1. A new teaching/learning paradigm
Oscar González Cabo

2. The problem
 Secondary students in Spain can’t communicate in
English after, at least, 6 years studying it in Primary
school and 4 more year in Secondary school
 Low motivation
 Uselessness for their life
 Lack of self-confidence
 Obligation of studying it
 Repetitive language points and grammar
 Limited communicative methodology

3. The objectives
Developing communicative skills in
English
Increase self-confidence Real life
to carry out tasks needs
Intrinsic Real life
Self-study
motivation use

4. A new framework
In-class At home Online
Interactive Personal Real life
Whiteboard Computers communication
Tablets Smartphones Tasking

5. The framework (I)
 We are going to implement an “everywhere” system
 Presentation of contents in the class
 Development and use of contents both in the class
(tablets), at home (PC) and everywhere (smartphone)
 The point is: they have to feel the need to use English
and do it at their own pace and on their own time
 Technologically speaking, we need an app or webpage
that assigns tasks to the students and keeps track of
them

6. The framework (II): methodology
 The teacher introduces the topic in class, explaining
the relevant contents (vocabulary, grammar...)
 The students practice in class with a variety of apps or
webpages related to the topic using a tablet
 The teacher uploads a series of tasks to be carried out
by the students, compatible with tablet, PC and
smartphone
 The student executes the task and submits it to the
central server for revision

7. The framework (III): the server
 The server pushes the tasks to the student accounts
 It keeps track of the students’ submissions
 It’s not a centralised server, they don’t upload their
exercises there
 In order to make it sustainable and scalable, we make
use of already available apps (Gdocs, youtube, prezi...)
 Students perform the task in their preferred app and
submit the link to the server (á la MOOC)
 The server automatically prepares reports for the
teacher (daily, weekly, monthly...)

8. The framework: the tasks (I)
 A task is a particular exercise the student has to do
providing a specific communicative output
 It can be read (articles from newspapers, magazines,
excerpts from books...)
 Written (report, presentation, summary...)
 Listened (radio, tv programme...)
 Spoken (presentation, report...)
 Conversational (with classmates or e-pals)
 Any combination of the above

9. The framework: the tasks (II)
 Tasks will be organised like a videogame
 Different unrelated tasks that can be done at any time
 Successfully executing a certain task will unlock new ones
 After a series of independent (but related) tasks are
successfully executed a final task, where all the acquired skills
will be required, will be unlocked
 Students who fail to pass a certain unit, will be pushed said
unit by the system to have a chance to review and re-try
before delving into the new unit
 Past tasks will be available for review and improvement

10. Technology involved (I)
 Interactive whiteboards
 Through the School 2.0 programme, most classrooms
are already fitted with one
 Tablets
 This is the investment the government should do
(considering the current price and the massive
acquisition, should be manageable; plus the
environment should be introduced progressively,
starting from the 1st year)

11. Technology involved (II)
 Personal computers
 Most houses in here already have one.
 Free use in public libraries
 Possibility of lending the laptops from the School 2.0
programme for students from excluded groups
 Smartphones
 Most students / parents already have one
 The tasks, however, should be able to be carried out on
PC as well, just in case.
 They give students the freedom to pace themselves and
work on their own time

12. Technology involved (III)
 On the software part, it will be necessary to design a
database with an easy and appealing frontend
(MOOC-style):
 Online storage of students’ details and production
 Storage of units and tasks to be pushed to the student
 Interface with the student (tablet, smartphone; PC)
 Possibility of adding a peer-review system, forums,
internal messaging once the students c0mmand the
main app.

13. GOAL
Class Home Life

14. Implementation (I)
 Business model
 It could be applied to any type of model, though the
objective here is public education, so non-profit.
 Implementation
 Starting from the first Secondary Education year,
introduce the framework year by year, progressively
 Helps prepare the students from scratch
 Involves a reduced number of teachers (can be just 1)
 Reduces the amount of investment in devices
 Allows to foolproof the server and solve issues before scaling
up

15. Implementation (II)
 Scaling up
 Progressively introduce the framework in the next year (2nd
year, 3rd year...)
 The database doubles every year (until the 4th), but it’s low
maintenance because the actual students’ production is not
stored there (but in the proprietary apps aforementioned)
 Sustainability
 After the fourth year of implementation, the school will have
all the necessary tablets (so further investment will be small)
 Once students have finished their 4th year, the whole profile
becomes read-only and is moved to a backup server (easing
the traffic on the main one)

16. Final thoughts
 The framework here presented tries to take learning
beyond the class, accommodating the language as a part of
the students’ life through real-life tasks and communicative
goals. I.e., the e-pal system will allow communication with
native speakers of English
 Technology is the means, never the end. The objective is
giving the students a good command of the language in
real life situation by using all the possibilities ICT gives us.
 The final goal is that students understand the importance
and the beauty of communication in real life (not just at
school) and enjoy it. That’s the best motivation!