Russell Stannard tries out more tools for the connected classroom.
In the next six weeks I will be visiting no fewer than eight countries and giving a total of 15 talks. At the centre of nearly all my presentations will be the concept of the ‘connected classroom’. So I thought I would write a bit more about this idea and some of the tools that we can use to achieve it.
Expanding opportunities
One of the ways that technology has transformed language learning is in the opportunities it affords for learning outside the classroom. Students have access to more content and more chances to engage with English than ever before. At the beginning, the web offered little more than written content, basic quizzes and some audio. However, as it began to evolve and users were able to add their own content, this all changed. In the last five years, we have seen a huge expansion in possibilities and we can now share, collaborate, upload videos, add audio, blog – and much more.
At first, I viewed online content simply as a way to make the homework I assigned more interesting and to provide ideas and directions for autonomous learning. I was able to recommend websites, videos, interviews, stories, etc that might interest my students. It now means that I can organise collaboration outside of class time. So, for example, the homework might be a collaborative piece of work where the students contribute to a wiki or comment on each other’s blogs.
This is all very positive and has really helped to make my lessons more varied, to motivate the students, to make the learning more personalised, to introduce different forms of groupand pairwork and to extend the lesson beyond the classroom.
Breaking down barriers
The key point of the ‘connected classroom’ concept is that technology can break down the barriers between lesson and homework, merging the two so that, instead of being an afterthought, the homework is a direct extension of the actual lesson. Indeed, when I plan my lessons now, I think of the two parts (the lesson and the homework) as one whole: they are connected. What’s more, the better the connection between what we do in class and what the students are asked to do at home, the better they engage with the homework.
The connected classroom could be based around anything – a lesson on presentation skills, for example. In class we could make a list of the typical mistakes students make when presenting. We might develop a checklist of good or bad points for evaluating a presentation. The homework might then be to watch a video of a bad presentation and suggest ways that it could be improved, perhaps in the form of a report. (There is a great video that shows a presenter making loads of mistakes which is ideal for the students to watch and analyse at www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXILI9Q1jIw.)
The homework is, therefore, closely linked to the content of the lesson. Indeed, the lesson actually prepares the students for the homework.
The connected classroom in action
I am especially interested in using the connected classroom idea for speaking activities. One of the easiest sites I have ever used is http://vocaroo.com/. Here, the students can click on a button, record themselves speaking and then email the recording to me. In a lesson on giving personal information, for example, I might get the students to practise giving the following information, looking at the language needed to provide it:
- Your name
- Your job
- Where you live
- The languages you speak
- Two interests
I might then get them to practise giving personal information in pairs, thereby building their confidence in speaking. The homework would be for the students to log onto the site, record themselves providing personal information and then email the result to me. I could then listen, take notes and provide feedback in the next lesson. There are obvious benefits to such an approach:
- Shy students benefit as they can make the recordings in the privacy of their own home.
- The students can make their recording as many times as they like until they are happy with it, and then submit it.
- We are increasing the speaking practice that our students get outside class.
- The recordings can be included in a portfolio, so the students can build up evidence and examples of their progress in speaking over a period of time.
The good news is there are more and more of these types of tools emerging on the internet. I recently came across Eyejot, another great tool that we can use for speaking activities. Eyejot (at www.eyejot.com/) has the advantage that recordings can be downloaded onto a hard drive. It also works with a webcam so the recordings can be done as videos.
One way to use it might be in the context of a job interview. In the lesson, you might watch some videoed examples of job interviews and get the students to analyse and focus on the questions asked. You might then put them into pairs, get them to think of ten more interview questions and then ask them to roleplay an interview. When giving feedback, you can focus on any problems of pronunciation or language use. Finally, for homework, you can get the students to work in pairs and record their interviews using Eyejot. The students send their recordings directly to you for feedback on their oral performance. This is just one simple scenario but there are obviously many other ways this tool can be exploited.
Technology is going beyond just revolutionising what we ask our students to do for homework; it is almost removing the walls of the classroom and making the homework an extension of the lesson itself.
For help on using Vocaroo and Eyejot, go to: www.teachertrainingvideos.com/vocaroo1/index.html and www.teachertrainingvideos.com/eyejot/index.html
Russell Stannard is a Principal Lecturer in ICT at the University of Warwick, UK, where he teaches on the MA in ELT. He won the Times Higher Education Award for Outstanding Initiatives in Information and Communications Technology in 2008, TEFLnet Site of the Year in 2009 and a 2010 British Council ELTon award, all for his popular website www.teachertrainingvideos.com.
This article first appeared in English Teaching professional, Issue 80, May 2013.
