Re-defining access to English Language Learning: …michaelcarrier.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/BETT...•increase student motivation through the use of familiar technology •increase

Re-defining access to English Language

Learning: Handheld & Mobile Learning

Michael Carrier

British Council

BETT Show

January 30, 2013

English as a global tool - Aspirations & Challenges

Aspirations:

Challenges for English:

• High demand

• Shortage of teachers

• Low level of teachers’

English competence

• Short time in class

• Large class sizes

• Outdated school leaving

examinations

• New generational learning

styles

• Access to Education

• Access to Employability

• Access to Social mobility

Learning & change

• We live in a fast-changing

world

• Our learners’ needs and

aspirations are changing

• Our learners’ motivations

are changing

• A generational shift in

expectations about

learning & technology -

when how and where to

learn

"cellphones are the

gateways to all of

human knowledge"

Ray Kurzweil

"Whenever I go into

class, I have to

power down."

Education 3.0 - 21st century skills

Key 21st century Skills:

• Ways of thinking

Creativity & innovation

Critical thinking, problem solving, decision making

Learning to learn – curiosity

• Ways of working

Communication

Collaboration

• Tools for working

Information literacy

ICT literacy

• Living in the world

Citizenship – local and global

Lifelong learning

Cultural awareness and competence

“We need a new paradigm of 21st century learning”

A new vision of learning …… as an activity not a place, open to new people with new ideas, of learners “pulling” learning toward themselves rather than teachers “pushing” learning out”

Michael Stevenson

Teachnology-Supported learning (TSL) – what is it?

1 New Goals

• Digital literacy, global citizenship, interculturality

2 New Pedagogical models

• For learning in a digital age

3 New Activities

• Inside and outside of class

• Formal and informal learning

• Ubiquitous learning

• Consume content vs Produce content

• Individual vs collaborative work

4 New Content

5 New Tools, new media

Generation Y Learning Styles:

Doing is more important than

knowing

A need for immediacy

Trial and error approach to

problem-solving

Low boredom threshold

Multitasking and parallel

processing

Visual, nonlinear and virtual

learning

Collaborative learning

Constructivist approach

Ashridge Business School

TSL - New models, new tools

Classroom

External world

Personal world

Techno-logy

options

English speaking

world

Portable IWBs Personal Response Systems

Voting &

assessment

devices (and now

phone apps) with

real-time quiz

scores via mobile

The Now Board:

convert any laptop + projector +

white wall into an IWB

Digital Textbooks

The Flipped Classroom Classroom Models

8

Lesson 1a

In-class Handheld activities

Lesson 1b

External Handheld tasks

Lesson 2

Handheld learning

What is Handheld

Learning?

•Using tablets/mobile phones in

class to study language

activities – exercises, reading,

listening etc

•Using student laptops/

handhelds in class for group

activity

•Using tablets/mobile phones

outside class for student self-

access language practice

•Using mobile phones ‘in the

wild’ - to collect data for lesson

input, record interviews etc

Why use Handheld learning?

• HHL benefits:

• Additive

• Time on task

• Ubiquity

• Motivation

• Relevance

• Authenticity

• Credibility

Research – Cooney & Keogh

Use of mobile phones for language

learning

•promote oracy

•increase student motivation

through the use of familiar

technology

•increase student use of the 4 skills

- reading, writing, speaking,

listening

•investigate the use of ICT in

assessment

Cooney & Keogh

Findings:

• 67% of teachers said students made

progress

• 95% said they enjoyed using the

technology

• students regarded the integrated

technologies as a positive move from

more traditional methods

• proved to break down barriers to

students learning and speaking

• students abilities to learn

autonomously were enhanced

• teachers commented positively on

the shift from teacher-led to student-

led learning

• teachers noticed increased

motivation and student interest

Research - Reinders

• ''phones are social tools that

facilitate authentic and relevant

communication and collaboration

among learners''

• “an ideal tool to support linked to

'situated learning theory' (Lave &

Wenger, 1991) which states that

learning is more likely to take place

when information is contextually

relevant and can be put to

immediate use'‘

Reinders (2010)

• “more exposure to the target

language, and more practice, or

time on task, explains most of the

variations in students’ success”

• “...they give students control over

their own learning. Students control

the medium - and teachers, by

elaborating how best to use the

medium, provide a blueprint for

autonomous learning”

Twenty ideas for using mobile phones in the language classroom:

Some activities…

SMS phones

• Text each other to build a story

Feature phones

• Take photos out of class - bring to class for discussion or project (eg writing up descriptions for a city tourist guide)

• Record conversations in class (eg in pairs)

• Use mobile flashcards for vocabulary

• Use dictionaries on phones

SmartPhones/Tablets

• Use practice apps – grammar & vocab exercises

• Watch video podcasts

• Listen to audio podcasts & check comprehension

• Create stories with photos and recordings (eg Scavenger Hunt)

• Use authentic input from Internet

• Phone casting

• Phone blogging

Your own Activity taxonomy

task individual group

Consuming:

Grammar study

√

Self-access quiz √

Reading √

Listening √

Vocabulary √ √

Producing:

recording/interviewing

√

storytelling/writing √ √

phonecasting √

phoneblogging √

upload & share projects √

Mobile or Handheld?

Mobile Handheld

Phone SIM yes no

Use in class less likely - often

banned

yes – can be

managed

Use out of class yes yes

Group work for out of class

tasks, recording,

data collection

plus: rich media,

web research

Individual study

activities

yes – but limited yes

Courseware less likely yes

“The students were clearly

interested, motivated and

engaged by the computer

based materials, far more so

than is likely to be the case for

traditional approaches to

teaching. “

1:1 learning – English with Intel Classmates

Classroom management

Intel + English

Intel + English

1:1 learning - OLPC classroom devices

• Uruguay

• Paraguay

• Peru

• Madagascar

• India

“What children lack is not capability,

it is opportunity and resources.

In the first years of OLPC we have

seen two million previously

marginalized children learn, achieve

and begin to transform their

communities.”

“OLPC's mission is to empower the world's poorest children

through education” Nicholas Negroponte, MIT

• Nepal

• Gaza & Ramallah

• Kenya

• Afghanistan

• Rwanda

Plan Ceibal – remote teaching, local support

Remote teacher

using video-

phone

Students with

Classroom

laptops

Local class

teacher

managing activity

Local classroom:

•TV screen

showing remote

teacher

•Lesson materials

shown via Webex

2-way video

& audio

Joint

lesson

planning

24

Plan Ceibal

Plan Ceibal

Low resource Technology

• LifePlayer solar-powered MP3/radio

• Project Badaliko: “Digi hubs” – PC learning centres in 90 locations in 6

countries

PACER – Handheld Learning Methodology model

We need a technology-enhanced

pedagogical model:

• Pre-teaching

• Authentic input via Handheld

• Classroom communicative practice

• External practice via Handheld

• Reinforce in classroom

Lesson 1a

In-class Handheld activities

Lesson 1b

External Handheld tasks

Lesson 2

British Council’s mobile programme goals

• Provide wider access to high

quality English learning

opportunities

• Provide authentic English

language input

• Build 21st century skills

• Extend the walls of the

classroom

• Provide English support for

teachers as well as learners

• Provide teacher training

• Provide universal access to

English learning

Scope & impact

SMS project locations:

•Current: Kazakhstan, Indonesia, China, Malawi, Sudan, Columbia,

Thailand

•Planned: Cyprus, Turkey, Sub-Saharan Africa, SE Asia

•Scale: 1.5 million subscribers in 2013

2nd generation (Java) phone projects:

•Planned: all Sub-Saharan Africa, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, China

•Scale: estimated 10m learners

Smartphone projects:

•Current: global access via iPhone, Android, Windows Phone 8

•Scale: global availability - estimated 5 million learners by 2014

Sudan - English by SMS

• Eman Mohammed a Customer Services Manager from Omdurman, has subscribed for 2 months to the elementary level. She subscribed to revise and improve her English knowledge.

• She likes the fact that you learn on the move and in snippets – it’s not like attending a lesson or sitting down with a grammar book for an hour.

India – Jobseekers

Aakash

Tablet - $35

Nokia Life - Learn English

Nokia Life

(SMS)

Nokia Life+

WebApp

Learning on the move LearnEnglish Grammar

• Wide variety of interactive grammar practice

• Graded language practice

• Follows core inventory of language syllabus

• In app content for purchase

• Multiple language support

• Available for iOS, Android and Blackberry

phones.

• #1 educational app in Hong Kong, Thailand

Learning on the move Wordshake Make as many words

as you can against the

clock in two minutes

Word Challenge Johnny Grammar’s Quizmaster

Learning on the move MyWordBook 2

• Interactive vocabulary learning tool

• Create flashcards for the words your learning

• In app content from Cambridge University Press for

purchase creates an interactive dictionary

• Adaptive learning moves words from practice area

into review area

• Available for iOS, Blackberry and Android

• Also out as a web app on Mozilla Firefox soon

Learning on the move LearnEnglish Big City Elementary

Each show, with the

dynamic duo of Tess and

Ravi, is 20 minutes long

and comes with questions

aimed at elementary

learners of English, which

you can try and answer

while listening to the

podcast.

Learning on the move LearnEnglish Audio & Video

Learning on the move LearnEnglish Sports World

LearnEnglish for Taxi Drivers

Learning on the move

• A set of interactive stories designed to

help children who are learning to read

and speak English.

• Based on the UK phonics programme,

Letter and Sounds,

• App contains one free book with 7

more books available for download at

US$1.99 each.

LearnEnglish Kids: Phonics Stories

41

Policy - The learner at the centre of cloud-based learning

Face-to-face

classroom

State

schools

eTutors

Phone-Tablet-PC (device agnostic)

LMS-based

Practice

MyPortfolio (User generated content

& Social Media

community)

Digital &

blended Course

Language

schools

VOIP FaceTime

The Learner

Content-integrated

radio/TV

broadcasts

Learning Technologies for the

Classroom

e-Moderator course

Policy - Digital teacher development

42

Digital Teacher Competences:

• Technology awareness & curiosity

• Operational skills

• Lesson planning:

how to integrate digital content

• Classroom management:

how to coordinate formal & informal

activities

• Classroom management online:

how to manage a virtual classroom

• Digital tools & media awareness:

how to create new content with

students

• Legal & IP awareness

Policy – investment in digital learning

Investment focus Budget

Technology infrastructure:

• Bandwidth

• Equipment – 1:1 devices & BYOD systems

33%

Teacher development:

• pre-service

• in-service

33%

Curriculum update:

• pedagogical models, language syllabus,

new assessment systems

Digital content:

• textbooks, authentic input, activities, apps

33%

Policy - Technology partnerships for education

• British Council sites:

• www.TeachingEnglish.org.uk

• www.LearnEnglish.org.uk/en/mobile-learning

• www.LearnEnglishKids.org.uk

• www.LearnEnglishTeens.org.uk

• Englishagenda.britishcouncil.org.uk

IF YOU WOULD LIKE THE PRESENTATION:

www.michaelcarrier.com