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

Timeschanged 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 teach and learn in the 21st century?

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.
Mobile Learning
Learning Platform
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.
Mobile Learning
Learning Platform
Edmodo
Theories

Mobile Learning
Learning Platform
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)
Mobile Learning
Learning Platform
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
Mobile Learning
Learning Platform
Edmodo
Theories

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.
STEPSSTEPSTARGET 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

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
cfmalho@gmail.com

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).

https://www.edmodo.com/

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

Recommandé

Recommandé

Contenu connexe

En vedette

En vedette (20)

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

Similaire à Feeding digital natives: Mobile Learning, Edmodo, Teaching and Learning English (20)

Plus de jornadaslinguas

Plus de jornadaslinguas (13)

Dernier

Dernier (20)

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