Wait… why do we need a blender in the classroom again?

Last lessons at ECO II, we’ve been talking about something called ‘blended learning’… and despite having been working in this way for most of my training as a teacher, I did not know what the expression meant until recently. Blended learning is a combination of online and in-person delivery of lessons that can come in several different forms. Although students still attend lessons at university or school, face-to-face classroom methods are combined with computer-mediated activities.

This kind of learning has got many advantages. Among them are the fact that it doesn’t prescribe which activities must be online, there isn’t a particular percentage of teaching and learning that has to happen in the classroom or not, and it can be tailored and personalized according to students and teachers’ needs and the technological resources available.

Here’s a short video explaining what blended learning is…

Particularly at the teacher training programme in ISP Almirante Brown, we use Moodle platform and Edmodo in order to complement what we do in class. Using these sites saves a lot of time and trouble because teachers can post some lead-in ideas to any topic before we go to class, post extra activities or homework, communication is more effective than via e-mails, and it is not necessary to go to the institution to hand in a practical work or look for material… we can do it all from the comfort of our homes!

So, although our institution does not have the most technological computers, the newest beamers or those cutting-edge interactive whiteboards, we are making the most of the technological resources we have got… and that is blended learning! :)

Check out these articles on How To ImplementBlended Learning and 10 Blended Learning Trends.

Working with selfies in the ELT classroom

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a talk called ‘Selfies: a fast track to boost students’ motivation’ delivered by Mathilde Verillaud. The talk was, as the title says, using ‘selfies’ in the ELT classroom, which is something I couldn’t imagine until I went to listen to Mathilde.

Personally, I am very into photography. However, I’d never thought of using these kind of self-portraits in the classroom… mainly because I didn’t consider them to be real photography. I changed my mind a bit after the talk, though.

Mathilde talked about her work with Chinese students and her project with selfies. First, she taught them some basic rules of photography such as the rule of thirds, perspectives, taking into account the background, among others. Then, the students took their own selfies, and finally they used those pictures to carry out many different activities like writing poetry and stories, creating a gallery, eliciting ideas and many more.

Selfies are a way of showing your life and presenting yourself to the world. A project with selfies is not only fun, but also opens up the opportunity for an infinite number of subsequent activities.

The selfies, so fashionable nowadays, are a way of engaging our students. By using them, we can show them that they can mix English with things they do every day – taking pictures of themselves and their lives. We can also help them realise all the things a picture tells about someone and, of course, make the English lesson a lot more enjoyable and updated with practically no more materials than a smartphone. 

A famous selfie to close! This selfie was taken by Ellen Degeneres at the 2014 Academy Awards Ceremony and it was one of the most retweeted photos ever.

And also, the most perfectly-timed selfie I've ever seen. This one was taken during a Chelsea match.

There is an example of Mathilde's project in this link.

Assessing websites

Nowadays, we depend on the internet when searching for information. We generally look for data, images, ideas, etc. online; we google everything we’ve got doubts about; we don’t usually have books as our main source of information. However, not all websites are reliable. Our first practical work at ECO II was about evaluating and selecting websites.

We dealt with a list of criteria that, according to the British Council, we need to take into account so as to know whether a website is reliable or not. Some of the criteria were:

• Accuracy: It makes reference to whether the information seems accurate, whether it is based on opinion or facts, whether it contains external references and whether it is updated.
• Authority and coverage: It refers to the author, the sources of the information, its objectivity and the presence of advertising.
• Audience and relevance: It talks about the audience the website aims at.
• Educational focus: It refers specifically to whether the website has educational purposes and caters for all learning styles.
• Ease of use: It makes reference to whether the page is easy to access, its format, menu and design in general.

Although I generally take most of these factors into account when looking for information, I personally pay attention to the last criterion, the design of the website. I generally decide whether a page is trust-worthy by having a look at its colours, its pictures, its fonts, its organisation. It works for me! J

A little bit of humour to close…

References: 
British Council (2008). Evaluating and selecting websites. UK.
Evaluating websites: criteria for the classroom. Retrived from this link.
Learning the language of internet. Picture retrived from this link.

New students; new technologies.

I’ve been reading an article titled ‘Digital natives, digital immigrants’ by Marc Prensky in my ECO II lessons. There, the author gives a general definition of what he calls ‘digital natives’ and ‘digital immigrants’, and how these two groups of people have a an impact on teaching today. He also criticises traditional teaching methods and activities.

I must say, I found Prensky’s ideas quite interesting and thought-provoking. I agree with him in many points, especially when he says ‘today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach’.

However, I personally think the author’s definitions of ‘natives’ and ‘immigrants’ are too general and he doesn’t take into account variables such as socio-economic status which, in my country, is very influential. Here, although technology is everywhere, it is not available to anyone. He also generalises when he talks about teachers – apparently, none of them is trying to include technology in the classroom and all of their lessons are boring and outdated. Again, I disagree. Many of my secondary school and university teachers use technology far better than any student.

Nevertheless, there’s never been so much thought about teaching, learning and the integration with the new technologies as there is today.  We cannot deny the fact that today’s students are indeed different from the ones in the past and technology is part of their lives in one way or another, and schools should take that into account. Its implementation in the classroom will mean less boring lessons, more engaged students; less outdated activities, more useful real-life like stuff.

References:
Prensky, Marc (2001). Digital Natives Digital Immigrants. On the Horizon. MCB University Press.
Picture retrived from this link.