Collaborative Learning with Padlet

Welcome to this week's EduTech talk with Geo.  I would like to draw your attention to another tool that we can use to enhance participation and collaboration in our language classroom. 

Introduction

Collaborative learning is loosely defined as a situation in which two or more people choose to or try to learn something together. It emanates from Vygotsky's Sociocultural theory which holds that learning best occurs when a novice co-constructs knowledge and understanding through interaction with knowledgeable others. As the learner attempts to express words, the teacher provides support through assisted dialogue and scaffolding. Collaborative learning involves learning acquiring knowledge through social interaction with teachers and each other.

With the emergence of education technology, a lot of tools have been developed over the years to stimulate learning based on various learning theories such as motivation, cognitive and sociocultural theories.  Padlet is one of the tools which enable learners to interact with each other under the watchful guidance of the teacher online in real-time. It has a free version that 

Why Padlet 

I have chosen Padlet because it is ideal for different classroom situations and can be used for different activities. Below are some of the features

Technical Benefits

Both the teacher and learners can sign up for Padlet using email addresses. By using email addresses, learners' true identities are revealed when they post making it easy for the teacher to know which group members are participating. In addition, Padlet has a free version that is easily accessible to both learners and the teacher. It, therefore, requires no payment save for minimal data costs. 

Collaborative 

Learners have the opportunity to complete a task in pairs and small groups both at school and at home. For example, in my Padlet below, I chose the Timeline template to create a task by linking time to tenses. Each group has to provide examples of sentences in a given tense. All group members have specific roles to play, for instance, the group working on the present tense will have a person gathering five examples for each sub-tense of the tense (simple, continuous, perfect and perfect continuous), and the same is repeated in other tenses. This gives learners a chance to develop critical skills and acquire valuable knowledge through interaction. They share roles and information and evaluate their own contribution to group goals.

How To Use It in Classroom

Padlet can be used to perform a variety of classroom activities in different subjects. To demonstrate this, I have created a Padlet on a lesson in English Grammar: Tenses

1. Visit https://padlet.com and sign up with your email address

2. Create a Padlet and choose from many templates (Wall, Timeline, Map etc)

3. Make a post

4. Decide on security perimeters such as:

(a) revealing the identity of participants

(b) approval of learner's posts

For a full tutorial, watch the video below 

 

Constraints 

Like many tech tools, Padlet poses serious challenges in low-tech education systems like ours. Firstly, few secondary school teachers, let alone learners know much about it, thereby making it difficult to advocate its use. Secondly, the majority of public schools have either no or unreliable internet connectivity which reduces access to web-based tools like Padlet. Thirdly, restricted access to electronic gadgets like phones and tablets imposed on learners in public schools hinders the use of such tools in classrooms. 

Conclusion 

While Padlet is an excellent tool for collaborative learning, in Zambia, at the moment, only college and university students can benefit from it. Secondary school learners would equally enjoy working with it if necessary technological challenges impeding the full use of tech tools in classrooms were eliminated. I hope that barriers placed on the use of technology in schools are removed in the next few years for our learners to enjoy their activities using tech tools like Padlet. 

 

Tech Tools for Learner Autonomy

Introduction

One of the most difficult things to do for a teacher is to decide when to let go and allow learners to experience learning with our direct control. This is because our training is insistent on class management, teacher guidance of activities and other such concepts. Who would want to teach a class of 'independent' learners anyway? Proponents of Learner Autonomy, however, advocate for the freedom to learn at their own pace in a pressure-free environment to be accorded to learners at optimal times. Learner Autonomy, according to Oxford University Press is, "when students take control of their own learning, both in terms of what they learn and how they learn." "How possible is that?" you may ask. I asked the same question and probably still do, but hopefully, our interaction on this blog will understand. It must be stated from the outset that learner autonomy is not synonymous with self-instruction (a phenomenon where learners literally learn by themselves without any teacher involvement). Instead, it should be understood as behaviour shown by learners and complemented by a teacher in which learners demonstrate the capacity to understand the purpose of their learning, explicitly accept responsibility for their learning, share in setting goals for their learning, take initiative in planning their activities and regularly review their own performance. Yes, I agree. They need to be exceptional to do so.

Learner autonomy remains a controversial concept with no concise definition, but the advancement in technology in education provides a window to explore its practicability. One such tool is the  British Council ESOL  Nexus Site which is accessible to both teachers and learners of English as Speakers of Other Languages. This site has lesson plans, CPD Resources, learner activities and resources, and guided language use in different contexts. The following is the description of its components:

Staff Room

This section will find articles and resources essential for continuing the professional development of effective teaching and presentation skills. The articles cover a wide range of topics relevant to the professional practice of language teachers. 

English For Work

If you want to teach or learn English for use in different work environments, formal or informal, this section is the most suitable for you. It contains vocabulary, audio clips, short sentences, dialogues and many more for beginners, intermediate and higher-level adult employees. The material covers jobs such as retail, skills and construction, cleaning, and hairdressing to mention but a few. While they are intended for adult learners, their contextualised language skills and vocabulary can be useful to teenage learners and can be accessed with little or no assistance at all.

Teaching UK Life

This component is meant to adjust new immigrants understand and adjust to UK life once they arrive from their respective countries.  It can be used to explore the various aspects of life in the UK for individuals and families especially those who have relocated. Learners curious about UK life and culture even before they have a chance to travel can also learn language appropriate for various daily life situations. 

Lessons and Activities

Teachers looking for resources and lesson plans for a wide range of activities can choose this section and select what suits their situations. Lesson plans have activities that both teachers and learners can engage in to develop language skills. It also contains notes and worksheets for learners to practice and test their own language skills. 

Learners

This section contains parts essential to learner autonomy in form of English Grammar and Grammar Lessons, Skills, your Turn, and English for Work. Learners can explore these lessons according to their individual preferences to practice their English skills through storytelling, role play, self-assessed grammar quizzes and vocabulary practice. 

Constraints 

Like learner autonomy itself, the British Council ESOL Nexus Site is limited to learners of a particular age group to be effectively beneficial. The site is highly relevant to teenage and adult immigrants but not appropriate for young learners. This is because, in my view, young learners have little to do with many situations used in learning a language save for retail. Immigrant children would need a different tool to help them develop their English language skills. 

Conclusion

The role of a teacher in language learning will never, at least in the foreseeable future, be substituted by any single tool that seeks to promote learner autonomy. Suffocating grip and control of learning will not be helpful either. Therefore, as we consider developing autonomous learners, let's not abdicate our responsibilities but offer essential guidance to the learners and help them develop their level-appropriate language skills. 

Let me know what you think about learner autonomy and this tool. You can also watch 

Task-Based Learning with WebQuests

This week, I wish to draw your attention to task-based learning using WebQuest. You may wonder what WebQuest is like I did when I first heard of it. According to the inventor of the concept, Bernie Dodge (1995) from San Diego State University, a WebQuest is "an inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all of the 'treasure hunt like project tasks in which learners are provided with information to use to complete them. The emphasis is on 'using' and not 'finding' information. 

A WebQuest structure has the following:

• The Introduction stage: introduces the theme, provides background information, defines the context, roles and key vocabulary involved in the task. 

• The Task/Question - explains clearly and precisely the task learners have to complete and how they will accomplish it. It is expected that the task will be interesting and motivating.

• The Process stage guides the learners through a set of activities and research tasks, using a set of predefined resources.

• The Evaluation: involves learners in self-evaluation, comparing and contrasting what they have produced with other learners and giving feedback on what they feel they have learnt, achieved

In completing the task, learners can perform the activities individually or collaboratively by taking up roles. 

The purpose of my post this week, however, is to analyse one WebQuest I found interesting using the evaluation matrix. For this task, I have selected a WebQuest by the British Council Teaching English titled: The Year 2004 Magazine in which learners are expected to use archives and create a Sunday Magazine supplement of key news events of 2004. I will use the evaluation matrix criteria as subheadings for my analysis. 

Generally, this task is suitable for learners in senior secondary school especially those preparing for examinations like the School Certificate Examination. It is also useful in developing the life skill of verifying information, especially in the advent of fake news spreading easily through social media. 

Engaging Opening

From the onset, the task is clearly exciting from the start as learners are placed in groups of three, each with a specific topical focus - health, politics, crime, space exploration, business and sport, to delve into the BBC Archives, compile their stories and present a summary. With this variety of topical areas, learners can find at least one that interests them individually and form partnerships with those they have common interests. These topics are generated sufficient interest in many young people save maybe politics. They are engaged in brainstorming, sharing task components and deciding the order of priority for the stories in their assigned topic. Therefore, there is high-level engagement at the beginning of the task.

 

The Question/Task

A good WebQuest always has a clear question or task easy for learners to understand and follow to a logical conclusion.  In this WebQuest, learners are provided with clear topical areas to focus on and a step by step procedure of how they will come up with the components of the final product. 

From  the  BBC News  Archives, choose two important news stories from 2004 for each of these  categories (group work): health, politics, crime, space exploration, business and sport

1. Present a short summary of your news stories to the newspaper Editorial Board. They will help you decide on the most important story for each category (group work).
2. Write short articles about your final six news stories, and include graphics (individual work). 
3. Edit and produce  The Year 2004  magazine. Show your magazine to other groups (group work)
4. Do a questionnaire self-evaluation of your work (individual work).

This demonstrates that careful thought was put into the crafting of the task to yield the intended outcome. 

Background for Everyone 

To tap into the learners' background knowledge, the task asks them to firstly reflect on what made interesting news to each of them as individuals before they surf the BBC Website to refresh their memories. This is important because it helps learners, not only tap into their own background knowledge but also examine and realign their interests to choose a suitable partner. Weblinks are then provided as resources to use in completing the task.  

Roles/Expertise 

The task asks the participants to assume the role of a 'group of reporters' who work in teams of three to reproduce news articles of hot news stories of the year. after writing the stories, the reporters are to submit their products to another team called the "Editorial Board.' There is a clear and distinctive definition of roles that arrays fears of conflict of interest. Further, each team of reporters has a specific topic to concentrate on according to their interests to avoid overlap in duties. 

Use of The Web

Using the Web is in the DNA of a WebQuest thus a task that does not fully utilise this resource defeats the whole purpose. In this particular quest, learners made use of the BBC Website for both archived and recent information to help them complete the task. 

Transformative Thinking 

This is the best part of this WebQuest as higher-order thinking skills were engaged from the beginning. Firstly, they had to reflect on events of the year and remember particular ones that stood out from their individual perspectives which later culminated in decision making - settling on topical areas from those provided. Secondly, participants had to find others with aligned interests, express their views and decide to form working partnerships. It is possible some of them may have wanted to partner with close friends, but they had to examine and put aside personal inclinations for the good of the mission. Higher-order skills of reflection, brainstorming, analysis and synthesis were tapped into by the task. 

Real-World Feedback  

The WebQuest task has two forms of feedback that I found very interesting: News Verification and Self Evaluation.  In news verification, learners were tasked to ensure that all contents of their respective articles were derived from authentic sources provided as a real-life journalism ethic. This would help build a foundation for ethical reporting in future. In the second part, learners were provided with a self-evaluation questionnaire to reflect on the task in terms of experiences, perceptions of group work (before, during and after the task), lessons they picked from the task and what they would like to improve on in the future.  Above all, they were provided with the rubric of how their product would be assessed. 

Conclusion

Overall, the WebQuest had a holistic tough to it as it involved all four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing, and completed individually in part and through groups. The task was highly engaging and activated higher-order thinking skills and roles clearly shared with distinctive boundaries. All components of the WebQuest as stipulated by the inventor were complied with. However, the task may not have been very appropriate for learners who learn better as individuals than in groups as it required a lot of teamwork and collaboration.  

If you wish to develop research and other higher-order skills in the learners, try WebQuest. Let me know what your views on this topic by commenting below. 

For more information, visit  WebQuest.Org or 

Using Tech to Improve Learner Motivation

Introduction

To begin our weekly 'Tech Talk', I would like to share with you a tool that some of you may have used already, Kahoot. Language teaching, like many human endeavours, keeps evolving every now and then. New ways of doing things emerge amidst changing demands and needs of learners and the wider society. The use of games like Kahoot, Voki, Triptico App, Deck Toys, Quizlet, Wordwall and many others in the classroom provides learners unforgettable experiences that make them yearn for more class time.  It is against this background that I wish to unpack one of the games to see if you would find it useful in your context. 

About Kahoot

Kahoot is a game-based learning platform that enables the teacher to create, share and play learning games and quizzes in a matter of minutes. It is a freely accessible tool requiring minimum bandwidth and can be played on both computers and mobiles devices. 

A teacher can use Kahoot to pose questions to learners who can individually or in a group respond to using electronic gadgets in a given time. All devices require internet access to play the game. Kahoot records each learner's or group's response and the time it took to be posted, then uses the record to rank learners and decide the winner. It contains all elements of a game: competitiveness, fun, challenge and rule-governed. 

To learn more about it, click the video below: 

How it Works

1. Step 1: Create New Kahoot 

• Go to https://kahoot.com and click on the Sign-Up button 
• Fill out your account details on the next page to set up your personal account 

2. Step 2: Create a Newk or Quiz 

• After signing in, you will be directed to a new page where you should click on ' Create a Kahoot'
• Select the game you want to play. Quiz is the best of them for classroom

Image from: Kahoot.com

• Click of Quiz
• (Describe your KQuiz
• Decide the type of question
• true/false or yes/no questions.
• sentence grammar correctness/incorrectness.
• students choose odd word/sentence out
• questions about synonyms, opposites
• Include more than one correct answer to make the task harder
• Type a question in a given area
• Allocate the correct answer
• Choose the response time

 Watch the video below to learn more about how to play Kahoot

Note

• The teacher needs to have an email account in order to open a Kahoot one or can sign up using a social media account. 
• Learners are allotted time to respond in form of a count down watch per question which will show on their devices. They can use smartphones, tablets, laptops or desktop computers with internet access to be able to play the game.
• Each multiple-choice answer has colour or shape attached to it
• questions can be auto-randomised to prevent memorisation or malpractice 

Pedagogical Underpinning of the Game 

From the pedagogical perspective, Kahoot has roots in the concept of Gamification in Education and Training which refers to the use of game mechanisms in learning situations to make it more fun and enjoyable. Gamification has been adopted in various contexts for different purposes because of its potential to increase participation and innovation, strengthen engagement and ultimately motivate participants. Learning through play gives confidence and motivation to learners. This, of course, depends on how the teacher cultivates these benefits from a gaming situation. 

Kahoot can be traced in major learning theories that we apply in our teaching practice, but I will highlight three of them:

• Behaviourist Approach - the game contains repetitive tasks with instant feedback and rewards which motivate learners. 
• Constructivist Approach - Kahoot can be used to conduct pre-assessment tests to ascertain the level of pre-existing knowledge in learners and design safe-paced lessons and interventions for them to acquire new knowledge.
• Social Constructivist Theory - When learners play the game in teams, there is enormous peer-teaching and learning through collaborative game tasks. Interaction during the game is likely to build a better corporation and build bridges for collaborative learning. 

Benefits of the Game 

• Increase in Participation: Because of its gamified nature, Kahoot elicits the participation of each learner. The teacher can tell from the number of players in the game whether or not every learner is involved and take appropriate measures. The results will also show who actually participated and who did not. 
• Contributes to Classroom Happiness: Learners are more likely to enjoy class time through the fun the game comes with. Fun learning has been shown to lead to an easier and better understanding of concepts.
• Improves Learner Motivation: Kahoot makes learners look forward to the next class session

Concerns 

• The game may become boring if the same learners win all the time
• It can be addictive and take away time from other aspects of teaching and learning 

Advantages 

• It is free, easy to learn and use for teachers even with limited technological know-how
• Kahoot has a simple process for learners to access it and play the game
• It provides prompt feedback through real-time results 
• The teacher can download the results for review and other considerations 
• It is flexible as questions and response time can be adjusted 
• The game can be played using different devices - computers, tablets and mobile phones. 

Limitations 

The following are potential limitations one should bear in mind when thinking about using this game: 

• Unfavourable Rules: Learners in all public (and some private) schools are prohibited from both possessing and using mobile phones and tablets. This rule makes use of technological tools such as Kahoot in the classroom not only difficult but nearly impossible.
• Limited Access to Computers: Because learners are forbidden from using mobile devices in schools, their only interface with ICT is through computers found in school computer labs. These are mainly meant for teaching classes doing ICT related subjects like Computers Studies and Design and Technology. When there is a clash with an English class, these take precedence. In most cases, the computers have either poor or no internet access at all. 
• Inadequate Teacher Interest in Tech Stuff: While it is evident even in homes that children have more interest and prowess in technology and its immense potential in language learning and teaching, the same cannot be said of most experienced teachers who prefer 'the trusted' textbook methodology they have used for ages. As a result, attempts to use this tool would require a lot of effort to generate interest in some teachers. 
• Varying Exposure to Technology by Learners: Our classrooms house a mixture of learners from different backgrounds. Most learners from rural areas may never have seen, let alone touched a computer before they enrolled on school while those from cosmopolitan communities may even be more exposed than the teacher. Though would therefore require using the team version of Kahoot for which subscription is required. 

To play the short quiz I created, you will need to open this link https://kahoot.it and enter pin 451000. 

 Conclusion

Gamification in the classroom has been proven to increase motivation, interaction and collaboration. Kahoot is one such game that can inspire your learners to unleash their fire to set the classroom ablaze and light up their language learning experience. With proper guidance, I believe the concerns around the game can be minimised. Probably, the biggest conversation we should start having in order for technology to take its rightful place in our classrooms is the rule against possession and use of mobile devices imposed on our learners. This is a topic for another day. Meanwhile, let me know what you think about Kahoot and other motivational games for the classroom. I look forward to reading your comments.