Blended Learning and Blendspace

Blended learning and Blendspace

Hello, everyone. Today I am going to briefly talk about blended learning.

The definition of blended learning

To simply put, face-to-face classroom methods are combined with online educational tools and activities in a blended learning programme while e-learning is totally based on online classrooms.

Benefits of blended learning

• More individualized learning (leaners work on at their own pace)
• To motivate students’ autonomy
• Time and money saving (once it is created and kept being used after)
• No limitation on learning space as long as learners have access to PC and the internet
• Can supplement constraints of face-to-face classroom learning (time/ leaner’s proficiency gap/material and activity preparation)
• No limitation on times of reviewing what learners have learned

Disadvantaged of blended learning

• Difficult to develop high qualified programme and expensive at the first developing stage
• The success of learning depends too much on students themselves because there no teacher(monitor) exists
• Technical difficulties (it requires proper digital equipment (both software and hardware) to operate properly)
• More burden to teachers (even consider aesthetic aspects)

Blended learning tool-  BlendSpace "Create digital lessons in 5 minutes!"
Go to the website: https://www.tes.com/lessons

How to use?

As long as you have a google account, you can log in without any bothering sign-up process. When you log in, you will see already created featured lessons in the dashboard.

To try one out or actually take a lesson about a particular course, you can just go to the Gallery. You will immediately see existing digital lessons vary from math to fun animal things.

Now, let's try make our own online lesson using this tool for our students' extra work! :)

Click "Lesson" and type the title of your lesson. Then you will have your blank online learning space right away as seen blow. 

For example, I will try making an online lesson for basic English. I can search online materials related to it using the search box on the right side of your template. As you can see below pictures, the searching engines are tes, youtube, goolge, search gooru, flickr and also my own video clips can uploaded.

 

I believe this tool will be very useful to give students extra lessons and work. Once the teacher have created a lesson, she can keep updating it and students can easily join the class by just entering a class code!

My thoughts on blended learning in ESL context 

When we are to implement blended learning, the leaners' autonomy and self-motivation is crucially required to keep them on track. Since no one is going to monitor and give feedback immediately while learning happening online, it is really tempting to just skip a few pages or unfold model answers even before having a thought on questions. Or even learners might consider learning outside the classroom not that serious. Thus, no matter the purpose and contents it might be, for effective blended learning, some rules or sort of devices to control online learning alongside the off-line class will be first needed.

Online collaborative learning in ESL contexts and useful tools

Hello, everyone.
Thank you for coming. How are you doing? :)
Today, I am going to talk about some benefits and disadvantages on online collaborative learning in ESL contexts and introduce very useful tools!

In fact, I did give a try on collaborative work in the class today not as a teacher but a student. We were divided in groups and asked to discuss about advantages and disadvantages of online collaboration in ELS classrooms and write an essay about it using the online collaboration tools. Does it sound exciting, doesn't it? Each of use was of course supposed to be somewhere in different places. (Thus, no talking happened.)

To complete the essay, idea sharing would be the first step. To brainstorm about the essay, we used the tool, "Stormboard."

One minute review on Stormbard from YouTube

Go to the website: https://stormboard.com


Stormboard is a synchronizing collaboration tool that uses virtual sticky notes for brainstorming and sharing ideas. If you create an account, you can create a collaboration platform and invite your colleagues to participate in or can just join a project where you are invited.

When you create new one, just select a template from different types of it like just blank one, calander, problem solving one, etc. You can also choose the sticky note type which is most appropriate for your project characteristics. You can text, draw, make comments on it and even upload files, images and videos in ONE sticky note! I found this very useful for the first step of process-writing in groups in our classroom.

 

In line with theoritical bases for benefits of collaboration learning at both the level of cognitition and that of social cohesion,  L2 learners can co-construct their language knowledge and understading through collaboration learning process where peer interaction and practice of scaffording occurs. Of course brainstorming is the first phase of collaboration work and THIS tool fits for quick exchanging ideas and feedback. Why don't you try first on your personal plan like making trip itinerary with friedns?

Other very useful collaboration tools are also here:

http://www.tricider.com/home

https://vialogues.com/

https://voicethread.com/

https://padlet.com/

https://www.zoho.com/docs/writer.html 

Regards

Yuna

WebQuests- An effective tool for task-based instruction

Hi, everyone.

Today, I’d like to share ideas of WebQuest and its application to our classroom.

What is a WebQuest?

    A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the web. These can be created using various programs, including a simple word processing document that includes links to websites. (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

 

What’s the difference between ‘Googling’ and WebQuest?

    There are also a good number of websites that label their activities 'WebQuests' when they are in fact 'Cybersearches'. Googling 'WebQuest' will not necessarily take you to 'inquiry-oriented activities' based on sound pedagogy! Try asking these questions: Do the students have an exciting, engaging task to do? Are they expected to transform information into something they themselves have created? Are they working collaboratively with others? Are they asked to evaluate as well as describe? If not, is it really a WebQuest??

(From Tilly Harrison’s page http://questgarden.com/author/create/preview.php?u=&l=16243-110202033926&a=&p=credits&pt=teacher)

 

What’s the benefit from it on EFL classrooms?

 

  It’s perfect for task-base language teaching where more authentic language use is promoted by having students do meaningful tasks with their target language. It is one of the effective teaching methods of real target language use and also I believe the application of a WebQuest allows the EFL classroom to escape from teacher-centred paradigms, to encourage learner autonomy and student interactions through problem solving. Also, learners’ metacognitive learning ability can be taken place.
 

What's the process of WebQuests?

You can create your own WebQuests normally following the six staged of it: introduction, task, process, resources, evaluation, and conclusion. Thankfully, there are now thousands of ready-made WebQuests that we can bring into our classroom.

Questgarden is one of the best sites for WebQuest lessons.

Go to the website : http://questgarden.com

 

  If you sign up for a free trial, you can access to ready-made lesson plans by teachers all over the world! It's very easy to search up WebQuest lesson plans for your target teaching skills. For example, if you put the keyword "reading" into the "research for example" you will see about 40 lesson plans shared for free and you can immediately check if it's related to your student's level and topics.

  Among them, Oh the Possiblirites by Kerry Ann McKevitt is one of my favourites which I’d like to apply into my classroom. I think it's more related practical life knowledge such as making a plan to convince others your ideas and searching for cheap but nice accommodations and restaurants. Students will actually learn English very naturally while doing these kinds of realistic activities and in particular, academically highly motivated students (who have a dream of studying abroad) will find it most useful and interesting as a way of learning more practical and authentic English.

The task given to the students is below:

You and your classmates have to plan a trip for three weeks. You will have to include a detailed plan of activities and a budget. Once you have made your plans, you and your classmates will present your proposal to the class. In this WebQuest, you will have to search for information about language courses in the city chosen as well as information related to the trip (flights, accomodation, food, free time, etc.).

This activity will have a positive effect on

• improving their reading skills by helping them become more familiar with materials in English
• developing both oral and wiring skills by giving both the written proposal and a presentation.
• Learning cooperative learning through collaborative activities with a group project.
• Extending higher-order thinking such as analysis, creativity, or criticism

 My suggested WebQuest activity for listening and writing skills

A group of students is given a price comparison website and they are supposed to give a present for mother’s day. They have to choose one best item among at least 5 different kinds of it within £50. They should write the comparison in different aspects and provide good rationale for the final choice.

Hope you enjoy my post. Many Thanks! :)

Yuna