Task: Work with your classmate to host a webinar. Research what is the most viable platform. Liaise with each other over the winter vacation to finalise the details and content. Utilise some kind of audience survey/poll.
Topic – TBD (maybe TEL, maybe ELF, Global Englishes etc.)
Date – January, third week
Duration: 20 minutes
Time – evening
Audience – teachers & interested students (target 10+)
To discuss and review the third week of the Futurelearn course, which this week focused on technology in language education: What points of similarity were there with our course? Were there any new topics covered?
To complete our look at some major theories in motivation in learning.
Assessing online tools – creating a list of criteria
Outside Class Work
Complete the Futurelearn course and write a reflection blog post on your experience: focus on how useful you found the course, weaknesses and ways it could be improved, what you found most interesting and so on.
We all agreed in the first week of Futurelearn.com’s Understanding Language course, that motivation is a key element in the success or otherwise of students. We have also, on our course talked about how technology can offer various opportunities to enhance learning. In this class we explore what motivation is and reflect on how that may inform decisions on technology use in the classroom. Goals
To share what was learnt about ‘badges’ (gamification) and assess classmate’s approaches to last week’s task.
To understand three basic theories of motivation in language learning (to be followed up with more in depth reading).
Picture Credit : ” Neuron-network1″,extracted from MCRUSELLS (2013) on http://theonescience.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/neuron-network1.jpg
Goals
Share experiences and thoughts from the first week of a MOOC
Explore what gamification in education means
Learn about one element of ‘Gamification’ in education – badges.
Discussions topics
Safety online
Futurelearn.com experience
Motivation, grading, ‘gaming’
Practical activity
Find out as much as you can about ‘badges’ in TEL
Share with the class
Homework Task 1
You have a class of 3rd year high junior high school students studying English in your class. Think how you could introduce badges into your curriculum. What badges would you award for what work? Create an A4 explanation sheet for your class and be prepared to explain the choices you made next week.
Homework Task 2
Record your reactions to gamification and/or badges on your blog