8th confession: there is strength in unity



This post discusses the importance of collaboration and cooperation between students and teachers when engaging in talks, chats or debates in online resources such as emails, online discussion boards, wikis, virtual learning environments, or blogs.
task posted on Edmodo


In the last post of this blog it was stated that one of the objectives of applying digital technologies is to promote learning responsibility, independence and encourage students to become good learners. Students should be willing to listen, to experiment, to ask questions and to think about how to learn. From my point of view these characteristics describe good learners not only inside but also outside the classroom.
 
students posting their video (link) 

From my experience I can say that these Chinese students, who have been in my oral English classes, not only lack of motivation for studying English but also have a mindset of traditional students, meaning that they do not develop effective learning strategies, learn by memory, study to pass the tests,  see IT as supplement to traditional teaching, rarely engage in cooperative or collaborative tasks, expect to receive the knowledge from their teachers, and do not question neither the content given nor the teacher.


Under those circumstances, I opted to use Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) such as Edmodo, instant messages applications such as Whatsapp, Facebook, Kakaotalk or QQ and even e-mails in order to motivate students to speak and write English, encourage them be more responsible and construct their own learning, work as group members on more collaborative/co−operative assignments, have discussions of their work in the classroom, develop effective learning strategies and have greater access to resources. As Frederickson (2005) found in a study “Participants in the web−supported sessions seemed motivated to take responsibility for directing and assessing their own learning”.


Having said that, Learners from my oral English classes had to make a video about love, topic that was in unit 3 in their text book, in order to practice their speaking skills and enhance their cooperative skills. Additionally they had to use an APP for writing subtitles in the video for creating awareness of their grammatical and pronunciation errors. Not to mention that it could help their classmates understand what they wanted to say.


Furthermore students had to upload the videos in YOUKU (the Chinese version of YOUTUBE) and posted the link in Edmodo, a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), in the hope that in next classes the learners will be able to watch them again and reflect, discuss and share ideas about their English performance, teamwork and their ability to produce videos. In other words this activity is trying to promote talks, chats or debates in Edmodo, discussions that are known as Online Asynchronous Discussions.  
students watching their classmates' video


As can be seen, Online Asynchronous Discussions (OAD) in a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) like Edmodo can have a positive impact on active participation, encouraging these groups of students to become more independent as well as collaborative or cooperative.
students preparing their video


For this reason, planning a lesson where students have to make a video in groups fosters cooperative learning because they have the chance to interact and help each other in order to develop a task, besides there is no competition since they are cooperating to produce this video using English. In addition, posting or sharing the links of these videos, in Edmodo, provides an excellent opportunity to engage students in an OAD. To point out research has shown that the benefits of utilizing an asynchronous learning environment include collaboration and cooperation. Students should be encouraged to offer information and insights from their own experiences, allowing them to gain information and insights from other members of the group as well as the instructor. (Dixon, M., Kuhlhorst, M. and Reiff, A. 2006)



With the previous idea in mind it is equally important that the instructor assume different roles or exert teaching functions that can promote the development of OAD among the students. Researcher say that no matter how thoughtfully a conference is designed and structured, without the active involvement of the teachers in the process of dialogue, its success is left to chance. (Xin, C. 2012)

Given these points, the Chinese students from my oral English classes have already developed an activity making videos, which has encouraged them to work together as a team cooperating or collaborating instead of competing. Additionally posting them in Edmodo can provide an opportunity to develop Online Asynchronous Discussions (OAD) and encourage these learners to offer advice and observations from their own experiences and at the same time to obtain advice and observations from other classmates and the teacher.



Reference

Dixon, M., Kuhlhorst, M., & Reiff, A. (2006). Creating effective online discussions: Optimal instructor and student roles. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 10(3), 15-28.

Frederickson, N. Reed, P. Clifford, V. (2005) − Evaluating web−supported learning verses lecture−based teaching: Quantitative and qualitative perspectives. Higher Education (2005)

Xin, C (2012). A Critique of the Community of Inquiry Framework. Journal of Distance Education, 26, 2.

Comments

  1. alessandra23 November 2017 at 09:19

    Hi, I find the post really helpful since I have to cope with my students' lack of motivation everyday. I use Edmodo, too and I like the possibility it gives us to stay in touch and to discuss also outside the classroom. I would like to discuss your post with my students and so I am here to ask if you allow me to use Insert Learning on it, so to give the kids the opportunity to think about it and come up with their own opinions. Thanks a lot anyway

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    Replies
    1. Unknown26 November 2017 at 02:00

      hello Alessandra. thank you so much for reading the post. sure you can use it the idea is to share and have new ideas about it. please let me know how it goes with your students and what conclusion you got rom that activity that you are thinking to implement.

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