Learning Online

Week 3 of the course looked at how to develop sustainable blended learning innovation in our own local context. I like how Diana Laurillard expressed the following idea: "We know the future is going to be challenging, because vocational education and training is not getting the funding that fits its ambitions. And we know the future is going to be digital, because we see it all around us in every workplace. So we and our learners must be equipped for that". I found interesting the learners' suggestions in Step 3.3 about interactive learning platform and "fully virtual lessons where you can-- if you miss a lesson, you don't have to rely on a textbook, or online kind of resources that aren't from your teacher to be able to catch up". And the idea of earning digital badges for certain skills is really good and worth putting into practice. I'm also considering doing the following task: "Plan a session for your learners, in which they make a ...

This week we were looking at some of the most ambitious challenges in the VET sector: - reaching more learners, with good support, while not increasing teachers' workload overall - supporting learners to be more independent learners - reducing the costs of innovation, while maintaining the benefits. My notes: 1) teacher's productivity (Step 2.4. where I found these gorgeous tools in the comments:  Quizlet Cram  - flashcards) 2) independent learning Unfortunately, I have no experience of working with Moodle or any other VLE, my institution doesn't support it. What I saw in the video in Step 2.5 is fascinating, it gives lots of opportunities to foster independent learning and to improve teacher's productivity. I was lucky to have a look at various learning designs in  Blended Learning Essentials Moodle Hub , I even used one of them (Social Media Level 1) in my class (without VLE, just using Google services and Twitter). 3) sharing and re-using t...

I took Blended Learning: Getting Started MOOC on FutureLearn last year and as I learnt a lot of useful things which helped me with my teaching I decided to find out more for better understanding of the subject matter and seeing greater opportunities to enhance the process of learning a foreign language with the help of digital technologies. This is what I'm taking with me from Week 1 of the course. After being reminded about the benefits of blended learning and some information on data analytics we looked at how blended learning can be designed effectively using a tool called The Learning Designer by UCL. The Learning Designer is a tool to help teachers and lecturers design teaching and learning activities and share their learning designs with each other. It was developed by a team led by Diana Laurillard (the Educator on this course) at the UCL Knowledge Lab and is free for anyone to use. The tool is based on the six learning types from Diana Laurillard’s Conversa...

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1. Understanding learning theories (which have a big influence on how we learn and how our education is structured) The Web, social media and smartphones have led to a blurring of the boundaries between the formal and informal, the professional and the personal situations of learning. That's why we need to assess the relevance of these different learning theories to teaching and learning in the network age. Behaviouralism (with instructional teaching approach)  is best suited to topics where there are ‘right and wrong’ answers and for people with extremely good memories. A teacher acts as an expert. Cognitive constructivism suggests that actively discovering new information by individually doing things will lead to the construction of knowledge inside our brain. This approac is known as Experiential and the teacher acts as a guide, not as ‘the expert’. This approach is dependent on the existing knowledge of the learner (their current mental maps), which cannot alwa...

"Digital tools and mobile devices are perfect resources for breaking down the walls of the classroom, gathering immediate feedback on learning, and sharing learning in social media communities". - Great point made in this article about digital exit cards https://www.edutopia.org/blog/digital-media-exit-cards-matt-levinson?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=socialflow And I do agree that for the teacher "the key is how to get the learning to spill out of the classroom and continue the conversation".

Storify  allows you to collect media across the different social networks and apply your own narrative to your story, which you can then share with others. Whether you want to use it to share collections of resources with your students with additional guidance, or as a class project to encourage them to build their own narrative, Storify offers an interesting way to organise information from sites like Twitter into what matters to your class. Best of all it’s free to use. From http://www.blendedmec.com/

Blogging is a great way to share your experiences on a wider platform. Here are some blogs to folllow: An A-Z of ELT by Scott Thornbury Reallyenglish by JJ Wilson Jeremy Harmer authenticteaching by Willy Cardoso Doing some thinking by Henrick Oprea Evidence Based Education by Dr Gary Jones Adaptive Learning in ELT by Philip Kerr Immersivities by Adi Rajan Web tools for educators   - a community of practice

Twitter is an online site that you can join, and you can follow specific themes. So if, for example, you type in hashtag #teachEnglish or hashtag #ELT, you can then follow lots of different posts that talk about this theme. And various people who have interests in these themes will share articles. They will share opinions. They will share webinars, conferences, et cetera. And you can follow them. And also you can publish your own ideas using these hashtags. Another really interesting hashtag to follow is #edtech, E-D-T-E-C-H. And again, this will give you ideas about what is happening in technology and education. And you can follow this. And you can contribute.

http://osvita.ua/school/method/technol/45747/

Assessment includes the day to day monitoring and evaluation of learning in class. If we need to know how much of the learning objectives have been achieved, we need to go for assessment. Assessment is also important to promote the students, to grade the students, and to give them feedback as well. Assessment Terminology Formative assessment This is the use of assessment to give the learner and the teacher information about how well something has been learnt so that they can decide what to do next. It normally occurs during a course, and informs the teaching that follows. This can also be thought of as  assessment  for  learning Summative assessment This evaluates a learner’s progress up to a certain point and provides a summary of where they are. Tests may be conducted at the end of year or the end of a course, for example. This is also known as  assessment  of  learning Continuous assessment This means assessing aspects of learners’ language throu...

Differentiation Type of differentiation Examples By task Provide a variety of tasks, use a more or less challenging task than the one provided in the coursebook, use a more culturally-appropriate task By text Use graded listening or reading texts, use authentic materials By media Flashcards, video, worksheets, a role play, a craft activity Task examples

The week's topic: Knowing the Subject Different kinds of knowledge that students must have: Types of knowledge Linguistic knowledge Knowledge of English and of other languages World knowledge ‘General’ knowledge or specialist knowledge Sociocultural knowledge Knowledge about communities and social practices, how language is used by different groups of people, in different situations, for different functions Learners need to know much more than just the meaning of new language, whether it’s a word, a phrase, a grammatical structure or a fixed expression. It will be useful for my students to focus on the following questions when working with vocabulary. J 1. What does it mean? Does it mean different things in different contexts? Does it directly translate to my language? Is it similar to other words I know in English? Does it have any positive or negative connotations? 2. How do I say it? How will it sound when I hear it? How many syllables are there? Where...

I've already done the first course on Teaching for Success programme. Now it's time for the second - Learning and Learners. I'm legging behind a bit but been able to cover Week 1 Understanding Learners. This is what I'm taking with me. MOTIVATION I've found out about different types of motivation for learning, based on the theories of American psychologist, Carl Rogers. Intrinsic motivation — comes from the learner. The learning activity and the learning environment motivate the learner because they are a source of enjoyment or value. Intrinsic motivation must come from the learner. And our job as teachers is to create a suitable environment for this to happen. Extrinsic motivation — comes from an external source, some kind of external benefit or reward. The potential negative consequences of not learning can also be motivating. The better we understand our learners' motivations the more we can work towards providing a learning environment and act...

Since I took the MOOC Blended Learning: Essentials I've been trying to use the knowledge I gained. 1) I've learnt how to use Google Docs for working on a collaborative writing exercise. And I practised it with my students. 2) I also gave them homework to be done on Twitter which included searching information and posting the results of the search (students created the gallery of London sights and found some videos for primary school) 3) I continue using my blog okengli.blogspot.com as my flipped classroom support.

The whole point of blended learning is to use digital technologies to enable every learner to achieve their learning potential. Technology helps to achieve this aim with a large number of diverse learners. Curriculum Design The iterative process of designing blended learning is the same as traditional: deciding on the learning outcomes - the curriculum content - your learner's needs - your pedagogic approach - the assessment methods Technology makes a real difference where there is a real difference to be made so you should start with what you really need: 1) decide which part of your curriculum you want to improve most 2) consider which of the technologies will really help. DADDIE approach helps to put the use of technologies into a clear structure D efine outcomes that is to be delivered by the course A nalyse learners' abilities and needs, possible reactions D esign the course with the use of technologies to make the learning process engaging for the learners...

I'm going to try collaborative writing activity using Google Docs. This will be the first taste of Google Docs for my students so the task is very simple: they must sort out the sentences according to the categories. I created the files for each group ( and shared them) beforehand.

VLE The VLE is an online software tool that provides students with controlled access to learning materials specific to their course. Moodle Hub Open Tools Open tools are free, accessible tools available on the internet in a way where you can use them to collaborate, to share, to create, and to present material in any way you want. - Multimedia production ( Audacity ) - Presentation tools ( Prezi ) - Collaborative writing tools (Google Docs, Wiki, Mediawiki) - Reflection tools (Wordpress, Pebblepad ) - Collaboration tools (Hangouts, Skype) - Interactive tools ( Socrative , Poll Everywhere , Nearpod) - Social tools (Twitter, Facebook so on) Also: Screen Casting, Learning Objects OER - Open Educational Resources a list of web links to common OER repositories: Merlot - MERLOT is a curated collection of free and open online teaching, learning, and faculty development services contributed and used by an international education community. Open University’s OpenLea...

According to Digital Literacy Skills Audit I identified the following weaknesses: - working with VLE (available tools, setting up an electronic submission area) - using Google Docs - setting up a wiki for working on a collaborative writing exercise ( I've been experiencing the need in this activity for a while but lacking skills) - creating quizzes or tests online As for resources for boosting digital literacy skills I selected Microsoft Digital Literacy Educator's Guide to Social Media is also very useful I also found curious a visualisation of conversations on Twitter. I can relate to the story of Borders College embedding blended learning as I work in a VET sector myself. Useful links: The Benefits of Creating an Online Learning Space 8 Examples of Transforming Lessons Through the SAMR Cycle So, what have I gained? Mostly information about in what direction I should move in order to embed technologies in the learning process.

1) Constructivism Technologies you chose: Video recording of learner activity, Reflective logs (blog), Practical activities, Simulations How you might use them: I could use video recording of students' conducting their first lessons at school and then analyse them together Neil's feedback: There are a wide range of technologies that can support a constructivist pedagogy. Technology enables learners to be more involved in their own learning, to get personal feedback on their performance, and to source and use learning materials suitable for their level, competence and needs. 2) Social constructivism Technologies you chose: In-class mobile voting, Collaborative writing, Interactive lecture, Discussion forums, Reflective logs (blog), Social media, Video conferencing How you might use them: I would post on my blog some questions and let students discuss in the comments Neil's feedback: Social constructivism suits the digital age and digital technologies well. It is a use...