bilingual e-material for primary and secondary schools
2. The setting of the project
3.3. Solving problems to learn language and content.
The tasks developed in the material include a wide set of information gap, reasoning gap and information gap tasks, involving different levels of work in terms of thinking skills, from lower order to higher order ones aiming at the uttermost objective of critical thinking.
63 All the tasks amount for the construction of a set of four final projects among which teachers and students can choose depending on their interests and contextual circumstances. These final inclusive projects are third generation tasks with an educational ethical dimension accounting to students´ citizenship education. Picture 3 in the Appendix shows examples of these tasks.
3. 4. Digital component in the digital corner
Once the "Cuadernos para el Aula de Inglés" were published, the second stage of the Project was ready to start. This second stage involves the integration of Learning Technologies in the classroom. Technology is already present in many secondary schools in the province of Buenos Aires with the National Programme called ―Conectar Igualdad‖ which started in 2010. Also this year (2013) the primary schools of the province of Buenos Aires are launching a new project called ―Aulas Digitales‖; thus, primary schools will receive netbooks to be used in primary school classrooms. Thanks to these programmes, students have now the opportunity to enhance their learning with the use of technology in the language classes.
However, computers are not enough to make the big change in the 21st century learners. Even though teachers from the Province of Buenos Aires have been receiving training sessions on Learning Technologies delivered by the programme ―Conectar Igualdad‖ and the programme of Plurilingualismand Intercultural Education of the Province of Buenos Aires, we are aware of the fact that teachers still have difficult ies in the use of technologies in their classroom. Teachers need to be confident in order to offer effective
64 technology integration with appropriate strategies in their real contexts. Therefore, we decided to create a special place for teachers of English who can find motivating e- activities triggered by the content developed in "Cuadernos para el Aula de Inglés" called ―Digital Corner‖ (―Rincón Digital‖).
The following text is the introduction of the e-book ―Digital Corner‖:
The main focus of the Digital Corner materials is to help and guide English teachers to walk together the paths towards Learning Technologies. We all know how technologies have invaded our teaching context and that we cannot resist its integration anymore. We know that each teacher has a personal and unique scenario in his/her own class; therefore, we will suggest different paths to take together with technology, your students and you.
Remember that you together with your students will be leaving your digital footprints when you walk through the paths of the web. Hope this e-booklet will help you throughout your digital way.
All the activities suggested in the ―Digital Corner‖ were already tested; all the webtools used are free and all the photos and pictures used are free as well. In this way, we have tried to avoid copyright issues and we teach teachers how to create online material free of legal problems. The webtools recommended are user-friendly and appropriate to the age and level of knowledge of the students and their learning context.
The e-activities suggested by ―Digital Corner‖ involve the ―students learn by doing‖ principle mentioned by Dewey (1897). The four skills are present throughout the e-book: reading, writing, speaking and listening. Once the students finish with their tasks, all the projects can be uploaded to a school/class/student blog , wiki, school webpage, etc. In these virtual environments students have the opportunity to share their work not only with their
65 classmates but also with other institutions, their parents and, of course, the rest of the world.
Reading and writing activities have always been easy to carry out in our classes whereas listening and speaking tasks have presented more difficulties as regards the use of the different technological gadgets we have used in the last years. Nowadays, the convergence of technologies and the growth of webtools have solved many of our problems. For example, using tools like Voxopop students have the possibility to record themselves, to listen to their partners and also to leave a comment on the place. An example of this task is shown on Picture 4 in the appendix.
Also computer skills are part of the practice in the e-book, such as a puzzle game where the students drag and drop the pieces of the puzzle. We have to bear in mind that many students will be touching computers for the first time in their lives. You can see the puzzle on picture 5 in the appendix.
Sharing different stories, legends and rhymes from the cultures that come together in the English classrooms is also present in the ―Digital Corner‖ project. Students play with games like ―I spy with my little eye‖ with the pictures offered by the ―Cuaderno de Trabajo del Aula de Inglés‖. You can see an example in picture 6 in the appendix. Students do not only play the game but compare the games with the ones they have already learned in their own language and culture. Also students are encouraged to listen and read stories from a diversity of aboriginal cultures that meet in the classroom. An example of the story of can be seen on picture 7 in the appendix.
66 4. Concluding remarks
The development of highly contextualized ESOL materials for vulnerable sectors in our society needs to be understood as part of the responsibility of the state to cater for the resources and means to guarantee compulsory education. A local perspective may help ESOL educators approach school intakes that have been traditionally left out of the system and for whom English was for too long a neglected subject in their education. If we wish that that happens, it becomes essential to understand the practical, particular and possible (Kumaravadivelu, 2003; 2006) dimensions of a pedagogic framework that aims at an education for all paradigms.
As regards technology, we would like to conclude saying that we all know we are living in a digital world, but maybe we are not aware of the fact that with the advance of technology we are reaching a stage of normalization in the use of technology in the language classrooms around the world (Bax, 2003). Ten years ago Bax said that pens and textbooks were fully normalized whereas computers had not yet reached the stage of normalization in the classrooms. With the help of the political programmes initiated by the state, we as teachers have in our hands the possibility to enhance learning through technology and to help develop computer skills that will be necessary tools in our 21st century students.
Cuadernos de Trabajo para el aula de inglés Educación plurilingüe e intercultural Webpage:
67 References
Barboni, S., &M. Porto (2011). Enseñanza de inglés e identidad nacional en la Argentina del bicentenario: ¿Qué tensiones y qué posibilidades se abren con la incorporación del inglés en el currículum de la Escuela? In Barboni, S (Ed),Enseñanza de inglés e identidad nacional a los 200 años de la Revolución de Mayo(pp. 13 – 68). La Plata: Eds Al Margen.
Bax, S. (2003).CALL— Past, present and future.Department of Language Studies, Canterbury Christ Church University College, Canterbury, UK.Retrieved from: http://moodle.bracu.ac.bd/pluginfile.php/6302/mod_resource/content/1/Stephen%20Ba xs%20Call%20past,%20present%20and%20future.pdf Last accessed to: July, 2013. Byram, M. (2009).Intercultural citizenship and foreign language education.Retrieved from:
http://www.frl.auth.gr/sites/congres/Interventions/FR/byram.pdfLast accessed to: April 2012.
Canagarajah, S. (2011). Codemeshing in academic writing: Identifying teachable strategies of ―translanguaging‖. The Modern Language Journal, 95(3), 401-417.
García, O. (2009). Bilingualeducation in the 21st century: A global perspective. West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.
Ellis, R. (2009). Task-based language teaching: Sorting out the misunderstandings. International Journal of Applied Linguistics.19 (3), 221 – 246.
Kumaravadivelu, B. (2003). A postmethod perspective on English language teaching.World Englishes, 22(4), 539-550.
Kumaravadivelu, B. (2006). Understanding language teaching: From method to postmethod. New York: Routledge.
68 Appendix
69 Picture 2. Ecology in Context
70 Picture 3. Task Examples
71 Picture 4. Voxopop Talkgroup
72 Picture 6. ―I see with my little eye‖ Game
73