Delivering gate-skills to improve workforce productivity: supplementing textbooks with internet

resources

International WorkshopBITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus

Kshema Josekshema@efluniversity.ac.in

ELT IN THE CLASSROOM: ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL PERSPECTIVES

What do our students need to prepare for a life of careers? Transferable and interdisciplinary skills incorporated in the curriculum (BVR Chawdari, National University of Singapore)

social and communication skills creative thinking dealing with multidisciplinary work team work (European University Association)

Skills needed to succeed in global market – shift from manufacturing economy to information economy– collaborate – communicate – sift through information – Problem solving

(Mikulecky and Kirkley, 1998)

…teachers are profoundly affected by their own experience as students. They tend to view teaching through their childhood lens when technology was not a part of the classroom (Calderhead and Robson, 1991)

Multiple realities • Our interpretation of instruction and research depends on our

experiences in relation to environment, philosophical beliefs and education. Acknowledging that other realities exist allow us to suspend our realities and attempt to understand how other perspectives may broaden our knowledge base.

• Allow us to seek research-to-practice connections that are specific to specific instructional realities… findings that might be confidently applied to particular situations rather than to seek principles so general as to be meaningless in any particular context.

Labbo and Reinking (1999)

“Never wanted to burn a book before.” “now I’m pretty clear on what the story is all about.”

“If we are educating our children to live and thrive in their world, we cannot limit them to what we were limited to in our

world. As things change and evolve, so must education. As educators we have a professional obligation to change as well. We must retain a sense of relevance and that requires effort…

Educators need to employ the very skills they are passing along to their students. They need to: curate, collaborate,

communicate, critically think, and create. All of this is best accomplished through the use of tools of technology. An

education without technology does not prepare our students with the skills that their world will require.”

Tom Whitby

Then

Now

Why the shift?…digital forms of expression are increasingly replacing print forms …this shift has consequences for the way we disseminate and communicate info, how we approach the task of reading and writing, and how we think about helping people become literate (Reinking, 1998)

Technology, literacy, and literacy instruction

So how do this generation learn? Learning preferences of the digital natives include:

Collaborative, active learning environments

Flexibility in the learning environment,

Student based projects that incorporate challenging assignments

Respect for student voices.

• use resources to support communication

• use resources to build digital literacy skills

• use resources to develop critical thinking

• use web based projects

• allow developing of student created media

• allow collaboration

Technology integrated language learning

• Not as fun or special type of task, but theoretically grounded and pedagogically

motivated (van Compernolle, R A and Williams, L (2009)

• Pedagogy of multiliteracies for integration of technology into FL curricula. (New London Group; 1996)

• Symbiotic relationship between teaching, learning and doing (Oxford and Oxford, 2009)

•  Learning opportunities for – overt instruction (direct explanation of content and concepts)– situated practice (reading, repeating printed or recorded dialogues) – transformed practice (creating/ reshaping discourse to personalise/ recontextualise it – critical framing (taking reflective steps)

• Reshape classroom as a place for co-construction of knowledge, understanding and practice (Hall, 2001) handout 1

Create a historical walking tour of your town using Google Maps

Interview community members about their professions using digital storytelling tools, and publish/share online to a wide audience

Use storyboarding tools and movie animation software to compose an original movie short based on a current novel or theme in English

Use Google Docs to compose a brief essay, and have your teacher or peer provide feedback using the "comments" function

Use Popplet app to brainstorm ideas for a project

Exercise 1

Web 1.0 vs 2.0 Web 1.0 Whenever, Wherever

Web 2.0 Whatever, Whenever, wherever

Reading Reading and writing Companies Communities Owning Sharing Lectures Conversations Home pages/ websites Blogs Publishing Participation Britannica Online Wikipedia Information top down Bottom up sharing Dictated Socially constructed Teacher – student Teacher – student, student – student,

student – others Britannica Online Wikipedia

Voicethread, Padlet, Linoit, Bookr, Penzu

http://voicethread.com/myvoice/#thread/193074/1021528/1055695http://voicethread.com/myvoice/#thread/34182/180809/181722http://padlet.com/ramyageethi/rjzba0v3kdhttp://padlet.com/amalul_umam/yf2qmxcs2shttp://linoit.com/users/kshema/canvases/language%20artshttp://www.pimpampum.net/bookr/index.php?id=68250 http://www.pimpampum.net/bookr/index.php?id=68876http://www.pimpampum.net/bookr/index.php?id=68335http://www.pimpampum.net/bookr/index.php?id=68337 http://www.pimpampum.net/bookr/index.php?id=68345 http://www.pimpampum.net/bookr/index.php?id=68280http://www.pimpampum.net/bookr/index.php?id=68114http://ed.ted.com/on/UorKlphShttp://www.voxopop.com/group/e4b09615-2fc1-4274-8f49-605f3e6c6ba7 http://www.voxopop.com/topic/3b4a9362-42be-46e2-8f18-cef72772e685http://www.voxopop.com/group/2c5ef1ef-a566-4d71-91d1-e2bc98d6d288

Practice activities • https://www.spiderscribe.net/app/?

491a5586b218558bd1a4b094113b225f

• http://padlet.com/kshemajose/jvwyn89quh28

• https://voicethread.com/share/7769347/

• http://linoit.com/users/kshema/canvases/weird%20inventions%20

Recap• Design learning opportunities for multiliteracies:

overt instruction (direct explanation of content and concepts)

situated practice (reading/repeating printed or recorded dialogues)

transformed practice (creating/ reshaping discourse to personalise/ recontextualise it

critical framing (taking a reflective steps)

Practical sessions

• Grammar: fill in the blanks, isolated sentences, (non-finite verbs, irregular verbs, etc.)

• Listening: listen to a talk on alternative energy, and make notes. Then do comprehension exercises

• Speaking: Group discussions: different types, rules and guidelines for preparing and performing,

Expressions for different functions: opinions, agreement, interrupting, suggesting, concluding, Long text of contextualised use of these and fill in a transcript with these phrases

Write a transcript using scaffolds

• Writing report processorder checklistrevision exercises

• Oral presentation body language voice modulationvisual aidspresentation plan interaction

• Writing: Business lettersrules and features examples of make an enquiry, make a complaint scaffolded completion of a response (guided writing) free writing

THE END