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Autonomy and Online Learning
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Mon, 03/16/2009 - 13:11
Over the last 6 months I've been building up a bank of activities (80+) designed to help students learn autonomously online, using various websites and resources and to help them build good online study habits using various Web 2.0 tools.
I still find though that the visitors to the site predominantly teachers who then take the activities to use with students. Certainly nothing wrong with that as far as I'm concerned, but does this mean that my end goal of educating students to become autonomous online learners just isn't realistic without the support of the teacher.
Or maybe I've just got the activities wrong!!
Interested to hear what others have to say about this. You can see all my activities at: http://daily-english-activities.blogspot.com/
There's a site map with them all listed here:
http://daily-english-activities.blogspot.com/2008/08/sitemap.html
Best
Nik Peachey
Mon, 03/16/2009 - 16:46
#2
Dear Nik and Barbsaka, thanks for the thought provoking posts. Nik, you seem to be asking how to create sites that support autonomous learners- given that most visitors to your site are teachers, and Barbsaka says she is acting as a matchmaker- power to you both- Autonomous learning, I think, is a continuum, parents , teachers, friends help learners along that continuum where there is an ethos that promotes autonomy.
I have only recently dipped my toe into using the net as a tool to promote autonomous learning and my efforts pale by comparison yours. I have created lists of websites for my 900+ students (who have a huge range of abilities) and classified into levels of difficulty. and distributed these amongst the classes with requests for comment on which sites were enjoyed by the learners... it would be good if I were savvy enough to do this without resorting to paper:)
I would love it if the 'front doors' of web sights were underwhelming- and gave learners very simple choices (initially) between levels and activities ( I am envisioning flow charts- level/needs assesment). But more than this I would love to know how to build a website in the L1 of my students that could link to the sites that I have found and give screen shots of the pages with L1 support. If the learners themselves could participate in the process, by adding sites and guidence I think it would create quite a buzz.
the learning curve for me is going to be a steep one. Any hints as to where to turn would be good!
Tue, 03/24/2009 - 17:51
#3
Hi Thomas,
Miscellaneous notes below re your post ...
Rather than a paper version for distributing lists of sites, you could try using an excel sheet in google docs - and then your students would have hyperlinks and be able to add additional sites or comments. Also, using del.icio.us (have I got the dots in the right place?) would be a way to share links online - and with notes.
Even when we access websites in our L1 we don't necessarily find them easy to navigate and really experience is the only answer. Making a site with screenshots and comments and links in the sts L1 sounds like a lot of work - and websites change and the links break or the site gets a new look or just disappears ... So, I'd like to suggest you assign each student (or pair) a site to investigate and share with the class somehow with a demo, a ppt slide, a handout ...
Alternatively, make a game of it - the first person to find exercise x on whatever site.
Really, however, for life, English and (computer/logic) skills development - students clicking around a site and making their own notes and finding their own way may be best - but you could help them collect useful vocabulary related to web-searches...
Regards,
Heather
Mon, 03/16/2009 - 15:47
#4
I think we all work towards automony; therefore students would need a facilitator to link what they could do independently; whole class in the classroom and at home at the beginning through a class blog, or a short presentation, then they would be able to strategically use the online learning environment on their own. Pair work is another option for a supportive atmosphere in the classroom. Students are very good at using Web 2.0 tools, the could help each other. In time, they would be able to choose materials, set goals, carry out tasks and even come up with new ideas and tools.
Sirin
Mon, 03/16/2009 - 15:57
#5
I think one thing that helps autonomous learning is if it doesnt feel like doing schoolwork. I regularly assign online chat projects to students, and most of my students find interesting people to form relationships with (usually after sifting through the chaff of course) and a large percentage of these students continue their conversations with their new-found friends after the project is over.
One semester I had a "rash" of female students (Im in Mexico) who suddenly found "boyfriends" in Holland! Gotta admit I was a little nervous, wondering if I was going to get a visit from one of these girls' fathers!!!! (nope, never happened. Met one of these girls in a following semester who admitted to me it was a fun infatuation...something exotic)
Chat works well for Mexican students since the culture values socialization highly. But the Internet is a wide place with lots of things for lots of tastes. Just watching silly stuff on YouTube in English is useful as well, and everybody wants to laugh
Another things these kinds of activities do is show how knowing English (or any other foriegn language for that matter) opens up worlds that were closed to them previously. Its empowering. I think that for many students it helps to answer the question "Why should I care about learning English?" As long as the question is academic and theoretical, most will not try to make the connection to their own lives. We need to show them something they can gain now, even if they are not advanced students. For example, for really basic learners, we have used http://espanglishchat.com. Its supposed to be bilingual but there are a lot of English speakers learning Spanish in it , so many students dont try their English too hard. What they do get out of it is contact with native English speakers. Not only is it culturally enriching, but seeing English speakers struggle with Spanish lets them know that we are all in the same boat when it comes to language learning. Also many students dont realize how popular Spanish is as a second language and that gives them a little pride too.
The great thing about the Internet is that we can help students make that connection between the English that is spoken "out there" to their world. For some students role-playing games are totally engrossing and gets them doing at LOT of reading and vocab building. For others its sites about things that interest them like football/soccer (you should read the essays I get from students who connect with English soccer .. oops sorry. football fans!
Unfortunately, it is very hard for most human beings to take a real interest in the world outside their own little fishbowl. Anything we do to SHOW them that the outside world has something to offer them has got to help.
Sun, 03/22/2009 - 11:28
#6
I very much agree with what you say about encouraging students to break through the academic barrier and get them using their English in an authettic environment. Just spent the best part of an hour after reading your post on http://espanglishchat.com but still not sure I'd recommend it to students - a lot of chaff flying about.
I've found it unrealistic to expect that students will naturally take advantage of the range of online resources available to them. For example, I've been surprised at how few of the ones I'm in contact with at the British Council in Bilbao have wanted to join SecondLife.
What's worked best for me is to set up a class blog and post tasks on it and get students to work on them in class time (see for an example, http://sweet-pop-corn.blogspot.com/ ). While my students are working on one task, I can either help them out or talk to them individually about what they did on the previous one. For me, and I hope them, the time I spend doing that, is invaluable and perhaps, represents one small step towards learner autonomy in that they learn to say what they want to say and choose content that most interests them.
At the moment, two groups are producing collaborative videos on different aspects of Bilbao that they will be publishing on their blogs and it'd be great to get contact going with other students in other cities and countries: perhaps producing their own or at least commenting and blog posting on the same theme.
Anybody interested?
Cheers,
Ann
Wed, 03/25/2009 - 10:23
#7
Hi Ann,
Your sweetpopcorn is amazing! I would love to learn your students' approach to class blog. Do they enjoy? I would love to share a pageflake prepared by school teachers (at Terakki Vakfi Okullari) in Istanbul/ Turkey. Please have a look at here...
Sirin
Thu, 03/26/2009 - 14:21
#8
Hi Sirin,
Your Pageflakes look like a mine of information for students!
You ask me if my students enjoy their blog. They say they do and moan a lot when I haven't been able to book the computer room and we therefore have to do more conventional things in class. They clearly enjoy it more than ploughing through a text book. And, as I mentioned in my post, since when they are working on a task, I'm able to talk to them individually, they are able to progress more all round with their language skills. Also the dynamic in class improves with everyone helping each other and different skills coming into play. For example, a student who may not be the best academically in the class may perhaps have more IT skills and be able to help classmates with using Audacity, say, for editing their sound files or Windows Movie Maker for editing a video.
Cheers,
Ann
Mon, 03/16/2009 - 16:23
#9
Hi dear Nik!
The end goal of educating students to become autonomous online learners just isn't realistic without having access to the Internet, be it at school or at home. Here where I teach, in a small village, most of my students come from small hamlets- they belong to the lower class. I feel obliged to provide them with some interesting links, with the hope they can go to a cyber-café and get the real thing from the source; something that can encourage them to learn to search/learn independently. Yet, I always find myself providing them with some photocopiable material(from various websites)They have other things that engross their minds than get connected! Some even don't have money to pay for one hour in a cyber-café. I believe that the onus is on the ministry to supply schools with the necessary computing facilities;only then a teacher can interfere .
Cheerio
Tarik Boussetta- Global Issues Forum moderator
Mon, 03/16/2009 - 23:54
#10
Hello everyone!
I am a moderator on the Global Issues area, but I decided to pay you a quick visit here.
I have to admit that I am also one of those teachers who takes materials from many different websites - including Nik´s since I recently discovered it - to my students!
Access to the internet is also an issue here in Ecuador. I teach in Quito, the capital, so I have good internet access, and so do most of my students, but in rural areas this is not always the case. I think that online resources are great where they are accessible, andcan potentially be used to help develop autonomy.
Helen
Tue, 03/17/2009 - 08:16
#11
Hi everyone,
Below is a very useful test that you can share with your students:
Sirin
I've just recently discovered your Activities Bank (via your Tweets), and plan to share it with students in a new class I'm teaching here in Japan. The students are older women (50-60+ years old) of various ability levels, and I think they will enjoy having a place to learn during the weeks we don't meet. Their classroom doesn't have internet access so using the activities in class isn't a temptation :-)
These students would not likely find your blog on their own because they don't do much on the internet in English, and wouldn't think of looking for self-access learning opportunities.
If the site did pop up in a search, they would probably dismiss it because 1) they don't expect to see anything geared toward students online and therefore wouldn't recognize it, and 2) they don't have the reading skills to navigate the English on the page without feeling overwhelmed (mostly, how to use the graphic cues to find the information they want on the page). It's not that the English is overly difficult, just an unfamiliar format. Both are easy to remedy with a bit of classroom introduction.
So, I'm a matchmaker, of sorts. I'll bring in a page or two introducing activities that I think they'll find motivating, and we'll have a bit of an orientation during class. Then, (hopefully) they'll feel more confident in using the internet in a new way.
Some of this may be unique to my students because of their ages. However, I do think that part of becoming an autonomous learner involves students changing expectations about learning. So, for example, if a teacher takes one of your activities into the classroom, and then tells students where she found it, then students have an expectation that if they go to the same site, they might find additional cool activities.