Blended Learning is using the platform and linking it to other technolgies .a practical example of Blended Learning would be : create a slide on Google Slides about your favourite book and share it on Edmodo.
Probably the two most powerful tools for Blended Learning are SnagIt (price $30 but definetely worth it!) and Edmodo.
The platform is the very centre of Blended Learning; of course, it always has to be connected to Face to Face teaching.
If we think of the limited amount of lessons we have and the high number of students in our classes , we understand the importance of organizing/structuring their work at home.
At the same time we must be careful not to overwhelm students with activities!
Moreover, for sure our students will have to use these technologies at work!
Of the different tools we have faced so far, probably Today'sMeet is the only one we can use in class. All the others are perfect to organize activities as homework.
How are online courses delivered? There is a platform , virtual classes are created and the connection between the two is possible thanks to Skype or similar devices.
Screen Capture is very useful even for high level students:whenever an essay is given as an assignment, the teacher might give them a model essay ("you should start your essay..., then makesure you cover the following point....").
Self-evaluation: a very important issue!!! Ministries of Education seem to think it is always the teachers who MUST evaluate students but self-assessment would be a great aim to reach!!
Now let's move on to another technology: Google Forms!!
Google Forms enables you to create questionnaires (with short answers, multiple choice, true/false...) which can be used in a variety of situations: beginning of the school year to find out about students' expectations, mid-term questionnaire to monitor their learning, end of the term questionnaire to get their feedback: We could use it at the end of a project when we want a feedback from students, parents....
The teacher can create the questionnaire, share the link with the students who will complete it , send it back and the teacher will have the results in the form of a graph.
Another interesting speaking activity might be the presentation of the graphs mad by the students.
Google Forms is used to carry out surveys and collect data.
Next Russell asked us to create a questionnaire about a particular topic and I chose Travelling.
Please feel free to have a look at my questionnaire and maybe take it!!
Now a few tips about how to create the questionnaire:
- you may need to insert a new section: last button on the right,
-you may want to limit your students to take only 1 questionnaire: you can do it from the settings.
Not sure I have answered all the questions....let's check!
What things have you covered in today’s sessions? yes
What technologies have you been exposed to? Google Forms
How might you use the technologies/techniques in your own teaching and learning?
Plenty of ways! as I mentioned before, beginning or end of the school year, mid-term questionnaire to evaluate progress or difficulties, students can be asked to carry out surveys themselves, we can collect data from colleagues, feedback after projects, create self-evaluation questionnaires (can you do this? can you do that? If not, we had better revise this point...)
What value would these techniques/technologies add to your teaching and learning?
We can easily collect data, shown in a very clear form, about our teaching process, contribute to the collection of data about the different extracurricular activities carried out by the school, use the results for speaking activities in class encouraging the use of specific language (percentage, pie chart....).
What challenges do you foresee?
Once again plenty of time will be needed to get familiar with the tool and tp prepare the questionnaires, but I suppose many of them can be reused or simply slightly modified over the years.
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