One platform - multiple ways to teach!

Near what? Nearpod!

 

This week I am going back to the concept of mobile learning. Mobile phone apps for learning languages like Duolingo or Babbel are available for everyone and don’t require a teacher’s authorisation for using it. However, there are other mobile technologies which depend entirely on a teacher’s ability and willingness to implement them in the teaching process. Such an approach would have been very common a few years ago... But! 

 

Technological culture among teachers and teachers’ access to technology have dramatically changed over the last two years during the COVID pandemic. Even those who have been resistant or not comfortable or didn’t have enough time for ICT literacy, had to adapt by necessity and master these skills in record time. We are now witnessing a transformation in teaching and learning where traditional forms are being shifted. Teachers had to learn on the go as they have had to face the issue of forced access to the world of internet capable devices in order to facilitate teaching through any format and support students’ learning in any environment.

 

Web-based platforms and content delivery systems that helped teachers to personalise the distance learning during the pandemic have proved to be so successful, that now it would be difficult to find an educator who would agree that ⬆️“using mobile technologies in teaching depends entirely on teacher’s ability and willingness”. Now interactive platforms that combine teaching with more engaging technology are not optional any more for the teacher. It has become something, without which it’s harder and harder to imagine effective teaching. One of them – Nearpod – is the hero of my last blog.

screenshot

Nearpod allows for:

Flexibility

Experimentation

Interactivity

Compatibility

Creativity 

 

I have enjoyed creating an interactive Treasure Hunt for English language learners. I found the process straightforward and user-friendly. You can check my resource out by following the link:

Treasure Hunt

image from iStock

The platform offers three modes for teaching. Live participation mode allows teachers to control the lesson pace as the students don’t move to the next screen before the teacher advances. With the Student pace mode, learners progress through the tasks independently no matter whether they are at home or in a class. These two modes provide immediate feedback about each student’s work as they use their own apps on their devices. Teachers can track students who are not participating and give support if needed. The Front of the class mode allows teachers to streamline presentations while students don’t use their devices. Nearpod is a versatile platform that makes you to want to benefit from it. Teachers don’t have to ditch their previous resources – they can utilise them to create new interactive lessons that have the potential to ensure students’ engagement. It’s very easy to make Nearpod your handy everyday tool for teaching.

Other +++

Huge library of pre-made materials ready to use

More opportunities to motivate students with the combination of different activities

Students have to study as the course or project progresses and not just at the end

Great for formative assessments

No need for class photocopies

 

Any concerns?

 

🤔 The free Silver version has limitations in space, number of students and access to the content

🤔 Additional competencies and extra planning & designing for the teachers

 

Finally 🏁

It’s amazing how much teaching has changed over the last couple of years. The number of interactive platforms and resources, which are supposed to make teaching more effective and less time-consuming process, is impressive. The challenge is bringing the right resources together in a coherent way that saves teacher's time and ensures pupil engagement and success.

 

I think my experimenting with blogging about technologies that are useful in teaching has brought me many valuable insights and was more interesting than I assumed. It also has been more time consuming and emotion involving then I assumed! Overall, I don’t think I have officially become a converted blogger, but I thoroughly enjoyed this journey and will continue with my habit to look out for new technology I can use to make sure my teaching is up to date & more engaging.

When it's blended well together

After almost two years of distance learning, both teachers and students have been pleased to return to face-to-face education. However, having developed so many interesting digital resources, many educators realised that the in-person teaching can be combined with delivering material in a digital way to create “blended” learning. Bringing these two approaches together can be challenging because creating blended resources could be hard work. Nevertheless, once the skills are mastered and resources developed, teachers can finally deliver on the eternal demand for doing more with less while also addressing the needs of our learners.

 

What is it?

 

In my previous blog post I started talking about blended learning while introducing content creation tools. Another interactive tool, that I would like to talk about today, is a must have for blended teaching and is called H5P. It allows the creation of interactive content for teaching and learning. 

 

screenshot

 

Just have a look at the result of my 3-hour work session, which included getting my head round some basic features and elements. Yes, it is a time-consuming business (varies individually 🤔), but I think that the content delivered in such a way is very different from how we usually present material to students and potentially is more likely to attract their attention.

Follow the link to see a short course presentation I have created:

H5P course presentation 

Microsoft stream H5P

How useful is H5P for language learners?

🤝Engaging – for learners who can collaborate both formally during the lessons and informally outside the classrooms 

 

✅ Accessible – benefits for all with wide variety of resources available for learners any time, including learners with disabilities

 

🤼‍♀️ Interactive – stimulating to involve learners in becoming active participants in developing materials for blended learning

 

Any concerns?

 

🤔 Blending learning requires IT literacy and this could be a challenge for the students with limited access to the Internet or devices.

 

🤔 It also takes away a good amount of direct contact with the teacher, which could increase some learners’ struggle with self-directed learning.

 

🤔 Moving towards blended learning is not a one step process. It requires time, training and material preparation, which could be difficult to achieve alongside other teaching responsibilities and add extra workload. 

 

Overall 

 

Blended learning approach opens endless possibilities for using tools and techniques that complement both teaching and learning. For the teacher, it offers flexible options for working with students effectively and for the learners it offers an enhanced learning experience. It’s all about teaching and learning any time – any place by providing personalised accessible education.

The Power of Voice

Although we like to say that actions speak louder than words, we humans can’t replace spoken communication with just gestures and movements. Speaking is a major part of our lives and so teaching and learning speaking skills in a foreign language is vital.

 

The secrets of speaking competence 

How to speak well? Well, the number 1 secret is – speak as much as you can! And while you are doing this, don’t worry about your accent, your vocabulary shortage or your comprehension limits. It doesn’t matter because secret number 2 is - be relaxed and don’t be too critical about yourself. You will start moving in the right direction towards fluency when you feel comfortable to express yourself and understand what others say.

Returning to secret number 1 and the idea of practising a lot of speaking, start from speaking to yourself! Yes, it is not as mad as it might sound. There could be reasons why you want start practising your speaking skills without a conversation partner. For example, if you would feel more confident by doing some speaking practice before getting into real conversation. 

What is it?

So, this time I am going to check some tools that offer learners speaking practice that they can do on their own. Don’t worry though, I haven’t forgotten all the pedagogical principles about interaction and social nature of language learning. These are very important concepts to remember for the next step of speaking skills’ development as ultimately, speaking is important for connecting with people. Let’s just allow those for whom speaking a new language means fun and fear at the same time, to have a gradual gentle beginning of the learning journey towards the unknown.  We can do this by showing them a useful step – speaking and recording yourself and the devices that are designed to help with this.    

One of them - Flipgrid - is a web-based platform that allows to record and post videos with or without some instructions. It is perfect for recording yourself speaking as you can play it back and not only hear your pronunciation and possible mistakes, but also see your body language and facial expression during speaking! Moreover, you can improve and re-record your speech until you are happy with your expected result. No wonder this platform became very popular with educators who use it for setting up video discussions and exchanges. 

                    

https://knowledgequest.aasl.org/using-flipgrid-for-face-to-face-asynchronous-student-interactions/

How it works

Students respond to the topics set by the teachers in video clips, and it can be shared with the whole class for peer feedback. The grids (that’s why the platform is called Flipgrid) can hold countless number of topics and responses in all sorts of formats, such as: videos, text-based, GIFs, attached files, emojis.

https://knowledgequest.aasl.org/using-flipgrid-for-face-to-face-asynchronous-student-interactions/

For more tips and tutorials, follow Flipgrid blog link.

Some of the uses in the classroom I would suggest are:

 

👩🏼‍🏫 versatile for every learning situation – distance learning, blended learning and even the classroom with limited number of the devices

 

👥 particularly useful for discussions and practising critical thinking skills

 

💻 presentations or informal short responses

 

🗣 opportunity for teachers to hear students’ voices individually!

 

🏠  a catch-up solution for supporting absent students

Any concerns?

🤔 Students can spend too much time playing with interactive features of the tool and get distracted from the main purpose of assignment

🤭 If working in 'no image' mode, students can simply read out the written/copied text instead of producing an authentic response   

Warning!

Once you have practised your speaking skills with Flipgrid, you can test them with your home devices like Siri (Apple) or Alexa (Android). This is a great challenge because Siri and Alexa will test your pronunciation and it can be entertaining. When I used to ask Siri to play Classic FM radio on our AirPod, it did it most of the time to my great satisfaction. However, occasionally it heard it as Crime and Suspense FM (one of quite rare American radio stations😱) and it is quite difficult to make Siri change her mind!

https://www.theverge.com/22704233/siri-apple-digital-assistant-10-years-development-problems-why

Overall,

Tools like Flipgrid help language learners, either individually or as a part of the classroom, to practise articulating their ideas and they can do it at the comfort of your own home rather than being put on the spot in front of the class. It can be a real eye opener (or shall I say ear opener👂😊) when it comes to self-awareness of your pronunciation, body language and expressive skills!

If you wish to explore more tools for speaking practice with the option of recording your speech, please check these:

Speechling                                  Vocaroo                               Screencast-o-matic 

It's smarter to work as a team!

Online Collaboration 💪 Tools

The reason I have chosen ICT in TESOL as my special module – and I made this choice very quickly 😆 – is because I realised that ever since I had to store my first thesis on a floppy disk, the way the world communicates has changed radically. In fact, I would dare to say that the communication barely existed before the Internet. What people once called communication was mostly possible in person. The other ways of communication were difficult or were taking a long time. We now look at some “ancient” technologies as a sign of our real age 🤭 and marvel at what we can do or rather what modern technologies can do for us today. 

 

What is it?

 

So, communication. This week we are testing the online collaboration tools and I have to tell you  - it is a real re-vo-lu-tion! They allow - no more no less - travelling in no time and transformation from physical to digital space. In education, the whiteboard, an epicentre of the classroom has made a digital shift in recent years too, combining the advantages of visual thinking and collaboration with the virtuosity and convenience of technology. Forget the messy chalk on blackboards (shush 🤫 age)! Confidently keeping its position in the top 10 of online whiteboards is Conceptboard which I am going to review this time.

screenshot

 

Is it useful?

 

Although this platform is mostly used in marketing and project planning in business, it is primarily a service that provides a whiteboard online space that could be used successfully in teaching and learning. Its versatile applications include:

 

♾Infinite canvas – no borders to how big the whiteboard could be

⏱  Real time collaboration as well as asynchronous modifications 

📑 Various templates

👀 Range of visual tools, such as sketches, sticky notes, shapes, easy drag&drop function for images, videos and other files

🗂 Ability to attach files – allowing you to make presentations, explanation of new concepts or online tutorials 

↖️ My favourite – live cursors – allows everyone to be an interactive ongoing participant!

 

screenshot

Any concerns?

 

🤔  Zoom function is too sensitive

🤔  Internet access is needed

🤔  Only two languages supported

🤔  Multiple layouts on the same canvas can get too cluttered

 

Online collaboration tools like Conceptboard, as the description suggests, support collaboration and interaction in the classroom which is a vital part of language learning process. Also, teaching learners online means that teachers provide opportunities for them to develop the whole new range of useful skills, such as managing their learning and developing confidence in taking initiative and risks (autonomy), peer feedback or editing and brainstorming activities (meaningful interaction). There is still a valid role for a teacher to support the development of these skills. 

 

There are many other online collaborative tools in the market. If you are interested in finding out which one works better for you, then go and explore as they all have their own benefits:

 

Scribbler

Padlet

Twiddla

Stormboard

Are you APP for a language learning challenge?

Exactly two years ago when the pandemic struck, we were suddenly put in a position of staying at home. At that time it felt obvious to me to do something useful with loads of lockdown time. Something like learning a new language! Or to polish old language skills. So, I searched language learning apps and chose the best rated and ... also free DUOLINGO! Actually, it’s still the only free language learning app on the market. Let me tell you what my experience was.  

https://www.fluentin3months.com/reviews/duolingo/

Do it with Duo... or... maybe 🤔 think again.

 

Is it because of the design?

 

Apps are the modern way of performing specific tasks or offering services like language learning. Duolingo is an engaging app which is more interesting than coursebooks. It is well designed for ... children? Yes, the graphics are a bit childish but some people call it cute, so it is down to personal taste. Bite-size lessons are intended to fit in with a modern busy life.

 

Is it boring?

 

No, Duolingo is based on a gamified learning approach. It has many built-in features to boost motivation, such as a “crown” reward system, practice streaks to show daily progress or earning “lingots” for correct answers and using a leader board where you can rank yourself against your friends. It is also great for a visual learner - there are pictures, colours, highlighted texts, buttons, strength bars. However, the “heart” system could be disheartening for some people who make too many mistakes and lose hearts 😥 Duolingo’s motivational tactics have been famous – many users joke about Duo stalking and shaming you to make you study.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Famericasbestpics.com%2Fpicture%2Fduolingo-duolingo-coming-soon-please-don-t-hurt-my-famly-CFqNZzMq8&psig=AOvVaw3uzZmMDERBmoVwEh903in8&ust=1650455130353000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAwQjRxqFwoTCODtpNOGoPcCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAJ

So, it’s definitely not boring – Duolingo recognises that language learners need to be motivated!

 

Does it bring poor results?

 

Well, that depends on what sort of results you are expecting. There are some studies Duolingo research that show learners’ better performance in tests. 

 

So what’s the problem?

 

📝❓If you are specific about learning in-depth authentic vocabulary or are an accomplished language student and your answers are correct but don’t fit into the most standard pattern, then you would find it frustrating to fight with computer’s translation pre-sets. Another vocabulary related issue is – Duolingo doesn’t provide context which could affects memorising. 

🤖❓Also, mechanical machine voice modelling of language is definitely not about becoming a good language speaker.

🗣❓Finally, if your target is to become fluent, you most definitely need to add a language course or tutor’s support. It is more the case of finding the right place for a language learning app in our learning rather than making our learning goals depending on the app.  

 

Verdict⚖

It’s hard to claim Duolingo is a waste of time since many people find it works for them. It is a good introduction to a new language or learning new phrases before a trip, perfect for casual user. However, as a teacher I wouldn’t recommend Duolingo as an approved supplement to my language lessons for certain ethical reasons. For example, there are widespread reports online of mischarging and a lack of customer support. Nor would I categorically ban or discourage my students from using language apps as it is  certainly not a bad way to spend a few spare minutes to learn a new phrase or two. Overall, Duolingo deserves a big thumbs up for making language learning accessible for everyone and for promoting learners’ autonomy.

📊You might find it helpful to read App vs App about leading language learning apps and their comparison reviews.