The document discusses a social community that was created for students at Madrid Young Learners to support their English learning outside of the classroom. Over 200 members joined the community, including students and teachers from other schools. The community allows students to create profiles, participate in discussion forums and groups, and engage with media uploads. The creators aim to expand participation to 50% of senior students by the end of the academic year and make the community self-sustaining through increased teacher and student engagement.

1. Madrid Young Learners

2. Context High re-enrolment rate Supplants English studied in school Enrolled whole academic year Study English 3 hours per week 4,500 students Ages range from 5 – 18 +

3. Learner support Learners supported traditionally through f2f counselling Tendency to view as ‘grammar clinics’ for ‘ailing’ students Counselling groups contain variety of needs. Difficult to support large numbers. Parents value, but problems

4. Research into learner profiles Students on support and levels of motivation – bespoke questionnaire Student ‘multiple intelligence’ profiling – Berman (2002) after Gardner (1983)

5. Multiple intelligence scores Sample sizes: Juniors (10 – 12 years) c. 135 responses Seniors (13 – 18 years) c. 300 responses

6. Multiple intelligences and EFL course books Palmberg (2000) “ Catering for multiple intelligences in EFL Course books” Found that in typical EFL coursebook: “ 97% of the 300 exercises catered for verbal linguistic learners, 76% for intrapersonal learners , 25% for interpersonal learners, 8% for mathematical logical learners, 5% for bodily-kinesthetic learners, 3% for naturalist learners, and 2% for musical-rhythmic learners.”

7. Social/educational software Shirky (2003) “Social Software and the Politics of Groups” Social software ‘supports group communications’. Anderson (2005) “ Distance learning – Social software’s killer ap?” “… a new genre of networked-based learning tools known as educational software…” “… where normal software links people to the inner workings of a computer or network, social software links people to the inner workings of each other’s thoughts, feelings and opinions.”

8. Which educational software?

9. 3 step set up  security Platform = (existing) extranet  individual logins

10. 3 step set up  security 2. Google Apps = personal email and document storage  3000 (free) educational licences with individual logins

11. 3 step set up  security Ning = private (closed) social community  personal (approved) invitations only Link

12. Features of the social community Students’ personal home page and profile Internal email (private) and comments (public) Community groups (public or private) – embedded media / links Discussion forums (public) Blogs (public / shared / private) comments optional Video (embedded / uploaded) comments / discussions * Photos (linked / uploaded) comments / discussions * * Cannot be submitted without approval

17. The story so far Approaching 200 members – including several from Poland Over 12,000 views 21 activity groups formed (20 by teachers, 1 by a student) Students responding to discussions, embedded media objects Some students taking care over profiles – revisiting and building Minimal inappropriate use – some content rejected (e.g. Spanish used, partisan political, alcohol reference – minimal and of little importance)

18. What next? Currently approaching 10% of (senior) student body registered – aim to reach around 50 % by end academic year. Workshops and user guide to encourage greater teacher uptake. Publicity and competition prizes to encourage greater student participation Anticipate greater participation from other centres Aim to reach ‘take off’ point to make community self-sustaining

19. References Anderson, T. (2005) Distance learning – social software’s killer ap. http://www.unisa.edu.au/odlaaconference/PPDF2s/13%20odlaa%20-%20Anderson.pdf Shirky, C. (2003) Social software and the politics of groups http://shirky.com/writings/group_politics.html Palmberg, R. (2000) Catering for multiple intelligences in EFL Course books http://www.hltmag.co.uk/jan02/sart6.htm More at: http://scholar.google.com/ > Search for ‘Educational software’