Interact, share and learn!

The term web 2.0 is used to refer to the second version of the World Wide Web. It focuses on a more dynamic use of the internet, in which people can interact, generate content and share information. Although it is not widely applied at schools, the benefits of its implementation can mean a great improvement in the educational context. Web 2.0 not only allows students and teachers to communicate outside the school environment, but it also provides a motivating way to work and interact.

 4shared and Quizlet are two web 2.0 resources which can be used for learning purposes. The former is an online storage site in which you can share videos, books, recordings, images and information with other people. In an academic context, you can take advantage of this by showing your students online materials you find useful. Moreover, it is really easy to sign up, and start using it in a very practical way.

The latter is mainly used for practicing and learning vocabulary items, since you can create activities with different terms and their definitions, and add images and/or recordings to those descriptions. It gives you different kinds of activities to exercise what you have learned: matching, true or false, multiple choice activities and games.

After analysing these 2.0 websites, we can see how the development of technology benefits the learning process through the achievement of a continuous interaction. Students and teacher should profit from these kinds of resources in order to teach and learn in a more engaging way.

First image taken from: https://pame95.wordpress.com/2012/11/03/mi-ensayo-planeta-web-2-0-la-intercreatividad-y-web-2-0/

Using TPACK in the classroom

The acronym TPACK stands for Technological, Pedagogical and Content Knowledge, and it is the name of a model whose aim is to combine three central components for our lessons to be effective: technology, pedagogy and content. According to this framework, these aspects are expected to be combined in tasks and activities which will be developed in the classroom.

  

We have designed a didactic unit using the TPACK model to encourage the implementation of technology in the EFL classroom. Our topic included the use of the structures “there is/there are,” with vocabulary related to the different parts of the house and furniture. To start with it, we decided to use a Prezi presentation to show our students a house created in the famous game ‘The Sims’, which included a description of it recorded with our own voice. This functioned as a model for learners to have an idea of what they are expected to do, and to come back to it whenever they need it as they work in the creation and description of an imaginary house.

From: https://shanellecassir.wordpress.com/page/2/

In our didactic sequence, we can see how the three types of knowledge interact in a positive way. Technological knowledge is applied by the use of the computer game, the presentation program Prezi, and the LCD projector to complete the final task. The reason why we chose ‘The Sims’ is that it contains all the vocabulary items we will be working with: parts of the house, furniture and domestic appliances. In this way, we can appreciate how Content knowledge and Technological knowledge mix in only one exercise.

From: http://www.coetail.com/dimac4/2014/11/08/samr-tpack/

Moreover, including a game in our lessons encourages students to participate as they learn while having fun, what is the result of the implementation of Pedagogical knowledge. We consider Prezi the most appropriate software since it allows users to zoom the images in and out, and thus, together with the LCD projector, learners can show their classmates the parts of the house and pieces of furniture they are mentioning. What is more, this online program allows learners to record themselves and to add that to the presentation.

Hence, we can see how Technology, Pedagogy and Knowledge are interconnected in only one unit sequence.

So, English teachers, TPACK can be fun! Do not be afraid of giving it a try!