A vocabulary activity for the virtual classroom!

When I was in the LANCELOT course back in 2008, I did a peer to peer activity with a colleague and through that activity where we tested white boards in various classrooms, I came up with another hall of fame activity for whiteboarding.  I have tested it numerous times with intermediate level and above and it works beautifully.  Basically, the topic is on 'personality'.  What you do is separate the whiteboard into two sections (or if you are using adobe connect, put up two whiteboards) and have the students brainstorm as many words that they can think of that has to do with someone's personality.  Once the list is exhausted, have each student write their name on the second half of the whiteboard vertically.  Then have each student choose a word from the list that describes their personality.  Once they have written the words, then have each person explain why they chose that particular word.  Normally the lesson lasts for about 45 minutes, which is ideal for a virtual classroom.  If your class is longer than an hour, I would take some discussion questions from the website 'Conversation questions for the ESL/EFL classroom' which can work nicely into a fluency exercise.  The following pictures are of lessons from Edufire's Adobe Connect and also from a virtual classroom called Instant Presenter.

Advanced Level activity in the Virtual Classroom!

One of my hall-of-fame activities for advanced level learners of English in the virtual classroom is on 'giving opinions'. The following is a description as to how the class session usually goes.  I always start a lesson with some type of small talk activity and normally will have a picture up that might generate some discussion such as the one below.

Then, we go into the activity.  I usually go through phrases that people need for giving opinions using a powerpoint slide and/or illicit the phrases from the student, depending on the level of the student.  Then I bring up a slide where the student can mark whether they agree or disagree with the statement that I am saying.  The student practices listening by listening to my statement and then they will explain their opinion, which allows them to practice speaking.  The following are some of the statements I might use:

1.  It is difficult to have a successful family life and a successful career.  One has to choose one or the other.

2.  Video games are the cause of violence in our societies.

3. It is okay to smoke while pregnant during the first trimester.

I, of course, tailor the statement to the student's needs and will use business topicss or general topics based on the student.  The student will mark on the whiteboard and then the group will discuss the issue.  It is really fun with groups as there might be a lot of differing opinions.  With a one-to-one student, this activity might last more than one week depending on how much the student likes it.

Skype vs. The Virtual Classroom

I was doing a virtual classroom demonstration last week with a possible client and the person innocently asked, 'how is this different than teaching on Skype?' and so I thought I would answer the question here.  Skype is one of the best VoIP software programs out there and if you are just having a conversation with your students and don't really need to use online tools, Skype might just be the best alternative for a live online teacher.  If one is teaching groups and/or would like to make the class more interesting by using tools, the virtual classroom is the best.  I will start with the similarities and then go on to the differences between the two.

When teaching with either Skype or a virtual classroom, there are three areas that are exactly alike.  One, both teacher and student can use VoIP and their web camera for one-to-one classes.  If the teacher (or student) has paid for the option on Skype, they can also see groups in the web camera, but for the free versions, the teacher can only use the web camera if the call is with one other person.  The second similarity is the ability to share one's screen.  This is a nice opportunity for both teacher and student to share resources.  The third similarity is the chat.  The teacher can use the chat to provide feedback or give directions to the student using this function and copy the chat and email the student with feedback.

The following are some tools that a teacher can use in the virtual classroom that cannot be used on Skype.  The whiteboard is one of the best ways to get the student involved in a lesson.  When teaching groups, the teacher can ask the students to write on the whiteboard while one student is talking.  There are many activities teachers can do on the whiteboard.  They can upload matching activities, game slides or use it for free writing.  As illustrated in my last post, teaching beginning level children, I used the whiteboard for the children to answer questions through drawing that they may not have had the vocabulary for.  The whiteboard is just one excellent way to utilize the virtual classroom tools.

Another difference between using Skype and the virtual classroom is the ability to upload video.  I was giving the demonstration in WebEx, which allowed me to upload short videos.  I will usually upload quick videos for discussion.  Alternatively, the student can be directed to a website, but it makes it more convenient for the teacher to have a little control.

Webtouring is another feature that I use for YouTube videos and games and activities.  As previously mentiond, there is less control, but a feature that cannot be used in other formats.

In WebEx, one has the opportunity to annotate and/or write on the screen as one does on the whiteboard while screensharing, which is wonderful if the teacher is showing an online activity.

Blackboard Collaborate has a feature that I really like for teaching groups.  The feature is an online clock.  So, you give your students pairwork and set the clock for five minutes and the teach and students all see the clock.  The teacher can also make the clock invisible to the students for other activities.

One of the big advantages to using a virtual classroom like WebEx, Blackboard Collaborate, Adobe Connect, Spreed, Microsoft Live, or WizIQ is the ability for groups to see each other on the web camera.  In addition, the teacher can record the sessions and have it available for the students to watch at a later time.  One can record on Skype, but it has to be with another program and there is no opportunity to see the class.

So, to summarize, Skype lessons are great for conversation classes yet if one wants to teach groups or utilize online tools such as the whiteboard, webtouring, annotating screenshare, and video, the virtual classroom is a better alternative.

Lessons learned teaching children in a virtual classroom!

One of the last projects I worked on before changing gears a couple of years ago was a project teaching for rural Korean schools in the Microsoft live virtual classroom.  Five nights a week, I taught small groups of 3rd-6th graders.  The students were all in a computer lab and there was a teacher who translated for me.  It was quite challenging and at first I was hard pressed as to how I can make the lessons fun and effective.  The following are a few things I learned to do to keep the students entertained.

First, I made sure that we utilized the whiteboard throughout the lesson.  My first slide was always the same slide and the students were asked how they were and they would circle whether they were happy, sad, tired, fine, etc.  Then I would have a question and there would be a chart and the students would all draw their answers using the white board tools.  They then had a chance to use the vocabulary from the picture to answer the question.  The questions were pretty basic for beginning students, such as:
1.  How is the weather today?
2. What did you do over the weekend?
3.  What did you study today?
4.  What is your favorite thing to do?
5. What is your favorite sport.

Secondly, I tried to use the the webtour function so that we could utilize video and allow the students to work on activities.  I almost always began the class with what soon to be one of my favorite children's songs made by Peter Weatherall, a teacher in Japan, called 'The Hello Song'.  Although, I did utilize other videos, this one was my favorite and the kids would sing along.

Another site I would use while webtouring is a children's site for kindergartener's here in the USA called Starfall, which had some really creative interactive games the students could play.  The only problem with that site was that when a teacher allows webtouring, there is really no control and so I didn't know what the students were really doing, so I had to rely on the Korean teacher who usually told me when they were finished.  I could tell by the students' faces that they were engaged, however.

Thirdly, another site the I frequented, especially for the older students was Barry Fun English , which also has a lot of interactive games, but the students needed to be in teams.  For this activity, I would use the screenshare function of the virtual classroom.  There were language games similar to the Wheel of Fortune, Bingo and other popular games.  I really liked this site and even paid for a couple months subscription as it was so popular. Since I had a subscription, I was also able to download the powerpoint slides that illustrated the vocabulary associated with each game.

So, after two spring semesters of doing this project, I came up with some really great sites and activities to engage the students as they learned English.  The class sessions were only about 45 minutes a few times a week, so the main objective was for the students to learn a bit of English and also to become acquainted with a native speaking accent, which was a great success.  The class size was 4-8 so it was also quite manageable.

Sidetracked

I started this blog a few years back to document my adventure into live online language teaching.  About 2011, I changed gears for a bit and learned about assessment as I worked as an item writer for an assessment company.  We worked as a team and developed language tests for different clients.  I worked with languages I had never heard of before then such as Amharic and Dari.  It was a great learning experience and I will forever be grateful for the chance to work with this company.  Unfortunately, my time with item writing (at least with this company) came to a close on Halloween 2012 as 70% of the team was laid off due to lack of work.  This made me take a long hard look at what I really wanted for the future and I realized that my heart and passion really was in live online language training, so I have decided to promote my company as well as start training teachers again.  We are currently in the planning stage and I will post more about what I'm planning as we have it more formalized.  Keep checking back as I begin (again) to start promoting live online language training!

Here is a blast from the past--part of my assessment for the LANCELOT certificate:

The Favorite VC: Elluminate Live

A couple of months ago, I posted a survey questioning several groups of people about their favorite virtual classroom (VC) for language teaching. The following VCs were on the survey:

1. Web Ex
2. Adobe Connect Pro
3. Elluminate Live
4. Spreed
5. Web Train
6. Instant Presenter
7. Dim Dim
8. Digital Samba
9. Saba Centra
10. Windows live
11. Vyew
12. Fuze
13. Electa
14. Second Life
15. Other (please specify)

I posted a few weeks ago that I would systematically write about each VC based on the survey in the order of the most favorite to the least favorite. The favorite VC based on just 45 respondents was Elluminate Live. I will first tell you a bit about Elluminate, the tools and then a bit about my personal experience with this VC, which is also one of my favorite VCs.

Elluminate Live is based in Canada and is one of the only VCs who has kept their target and focus on the education market and that may be one reason why it is one of the top VCs for many educators. One of the features of Elluminate is that it is available to low bandwidth users as well as high bandwidth users. Through Elluminate's 'Fire & Ice' program, they have entered rural markets in third world countries and have connected schools in these countries with each other as well as students/schools in the USA and Canada.

Besides being one of the most stable VCs I have used, the Elluminate Live classroom also has many tools available to language teachers that are essential for effective live online language learning, which include the following:

Video-up to six people can be on video at a time.
VOIP-up to six people can speak at the same time.
Whiteboard-available for the teacher and the students to collaborate.
Clip Art-there are some ready-made pictures for the teachers to use on the whiteboard--one of the only classrooms that provides this feature as far as I know.
Text chat-the students and teacher can chat with each other and send private messages as well (although moderators can see everything).
Web browsing-the teacher and students can look at different web-pages together.
Screen sharing-the teacher and/or students can share their entire computer screen if they want to.
Application sharing-the teacher and/or students can share one part of their computer if they want to.
File sharing-the teacher can send word and pdf documents this way.
Clock-a clock can be used to track how much time an activity is taking.  The teacher can make this private or available to the students to see as well.  This feature is only available in Elluminate as far as I am aware.
Survey-the teacher can survey the students on various topics.
Quizzes-a quiz function is also available to the teachers.
Elluminate Plan--in the professional version, this allows the teacher to upload everything ahead of time and to have the session completely planned up to the minute--a very useful tool.
Recording-in the professional version, one can record the lesson and make it available to one's students.

I first started using Elluminate a few years ago and it quickly became one of my favorite VCs because it was stable and quite frankly fun to use.  The clipart, the clock, the whiteboard tools and the web browsing are the tools that made this one of my favorite VCs. I have used it in large groups as well as in one-to-one teaching situations.  To better illustrate how this VC works, I will include some videos made during some pilots conducted in 2009.

The following is a short clip of a lesson conducted with a group of middle school students in China:






Now, here is a short clip of a group of students in Burkina Faso:

Survey: What is Your Favorite Virtual Classroom for Language Teaching?

A couple of weeks ago, I was seeing some lively discussions on a forum that I frequent about virtual classrooms (VCs) and the use of them by language teachers. Some had specific features they wanted to have and others just said they only use Skype. So, I thought it would be interesting to survey different people who teach languages on the internet and see what the preferred virtual classroom really is. When I set up the survey, there were three questions that I wanted answered, which were:

1) What VCs do live online language teachers actually use?
2) What VCs are live online language teachers familiar with?
3) Is using Skype alone effective language teaching?

Although I only received about 45 responses, I found the responses quite fascinating. I've decided to present the results in a series of blog postings instead of just one as I originally planned since I did get so much information. I thought I would start with a review of each of the virtual classrooms on the survey starting with the most popular to the least popular. In each posting I will discuss the tools and limitations of the particular VC. Later on, I will then discuss the open-ended responses about the effectiveness of using just Skype in language teaching. There were many differing opinions and it will be interesting to sort through and to share. So, come on back and give your opinion as I systematically report the results.

Why do you tweet? Isn't it another time waster like Facebook?

A few years ago, shortly after I started on facebook, a friend sent me an invitation to try out twitter. I signed up and immediately did not understand it. I set the privacy so high that only my friend could see my tweets and I faithfully tweeted what I was doing 'teaching an engineer today', 'going to the hospital, high school and paper company today to teach', etc. It wasn't until I saw a presentation at an online conference presented by someone (the details completely escape me) that I finally 'got' it and so I opened up my tweets and started following people, Retweeting (I'm the queen of that) and dialoguing with educators. My whole life just expanded and I have learned so much from the network of people I have met through twitter. When I had the good fortune of attending the BESIG conference in Poland last November, I even got to meet and talk with several of my favorite twitter friends, which was great! If you are an educator and are interested in networking with like-minded teachers and receiving links of blog postings you would never find, I would highly suggest joining twitter.

Now to answer the question above--is it a time waster like facebook? My answer is that is can be if you don't discipline yourself, but it is so full of information that it might actually save you time. One good thing about twitter is that you can ask a question and eventually someone will come up with an answer. So, if you want to know what a good tool is for podcasting and tweet the question, you will get several answers and places to turn to from real live people as opposed to googling everything, which is what I tended to do before twitter (and still do at times). So, I would call twitter another avenue towards professional development if you use it right. (BTW, I love Facebook and used in moderation is a great way to network with friends...) Below, you will see a mosaic of many of my twitter friends!

Certification--is it really necessary?

A couple months ago I had a discussion with a Director of Studies of a new live online language school and he mentioned that it didn´t matter to him if the trainers he hires has any sort of certification in teaching English let alone live online--what mattered to him was whether the teacher could teach and whether he/she had experience in the industry that the student was working. In fact, work experience as a banker was more important to him than teaching experience if the students were bankers. I thought to myself and possibly even said it--the same old debate about whether qualifications makes someone a good teacher and I inwardly groaned.

To understand my reaction, one should probably understand how I got into teaching. I was working at a multi-national company in sales and was bored out of my mind--every month I doubled my sales quota and really needed a new challenge. I started looking and saw an ad in the newspaper: "Teach in Korea--no experience necessary" In fact, the ad said that all the teachers needed was a BA in anything. So, I applied for the job and two months later I left for Pusan, S. Korea. I was told that I would have a couple days of orientation before I entered the classroom and I was fine with that--didn´t know what I was doing, but I was on an adventure... Anyway, I arrived in Pusan at about 10 PM on a Sunday night and the next day the boss picked me and my roommates up and I was given a textbook and told to teach. I remember that I looked at them and said, 'but what do I do?' I had gone from the corporate world to a classroom of 14 university students and had no training or even induction. The head teacher told me to go in and introduce myself and then have them introduce themselves and you should be okay. So, I started teaching with absolutely NO training, induction, etc. My training was on the job and my colleagues and I just shared ideas and I learned a lot from the people who had gotten their four-week tefl and/or esl endorsement. I actually stayed in Korea for just under two years and fell in love with teaching.

When I went on and got an MA TESOL, I already had two years teaching experience and was already successful as a teacher. Did I need certification? Was I just wasting my time? After I finally got training, I realized that I still started all the classes the same way I did on that day in S. Korea when I didn´t have a clue what I was doing. Did I need to spend two years in graduate school to continue with the same routine? I then realized that because I was teachable in graduate school, I learned new techniques and was already a good teacher, but the two years in grad school made me an even better teacher.

So, the debate between certified and uncertified teachers surfaces every once in a while and I inwardly groan and think to myself--I started with no training, didn't change the way I start a class, but boy did I learn a lot when I was jumping through the hoops to get certified. So, my conclusion is that if a person who is already a good teacher seeks certification and is teachable, they actually become better teachers. The key is to be teachable!

Of course, I hear the teacher (usually ones who has never bothered to jump through the hoops to get qualified) say that the worst teachers are the ones who are the most qualified. I have to admit that many PhDs and teachers with MAs are bad teachers, but is that really a reason for a person who is a good teacher to balk at the idea of getting certified and learn more about their profession? I guess in my mind, it is professional development and in every other ´professions´people have to get qualifications--why would language teaching being any different?

How about you--should you get qualified? Is a CELTA or TEFL enough to teach live online? Probably. Should you hone your skills as you move into live online language teaching? By all means. Should the live online teacher really get certified or is a certificate concentrating on face-to-face teaching enough?

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