Modulo material design_for_virtual_environments_observ

UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL ABIERTA Y A DISTANCIA – UNAD
School of Sciences of Education – Bachelor of Arts in English as a Foreign Language
Didactic Material: Materials Design for Virtual Environments – 551021

DIDACTIC MATERIAL

551021 – MATERIALS DESIGN FOR VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS

HENRY CARVAJAL A

OPEN AND DISTANCE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

2012


CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................... 4
JUSTIFICATION..................................................................................................................................... 6
FORMATIVE PURPOSES ....................................................................................................................... 8
PURPOSES........................................................................................................................................ 8
OBJECTIVES...................................................................................................................................... 8
COMPETENCES ................................................................................................................................ 8
GOALS .............................................................................................................................................. 9
UNIT 1 ................................................................................................................................................ 10
TEACHING IN VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS ........................................................................................... 10
CHAPTER 1: Theoretical foundation of virtual environments ....................................................... 10
Lesson 1: The notion of learning spaces ........................................................................... 10
Lesson 2: Taxonomy of online courses............................................................................. 11
Lesson 3: Online course models ...................................................................................... 13
Lesson 4: Integrated electronic learning environments .................................................... 14
Lesson 5: Communication through virtual environments .................................................. 16
CHAPTER 2: Learning and teaching in virtual environments ........................................................ 17
Lesson 1: The virtual learning as a construction process ................................................... 18
Lesson 2: Teaching in virtual environments as aid process ................................................ 19
Lesson 3: Joint activity and teaching-learning processes in virtual environments ............... 21
Lesson 4: E-Learning in the Learning Environment ............................................................ 22
Lesson 5: Toward Ecology of Learning .............................................................................. 25
CHAPTER 3: Learning and teaching in virtual environments ........................................................ 27
Lesson 1: What is e-learning?........................................................................................... 28
Lesson 2: Weblogs ........................................................................................................... 32
Lesson 3: Wikis ................................................................................................................ 33
Lesson 4: Podcast ............................................................................................................ 34
Lesson 5: Presentation sharing ........................................................................................ 35
UNIT 2 ................................................................................................................................................ 37
MATERIALS DESIGN FOR VIRTUAL TEACHING ENVIRONMENTS ....................................................... 37

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CHAPTER 1: Guidelines for designing teaching material............................................................... 37
Lesson 1: Why English Language teachers may choose to design their own material ......... 37
Lesson 2: Factors to consider when designing materials ................................................... 39
Lesson 3: Guidelines for designing effective teaching materials 1 – 5 ................................ 41
Lesson 4: Guidelines for designing effective teaching materials 6-10 ................................. 43
Lesson 5: Teacher reflections on 'Chalk dust and screens to touch' (North Haven Schools) 46
CHAPTER 2: Getting into the e-learning material design part 2 ................................................... 47
Lesson 1: Social bookmarking ......................................................................................... 48
Lesson 2: Digital conversations/ Group audio blog/ Voice-thread .................................... 49
Lesson 3: Image sharing .................................................................................................. 50
Lesson 4: Video sharing web sites: YOUTUBE ................................................................... 51
Lesson 5: Communities of sharing .................................................................................... 52
CHAPTER 3: Creating digital learning objects................................................................................ 54
Lesson 1: Learning objects and Designing Learning Objects ............................................... 54
Lesson 2: Creating text-based content for digital learning objects ..................................... 56
Lesson 3: Creating pictures, graphics and animations for digital learning objects ............... 58
Lesson 4: Creating cartoons and comics ........................................................................... 59
Lesson 5: Publishing digital learning objects ..................................................................... 60
REFERENCES ...................................................................................................................................... 62

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INTRODUCTION

There is no doubt that using materials in class makes a big difference when trying
to have successful learning and teaching results. Those teaching and learning
processes, using materials, are said to be more appealing, motivational, and
meaningful for students as well for teachers, while those classes where the
materials are not used tend to be the opposite.

Bearing in mind the previous idea, this course, Materials Design for Virtual
Environment is intended to be both a field of information and a practical
undertaking in the creation of material for successful teaching in online
environments which has become a quite interesting education possibility lately. As
a field of information, it studies first of all, some concepts related to online teaching
foundations, secondly, the principles and procedures of the design, implementation
and evaluation of language teaching materials in virtual environments. As an
undertaking it involves the production, evaluation and adaptation of language
teaching materials, by teachers for their own classrooms or possible online
courses.

Even though all this information is mostly intended to be for online teaching and
learning environments, since they are currently a new possibility in which education
is been presented; it is necessary to say that it can be easily apply to other
teaching and learning environments.

Materials for virtual education include anything which can be used to facilitate the
learning of a language. They can be linguistic, visual, auditory or kinesthetic and
they can be present in hypertexts, videos, slide-shows and through all the
possibilities of web 2.0. They can be instructional in that they inform learners about
the language, they can be experiential in that they provide exposure to the
language in use, and they can be elucidative in that they stimulate language use,

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or they can be exploratory in that they seek discoveries about language use, as
Tomlinson (1998) remarks.

In order to have a deeper understanding about “Material Design for Virtual
Environment” as a UNAD English Course, this module has been divided into two
units. The first unit deals with theoretical information on online education and the
second one on hints to create material according to some specific purposes and
tools. Each unit possesses three chapters and each chapter five lessons.

It is important to bear in mind that this material presents a short summary of each
one of the lessons as well as a link at the end of each chapter in which students
can access to have a better understanding.

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JUSTIFICATION

Materials Design for Virtual Environment is a must-have course for students of
English as a Foreign Language in the UNAD since it is intended to present
theoretical and practical information on designing teaching materials for virtual
education, so learning and teaching can be motivational and effective. This course
originates under the idea that not only experienced but also no experienced
teachers, tutors or educators in general, need to be trained or updated in new
ways to produce, adapt or use material so they can have affective classes.

This course is highly important for teachers or students of foreign languages
because it gives both, theoretical information on designing, developing, using,
adapting, or evaluating materials to be used in their teaching processes, and
practical information or clues dealing with designing or adapting material
depending upon languages approaches, methodologies or purposes.

Through the course, students can discover how the use of certain material can
affect the way students get involved or not in the classes. Moreover, they can
understand how designing teaching material is a matter of knowing the kind of
approaches, methodology or purpose of a class as well as the people they are
teaching.

In considering the methodologies or approaches used by the teachers, this course
intends foreign language students of the university understand the importance of
learning, considering and debating theoretical information when intending to
become English language teachers. It is clear that, depending on the
understanding or debating of approaches or methodologies for teaching language
are main points to determine the kind of material to be used.

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In considering, the people to be taught, it can be seen how the course goes
beyond theoretical formation and tries to sell the idea to the student-teachers of
how teachers are to be involved in the understanding of their communities; so that
they can be able to generate proposals according to their own realities.

As it can be seen, this course looks for an integral formation of UNAD students,
since first of all, it tries to develop a balanced and harmonious, intellectual
formation and secondly, it seeks to form social, propositional and involved leaders
who are connected through virtual possibilities.

In brief, in can be seen how the course of Materials Design for Virtual
Environments is intended to see the material developing not only as an academic
formation, but also as the possibility to understand the reality where teachers are to
perform their profession.

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FORMATIVE PURPOSES
PURPOSES

a. To prepare students on the necessary competences and skills in developing
teaching material for virtual environments so that they comprehend all the
processes involved in the formation as bachelors of Arts in English as a foreign
language.
b. To encourage a critical attitude on the main components in the formation as
bachelors of English as foreign language so that an investigative attitude can be
generated on all educational formation fields.
c. To identify some of the main characteristics in educational processes related
to the formation as bachelors of English as a foreign language.
d. To comprehend some of the necessary competences to be developed when
being formed as an English as a Foreign Language teacher.

OBJECTIVES

a. To present some of the main issues related to the design, adaptation and
use of material in Virtual English languages teaching.
b. To generate debate on the main situations dealing with the design and use
of teaching material in language learning and teaching.
c. To encourage a propositional and analytical attitude toward the design and
use of teaching material.

COMPETENCES

a. Students identify and analyze theoretical information related to the design of
material for virtual education.
b. Students recognize the importance of considering real situation when
thinking about developing, adapting and using teaching material.

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c. Students develop certain skills in the design of material for teaching of
English as a foreign language in virtual environments.
d. Students are aware of the importance of using updated material when trying
to have effective classes.

GOALS

At the end of the course:
a. Students will include in their forums, debates or conversations on designing
material theoretical information, such as: material design depends on language
approaches, methodologies, purposes and particular people situations, web 2.0, e-
learning, online education
b. Students will present at least one document, essay or other on the
importance of considering different possibilities when designing teaching material
c. Students will create at least a teaching material according to some specific
set of instructions

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UNIT 1
TEACHING IN VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS

This first unit deals with the study of principles and generalities related to designing
teaching material for virtual environments. It consists of three chapters as follows:
Chapter 1: Theoretical foundation of virtual environments, Chapter 2: E-learning
through virtual environments and chapter 3: Getting into the e-learning material
design part 1

These three chapters are intended to give the readers the possibility to have good
theoretical foundation about designing or developing teaching material.

CHAPTER 1: Theoretical foundation of virtual environments

Lesson 1: The notion of learning spaces

Nowadays, as a result of the new paradigms of distance education, new learning
spaces are emerging, which offer different learning opportunities compared to
traditional education. Learning spaces was a term used by Salinger (2000) to refer
about the spaces to teach and learn provided by electronic communication within
distance education. These learning spaces are related to online environments for
learning, based on the new paradigms of distance, where participants construct
and develop the course contents through their interaction and collaboration on
particular tasks or topics. The term space is very important because it means
openness, open spaces where many activities can be developed. So, this is a good
opportunity for participants to contribute in the content of the course within the new
learning spaces.

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The topic of learning opportunities is closely related to the term virtual –virtual
communities, virtual classroom, virtual learning environments and virtual
interaction-. Then virtual means computer-mediated or computer-generated. And
these new learning spaces are becoming the seed for developing virtual learning
communities and likewise, they are a key factor in the approaches known as e-
education, network learning, cyber learning and others. In these approaches, the
focus is on communication, collaboration and interaction among participants who
are far away (CMC - Computer Mediated Communication).

The Internet has offered a variety of possibilities to communicate such as e-mail,
chats, audio conferencing and web conferencing, which provide useful ways of
interaction within distance education. Therefore, providers of this type of education
are taking advantage of the Web, including resources to improve the interactivity
and dialogue between students and tutor, and it is appealing the greater
opportunities they have to keep in touch no matter the time or the place they are.
Besides, providers are putting materials in different formats on the web, and this is
another help for students, because they can access not only to this material but
they have the chance to find out more information on the Internet.

Lesson 2: Taxonomy of online courses

Within distance education, learning language offers different opportunities, bearing
in mind the use of media, interaction and support. Some examples of this diversity
are:

• Satellite-delivered classes to several sites with medium-sized numbers,
augmented by print materials and weekly computer conferences;

• Print-based courses with CD-ROM and real-time chat systems;

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• Multimedia course, combining a range of synchronous and asynchronous
media;

• Broadcast TV, supplemented by print and audio materials, and some chat
facilities;

• Print-based courses with electronic support systems to relatively large
numbers;

• Web-based courses

Each one of these courses, with their features, results in a different learning space
where participants must move. Having in mind the differences among them, there
are many models in distance educations, but all of them focus mainly on three
elements: content, interaction and support.

Mc Greal, of Tele-Education New Brunswick, developed a well-known taxonomy of
online courses:

• Online correspondence courses: make use of print, audio and video tapes
and e-mail and probably some computer-based training courseware.

• CMC courses: may have a similar element to online course, including written
texts and possibly audio/video tapes and computer software. Enhanced
communication is possible through discussion packages, list-servs (and e-mail
discussion list) or bulletin boards.

• World Wide Web courses: can be followed on the World Wide Web and can
take advantage of links to other relevant sites. These courses can be either text-
based, or can include graphics and animation. This grouping includes synchronous
communication.

According to this classification, the term online course is applied to all courses
where Internet is used and its access is only electronic (Mason 1998b). However,
there are many online courses which work with non-online elements like: print
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materials, CDROMs, audio and video materials, and some of them include face-to-
face spaces.

Lesson 3: Online course models

Mason (1998b) also developed other three models of online courses: the content -
support model, the wrap-around model and the integrated model. So that, it is
possible to find important differences in practice between online courses:

1. Content – Support Model

This type of course has as the most important elements: Content, a course
package; and the Support, the use of e-mail and/or computer conferencing.
Students can access the package on the web, but it is usually pre-determined and
consists of print material, audio or video; so that, the contents is fixed. Online
activities are few, just some interactions such as: an e-mail, a writing feedback,
and a participation in a discussion. This is the most widespread model for online
courses which only take into account some e-mail interactions (Salmon 2000).

2. Wrap-around Model

Existing material -textbooks, CD-ROMs and commercial videos- are the key of this
model; the exiting materials are “wrapped around” by means of producing study
guide, activities and discussion. Here, the learning process is developed through
online interactions and discussions; this is more demanding for teachers, who have
to invest much time on generating spaces where there are meaning interactions
with the learners who can develop their skills and competencies. Then, the teacher
is a key factor in the success of the course as a result of his or her commitment
and skills. And finally, this type of courses can be carried out only with a few
students.

3. Integrated Model
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In this model, there is a more emphasis on online activities like discussions,
exercises, collaborative tasks, and assessment. Online communications in real-
time is provided by teachers in order to support the learning, thus an online
learning community emerges, especially in the collaborative activities. The content
is predetermined but it is not the most important of these courses.

As a result of its special features, this type of course is generally offered for a
reduced number of students who are interested in the topic established. This
model offers a very useful learning space to work for teachers and students, since
the real-time activities, the collaborative tasks and the discussion-based events are
meaningful to construct knowledge within the new learning spaces.

Lesson 4: Integrated electronic learning environments

According to Inglis (2001) the integrated electronic learning environments have in
mind not only the software but the learning context provided by the software.
These environments support and integrate disparate functions by means of
delivering course materials, providing chat facilities, and online testing. Besides,
this type of environment offers the learners the opportunity to access to teaching,
interaction and administrative support in only one space. So, they can discuss,
chat and develop conferences using the systems tools provided by these
environments.

The term Virtual Learning Environments (VLE) emerges as a choice for course
developers, who can adopt or create a new one to design their courses. So,
educators need to have some competences in order to evaluate all the options
technology offers now, the advantages or disadvantages of each platform, and
choose the best or the most appropriate for their interests. Also they must realize
that every platform have some learning and teaching restrictions.

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The increasing of online education has generated a market for integrated electronic
learning environments. Thus, big commercial companies offer lots of options such
as: Blackboard, Web CT, Lotus Learning Space, CU Online, First Class, The
Learning Manager, Course info, Top Class, and Web Course in a Box.

All these integrated electronic learning environments fulfill with following functions:

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Lesson 5: Communication through virtual environments

Emerging approaches, methods and learning techniques have understood the
importance of students in order to construct their own knowledge thanks to correct
teacher guidance in collaboration with fellow students (Berge & Collins, 1995).
Thus, modern educational practices require significant collaboration and co-
ordination between students and of course, communication is a key factor within
the process. The techniques form the essence of self-directed learning, which is
often regarded as being far more appropriate than instructor-directed learning
(Jonasses et al. 1995). And also, Palloff and Pratt (1999) state that in electronic
distance learning, it is more appropriate to the mechanism of delivery a free-flowing
and interactive experience.

To sum up, in the online courses the knowledge is primarily generated through the
relationships and interactions among people; for that reason, the learning
environment needs to be humanized in order to “come across the distance” the
personalities (Baker et. al. 1996). Communication is essential in all fields of human
life, since collaboration allows the development in every community; and online
learning communities are not the exception, especially in carrying out effective
collaborative work-related problem-solving (Evard et. al. 2001). Along time,
interaction and collaboration are crucial to improve the teaching learning process;
students need to gather into groups to talk and share experiences and construct
knowledge.

The communication through virtual environments provides the development of the
community spirit in virtual courses; that’s why communication must take place
along the course to strengthen teams and avoid isolation (Cano et. al. 1999;
Bernard et. al. 2000), since some students face this problem in the virtual mode as
a result of the lack of feedback or interaction with other students or with tutors.
Nowadays, there are many online communication tools that support e-education
and provide synchronous and asynchronous opportunities to interact. Here are

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some of the resources offered by technology to use in virtual learning
environments: chat rooms, forums, e-mail, tele- and video-conferencing, streaming
video, WebPages, text-based multi-user domains (MUDs/MOOs) and online tests.

Some people state that this type of tools don’t allow a rich interpersonal
communication because they can’t see facial expressions or body language;
however, now it is possible to use emoticons within these media in order to
express their feelings.

In order to have a deeper understanding of this chapter please, click on the
following link:

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B-WxmcRUxcmdTWlXZGs4ZDd4LUU

CHAPTER 2: Learning and teaching in virtual environments

Recent advances in the science of how people learn consider the situated and
distributed nature of cognition as applied to thinking, learning, and doing in
workplace and community settings (Chaiklin & Lave, 1993; Engeström &
Middleton, 1996; Hutchins, 1995; Wenger, 1998). Cognition is viewed as situated
within both a physical and a psychosocial context and as distributed between a
person and his or her tools (Barab & Plucker, 2002; National Research Council,
2000a; Sternberg & Preiss, 2005). Although distributed cognition and situated
learning are treated separately, the relationship between the two perspectives is
complementary and reciprocal.

Nowadays, it is very important to recognize and sufficiently consider the complexity
of the relationship between the new information and communication technology
(ICT), and education practices, assuming a wide view to incorporate them in order
to get a better use of those practices. Another thing to keep in mind is not to focus
the discussion on the integration of ICT into teaching and learning Technological
aspects more properly than in the educational one.

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So, educational practices of the new technological tools, and the design and
development of virtual processes supported teaching and learning in these tools,
are headed in different cases, by the necessary reflection and the necessary
conceptual and theoretical background.

So, in order to review this chapter, it will deal with the following points: 1: The
virtual learning as a construction process, 2: Teaching in virtual environments as
an aid process, 3: Joint activity and teaching-learning processes in virtual
environments, 4: E-learning in the learning environment and 5: Toward ecology of
Learning.

Lesson 1: The virtual learning as a construction process

Learners can immerse themselves in distributed, synthetic environments,
becoming “avatars” who vicariously collaborate and learn by-doing, using virtual
artifacts to construct knowledge (Walker, 1990). Nowadays, use of information
technology to enhance constructivist learning environments have centered on
creating virtual tools and representations that students can manipulate effectively.

Virtual learning is not understood as a mere translation or external content
transposition to the student´s mind, but as a process of personal content (re)
construction which is performed in that function, and from, a wide range of
elements of the learner's cognitive structure: basic cognitive abilities, specific
domain knowledge, learning strategies, meta-cognitive and self-regulatory
capabilities, affective factors, motivations and goals, mutual representations and
expectations.

The “constructivist postulate " and the emphasis on student´s mental constructive
activity in the learning process, have multiple and important implications for a
better understanding about how to learn in virtual environments and what can be
done from teaching to promote that learning. One of those implications is the
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difference between the "Logical structure" of the content and the "psychological
structure" of it.

The logical structure of content refers to the internal organization of the learning
material itself, and can be considered stable in different contexts, situations and
learners. The psychological structure of content, however, refers to the
organization of such material to a particular student, and depends on what the
student, brings to the learning process in any situation. So, those students can
attribute meaning to content to be learned. On one hand, the logical significance,
related to the structure and internal organization of learning content. On the other
hand, the psychological significance, related to the fact that the learner has
elements in their cognitive structure that they could use it in a substantive and not
arbitrary, so deep and no superficial way.

The second implication of "constructivist postulate" in relation to the virtual learning
that we want to emphasize is related to the fact that students build and must build
in a virtual teaching and learning environment at least two different types of
representations, as follows, first, representations of the meaning of content to learn
and second, representations of what means to learn that content.

That type of learning implies to be aware of perceiving oneself as a learner. Both
types of representations are constructed in a dynamic, contextual and situated
way.

Lesson 2: Teaching in virtual environments as aid process

Virtual learning environments are of special interest to educators because it is the
province of educators to create, select, and provide environments that encourage
learning. Virtual learning environments have the potential to provide opportunities
for active, flexible, and increasingly individualized learning experiences. Our
examination of motivational perspectives will range widely across the electronic
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information technologies that are used in creating virtual learning environments,
from the simplest forms of computer-aided instruction through to complex virtual
reality environments. (Ainley  Armatas. Motivational Perspectives on Students’
Responses to Learning in Virtual Learning Environments, 2006)

The Constructive mental activity developed by the student doesn´t mean
necessarily an optimal construction of meanings and senses around learning a
new content. The interaction between student and content doesn´t guarantee by
itself optimal ways of build meanings and senses or even produce and acquire
knowledge.

What is more specific to virtual learning environments is the set of activities within
which students construct and share objects, becoming information consumers and
producers at the same time, in other words, students are not only active, but also
actors, who facilitate themselves opportunities to originate an education. So, the
virtual learning tool, is more than a simple matter of presenting information or
setting tasks carried out by the student. It is essentially to follow continuously the
learning process that the student has been developing during the assigned
activities, and to provide the required support just at the time that it is needed.
Thus, it is necessary to understand that teaching in virtual environments is an
useful component of "joint developing of tasks" between teacher and student,
because only from that joint developing it would be possible to make an sensitive
and contingent intervention which allows the student to go beyond to what a
solitary interaction with contents let learners to do.

According to this idea of sensitivity and contingency support, it can be said, that the
most effective educational support in virtual teaching and learning environments is
just that one which meets the principle of "adjustment assistance". It means, the
one that includes several types of support which is changing through teaching and
learning process but not at random, but from, and depending on, changes in
mental constructively activity itself developed by the student; which "challenges"

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the learner to review and deepen both, the attributed meaning and sense to the
new content to learn. It also offers tools to the learner to be able to face and
overcome those challenges, and that one which is interested in promoting
increasingly the student's ability to use strategically the acquired and built
knowledge, and to keep learning in an autonomous and self-regulated way.

Lesson 3: Joint activity and teaching-learning processes in virtual
environments

The emphasis on educational assistance and early support adjustment for
understanding the processes of teaching and learning in virtual environments
suggest to go beyond an analysis model and explanation of these processes
based just on the interaction between learner and content, and replaced by a wider
model, based on the relationship among three elements: student´s constructive
mental activity, the continues support offered by the teacher, and the content that
is the object of teaching and learning.

The assumption of this student-teacher-content relationship as the basic analysis
unit of the processes of teaching and learning in virtual environments involved, and
at the same time, considers the linkage between the teachers’ and students’
actions about the content and teaching and learning tasks; "Joint activity" or "inter-
activity" as fundamental explanatory learning factor in these contexts and its
quality.

What makes the "joint activity" being effectively is not actually the physical
presence of co-participants, but the fact that the teacher and students work
together and perform for each other, in a way that the actions of each participant
are only important and acquire meaning in reference to the actions of the other
participants.

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Thus, a virtual environment sets out teaching and learning tools to develop the
team work to acquire and build knowledge; unfortunately, many of these tools are
not used effectively by the participants, or used strictly as communication tools but
not as collaborative tools.

When we think of team building, we often conjure up images of three-legged relay
races at company picnics or long afternoons spent in dreary conference rooms. In
other words, activities we do together, face to face. It´s time to let go of such
archaic thinking because today´s virtual times call for virtual action. Conference
table, replaced by sometimes unseen business relationships on a handshake
across a mouse, Technology has expanded our scope of team building efforts.
Teams are not dependent upon physical location, but upon common goals.
(Lipnack and Stamps 1997:34).

Lesson 4: E-Learning in the Learning Environment

Where Today’s Learning Fails

The majority of today’s formal workplace learning is delivered using one or more of
the following common methods:

• The classroom model of learning;

• Technology-based learning; and

• Blended learning.

Although these methods are common, they all fail to deliver effective learning that
helps students improve their performance in the workplace. The following sections
explore these methods and how they fail.

The Classroom Model of Learning

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Roger Schank says, “Everything that’s wrong with training can be stated in four
words: It’s just like school. The educational model of learning pervades most
businesses today. The fact that the educational model fails to deliver measurably
improved performance has not deterred business from continuing to implement this
model.” The author is referring to the traditional classroom model of instruction and
learning. The classroom model continues as a delivery model because it is such a
familiar and accepted environment. However, the classroom model of instruction
and learning has numerous weaknesses. A significant weakness is that classroom
learning is separated from and has little or no relevance to work-based tasks.
There is too much emphasis on teaching tangential, irrelevant information or low
order facts, concepts, and rules. The learning that does occur is no contextualized
from the workplace and is not completely learned by the students. Consequently,
students are unable to apply their learning when they return to their job.

Technology Based Learning

Technology-based learning is seen as an alternative to the traditional classroom
model of learning. Rather than attending traditional classes, students receive their
learning through a computer, at a time and place that is most convenient for their
schedule. Much of the justification for implementing technology-based learning is
based on reducing employee time away from the job, reducing travel expenses,
and shortening the amount of time students spend in their learning experience.

Wenger (1998) describes technology based learning as “computer-based training
programs that walk students through individualized sessions covering reams of
information and drill practice.” Another significant weakness of technology-based
learning is its failure to provide effective social transactions for learners. Brown and
Duguid (2000) describe learning as “a remarkably social process. Social groups
provide the resources for their members to learn.” In a traditional classroom
students are able to interact with each other and their instructor to socially
construct their knowledge. In technology-based learning, this social aspect of

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learning is significantly reduced or is completely unavailable to students. The
learning interaction is a one-on-one relationship between the student and the
instructional content.

Blended Learning

The traditional classroom is the original blended learning environment. In the
classroom, the instructor provides familiar learning methods such as lectures,
discussions, media access (the Web, reading, video, audio), activities (labs,
experiments, teams, problem-solving), and access to experts. Students in the
classroom learn through social interactions by having discussions, exchanges of
ideas, and sharing their experiences with their classmates.

Blended learning environments attempt to bring together aspects of classroom
teaching with the technology elements of eLearning to emulate classroom
instruction. Blended learning solutions typically present a course of study that is
serialized between technology- based and traditional (or virtual) classroom
delivery, supported with additional technologies that facilitate interaction between
students and instructors.

How Do People Learn?

The simple answer is that people learn in many different ways. Here are a few
examples:

• Formal settings such as participating in a class;

• Informal settings such as a discussion with co-workers or an expert;

• At the point of need such as being confronted with a problem in the workplace;

• Reading a book;

• Practicing a critical procedure;

• Fixing a problem through trial and error; and
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• As a team member researching information to find answers to a question.

Etienne Wenger (1998) suggests, “For many of us, the concept of learning
immediately conjures up images of classrooms, training sessions, teachers,
textbooks, homework, and exercises. Yet in our experience, learning is an integral
part of our everyday lives. It is part of our participation in our communities and
organizations.”

Brown and Duguid (2000) provide additional insight into how people learn, saying,
“People learn in response to need. Wenger, Brown and Duguid point out the key
elements needed to create an effective model for learning – learning is an integral
part of our daily lives, and people learn in response to need.

Lesson 5: Toward Ecology of Learning

Brown describes a learning ecology as, “a collection of overlapping communities of
interest (virtual), cross-pollinating with each other, constantly evolving, and largely
self-organizing.” Brown’s ecology concept requires the creation and delivery of a
learning environment that presents a diversity of learning options to the student.
This environment must offer students opportunities to receive learning through
methods and models that best support their needs, interests, and personal
situations.

A successful learning ecology offers a ubiquitous learning environment. Students
have open, immediate access to the ecology where they can search for, locate,
and quickly access elements of learning that address their immediate needs.
Students use the ecology to construct and organize personalized, unique
interactions with the content. A learning ecology must also support social learning
in the workplace. The environment needs to offer technologies for students to form
learning teams for collaborative activities, or to self-organize into discussion groups
where students can explore learning topics. The ecology should also enable
25


people to discuss and share insights within their specialized communities of
practice.

Creating a Learning Ecology

The design and creation of a learning ecology cannot be developed based on
general considerations of individual and social learning. A learning ecology
requires a unifying model of instructional theory that, in turn, drives the architecture
of such a learning environment. Best practice instructional models form the basis
for creating development and delivery templates. Development templates are best
practice frameworks instructional developers use to create consistently structured
instructional models.

Delivery templates are presentation interfaces for the various instructional models
The value of this methodology is that much of the content created for the various
instructional strategies can be reused between the category models. Continuing
with the presentation strategies example, the contents of a lecture template can be
associated with a video script and also a web-based presentation layout. Video
components may be developed for use within a lecture or a web product. An audio
version of the video presentation may be produced as an alternative media.

The Role of eLearning

The role of eLearning is as an enabling technology that supports student
interactions with the resources contained in the learning ecology. The ecology
offers a every learner centered experience in which students locate, select, and
access instructional strategies and models that address unique and specific
learning needs. For any given topic, the learning ecology will present students a
variety of learning options in the studying, teaching and others.

E-Learning technologies and a learning management system provide students the
capability of delivering instructional strategies, and tracking the completion and

26


assessment of the learning. E-Learning technologies and the learning
management system tracks the individual’s access and learning activities.

In order to have a better understanding of this chapter, click on the following links:

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B-WxmcRUxcmdSW94d1NVMGhHQ2M

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B-WxmcRUxcmdT0NpRk9KUmRCWU0

CHAPTER 3: Getting into the e-learning material design part 1

Technology offers currently some of the most appropriate tools to plan, prepare
and design teaching materials. Computers can help teacher to develop, slide
shows, posters, videos, transcripts, and so on, in a fast and quite appealing
presentation. In addition, the use of the internet and the concept of the Information
and communications technology have given teaching materials new possibilities.
Through internet now is easy to find authentic materials, to look for material that
can be easy adapted to our teaching needs and even more you can design or join
sites or applications that can get you interacting with people all around the
world.(Sharing videos, talking chats, participating in forums, sharing photos,
belonging to learning communities among other possibilities).

The influence of technology is so decisive these days that talking about creating
electronic learning material, (e-learning materials) has to be a common
characteristics of teachers, nowadays.

So, in other to review this new possibility, (designing e-learning material) this
chapter will deal with the following points: 1. what is e-learning? 2. Weblogs, 3.
Wikis, 4. Podcasting and presentation sharing software

27


Lesson 1: What is e-learning?

As it is well known the e-learning or electronic learning refers to the acquisition of
knowledge and skill using electronic technologies such as computer- and Internet-
based courseware and local and wide area networks.

However this concept has constantly been redefined by people or group or people
who have particular purposes.

According to Hughes (2009) it is a much broader concept than the Computer
Based Training or Computer Aided Instruction which first appeared in the 1980s
and more all embracing than ‘On-line Learning’, which appeared a decade later
(with the growth of the World Wide Web) and refers to web-based learning.

The last ten years has appeared a huge range of related terms – on-line learning,
web-based learning, technology based training, technology enhanced learning –
the list is endless. The purists insist there are important distinctions between them
and this may be the case. In practice, a lot of people use the terms interchangeably
and still manage to communicate with each other perfectly well so don’t worry
about it.

Even though the e-learning refers mostly to distance education this chapter and
particularly this lesson points out the way some materials can be developed or
adapted for virtual education.

In order to identify some of this material, it is necessary to say that some of it is
particularly meant for creating contents, sharing or storing material, communication
interacting and so on.

Below, it will be found the name of some tools, then the possible use of them as
well as a specific software packages that are examples of that type of application.

These tools are taken from (Hughes, 2009)

28


1. Type of tool: Blogging

What it does:

A personal publishing tool that means any individual or group can publish on
the web and receive feedback from others. Plug-ins enables you to embed
resources such as images, YouTube videos and Slideshare presentations

Example of software: Word press, Blogger

2. Type of tool: Micro blogging

What it does:

Enables you to stay in touch and update your contacts on where you are
and what you are doing. Usually formatted to respond to the question
“Where are you now...” or “what are you thinking...” with a strict limit (about
140 – 150characters) on the length of the response

Example of software: Twitter

3. Type of tool: Wikis

What it does:

A collaborative tool for setting up easily edited websites which have content
added and amended by readers

Example of software: PB Wiki

4. Type of tool: Podcasting

What it does:

Making and broadcasting your own audio and video material on the web so
that others can listen or download your work.

Example of software: Audacity Garage Band

29


5. Type of tool: Screen capture and screen casting

What it does:

Instantly captures and shares images on your computer screen and enables
you to add audio.

Example of software: Jing

6. Type of tool: Video hosting and sharing

What it does:

You can upload and store videos using webcams, camcorders and mobile
phones and allow others to share them. You can also search or browse
videos made by others and comment on them.

Example of software: you Tube

7. Type of tool: Presentation sharing

What it does:

If you create presentations using Keynote or PowerPoint you can store
them, tag them and share them on-line. You can make them availably
publicly, privately, downloadable or not and can synchronize them with an
audio file.

Example of software: Slideshare

8. Type of tool: Social bookmarking

What it does:

You do not need to store your bookmarks in your browser any longer. You
can tag them, store them on-line and share them with others.

Example of software: Del.icio.us

30


9. Type of tool: Collaborative slideshows

What it does:

Using PowerPoint presentations and pictures, you can create an audio
slideshow and audio comments can be left by others.

Example of software: Voicethread

10. Type of tool: Image hosting and sharing

What it does:

Your personal or professional picture collection can be tagged and stored
on-line and shared with others. Access and the facility to download can be
controlled..

Example of software: Flirck, Picasa

11. Type of tool: RSS reader

What it does:

Keeping up to date with your favorite websites can mean scanning many
websites and blogs every day. With an RSS reader you simply subscribe to
the site’s newsfeed and news of updates is delivered to you automatically.

Example of software: Google Readers

12. Type of tool: Creating surveys

What it does:

Set up a poll and embed the poll widget in your blog or website and then
track the responses on a website.

Example of software: Poll daddy, Survey monkey

31


In order to learn about the way they work please check the following link:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B-WxmcRUxcmdY2ZWZE5xb2ZmbUE

Lesson 2: Weblogs

As states by Rouse (2009) a weblog, sometimes written as web log or Weblog, is a
Web site that consists of a series of entries arranged in reverse chronological
order, often updated on frequently with new information about particular topics. The
information can be written by the site owner, gleaned from other Web sites or other
sources, or contributed by users.

A weblog often has the quality of being a kind of "log of our times" from a particular
point-of-view. Generally, weblogs are devoted to one or several subjects or
themes, usually of topical interest, and, in general, can be thought of as developing
commentaries, individual or collective on their particular themes. A weblog may
consist of the recorded ideas of an individual (a sort of diary) or be a complex
collaboration open to anyone. Most of the latter are moderated discussions.

Blogs are essentially self-contained and, rather like a diary, reflect the opinions,
thoughts and ideas of the people who write them. Many blogs provide commentary
or news on a particular subject. Others function as more personal online diaries.
Sometimes they are related to academic sites or subjects, in order to develop in
depth discussions about specific fields. Blogs are an increasingly important
communication tool in social, work and academic contexts.

As a format and content approach for a Web site, the weblog seems popular
because the viewer knows that something changes every day, there is a personal
point-of-view, and, on some sites, there is an opportunity to collaborate or respond
with the Web site and its participants.

32


In addition, the possibility of sharing texts, graphics, videos power points and links
has turned blogs in an excellent way to interact between the writer and the reader
with facilities for people to comment or offer feedback on what the blogger has
written.

In brief, language learners and teachers can be highly motivated when designing
this tool , not only for the possibilities of interaction it offers, but also for the easy
updating and access it can have

To get to create a blog, please follow the bibliographic reference given at the end
of this chapter or simply look for blog creators over the internet.


Lesson 3: Wikis

As said by Rouse (2009) a wiki (sometimes spelled "Wiki") is a server program that
allows users to collaborate in forming the content of a Web site. With a wiki, any
user can edit the site content, including other users' contributions, using a regular
Web browser. Basically, a wiki Web site operates on a principle of collaborative
trust. The term comes from the word "wikiwiki," which means "fast" in the Hawaiian
language.

A wiki allows a visitor to edit the content of the site from their own computer.
Visitors can also create new content and change the organization of existing
content. The simplest wiki programs allow editing of text and hyperlinks only. More
advanced wikis make it possible to add or change images, tables, and certain
interactive components such as games.

The best known example of a wiki Web site is Wikipedia, an online dictionary
building collaboration.
33


As it can be seen, designing and using wikis can make a difference in teaching and
learning a language, since it not only offers a new possibility to use the computer
but also it gives the possibility to create in a collaborative way.

In short, a wiki is a webpage that is created and can be revised collaboratively. It
enables people to add, delete, or change information without knowing a
programming language or going through a Webmaster.

To get to know how to create a wiki, please follow the bibliographic reference given
at the end of this chapter or simply look for wiki creators over the internet.


Lesson 4: Podcast

In continuing with Rouse (2009) podcasting is the preparation and distribution of
audio files using RSS to the computers of subscribed users. These files may then
be uploaded to digital music or multimedia players like the iPod. A podcast can be
easily created from a digital audio file. The podcaster first saves the file as an MP3
and then uploads it to the Web site of a service provider. The MP3 file gets its own
URL, which is inserted into an RSS XML document as an enclosure within an XML
tag.

Once a podcast has been created, it can be registered with content aggregators,
such as podcasting.net or ipodder.org, for inclusion in podcast directories. People
can browse through the categories or subscribe to specific podcast RSS feeds
which will download to their audio players automatically when they next connect.
Although podcasts are generally audio files created for digital music players, the
same technology can be used to prepare and transmit images, text, and video to
any capable device.

34


Content producers are increasingly turning to podcasting as an inexpensive and
user-friendly new distribution channel that has the potential to reach a large
audience. Not surprisingly, musicians and bloggers are prevalent among the early
adopters, but mainstream media organizations, including ZDNet and National
Public Radio (NPR), are beginning to venture into podcasting as well.

In brief, there are many opportunities for using podcasts in your teaching. At its
simplest you can just play a podcast to your class on a relevant topic. Or you can
create your own podcast. Even more fun is to get your students creating their own
content and sharing it with others.

To get to know how to create a podcast, please follow the bibliographic reference
given at the end of this chapter or simply look for podcast creators over the
internet.


Lesson 5: Presentation sharing

Most of teachers are familiar with PowerPoint presentations which are
“presentations” created using Microsoft PowerPoint software. In a general
perspective a presentation is a collection of individual slides that contain
information on a topic. PowerPoint presentations are commonly used in business
meetings and for training and educational purposes.

When looking at training and educational purposes statistics tell that thousands of
teaching presentations are designed daily. So in order to take advantage of all
those particular presentations it appears software that allow sharing them; since
they represent an invaluable resource for teachers and for students.

35


Currently, a great range of software applications exist which allows sharing
presentations. According to Hughes (2009) some of them are purely for sharing
presentations you have already created, using, for example, Windows PowerPoint
or Mac Keynote. These include SlideShare and SlideBurner. Others such as
mPOWER allow you to create a new presentation from scratch as well as sharing
your presentation with users worldwide or publishing it to the web.

In virtual environment, presentation sharing becomes a crucial possibility to keep
and give out information.


36


UNIT 2
MATERIALS DESIGN FOR VIRTUAL TEACHING
ENVIRONMENTS

The second unit deals with some of the commonest materials to be used in virtual
environment. First, there will be shortly defined and then some instruction about
the way they can be created are given. This unit consists of three chapters as
follows: Chapter 1: Guidelines for designing teaching material, chapter 2: Getting
into the e-learning material design Part 2 and chapter 3: Creating digital learning
objects

As said before, these three chapters are intended to give the readers the possibility
to have good theoretical foundation about designing or developing teaching
material for virtual environment.

Bear in mind, each one of these chapters will be divided in five lessons which will
contain some short summaries of the topics.

CHAPTER 1: Guidelines for designing teaching material

Lesson 1: Why English Language teachers may choose to design their own
material

Despite the diversity of materials to support teaching processes plus the facilities to
have them commercially, most teachers prefer to design or adapt their own
elements. However, there are some advantages and disadvantages when
designing these materials.

Advantages

An important advantage in this area is contextualization (Block, 1991). As
commercial materials on the market, especially those produced for a global EFL
market, are not designed taking into account the particular needs of specific groups
37


in certain cultures, modern course-books are full of functions and dialogues based
on situations that most foreign language students will never understand. This
Anglo-centric phenomenon is the reason why many teachers design or adapt their
own materials, as this allows them to take into account their particular needs and
the learning environment.

An important aspect of context is the availability of resources. While in some
places there are an infinite variety of elements such as coursebooks,
supplementary texts, computers, audio-visual equipment, etc, in others, the
availability is limited. This lack of commercial materials forces teachers to rely on
their resources and designing their own teaching materials can enable them to
make best use of the available items. Another important factor is the cost of
commercial resources, which makes teacher-produced materials a good choice in
terms of both school and student budget.

Another advantage is that of individual needs. New methodologies emphasize the
importance of identifying and teaching based on the individual needs of learners.
Classrooms are places with heterogeneity in terms of context and culture, so
teacher-designed materials are an appropriate response to the thematic focus
according to cultural issues, needs, experience and the possibility of building
based on their native language, despite research suggesting that bilingual
approaches are most successful in developing second language competence
(Thomas & Collier, 1997).

So, teacher-prepared materials permit not only incorporating elements of the
learners’ first language and culture, but also provide the opportunity to select texts
and activities at exactly the right level for particular learners, to ensure appropriate
challenge and levels of success, choosing from the range of possibilities, including
topics, situations, notions, functions, skills, etc.

Another advantage of teacher-designed materials is Personalization, which gives
to ‘home-made’ materials a personal touch to teaching, taking account of the

38


learning styles of students to increase motivation and engagement in learning
(Block, 1991).

A further advantage of teacher-designed materials is timeliness (Block, 1991). It
permits teachers to be up-to-date with local and international events when
designing their own materials.

Disadvantages

The first disadvantage is related to organization. Course-books are organized
following identifiable principles and discernible patterns, which can be dull and
boring (or “unrelenting”), providing a “coherent body of work to remember and
revise from” (Harmer, 2001, p. 7). On the other hand, teacher-designed materials
may lack overall coherence and a clear progression with poorly focused activities
being frustrating and confusing for learners.

Quality is one of the most common criticisms leveled against teacher-made
materials. This factor could make these materials seem to be unprofessional,
especially those containing errors and poorly constructed or with important
elements inadequately covered. Another important problem will be the lack of clear
instructions about how to make effective use of the materials – particularly
instructions designed for students.

The key factor inhibiting many teachers from producing their own teaching
materials is time. However passionately one may believe in the advantages of
teacher-designed materials, the reality is that for many teachers, it is simply not
viable – at least not all the time.

Lesson 2: Factors to consider when designing materials

The first and most important factor to be considered is the learners. Teachers must
know their learners well if they want to focus teacher-created in relevance, interest,
39


motivation and specific individual learning needs and English language skills in
listening, speaking, reading, writing, vocabulary knowledge and grammar. It is also
important to know about students’ experiences in life and education.

The curriculum and the context are variables that will significantly impact on
decisions about teaching materials. Although the curriculum is based on standards
established by schools or the state to define the content and skills to be taught, the
teacher must ensure the compliment with the objectives in designing materials
(Nunan, 1988).

Teachers must know about the availability of resources and facilities in terms of
materials design and production. Access to resources such as computers, a video
player and TV, radio, CD player, photocopier, language Lab., digital camera,
whiteboard, etc will impact on decisions in materials design.

Personal confidence and competence are important factors on materials
development. The truth is, most teachers undertake materials design to modify,
adapt or supplement a course-book, rather than starting from scratch, and this is
probably the most realistic option for most teachers. Decisions available to
teachers include the following (adapted from Harmer, 2001 and Lamie, 1999):

1. Add activities to those already suggested.
2. Leave out activities that do not meet your learners’ needs.
3. Replace or adapt activities or materials with:
4. Supplementary materials from other commercial texts
5. Authentic materials (newspapers, radio reports, films etc)
6. Change the organizational structure of the activities, for example, pairs,
small groups or whole class.

Modern technology provides teachers a variety of tools and options that enable
professional results in materials production.

40


A very important factor to consider in designing materials is copyright compliance,
due to the restrictions that copyright laws place on the copying of authentic
materials, published materials and materials downloaded from the Internet for use
in the classroom plus the implications when creating materials that include
excerpts from published works. While an idea cannot be copyright, the expression
of the idea can be and teachers need to be mindful of this.

Although Time was mentioned as a disadvantage in design materials, It is to
consider ways to make this aspect manageable. Block (1991) suggests some
strategies including sharing materials with other teachers and team work for
designing materials.

Lesson 3: Guidelines for designing effective teaching materials 1 – 5

Teacher designed materials may be developed according to some factors and
variables that are offered as guidelines to provide coherent design and materials
which enhance the learning experience.

Guideline 1: English language teaching materials should be contextualized

Materials should be contextualized according to the following criteria:

The curriculum they are intended to address (Nunan, 1988, pp. 1–2). It is essential
during the design stages that the objectives of the curriculum, syllabus or scheme
within the designer’s institution are kept to the fore.

The experiences, realities and first languages of the learners: It is important to
involve the “socio-cultural appropriacy” (Jolly & Bolitho, 1998, p. 111) of things
such as the designer’s own style of presenting material, of arranging groups, for
adjusting the intended balance of what teachers may regard as more enjoyable
activities and those of a more serious nature, linking to what the learners already
know, to their first languages and cultures.
41


Topics and themes that provide meaningful, purposeful uses for the target
language, which ensure personal engagement, providing motivation for dipping
further into the materials: According to the age and stage the topics may well be
traditional, such as money, family and holidays, but always trying “to find new
angles on those topics” (Bell & Gower, 1998, p. 123) to develop activities which will
ensure purposeful production of the target language or skills.

Guideline 2: Materials should stimulate interaction and be generative in terms of
language

Hall (1995) states that “most people who learn to communicate fluently in a
language which is not their L1 do so by spending a lot of time in situations where
they have to use the language for some real communicative purpose” (p. 9).
Materials should teach languages providing situations where students interact
regularly in actual and real communication contexts, taking into account three
stimulating conditions: the need to "have something to communicate", "someone to
communicate with" and, Perhaps most Importantly, "some interest in the outcome
of the communication".

It is ideal to have in mind an interactive teaching approach in order to enhance the
language learning process through communication challenges. This interaction
must be an important tool in effective learning, involving students in explorations of
new linguistic terrain. Material designers need to ensure their materials give
learners the opportunity to build on from what is provided to generate new
language, which ultimately will be reflected in positive outcomes such as fluency
and confidence.

Guideline 3: English language teaching materials should encourage learners to
develop learning skills and strategies

Due to the short time students are in a classroom, it is impossible for teachers to
teach them all the language they need to learn. Besides exploring new language

42


skills, students need to know about how the learning process works. Hall (1995)
stresses the importance of providing learners with the confidence to become
problem solvers when they have initial difficulties. To this end, the use of
kinesthetic activities can be fine-tuned with well designed materials. These
materials can also provide valuable opportunities for self-evaluation by giving the
necessary meta-language and incorporating activities which encourage learners to
assess their own learning and language development.

Guideline 4: English language teaching materials should allow for a focus on form
as well as function

The aim of Guideline 3 is to develop active, independent language learners. To
help meet this goal, materials also need to encourage learners to take an analytical
approach to the language in front of and around them, and to form and test their
own hypotheses about how language works (Nunan, 1988). Well-designed
materials can help considerably with this by alerting learners to underlying forms
and by providing opportunities for regulated practice in addition to independent and
creative expression.

Guideline 5: English language teaching materials should offer opportunities for
integrated language use

Some materials focus on some particular skills instead of integrating them all. Bell
& Gower (1998) “At the very least we listen and speak together, and read and write
together” (p. 125). It means that materials should give learners opportunities to
integrate all the language skills in an authentic manner and to become competent
at integrating extra-linguistic factors also.

Lesson 4: Guidelines for designing effective teaching materials 6-10

Guideline 6: English language teaching materials should be authentic

43


There has been much discussion on whether or not to use authentic materials in
language teaching, due to the need to expose students to real and natural
approaches, without any script or idiomatic adaptation. As Nunan points out; “texts
written specifically for the classroom generally distort the language in some way”
(1988, p. 6). Materials designers should also aim for authentic spoken and visual
texts where learners may hear, see and read the way native speakers
communicate with each other naturally.

Undoubtedly, more important than the provision of authentic texts, is authenticity in
terms of the tasks which students are required to perform with them. It means real-
world tasks that will reflect the language and behaviors required of them in the
world outside the classroom.

Guideline 7: English language teaching materials should link to each other to
develop a progression of skills, understandings and language items

There is a very real danger with self-designed and adapted materials that the result
can be a hotchpotch of unconnected activities. Clearly stated objectives at the
outset of the design process will help ensure that the resultant materials have
coherence, and that they clearly progress specific learning goals while also giving
opportunities for repetition and reinforcement of earlier learning.

Guideline 8: English language teaching materials should be attractive

Designers should think about the fact of creating materials referring to the ‘look’
and the ‘feel’ of the product (see, for example, Harmer, 1998; Nunan, 1991). Some
of these criteria are discussed below.

Physical appearance: Language-teaching materials should be good to look at!
Factors to consider include the density of the text on the page, the type size, and
the cohesiveness and consistency of the layout.

44


User-friendliness: Materials should also be attractive in terms of their ‘usability’.
Some simple examples: if the activity is a gap-fill exercise, is there enough space
for learners to hand-write their responses? If an oral response is required during a
tape or video exercise, is the silence long enough to allow for both thinking and
responding?

Durability: If materials need to be used more than once, or if they are to be used by
many different students, consideration needs to be given to how they can be made
robust enough to last the required distance.

Ability to be reproduced: Language teaching institutions are not renowned for
giving their staff unlimited access to color copying facilities, yet many do-it-yourself
materials designers continue to produce eye-catching multi-colored originals, and
suffer frustration and disappointment when what emerges from the photocopier is a
class-set of grey blurs.

Guideline 9: English language teaching materials should have appropriate
instructions

This means that instructions should be clear for other teachers who may use the
materials, as it does for the intended learners, but, often, excellent materials fail in
their “pedagogical realization” (Jolly & Bolitho, 1998, p. 93) because of a lack of
clarity in their instructions. The use of the correct metalanguage can assist with
making instructions more concise and efficient.

Guideline 10: English language teaching materials should be flexible

Designers should construct materials that allow teachers and students to make
choices—at least some of the time, offering flexibility in terms of content by
providing “a range of possible inputs . . . [that] are not themselves organized into
lesson units” (cited in Maley, 1998, p. 284), and that teachers or, indeed, students,
could then choose which of these to use and which “procedure” (e.g.
comprehension exercise, grammar awareness exercise, role play, etc) to apply to

45


them. This flexibility could also be possible in approach, level, methodology,
logistics, technology, teaching style, evaluation procedures and expected
outcomes (Maley, 2003).

Lesson 5: Teacher reflections on 'Chalk dust and screens to touch' (North
Haven Schools)

Teachers in North Haven Primary School show great interest in the project
established for the Government of South Australia and its Department of Education
and Child Development, the New Media Awards Program. “This is a film making
program for students from reception through to year 10. Film making allows
students to demonstrate learning and gives them a voice to share their point of
view while increasing levels of involvement, exploration, curiosity and creativity”.

For students in Haven School, participation in the project has developed an interest
in research, communication, cooperative work and mentoring using media. This
type of activity has encouraged student interaction, not only inside the classroom
but outside the school, allowing closer ties and relationships with others.

Furthermore, the project integrates education with experiential factors that allow
students to work together with other members of the school community, as with the
continued support of parents, grandparents and family. Through the creation of
models that will be presented to participate in the project, students and their
families are involved and participate actively in the history of the country or world.
This allows students, in addition to learning about historical events, have the
opportunity to share quality time with their families while doing the activities.

An important factor to consider is that students can experience what those
participants of history did, reflecting on the aspects that have changed since then.

46


To see the video about “Teacher reflections on 'Chalk dust and screens to touch”
Click on the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc3pcW_cEzM

In order to have a better understanding of the chapter, click the following link:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B-WxmcRUxcmdNkJzOENqYW1fekk

CHAPTER 2: Getting into the e-learning material design part 2

This chapter is a continuation of the chapter number one. So it is necessary to
remind that technology offers currently some of the most appropriate tools to plan
prepare and design teaching materials. Computers can help teacher to develop,
slide shows, posters, videos, transcripts, and so on, in a fast and quite appealing
presentation. In addition, the use of the internet and the concept of the Information
and communications technology have given teaching materials new possibilities.
Through internet now is easy to find authentic materials, to look for material that
can be easy adapted to our teaching needs and even more you can design or join
sites or applications that can get you interacting with people all around the
world.(Sharing videos, talking chats, participating in forums, sharing photos,
belonging to learning communities among other possibilities).

The influence of technology is so decisive these days that talking about creating
electronic learning material, (e-learning materials) has to be a common
characteristics of teachers, nowadays.

So, in other to review this new possibility, (designing e-learning material) this
chapter will deal with the following lessons: 1: Social bookmarking, 2: Digital
conversations/ Group audio blog/ Voice-thread, 3: Image sharing 4: Networked
Space and 5: Communities of sharing

47


Lesson 1: Social bookmarking

Hughes (2009) defines Social bookmarking is a service which enables users to
store, add, edit, search, organize and share bookmarks of web pages for quick
access. Bookmarks are usually public but they can be saved privately and be
shared inside certain networks to specific people or groups. Bookmarking tools
allows holding a great amount of bookmarks on line. Once users decide to keep
them, they are asked to use keywords or terms called tags that describe the
content of the bookmarks. You can find bookmarks via search engine. Lists of
bookmarks will appear on your screen. When you open a bookmark, you will view
a list of tags named bundles which are organized alphabetically or by the
frequency that they occur. There will be also space for social tagging or
folksonomy where users can write comments or vote in favor of or against.

A widespread free online bookmark application that can be loaded on to your
computer is del.icio.us. It is the easiest bookmaker manager to use and you do not
have to pay for it. Others include Simpy and Ma.gnolia. All of them allow you import
and export bookmarks. Another useful bookmark research tool is Diigo which lets
you make annotations via highlighting and attach floating sticky notes. Fave is the
most popular social interaction networking bookmark software. It is used to
encourage friends to rate the bookmarks around a topic with a thumbs up or down.
It also lets you see what sites have been most visited.

Bookmarking can be an excellent resource in the classroom. Teachers and
students can work on a particular topic, share and recommend sites they have
found useful. Jenny Hughes states that they can also be a good evidence of
students’ research if they are asked to comment or rate on other people’s
contribution.

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Even though bookmarking has spaces for social tagging, it is important to make
clear that it is not an appropriate way to build up dialogue. Besides, bookmarking
can cause unreliable and inconsistent results and make searching less efficient
due to the heterogeneity of synonyms, homonyms, users and contexts.


Lesson 2: Digital conversations/ Group audio blog/ Voice-thread

Today, the role of dialogue in digital age plays an important role in Education. The
idea is to use technology to make relevant, motivating and meaningful activities
that supports inclusive and personalized learning. Ravenscroft (2007) states
“Effective learning dialogues need to take account of emotional, social and
cognitive dimensions. Students may need to overcome emotional barriers in order
to meaningfully participate in critical dialogues”

Generic dialogue given in the chats, facebook, twiter, My space and mobile text
messaging is usually lack of this kind of critical dialogues. Even though, they can
be useful to share information effectively. So teachers must look for effective
activities to make critical thinking and collaborative work possible. An excellent
digital conversation tool suggested by Ravenscroft is INTERLOC. It is an academic
interface where students can discuss about a topic by using lists of prompts to
inform, question, challenge, reason, agree and maintain a dialogue. This
extraordinary dialogue software can stimulate reasoning, collaborative thinking and
argumentative practices. It is not free, though.

On the other hand, Hughes (2009) suggests a free conversational tool called Voice
thread. She defines it as a free online album that can hold essentially images,
documents and videos on the board and allow people to make comments in 5
different ways - using voice (with a microphone or telephone), text, audio file or
49


video (with a webcam) - and share them with anyone from anywhere in the world
they wish. An initial comment must be used to start to debate. It must be short as
the following scripting comments. Images or videos used must be relevant and
related to the topic. Students can use avatars or their own pictures in their profiles.

Before using this kind of dialogue or conversation software, teachers must follow
some important tips. First, clarify students what the objective of the activity is and
how it will be developed. Secondly, take into account students’ ideas, needs,
interests and abilities to design the activity to be done through voicethread. Thirdly,
monitor student’s participation so that everyone can participate and receive a
response. Finally but not least important, teach students strategies to initiate a
conversation, understand what other people say, keep it going, use language to
inform agree, disagree, and argument their ideas appropriately with respect and
tolerance.


Lesson 3: Image sharing

Image sharing refers to those websites where photos, presentations and videos
that can be stored, published and managed by users. In the 90s, the first server
Photo finishing appeared to provide online organization tools of photos. In the
2000s, a wide range of cameras with different sizes, prices and capabilities
increased the amount of pictures to be kept into computers or mail servers.

Because space was not enough and it was too slow to load or see pictures from
mails, new photo sharing sites appeared like Flickr, thumbnails, webshots,
slideshows, Picasa, Photobucket and BubbleShare emerged. According to Hughes
(2009), these sites offer users browse photos into categories, add comments or
tags, find them through search engine, put them into predesigned templates, share
50


them in multiple views and transfer them to or from portable devices like camera
phones. Storage can be flagged private or public. Users can make up group pools
and decide which photographs they want to share. The biggest storage photo
sharing software with the most popular key words is flickr. It also has a “guest
pass” system that allows private photos to be shared with non-members. Flickr
offers a fairly comprehensive web-service API that allows programmers to create
applications that can perform almost any function a user on the flickr site can do.

Hughes (2009) recommends teachers to use photo sharing for designing their
worksheets and teaching material. Students can also prepare classroom displays
around a topic; recreate text-based homework with creative images. It can be used
in projects to display photographs students have taken of work progress and
achievements. However, Jenny Hughes highlights the importance of taking into
account copyright laws and making sure that students understand these rules too.
Teachers also must bear in mind photos of children in the public domain need
parental permission.


Lesson 4: Video sharing web sites: YOUTUBE

As expressed by Hughes (2009),video sharing websites are social networking sites
that allow you to upload and store video clips and share them with others and, in
some cases, download them. YouTube is far and away the most used of these
sites and the first commercial one.

Before launching YouTube in 2005, there were ways of putting video on line but
these were complicated and beyond the capacity of people with limited it skills.
YouTube, with its easy to use interface, made it possible for anyone who could use
a computer to post a video that millions of people could watch within a few
minutes. The wide range of topics covered by YouTube has turned video sharing
into one of the most important parts of the web 2.0 culture.

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