Blended Learning
As a teacher in a school which is incrementally introducing BYOD, I am increasingly exploring ways of blending learning between traditional and digital platforms.
I encourage my students to manage themselves so that they complete homework and in-class activities to an appropriate standard. However, unfortunately, there are still some ways to go towards my students taking full responsibility for their learning and I have been reluctant to implement a flipped classroom environment. I do, though, love the idea of getting students to watch videos in their own time and giving them the opportunity to apply the knowledge attained from the video in class time, where I can work with students and give them more individualised attention.
There are so many exciting tools that I can utilise to engage my students in a flipped learning process. I've utlised TED-Ed lessons in the past to encourage students to reflect on an issue that we've studied in class - see for example, the TED-Ed lesson on dystopian literature that I trialled with my Year 11 class during our The Hunger Games study a couple of years ago. However, I wasn't very consistent - or insistent - with my use of this particular tool.
Mindlab has introduced me to Edpuzzle, which is a way of adding audio notes to a video and asking students questions based on it. It seems to be a useful tool if you don't want to create your own video, but as a viewer I have to admit that I find the interruptions to the videos I'm watching rather impeding, and I think that the responses which are encouraged could tend to be rather superficial.
Of course there is a plethora of other tools for sharing ideas between students. Google Plus is okay but really just another social media platform. My Year 9 class enjoyed using Edmodo earlier in the year as part of our #NZReadAloud participation, but I think that unless we use it to connect with students in other schools, then it kind of becomes just another thing to use. Blogger is great for sharing ideas but not necessarily for interacting with others, with the exception of the comments function. Some teachers utilise Facebook, and while I set up a page for my English students a couple of years ago, it never really got off the ground and I don't feel comfortable interacting with students via a medium I consider more for my "private" use.
I tweet, very sporadically and not really interacting with others. I've heard of classes using Twitter before and have considered creating a class Twitter account for learning purposes. Among the benefits of Twitter are the brevity of entries, Tweeters are identified, hashtags help you find topics of interest, you can reply to tweets (and get responses), add links and direct message. I did encourage a couple of students to tweet John Green last year when we were studying his novel Paper Towns.
It's so public, though, that I feel nervous about getting students to contribute to this medium. I appreciate that as a teacher in the 21st century my role is increasingly about teaching students digital citizenship and cybersafety.
If I practiced these sorts of online discussions more myself, I would no doubt have more confidence setting guidelines for my students.
I encourage my students to manage themselves so that they complete homework and in-class activities to an appropriate standard. However, unfortunately, there are still some ways to go towards my students taking full responsibility for their learning and I have been reluctant to implement a flipped classroom environment. I do, though, love the idea of getting students to watch videos in their own time and giving them the opportunity to apply the knowledge attained from the video in class time, where I can work with students and give them more individualised attention.
There are so many exciting tools that I can utilise to engage my students in a flipped learning process. I've utlised TED-Ed lessons in the past to encourage students to reflect on an issue that we've studied in class - see for example, the TED-Ed lesson on dystopian literature that I trialled with my Year 11 class during our The Hunger Games study a couple of years ago. However, I wasn't very consistent - or insistent - with my use of this particular tool.
Mindlab has introduced me to Edpuzzle, which is a way of adding audio notes to a video and asking students questions based on it. It seems to be a useful tool if you don't want to create your own video, but as a viewer I have to admit that I find the interruptions to the videos I'm watching rather impeding, and I think that the responses which are encouraged could tend to be rather superficial.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwyOv7PiC40
I haven't used Khan academy, the speaker in the wee gem above. In the video Salman Kahan discusses the interconnect between using videos, software and community to create a dynamic learning environment. Lots of science resources here, and probably a few nuggets that I could use for English. What I like about what Khan's video is that he sees the need for physical classrooms (yay, we won't be obsolete!). Rather he sees that his tools offer the opportunity to move physical classrooms towards more open-ended creativity, including simulations, projects and real world mathematics.
I was introduced to Blendspace two nights ago and have already utilised with two of my classes. I love that you can create multi-media lessons through simple drop and drag - I can even include a Edpuzzle video if I want. It integrates with your Google Drive and Classrooms, making it a rather seamless lesson builder. Easy to use and attractive, I haven't found a downside to this yet and it looks set to become a staple in my toolbox.
Here is a quick lesson my team-mates and I created at our Mindlab session; I think we had about 15 minutes to do it:
Of course there is a plethora of other tools for sharing ideas between students. Google Plus is okay but really just another social media platform. My Year 9 class enjoyed using Edmodo earlier in the year as part of our #NZReadAloud participation, but I think that unless we use it to connect with students in other schools, then it kind of becomes just another thing to use. Blogger is great for sharing ideas but not necessarily for interacting with others, with the exception of the comments function. Some teachers utilise Facebook, and while I set up a page for my English students a couple of years ago, it never really got off the ground and I don't feel comfortable interacting with students via a medium I consider more for my "private" use.
I tweet, very sporadically and not really interacting with others. I've heard of classes using Twitter before and have considered creating a class Twitter account for learning purposes. Among the benefits of Twitter are the brevity of entries, Tweeters are identified, hashtags help you find topics of interest, you can reply to tweets (and get responses), add links and direct message. I did encourage a couple of students to tweet John Green last year when we were studying his novel Paper Towns.
It's so public, though, that I feel nervous about getting students to contribute to this medium. I appreciate that as a teacher in the 21st century my role is increasingly about teaching students digital citizenship and cybersafety.
If I practiced these sorts of online discussions more myself, I would no doubt have more confidence setting guidelines for my students.
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