(English version is below the Slovenian one)
Že leta opazujem, preizkušam in spoznavam, kako pomemben, uporaben in vpliven je potencial sodobne tehnologije v izobraževanju. Skrbno in preudarno sem se lotevala vključevanja IKT v pouk angleščine še v časih, ko so prevladovali PCji. S hitrim razvojem je postala uporaba IKT uporabniku vse bolj prijazna in torej primernejša za izobraževalne namene. Danes pa se že spogledujemo z mobilnimi napravami (tablicami, telefoni, iPodi), ki omogočajo ne le boljšo dostopnost glede na prostor in čas, pač pa tudi večjo individualizacijo pouka, lažjo prenosljivost, ponujajo naravnejši in jasnejši uporabniški vmesnik z delom na dotik, ki je posebej mlajšim učencem veliko bližji in enostavnejši kot delo z miško. Prav zaradi naštetega se nisem mogla upreti izzivu, da preizkusim uporabo iPada pri pouku angleščine, čeprav že par let nisem več v razredu.
Izziva sem se lotila iz več vidikov.
Najprej je bilo potrebno oceniti uporabnost prostodostopnih iPad Appov za namene določene obravnave snovi. To področje že dalj časa preverjam in preizkušam, sodelujem v različnih mednarodnih forumih, kjer teče strokovna razprava na take in podobne teme. Raziskala in izbrala sem Appe, ki so se mi zdeli primerni za učenje ob upoštevanju taksonomskih stopenj zahtevnosti, da bi dosegla čimvečjo angažiranost in kreativnost učencev in dijakov. App store ponuja mnogoštevilne brezplačne ali cenovno sprejemljive appe, uporabne za delo v razredu. Nekateri so uporabni za popestritev pouka, drugi ga naredijo interaktivnega, saj vključujejo vsakega in vse učence v dejavnosti, omogočajo pa tudi sodelovalno učenje. Dragoceno je dejstvo, da ponujajo te naprave učencem in dijakom veliko slušno opremljenih aktivnosti, vsebinsko naravnanih didaktičnih iger in aktivnosti snemanja lastnih posnetkov, ki so neprecenljive pri pouku jezika.
Za 3. razred, kjer je bila na dnevnem redu tema »Numbers from 1 to 10« sem iz množice Appov izbrala slednje.
Seveda sem poleg Appov izdelala tudi svoje interaktivne naloge (program Execute) in jih objavila na spletu, tako, da so dosegljive učencem tudi kasneje (Numbers from 1 to 10).
Za dijake 2. letnika ekonomske gimnazije je bila izbrana tema »Travelling by air«, čemur sem prilagodila izbor Appov in gradiv. Tudi zanje sem izdelala spletna gradiva (program Exe), v katerih sem nanizala uporabne povezave, dodala interaktivne naloge branja, pisanja in poslušanja (Travelling by air).
Sledilo je iskanje ustreznega okolja, ki bi mi omogočalo interakcijo z učenci, vodeno delo pri uvodni obravnavi snovi. Našla sem zelo uporabno okolje Nearpod (App in PC možnost za pripravo gradiva), ki mi je po poizvedbah pri proizvajalcih prijazno omogočilo polletno polno uporabo tudi plačljivega dela aplikacije. Nearpod se razvija v vse bolj uporabno in močno orodje za pripravo na pouk z m-napravami, saj v prvi vrsti omogača sinhronizacjo mobilnih naprav (iPada, iPhona, zadnje čase pa tudi Androidovih naprav), podajanje gradiva vsem udeleženim in spremljanje dela le-teh. Kaj lahko z njim počnemo? Aplikacija (obstaja brezplačna, plačljiva in šolska plačljiva izvedba) je uporabniku prijazna. Učitelj na PCju (zadnja verzija celo omogoča pripravo gradiv na Ipadu) izdela prosojnice, v katere lahko vključi grafično popestrene bralne vsebine (pdf format), albume slik, video (povezavo ali lasten video), spletne strani, sestavi kviz/test za preverjanje naučenega, izdela anketo za ugotavljanje interesov ali mnenj, doda pa tudi takoimenovano belo tablo, kamor učenci pišejo ali rišejo. Učitelj pri pouku posreduje gradivo učenecem, ki na svojih tablicah berejo, pregledujejo, rešujejo in odgovarjajo na dano situacijo. Hkrati učitelj s svojega iPada kontrolira aktivnost učencev, zbira rezultate samopreverjanja in anket, jih deli z učenci in spremlja njihove zaslone. Nearpod me je torej prepričal in pripravila sem gradivo za delo v 3. razredu OŠ na temo »Numbers from 1 to 10« in za delo v 2. letniku ekonomske srednje šole – na temo »Travelling by air«.
Najtrši oreh pa so bile naprave same, saj jih trenutno na šolah še nimajo. Zato sem se odločila, da zanje zaprosim pri Apcom Slovenija, kjer so mi prijazno za mesec dni ponudili nekaj mini iPadov in iPade 4. Tako je bila še zadnja ovira uspešno premagana.
Čakalo me je torej le še delo z učno pripravo, v katero je bilo potrebno vključiti vse zgoraj našteto, didaktično in časovno opredeliti izvedbo ure ter jo v živo tudi resnično izvesti.
Za zaključek sem pripravila evalvacijo izvedene ure, zbrala mnnenja učencev in dijakov o izvedenem pouku, za kar sem uporabila sistem Socrative, ki deluje tako na PCju kot na vseh mobilnih napravah. (Socrative – a smart student response system).
Učenci in dijaki so pozitivno ocenili delo z iPadi, zdela se jim je zanimiva, jasna, dinamična, posebej so izpostavili pomen drugačnega načina učenja in vključevanja vseh v aktivnosti celotno učno uro. Vsi si želijo še podobnih ur.
Izvedbo ur na srednji šoili so spremljali tudi profesorji različnih predmetov in njihova ravnateljica. Ob koncu smo se pogovorili o takem načinu dela in skupaj ugotovili, da je vsekakor učinkovito in da bo v bodoče potrebno razmišljati v to smer.
Na teh povezavah najdete videoutrinke in slikovni mozaik obeh opisanih primerov.
OŠ Solkan
Ekonomska šola
Vloženo je bilo veliko dela, idej in truda, a se je vse v polni meri obrestovalo.
English version
MOBILE DEVICES AT EGLISH LESSONS, YES OR NO, THAT'S THE QUESTION...
For years, I have observed, experimented and been aware of the importance, scope and impact of the potential of modern technology in education. Prudent and rational was my engagement while integrating ICT in the teaching of English in the days dominated by PCs. With the rapid development the use of ICT has become increasingly user-friendly and thus more suitable for educational purposes. Today, we are already flirting with mobile devices (plates, phones, iPods), which allow not only better accessibility regardless of time and space, but also a greater individualization of teaching, facilitating portability, offering a clearer and more natural user interface with touch screens that are specially much closer to the younger students and easier to operate than using a mouse. Because of the above I could not resist the challenge to try out the use of iPad for teaching English, although I'm no longer in the classroom for a couple of years.
I dealt with the challenge on several aspects.
First, it was necessary to evaluate the usefulness of a free iPad Apps for the purposes of certain learning and teaching strategies. I have been involved in different international forums where panel discussion on this and similar topics is running. I've researched and selected Apps suitable for the learning taking into account the taxonomic levels of difficulty to reach as big as possible engagement and creativity of students. App store offers enormous number of free or low price affordable Apps useful for class work. Some are useful to make lessons more interesting, others make it interactive; they include not only each and every student in the learning process, but also enable collaborative learning. Valuable is the fact that these devices offer pupils a lot of sound-equipped activities, content-oriented didactic games and even activities to record their own videos, voice which is invaluable in language teaching.
I decided to prepare a topic »Numbers from 1 to 10« for grade 3 of Primary School (for pupils who don’t official ly learn English at school). Here is the list of Apps chosen for them to be used during the lesson.
Of course, I also produced some additional interactive tasks (using Execute program) and published them on the web so that they are accessible to students also from home (Numbers from 1 to 10).
For students of Economic Gymnasium (second year) the theme "Travelling by Air" was chosen to which I adapted the selection of Apps and other on-line materials. Also for them a special collection of interactive exercises were created, useful links and tasks gathered (by Exe program), to provide enough reading, writing and listening activities (Travelling by air).
A search for a suitable environment that would enable the interaction on iPads with students followed. We needed a possibility for a guided work in introductory part of a lesson. Finally I discovered a very useful environment Nearpod that offers also a free version. I investigated a possibility for a try-out full version of it and was lucky enough to get a 6 month full user license for free thanks to Nearpod team.
Nearpod is evolving into an increasingly useful and powerful tool that enables synchronized use of mobile devices in education with rich and engaging multimedia presentations (iPad, iPhone, and more recently, Android devices). Teachers deliver materials to students ‘ iPads to, monitor their activities and give them a possibilities to evaluate the new knowledge . What can we do within it? Nearpod application (a free and payable version) is user-friendly. The teacher prepares engaging multimedia presentations of the PC (latest version even allows the preparation of materials to the iPads) where rich graphics make reading more attractive (pdf format), albums, videos (or a link to your own video), web pages, quizzes / tests to check what has been learned, surveys to determine the interests or opinions can be included and also so-called white board panels can be added where students can write or draw. The teacher during the lesson delivers students slides to be read, viewed, interacted, so students read, review, resolve and respond to a given situation on their iPads. At the same time the teacher can mirror the students’ iPad screens and control their activity, collects the results of self-assessment and surveys and shares them with all or certain students/pupils. Nearpod convinced me as a tool, therefore, I prepared engaging multimedia presentations for Primary school pupils and secondary school students.
The hardest task for me was to get / borrow enough iPads, as currently the schools are not yet aquipped with them. Lucky enough Apcom Slovenija was welcome to lend me mini iPads and iPads 4 for a month time. Thus, the last but also the toughest barrier was overcome successfully.
There awas only the last thing to do to prepare the lesson plans in which it was necessary to include all of the mentioned above, decide on didactic and time issues of implementation and of course successfully perform it in the classroom.
In conclusion, I also evaluated the lessons, gathered the pupils/students’ opinions for which I used Socrative system that works on PCs, as well as on all mobile devices. (Socrative - a smart student response system).
Pupils and students were satisfied with learning with iPads, they found it interesting, clear, dynamic, specifically they highlighted the importance of a different way of learning and the involvement of the entire class in all the activities. Everyone expressed the wish to be engaged in similar lessons in future too.
At Secondary school a group of teachers of different subjects and their headmistress observed the lesson and in the discussion at the end they together pointed out that the use of iPads was definitely effective and that it in the future they will need to think in this direction.
Below there are the links to videos and photo slides about the events.
OŠ Solkan
Ekonomska šola
I put a lot of effort, ideas and work in the above events, but it all paid off in full.
