2024 Certificate of E-Learning Skills for Britanico Teachers PDF

2024 CERTIFICATE OF E-LEARNING SKILLS FOR BRITÁNICO TEACHERS Module 2 – Class 7 THE DIGITAL CLASSROOM The Cambridge English Digital Framework for Language Teachers The Cambridge English Digital Framework has been developed by experts in the field,...

2024 CERTIFICATE OF E-LEARNING SKILLS FOR BRITÁNICO TEACHERS Module 2 – Class 7 THE DIGITAL CLASSROOM The Cambridge English Digital Framework for Language Teachers The Cambridge English Digital Framework has been developed by experts in the field, in consultation with practising language teachers and trainers in order to provide a focused and principled guide to professional development. It has been already mentioned that as digital citizens living in a Digital World (first category of this framework), we need to be a good example for our students, that is, we have to be productive using technology in our daily activities, organised making effective use of technology and act responsibly, safely and legally, paying attention to netiquette, copyright and legal issues you might need to deal with when using digital resources. The second category of this framework focuses on the Digital Classroom. It is a well- known fact that digital tools and resources provide both opportunities and challenges for language learning. Thus, teachers, in the seek of taking a principled approach to selecting and integrating technology in their classrooms successfully, might want to evaluate theories, methodologies and digital tools before making such an important decision. Theories and Methodologies for Language Teaching and Learning The way we use technology for teaching and learning can have a significant impact on the way that learners work and learn. For this reason, in order to integrate technology in the classroom, it is of utmost importance to focus on the most common Learning Theories, our own beliefs regarding how the learning process occurs and revise the most popular Technology Integration Models. 1 Learning Theories Ever since there have been educators trying to teach students, there have been theories that guide how those educators view the learning process. These learning theories encompass our beliefs about the nature of knowledge and how a person learns. Each of these theories has been studied and written about at length, and it is impossible to devote sufficient time and attention to each theory in the limited space provided in this module. Rather, all educators should study competing learning theories and develop their own understanding of how people learn. Behavorism Behaviorism treats learning as a response to a stimulus. That is, humans and other animals are trained to respond in certain ways to certain stimuli, such as salivating when a dinner bell rings or repeating a memorized fact to receive some external reward. Teaching and learning, then, is a process of conditioning students to properly react to stimuli. Technology can help facilitate this training by providing incentives to learning, such as games or other rewards, or by providing systems to efficiently develop stimulus- response conditioning, such as drilling practices. Cognitivism Cognitivism arose as an alternative to behaviorism in part because behaviorism treated the processes of the brain as an imperceptible black box. Cognitivism, therefore, dealt with brain functions and how information is processed, stored, retrieved, and applied. By treating humans as thinking machines, rather than as animals to be trained, research in cognitivism for teaching and learning focused on helping people develop efficient teaching and studying strategies that would allow their brains to make meaningful use of presented information. Through this lens, technology can help in providing information and study resources that assist the brain in efficiently storing and retrieving information, such as through the use of mnemonic devices or multiple modalities (e.g., video, audio). 2 Constructivism However, both behaviorism and cognitivism tended to treat learning the same for all humans, despite their age, culture, or personal experiences. Recognizing that these factors might influence how learning occurs, constructivism arose as a means for understanding how individual and social factors might influence the process of learning for different groups of people and individuals. Constructivism holds that learning is constructed by learners on top of previous experience, attitudes, and beliefs. This means that for learning to occur, new learning experiences must take into consideration these human factors and assist the individual in assimilating new knowledge to their existing knowledge constructs. Technology can help the constructivist learning process by making abstract concepts and facts more grounded in personal experiences and the values of learners and also by allowing the learning experience to be differentiated for individual learners (e.g., through personalised tasks using digital media such as blogs, etc.). Constructionism From the constructionist viewpoint, the most effective way to teach in a constructivist manner is to have students construct artifacts in the outside world that support and reflect their internal construction of knowledge. Technology can support constructionist approaches to teaching and learning by empowering students and teachers to create and construct external models reflecting internal mind models with resources and possibilities not available in the real world. By using a simulation, for instance, students can construct any structure or machine without the need of expensive materials, or they might seek to understand economic principles of supply and demand by creating a simulated community that allows them to influence supply chains in ways that would not be possible in the real world. Connectivism In a world with Google Assistant, Siri, Alexa, and other digital information assistants, people have come to rely on technology to seek answers and find information. It’s no different for today’s students. Twenty years ago, students might go to an encyclopedia 3 for answers; now they can simply ask their smartphones or type the question into Google. All traditional views about learning had placed knowledge and learning squarely in the mind or body of the student, but modern technologies in particular lead us to consider whether all memory, information processing, and other aspects of learning traditionally ascribed to the mind might not also be distributed with external devices. Connectivism accepts that technology is a major part of the learning process and that our constant connectedness gives us opportunities to make choices about our learning. It also promotes group collaboration and discussion, allowing for different viewpoints and perspectives when it comes to decision-making, problem-solving, and making sense of information. Connectivism promotes learning that happens outside of an individual, such as through social media, online networks, blogs, or information databases. Technology Integration Models These are theoretical models that are designed to help teachers, researchers, and others in the education field to think about technology integration in meaningful ways. There are many, many technology integration models that are used by different groups. Some models are very popular while some are only used by very small groups of people, and some are very similar to one another, while others are very unique. In the previous module, the SAMR models has already been explained; for this reason, we will focus on two new models which could be the most beneficial to integrate technology into our Britanico lessons. 4 TPACK Model The goal of TPACK is to provide educators with a framework that is useful for understanding technology's role in the educational process. At its heart, TPACK holds that educators deal with three types of core knowledge on a daily basis: technological knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and content knowledge. Content knowledge is knowledge of one's content area such as grammar, vocabulary, physics, etc. It answers the question: what are you teaching and what is your own knowledge of the subject? Pedagogical knowledge is knowing the strategies and techniques to deliver what you know in order to make other people learn. It answers the following question: how do your students learn best and what instructional strategies do you need to meet their needs and the requirements of the lesson plan? Technological knowledge is knowledge of how to use technology tools. You may have to answer these questions: what digital tools are available to you, which do you know well enough to use, and which would be most appropriate for the lesson at hand? The TPACK framework outlines how content (what is being taught) and pedagogy (how the teacher imparts that content) must form the foundation for any kind of effective technology integration. This order is important because the technology being implemented must communicate the content and support the pedagogy in order to enhance students’ learning experience TPACK goes on to explain that when we try to integrate technology into a classroom setting, we are not merely using technological knowledge, but rather, we are merging technological knowledge with pedagogical content knowledge to produce something new. TPACK or technological pedagogical content knowledge is the domain of knowledge wherein technology, pedagogy, and content meet to create a meaningful learning 5 experience. From this, educators need to recognise that merely using technology in a classroom is not sufficient to produce truly meaningful technology integration. Rather, teachers must understand how technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge interact with one another to produce a learning experience that is meaningful for students in specific situations. ASSURE Model The ASSURE model is an instructional system or guideline that teachers can use to develop lesson plans which integrate the use of technology and media. It places the focus on the learner and the overall outcome of accomplishing learning objectives. It has six steps, each represented by a letter in the acronym title, with each step describing a set of tasks aiming for the informed selection and use of educational technology. a. Analyse Learners: The first step in the ASSURE model is to Analyse Learners. In order to do this, you must examine the learner in detail. Once you have an understanding and reasonable grasp for the learners’ competence at the beginning of the instruction, the teacher can modify to assist the learner in their learning endeavors. The audience can be analysed in terms of their general characteristics (grade level, age, sex, mental, emotional, physical or social problems, socio-economic status etc.) with specific entry competencies (prior knowledge, skills, and attitudes about the topic), and learning styles (visual, musical, verbal, logical, etc.). b. State Objectives: Describe what the learner will do as a result of instruction. In other words, state clear learning outcomes, that is: what will the student learn from the lesson? In order to develop proper objectives, you must frame them in terms of desired behavior. What the learner will be able to accomplish after the class. The objectives you use should be as specific as possible so the learner 6  understands what they are to accomplish. If objectives are clearly and specifically stated, both the learning and teaching will become objective oriented. A well- stated objective starts by naming the Audience of learners for whom the objective is intended. It then specifies the Behavior or capability to be learned, the Conditions under which the capability would be observed and finally, the Degree of accuracy or proficiency that the learner must display so that their performance would be judged as acceptable (the ABCD of well-stated objectives). c. Select Methods, Media, & Materials: Once you know your audience and have a clear idea of what they should get out of the lesson, then it is time to select the appropriate method for the given learning task, select available materials, modify existing materials, or design new materials to help accomplish this task. When selecting media consider the following variables: setting, the nature of your class objectives, the presentational capabilities of each of the media formats, the capability of each format to give feedback to learners, your and your students’ technical expertise, etc. d. Utilize Methods, Media, & Materials: develop your plan for implementing your media and materials. For each type of media or materials, select and describe how you are going to implement the media (or material) into your lesson to help your learners meet the lesson’s objective. The media, materials and technology selected should be focused on carrying out the selected method. If you decide to use electronic equipment, be sure to use it before, even practice if you have to, to insure the equipment is functioning properly. In that same regard, it is also important to practise the lesson itself before introducing it to the learner. Next, prepare the room, the necessary equipment and facilities. It may be obvious, but both the learner and teacher should be prepared for the learning experience. e. Require Learner Participation: describe how you are going to get each learner actively and individually involved in the lesson. Students learn best when they are actively involved in the learning experience. Whatever your teaching strategy, be sure to incorporate questions and answers, discussions, group work, hands-on activities, and other ways of getting students actively involved in the learning of the content. You should seek to pay close attention to your learners and feel confident that they are truly grasping the content and not just listening. Participating in the learning will facilitate this level of understanding. Allow them 7  to construct knowledge as opposed to trying to “teach” them knowledge. Finally for this step, feedback must be provided to the learner before any type of evaluation is conducted. f. Evaluate Student Performance: Here the evaluation should be matched to the objective. Ultimately this last stage is the most important. You must evaluate the instruction process from start to finish using the objectives you created in the beginning. It is helpful to reflect on your objections, the instructional strategy, the instructional materials, and the assessment. By evaluating the learners against the objectives it can be determined if the lesson was effective and whether any step needs to be modify or re-examined. Learning Outcomes By the end of the session, participants will have: revisited common learning theories and learn how they might influence our perspective of technology's role in learning identified their own beliefs regarding technology integration in the classroom been introduced to two new Technology Integration Models: TPACK and ASSURE Challenge Technology Integration in education refers to the meaningful use of technology to achieve learning goals. This lesson seeks to answer the question: what is effective technology integration? Though on the surface this may seem like a simple question, it is actually quite difficult to answer, because any answer will be based upon our beliefs and values, how we view learning, and how we view technology's role in the learning process. To approach this question, participants might need to refer to some common learning theories and how they might influence our perspective of technology's role in learning, explore the beliefs and values that individuals and institutions might apply when evaluating technology use in the classroom, and provide an overview of some common technology integration models that are used to help teachers better understand the process and goals of technology integration. 8