used a lot for research and it was developed by Rubén Puentedura. This model is divided in two parts: enhancement and transformation. 

a) Within the enhancement we can talk about substitution which means that technology acts a s a direct substitute, with no functional language; and we can also talk about augmentation meaning that technology acts as a direct tool substitute with functional improvement.

b) In the transformation part we can consider modification that happens when technology allows significant task design and redefinition because technology allows the creation of new tasks that were previously inconceivable.    

After discussing this model we reached the following conclusions:

• It's a model that helps you to decide quickly when you want to use technology.
• It shows the current situation.
• I's a bit complicated.
• The introduction of technology takes you on a journey because you are the teacher, you discover a technology tool and then you realised that you can make your students use it. You increase what you do, but suddenly the activity is more creative, but at the beginning of your journey, you can have no idea.
• To be on blended learning is a bit of being a risk taker.

Another issue of discussion was if technology was changing education. We read Russell's article: Is technology transforming education? and in groups we worked on google docs making comments, agreeing or disagreeing, adding new things or summarizing. These are some of our ideas:

• Using technology doesn’t necessarily make it dialogical,communicative, engaging etc.
• The teacher’s pedagogy or style of teaching/and giving feedback is what makes it transformative, not the technology used.
• Using technology should be collaborative. It should lead to self-evaluation and reflection. Learning should take place in a community
• The appropriate use of technology combined with right pedagogy shifts the role of the teacher because students have more responsibility and they learn to be autonomous learners while the teacher is the facilitator.   

• The most important thing is the way you use the tool / technology.

We discussed the advantages of using google docs in our classes.

• It's helpful for slow learners.
• Everybody can write at the same time.
• Everybody can see what the others are writing.
• Students can work collaboratively.
• It makes students work harder.
• It lets general understanding.
• I's one big communicative document that can be upload ton Edmodo.
• There is no need to take notes.

On google docs we can do a lot of things such as

• create
• share with a link or an email
• comment
• work off line
• chat
• see the history as all changes are saved in Drive
• add ons

Some of the activities suggested to do are:

• warm-up activity
• comment on a picture
• working in pairs and comment each others' work.
• collaborative writing  

Blogger

SnagIt

Edmodo

Google

The affordances of the technology tools will change depending on how you use it as your pedagogy is the most important thing. Technology just drives you and teach you to go on a journey of discovery.

In the afternoon, in groups of three we created our own Edmodo course. The key sentence was: Teach it Test it and that means to know what the students know. It was a three hours course and when we finished two of the groups explained their lesson plan to the rest of the class.

Education is changing and the change is happening before you can say knife.

Day 5. Blended Learning models

Today the class was mainly dedicated to read and comment some of the cases of study of the book Blended Learning in English Language Teaching: Course Design and Implementation edited by Brian Tomlinson and Claire Whittaker. 

In pairs we read one chapter and talked about it, we read seven chapters in total. Then, separately, we joined one person of the other pairs and talked about our chapter. In the end we told each other about the seven chapters. The last part of the activity was the discussion about the conclusions. So these are the principles learnt about Blended Learning:

• Online learning means less work for the tutor than blended learning.
• Blended learning increases the motivation and the autonomy.
• There is no right 'mix', it is always based on the needs of the students.
• The online stuff is the theory, the face-to-face stuff is the practice and that means flipped classroom.
• The results are similar to traditional learning.
• There is a very strong relationship between the teacher and the students on online courses.
• Retention is higher.
• Technology is optional in a face-to-face class.
• It is very demanding.
• It achieves more.
• The teacher needs to receive feedback from the students continuously.

Two important ideas that we have to keep in mind are:

• Build the language around dialogues and avoid the temptation of keeping throwing more grammar, vocabulary, etc.
• The aims have to be clear and organised. Keep it simple.

An experiment in class: the business illusion.

In this video you have to count how many times the people wearing white pass the ball. Most of us got the times right but we missed the gorilla, the changing of colour of the courtains and that one of the players on the black team left the room. Just a few of us noticed the changes. So, what does this mean applied to learning? It means that:

• There is a narrow focus when blended.
• Multitasking is not evolved.
• Task designing must improve, we can repeat things, but from a different position.
• If you work collaboratively maybe someone will see the gorilla.  

Merdev explained the technology tool Quizlet that enables students to create six types of activities: flashcards, learn, speller, test, scatter and gravity. You can create classes and folders to keep what you create. There is also a mobile version. If you don't have type to create the activities, you can find what somebody else has done and you can take somebody else card. It is not necessary to create things by yourself. we can watch two tutorials on Russell's website. Click on the picture.

 

I talked about how the VLE Schoology works. I showed the benefits of Schoology and how this VLE is more well-organised. Maybe we were a little exhausted and nobody asked questions, probably as we are focused on Edmodo they don't want to mix two virtual learning environments. Russell thinks that this VLE is more for adult students. I totally agree with him, I think it is directed mainly to adults and business or companies if you don't want to use Moodle. Probably, the thing is that Schoology is a little bit more complex than Edmodo, but it is not really difficult to use.

We can also watch to some webinars on Schoology. Click here.

If you can't decide which VLE you want to use, I recommend visiting these two blogs that compare Edmodo, Schoology, the first blog and Edmodo, Schoology and Google classroom, the second blog.

Day 3. A Blended Learning lesson

Today we enjoyed a very motivating blended learning class and we discovered new things to do with websites that we already knew. Click on the pictures to explore the websites.

              

We discussed the activities we can also create to add to those exercises on the websites in order to make our class a blended learning class. The key is thinking skills, you can'nt do everything in class, it is a question of selection, you have to select the tool of technology that suits best for your class.

The second part of the morning was dedicated to think about how we can use the wall on Edmodo to get our students engaged. Lots of ideas arose such as: 

• Comments on a photo.
• Finish a sentence.
• Alphabet chain.
• Word of the day.
• Favourite TV series.
• Top five books/films.  
• How do you feel ? You can write any word except FINE.
• Paraphrasing.
• Comments on a video.
• Answering questions.
• What would you like to talk about in your next class?
• Date: what happened today in history?
• Feedback.
• Controversial statements.
• What book are you reading at the moment?
• Describe your journey to work.
• What's the best/strangest story of the week that happened to you?
• Write a meaningful sentence using these three words.
• Cartoons.
• Polls for further discussions.

All this kind of activities shoud be done once a week, but NOT every day as students can be stressed with lots of tasks every day, for example it is good to do it every Monday morning.

After that we worked on how assignments work and how we can order all the content we upload in folders. Using Edmodo is very intuitive, but we always have to take into account that we have to be precise with the name of the videos and the folders in order to find them easily. Another good thing about Edmodo is that if you want that something appears always at the top of your Edmodo page, you can pin it. If you are working for a company you can pin your company logo or even if you are a teacher you can pin the logo of your school.  

Wow! The time has flown today and this is my idea of the day: content is what generates learning.   

Working on the Blended Learning course

Day 2. Using technology in and beyond the language classroom.

Our second day started doing an activity in groups of three and we chose one technology tool, resource or idea that we normally use in class, explained to the group what it is and how we use it and then we talked about the advantages of using it and said if we had any tips. As a feedback, we shared all the different technologies, ideas or resources with the rest of the group and I really discovered very engaging ones to put into practice.

One tip that we learnt today is that technology has to be in the right place at the right time. And we have to try to learn the right tools to use in our classes.

But the main question today was: 'What is Blended Learning?' Most of us said that Blended Learning is a combination of face to face learning and online learning and we reached to the conclusion that Blended Learning is NOT a combination of face to face learning plus lots of technology that is what we actually do in our classes.

Some of the main tips for a Blended Learning course are:

• You have to organise what is essential for the course.
• The pedagogy comes first because that will help you to use the technology. Whenever a new technology appears, there is something which is called the 'wow' effect. However, we should not be seduced by the novelty, we should always focus on the learners' needs. We should ask ourselves whether the technology will improve  teaching and enhance teaching. We mus ensure that the teaching is driven by the pedagogy and supported by the technology.
• Sometimes less is more.

To put all this in context we watched two videos, one about how to make Blended Learning work in our classrooms and another one about Blended Learning and technology integration as integration is a key concept because if there is a close correlation between the content of the lesson and the online materials, the online materials will be used more enthusiastically.

Blended Learning working in your classroom

It was very shocking listening to one of the students saying ' I have learnt more today than I have just learnt in a whole year'. Watching the video you can see that it looks very different in every classroom because everything depends on what the students need to learn. The students participate in the learning process and they record podcasts during class time, but it is not online. The important thing is the access at home because the evidence may take place at home. In this video we can see two parts:

1. The deliver of information watching Khan Academy videos, although the studenst say that they prefer to listen to their teacher.

2. The process of learning through screen casting technology.

What was really new for all of us was the statistics, the process that seems to be working and the use of a different activity for each group.  

Blended Learning and Tecnology Integration

In this video we can learn that Blended Learning is about instructional design and it is not using technology in class. Blended Learning has a collaborative component added to student's integration which means delivering and careful instruction planning.

Russell Stannard explaining Edmodo

In the afternoon we worked on a VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) called Edmodo which offers lots of possibilities for a Blended Learning course and for a Flipped Classroom. It didn't take a lot of time to learn the ropes of Edmodo as we are quite an homogeneous group in terms of technology. But the question is where does Blogger play a possible role on a Blended Learning course? It can be useful:

• to use it as a VLE;
• to use it as the online classroom;
• to use it as a class blog;
• to deliver information;
• to process information
• and to work individually or in group.
• It is certainly a great technology for trying all together.  

Working in class

After the classes, NILE offered a cultural tour around Norwich and this is a short story I have written based on a ghost story from this city:

THE LAVENDER HOUSE

'Plague. Death. The authorities ordered to check if the people living in the house were dead. No sign of life. In order to avoid the smell, they put lavender on their masks, they painted the red cross on the door and sealed it as well as the windows. After three weeks, they came back to pick up the corpses, but one of them had moved. The youngest daughter was not dead the first day they came, she was asleep, but three weeks later, she was and she didn't die of hunger.'

Based on a ghost story from Norwich