Here is Why Online Teaching Is Convenient, But Not Always Easy - e-Learning Feeds

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Teaching Strategies

Teaching Strategies

Teaching Strategies

There are a variety of teaching strategies that instructors can use to improve student learning. The links below will show you some ways to make your classes more engaging.

• Active Learning - Active Learning is anything that students do in a classroom other than merely passively listening to an instructor's lecture. Research shows that active learning improves students' understanding and retention of information and can be very effective in developing higher order cognitive skills such as problem solving and critical thinking. 
• Clicker Use in Class - Clickers enable instructors to rapidly collect and summarize student responses to multiple-choice questions they ask of students in class.
• Collaborative/Cooperative Learning - Cooperative and collaborative learning are instructional approaches in which students work together in small groups to accomplish a common learning goal.They need to be carefully planned and executed, but they don't require permanently formed groups.
• Critical Thinking - Critical thinking is a collection of mental activities that include the ability to intuit, clarify, reflect, connect, infer, and judge. It brings these activities together and enables the student to question what knowledge exists. 
• Discussion Strategies - Engaging students in discussion deepens their learning and motivation by propelling them to develop their own views and hear their own voices.  A good environment for interaction is the first step in encouraging students to talk. 
• Experiential Learning - Experiential learning is an approach to education that focuses on "learning by doing," on the participant's subjective experience. The role of the educator is to design "direct experiences" that include preparatory and reflective exercises.
• Games/Experiments/Simulations - Games, experiments and simulations can be rich learning environments for students.  Students today have grown up playing games and using interactive tools such as the Internet, phones, and other appliances.  Games and simulations enable students to solve real-world problems in a safe environment and enjoy themselves while doing so. 
• Humor in the Classroom - Using humor in the classroom can enhance student learning by improving understanding and retention. 
• Inquiry-Guided Learning - With the inquiry method of instruction, students arrive at an understanding of concepts by themselves and the responsibility for learning rests with them. This method encourages students to build research skills that can be used throughout their educational experiences.
• Interdisciplinary Teaching - Interdisciplinary teaching involves combining two different topics into one class.  Instructors who participate in interdisciplinary teaching find that students approach the material differently, while faculty members also have a better appreciation of their own discipline content. 
• Learner-Centered Teaching - Learner-Centered teaching means the student is at the center of learning.  The student assumes the responsibility for learning while the instructor is responsible for facilitating the learning.  Thus, the power in the classroom shifts to the student. 
• Learning Communities - Communities bring people together for shared learning, discovery, and the generation of knowledge. Within a learning community, all participants take responsibility for achieving the learning goals.   Most important, learning communities are the process by which individuals come together to achieve learning goals. 
• Lecture Strategies - Lectures are the way most instructors today learned in classes.  However, with today’s students, lecturing does not hold their attention for very long, even though they are a means of conveying information to students. 
• Mobile Learning - Mobile Learning is any type of learning that happens when the learner is not at a fixed location.
• Online/Hybrid Courses - Online and hybrid courses require careful planning and organization.  However, once the course is implemented, there are important considerations that are different from traditional courses.  Communication with students becomes extremely important. 
• Problem-Based Learning - Problem-based Learning (PBL) is an instructional method that challenges students to "learn to learn," working in groups to seek solutions to real world problems. The process replicates the commonly used systemic approach to resolving problems or meeting challenges that are encountered in life, and will help prefer students for their careers. 
• Service Learning - Service learning is a type of teaching that combines academic content with civic responsibility in some community project.  The learning is structured and supervised and enables the student to reflect on what has taken place. 
• Social Networking Tools - Social networking tools enable faculty to engage students in new and different means of communication.
• Teaching Diverse Students - Instructors today encounter a diverse population in their courses and many times need assistance in knowing how to deal with them.
• Teaching with Cases - Case studies present students with real-life problems and enable them to apply what they have learned in the classroom to real life situations.  Cases also encourage students to develop logical problem solving skills and, if used in teams, group interaction skills.  Students define problems, analyze possible alternative actions and provide solutions with a rationale for their choices. 
• Team-Based Learning - Team-based learning (TBL) is a fairly new approach to teaching in which students rely on each other for their own learning and are held accountable for coming to class prepared.  Research has found that students are more responsible and more engaged when team-based learning is implemented.  The major difference in TBL and normal group activities is that the groups are permanent and most of the class time is devoted to the group meeting. 
• Team Teaching - At its best, team teaching allows students and faculty to benefit from the healthy exchange of ideas in a setting defined by mutual respect and a shared interest in a topic.  In most cases both faculty members are present during each class and can provide different styles of interaction as well as different viewpoints. 
• Writing Assignments - Writing assignments for class can provide an opportunity for them to apply critical thinking skills as well as help them to learn course content. 

                      http://www.merlot.org/merlot/materials.htm?category=2299&&

Simulated immersion

Simulated immersion

What is simulated immersion?

Simulated immersion is based on the idea that the best way to improve your listening is to be immersed in the target language in a native speaking environment. In the absence of such an opportunity, we try to simulate the conditions that make immersion favorable.

 Those conditions are:

• Large amounts of time spent simply hearing the language - several hours per week rather than mere minutes spent in a typical class

• Maximal exposure to authentic texts

• Exposure to a wide range of situations and language forms

• Emphasis on bottom up processing to aid in real-life scenarios

Practical ideas

This is my daughter listening.

Hearing versus listening
In class, teachers invariably set tasks to accompany ‘listenings’. This is understandable - it would be a bit weird to simply press play and hope the students got some value from it.

But simply hearing a language - being exposed to it in the background, in the car, on the radio or TV, or in the form of music, for example, is extremely valuable. It’s a much looser, less structured form of practice than is found in class, but it acclimatizes the learner to the sound systems and structures of the language. I will call this type of listening passive listening.

 Tom Hayton, freelance teacher and trainer
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/simulated-immersion

Discover the Global Scale of English

Global standards are everywhere. In business, energy, science and nature. Even chillies have their own scale! So why not English language learning? Why is there no single standard that every person, company and institution can use to benchmark learning progress? Well now there is - the Global Scale of English (GSE), the world's first truly global English language standard which will allow you to measure progress on your English language journey.
http://www.wiziq.com/halina-maria-ostanko

Free MoodleMOOT 2015

I had a wonderful time presenting.

Meet the IATEFL Online Team

Meet the IATEFL Online Team

Carol Read (IATEFL) and Julian Wing (British Council) talk about this year's conference and say goodbye to the online viewers. - See more at: 

http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2016/interview/meet-iatefl-online-team#sthash.oleIknrT.dpuf

Click on the link to watch goodbye video.

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Birmingham IATEFL Live Schedule Wednesday 13th April 2016

Birmingham IATEFL

Wednesday 13th April

0915-1025 OPENING PLENARY BY DAVID CRYSTAL
CHECK YOUR LOCAL TIME

Who would of thought it? The English language 1966-2066

Complaints about a supposed decline in standards of English continue to be made, with increasing frequency, in the British press. Although these are nothing new - as the long history of use of would of for would have illustrates - they do draw attention to the way we seem to be going through a period of unusually rapid language change. This paper illustrates the main changes in pronunciation, orthography, grammar, and vocabulary, discusses the chief factors involved - social mobility, globalization, and the Internet - and compares the changes that have taken place in the past fty years with those that are likely to take place in the next fty.

10:30    live studio starts

10:50    interview with Nicky Hockly

11:15    interview with Pete Sharma

11:30    interview with Adam Kightley

11:45    interview with Zeyneb Urkun 

12:00    interview with Silvana Richardson

12:15    interview with Jim Scrivener

12:30    interview with Gavin Dudeney

12:45    interview with George Pickering

13:00-14:00    break

14:00    interview with Hugh Dellar

14:00    interview with David Crystal

14:15    interview with Tessa Woodward

14:45    interview with Hornby scholars: Allwyn D'costa and Erkin Mukhammedor

15:00    interview with Hornby scholars: Mohammed Bashir and Abdallah Yousif

15:15    interview with Gail Ellis

15:30    interview with Hornby scholars Parwiz Hossain and Shoaib Jawad

15:45    interview with Alison Barrett

16:00    interview with Alan Maley

16:15    interview with Tim Phillips

17:20 - 18:25 BRITISH COUNCIL SIGNATURE EVENT
CHECK YOUR LOCAL TIME

Shakespeare lives: love, hate, death and desire in English language classroom

Speakers: Lisa Peter (The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust), Dr Christina Lim (lecturer, researcher and teacher educator), Shaheen Khan (actor), Lisa Peter (Shakespeare Birthplace Trust), Tonderai Munyevu (actor). Chaired by John Knagg, British Council.
Join the British Council to celebrate Shakespeare's work on teh 400th anniversary of his death. We will ecplore how Shakespeare has relevance to our society, students and classrooms today and how Shakespearecan speak to people from all around the world about universal human experiences like love, hate, death and desire.
The event will be practical, thought-provoking and fully interactive with the opportunity join in the discussion before, during and after, either in person and online. The audience will help to shape the event and on the day and participants will take away ideas to use in the classroom on how to address issues which feature in much of Shakespeare's work yet remain relevant today.

- See more at: Birmingham IATEFLBirmingham IATEFL

Localization: Taking eLearning Above And Beyond!

Localization: Taking eLearning Above And Beyond!:

Want to know if Localization can revolutionize eLearning? Check why Localization is the next big eLearning revolution and take eLearning above and beyond.

Education is coming out of the walled classrooms and crossing all physical barriers to empower hard to reach learners in the form of eLearning. But for the exponents of eLearning, it is important to understand that in order for this model to succeed, we cannot have a “one-size-fits-all” concept. The internet has melted the geographic barrier, but has it melted the language barrier too? English is still the most preferred medium of instruction for eLearning course developers, but in order to improve its efficacy, an eLearning course must be localized to suit the needs of the remote learner. While translating to native languages is one aspect, the power of localization can also be broadened to include the concept of on-demand learning. This article attempts to explore how localization can be the next big revolution in eLearning.

In its traditional definition, localization means to adapt a particular product to suit the linguistic and cultural sensibilities of a particular audience. When it comes to creating eLearning courses, developers are still using English to reach to a global audience. This is evident in the result of a Google search of “Top eLearning courses” (the results point to all English learning courses). But English is only the third spoken language in the world. Localizing a course to Mandarin, Spanish, or Hindi will give any eLearning course a mind-boggling number of audiences. 

http://elearningindustry.com/localization-taking-elearning-beyond 

Future Ready Leaders Trailer

Personalized Professional Learning for Future Ready Leaders 

Technology in Education

http://www.edweek.org/ew/issues/technology-in-education/index.html

Technology is everywhere in education: Public schools in the United States now provide at least one computer for every five students. They spend more than $3 billion per year on digital content. Led by the federal government, the country is in the midst of a massive effort to make affordable high-speed Internet and free online teaching resources available to even the most rural and remote schools. And in 2015-16, for the first time, more state standardized tests for the elementary and middle grades will be administered via technology than by paper and pencil.

The Elephant, The Rider and the Path

A commonly held belief is that human behavior is the result of rational decision making based on available information. A closer look into the science of behavior reveals the powerful role our emotions play in our decision making process. In this animated video we look at the behavior change process using Jonathan Haidt’s analogy of an elephant, a rider, and a path.

Technology and the teacher’s personality

Teacher extraordinaire Mr Keating appears as the epitome of the charismatic teacher – one that his students are sure to remember long after their school years are over. Way over the top as this might be (though I am sure that, whatever we may say, many of us would love to feel we are a little bit like Mr Keating) it is only natural to ask ourselves: does the personality of the teacher matter in this Brave New World of technology and on-line courses?
As teachers we are in the business of influencing people. How can we do that? It helps if we imagine each individual as a big elephant with a rider sitting on top of it (a metaphor first used by J. Haidt 2006). The elephant is our emotional side; it is big, strong, somewhat impulsive and not as predictable as we would like it to be. The rider is our rational side; it can guide the elephant and the latter usually allows itself to be directed by the former (but if there is a disagreement, we all know who we should bet on! J )
So how can we influence people? There are 3 ways: a) We can motivate the elephant; this is what charismatic teachers do – they inspire their students, and this clearly works best in a f2f context. b) We can direct the rider – appealing to the logical part of our students and telling them what to do. This can work equally well in a f2f and an online context. c) We can shape the path down which the elephant and the rider will walk (an idea first proposed by Heath & Heath 2011 – click here to watch a 2-min clip). By careful use of choice architecture (see Thaler & Sunstein 2008), we can ‘nudge’ the duo in the direction we would like them to go. * An on-line environment is ideal for such an approach. However….

References:

• Bloom, P. (2008) Introduction to Psychology. Yale Courses, You Tube
• Haidt, J. (2006) The Happiness Hypothesis. London: Arrow Books
• Heath, C. & Heath, D. (2011) Switch. London: Random House
• Lieberman, M. (2013) Social. Oxford: Oxford University Press
• Thaler, R. & Sunstein, C. (2008) Nudge. Michigan: Yale University Press

Language Learning Theories

This is my latest video.

Learning Language Theories

This is my latest video.

Teaching English Adults

When we decide to teach adults, the awareness, as well as comprehension of whom we teach and what we teach, is essential here.

1)     Adults do not want to waste the time.

Some adults take language courses because of a job requirement while others have their specific goal to attain (such as a language exam or a professional interview ).

Adults expect direct, practical benefit. All of them will raise the similar questions

·        Why,

·        What for,

·        How,

·        Who (is my teacher?),

·         What else could I achieve instead?

·         Is the time well spent?

All lessons must have a clear outcome, perhaps even a practical takeaway. It is necessary to define specific profits at the end of the lesson and associate the benefits to the individual learning purposes.

2)     Adults are reflective learners; they think about

·       what is challenging or where I require more support

·       individual learning strategies and self-evaluation

·       maintaining a sense of responsibility for learning and achieving goals  

3)  Motivation is varied, and flexibility is crucial.

Teachers have to be flexible and ready for different approaches, wide-ranging content or even unconventional paths to lead to the same goal.

Creating a context for meaningful learning is one of the tasks.

4) Mature students feel the need for direct benefit as well as dominant language skills.

·        Learners are looking for a solution to an exact problem at hand, immediately.

·       The fundamental question is: “What should I do to get this to work?”

·        Mature learners usually want to accomplish a particular task, or at least, see a noticeable benefit for the future.

·       Adults want to use language for a real-world reason.

5) The different abilities of adult learners are evident.

I am against using grammar tables, linguistic terms and other abstractions in language teaching. However, if they can help the grown-up learner why do not explain the grammar rules?

Language Learning Theories

Learning Theories

There are 12 learning theories:

•    Constructivism

•    Behaviorism

•    Piaget's Developmental Theory

•    Neuroscience

•    Brain-Based Learning

•    Learning Styles

•    Multiple Intelligences

•    Right Brain/Left Brain

•    Thinking

•    Communities of Practice

•    Control Theory

•    Observational Learning

•    Vygotsky and Social Cognition

http://www.funderstanding.com/about_learning.cfm.

In the mid-1950s, humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow created a theory of basic, psychological and self-fulfillment needs that motivate individuals to move consciously or subconsciously through levels or tiers based on our inner and outer satisfaction of those met or unmet needs. I find this theory eternally relevant for students and adults, especially in today's education.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/addressing-our-needs-maslow-hierarchy-lori-desautels

Learning means bringing changes, by learning human enters new society and culture. When they learned new understanding, they perform on it. Otherwise, they lose it.

As stated earlier, learning transfers changes (behaviorism) and creates new knowledge or increases information (cognitive skills).  Education empowers our brain and beliefs, so it encourages our intellectual power to improve knowledge.

Most important theories related to language learning.

1.       Behaviorist,

2.       Cognitive,

3.       Constructivism,

4.       Chomsky’s Universal Grammar

5.       Schumann’s Acculturation / Orientation in a new culture,

6.       Krashen’s Monitor

7.       Conversation

The conversation theory is a transdisciplinary learning theory. Developed by Gordon Pask in 1975, it is influenced by a range of cybernetics, linguistics, computer science concepts, cognitive psychology, and neurophysiology.

What learning theories do you follow and why?

How do you incorporate them into your teaching? Try to be as specific as you can. 

I use the mix of different theoriesIt depends on the kind of my students.

In my view, theoretical concepts do not yield concrete prescriptions for classroom application, but the good theory can be used flexibly and creatively by teachers in their planning and educational practice. At the same time, not all learning takes place in the classroom as much of it occurs at home, on the sports field, in museums and so forth (non-formal education), and sometimes implicitly and effortlessly (informal learning).

Non-formal education and informal learning are vital for improving language learning.

How People Learn and What are their Learning Styles?

This is my video about the topic

https://youtu.be/ANObYwBfmu0?list=PLSY4veVfjc63CFZvyfcU96ZodmJp3h5xV

Nowadays the dominant theory is socio-constructivism which can be defined as an approach according to which individual knowledge relies on its social construction of it. (Piaget, Doise and Mugny, 1984). Particularly relevant in this respect are the communication processes (learning dialogs) occurring in situations where at least two persons try to solve a problem. The social world of a learner includes the people that directly affect that person, including teachers, friends, students, administrators, and participants in all forms of activities. Accordingly, learning designs should enhance local collaboration and dialogue but also engage other actors (e.g. domain experts) to participate in certain ways. Research on collaborative learning is particularly interested in learning mechanisms that are triggered by specific collaborative activities.

Key functionalities of a socio-constructivist learning environment are:

• Reflection & Exchange
• Scaffolding & Storyboarding
• Facilitation & Content
• Monitoring & Assessment
• Production, Investigation, etc.
• Psychological support & Community.

         http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Socio-constructivism

Theoretical concepts do not produce actual prescriptions for classroom application, but the good theory can be used flexibly and creatively by teachers in their planning and educational practice. At the same time, not all learning takes place in the classroom as much of it occurs at home, on the sports field, in museums and so forth (non-formal education), and sometimes implicitly and effortlessly (informal learning).

In the mid-1950s, humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow created a theory of basic, psychological and self-fulfillment needs that motivate individuals to move consciously or subconsciously through levels or tiers based on our inner and outer satisfaction of those met or unmet needs. I find this theory increasingly relevant for students and adults, especially in today's education.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/addressing-our-needs-maslow-hierarchy-lori-desautels

Additionally, I would like to highlight Constructivism as one of the hot topics in educational philosophy right now. It potentially has profound inferences for how current `traditional' instruction is structured, since it goes with several highly exposed educational trends, for example:

• the transition of the teacher's role from "sage on the stage" (fount/transmitter of knowledge) to "guide on the side" (facilitator, coach);
• teaching "higher order" skills such as problem-solving, reasoning, and reflection (for example, see also creative learning);
• enabling learners to learn how to learn;
• increasing flexibility in the evaluation of learning outcomes;
• cooperative and collaborative learning skills.

For me, language learning through conversation and open communication is the most effective teaching technique.

I want my students to become active learners. As the brain works on a use-it-or-lose-it style, means students must apply whatever they learn.

It is necessary to use the new phrase or character in a real situation. Also learning the words and phrases through original videos helps to learn faster.

Moreover, I encourage my students to make language learning a passion.

I combine the fun of language learning with the commitment to follow through. They should remember that feeling the need to learn a new wording is not enough to take an action. Give yourself clarity on what exactly compels you to learn a new language.

My tips are;

• Figure out the how to comprehend a desire to learn.
• What’s the goal behind it?
• What’s the bigger picture?
• How will learn a new language open opportunities in future?
• Just answering these questions will motivate learners to get to the much higher level to take action when necessary.