TEACHING METHODOLOGY

UNIT 10: TECHNOLOGY FOR LEARNING & OTHER

LEARNING RESOURCES
DEVICES

- In one class: Students use electronic items like phones, tablets, computers
with the Internet connection to watch a video on You Tube, consult various
online resources to make videos, write the plot for a play, perform projects.
- In other classes: data projectors, interactive whiteboards with built-in
speakers for audio material; students work on their mobile devices to use
search engines to look for materials needed.
- Others: a whiteboard, an overhead projector, a CD player, a tape recorder
- In some schools: only a white/black board in a not very good condition;
students have only notebooks, but no coursebooks.
 à See pyramid 1
In the world where the pace of technological change is breathtakingly fast,
ưe still do not need all the amazing digital and other available technological
resources to be successful.

A CLASS WITH MINIMAL OR NO RESOURCES & EDUCATIONAL

TECHNOLOGY AIDS
- Use a washing line & clothes pegs to hang pictures for students to work with
- Rewrite, retell
- Make sentences from words given
- Discussion
- real life situations: asking & tell directions …
2. THE STUDENTS THEMSELVES
- Students: The most useful resource like their thoughts & experiences à Get
them write/talk about things they like/experience or share information about
different countries.
- miming & guessing the words à students enjoy acting out
3. OBJECTS, PICTURES & THINGS
3.1 REALIA: Real objects like plastic fruit, cardboard clock faces, hair ribbon,
a coin, a ring …
• Pick up things in a box without looking first à write one sentence about
the object’s history à group members share sentences to make the object’s
autobiography à Read it to the rest of the class.
• Use objects to invent a story
• Choose specific objects for a scheduled journey (to a desert island, Sapa
…)
• Use a soft ball to throw to a student to answer questions, make sentences
or read out loud a word
Limitation: Class size, quantity of objects & students’ interests.
3.2 PICTURES: Pictures or graphics drawn or taken from books, newspapers or
magazines …
• Drills: hold up a flash card à nominate a student to respond to it
• Communication games: [1] One student describe the picture, the rest
draws; [2] Divide the class into 4-5 groups, each groups describe a different
picture à Group a new team ưith one member from each group to share
the description of their picture to make up a complete story. [3] write a
story from a picture/ or pictures
• Understanding: Use pictures for presenting or checking the meaning.
• Ornamentation: Use pictures to enhance the texts, giving readers an extra
visual dimension to what they are reading.
• Prediction: Look at the picture & try to guess what it shows à Engage
students in the following tasks.
• Discussion: Students give four or five winning characteristics the picture
conveys à compare with the information given by the teacher à find out
the winning picture
3.3 CARDS
• Matching & ordering: Questions & answers; sentence halves…
• Selecting: Write words on separate cards à face them down à students
choose 1 to make a sentence with the word chosen
• Card games: Cards with word on one side and picture on the other à
Pick a picture side to produce the word or pick the word side to draw
the picture.
3.4 CUISEMAIRE RODS
- used to demonstrate word stress or pronunciation
4. THE COURSEBOOK
4.1 THE USE OF THE COURSEBOOK
• BENEFITS: Good coursebooks: coherent syllabus, satisfactory language
control, motivating texts, audio, video and extra resource materials
• RESTRICTIONS: The teaching sequence is the same in different classes
à Teachers & students are demotivated; topics, coursebooks: culturally
inappropriate
• SOLUTIONS: use “DO-IT-YOURSELF” approach à Teachers access to
a wide range of materials (from coursebooks, videos, magazines, the
Internet …) à make home-grown materials
4.2 USING COURSEBOOKS
5. WAYS OF SHOWING
5.1 THE BOARD: traditional chalk-dust variety, a white board or
Interactive white board (IWB)
• Note-pad: Write things up on the board à want students remember
• Explanation aid:

• Picture frame: drawing pictures, stick men … to help understand

concepts and words
• Public workbook: [1] Write up fill-in sentences or sentence
transformation à Students go to the board to write a full-in item or a
transformation sentences. [2] Teachers write sentences with mistakes à
students correct them.
• Gameboard: Tic-Tac-Toe
• Notice board: Display on boards pictures, posters, announcements,
charts …
5.2 OVERHEAD PROJECTOR
• Overhead transparencies
• The flip chart
• Computer-based presentation technology
 •

• Projectors: Stand-alone projector or overhead projector to show anything like

documents, pictures, videos …

Overhead projector
Stand-alone projector
•
6. WAYS OF LISTENING
• Audio devices: Computers, mobile devices like a cassette or CD player
• Mobile devices: Make use of the devices that many students already have
• Internet connectivity: Many exciting possibilities are opened up
• Video communication: Skype, Facetime, Adobe Connect à extremely
useful to student – student communication, individual coaching.
7. WAYS OF FINDING OUT
• Paper dictionaries
• Electronic dictionaries
 • Searching the Internet: using encyclopedias, webquests with links given.
• Apps & websites: for language learning and track students’ progress.
• Virtual worlds: Students have avatars. They can move, speak & interact with
other students’ avatar à find themselves everywhere à make learning like
in real time & immersive à help students to express themselves with greater
confidence.
• Gaming: goal-oriented à good for learning à get progress through a
game’s different stages à cumulative knowledge
• Data analytics & adaptive learning: digital software allows system to track
an individual’s progress and preferences.

8. SIX QUESTIONS
- So many software available à difficult for teachers, directors of study &
curriculum planners to know how to make choices.
- The issue for decision makers (anyone who tries to decide what to choose for
their own teaching & learning): to adopt any one device would require
investment or learn how to use it à Before committing money or time to
something à be very clear-headed about what we are doing and why.
- Try to think rationally & constructively about buying & using new classroom
equipment of any kind. The following 6 questions highlight some
considerations to apply and new technology, procedure, coursebook &
programs offered to teachers.
QUESTION 1: What is the pedigree?
Need to know where a new idea or a device comes from? Who makes this thing,
what are their motives?
QUESTION 2: Who benefits? Be sure that our students will benefit & teachers
will have workload reduced or their professional abilities or quality of life will
somehow be enhanced.
QUESTION 3: Why is this the best way to do this?
Answer the question what is achieved by such attractive and exciting activities
offered by app or software? à teachers have to evaluate whether the dazzle of
new technology is matched by the benefits?
QUESTION 4: DOES IT PASS THE TEA (Training, Equipment, Access) TEST?
Teachers are expected to adopt a new procedure or use a new device which need
to pass the TEA test.
- T: Training à Teachers & students are trained to try out the “new thing”
- E: The whole area of equipment à Make sure new procedure or hardware
is properly supported technologically by qualified professionals
- A: Access à Be sure students have their appropriate mobile devices à
they can afford to use them for the tasks assigned; However, if students do
not all have one, be sure at least they can all be near enough to someone
else’s device to take part in the activity.
QUESTION 5: What’s the TITO ratio?
TITO: Time in, time out à Ensure the time spent setting up the equipment is in
proportion to the time students benefiting from using them.
E.g Time to get them ready: 20 minutes
à Not worth designing the activity
Time for students to complete: 3 minutes
QUESTION 6: How Can We Make it Work?
Teachers do a greater service by embracing the changing and exciting world they
live in à Need to look at the “best case scenario” and use that to evaluate what
we are being offered, not only in a cynical but also in a positive light à a chance
of judging its real worth.
- Technological mal-function à The Internet connection or projector
doesn’t work; no audio controls in classrooms à Teachers and students
are frustrated.
à have B plan to develop the ability to “think on their feet” & “improvise when
something unexpected happens” à Think about what we might do if things go
wrong.
3.USING CLASSROOM RESOURCES
- SHOWING THINGS:
• Teachers use a variety of resources like blackboard, presentation software
(Powerpoint, Keynote & Prezi), multi-media presentation using text,
graphics, illustration, video & audio
• Students operate at the “mobile” level: Taking pictures on their mobile
devices à show them to their colleagues; making quick videos using their
smartphones
- SHARING THINGS AND COLLABORATING: Encouraging students to
work together as cooperation promotes successful language learning. The
impact of digital tools on students’ collaboration is highly beneficial.
WAYS OF SHARING (1) grouping to make videos or plan digital
presentations for the class; (2) posting notes, pictures and videos onto a wall;
(3) sharing sentences and paragraphs using language they are practising; (4)
sharing on any social platforms like Twitter and Facebook groups
- WATCHING AND LISTENING: Watch online videos on YouTube &
Vimeo for language development & storytelling in forms of video material
and audio material which they share on sites such as Vocaroo
- PRACTISING THINGS: Use a wide range of digital alternatives instead of
notebooks & workbooks à go online to access additional reading or to take
tests
- AUTHORING THINGS: Digital world has expanded the students’ potential
for authorship
• Ask students to create collaborative stories together: Using pictures online,
assembling them into slideshows to present to the class
• Use pictures, record voice & background music
à Students not only write their script, but also speak, listen to their own
recording, select the right picture & music to enhance the appeal of their
digital story
 Teachers: Always encourage students to author things like creating class
newspaper, making posters to put on the class wall, the school noticeboard
à The best way to express themselves
- RESEARCHING THINGS: The website, extremely useful finding things
out à Students can complete projects; Teachers may design webquests to
help students with searching, evaluating/reporting back students’ work.
4. BLENDED LEARNING, FLIPPED CLASSROOMS AND BEYOND
4.1 BLENDED LEARNING: Mix many things inside & outside learning world
Teachers/students work with an interconnected mix of books, classroom
presentation, activities & digital resources à the work done in class is supported,
sometimes previewed, practised & revised online.
à Give teachers a much broader and more varied “palette” to work à consider
carefully where online material contributes most appropriately with other things
happening in class.
4.2 THE FLIPPED CLASSROOM: Reshaping of the relationship between the
classroom & the outside worldà Teacher present information, then students go
home and do practice exercises and tasks by themselves as homework à Class:
Learn things & home: Practice them à NOT always the BEST USE of TIME as
some may not understand the input à Teachers need to explain the concept more
than once à wasteful of time as different students need different things.
à Turn the traditional scenario on its head: Homework takes place in the lesson
& the input is offered at home by watching videos at home about the topic
assigned à while the practice takes place, teachers can pay attention to the
individuals in need & use the subsequent lesson time to discuss the issue & work
with the language in the video.
BENEFITS DRAWBACKS
- Content-rich subjects like history, - Students’ attitude to their
physics or geography can be flipped homework in general
 à get up to speed with the content - Not all students do homework
OUTSIDE the classroom
- Teachers: Have students talk about
the content at the actual class

4.3 SOLEs (Self Organized Learning Environments)

• “Hole in the wall” experiment: Computers put at child-height on walls so
children can work out what to do with them by themselves.
• Observe these children’s ability to learn collaboratively without traditional
teacher input by SCHOOLS IN THE CLOUD à Students work in groups of
four or five around an internet-connected computer in self-organized learning
environments (SOLEs) à students try to find answer to “big questions”
without teacher’s instructions
• Though digital technology is available, we shouldn’t be ruled by it, nor all out
classrooms are suddenly high-tech palaces à Teachers should select the
classroom technology, old or new, which best help students to achieve the
outcomes assigned.
5. LEARNING ONLINE
There are a number of options ranging from private lessons using Skype (or any
other videoconferencing tool) to one of the online internet courses, which have
appropriate material and access to individual tutors, take students through a
range of electronic exercises based on data analytics, tailor the material to the
learner.
Learners are taught through platforms like Blackboard, Canvas and Moodle
where students can post videos, join in online discussions in a synchronous way
(where everyone is online and discussing) or in asynchronous way ( where not
everyone is present at the same moment, but the conversation continues over
time)
- More recent arrival of MOOCs (massive open online courses) offering free
training
- The growth of webinars (online talks & seminars) in real time by anyone
worldwide.