What will I change?

TRANSFORMATIONS/INNOVATIVE PEDAGOGIES  -  WHAT WILL I CHANGE?

Technology and Second Language Learning, a subject I studied last semester, has complimented Youth, Popular Culture and Text by introducing the many ways technology can be utilized productively in the classroom.  It has forced me to reevaluate the way I teach and what can be used to supplement my teaching.  I began this term working in the ESL unit of a high school, working specifically with refugee students whose literacy skills are very poor.  Two pieces of equipment are proving invaluable, my laptop and a projector.  The projector enables me to project the lesson and student tasks onto the white board, thereby freeing me up to work with students individually.  I’d also like to have used the student’s mobile phones as a learning tool because they all have one but, unfortunately, they are banned from the classroom.  In the lecture on Monday it was said that if you can’t transform your school, try transforming your classroom and so, if and when I can convince the school to change its mobile phone policy, I will list in this blog the ways in which I would transform my classroom pertaining to mobile phone use.

The advantages of mobile phones in a second language classroom are expressed by Reinders (2010) as social tools that allow authentic and relevant communication and collaboration among learners.  To express it simply, learners are used to working with mobile phones and they use them 24/7! If I could use mobiles in the classroom what would I do?  First consideration is to note what applications the students’ mobiles have and then plan your lessons based on the applications contained on them.  For example, most, if not all, mobiles have a voice recorder and this can be used to record speech, group discussions and teacher explanation of difficult concepts.  The camera on the phone can be used to take pictures of notes on the board and then transferred to their PC’s at a later date. 

I’m going to ask students to take pictures with their mobiles, outside the classroom of course, that they will then use as a picture collage on the class blog I have set up for them (http://jcg11.edublogs.org).  Another idea I have thought of is to prepare a series of flash cards with words and short, simple meanings pertaining to blogging, taking pictures of the cards and then SMS (short message service) the pictures to the student’s mobiles.  My students have great difficulty in remembering to do their homework and there are two ways mobile phones can be used to jog their memories.  Before a lesson and before entering the classroom, the teacher can ask the students to set the alarm function on their mobiles for 6pm and 7pm as a reminder to do the homework.   The second is for the teacher to send SMS reminders to students to complete their homework.  Reinders (2010) suggests using text messaging for circular writing which involves students creating a story together by contributing one text message at a time.  The teacher starts the story and then sends it to a student who adds to the story and then sends it on to the next student, the last student then sends the story back to the teacher.  I intend trying this with my students and then posting the completed story to our blog.

This subject and the one from last semester have challenged me to rethink the way I teach.  The opportunities that mobile media and the digital world offer to enhance the relevancy and interest potential of lessons is enormous and surely, any tool that can increase students’ access to the language can only contribute to their success.  Innovative pedagogy, as was stated in Monday’s lecture, involves taking risks in selecting resources, in letting students be ‘experts’, mentors and teachers and in providing young people with access to parts of the internet in schools, as opposed to the negatives of blocking access.  As teachers, we become complacent and bogged down in all the minutiae that makes up a teacher’s life, it’s therefore very important to keep a positive frame of mind, keep learning, keep questioning and keep evolving!

 Janye

REFERENCES:

Reinders, H. (2010).  Twenty Ideas for Using Mobile Phones in the Language Classroom.  English Teaching Forum 48 (3) 20-33.