Learning Management Systems (LMS) vs. Personal Learning Environments (PLEs)

The other side of the mirror

  Here are some nice definitions of the two terms:

  Personal Learning Environments (PLE) are systems that help learners take control of and manage their own learning. Technically, the PLE represents the integration of a number of "Web 2.0" technologies like blogs, Wikis, RSS feeds, Twitter, Facebook, etc.— around the independent learner (from Wikipedia.com).

  An LMS, on the other hand, is an information system that administers instructor-led and e-learning courses and keeps track of student progress (from http://www.pcmag.com).

 As a student, I have only been exposed to PLE and found it to be a good tool in the hands  of a competent instructor. However, after exploring two PLE platforms 

(  www.edmodo.com, http://www.twiducate.com/ ), I was able to assess the appeal of these types of learning environments as well. As compared to LMS, PLE platforms are more student-centered and require a more autonomous learner.

  For more detailed and informative explanation on the differences between LMS and PLE, watch this video.

 

Distance learning

Mouses ready!

  This last week I was engaged in active participation in Livemocha. For those who don't know, livemocha is a language learning website that connects people who want to learn a foreign language. While registering, I mentioned English as my native language and Spanish as the language that I would like to improve. Below are two highlights of the experience I have had. One is positive the other is ... well, you'll see.

Great Free stuff!

 Here's how livemocha works. Language items are first introduced, then recycled through activities that integrate all four language skills. What's more,you can get feedback for your speaking and writing task from the community and the experts. All you need for this are coins which can be earned via assessing other learners' work. The whole system is based on the idea of a "swap-circle": help the others and the others will help you! Fair enough, isn't it?

Lack of ... smth

  As great as Livemocha is (and I am sure we will have even better distance learning tools in the future), I can't imagine it to be a substitute of formal learning. This may be my Taurus traditionalism steering the wheel of my mind, but to learn a language without a face-to-face human contact takes away part of the pleasure for me. People, learning a language in a group, enjoy the process because there is typically somebody in the group with a great sense of humor, there is someone super clever, someone silly, someone bossy, etc. There is the teacher, who can never be as perfect as the computer software, who will sometimes make mistakes but who will also sometimes be funny or kind or encouraging, who will, in short, display a range of human emotions, unknown to the computer. Maybe I am just an old-fashioned human being. I want my teacher to encourage me when I succeed and to show her disapproval when I don't. I am an old-fashioned human being. I don't want a perfect computer software, I just want an imperfect, good-old human relationship.

 After all, imperfection, as the highly talented actress Helena Bonhem Carter once said, is underrated.

Mobile-assisted language learning

 With just a little bit of help from my phone...

  

 90 percent of people in the entire world have a mobile phone network and 41 percent of the world's population has more than one mobile device. These are data taken from the most recent surveys done by Colley (in 2010) the Oracle (in 2011). The numbers, I imagine, have increased by now.

   How many of students nowadays keep exercise books, notepads or other paper-based learning equipment? Text, written on paper is non-transferable, non-printable, non-editable and non-interactive. Digital text, on the other hand, can be easily edited, converted to other formats, printed, shared and copied. When was the last time a student actually took the time to browse the pages of a paper dictionary? Why should he?

    According to the same survey mentioned above, 85 percent of mobile phones shipped worldwide by 2011 will have an in-built internet browsers and between 2010-2015 it is estimated that the mobile access to web will exceed the computer access. So what does this all mean? Basically, it means that  students worldwide constantly carry a tool with themselves which can potentially be used for education but which is being ignored. There is already quite a variety of mobile phone Apps for language learning. Here  are some examples:

• Speak English (improves pronunciation)
• Grammar
• English verbs
• English podcasts (lsitening and speaking)
• Toefl IBT preparation apps
• IELTS preperation
• Dictionaries
• Language games                                                                                                                                 Unless the educators start seeing all these as valid learning tools, there may be a danger of a potential gap between the way we understand learning and the way the learners do.  I would have to repeat myself here and re-post the quote I had in one of the earlier posts.
   “In a world of change, the learners shall inherit the earth, while the learned shall find themselves perfectly suited for a world that no longer exists.”
  
  Eric Hoffer 
  
  Think of  this. Does your world still exist?

  

Open Educational Resources for TEFL

Mindblowing

 (The brewing perfect storm of opportunities)

      The world we live in is changing so fast (and has already changed so so much!) that some of us actually run the risk of waking up one day in the morning to find themselves in a perfectly strange world. Or wait, aren't some of us already living in a vacuum of an imaginary world that no longer exists? Let's do  a mini-test. Do you still think that knowledge is a "substance" and needs to be transmitted from the "knower" (the teacher) to the learner? Do you still think that practice needs to be preceded by theory? Do you still live under the false  illusion that learning implies a classroom, a board and a textbook? And finally, do you include words like "graduated from", "got high grades from...",etc. in your definition of an educated person? If you answered "yes" to to at least two of the questions above, you may consider reading this post till the end (doing so is encouraged anyway though:).

       Let's cast a look back at the old world. Remember the desks, the teacher, the classroom, the textbooks and the exercise books. How much have you written? How much have you read? What part of it do you remember? What part of it was forgotten or lost while you were counting the minutes till the end of the lesson? Were you interested? Now, isn't it curious? You probably mostly remember the things you were interested in. The cribs, the learning by heart, nothing helped. Your mind now only keeps the things that were relevant to your interests. Now, try to reverse the process. Start from the things that you are interested in. Say, it's Creative writing in English. Now if you agree to be the learner of the new world, here are just two steps I suggest you to do.

     a) Find Online Creative Writing forums

 Learning is a self-organizing system. Internet forums are there to unite people who share similar interests or problems. Jump in, take a share. There is no teacher. There are only collaborators. There is no teaching. There is social learning. Start writing from the offset. Get and leave feedback. Get a taste of a real audience. Fail, get feedback, fail again and again until you  succeed. Start from BEING a writer, not LEARNING how to be one.

b) Take an online Free Creative Writing course

     Now this may be a shock for even a fairly modern mind. Professional, highly-valuable courses from the world's best educators can actually be FREE. This, honestly, makes me feel proud of living in the age that I live in. Here's a list of websites that provide completely free online courses on a variety of topics:

• https://www.coursera.org/
• https://www.udacity.com/
• https://www.udemy.com/
• https://iversity.org/
• https://www.edx.org/
• https://novoed.com/
•  http://oli.web.cmu.edu/openlearning/forstudents/freecourses
• http://www.ocwconsortium.org/en/courses  

Here are some of the courses that are related to Creative Writing:

The Future Of Storytelling  

Creativity, Innovation, and Change  

Inanimate Alice:Digital storytelling 

Writers Tips – practical advice for creating better books

  

   This post has already extended far more than I intended. That's why I would just like to finish with a brief summary of what this all means. Basically, the opportunities that the internet, the flattening of the world and the open resourcing give us result in the mind blowing idea that an Internet connection, a computer and sufficient interest in a topic is just what it takes to become educated in the world we live in. So if you feel comfortable with your knowledge just because you have graduated from a decent University, I suggest you take a second thought. Go and check your neighbor that rarely leaves his house. Who knows how many online Universities has he graduated from?

Learning English via Video

Games

Where do you know all those words from?

-I just play games!

   Almost in every group there is one student who is typically not very proficient in grammar but shows a remarkable range of vocabulary. In most of such cases the student is either a regular gamer or movie watcher or is engaged in any other activity whose content is engaging and relevant to his/her interests. 

   A typical modern child is born surrounded by a variety of technological gadgets.  By the time  the kid starts school, his mind is full of characters and adventures from GTA, Sims, Call of Duty and a myriad of other games. These are words that have no limits except that of imagination. And a child's imagination, as is universally known, needs no additional kindling!

  Arguably, this new technologically abundant world changes  the perceptions and the ways we get and process information (McGrew-Hill, 2008). Children, used to fantastic, fun, graphically mesmerizing worlds with a lot of mysteries to unfold and challenges to overcome, are sent to schools where the processing of information is linear and the students' main role is that of a passive listener.

  A number of studies have been done to assess the effectiveness of video games in L2 learning. The results, though tentative, suggest positive outcomes. The main challenge of anyone that would integrate games into teaching is to to find a meaningful balance between fun and educational gains.  The question, in short, is the following "Can we integrate gaming into language learning without losing the fun aspect of it? Can games be manipulated and structured to serve pedagogical goals?".

Though there is no magical formula, these questions currently inspire heated discussions in EFL and ESL.

  Let's look at one specific case. Can the PC game The Sims be used to teach vocabulary? A study done by Jim Ranalli yields a positive answer. I tried to get a first-hand experience on the subject myself. The implications I got, which are briefly summarized in this presentation, are mostly promising. Though no way an alternative to traditional course-based learning, Sims and games in general, if scaffolded and structured appropriately, can help to supplement the main language learning course.

   If you  hurry to end reading this post just to articulate a harsh and firm "No", just  pause a second  and read this sentence:

 “In a world of change, the learners shall inherit the earth, while the learned shall find themselves perfectly suited for a world that no longer exists.”

Eric Hoffer   

Video production in EFL

A step on a shaky field

  This week I have had a video production experience with my peers from the TEFL program. Our main goal was to get an experience in video shooting and editing with the purpose of evaluating the potential of video production in EFL.

  Creative projects are fun, engaging and sometimes inspiring. However,  all these often go hand in hand with a lot of time investment and , if technology is concerned, sometimes with a good deal of frustration. 

  The implications I got from my experience are still vague and non-conclusive.By itself, video production is a powerful tool but it's true application in  EFL environment is rather unclear to me. What would be the linguistic goals that would justify the massive investment of time,energy and creativity used in producing videos? This is the main question that I have. Right now there seems to be a lack of solid theory and research on this topic. The picture is still blurry. Any teacher using video production in EFL should be ready for an unsteady and uneven ground. The results, however, can potentially be rewarding.Now the next question is "Who will be(and already are) those pioneers ready to bring video production to EFL?". I suppose, as is the case with every innovation, the driving factors will mainly be passion and interest in the subject. We will see what comes.

   “Watch for the thing that will show itself to you. Because that thing, when you find it, will be your future.” 

Arthur Golden, Memoirs of a Geisha 

Digital Storytelling

Stories come alive

   Stories are inherent in human culture. We all love hearing and telling stories. In EFL classrooms, stories have had and will most probably continue to have their well-deserved place too. However, the only constant in the world we live in is the change. Modern technology enables us to refresh our understanding of the traditional paper and pen story writing. 

   Digital storytelling is the art of combining storytelling with some mixture of digital graphics. Digital stories abandon the notion of paper-based storytelling and make full use of sound and picture to enhance the story-telling experience. Have a look here to see some examples of digistories.

   The integration of digital sound and picture in EFL seems quite an intriguing and promising idea. The benefits are many and, arguably, outnumber the possible caveats. It's no surprise that a story with good visuals is a treasure for every child.  Remember how you turned the pages of the book with the hope of finding the pictures? Remember how words alone weren't enough for you? Or how you relished the changes in your mother's voice as she read a story at your bed? Confess to yourself, as a child you sometimes refused to give a chance to a pictureless book. This is because a book with only text is an almost-dead book. In a sense, it's like an unsociable child, reserved and reluctant to communicate. This may not be a problem for a book-loving adult but teenegers and especially children will probably cherish  good, powerful visuals and sound effects.

   Having said all of the above, I'd also like to stress out that making good digistories is an art. Both the visuals and the sound need to supplement the story and enhance the experience and not just repeat the same story. Therefore, a good deal of skill, talent and creativity is needed to make a good digistory. 

  So should our students create and consume  digistories? The research and the numerous examples in the net eloquently enough say "yes". You never know the potential of a tool unless you give it a chance and explore. In my opinion, digistories are worth to be given a chance and have quite a future.

  On a final note, here's a digistory I created myself. I used one of the 3D templates of Prezi which immediately set my story in the right context: a deep, maigical forest. I also added some sounds and ... ok, let's leave the old-fashioned texting. Let THE STORY come alive.