Curating our digital options

After some reflection, I have come to a couple of realizations. The first is that I can get so jazzed up about using the latest and smartest pedagogical tool, that I sometimes lose sight of what my class is actually learning from it. And you can be sure that if I’m unclear about the learning outcome, then my students will be too. For instance, is it worth it to invest three hours of prep time and one hour of class time on a digital game to review vocabulary? It’s so easy for us to fall into the trap of using technology merely for the sake of using it.  

The second realization is that by trying so desperately to engage students through cyberspace and impress them with my digital prowess, I have cast aside motivational techniques I have traditionally used, the main one being pride of heritage. Even the shiest of students will open up about their favourite music, art, food, activities or special places. This instinct to preserve and share their culture is important because it allows them to highlight all that is beautiful, happy, and good in their countries, whatever their reasons for leaving them.  

Consequently, I am now more selective about the digital activities I use in the classroom: at a minimum, they must have a clear learning objective and generate engagement. But the best are those that allow students to share stories about their homelands. There are lots of tech options out there that can do that. For example, my son recently reminded me about how fun geolocation games can be. He showed me an image of a farmer’s field with a river, flowers, mountains, and a temple in the background. My job was to guess the location. Although I was close, give or take a border or two, I didn’t get the right answer. Nevertheless, I bet one of my students from Vietnam would have recognized it. 😀 This kind of game can easily tie into key ESL outcomes. As students use trackers to move through the images, zooming in on road signs, scenery, and landmarks, they use critical thinking skills to determine where they are and sensory language skills to describe what they see. They also have the excitement of identifying their homelands and places they have visited. This, of course, leads to intercultural communicative competence, or ICC, which you can read about in one of my previous posts here.

Further, after the “guess the location” part is over, the class can write a paragraph about how it makes them feel to see images of their country or those of their peers and what they have learned. We can incorporate the use of certain grammatical structures, metaphors, descriptive language, or new vocabulary. We can also have students write something that compares the industries, landscapes, or agriculture depicted in the photos to those in their countries. The sky is the limit! Click here for a nice list of geolocation apps and here to watch an online class where the teacher uses the popular game GeoGuessr. I have also found a sample lesson plan and more details about how to integrate GeoGuessr and other location games into the ESL classroom. Whatever app you use or learning activity you generate from it, you can conduct the class in a way that promotes pride of place and an interest in where each person comes from.  

Just as we have seen with the geolocation options above, digital games can be hugely valuable in ESL. The problem is that we have an ever-increasing supply to choose from, so it’s easy to get lost in the weeds. Here are some key questions to ask ourselves before we choose our next digital activity:

• Is the learning objective clear to the students, and will they meaningfully achieve it? 
• How much time will it take (prep, setup, time to complete) versus the results it will yield for students? In other words, is it time well spent? 
• Can the activity be tied to an interesting topic? e.g., Comparative culture and heritage, Indigenous art, rap music, world hunger, homelessness, space travel, versus a childlike game with beeps, buzzers, and a flying squirrel that salutes students when they guess the right preposition or piece of vocabulary. 

As for me, I’m learning not to jump at the latest game that swoops into the digital landscape and to trust my years of experience to guide my choices. It’s pretty simple, really. Just do what we have always done: set a learning objective and use what works to achieve it in a way that stimulates the students. And always remember how powerful pride of heritage can be, both as a motivator and as a learning tool.

 

Photo by note thanun on Unsplash