The non-believers: Is conversion possible?

I know it sounds like a blog entry about religion. It's far from that, though. It's about disbelief in technology and how this can hinder its implementation in the language classroom. For some reason, I believed I was overreacting when I thought that one of the main obstacles we had to overcome to be able to implement technology in the language classroom was teachers themselves more than the lack of computer labs or having a good broadband connection. When I read Tim Wilson's blog entry in the Savvy technologist I realized I was not that wrong. The entry called: Ties: the influence of teacher beliefs is based on a conference he attended last year in Minneapolis. Tim says, in a nut shell, that when a teacher doesn’t believe in the role technology could have in learning and he/she uses it anyhow, the results are not the ones expected. It’s like, say , asking a teacher to use a new methodology or approach in class. He/she may use it, but if he/she doesn’t think it will work, it will be effective; results will be less than satisfactory.

This apparent disbelief in technology is something I have noticed in some EFL professionals I have met lately. I have come across from the most ICT oriented teacher to the most E-unengaged one. The latter, the “I-get-the-same-result-without-technology”, the “technology-changes-too fast-to-keep-up”, the “I-have-no-time-to-learn-something-new”, should be our concern, especially, when technology is gradually becoming the tool of choice at home, in business, entertainment, etc., not only in other countries but our country itself.

Why does it seem so hard for teachers to believe we need to integrate technology as a tool in the language classroom? Is it because they don’t believe technology improve learning whatsoever? Do they think it’s just a fad and will be on the wane soon? Is it because they are not motivated enough to take time to figure out how technology can enhance their teaching practice? Is it because they don’t have enough ICT resources, so why bother? Is it computer phobia? Or is it because believing implies working a bit more, taking a bit of their time to learn how to use ICT's?

Off the records, believing in technology doesn't mean saying: "I know technology is important" or just attending a course and/or workshop. It is understanding and finding power in ICT tools as something that can better our teaching practices and the learning process of our students.

Whichever the reason, disbelief in technology on the part of the teacher contributes to slow down the use of technology in the language classroom. Technology is here to stay and it is becoming part of our resources jus like the board, the eraser and the tape recorder. Tim Wilson suggests some approaches to bring the non-believer to the land of technology. It is described using my own labels and definitions:

The Radical approach. It consists of bringing ICT tools into the classroom, exploring them, collecting data and reporting results to other colleagues (esp. the non-believers). This is for more ICT oriented teachers. It implies risking, exploring as many tools as you can and spread the word to others less ICT oriented people.

The Gradual approach. This means learning/using one ICT tool at a time supported by an expert or a more knowledgeable colleague. This is for the e-unengaged.

The “Let-others-know” approach. It is about telling, reporting colleagues, principals, supervisors, etc. about your experiences with technology in the classroom. Your experience makes it more valid in the eyes of your colleagues than just saying a nice story on blogs used by someone in England , for example.

Conversion may not be easy, but I think it is worth trying. I know there are lots of teachers who would like to believe in the power of technology as as a learning/teaching tool. A lot of preaching might be needed. By the way, by conversion I don't mean imposing something on people who still twist their mouth in disbelief when they hear about technology as a powerful tool in ELT. It means changing by gradually adding ICT tools and ICT-related approaches/theories (learned-centered / task-based/constructivism) into the language classroom. By doing this, non-believers will not be left behind; mirror the way their students are learning outside the classroom; and keep up with the changes that are taking place around the world. The presence of technology in our lives is unstoppable. Can you believe that?

A heartfelt message!

Well, although this blog is about ICT and all that, I didn't want to end up this year without making the traditional wish for this season to whomever may have happened to read/stumble across it during the year 2006...or to anybody who still believe there could be peace and tolerance in this ever so troubled world...So...: Merry christmas and a happy new year 2007! ...And do please enjoy "Locus Iste" (something like "This place") composed by Anthon Bruckner and sung by Libera (an English boys choir or as they see themselves: an alternative kind of boy band).

Blogging in Venezuelan municipal schools

Since last March 2006, a group of Venezuelan teachers from municipal schools in Chacao started using blogs to publish their web-based lessons. This was part of a venture project between the British Council Venezuela and the Chacao Municipality to train EFL teachers to integrate ICT into the language classroom. Two (2) teachers from Unidad Educativa Andrés Bello and one (1) from Juan de Dios Guanche participated in this pilot project. It was divided into two phases. 

Phase I, teachers participated in a workshop given in the British Council premises. They became familiar with some ICT tools and learned how to design web-based lessons using Internet. After this, teachers gave a session with some of their students (about 6) showing what they had learned in the British Council lab. Next, teachers had a meeting with the teacher trainer, received feedback and planned the second phase of the project: using ICT with their students in each of their school labs. During this phase, blogs became the ICT tool of choice because of its effectiveness and efficiency to provide students extra-practice in the school lab. Lab sessions were held for an hour (45 minutes) on a weekly basis in the school labs and about 17 students from each school participated in this part of the project. Teachers received technical/pedagogical support from British Council teacher trainer on-line and FtF all along this phase.
I will briefly describe the steps followed to design a web-based lesson using blogs in this pilot project. First, let's start with a definition of blogs.

What’s a blog?

According to Will Richardson (2006): “…a Weblog is an easily created, easily updateable Website that allows an author (or authors) to publish instantly to the Internet from any Internet connection.”

To understand what a blog is and its power as an ICT tool, I will compare it with an EFL printed book. In a blog, the web-based lesson is a single entry where you have the activities you want your students to do whereas a lesson, in a printed book, is comprised of several pages. Activities, in the blog, have hyperlinks that take your students to other websites or exercises you have designed yourself. That is, activities are no presented in a linear fashion as in a printed book. Both the printed book and the blog class can have pictures, illustrations and graphics. The only difference is that in the blog you can choose images from the web (e.g. Google images) or design/edit them yourself (e.g. Photoshop). Furthermore, while in a printed book, lessons are organized in an orderly fashion (lesson 1 to 12), in the class blog lessons can be archived monthly , generally, in a chronological reversed order. Also, students cannot write comments about a lesson in their printed books . In the class blog, students can (interactivity). Only a limited audience have access to the printed book: the student himself/herself, teacher and parents from a certain school. The blog can be accessed by anybody or restricted to other students/teachers/parents from other schools around the world. Books can get lost or deteriorated easily. Blogs do not.

Blogs can be used as reflective journals, class or shared blogs (Richardson, 2006). For this project, we used the class blog.

Where did teachers start their class blogs?

There are several sites that can host a class blog for free: Blogger, Edublog, Motime, Wordpress among others. For the project we are about to describe, we chose Blogger. These were the steps teachers followed to set up a Blogger account:

1. They got a Blogger account
2. Once they had their account, they clicked on “New post” in the dashboard and explored how they could add content to blogs. The only IT skills they needed to use Blogger were those required for e-mailing.
3. After exploring and learning how to post entries, they got ready to design their web-based lesson! To design the first web-based lessons, they needed the teacher trainer technical support. To do this the teacher trainer devoted about 3 hours per teacher on a weekly basis. Two hours FtF and one on-line.

Which IT skills teachers needed to design their web-based lessons in a blog?

For this project, the class blog was chosen to post the teachers' web-based lessons. To do that, they needed the following Basic IT skills: searching, uploading, using authoring software

What did teachers have to take into account to design their web-based lesson?

They should keep in mind that the web-based lesson...
1. reinforces a lesson already taught in the classroom (e.g. Animals, colours, numbers, etc.)
2. is based on tasks (Check material from teacher training session).
3. has three basic stages: pre-task (warming up); task; post-task (follow-up)

Besides, before the class, they should test the lesson themselves or asked a colleague/ teacher trainer to make sure instructions were clear and links worked.

If they designed activities for their online lessons using Hot potatoes, they should upload them to a hosting free online service like Geocities. It worked as a repository for all the materials they designed.

What was the web-based lesson session like?

1. The teacher asked students to go to Google and type Blogger. Next, they should click on the link for Blogger. Once they had done that, they should write in the Blogger search engine the name of the blog (e.g. ABsexto, Ictleonela).
2. Students clicked on the link provided by search engine.
3. Students started to work the lesson on their own or in pairs. The teacher only helped when they students called him/her out or raised their hands.
4. At the end of the session, students wrote comments about the lesson.

P.S. A training session for students should be planned before leaving students to their own devices.

Which were the results of this pilot project using class blogs?

Students 1) got engaged; 2) became aware of things they were learning (metacognition); 3) developed IT skills (life-long skills); 4) worked at their own pace; 5) became in charge of their own learning. On the other hand, teachers 1) were nicely surprised with their students' attitude towards learning English; 2) realized students' behavior was less disruptive; 3) developed IT skills; 4) were in tune with the way their students are learning outside the classroom.

Class blogs from municipal schools in Chacao

Prof. Maral

6th graders

Unidad Educativa Andrés Bello

ABsexto

Prof. Leonela González
6th graders
Unidad Educativa Juan de Dios Guanche
ICTleonela

Prof. Oenis Hernández
7th graders
Unidad Educativa Juan de Dios Guanche
ICToenis

What's ahead?

This project will be carried on by the British Council and the Municipality of Chacao training more teachers to integrate ICT into the language classroom during the school year 2006-2007.

Reference:
Richardson, Will (2006). Blogs, wikis and podcasts. Corwin Press. California.