A talk about online platforms and learner independence.

1. Developing Learner
Independence through online
plaforms.
Photo credit: PeopleImages/E+/Getty Images
Russell Stannard

2. 1
[Title for presentation / Date to go here]
• A quick introduction to learning platforms.
• What seems to work/not work? ( drawn from
research/my survey)
• Why I think they can support autonomous
learning.
• How can we deal with the issue of feedback.
Typical text slide and bullets

3. 2
[Title for presentation / Date to go here]
What inspired this talk?
Talk
Project with
British
Council in
Chile
Surveys
on my
website
Interviews
with
teachers
My
experience
studying
French and
Polish
Consultancy

4. 3
[Title for presentation / Date to go here]
Platforms/ Virtual Learning Environments?
Can you name these platforms? Do you know when they
were formed?

5. 4
[Title for presentation / Date to go here]
Platforms/ Virtual Learning Environments?
Can you name these platforms? Do you know when they
were formed?
Moodle 2002
Edmodo 2008
Web CT 1998
Blackboard 1997 Canvas 2008 Schoology 2008
Macmillan Campus

6. 5
[Title for presentation / Date to go here]
So what do platforms generally do?
Central
Repository
Chat/Forum
Quizzes
Access to
content
AssignmentsWikis
Calendar
Blog
-Social
-Represented
-The space is
populated
-Content
creators

7. 6
[Title for presentation / Date to go here]
The use of platforms.
The uptake of platforms is very hit and miss. So for example
despite there being something like 70 million users on
Edmodo, that is not the anything like that number of ACTIVE
users.
Similarly publishing companies have spoken to me about the
same problem. They have some great success stories to
highlight but are also frustrated about the take up of their
platforms.
Why do you think this is?

8. 7
[Title for presentation / Date to go here]
• Dialogues
• Transcript of dialogues
• Activities related to the dialogue
• Word lists from the dialogue
• Grammar explanations from the
dialogue
• Pronunciation practice from the
dialogue
• You can record the dialogue and
compare
• You can record the individual words
• Games related to the vocabulary
• Grammar exercises
• Keep a record of your scores on
exercises
• Keep of record of your recordings
• Set up game based activities where
you can see other people’s scores
• Provide you with overall feedback
• Related material to the dialogues
• Readings related to the dialogues
• Grammar exercises related to the
readings
Listening website

9. 8
[Title for presentation / Date to go here]
1-I often show examples of what students have produced online in the lessons.
2- I tend to plan my classroom lesson by looking at both the classroom part and the homework
part.
3-I tried to make the online activities organised. For example Friday is ‘Discussion question time”
4- I really work on the link between the activities the students do at home and how they link to
what we do in the next lesson ( Flipped Classroom).
5-There is often way too much material, so I tend to be very specific about what I want my students
to work on, especially at the start.
6-I use lots of tricks to deal with the abundance of student made content. So self-evaluation, peer
evaluation etc. I choose one student a week to summarise the discussions for example.
7-We use Edmodo and I try to introduce it bit by bit.
8-I regularly bring the virtual learning environment into the class. We talk about how they can work
with it at home and to extend their learning.
9-I set up ‘study buddies’ so students can share writings, stories etc.
10-I have talk time in the lessons where students share what they have been doing on the platform.
BC Chile/My survey

10. 9
[Title for presentation / Date to go here]
To encourage participation, formative or summative assessment may be used. You do
not need to respond to each message but provide a summary of the messages.
Working with WebCT has changed the way I work. Specifically it has changed the way I
manage messages in the discussion area. Now I read all the new messages in a block and
take notes on a pad as I do so. This allows me to summarise and recap in a single
posting.
It also helps me to encourage my students by publicly recognising those that have made
valuable contributions to the discussions.
It is worth starting with a basic WebCT module as it can be expanded as the students get
more used to accessing it and the designer develops more skills.
JISC report

11. 10
[Title for presentation / Date to go here]
Since you are providing activities and materials for students to use online, the students
will usually take more charge of their learning at a time and place convenient for them
but simultaneously will look to you for advice and guidance especially in the early stages
of the course.
Learners will need constant reminding to use your module in a VLE and will need a
specific reason to visit. It is useful to keep reminding students about the VLE and its uses
and role in the face−to−face sessions.
The community feeling does not automatically emerge because groups use electronic
communication, it takes a lot of time, a lot of interactions.
JISC

12. 11
[Title for presentation / Date to go here]
How my use of platforms of tech has evolved.
In Class At
home
Class
Class
VLE
Tools
In other words, the main effect
of virtual learning
environments on educational
systems may be revitalising
teaching……

13. 12
[Title for presentation / Date to go here]
The enrichment can be just an add-on (for instance the teacher points to extra resources
that the students should read) or may have a stronger influence on the teacher’s
pedagogical approach, e.g. technology can become the enabling factor for complex
socio-constructivist learning scenarios (Schneider & al., 2002)
It’s about putting the ELT back into technology ( Russell Stannard 2018)
Putting the ‘ELT’ back into the technology.

14. 13
[Title for presentation / Date to go here]
Learning strategies.
O’Malley and Chamot (1990) divided these processes into 3 main categories- Cognitive, meta-cognitive and socio/affective.
Meta-
Cognitive
Socio
Affective
Cognitive
Operations carried out
directly on the material (
Benson)
Make use of knowledge of
cognitive processes to
regulate the learning
process. ( Benson)
Socio/affective- Ways
in which learners
interact with others
and control themselves
in order to enhance
their learning (
Benson)

15. 14
[Title for presentation / Date to go here]
• One sign in. One place.
• Everything is related.
Reading-Vocabulary-Record-Read-Exercises-Feedback
• On the go.
• Works in the flipped classroom.
• Allows me to track students.
Platforms and autonomy.

16. 15
[Title for presentation / Date to go here]
On platform PolishPod101.com
• Keep playing the dialogues over and over again on my SMART
phone.
• Review the dialogue scripts after listening to them.
• Play the dialogue sentence by sentence and them record
myself doing the same on the platform.
• Review the vocabulary on the platform and add new words to
my vocabulary builder. Study the vocabulary.
• Review the feedback and take notes on problems.
• Do reading activities related to the dialogues.
Learning Polish

17. 16
[Title for presentation / Date to go here]
On platform+ one
• Practice writing sentences with the new vocabulary and then
checking with Google translate.
• Reading the dialogues and highlighting 3 challenging spellings.
Adding these to Quizlet.
• Repeat.
• Take sentences from the dialogue. Write the first and last word
and then try and complete the sentence. Do this as write or
record activity.
• Take sentences from the platform and reduce them and repeat
them.
• Record myself speaking using vocabulary from the units.
Learning Polish

18. 17
[Title for presentation / Date to go here]
Pepper Pig

19. 18
[Title for presentation / Date to go here]
Huge number of digital assets-especially if you encourage use of
strategies.
How do we deal with this?
1. Organise summary activities.
2. Highlight best practice.
3. Set up marking activities in the lessons.
4. Have group ‘ideas share’ times in the class. What have you done?
5. Pair students( reading blogs, stories, posts)
6. Teach students to work with Google Translate. Write sentences and then correct
themselves ( problems ask teacher).
7. Keep diary of what you have done on the platform this week.
8. Make use of tracking. Highlight ‘good’ students..contact weaker ones.
9. Train students in self-evaluation techniques.
Feedback is the biggest challenge.

20. 19
[Title for presentation / Date to go here]
• I like the platforms. They help me to integrate my learning and keep it organised.
• They really work for the Flipped Classroom.
• They do need to be skilfully integrated into the class but that might help us to focus
more on the pedagogy.
• They are the building block. The key starting point. It is one platform, one log in.
• They can make your life easier but it does require an initial investment investment
in time.
Conclusions

21. 20
[Title for presentation / Date to go here]
Thank you
References
O’Malley, J.M. and Chamot, A.U. (1990) Learning strategies in second
language acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Benson, P. (2013). Teaching and Researching: Autonomy in Language
Learning Second Edition. London: Routledge.
Murat Hismanoglu mhismanoglu (2000) Language Learning Strategies in
Foreign Language Learning.
http://iteslj.org/Articles/Hismanoglu-Strategies.html
Jisc report on VLE.
JISC report on virtual learning environments.
Virtual Learning Environments Pierre Dillenbourg, Daniel Schneider,
Paraskevi Synteta
Virtual Learning Environments- Pierre Dillenbourg, Daniel Schneider,
Paraskevi Synteta

22. 21
[Title for presentation / Date to go here]
Thank you
Macmillan Campus
https://www.macmillanenglishcampus.com/
Contact
RussellStannard@gmail.com
www.teachertrainingvideos.com