This blog has moved to the Pearson ELT Community website.
See you there
Happy holidays (if you have them)
James
Friday, 26 March 2010
Friday, 19 March 2010
VLEs
Hello again.
Thank-you, Emmanuel in Argentina, for your post about VLEs. Let me try to answer your questions by sharing my experiences with VLEs, explaining what I think the advantages are and suggesting how I would go about getting started.
My first experience with a VLE came when I enrolled on a training course with theconsultants-e, which was delivered through Blackboard. Gavin Dudeney and Nicky Hockly provided 4 weeks' of training in online collaborative tasks and project work. The crucial first week of the training involved getting to know the platform and the other course participants. We did this through creating profiles with photos, reading each other's and asking each other questions using the mail function. As we grew in confidence, we read articles and discussed our responses in forums, or collaborated on documents using the wiki tool. Once a week we would share ideas and develop skills in the chatroom. (On a course I attended a few years later, using Moodle in a similar way, we used Skype to talk to each other.)
This gradual development of skills and the corresponding group formation is crucial to
success. Also crucial is technical support for students who have problems, whether external or otherwise. When I first set up a course with a school where I worked, we found that the group in Mongolia, who had technical issues and therefore hadn't had the opportunity to form a strong group, never really got going and eventually fizzled out. Have a look at this clear 5-step visual, courtesy of Gilly Salmon, which explains how an ideal course will develop.
The course with Gavin and Nicky went on to look at how to search effectively and select appropriate websites in order to construct a webquest. I think Webquests merit a posting to themselves. In the future, I'll provide a description of webquests, of the underlying constructivist beliefs on which they are built, and of their benefits. But for now, here's the webquest which I created! It's quite old now and I imagine the links are dead. As I say, I'll come back to webquests and see if I can find some links to some good examples. (NB I see a number of activities which claim to be webquests, but which are actually web searches and don't encourage the same type of learning that webquests do.)
VLEs are commonplace in teacher training these days, but still relatively rare in ELT with students, in my experience. With Bell school, we ran a blended teacher training course, using moodle. Teachers on the course had access to documents online before face-to-face classes and were able to meet each other virtually before the course. The trainer can gradually allow access to sections of the course as the weeks go by and this helps to keep eveyone on track.
If you want to see a VLE in action, why not come along to the IATEFL Learning Technologies Pre-Pre-Conference event, which is live as I write, and hosted in Ning.
I've simply written about my personal experiences here. I hope they've been useful. If you have experiences to share or if you have done research into VLEs, then please let us know your thoughts.
James
Thank-you, Emmanuel in Argentina, for your post about VLEs. Let me try to answer your questions by sharing my experiences with VLEs, explaining what I think the advantages are and suggesting how I would go about getting started.
My first experience with a VLE came when I enrolled on a training course with theconsultants-e, which was delivered through Blackboard. Gavin Dudeney and Nicky Hockly provided 4 weeks' of training in online collaborative tasks and project work. The crucial first week of the training involved getting to know the platform and the other course participants. We did this through creating profiles with photos, reading each other's and asking each other questions using the mail function. As we grew in confidence, we read articles and discussed our responses in forums, or collaborated on documents using the wiki tool. Once a week we would share ideas and develop skills in the chatroom. (On a course I attended a few years later, using Moodle in a similar way, we used Skype to talk to each other.)
This gradual development of skills and the corresponding group formation is crucial to
success. Also crucial is technical support for students who have problems, whether external or otherwise. When I first set up a course with a school where I worked, we found that the group in Mongolia, who had technical issues and therefore hadn't had the opportunity to form a strong group, never really got going and eventually fizzled out. Have a look at this clear 5-step visual, courtesy of Gilly Salmon, which explains how an ideal course will develop.The course with Gavin and Nicky went on to look at how to search effectively and select appropriate websites in order to construct a webquest. I think Webquests merit a posting to themselves. In the future, I'll provide a description of webquests, of the underlying constructivist beliefs on which they are built, and of their benefits. But for now, here's the webquest which I created! It's quite old now and I imagine the links are dead. As I say, I'll come back to webquests and see if I can find some links to some good examples. (NB I see a number of activities which claim to be webquests, but which are actually web searches and don't encourage the same type of learning that webquests do.)
VLEs are commonplace in teacher training these days, but still relatively rare in ELT with students, in my experience. With Bell school, we ran a blended teacher training course, using moodle. Teachers on the course had access to documents online before face-to-face classes and were able to meet each other virtually before the course. The trainer can gradually allow access to sections of the course as the weeks go by and this helps to keep eveyone on track.
If you want to see a VLE in action, why not come along to the IATEFL Learning Technologies Pre-Pre-Conference event, which is live as I write, and hosted in Ning.
I've simply written about my personal experiences here. I hope they've been useful. If you have experiences to share or if you have done research into VLEs, then please let us know your thoughts.
James
Tuesday, 2 March 2010
Introduction
Hello and welcome to this blog on exploiting technology. How do you use technology in your teaching? Would you like to it use more? Why is that?
Unlike other great changes in teaching, such as the advent of the communicative approach or the lexical approach, technology brings with it no uniting methodological rationale. However, I hope this blog will do two things. I hope it will help you explore how we can control technology in order to enhance the quality of education that we provide for our learners. I also hope you will discover one or two things that you didn’t know existed before. One of the issues with technology is that it is developing so rapidly that it is difficult to keep up with what is available.
In this series of posts, I’ll be looking at Interactive Whiteboards, podcasting, communication, testing and teacher development; but I thought I’d open this blog with a focus on learner independence and probably the simplest way to set up a blended learning (classroom learning + digital learning outside the classroom) initiative.
Most course books offer a CD-ROM these days. For me, these were warmly w
elcomed for both my adult and my young learner classes. For adults, they offer visual, modern and motivating consolidation activities which can be tried as many times as desired; an alternative to a black and white workbook. My adults tend to check their own work, but with young learners we would supply workbooks without answers, meaning that I would have to carry home piles of books to check the homework myself. CD-ROMs offer instant feedback and no chance to cheat! The key advantage for me, though, was that CD-ROMs only require that the student has access to a computer. There’s no need for multimedia suites in the school. If you are lucky enough to have a computer and a projector in your classroom, you can then go through troublesome areas with the whole group in the next session. Why not set aside 15 minutes with another teacher who is using the same material as you and explore the CD-ROM that comes with the book you are using. If you decide to make use of the digital content, be careful to make sure that your students are buying the version of the book which includes a CD-ROM. If they are buying through the school, speak to the DOS/Head and see if you can stock this version.
Good
dictionaries also come with CD-ROMs, a quick and flexible tool which can be installed on students’ computers. Students can search for collocations to make their writing more natural, listen to US or British pronunciation, find synonyms to avoid repetition or even double-click on words found on the internet to link directly to their definitions. Some dictionaries are now available online and to download onto your mobile phone. This latter option provides the ultimate in convenience for a quality, but bulky dictionary.
In addition to CD-ROMs, some courses offer a Learning Management System (LMS). An LMS is a software application for the administration, tracking, and reporting of learning programmes. An example is MyEnglishLab. Some learning management systems provide online content similar to that of a CD-ROM, but with the additional features that allow teachers to set homework, monitor progress, store records and pinpoint both syllabus items which need remedial work and students who need individual support.
Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) are also online environments, but in addition to administration of static activities, they allow for teaching and learning, too. VLEs such as Moodle, Fronter or Blackboard offer opportunities to share documents, set up courses and assess learners, but it is the ability to communicate which really sets VLEs apart. VLEs are not simply vessels for learning resources; they are the medium for communication and collaborative learning itself and lend themselves to constructivist theories of learning. VLEs usually require heavy investment, or in the case of Moodle, technical support, but Ning is a very simple, free VLE, which could provide your class with a clear course progression and a motivating medium for communication beyond the classroom. It could even provide a framework for delivery of a more ambitious distance learning programme for groups of students who cannot attend regular classes or for students spread across the globe.
Have fun investigating and feel free to contact me with comments, suggestions or questions.
Until next time,
James
Unlike other great changes in teaching, such as the advent of the communicative approach or the lexical approach, technology brings with it no uniting methodological rationale. However, I hope this blog will do two things. I hope it will help you explore how we can control technology in order to enhance the quality of education that we provide for our learners. I also hope you will discover one or two things that you didn’t know existed before. One of the issues with technology is that it is developing so rapidly that it is difficult to keep up with what is available.
In this series of posts, I’ll be looking at Interactive Whiteboards, podcasting, communication, testing and teacher development; but I thought I’d open this blog with a focus on learner independence and probably the simplest way to set up a blended learning (classroom learning + digital learning outside the classroom) initiative.
Most course books offer a CD-ROM these days. For me, these were warmly w
elcomed for both my adult and my young learner classes. For adults, they offer visual, modern and motivating consolidation activities which can be tried as many times as desired; an alternative to a black and white workbook. My adults tend to check their own work, but with young learners we would supply workbooks without answers, meaning that I would have to carry home piles of books to check the homework myself. CD-ROMs offer instant feedback and no chance to cheat! The key advantage for me, though, was that CD-ROMs only require that the student has access to a computer. There’s no need for multimedia suites in the school. If you are lucky enough to have a computer and a projector in your classroom, you can then go through troublesome areas with the whole group in the next session. Why not set aside 15 minutes with another teacher who is using the same material as you and explore the CD-ROM that comes with the book you are using. If you decide to make use of the digital content, be careful to make sure that your students are buying the version of the book which includes a CD-ROM. If they are buying through the school, speak to the DOS/Head and see if you can stock this version.Good
dictionaries also come with CD-ROMs, a quick and flexible tool which can be installed on students’ computers. Students can search for collocations to make their writing more natural, listen to US or British pronunciation, find synonyms to avoid repetition or even double-click on words found on the internet to link directly to their definitions. Some dictionaries are now available online and to download onto your mobile phone. This latter option provides the ultimate in convenience for a quality, but bulky dictionary.In addition to CD-ROMs, some courses offer a Learning Management System (LMS). An LMS is a software application for the administration, tracking, and reporting of learning programmes. An example is MyEnglishLab. Some learning management systems provide online content similar to that of a CD-ROM, but with the additional features that allow teachers to set homework, monitor progress, store records and pinpoint both syllabus items which need remedial work and students who need individual support. Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) are also online environments, but in addition to administration of static activities, they allow for teaching and learning, too. VLEs such as Moodle, Fronter or Blackboard offer opportunities to share documents, set up courses and assess learners, but it is the ability to communicate which really sets VLEs apart. VLEs are not simply vessels for learning resources; they are the medium for communication and collaborative learning itself and lend themselves to constructivist theories of learning. VLEs usually require heavy investment, or in the case of Moodle, technical support, but Ning is a very simple, free VLE, which could provide your class with a clear course progression and a motivating medium for communication beyond the classroom. It could even provide a framework for delivery of a more ambitious distance learning programme for groups of students who cannot attend regular classes or for students spread across the globe.
Have fun investigating and feel free to contact me with comments, suggestions or questions.
Until next time,
James
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