Moving Away from Reading Reports into Forum Posts

critical skills, Forums, writing 0 comments

Moving Away from Reading Reports into Forum Posts:

Taking advantage of forum platforms online

A common practice in many of our higher education institutions (at least in Costa Rica) is the use of reading reports to assess the level of student understanding of a give topic and to guarantee that students are catching up with the course content readings. Although this type of reports has proven good for many professors, students’ critical thinking skills are not fully broadened and academically well-fed.

Traditional reading reports can yield a twofold effect in courses where they are required. On the one hand, really engaged students can come up with in-depth analysis of course topics through reaction papers and class discussions. They may even produce excellent synopses that really reflect their content understanding and its impact on the students’ way of processing new information, vital for their future careers. On the other hand, traditional reading reports can turn out to be copy/paste exercises for students who are not motivated to analyze an article. Besides, this type of reports are merely written for only one reader (the teacher) and the exchange of ideas with other partners is not usually considered as a way to generate healthy discussions about the topic.

Can the panorama described above be changed to yield “healthy discussions” that can foster student critical thinking skills? Since May 2011 –in my Principles of Curriculum Design course at Universidad Latina-, I have worked with forum posts, rather than written reports, to magnify analysis and discussion among ELT students. Let me explain a bit of my experience so far:

1. To start with, a forum platform is required, whether that is a part of a school LMS (Learning Management System) or a free site online. In my case, since I was introduced to http://www.nicenet.org as part of a course I took with the University of Oregon (Distant Education Programs), it is the platform I get to use. (You may use any other discussion platform available online.)

2. Depending on the length of your course, decide how many forum discussion you want to carry on. One forum discussion is advisable per week.

3. Link the content of the class (reading, presentations, etc.) to the forum discussion by providing students a clear learning outcome and guiding questions aimed at providing some prior reflection before the actual forum interactions.

4. Monitor the students’ forum participations by helping them expand their ideas if necessary, by having them ponder viewpoints they haven’t considered yet, or by pointing out important ideas they have brought into the discussion.

5. Once the forum is over, send students an email message with a short account of the forum highlights to encourage them to continue exchanging ideas and discussing beyond the forum boundaries. Use it to clarify concepts that weren’t used correctly or to strengthen up those issues that didn’t go well within the forum.

No matter the conferencing platform you choose to host your forum discussions, this is a great alternative to replace reading reports. Instead of restricting your students to write a reaction paper on a course topic whose only ready will probably be you, the teacher, have them taste a much more cooperative learning by fostering healthy discussions that will definitely assist students on their development of higher critical thinking skills.

To fully develop and comprehend this teaching issue, it’s advisable to research and expand these areas:

1	Critical thinking skills for EAP
2	EAP (English for Academic Purposes)
3	Conferencing platforms online
4	Forum posts as writing exercises
5	Written discussions etiquette

Jonathan Acuña

ELT Instructor & Trainer based in Costa Rica

Curricular Developer at CCCN

Senior ELT Professor at Universidad Latina

For further comments or suggestions, reach me at:

@jonacuso – Twitter

jonacuso@gmail.com – Gmail

Other blogs I often write for my students at the university are:

1. http://bin-02.blogspot.com/

2. http://bin-04.blogspot.com

3. http://bin-06.blogspot.com/

Friday, September 28, 2012

Mind Maps as Vocabulary Enhancers

ELT, Mind Maps, Reading and Vocabulary, Virtual Learning Environments, Vocabulary learning 0 comments

Mind Mapping for Vocabulary Learning?

Mind Maps as Vocabulary Enhancers:

Three Useful Tools to Explore

As a reading skills instructor at the university level, I have always looked for ways to boost vocabulary learning among my A1+/A2 students. I have taken students into using “word families” and “vocabulary logs,” which have proven their use. But to fully enhance student learning, I’m now working with students on structuring their learning via mind maps.

Why mind maps? The reason seems to be self-explanatory, somehow. Mind maps reflect, -based on scientific observation of brain cell’s dendrites-, the way human beings store information in their long term memory. A mind map along with an “assigned” thematic unit or label depicts the way in which information is retrieved when needed and, at the same time, other possible connections with related topics or thematic units. As many experts claim, the more connections our neurons develop, the faster information flows boosting learning and understanding.

In my rhetorical explanation to reading skills students about the benefits of using mind maps, I always try to present three tremendously basic facts. A mind map guarantees the visual relationship of words (phrases or ideas, as well). That is, instead of simply reading a dictionary definition, the map elaborates more the connotation of an idea in terms of its relationships with other word(s) (phrase or ideas) and other thematic units (topics). A mind map supplies learners with meaning-related words or their opposites. In other words, a student can also find synonyms and antonyms to continue to boost his/her vocabulary. Finally, a mind map is a way to self-encourage ourselves to expand one’s word-base beyond the textbook and class. This type of map can go beyond the reading skills class and be used to enhance one’s learning experiences in any other course at the university.

The internet provides interesting sites to work with and develop students’ lexicon. Let’s take a look at http://membean.com/personal/wordmaps. Pupils have access to 150,000 word maps to study their vocabulary. At the same time, learners can also listen to podcasts concerning new lexical items. It provides a “Hustle Plan,” which means it’s for free. If the student wants, he can upgrade his account to a paid one. Yet Membean can be used without having to sign up; it does have a lot of free features.

If the teacher wants to have students create their own mind maps, with his/her guidance, http://www.mindomo.com is a great option. Even though Mindomo allows free users to just create three mind maps, they can be edited and re-edited as many times as needed. The best thing it has is that once a mind map is created, it can be converted into a “jpg” picture that can be posted anywhere it is required. Mindomo is a great option to work online.

On the other hand, EDRAW Mindmap is freeware that can be downloaded to one’s PC (notebook, tablet, etc.) and installed. As freeware EDRAW has no limitation in terms of mind maps creation. It has lots of layouts and different features that can be used to create maps, or the user has the chance of beginning from scratch to create his/her own infographic. Infographics (a kind of mind map) can be saved on the PC, can be edited, and can be saved as picture, pdf, etc to be later used in blog posts, presentations, and the like.

Help students learn by facilitating them the tools they need. Mind maps can become meaningful learning experiences that will help you –the teacher- achieve vocabulary objectives in a course and will assist your learners to fully develop their potential to consolidate learning and achieve teachers’ learning outcomes.

To fully develop and comprehend this teaching issue, it’s advisable to research and expand these areas:

1	How brain cells communicate
2	The way humans store information
3	Alternative sites to create mind maps
4	Mindmapping in education and it benefits
5	Infographics

Jonathan Acuña

ELT Instructor & Trainer based in Costa Rica

Curricular Developer at CCCN

Senior ELT Professor at Universidad Latina

For further comments or suggestions, reach me at:

@jonacuso – Twitter

jonacuso@gmail.com – Gmail

Other blogs I often write for my students at the university are:

1. http://bin-02.blogspot.com/

2. http://bin-04.blogspot.com

3. http://bin-06.blogspot.com/

Browse more data visualization.

Friday, September 21, 2012

The Evolution of Educational Technology in Central America

Education Technologies, Integration of Technology into Teaching, LOTI Profile 1comments

Please, click on the cartoon to read it.

The Evolution of Technology in Central America:

A Quick Historical Overview

About 30 years ago Education –in general- was book-based and somehow teacher-centered, which meant that technology was a luxury rather than a need. This teaching panorama, -no doubt-, was pretty much the norm throughout Central American teaching contexts. At this point in history we are living in, Education has now shifted direction towards a much digital way of learning.

If you can still recall being a student in the 1980s, whether that was in school or college, the classroom features were quite different if compared to one nowadays. The board and chalk were crucial elements in our teachers’ educational practices. Reading or searching in “paper” books was the way to gain knowledge, in addition to the use of photocopied material prepared by our instructors. Hey! Don’t forget the countless visits to libraries to get the material needed for our assignments. Looks like technology was not that needed at that time, or it manifested itself –perhaps- differently.

Central American classrooms witnessed the manifestation of a new element: the PC. The PC in class triggered a twofold effect in teaching: Teachers who were aided by video beam projectors or big screens in class were able to display material previously saved for your desktop computer. Students, on the other hand, also got the hang of using their PCs to review their instructor’s material or create their own. Now if one adds Internet connections in our schools, communities, and homes, the possibility of finding new resources to teach and learn were much more numerous than before. A greater shift in education, spiced up by these technological seasonings, was awaiting the new millennium.

Today’s classrooms are no longer what they were before: the digital natives are now sitting in class. Virtual learning is and continues being in vogue. The new trends in education and language learning began and persist on reshaping our way of teaching and learning. Today many professionals use –more and more- new Web-based resources to foster online assignments. Case studies and WebQuests (part of PBL philosophy of teaching) are quite common practices in schools today. More and more ELT professionals find room to develop themselves professionally in terms of technology literacy and competence. VLEs (Virtual Learning Environments) will eventually replace the noisy cafeterias we would visit to plan presentations and papers with our peers.

If we had to talk about the implementation of technology in private or public schools in Central America, we must agree that every country is doing its best to foster and consolidate this slow, pain-staking process. Not only Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, but also Costa Rica and Panama are trying to implement state-of-the-art educational technologies, -a highly costly endeavor, no doubt. The one country that seems to be somehow behind is Nicaragua. Yet all our Central American countries are aiming at providing a more technologically-oriented education to our young population of digital learners.

In conclusion, governments must continue finding the necessary financial support to guarantee quality in education. Furthermore, the lack of teacher training needs to be replaced by technology literacy and competence for both teachers and students. No doubt Central America moves with the flow of new trends in teaching and learning. In a matter of years, tablets, cell phones, iPods, and many other gadgets will be a very common part of our teaching contexts Web 2.0 and social media will give us the tools to have students learn with our guidance or autonomously.

To fully develop and comprehend this teaching issue, it’s advisable to research and expand these areas:

1	Education technology in Central America, per country
2	Governmental investments in Education in Central America
3	Virtual learning and its applications
4	VLEs and today’s educational practices
5	Technology literacy among teachers

Jonathan Acuña

ELT Instructor & Trainer based in Costa Rica

Curricular Developer at CCCN

Senior ELT Professor at Universidad Latina

For further comments or suggestions, reach me at:

@jonacuso – Twitter

jonacuso@gmail.com – Gmail

Other blogs I often write for my students at the university are:

1. http://bin-02.blogspot.com/

2. http://bin-04.blogspot.com

3. http://bin-06.blogspot.com/

by lemonwood_design. Check out our data visualization blog.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Technology Literacy, Language Learning & ESP

Integration of Technology into Teaching, LOTI Profile, Universidad Mariano Gálvez 1comments

Faculty of Humanities, Universidad Mariano Gálvez, Guatemala City, Guatemala

Technology Literacy, Language Learning & ESP:

An Overview of the Levels of Technology Implementation

Technology Literacy, Language Learning, and ESP on Prezi

Last August 30 and 31 (2012), I got invited to participate as one of the OUP speakers at the Academic Encounter of Technology, Pedagogy, and Language on English for Specific Purposes ESP at Universidad Mariano Gálvez (UMG) in Guatemala City, which was co-sponsored by Oxford University Press (OUP). The idea behind this conference was to discuss the virtues of new educational technologies applied to ELT and ESP to enhance pedagogical practices within the teaching scenarios in Guatemala.

As part of my plenary session at UMG, I confronted participants with their own way of using technology as part of their daily planning and teaching. However, educational technologies can’t be effectively applied if there is no systematic development of this competency on the part of teaching professionals. For that reason, at the end of my introduction, I stated the following challenge for my Guatemalan colleagues: “As ELT professionals, technologywise, where do you want to be a year from now?”

To have conference participants understand the importance of a systematic development of one’s technological development, they were explained the “Levels of Technology Implementation” (LoTi) and how to self-assess their personal LoTi Profile. This Profile will guide teachers towards the right implementation of educational technologies and Web 2.0 tools in their daily planning and teaching. The adequate development of teachers’ LoTi Profiles will guarantee their technological competence instead of random applications of iTools and eTools.

In lieu of random uses of technology in one’s daily teaching, LoTi prepares ELT instructors to venture themselves into b-learning scenarios. We can be certain that the new trends in education today are moving us towards b-learning environments that encourage students to develop their language skills and competences autonomously. Students today do come into our classrooms, but they do develop lots of online assignments such as PBL tasks (WebQuest sample used at Universidad Latina in Costa Rica).

Bearing in mind that the effective use of technology is necessary to enhance and consolidate language learning, teachers must be certain that technology can be used not only in a regular EFL/ESL class, but also in any type of ESP courses at language schools and universities. First of all, as stated above, “teachers must be technologically competent to teach students and model –for them- a given behavior” with a given piece of technology or Web 2.0 tool. If technologically-competent teachers can take their pupils into using these resources appropriately the produce that will be yielded in this new learning scenarios / practices will be superb!

Conference attendants were also presented with diverse ways of applying these technological resources. Among the variety of technological applications provided for the plenary audience, they were provided with (a) reading blogs developed by students at Universidad Latina in Costa Rica (see Sample Blog 1 and Sample Blog 2) and (b) class wikis, -a type of LMS, to manage one’s students learning and accomplishment of teaching/learning objectives (i.e. Reading Skills Class Wiki). The use of these tools imply –from a LoTi Profile point of view- the teachers’ mastery of the resources to troubleshoot and assist students when needed.

Part of the plenary conclusion was to encourage teachers to master the technological resources they have in their schools or institutions, and then to fully develop themselves in terms of the LoTi Profile given to them. As soon as they begin to advance in their LoTi Profile development, Guatemalan teachers, as any other ELT professional, can start creating, implementing, and assessing their ESP tasks and activities with their students to greatly promote memorable learning experiences that will satisfy school administrators, teachers, and students alike.

To fully develop and comprehend this teaching issue, it’s advisable to research and expand these areas:

1	The LoTi Profile
2	How to develop technological competencies in ELT teachers
3	B-Learning in ELT
4	Project-Based Learning in language learning
5	Web 2.0 in ESP teaching scenarios