Connect more with peers and practice: Pecha Kucha session - Debbie Woodmass

Editor's Notes

1. My name is Debbie Woodmass and I teach French at Adult Education Wolverhampton and I’m starting to think about bringing my classes into the 21st century. Most of our learners are already using digital devices at home such as tablets, PCs, smartphones etc
2. I’m sure you will have seen a typical modern foreign language learning scenario like this before. (Perhaps it’s not just MFL?!) Note the use of books, pens, pencils, dictionaries, desks etc. These learners’ experiences of language learning could be greatly enhanced by embedding digital learning
3. How about this? British Sign Language students practising signing behind desks with lots of paper-based resources surrounding them. Perhaps we need to think of another way of introducing the digital element into their classes. They almost seem impeded by the furniture around them too
4. These learners are using PCs as part of their employability classes. Getting them to access real life job sites and show them how to access application forms for work helps them to relate to the real world when they actually come to apply for work
5. These students, studying web design at our college, are no doubt adding to their taught sessions by working on what they have created at home and this brings another dimension into their learning.
6. Have a look at this photo I took (I know, always a teacher) on holiday in Brittany. Say I wanted to post this onto a VLE (virtual learning environment) to get my students to access it for homework and complete a task about it?
7. So how can we overcome our fear of technology and give students a better, more modern-day compatible experience? What if you have little or no experience of digital technology and its applications for learning?
8. This was one situation that Dumbledore wasn’t going to be able to get me out of. Besides, he’d just nodded off. Sorry, I’m not sure how that photo got in there!!
9. We asked our local JISC representative to organise an in-house training session where we looked at possible uses of technology for our classes including tablets, screen-casting and exploring cloud storage facilities for classes.
10. Edmodo is a free and easy way to bring a digital dimension into your classroom. There are no ‘pop ups’ and you can make joining the site by invitation only. You can keep the site private and ask your students to sign up to contribute to online discussions or submit homework digitally.
11. Prior to set up I talked to my learners about netiquette to make sure they were aware of online etiquette. Here’s an example of a post to an Edmodo site I’ve set up for my advanced French learners. The rule is only French posts!
12. I embedded an activity into the Edmodo site asking student contributors to add revision topics they wanted to cover. It works in a similar way to putting post-it notes onto a piece of flipchart paper and is super easy for students to use. They can do this at any time, in the comfort of their own home.
13. So how, you are asking, is it possible to get the know how to set all this up with my own groups and classes? How can we get them all using digital learning as part of their courses?
14. At first the digital world seems daunting, especially to a dinosaur like me who is self-taught and it’s quite a task to decide where to begin embedding digital learning or what to use
15. Very often technical support is difficult to access especially at that Monday night class in a remote location away from the main site when everything suddenly freezes on screen and nothing you try will revitalise the precious resource that took quite a while to create.
16. Of course if your students are accessing your online VLE remotely to take part in homework activities for example, you don’t necessarily need to have access in the classroom itself except perhaps to demonstrate signing up to it in the first place
17. I have completed the Future Learn Blended Learning Essentials course, on a rolling program on-line and have just signed up for this follow on course which started at the beginning of June. You can take your time completing it and there are forums where you can connect with other like-minded professionals and lots of ideas are shared.
18. One of the benefits of embedding digital learning could be to enable these ALDD learners to digitally access the recipe they’ll be using next week, signposted by their teacher, to practise at home or to get their ingredients ahead of time
19. Theses language learners could do some research online on a destination in the country where they speak the language they are studying. The students could share the presentation on a digital platform and add to it to present to class at a later date.
20. I’ve been Debbie Woodmass and I’m happy to chat and share ideas and experiences with embedding digital learning with anyone after this session. Have a good summer!