Feeding digital natives: Mobile Learning, Edmodo, Teaching and Learning English

Feeding Digital Natives: Mobile Learning, Edmodo, Teaching and Learning English September 2016 - Conceição Malhó Gomes

Feeding Digital Natives: Mobile Learning,

Edmodo, Teaching and Learning English

Conceição Malhó Gomes September 2016

Times changed but…

…did teaching and learning approaches keep up with change?

…are we coping with this Digital Age, when students know better

than us how to use gadgets and devices to get all the

information they want, anywhere and anytime?

…are we aware that society we are living in and individuals

themselves get more information than knowledge nowadays?

…are our students happy at school? Are they conscious of their

learning processes and that they are responsible for those

processes?


Agenda

1 Problems and Objectives

2 Contextualization

3 Pedagogical Experiences

4 Data Analysis

5 Conclusion


1. Problems and Objectives

How to teach and learn in the 21st century?

How to charm and feed our students, through

their mobile devices, to learn EFL?

How to make students work through learning

platforms?

How to revert the common practice of using

the web for leisure purposes only?






How to charm and feed our students to learn

EFL through their mobile devices?


How to make students work through learning

platforms?


How to revert the common practice of using

the web for leisure purposes only?


1. Problems and Objectives

Prepare learners to cope with communication

across cultures.

Use language as a way of expressing

themselves and understand the world they are

living in.

Build and consolidate their own learning

process.

Think over their educational paths.


Mobile Learning

• The key of meaningful learning is authentic

problem/task and ownership of the problem

that learners attempt to solve;

• Students are required to active learning

activities including exploration, articulation

and reflection;

• These environments require appropriate

instructional supports including modeling,

coaching, and scaffolding.

2. Contextualization

Constructivist

Learning

Environments

(Jonassen, 1999)

Learning Platform

Edmodo Theories


Mobile Learning

• Contemporaneous version of Constructivism;

• Pedagogy designed for a Digital Age;

• Learning is no longer an internal, individualistic

activity; it is developed in various ways, specially

through communities of practice, personal

networking and connections created online;

• Formal and informal learning approaches are

shown as a continuum.


Connectivism

(Siemens, 2005)

Learning Platform

Edmodo Theories


Mobile Learning


Digital Natives

(Prensky, 2001)

Learning Platform

Edmodo Theories

• Born after 1980, also known as Generation Y, Z and

Millennials;

• Defined as being post-linear, post-literate, and post-

logical;

• Live life in a hyperlinked world;

• Highly intuitive and confident users of digital

technology, learning what is instant, relevant and

fun;

• Digital Natives can represent a “menace” to

teachers (Digital Immigrants).



• It appeared in California, in 2008, under the motto “Where learning

happens”;

• A great number of users (educators, students, parents) from around the

world have signed up to use Edmodo as their favourite learning platform.

However, the Portuguese situation is not similar;

• Edmodo is free, safe, intuitive and appealling;

• It offers the possibility of creating learning communities online and sharing

pedagogical experiences with any other teacher who uses Edmodo;

Mobile Learning Learning Platform

Edmodo Theories



• Through Edmodo a teacher can create close groups/small groups for

specific students;

• It enables teachers to post links, comments, book tasks/test/questionnaires,

correct and evaluate them;

• It makes possible for students to learn synchronically and assynchronically,

to get feedback from their work, to get answers to their doubts and/or

questions.


Edmodo Theories



• It allows communication between teachers and students’ encarregados

de educação;

• It respects students’ different paces and learning rhythms;

• It can also be freely accessed through an app for smartphones and

Android system.


Edmodo Theories




Edmodo Theories



• It represents the use of mobile devices in learning approaches.

Smartphones or tablets are more than means of exchanging

information;

• M-learning performs multiple effects on cognitive and social processes;

• It depicts the relationship between students and technology and

teaching and learning approaches through mobility: the device’s

mobility, the individual’s mobility and/or the learning process’ mobility

(Hamm, Drysdale & Moore, 2014)


Edmodo Theories



• It enables the learning process to occur anywhere, anytime;

• M-learning is a learning strategy mediated by mobile devices and

characterised by learners’ mobility and the mobility or accessibility of

contents.

Apps para Dispositivos Móveis: Manual para Professores, Formadores e Bibliotecários

https://estudogeral.sib.uc.pt/jspui/handle/10316/31202


Edmodo Theories

https://estudogeral.sib.uc.pt/jspui/handle/10316/31202


o Step I – Awareness of the use of

Edmodo; groups creation; early

evaluation.

(use of m-learning – 2015/2016)

o Step II – Effective use of Edmodo (posts, links, questionnaires,

mixed type and self-correction

exercises); intermediate

evaluation.

o Step III – Students´ material production; final evaluation.

STEPS STEPS

TARGET GROUPS

o Students from:

5th grade (2012/2013)

7th/8th grades (2013/2014 e 2014/2015)

10th grade, regular

and professional

training courses (2015/2016)

3. Pedagogical Experiences

TARGET GROUPS


TARGET GROUPS


5th grade - 2012/2013 -


TARGET GROUPS


7th/8th grades - 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 -


TARGET GROUPS


10th grade - 2015/2016 -



PÚBLICO ALVO

o Case studies

o Action-research study (teacher based-research):

Need of improving the practice;

Need of understanding the practice;

Need of improving the situation where the practice occurs;

Teachers’ leading role in research(Latorre, 2003).

METHODOLOGY


3. Pedagogical Experiences ACTIVITIES / BASIC SKILLS

Basic

Skills

Listening

• Native English podcasts (short-length, expositive/informative type – Carvalho & Aguiar, 2010)

• Songs / Poems

• Podcasts produced by the teacher

• Podcasts produced by students



Basic

Skills

Speaking

• Ask / Answer questions

• Dialogues and roleplays

• Share doubts

• Communicate



Basic

Skills

Reading

• Instructions

• Info

• Texts in general

• Students’ own material



Basic

Skills

Writing

• Short statements

• Dialogues and roleplays

• Texts in general

• Mixed type exercises



Basic

Skills

Writing

Listening Reading

Speaking



PÚBLICO ALVO

METODOLOGIA

INSTRUMENTS FOR DATA COLLECTION

o Assessment forms;

o Pautas de avaliação(1st, 2nd and 3rd terms);

o Quality and quantity of learning material posted on Edmodo (per student);

o Questionnnaires (Likert scale) for early, intermediate and final evaluation.


4. Data Analysis

PÚBLICO ALVO

METODOLOGIA

THROUGH Pautas de Avaliação AND ASSESSMENT FORMS

o Students grades along the school year;

o Basic skills assessment.


4. Data Analysis

PÚBLICO ALVO

METODOLOGIA

LEARNING MATERIAL POSTED ON EDMODO

(by students)

o Variety;

o Quality;

o Quantity.


4. Data Analysis

PÚBLICO ALVO

METODOLOGIA

QUESTIONNAIRES

o Early, intermediate and final use of Edmodo and of the app;

o Students’ satisfaction level while using these learning strategies;

o Advantages and disadvantages of learning with the app.


5. Conclusion

METODOLOGIA

o Slight improvement in the learners’ basic skills of LISTENING and WRITING.

Better quality as far as learning success is concerned;

o Global improvement of students’ success rates;

o Rational and conscious use of learning platforms;

o Pleasure while learning EFL with Edmodo;

o Increasing implementation of the Edmodo app for synchronized, portable,

always accessible and students’ self-centered learning;

o Increased students’ authonomy and decision making.



Thank you!

Conceição Malhó Gomes [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]


References

Hamm, S., Drysdale, J., Moore, D. (2014). Towards a Mobile Learning Pedagogy. In McConatha, D., Penny, C., Schugar,

J., Bolton, D. (ed.), Mobile Pedagogy and Perspectives on Teaching and Learning (pp. 1-19). Hershey.PA: IGI

Global.

Jonassen, D. H. (1999). Designing constructivist learning environments. In C. M. Reigeluth (Ed.), Instructional design

theories and models: A new paradigm of instructional theory, Volume II, pp. 215-239). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence

Erlbaum Associates.

Latorre, A. (2003). La Investigación-Acción. Barcelo: Graó.

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, On the Horizon, 9(5), 1-6.

Siemens, G. (2005). Connectivism: A learning theory of the digital age. International Journal of Instructional Technology

and Distance Learning, 2 (1). http://www.itdl.org/journal/jan_05/article01.htm (Acessível em 2 de fevereiro de

2016).

UNESCO. World Education Forum. (2015)Education 2030. Incheon Declaration and Framework for Action, Towards

inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all.

http://www.uis.unesco.org/Education/Documents/incheon-framework-for-action-en.pdf (Acessível em 16 de

agosto de 2016).

http://www.uis.unesco.org/Education/Documents/incheon-framework-for-action-en.pdf











https://www.edmodo.com/

https://www.edmodo.com/