Technology in the classroom part 8

As promised, I want to tell you about an experiment I carried out with these two groups of students.
I was hypothesizing that it would be the interaction among the students- and not the technology- that would help them learn. I believe that technology is a tool that helps us find, store, retrieve, and share information, but it doesn't necessarily make us learn. In order to test this idea, and also to give students an example of what kind of project I was talking about, I came up with the following scheme.
I asked the teachers to ask the students for their cell phones numbers. I told them to reassure the students that this was totally optional, and that nothing would happen if they preferred not to give their numbers. Nobody opted out. Then, I asked the teachers to tell me a word that had come up in the class and that they students hadn't known. In one group, it was stuffy; in the other, it was box office. Fortunately, my cell phone has software that you can download onto your computer. With this, it's very easy to send multiple text messages. I wrote the vocabulary words, plus a definition and example, I typed in the cell phone numbers, and I sent them off.
The teachers tell me the students were totally amazed. They thought it was the coolest thing in the world. They asked me if I would continue to send them words, and I agreed to do so for the remainder of the course. Students who hadn't attended class that day asked if I could include them, and the word even got around to students from other groups, who wanted to join in.
Needless to say, it was expensive, but the students learned the vocabulary, as shown by a post-test (average score, 19/20 words), and they expressed positive or very positive views about receiving their word a day by phone. There are some websites that permit mass messaging at low cost. I think it's worth looking into and exploiting, but it's not the objective of my research, so I'll put it on hold for a while.

Technology in the classroom part 7

I was working with two different groups of students, and two different teachers.
Basically what happened is that the project was so fuzzy, that the students never knew what they were supposed to do.
I had envisioned them doing things like making podcasts, or videos, or choosing texts and adding hyperlinks to new vocabulary words. What they were coming up with was "listening to music and getting the words to it" or "watching movies in English". Some of the teams were more ambitious: in one group they wanted to write a tv show and act it out, another wanted to download songs, get the lyrics, write some exercises, and put it all on a cd. In short, the projects were either too easy or too difficult, and there was a lot of frustration and confusion, on the students' part, on the teachers', and on mine, too.
After a heart to heart talk with the teachers, I asked the students to concentrate on vocabulary. The change in attitude was notable: they had a sense of purpose, and that helped motivate them. In short, it wasn't a total disaster and I learned some useful things:
a) the project can't be that fuzzy; it has to be a little more definite;
b) I should limit the kinds of technology I ask the students to use.
c) the students don't think of some things as technology. For example, cell phones are useful gadgets that everyone has, but they're not technology.

And speaking of cell phones, next time I'll tell you about an interesting little experiment I carried out with these two groups. Till then...

Technology in the classroom Part 6

Back after a hiatus. I had to turn in four chapters of my thesis at the end of December, and defend them last Friday, so the blog was definitely on a back burner. Besides, I'm working on an interesting translation that I'll tell you about later, but anyway...

So, if people learn in interaction, but today's kids are learning with technology, how do we combine both elements to take advantage of the potential they both have to offer? The main focus of my research is learning communities interacting with technology. However, these are face to face communities and not virtual communities, which are becoming ever more popular.
What I'm trying to do is have students work together in small teams on a project that involves creating their own learning materials and uses some kind of technology.
At the beginning, the project was kind of "fuzzy". I read that the more undefined these kinds of projects are, the more students will find them motivating. I must've read wrong, though, or else that rule doesn't apply to the students I was working with. I was working with students who are taking a preparation course for the TOEIC exam. I asked them to:
a) form teams of 4 to 6 students
b) decide what they wanted to work on (e.g., reading, listening, grammar)
c) decide what kind of technology they would work with (wikis, blogs, cell phones, podcasts, pdas, etc.)
d) create learning materials that used the chosen technology to deliver the area they wanted to focus on.

It was ambitious, I know. Next time, I'll tell you what happened...

Technology in the Classroom Part 5

Well, Monday was a long time coming, but I'm back.

So, if we say that technology is the way kids learn nowadays, it would seem logical to offer them technology in the classroom, right? Actually, it's not that easy. In the first place, a lot of the technology that exists at this moment for the teaching/learning of languages is not that good. I remember seeing once a video of someone's cat going round and round and that was it! What are you supposed to do with that? Or else, you get the same information that's in a book, but it's posted online, or made into a CD. The whole point of using technology is that it should take advantage of its unique capabilities, and not just replicate what already exists.
Another problem, is that technology tends to be isolating. If you've ever been to a Starbuck's where there are seven people sitting by themselves with a laptop and earphones, you know exactly what I mean. And people don't learn in isolation: they learn in interaction with others.
The idea is that we include technology in the classroom, taking advantage of its full potential and using it to promote interaction.
This is the topic of my research

Technology in the classroom part 2

Well, as I was saying, I went to the literature and found that it's true, that the new generation learns differently from the rest of this, and this is because of the all the stimuli they've been exposed to.
Mark Prensky calls the kids born after 1982 "digital natives", while the rest of us are "digital immigrants". The digital natives have been using technology all their lives, so much so, that they no longer think of it as technology. Cell phones, for example, are not technology, they are indispensable gadgets to be used whenever they need to communicate with friends.
Those of us born before 1982 tend to learn in a more linear fashion: we go from point a to point b and then to point c. Our students, on the other hand, jump around from one thing to another: they learn in "hyperlinks"- that is, they start at point a, but there's no telling where they will end up or what points they will pass on their journey.
By the way, that's a hyperlink on Mark Prensky's name. If you click on it, it will take you to the article.
Another thing about these digital natives is their ability to "multitask", which means they can do lots of things at the same time: they are paying attention in class- believe it or not- at the same time they are doing homework from another class, at the same time they are surfing on the Web, at the same time they are sending text messages from their cell phones. It drives us crazy, and we can't possibly imagine that they can- and do- pay attention to us, because we don't work in the same way.
So what does this mean for the classroom? We'll talk about it tomorrow.

Technology in the classroom Part 1

I was away from the office for a few days, taking classes for the doctorate. I thought of writing from there and telling you about my research, but I didn't remember the password and I couldn't get in. This shows you that technology may be wonderful, but humans are still humans.
Anyway, I'll tell you what I'm doing:
I've been teaching English for 26 years and I thought I did okay, until I came to the University. I was working at a language school with adults who study English because they want to, and life was good. Suddenly, I'm in an environment with kids who study because someone says they have to, and teaching became work.
The biggest change I noticed, however, was that the minute I started doing a grammar explanation, the kids seemed to turn off. I tried explaining in many different ways, but couldn't seem to get through to them. At first I thought that they weren't used to having grammar explanations in English, but then I began to wonder if there wasn't something different in the way kids learn nowadays. I went to the literature and discovered that I was definitely on to something...

And I'll continue this story tomorrow.

Starting Up again

Hello,

I've been playing with the idea of starting up this blog again. We had opened it last year as a way to promote an academic event we had at the University and pretty much abandoned it after that. However, with the work I've been doing on technology in the classroom, I think this is a good way to keep my hand in, to keep you informed, the share information and everything.

A blog is pretty much a public diary. Some people are very disciplined (and lead interesting lives) and therefore have lots to talk about and can blog everyday.
I won't guarantee everyday additions, but what I will try to do is share what is going on around here, share what I pick up when I go to conferences, share what I'm doing in my research, and anything else that maybe be useful. I welcome your feedback and comments.