Integrating 21st-Century Skills in Education

2011 Updates

An Ongoing Experience: Learning

& MonitoringRita Abdelnour

Saint Joseph School

Cornet Chehwan, Lebanon

slaveoflight@gmail.com

https://sites.google.com/site/rabdelnourcv/

http://efleducators.wikispaces.com

Basics

Does the way you’ve been taught prepare you for these

days’ challenges?

What are the most memorable or positive learning

experience you’ve had?

Authentic practical experiences / situations; problem solving; real

audience

Open-ended outcomes; real risks

Team work

Ongoing learning

Move is inevitable: it’s not “if,” it’s “when”

Where Did it All Start?

Professional Development (1): Invitation to

reflect and create the needed interventions

Online Course in 2008:

reading: educators around the world share the same challenges; exchanging

experiences helps

Compare, reflect, and adapt

Act: start by creating interventions with specific objectives that can be

assessed (success or failure) immediately after. For e.g. change instructions,

give more time for oral discussion, give students a chance to choose the

product, etc.

Understand what a discussion forum / thread means: posting once

(overwhelming) vs. interacting

Only Connect: Turn Mirrors

into Windows

Professional Development (2): Building Teaching

Skills Through the Interactive Web

Online Course in 2009:

Better web-searching

Blogging: sharing reflections vs. discussion forums

Skill-building websites

Project-based learning; WebQuests

Using PPT effectively (by students)

Life-changing idea of learner autonomy

Web 2.0: wiki, online posters, webquest, ning

Ongoing Learning:

Communities

Professional Development (3): Personal

Learning Environments (PLEs)

2009-2011:

Classroom 2.0 (Learning Times; Learn Central; Elluminate; Ed Tech)

Virtual Round Table

TESOL (e-lists + resources) & TESOL EVO (free online sessions)

Education Week

Technology Integration in Education

Training Magazine Network

From learning to Application More Learning:

“Try it Yourself” Web 2.0

Web 2.0: the second generation of the web / the read write web

relies on users’ interaction and collaboration

tools considered an excellent means to engage learners and enhance learning

learner at the center; teacher hand in hand with digital natives

A basic 21st-century literacy...but not an obvious fact in most schools in Lebanon

Ethical use and digital etiquette

Try it yourself: Social networking sites (Ning); Wikis (wikispaces; pbworks); Online surveys (Survey monkey); Twitter; Doodle; Google sites; Blogs (blogger; blogmeister; edublogs); online quizzes; picture & video sharing (Flickr; youtube; vimeo); sharing presentations (slideshare); bookmarking (Delicious; Diigo)

Ideas adapted from: LoTI (Levels of Technology Integration): Digital Age Framework The University of Oregon online course homepage Building Teaching Skills Through the Interactive Web Reflections collected in a personal blog Only Connect: Turning Mirrors into Windows

Becoming a CALL Practitioner

In preparation for TESOL:

TESOL CALL-IS Academic Session 2010 in Boston: invited speaker to speak on The Emergent Role of Educators in e-learning environments

First Steps in Middle School

Proposal: Targeted Objectives

Shift from addictive social networking to collaborative learning

Enhance learners’ motivation through experiencing authentic contexts employing their “digital” language

Enhance critical thinking skills through discussion forums

Acquire digital literacy and practice ethical use and digital etiquette

Encourage students to write reflective pieces

Practicing CALL:One Pilot Class: Multiple Attempts

Grade 7: e-pals (obstacles to matching our

Lebanese students to American students coming

from American parents)

Grade 8: Blog (difficulties in following students

and troubleshooting)

Grade 9: the Ning www.callnewbie.ning.com

It was the result of an authentic need – an unfinished

discussion in class was picked up online!

CALL Newbie: Grade 9 Ning (2009-2010)

Stage 1: Setting up the scene

Reactions:

Administration: Supportive but not assertive

Parents: No formal communication!!!

Colleagues: Passively excited & actively resistant

First-step Challenges:

Setting the Ning: friendly interface; setting accounts; encouraging pictures; creating profiles

Starting interaction: assignment with clear objectives parallel to class; clear criteria

Ethical use and digital etiquette

Students’ security: private space where membership, comments, and blogs are monitored

Warning about ads: making students aware that it was a free application and ads such as match.com have nothing to do with our learning objective!

The Ning was blocked at school along with other social networking sites

March, 2010

The Teacher Monitor & Digital Natives

First discussion forum: rate of interaction; kind of interaction; failure to monitor

Second discussion forum: more interaction; more tolerance; critical thinking more activated

Adding widgets: the map

Turning the Ning public: more authentic readership activated learners’ motivation; the blog experience

Conducting a survey: what students enjoyed the most is having a wider audience and reading comments on their work the most

Setting a guest space for visitors to write comments

March, 2010

The Learners’ e-presence Growing interaction

Better skills at writing emails

More tolerance & Better insight (active critical thinking) in

discussion forums

Learn the value of collaboration: sharing their work and building

on each other’s work

Posting their narratives in blogs to share them with their classmates

and the world

Writing comments on each other’s blogs

March, 2010

Revising Strategies & Prospects

Fine-tune goals: baby steps to have more educators on board; give chances for a “try it yourself” period / training

Better planning: contact with parents ; integration within school’s website ; integrated activities with clear outcomes ( in-process)

Model and monitor consistently: teacher’s e-presence ( in-process)

March, 2010

Follow up the ticked points on following slides.

Digital Etiquette in Action: Email 1

Digital Etiquette in Action: Email 2

Signature

Guest Spacehttp://msenglishdept.edublogs.org/guestspace-call-newbie/

SJS CALL Newbie: Grade 9 Ning (2010-2011)

Development:

SJS CALL Newbie on the school’s website

Formal communication with parents

Upgrading – annual subscription: no longer a free application / no more ads

Accessible at school

WebQuest

Gradual initiation; more personal space (to avoid the creepy treehouse effect)

Class Wiki

How is it done?

1. Setting objectives + Product (usually prepared with students)

2. Posting clear prompt + Criteria

3. Setting a timeline

4. Arranging checkpoints

5. Posting & encouraging comments

6. Editing and improving on

What matters the most? Message to Learners

To engage you in a learning space outside the classroom

That way, we prepare you for the technological challenges of the time

where the web is a major platform for interaction, learning, and business

We fix some misconceptions we might have about the uses of the

Internet and we open up our classroom walls to the world; in other

words, we build up an identity on the web, and we post work that we are

proud to share with the world. This enhances both independence and

responsibility.

Moreover - as the description of this community indicates - we aim to

promote the value of communication and collaboration. This includes

digital etiquette (respect, etc.) as well as critical thinking (in your

comments on each others' posts for e.g.) and support (exchange of

information & skills and intellectual generosity).

What matters most? Message to Learners

Most of all, this kind of personalized yet responsible

interaction is meant to be more F.U.N. as more time is

given to everybody and more space to display what

they know best and for others to appreciate that!

I know it's clear to everybody that we haven't achieved

all these objectives, and we might not do so anytime

this year. The degree of achievement is individual, and

the only measure for success is awareness and

consistency i.e. you should know where you’re

heading and keep at it even when the year is done.

What you acquire here should be the base!

What is still the problem?

Assessment

Collaboration with other teachers

Resistance: Exhaustion; Fear of change

No training / support (problem of professional

development all over in Lebanon)

School vision

Not enough time