Sunday

Engaging Learners Online

I had a lot of fun during my presentation yesterday for the Teachers Teaching Online (TTO) MOOC, with my session 'Engaging Online Learners', splitting the participants into teams and using a quiz format for the presentation.


I wondered beforehand whether it would work and how best to split the participants up into teams. The quiz was designed to get away from a linear presentation format. The idea was to ask the audience to select a category and a question (each had a different number of points) and then jump to that question. In the end, this didn't work in the webinar and I had to do the quiz in a different way (linear), but it seemed to work out well. I asked the participants to choose a colour (blue or red) and to change their text chat and then I asked the questions and the first member of team red or team blue to answer correctly won 10 points. 

If the comments on the session page are anything to go by, participants enjoyed it:

Amazing lesson showing how interactive and amusing one should be in order to engage online students. Million thanks to Graham!



Mary Ronemous
Yes, engaging and interactive. He modeled what he was teaching. Great presentation! Thank you, Graham.

It was interesting,although RED lost but even than we enjoyed the class.....

A really engaging presentation from Graham.

What a fun, yet really useful presentation. The time passed quickly as we were all so engaged

Really enjoyed the class! Very engaging and interactive!!!!!!

That was wonderful!! So glad I was able to be here live!! Thanks so much Graham and Jase!


















Judy's comments in particular were very encouraging. So many webinars I have attended (and some I have given!) have had so little interaction in them, you wonder if it's worth attending them live or if it might not be done better by recording a video. It seemed to me to be ironic to talk about engaging online learners without doing something a little more engaging than your usual talking head webinar, so I'm glad it turned out well.

The recording of the webinar is available here

Here are the slides (direct link to the MOOC page with comments):



And here's the text chat. The most interesting comments from this, for me were:

  • Valentina: freedom is important when learning under teacher's control
  • Chris Holsman:visual non verbal behaviour helps communication
  • Kerstin Hendriks: When you're teaching f2f, you are also "on stage"!
  • Elisabeth Horn: the audience normally focuses on the powerpoint presentation as well - so (webcam) not THAT important
  • Judy Wong:Be careful the kind of room you are in so you don't have echo
  • Frances Walker:Planning is good, but be prepared to be flexible
  • Judy Wong:You should be careful who you pair up together
  • Judy Wong:Or give them a type of pairwork that doesn't mean they are there at the exact same time
  • Irina Ostapchuk: it`s great when you have two students like a husband and a wife who want to learn together. or two friends
  • Jason R  Levine:Audio files are often more popular than video
  • Frances Walker:Listening practice - not always same voice (teacher's) all the time!
  • Chris Stanzer:they should hear different accents
  • Vance Stevens:...and audio can be made from YouTube video
  • Judy Wong:It is important to have the learners invested in the learning process
  • Nora Choperena:Objectives and deadlines go together.
  • Chris Stanzer:without deadlines I'd never do anything
  • Vance Stevens:there are soft deadlines and firm ones
  • Kerstin Hendriks:deadlines can help the teacher plan.
  • Vance Stevens:but if they are not meeting deadlines, make them feel welcome to complete the work
  • Nora Choperena:A matter of culture, also. Don't leave things for the very last minute. 
  • Vance Stevens:nothing focuses like a good deadline
  • Irma Ramos:yes, most of us are not very proactive so we need deadlines
  • Anna Lee Vinson:classes much like this one.Where the student is vested in the class.
  • Judy Wong:It doesn't matter if in a school or private. It is always important to make the student feel safe in your venue
  • Vera:when learners have the opportunity to participate using voice, they keep more confident
  • Irma Ramos:Graham I learn a lot and had a lot o fun at the same time. Thank you!!
  • Penny Mosavian:This was so helpful! I really enjoyed the class!!!

The Teachers Teaching Online MOOC runs until 12th July and there are lots of very interesting speakers. Consult the syllabus here. There are also 3577 people enrolled in the course, so it's a great opportunity to meet like-minded people.





Friday

Review of Language Learning with Technology

 I was pleased to read another review of my book, Lannguage Learning with Technology:

It's a very comprehensive review.

"All things considered, one could say that the book hereby briely reviewed–Language Learning with Technology–can be seen as a helpful material for language teachers who are interested in using technology for aiding the teaching of second language. The book offers activities that make use of diverse approaches to second language instruction, which makes it useful for different teaching contexts. Additionally, the organization of the book as well as the instructions for each activity are extremely clear, making it relatively easy for language practitioners to nd what they might be looking for. Even though the author does not elucidate the differences between the prociency levels mentioned in the chapters, all levels are contemplated for each ability, which increases the book’s usefulness and direct application in a variety of classroom settings. All in all, Stanley’s book provides readers with a range of insightful ideas for improving second language teaching in technological and pedagogical terms, which may provide teachers with a suitable database of activities that can be directly implemented in the classroom or ‘tweaked and twisted’ as they see it for future implementation."


Saturday

Gamification: Magic Bullet or Broken Sword?

 A pesentation I did for the following conference:

IATEFL LTSIG & TESOL CALL IS 2nd Web Conference - June 14th 2014

Can gamification be used effectively in language teaching? Or is it just another passing fad? Although at first glance, the 'adding of game elements to non-game contexts' using points, badges, and leader-boards, etc. seems to be an attractive proposition for teachers, there is more to gamification than first meets the eye. In this session we'll look at the meaning of fun and games, examine play and players and explore how different game elements might be used in the classroom and for what purpose.

The AI learning paradox

On his substack, Jason Gulya outlines a paradox: "Learning with AI tools suffers from a paradox. To use AI as an effective tool, learn...