Wednesday, November 28, 2018
Tuesday, November 27, 2018
Data and Analytics in Educational Context
The future of higher education is shaping, and higher institutions are trying to focus the educational community on the possibilities that can be gained by modelling learning change.
However, the most dramatic factor that shapes the future of higher education is something that we cannot actually see or touch: big data and analytics. Basing decisions on evidence and data is stunningly obvious, and research indicates that data-driven decisionmaking improves organisational productivity and output.
Moreover, the move toward using evidence and data to make decisions is transforming not only the field of education but the other fields as well. Indeed, some higher institutions have recently begun to consider how to apply analytics to understand the learning process better.
management systems (LMSs) is the transforming from ephemeral to captured, explicit data. For instance, reading a book or listening to a classroom lecture leaves limited trails. A hallway conversation essentially vaporises as soon as it is concluded. However, every Tweet, every social interaction or every page read online can leave a digital footprint.
Additionally, students cards, digital student records, online learning, mobile devices and online learning now capture rich data trails and activity streams. Moreover, these learner-produced data traces give a valuable insight into what is happening in the learning process and at the same time, suggest ways for educators to make improvements. Thus, big data and analytics can be a useful tool for educators all over the world to analyse the learning process and make conscious rather than conditioned decisions.
Furthermore, big data and analytics can be a useful tool not only for educators but for EFL professionals either. In other words, data analysis can provide EFL professionals with a strong foundation for doing research. Namely, data will give the EFL professionals necessary information about the field and, at the same time, will provide information for further research.
Thursday, November 22, 2018
Wednesday, November 21, 2018
Tuesday, November 20, 2018
Personal Learning Environments (PLE) vs. Learning Management Systems (LMS) in
EFL Teaching
With the increase and spread of information and
communications technology, a great interest has developed in how computers and
internet tools can improve educational processes and foster the use of
technology in language classrooms. Moreover, recent developments in learning technologies have
created a significant shift in the educational experience, and the massive use
of technologies have become an essential and integral part of students’ daily
formal and informal interactions and communications. Thus, in order to meet the challenges of the
21st-century students, educators should
rethink their style, and integrate technologies in an EFL/ESL classroom. The Integration of Personal Learning
Environments (PLE) and Learning Management Systems or Virtual Learning Environments (LMS/VLE) into the teaching and learning process will provide both the teachers and learners with multiple ways of teaching and
learning context. Namely, it will give them the opportunity to integrate different dimensions
in their teaching and learning
process.
LMSs are one
of the essential components of e-learning, upon which all e-courses are built. LMSs provide a means to communicate the intended learning
experience and facilitate tutors' and learners' involvement in the experience. Namely,
LMSs can be used to teach a complete online course or as a supporting feature
for face-to-face courses. The main goal is to motivate, to ease and provide
learning experiences that go beyond the classroom. While PLEs
are controlled by individuals and at the same time, are independent of the
educational institution. Moreover, they
do not comply with any standards and do not require the existence of a
centrally controlled data storage space but take advantage of the knowledge
which is distributed among various sources and communities.
Thus, both the MLEs and PLEs can be seen, as complementary means in the EFL/ESL classroom. Namely, PLEs and MLEs can be combined in such a way to
enhance or emphasise the qualities of
each other, and the decision of giving
preference one over the other depends
only on the goals and the objectives
that teacher aims to achieve. For
instance, MLEs can be considered as an appropriate tool,
for uploading homework, getting feedback and sharing
opinions in forum discussions. Thus, the integration of MLEs in the EFL/ESL classroom
can be seen as a way for teachers to manage
the teaching and learning process of the
students.
On the other
hand, PLEs can be seen as a useful tool
for engaging the 21st-century learners in
a life-long learning process, by providing them with the opportunity to direct their learning process and depend
mostly on decentralised learning. Moreover,
the integration of PLEs in EFL/ESL classroom will give the students the opportunity
to take advantage of the knowledge which is
distributed among various sources and communities and choose the ones
that they think correspond with their learning preferences.
Hence, it is
essential for the teachers to bridge somehow the knowledge between provided education: MLEs and the education that students create for themselves: PLEs. Furthermore, teachers need to understand that
education is not only something that they provide to students, but also education
can be something that students create for themselves.
Tuesday, November 13, 2018
Distance Education: Distance Context for Language Learning
Rapidly developments in e-learning, both within and beyond the margins of distance education have raised questions about the roles required of tutors and learners. A distance context for language learning presents tutors and learners with new demands and new opportunities compared with face to face classrooms. In other words, distance language learning context makes demands of a different order on tutors and learners and tutors and learners are faced with numerous roles and decisions which are typically carried out in distance contexts. Thus, it is essential for both tutors and learners to develop awareness of what it means to be a distance language learner or tutor and what is required of them. Namely, it is crucial for both tutors and the learners to have a clear understanding of their roles is in the wider learning context, as the need to identify and understand principles for supporting learning at a distance is now more critical than ever.
Hence, before developing any distance teaching program, it is essential to take into consideration all the nuances to ensure the success of the program.
Firstly, as a distance language learning context differ significantly from a face-to-face classroom, and the immediate demands of the new context require new conditions for teaching and learning, tutor and learner training should be incorporated into the program. Namely, the training will be a way for both the tutors and the learners to adjust to a new learning environment easily.
Moreover, the knowledge about the context of delivery in distance education will give the tutors the opportunity to have the answers to the questions: 'What do they do?' and 'Why do they do?' which in turn will lead tutors to make decisions which are conscious rather than conditioned. Furthermore, half of the success of distance learning is based on the personal link that tutors establish with learners through a range of interactions: feedback, offering guidance, assessment, support and motivation. Distance education cannot exist without tutors who provide feedback and guidance to students. Thus, the tutors' status should not be underestimated in the development of distance courses.
Moreover, knowing the nature of distance learning context will help the learners to develop the ability to engage with aspects of the learning context in ways which are personally meaningful and useful for themselves.
Hence, only by training teachers and learners along with the appropriate chosen materials they can achieve a fuller understanding of what it means to teach and learn in a distance context. Moreover, only by the training, the quality of teaching by the online tutors and the quality of learning by online students can be ensured.
Thursday, November 8, 2018
Tuesday, November 6, 2018
Open Educational Resources (OER)
Nowadays, the world is changing at a faster pace, than ever. We are setting foot in a world, where we all have to acquire new knowledge and skills on a nearly continuous basis. Moreover, the rising global demand for higher education requires more resources and skills to meet twenty-first-century learners' needs. Thus, over the past years, various initiatives have created different ways of providing education, and much of these initiatives has been enabled by the growth of the Internet, which has built a global “platform” that has dramatically expanded access to all sorts of resources, including informal and formal educational materials. Probably the most noticeable impact of the Internet on education has been the Open Educational Resources (OER), which has given free access to many courses and other educational materials to anyone who wants to use them. Furthermore, the OER as an open learning ecosystem provided both teachers and students with unlimited materials and resources. In other words, while traditional schools offer a limited number of courses of study, the “catalogue” of subjects that can be learned online is almost unlimited. In addition, for any topic that is of students interests, there is likely to be an online community to practice, who share that passion.
Furthermore, as more of learning is becoming Internet-based, it will be beneficial for the EFL teachers in Armenia to explore the OER materials and resources and try to benefit from OER. In other words, teachers can make use of the already ready-made materials by adapting these materials to their students’ needs and level of proficiency. For instance,
Open Resources for English Language Teaching (ORELT) is an open portal (http://orelt.col.org/) which provides teachers in junior secondary schools (JSS) with a range of resources that teachers can adapt and use in the classrooms to promote effective communication among the students. Thus, the teachers can choose and modify any module or unit or section to suit the needs and circumstances of their students.
Commons (https://www.oercommons.org/) is another open platform and teachers can benefit from it, as well. Commons is an open version of the Foundation’s Gallery of Teaching and Learning (http://gallery.carnegiefoundation.org) which has been running for the past nine years. The Gallery provides an online example of case studies of successful learning and teaching projects. The Commons is an open forum that provides educators at all levels (from around the world) to post their own examples and participate in an ongoing conversation about effective and efficient teaching practices, as a means of supporting a process of “creating/ re-mixing/ using/re-mix/sharing). In other words, this forum will give the EFL teachers in Armenia the opportunity to gain practical advice and guidance on how to implement more effective and efficient ways in their teaching process. Namely, teachers can ask each other questions to clarify areas of uncertainty by hearing different answers to questions from other experts of the field. Thus, such an environment might encourage teachers readily and happily pick up new knowledge and skills as the world shifts from traditional schooling to OER.
Thursday, November 1, 2018
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IoT Podcast Episode 437: Goodbye and good luck
This is the final episode of The Internet of Things Podcast, and to send us off after eight years, we don’t discuss the big news of the day ...
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Kevin and I are at CES 2023 this week and eager for the show floor to open to see all of the new and crazy gear. But before we see the show ...
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The Art of Teaching The skills and qualities needed for developing a technology-enriched learning environment involve more than just...
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