On learning journals: "The value of a never-ending learning process"

Throughout the whole process of posting entries related with topics dealt with during the ECO II lessons, I have come to realize the value of learning journals. One of the learning journals’ main features, as described in the “Study Skills advice sheet” of the University of Worcester (England), is that they allow students to reflect about their own learning process. Moreover, it is also claimed that these are not only a descriptive account of what has been done during lessons. On the contrary, these constitute opportunities for the learners to communicate their thinking process, i.e. why and how they did what they did, what they think about it. I strongly agree with this description, and I would add that learning journals allow you to make connections between the different subjects, express your own hypotheses, share your thoughts with your classmates, and make an ongoing assessment of your own learning process. These factors have not only allowed me to improve my learning but also to value it even more. It also helped me to appreciate not only the product of the learning but the process of learning itself.

To conclude, I would like to close this last post by making use of the saying: “every ending is also a new beginning”. Therefore, this “learning about my own learning process” will continue, as an ongoing and never-ending process, which will allow me to keep on growing not only as a learner but also as a teacher. 

On technology in the classroom: "Working in the Millennials’ classroom"

It does not come as any big surprise that students and their way of learning have changed over the years. Since learners are not the same, the classroom has also changed. Today’s teachers have to cope with the Millennials' (also known as Generation Y, and related to Digital Natives, dealt with on an older post) way of learning. These learners, who are web savvy, multi-tasking, and highly connected to via social media, are difficult to address when it comes to teaching. Not only we need to come to an understanding of the way they learn but also we need to construct the best classroom for them. When thinking about this classroom, the first thing that comes to mind is the inclusion of technology. A classroom without technology would not be a classroom for the Millennials.

In the search for the best ways of including technology in the classroom we have come across many devices, tools, softwares that have improved the quality of our teaching.  For example, the other day we were learning to use Vokie to create animations that could be very useful when thinking about the classroom pet or for making older students create a vokie to record themselves speaking English and share it through any social network. We also worked with programs that can help us to present words in more entertaining ways as Tagul or Wordle.  Technology is also useful when thinking about teacher’s materials design, which is yet another improvement for the whole teaching and learning process (as I established before on my previous post). How much should be thank the web 2.0 technology, don’t you think?

Another thing to be taken into consideration when thinking about the building of a more "Generation Y" classroom is the inclusion of this generation’s culture into the lessons. For example, the other day we went to a talk about the use of “selfies” as a didactic resource.

Lastly, we can not forget that we also belong to this generation and that, therefore, we also have some special characteristics as Gen Y teachers. Because we are also part of this generation we have the advantage of sharing points of view, which definitely makes the teaching task much easier (though not less complex).

On Materials Design: "A necessary evil"

At times material design could be seen as really time-consuming and highly incompatible with the routine of a busy teacher, but according to what I have learnt, it is surely worthwhile.  The reasons behind such a statement lay on the words written by Jocelyn Howard and Jae Major in the work: “Guidelines for Designing Effective English Language Teaching Materials”.  As the authors claim, making your own material allows you to contextualize it and up-date it paying special attention to your students’ needs and socio-cultural setting. Moreover, it also offers you the opportunity to give a personal touch to your teaching, something the students will certainly appreciate.

There are, however, as I mentioned before, some disadvantages when designing materials. One of them is that teachers' materials may be hard to organize, and that could cause some incoherence in your lessons. Another is that they may not have a “high-quality”, in the sense that they may leave out some contents they were supposed to cover.

As nothing can be perfect, I believe designing material is a way to improve our teaching. Consequently, it is totally worthwhile, rewarding and a “necessary evil”. 

On technology in the classroom: "TPACK & SAMR, the acronyms of modern pedagogy"

Teaching has never been easy, but nowadays technology is a tool that can be used to make it less difficult. However, technology can be a two-faced sword because it can also be a burden in the teaching-learning process if not properly and smartly used. As a future teacher, I am always in the search for how to integrate technology in my lessons. In that search I came across two systems that can be useful for this purpose: TPACK and SAMR.

On the one hand, TPACK (acronym for technological pedagogical content knowledge) is a framework for teacher knowledge for technology integration that builds on Schulman’s descriptions of Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK, 1986/1987) which he used to describe how PCK interact with one another to produce effective teaching with technology. Later this concept was discussed and enlarge by other authors with the most complete descriptions of the framework found in Mishra and Koehler: “What is technological pedagogical content knowledge?". The TPACK framework emphasizes the new kinds of knowledge that lie at the intersections between technology, pedagogy, content and knowledge, representing four knowledge bases applicable to teaching with technology: Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK), Technological Content Knowledge (TCK), Technological Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK), and the intersection of all three circles, Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK). A practical example of the application of this system in the classroom would be to ask your students to carry out a task that involves the use of technology. For example, in my particular case, as my lesson’s content knowledge is language I and my team work thought of making students record themselves simulating they are radio presenters taking about their predictions for FIFA world cup 2014. After they have done this task in groups they could share their creations with the rest of the class through facebook or memory sticks.

On the other hand, we have SAMR which stands for: Substitution Augmentation Modification and Redefinition. This model developed by Dr. Ruben Puentedura represents the impact technology can have on teaching and learning, and the progression that adopters of educational technology often follow as they improve the teaching-learning process with technology. Using the same task described above as an example, it would be at the level of modification because students will need some technological tool to carry it out, to add music, effects (as for example audacity) and facebook or memory sticks to share them. Besides, they would be their own real audience as they will be sharing their recordings with the rest of the groups. Technology in this particular task is used to redesign part of the task and transform student learning.