Learning in the age of advanced technology and AI is a great opportunity for both learners and educators.
Much of the teaching and learning is now being conducted on virtual platforms, which undoubtedly requires users to know how to manage computers, the Internet and technology well. In other words, developing digital literacy now holds a prominent position in education. In this context, as ESL teachers working with various proficiency levels, our job with elementary learners who lack enough digital literacy might require more effort to handle both fronts successfully. We should be mindful of the fact that handling both language learning and digital literacy is quite challenging for learners, and the reasons why some adults are struggling with digital literacy is also important if we want to help them overcome this challenge. So, in this blog post, I’ll point out why some learners at the basic level are struggling with technology in their learning and suggest how teachers can help them overcome these problems.
Tag Archives: technology
Teacher Reflective Practice to Foster Student Engagement
I’ve witnessed many programs permanently transition to facilitating education through an online platform ever since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. Educational programs have either completely transitioned to online learning or have exploded with additional online offerings. However, have teacher education programs reformed their curricula to offer teaching strategies and theories related to the increased demand for online learning? In other words, are teachers being taught how to teach online? Perhaps not.
Customizing H5Ps
There are thousands of H5P learning objects available online through repositories, open education resources and shared courses. Many of them have a Reuse button. By clicking on this button, educators can download an H5P and use it as it is or they can customize the H5P.
H5P, HTML5 Package, is an online set of tools that facilitates the creation and sharing of interactive, multimedia content. These are normally used for educational purposes. They enhance learner engagement with interactivity, immediate feedback and mixed media. H5P offers a variety of content types like quizzes, interactive videos, presentations, and games, which can be easily integrated into online learning platforms such as Canvas, Moodle or Brightspace. One of the best attributes of H5P is the ability to customize existing H5Ps. This can save time, energy and development costs. It also saves training time for teacher-developers.
Continue reading
Poodll on Moodle
I was fortunate enough to have moderated a few Avenue webinars on Poodll technologies in June. The webinar speaker was Justin Hunt, the founder and CEO of Poodll. I have since been developing learning experiences for the CanAvenue.ca project using Poodll technologies and would like to share some of the basics with the TESL Ontario community through this blog post and a TESL Ontario webinar.
How We Think About Technology in the Classroom
Technology is so embedded in our daily lives that we hardly notice, even take for granted, that we can’t get through our day without our phones, the internet, automated check-outs, Zoom. Yet, when it comes to using computers in the classroom, most teachers are reactionary in their response.
The school where I work will be using Avenue as the main delivery platform for all levels starting in September. This decision, when it was announced last year, did not, and indeed, has not, gone over well with the teachers, to put it mildly.
Continue readingMaking Meaning in Online Environments
Let’s face it, teaching in an online learning environment can be difficult when it comes to engaging and motivating learners. This non-traditional learning environment poses an additional challenge to ensure learners are constructing meaning from the content and deepening their learning and understanding.
Educators often struggle to help learners make meaningful connections to the content while deepening their understanding within an online learning environment. For this reason, I want to emphasize the benefits of discussion boards in online learning.
Discussion boards can be defined as virtual platforms where learners can interact with their instructor and peers by posting and responding to discussion posts. This type of interaction and knowledge building foster a sense of community among students while promoting active learning within an online learning environment. Continue reading
Strategies for Online Learning to Promote Student Engagement and Satisfaction
From my experience, and the experiences of my colleagues and students, online learning and teaching have gained significant popularity on a global scale in recent years. Hui & Yunus (2023) suggest that teachers could benefit from a revision in curriculum to support modernized online teaching approaches that help foster a motivating, authentic, and satisfying online learning environment with the goal of promoting a sense of student autonomy. Implementing proper strategies could result in better learning. Continue reading
GPTs for Language Instructors
I know this is going to be confusing, so let me try to sort out this alphabet soup. GPT, or Generative Pre-trained Transformer model, is a type of artificial intelligence model developed by OpenAI. You should be familiar with ChatGPT, which is the most common tool. For language instructors, these tools can perform various tasks such as language translation, text summarization, question answering and much more, including:
- content creation
- customer support
- educational tools
- personalized learning experiences
- research assistance.
Make Your Word-Processed Documents More Accessible
Most of us are aware of the importance of the issues around digital accessibility through our own disabilities and supporting our students in virtual and blended classrooms. Some organizations offer accessibility training for educators and learners. Due to accessibility legislation and policies, software vendors build accessibility features into their wares. This opportunity allows us to make our documents more accessible. This post suggests some features available in the Microsoft Word app that instructors may leverage to make their digital documents more accessible. Please be aware that this is not a comprehensive accessibility resource, but an introduction for interested educators. Continue reading
Simplifying Real-World Content with ChatGPT and the Canadian Language Benchmarks
Lesson planning can be a time-consuming endeavor, especially for educators teaching students with lower levels of English proficiency. Adapting materials to meet the needs of these learners requires careful consideration and often entails significant effort. However, with the assistance of tools like ChatGPT, this process can be streamlined and made more efficient.
Continue reading