Enhancing Learners' Collaboration in Real-time with Scribblar

Language learning does not occur in isolation but through interactions among learners. As learners learn in classrooms, they not only interact with their instructor who supports their understandings through scaffolding but also, work together thus socialising with one another in order for the learning goal to be achieved. Thus, learning is a socially-situated activity which relies on the verbal and non-verbal interactions among students and between students and the teacher. Students are encouraged to collaborate more in the classroom, when they are given total control to accomplish engaging English tasks with the possibility of acquiring uniformed grades. Through this process of interdependence for a common goal, social relationships are formed which metamorphoses into a process of acculturation which then offers a potential to help construct their identity as a user of the English they are learning.

With the advent of ICT, ensuring collaboration in a fun and intriguing way is possible through the use of  technology. Therefore, this week, I will be discussing how English teachers can reinforce positive interdependence and collaboration through a virtual tool called Scribblar. 

Scribblar is an online collaborative tool that allows users to initiate and develop written academic tasks such as writing an essay on a topic, in real time. It is a tool used for editing, redrafting and completing texts in a virtual space whereby, users can make use of  the audio and text messaging features to communicate in order to enhance their understanding in creating a given task. 

Features and Functions

On the Scribblar tool, there is an interactive whiteboard which opens for every user. In addition to this, as shown on the left-handside of the image, there are 10 features which affords users with the possibilities of typing in their ideas, erasing, drawing, picking texts, inserting shapes, enter symbols, upload images or documents, and share smileys. On the topmost right corner are options for discarding new changes and copying any finished task to another location. Users make use of the 10 tools to create virtual written real-time conversations such as: to do list; brainstorming a given essay etc., whereby each user add their ideas while seeing that of others at the same time.

In addition to the features above, there are three other affordances that Scribblar  provides for users. These are: chatting, video and audio recording. While brainstorming on a given topic, users can collaborate by chatting with each other in order to seek further information that could help with the given task. The video and audio functions can also be used by the room members to record information which can be shared on the tool.

Benefits

Knowledge Construction

When teachers encourage students to use Scribblar for a given language task, usually to write a creative story or debate essay etc., students are able to co-construct knowledge hence, it is a tool which promotes the theory of constructivism. Through working together, learners can collaboratively share ideas to develop a whole new knowledge different from their individual perceptions or opinions.

Online Collaboration

With Scribblar, users are able to collaborate virtually with one another. As they brainstorm on a a given task, and attempt to complete it in real-time, they are able to ask questions from each other using the voice and text features, and afterwards, utilise the feedbacks got to achieve the particular task. 

Autonomy

When learners collaborate on Scribblar to accomplish a given task, they have more opportunities to share their ideas and learn from one another without the teacher's intervention. They therefore, take more responsibilities for their learning especially when  teachers avoid intervening and allow them to achieve the given tasks on their terms. 

Limitation

Just like any of its kind, Scribblar cannot work when there is no internet to back support it.

Interested in trying this tool out with your students? Sign up for a free account here. Also, to learn more about Scribblar, watch the Diese Stephan's video below:

Image credit according to order of use:

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay 

scribblar.com

free images from freepik.com 

video by  Diese Stephan 

Relinquishing Control with Tubequizard

For many teachers, having control is an essential part of their teaching principles and practice and any attempt at suggesting otherwise is usually seen in a radical light. However, enabling students to take some form of responsibilities for their learning make them autonomous learners thereby, inspiring their inner motivation which is an important affective factor that makes for effective learning. Nowadays, encouraging learners to become responsible learners and take initiatives in initiating and accomplishing their English learning goals have become more simpler especially when the activities they enjoy  are integrated into learning activities. For instance, imagine developing the essential English language skills while watching a movie or listening to a favorite music? 

Presently, this is possible through a free YouTube-based website called TubeQuizard, where the English listening skill could be developed through watching videos on YouTube, which is a fun-way of learning. 

TubeQuizard 

TubeQuizard is an online tool which contains a large collection of YouTube videos: movies, T.V. shows, interviews and music, with ready-made quizzes involving gap filling. It was created by a couple, Olya Sergeeva and husband and it made the finalist at the British Council ELTons Innovation Awards  in 2017.  As individuals watch these videos, they are exposed to many examples of authentic English vocabulary, pronunciations and grammatical usages. TubeQuizard has four filters; level, type, category and variety, which are explained below:

The videos and quizzes are categorised into levels using the CERF subscales, (A2 B1 B2 C1 C2) and users can filter the quiz content to the appropriate language level they.

 

Furthermore, learners can choose the specific English concept they want to learn, that is, grammar for listening, pronunciations for listeners, vocabulary in context, grammar in context and spelling. 

Though four varieties of English (British, American, New Zealand and Australian) were displayed on the website, however, presently, only YouTube videos of two varieties (British and American) are available on the TubeQuizard tool. 

There are also videos on diverse subjects, such as education, entertainment etc. Therefore, learners get to choose the specific video they find interesting. 

Merits

Includes authentic English usages

Since, it is YouTube-based, the online tool has a large collections of movies, T.V shows, documentaries, talks etc. hence, showing how English is used in real life. Learners can learn the appropriate contextual usages of some vocabulary, acquire more words. More so, the YouTube videos on the website are those with transcripts that are generated by humans and not the automatically generated ones, which could be filled with errors.  Therefore, the TubeQuizard is a reliable tool for developing the essential English skill.

Encourages learner autonomy

With TubeQuizard, learners can be encouraged to take more responsibilities for their language learning hence, it is closely associated with learner autonomy. Since the tool contains videos which are usually interesting for students, therefore, through aspiring to understand the movies they watch and completing the quiz to achieve this, they create learning goals for themselves.  In essence, as they have fun watching their favourite movies, documentaries, talk shows or even listening to a famous song, they begin to develop a conscious awareness of the language and its usages, hence, developing their language skills on their own. 

Improves active listening

The online tool is specifically targeted towards developing students' listening  skills.  Through the listening decoding quizzes created, learners can become active listeners. When watching YouTube videos, the ready-made quizzes can be useful to catch some complex grammatical pronunciations, such as contractions, and the use of articles in fast speeches. 

Limitations

It does not cover many varieties of English as only two varieties are available. As such, the pronunciation learners hear might be different from what they have been used to especially if they are beginning learners from a second or foreign language context. 

Secondly, learners might utilise the tool just for fun and not for learning English. As such, the objective of using the online app would be lost. Therefore, utilising TubeQuizard to give learners home-work might not be effective as learners that are not autonomous might skip the quizzes and watch videos only for enjoyment sake. 

Finally, while the TubeQuizard has its limitations, the amazing benefits it affords users as summarised below, makes it an interesting tool for improving the listening skill. 

• Provides authentic English usages

• Encourages students' autonomy

• Helps to develop students' listening skills

To learn how to explore TubeQuizard, watch the YouTube video that I created below:

Update: the video mentioned that TubeQuizard  contains YouTube videos in four varieties of English as highlighted on the website, however, further exploration, showed the YouTube videos on the tool are only in two varieties. 

Image credit according to order of use:

Image by Jess Foami from Pixabay 

http://www.tubequizard.com/

Image by Varun Kulkarni from Pixabay 

Making Reading and Writing more Purposeful with WebQuests

A recurrent worry that often troubles English teachers is the challenge of finding the best way to make their students develop higher order thinking skills while learning the required language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing.  With the increase in the rate of mobile usage among students nowadays, incorporating an inquiry-based tool into the English lesson could help an effective way to encourage students to develop their language skills in an exciting yet purposeful way. More so, students are usually more interested in activities that are task-based because of the sense of accomplishment that usually result from the completion of such project-oriented activities. Hence, incorporating a set of task-based tool in the classroom can help develop their analytic and evaluative skills. 

Thank God! such online inquiry-based learning tool, called Webquests, exists and was started by Bernie Dodge and Tom March in 1995. Today, there is a website, The Quest Garden with a large repository of different lessons available for free on the internet that could be integrated into the English lessons as well as, resources to create new ones.  As such, this week, I will be blogging about a webquest, An English Holiday I found interesting and effective for teaching students reading and writing. 

WebQuest: An English Holiday

An English Holiday is a webquest created by Michelle Malone, GooIsby ES, which requires students to plan a trip to England and create a travel brochure and map which include detailed information of the lists of places, costs of transportation and activities they would embark on for such a trip. The webquest contains a set of interesting activities that would require learners to surf the internet about England, one of the favorite countries in the world for many second language learners.  Therefore, junior secondary school students can easily be taught reading and writing with the tool as it required them to visit the website links provided on the webquest to draw out the information needed to create the brochures and maps which they would present to the class.

Structure

Just like every webquests, An English Holiday also has both the  teacher and student pages. On the students' page, as shown in the image sideways, there are seven other pages which students are required to click on to get the appropriate information required for them to achieve the task given. The first page has the webquest's introduction where a brief  opening is given using the flag of England, a favorite country for many second language learners of English and a brief address which makes the webquest appealing. The task page gives a compelling overview of what the activities entail using some beautiful images about England while the process page reveals a well-detailed step-by-step activities, that students are required to execute to achieve their task. On the process page are inserted website links through which students can find information to solve each of the steps on the page. These links provide students with the necessary 

The evaluation page has the rubric that would be used to assess students' accuracy of content, organisation, spellings, knowledge and writing while the conclusion page congratulates students on their ability to complete the task with website links showing the teachers' feedback and more facts about England.

Benefits

Supports the development of critical thinking skills

Generally, webquests are associated with constructivism, which is a learning approach that believes that learners actively constructs their own knowledge. And judging from the list of activities and online enquiry students need to engage in to achieve the task in An English Holiday, students would have to draw out information, analyse, evaluate, synthesize, and extrapolate information got thus, constructing learning experience for themselves. Thereby helping to develop their higher developing their higher-order thinking skills. 

Encourages group-learning

Additionally, since learners would work in groups to create the brochure and maps, the webquest helps to develop group learning. As students search for information together and attempt to complete the task, they have to discuss, disagree at some point, make compromises in order to agree together and by undergoing these processes, they are able to develop critical social skills of collaboration and team work, which are useful preparatory skills for their future life.

Lastly, students get to develop their reading and writing skills. More so, since reading and writing have now become purposeful doable tasks, which requires them to learn and write about England, a country which most of them imagine to visit one day. 

Limitations

Just like any other ICT tool, the webquests can only be applicable where students have access to technological devices such as smart phones or laptops and the internet as any task-like activities without those devices are not webquests. 

Another constraint of webquests is that it is easy for students to get distracted if not well monitored since they have the freedom to surf the internet for information to execute their task. 

Lastly, the activities involved in accomplishing a task on webquest requires lots of time which might extend beyond the lesson period.

Conclusion

In this week's post, I have introduced and discussed an example of webquest, An English Holiday that English teachers can integrate in the classroom to make the reading and writing lesson an exciting and engaging task. Though it has its limitations, however, with irresistible strengths and benefits as summarised below:

• engaging opening

• enjoyable and doable task

• well-detailed process

• facilitate higher order-thinking skills in students

• develop learners' social skills

• improve students' reading and writing abilities.

To learn more about webquests, and how to create one for your class, watch Vincenzo Marranvideo below:

image credits according to order of use:

https://www.insightstoenglish.com/project/webquests-intro/

An English Holiday webquest on http://questgarden.com/147/00/7/120731094657/index.htm

critical thinking skills picture made from Canva

group working together by Rawpixelimages on dreamstime

video by Vincenzo Marranca

Literacy picture made from Canva

Channeling Students' Love Towards the Right Direction with Wordwall

People tend to avoid activities they do not enjoy while they  seek to give all optimum attention to things that excite them. Little wonder students nowadays, indulge in online games on their phones and give maximum attention to it since they derive pleasure from it. Such interests, could however be channeled in the right direction through integration with their education.

Therefore, as  teachers who teach English to second language learners, we need to ensure that our lesson activities are enjoyable and satisfying for students as this would increase their motivation for English learning. This week, I will be sharing an online learning game, Wordwall, which can be very effective for teaching students of any educational level sets of vocabulary.

                                                                

 WordWall

 Wordwall contains about 12 templates of games (crosswords, random wheel, quiz, anagram, drag and fit etc.) all of which are interesting and engaging. As such, teachers can utilise any of them to engage learners and ensure their participation. In addition, the images and themes on the game are attractive and are similar to the ones on actual game apps that students have been used to. Therefore, it puts off the pressure that comes with testing since, the templates are often for  recalling what students have been taught.

Benefits

The Worldwall game has many benefits for English learners as it mostly targets  the learning of vocabulary.  Vocabulary is the building block of a language, it becomes important for students to acquire a reasonable amount of English words so that they can conceptualise situations and things they need to talk about, avoid struggling when reading comprehension passages and also become excellent communicators. For many second language learners, vocabulary is a very significant aspect of language which they might have challenges with and which might hinder their acquisition of the target language. 

Therefore, the Wordwall tool can effectively help students to increase their lexical power. Through the vocabulary practice and visual cues provided by the colourful letterings, students are able to learn the correct spellings of words, get exposed to different words and their meanings in a fun manner. Thereby, reinforcing and internalising newly learnt words in their memory. In addition, students are engaged and just like they would while playing 'real games', there are lots of mental processes involved in participating in the game. 

The Wordwall is influenced by the Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) approach, which expects students to  utilise the computer or technological device to improve their language learning. Additionally, students can play the game independently hence, increasing learners' autonomy, which is a principle of CALL. However, students can also be grouped to work in pairs or teams hence, encouraging team work, cooperation and competition all which energise students and increase their motivation.

                                                                

Limitations

Just like every other online games, the Wordwall can only function where there are conditions to facilitate it. Firstly, there must be devices such as phones and/or computers on which the games would be played. Secondly, there must be internet connectivity for the game to work. Therefore, if  those devices mentioned above cannot be provided, utilising the Wordwall in the classroom becomes an impossible task. 

To learn how to create vocabulary activities on Wordwall,  watch my demonstration below;

Image credit according to order of use:

Pricilla Du Perez on gettyimages

https://wordwall.net/

https://successforkidswithhearingloss.com/pre-teaching-vocabulary-and-vocabulary-instruction/

iqoncept on depositphotos

Christopher Gower on Unsplash