Technology and Multitasking

Google apps for education

This has been another "hands-on" session and we worked in pairs to design activities using two google apps.

• google forms

• google slides

We had a go to create our own forms and slide presentation and tested them on our classmates and afterward had discussed the possiblitites they offer for collaborative work.

This is an example of collaborative work with Beata Palinska. I was impressed about how you can work to create a presentation (similar to ppt) with someone who is physically not in the same room.

 It was nice to use the chat and come to an agreement on content, layout and work share.

A presentation on Madrid. Click here

How does technology contribute to the learning process?

Once again we can't give for granted the value of using technology in our classes. We should look at the teaching practice from a broad perspective. There seems to be lot of controversy in the use of Technology. We looked at the digital era from opposite views. For those who are totally in favout of using Technnology, teachers should let the lesson go and stop controlling students progress. According to them it is simply a question of a setting the correct task and everything else falls into place.

We watched an interesting experience carried out by Sugatra Mitra in a slum in Delhi: The hole in the wall

What Sugatra Mitra organized for the kids was a SOLE, Self Organized Learning Environment. This is called minimally invasive education

Learning takes place with the correct combination of :

broadband connection + collaboration+ encouragement

How much can our brain take in at once?

Is multitasking really effective?

There seems to be a narrow relationship between using New Technologies and multitaskis

We discussed  how multitasking (or the time we spend online) may affect the way we think.

The term Neuroplasticity came up and the watched some videos with experiments that would bring some light on the topic.

Clifford Nass describes the effects of Multitasking on our brain.

Here is a recommended book on the use of ICT in the English classroom

A book on brain science and how attention will affect the way we live, work and learn.

Other interesting webs:

Hepell Stephen, a leading voice on The use of ICT in education.

Carr Nicholas, The shallows. Book review

Nass Clifford The myth of multitasking

Salmon Gilly's Five-Stage Model of E-learning.

Flipping the classroom

Flipped Classroom  
Today our lesson was devoted to Flipped Classroom.
We have discussed different aspects of this new approach to teaching. We realized that maybe some of us were already flipping without even knowing about it. It is one of those cases when practice comes before theory, or before a name has been coined.

1. What is FC?
2. What is the theory behind it?
3. Challenges
4. Technolgies we need
5. Is FC the same as BL?
6. Is FC relevant to ELT?

We worked in groups expressing our ideas about the different aspects on a google document and we shifted resposabilities and built onto what other groups had already expressed ading our own contributions.
We watched some videos about the principles of FC and the example of a school that had implemented it. We learnt about the reasons, the proces and the final outcome.

 

 In FC the delivery of knowledge takes place outside the class and the processing of the knowledge is in class. In a word, we are reversing the order of traditional methods. To follow the ideas expressed in Bloom's taxonomy, the critical thinking that takes place in cognitive engaging activities should be carried out in class whereas the discovery and undersanding is done at home. It allows to free more time in the classroom.

The risks of this approach is student's work overload. We may end up adding more and more. Antoher of the hurdles to implement FC might be the learning culture of our students.
The needed technologies: an LMS as central repository and location for your teaching (Edmodo, moodle, schoology, blackboard, google apps for education...) and tools to make content (snag it, camtasia).   

Personalisation and learning pace are key factors rather than Technology itself. Ar the end of the day you can flip the classroom with hard copies of materials so it is the approach about how to organize the order thinking higher order skills in the learning circle to maximize time. 
It's obvious that task types in class under a FC approach are different. They allow better checking students progress. This has obvious consequences in Assessment. Assessment can't be the same as in a more traditional setting. Missalignmet between the class and the assessment should be avoided by all means. 

Conclusions
The virtuous circle of success should always incorporate an element of reflection (Test-Teach-Test).
 Technologies are just a way to facilitate the teaching and learning process. 

To learn more about Flipped Classroom 
 

Here is an article by Russell Stannard on the topic. 
Here is a power point on the topic.

Flipped classroom Infography

Bloom's taxonomy in Blended Learning
Reflection as a a tool for teacher development.
Additional reading on the role of reflection in Teacher's development (NILE student's Dissertation).

Hands-on session

They say we always remember much better by experimenting and doing things by ourselves than being simply told or shown . So we have devoted it our morning session to a "hands on" practical session in which participants would sit and work on different work stations.  Each station reprenting the different technologies we had seen so far Quizlet, Grammarly, Kahoot,You tube, ThingLink, SnagIt and Catasia. Thes two last ones are ideal to record videos and a useful tool to screencast as a means to provide  feedback.
We had a go at creating activities with each of the technologies, opened our own accounts and helped each other with the most advanced features of each programme.
For more information and tutotials on the different technologies see Tools and Technologies in this blog .

This is a video I recorded of the class with my mobile phone, uploaded in Youtube channel and shared with my classmates in edmodo as an example of the multiple teaching possibilities having a YouTube account offers. You can see how hard Russell and my colleagues worked. It was all done in the blink of an eye, so next year I am going to record my students and upload them to my YouTube channel, provided they don't mind me dong it.

Blended Learning and multitasking

Blended Learning in English Language Teaching: Course Design and Implementation Edited by Brian Tomlinson and Claire Whittaker

We have read and discussed in groups some chapters from the book on Blended Learning by the British Council that present several study cases.It was great to go around and share the information about 7 different chapters in a relatively short time span. ...feels like creativity is the key to make blended learning work in multiple contexts. It is just a matter of finding the right tools for your students and redefine the learning process to create a continous flow between the F2F and online or ICT components.

 To access the book click here.

Then we discussed the principles underpinning Blended learning.

• There is no "right" mix
• Online component deals with theory whereas F2F deals with practice = flipped classroom (Examples Delta and Celta certificates)
• Higher scores
• Higher drop outs (example MOOCS from MIT and BC, Future learn) 
• Better Retention
• Balance between Technical and content demand (cognitively difficult) ( handholding students)
• Course needs revisiting (practice-reflect-redesign)
• Teacher's supervision and promptness at replying. 
• Risk: too many aims, too much technology (because of the speed tech. develops). No adding but replacing. (A good rule of thumb:you put sth in then get sth out)

MULTITASKING

The Monkey Business Illusion by Daniel Simons about selective attention task.

For more on this topic visit this site

Implications  that selective attention may have on teaching and learning. It makes you wonder how shallow our learning is. Deep thinking doesn't take place when multitasking, then we need attacking issues from different angles. If the video was viewed as a collaborative  activity some in the group would have seen it.

• students focus down on one specific aspect
• objectives may need to be attacked from different angles
• collaborative work helps widen focus (tidy student working with the crazy artistic type)

Multitaskers are easily distracted. 

On this topic there is an interesting book "The Shallows" by Nicholas Carr. Listen to the writer.
.

Integrating Technology and traditonal teaching

The morning started by discussing listening activites in EFLand how to integrate those more traditional classroom activities and those that are technology driven.

We put this into practice ourselves with a listening on some research about the "Benefits of Reading". Reading a book for just 3.5 hours a week could help you live longer.

(Funnily enough I  read the story on the net not long ago, it was an article from The Independent that has gone viral in facebook on this topic: how reading contributes to longevity.)

After listening to the research the students get together and compare notes. After that there are several possibilities to create activities technology driven: text jumble, sentence building, jumbled sentences, gap filling
"Listen a minute" is a site with examples of these type of activities.
The pros of the activity: reasons for listening and taking notes, and after that good way of recycling vocabulary and structures.
Possible follow up tasks: Students get together and are requested

• to design a class survey
• to create a storyboard about the books they have just read (WallWisher)
• to recommend a book they have just read (
• to write a book review
• to find some research on internet and present statistics

Breaking News English another interesting website .

Dictogloss: a type of activity that glamorizes dictation. The teacher reads a story once while students take notes, teacher reads the text again, students take more notes and compare in pairs, then in little groups have to rewrite the whole text. Finally they compare with the original.

Here is a good story I found in the British Council to be used for this kind of activity. It is a listening activity with a vocabulary purpose as it focuses on learning some collocations that upper-intermediate students are expected to learn.

I met my ex-husband in 1995; we fell in love at first sight. We had a fantastic relationship for three happy years. Then, on our third anniversary, he proposed and we got married six months later. At first, everything was perfect; we both did the housework together; I did the washing-up and made the beds and he did the cooking and the shopping. He always made a mess when he did the cooking, but I didn’t mind because the dinners were always delicious.

Everything changed after a few years when he got a new job in Manchester; we made the decision to move there, so he wouldn’t have to take the train to work every day. He started working later and paying less attention to me. He stopped doing the housework, so I had to do everything. He made a lot of promises but then he would break them. He was very stressed and he started to go bald, he got very depressed about this and started getting drunk after work. I was getting very worried about him. He would always come home drunk and make a mess. Then, one day, while I was cleaning his clothes, something caught my attention. It was a lipstick stain on his shirt. I got very angry; he was keeping a secret from me! That night when he came home, I confronted him and he broke the news to me: he had been having an affair. It broke my heart. I kicked him out of the house and we got divorced two weeks later.

Text with gaps:
I met my ex-husband in 1995; we ____ in love at first sight. We ___ a fantastic relationship for three happy years. Then, on our third anniversary, he proposed and we ___ married six months later. At first, everything was perfect; we both ___ the housework together; I ___ the washing-up and ____ the beds and he ___ the cooking and the _______. He always ____ a mess when he ___ the cooking, but I didn’t mind because the dinners were always delicious.
Everything changed after a few years when he ___ a new job in Manchester; we ____ the decision to move there, so he wouldn’t have to ____ the train to work every day. He started working later and ______ less attention to me. He stopped _____ the housework, so I had to __ everything. He ____ a lot of ______ but then he would _____ them. He was very stressed and he started to ___ bald, he ___ very depressed about this and started ______ drunk after work. I was ______ very worried about him. He would always come home drunk and ____ a mess. Then, one day, while I was cleaning his clothes, something ______ my attention. It was a lipstick stain on his shirt. I ___ very angry; he was _____ a secret from me! That night when he ____ home, I confronted him and he _____ the news to me: he had been ______ an affair. It _____ my heart. I kicked him out of the house and we ___ divorced two weeks later.

Lecture Programme

Today is Wednesday so this is a much shorter session as  in the evening there is a talk by a guest speaker. Today, Jeremy Harmer  on coursebooks "Back between covers". Watch the talk at Nile online library.

Giving feedback

Language learning
Key Ingredients to guarantee effective language learning.

• motivation (goal), 
• determination
• exposure, 
• use (pick any bit of E. that comes your way)
• aptitude (some people seem to have a natural propensity and make better learners)
• meaningful communication
• Reading (essential at certain levels to process the language and bring your level further up)

Best example: Russell's method of learning French: lots of listening to podcasts, reading, watching news in F. grammar as it is needed. Result: very competent in speaking despite lower grammar level. It does come a point when grammar is important.

Teachers should have their own principles and truly believe in how a language is learnt. This is known as teacher cognition (Simon Borg)
I'm really pleased because I see eye to eye with Russell that meaningful content is more effective than grammar. Again, Technology is only a tool to reach our objectives. Russell started using technology in 1995 but he  was already doing a lot of group work and pair work.

Screencasting, an effective way o providing feedback

Russell Stannard presents the three most popular technologies from his very popular and user-friendly website www.teachertrainingvideos.com.  

Russell Stannard presenting 10 ways to use screencasting

Russell Stannard with an Introduction to SnagIt.

The fact of recording whatever you do and can see on a computer plus your voice commenting on what's going on.
This is revolutionary teaching idea that has multiple uses: to deliver content (teacher) and also to process it (student)
The main use is that it can be used to give students feedback on their written and aural work. techer can provide the marking scheme/ assessing criteria before actually correcting whatever the students produce.

Advantages:

• Rich content (much more information is coveyed, we speak 4 to 7 times faster than we write)
• Formative
• Personal (one-to-one teaching)
• Focused,(much clearer explanations for the student)
• Good listening practice of natural language
• Dual coding: using visual and audio elements at the same time enhances working memory (Richard Mayer)
• Allows reviewing.

An example of good use of screencasting: as students' reflective exercise. Russell's experiment: He set an assigment for his students to do, he got it backto be corrected, gave each student a mark without letting them know. Then he wrote a checklist of what he expected to read in those essays and recorded it. He sent it back to his students and asked them to score their production. Most of them scored their mark lower than he as a teacher had.

Possible problems:

• Time consuming for the teacher, but does everything need to be corrected?
• Consistency We should agree on format or length, very brief or very detailed?
• Not good for second markers
• Privacy 
• It's not dialogic
• Works betten on longer pieces of work
• Big groups. Send them a recording of the rubric (scoring guide used to evaluate the quality of students' constructed responses).

Conclusion:

It's a very efective way of providing feedback. It adds value to yoour course. It's the next best thing after having a F2F session with the student. 

Learn more about giving feedback

Watch a power point on how technology can contribute to feedback reflection.

An article on feedback methods used at school.

Technologies used to provide feedback: SangIt and Camtasia SnagIt

One of the technologies to screencast.

Possible uses other than providing feedback:

• Delivering grammar
• Pronunciation exercises
• Make up lessons

Ideal for mixed-ability classes. Also to help C1 students at the EOI with their presentations.

Blended Learning

OUR FAVOURITE TECHNOLOGY
Second day at Nile started with a group work activity: we were set up in groups of 3 and were supposed to discuss a technology, i.e. some technological tool that worked well for us. It could also be some website or any idea that we often made use of and was a success with students. We were supposed to tell classmates not only what it was good for but also some useful tips on how to use it. 
Different software tools came up:

• Zaption (which is bound to close down in a few months, so not worth giving it a try)
• Edpuzzle (replacement for Zaption but fewer possibilities)
• Kahoot- engaging multiple choice question software (I already know all about it) ( best quiz making tool ever)
• Socrative- a smart student respose system that empowers teachers to collect data from their students via smartphones, tablets...
• Quizlet ( individual work, vocab revision tool)
• Lyrics training- Web application that allows you to read and listen to the lyrics from music videos
• Vimeo- (upmarket version of you tube videos, no advertising and videos resize to adapt to the different devices)
• Voicethread- (good for group work)
• You tube- you can add subtitles, create playlists...
• Grammarly- a site to check grammar of written pieces of work

Had we stretched our brains a bit longer we would have come up with some more that maybe we have heard of but there was no point as Russel's golden rule is " Reduce the number of technologies to a few and know them well before moving to a new one." 

BLENDED LEARNING

Definition, principles and rules

We got together in little groups and reflected on what we understand by blended learning. We contrasted our believes and came up with our own definitions and some rules. 
All in all , the main idea of the course is blended learning is not simply using technology for the sake of it but as a means to get some pedagogical aim.  A lot of thinking should actually go into instructional design.  Thinking about what technology can make our teaching more effective and what tool is the best for each teaching purpose is a must.  Sometimes a piece of paper or a little board is just as good. There is nothing magical about using a computer.
Definition: BL takes place in a course when it has a combination of  F2F teaching and an online component. The amount of technology is not important. Integration is the keyword, i.e the flow and interaction between face to face teaching and the use of ICT. New Techonologies are sued as an additional tool to expand the interaction inside and outside the classroom.

Tips for the correct implementation of a BL course:

1. Don't waste time in the classroom with technology. Use it carefully. Don't over do it. do not fill a VLE with lots and lot of resources and assignments. It should all start from scratch! Golden rule: Sometimes less is more. Do not take an F2F course and try to turn it into a BL one by simply adding technological resources.  The risk is an overload of work. Students end up not doing their homework, they lose interest and start dropping out. 
2. Always bear the educational aim in mind.The teacher's mindset should be changed first and get the pedagogy clear before you start using any technology.
3. Student's access to the technology is essential.
4. The good thing about using technology is that it streches our possbilities. It enables Flipped classrooms because the low order thinking skill activities (Bloom's taxonomy) can be done at home when the student is on his own. For the higher order thinking skill activites the student may resource to the teacher's help. Technology can be for boring stuff i.e. Repetitive or mechanical activities whose aim is grammar or vocabulary develpment. Engaging communicative activities should take place in the classroom. ( The art of conversation)
5. It allows students autonomy and passing the resposability of how the class is organzed to studets. Care about students interests: give students a voice and let them decide on tools and syllabus content. (Sugatra Mitra's idea: give students a topic and let them do some research).
6. Anticipate problems and provide guidance.
7. Be consistent if you stant using a technology, keep on using it.
8. The target group might be limited. BL may not suit everyone, students need to be quite autonomous.
9. Technology is not just for the teacher to deliver or pass onto knowledge , it is also for students to process it. To use Bloom's terminology, it is for low order thinking skills and high order skills alike. 
10. Careful repurposing of classtime: The instructional design of the course/activity should stablish a seamless connection between online and offline work. Set a clear task that involves individual or collaborative work outside the classroom but the showcase ( presentation, recording, poster, give in sheet) should always be in class. Both home and class work should be well tied up. 

Videos: 

Blended Learning and Technology Integration

BL, making it work in your classroom 

   

Conclusions 

Blended Learning (BL) can be a useful tool to personalise the learning process by involving the students through more interactive tasks. Not only does blended learning allow us to make learning a more memorable experience, but also develop some additional soft skills which are in high demand at the labour market. However, BL should not be considered an end in itself but rather a tool where the pedagogic design (see Prof. Richard Mayer below) is key to relevant and meaningul tasks.


Although Blended Learning can initially reduce the need of staff, it is also true that through a rotational model, educational organisations can maximise face to face interaction and offer additional courses during periods where no academic activity used to take place such as summer courses in otherwise empty campuses; thus offer a more flexible approach.

Welcome session

Getting to know each other

Blended Learning in Language Education, participants and tutor Russell Stannard

The course kicked off with some activities to get to know the other participants in the  course and the tutor Russell Stannard. We were given a chart we had to fill in with the info we found out about our classmates and the best box was "Tell me 3 special things about you". There were quite a lot of engaging conversations going and we would change partner every now and then. So at the end we managed to talk to everyone and learn everyone's names. We played the ball game: Fom Russell to Dolors. From Dolots to Radek. From Radek to Yeliz.... while we threw the ball to the other participant whose name we mentioned until everyone had learned each other's names.

To find out about Russell we simply googled his name and read what came up and took notes on a little velleda board. Then we shared information with the other pariticpants. 

Advantages and disadvantages of using ICT in the classroom

In order to pull our ideas together about the pros and cons of using technology in the classroom we have used a very useful software program called todaysmeet.com. It allowed us to do a brainstorming on the use of new technologies in the classroom. 

• What are the main reasons for using NT in the clasroom? 
• What difference do they make to our classes? 
• Why do so few teachers use them?

Since images speak louder than words, here is a picture about some advantages of using new technologies in the EFL class. 

How does the presence of IT devices affect human communication?

Watch the Video by Sherry Turkle - The Power of a Talk in Digital Age

A much shorter version of her ideas: a Ted Talk

Learning about blogger

Blogger is an electronic tool that allows you to create posts like in a diary. It has become popular among journalists to update information. 

In educational context a blog may become a powerful tool that can be used both by teachers and students alike. It can be used as a class diary for the whole class, for little group or a personal one for each student. If students upload podcast, recordings or screencasts it can become good evidence of students' development, so they can be used as e-portfolios.

Here are some video tutorials from Russell's website about using blogger for educational purposes:

1. Introduction to blogger
2. How to design blogger 

Expert Tips
The main two tips to bear in mind when creating a blog is to add metatags which will let us search for the most relevant bits, and to include a design where most relevant informationremains accessible at the top of the blog.