In this our 9th seminar we started our conversation on the role of digital technologies in the classroom with a trial of ‘google cardboard’, which Anna kindly brought to class to share with us. It’s a free google app. used on a smartphone in conjunction with cardboard goggles (available for around £5) which are used to view the app’s pictures in the ‘virtual reality’ of the cardboard goggles. It was a hit with the class and we could well imagine students enjoying the experience of language games such as 20 questions, played with this simple and inexpensive tech. We thought students would be affectively engaged – a key principle in language learning. It demonstrated how everyday technologies can complement and enhance learning.
ELT materials have been hugely affected by digital technologies in recent years but there has been some concern expressed regarding their over use. For example, when technology drives the choices of what and how to teach, it bypasses the use of sound pedagogic and methodology principles because of a technologically driven bias. Maley (2011:390) for example as quoted by Tomlinson (2012: 165), accepts many of the advantages of digital technologies but warns of a ‘total capitulation’ to it.
It’s perhaps easy to appreciate the enriching quality of the mobile phone app. described above to facilitate interaction in the classroom. Resources such as YouTube and Google too, used for authentic multi-modal input from which to launch and stimulate interaction have more advantages than disadvantages as a language learning resource. Where some of the reservations regarding digital technology more frequently occur is where they purport to replace or marginalise the interactions traditionally found in our language classrooms. The rise of online learning in the form of formal online courses, virtual worlds, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), online language learning communities such as Web 2.0 and mobile apps such as Duolingo, have all come under the spotlight in this regard to a greater or lesser extent. In a recent ELT Journal publication, Hockley, N (2015), reviews the use of some of these and any associated research into these digital forms of language learning. He concluded with reference to apps, that “despite questions about the pedagogic effectiveness of the learning content and approach, app-based, mobile approaches are now major long-term players in the online language learning space.” (Hockley, N. 2015. p312).
In a previous post on the use of video in the language classroom I reflected on the growing expectations of learners to operate in a a multi-modal environment where text, visuals and sound are integrated. This reflects what society at large is doing and results in less patience for more traditional non-integrated approaches. Kiddle, T (2015. in Tomlinson, B. (eds) p190) also comments on this saying that, particularly amongst those born post 1980, expectations to use digital technology and an awareness of it permeates all of their lives, their language learning lives included. Despite this, observes Kiddle, for multiple reasons, we have some way to go before technology is normalised in the L2 classroom. He goes on to list some technologies that have the exploitation of a digital mode or media as their key concept, but like others, warns that this doesn’t make them ‘good’ or ‘valuable’ per se. Yet again the discourse returns to a debate on principles of L2 learning, and those coined in a referent discussion surrounding interactive whiteboards in 2010 are resurrected by Kiddle for all digital language teaching and learning materials.
These principles are: multi-modality – a central aspect and reason for using digital technology; orchestration – the teacher’s role in effectively exploiting these modes and of shaping how students participate in their use; and participation – the type of student interaction with the technology. He adds feedback as a further key principle. He too concludes that in developing technologies that seek to “add something different and equally or more effective to the learning process” care needs to be taken that it is not “there for its own sake or for arbitrary non-pedagogic reasons.” (Kiddle, T (2015. in Tomlinson, B. (eds) p203).
In preparation for our seminar we were given the option to explore the task of converting the worksheet we’d been working on (for week 7) into digital form, a process known as leveraging. My worksheet used a song as the ‘text’, which is already in a digital format. It certainly exploits multi-modality which is orchestrated by the teacher through the tasks in the worksheet which engender participation (or interaction).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsCPrboDunw
With regard to the worksheet itself, I looked into leveraging the 1st vocabulary task, which was matching lexical chunks with their definitions. I tried Quizlet for this but it wasn’t successful (at the level I tried to use it) as the lexical chunks were metaphorical phrases so there was nothing in the Quizlet database to convert this into simple picture prompt: just as there was nothing in the dictionaries that had the metaphorical meaning either. I could have paid a subscription and then written my own definitions for my terms as I’d done on the worksheet, but chose not to as the costs would have outweighed the benefits. I concluded that this worksheet was not suitable for digitalising more than it was already. Here again is the worksheet for reference.
What I’ve done instead is picked out a worksheet I’ve used and adapted before and leveraged part of that. This is an activity in which students use a questionnaire to ask and answer questions about friendship.There is a suggested lead-in and follow up to the main activity and it is taken from Quizzes, Questionnaires and Puzzles – Ready-made activities for intermediate students by Miles Craven. I like it because friendship is a universal theme that can engage all learners and has a particular resonance with teenagers. I also like it because it’s very flexible in how it can be used and that’s important because often, I don’t know ahead of time the exact level of the students I get on short course. Sometimes, with higher level intermediates I only need to do a quick elicit of relevant language and then it’s straight into the main interactional communicative activity which can be extended into a survey with a reporting follow-up. The relevant language is at the top of page 70. Here is the worksheet.
friends forever task instructions copy
Sometime on the other hand,with lower level intermediates, I have to spend a lot of time pre-teaching the required lexis.
advice; apologise; argue;gossip; honest; jealous; keep in touch;lie; patient; possession; protect; secret; trust
I’ve done this is a few different ways. One way I particularly like is with role play. As different scenarios are acted out the lexis is elicited in context, boarded and looked at in different ways -syllable stress and phonetically for pronunciation, word class and spelling. It is here that I think a digital activity with Quizlet would complement the lesson by reinforcing the learning of lexis by matching it to pictures in a ‘gamified’ way. Students would use their mobile phones for this. So I created a lexical set on friendship on the Quizlet app which was very quick and easy to do. And I like the pictures they offered although they were quite limited but if you pay the subscription you get more. Here is the link to the app.
https://quizlet.com/134740671/friends-forever-flash-cards/
I particularly like the games ‘scatter’ and ‘gravity’, but the ‘spelling’ and ‘learn’ features are good too. I also found the audio for pronunciation really clear, though I expect that would vary with device. I think with regard to the discussion above as to whether this digital element would add something useful to the lesson I would say ‘yes’. It’s engaging and varies the activities used to learn the lexis. It is multi-modal and orchestrated by the teacher for a specific task purpose. The students participation is with the technology directly via their mobile phones and they receive feedback directly through the app.
The key to using digital technology in my view, is to evaluate it in exactly the same way as you would other materials. Does it add, not take away from the purpose of your task or lesson? If you subjected it to your evaluation criteria based on your principles (developed in week 2 and 3 and applied to the worksheet in week 7), how would it do? Don’t use it just because its there. Equally, be prepared to try out new ways of doing things as they may represent a considerable enhancement to learning. They may also be easier to use than you think. And that’s coming from someone who certainly wasn’t born before 1980.
References
Hockley, N (2015) in ELT Journal 69/3, July 2015; doi:10.1093/elt/ccv020
Kiddle, T (2015) in Tomlinson, B. (eds) Developing materials for language teaching
Miles Craven (2010) Quizzes, Questionnaires and Puzzles – Ready-made activities for intermediate students.