Blended learning through Blendspace

As EFL teachers, we are all aware that EFL lessons aren’t sufficient for EFL learners. For a long time, we have been searching for additional ways to expand our sessions so as to enhance language learning. Well, thanks to technology I am delighted to say that this is feasible through blended learning. For those who aren’t familiar with this teaching approach, blended learning is about integrating external material/online courses etc to the conventional classroom.

Blended learning has multiple applications. In particular, many teachers choose to collaborate with other institutions and divide the course in two parts: half of which is done online with EFL native teachers and the other half in class with the mainstream EFL teacher. Indeed, this is ideal for an EFL course in a country where the L1 is not English and there is a deficit of native EFL teachers to recruit. 

The scope of this blogs entry is to blend learning through a free online tool called Blendspace. You can sign up with your google account which means you don’t need to remember a different user name and password every time you log in.

Let’s assume we are teaching a module on “Food” and we feel that students need to practice extensively the language related to the topic. So, we have logged into blendspace and created the following lesson about food. You can find the full lesson here.

Figure 1
 

In more detail, when you enter blendspace your browser will look something like this:

Figure 2

You click on “New Lesson” to create one. You can use one of the existing “Featured Lessons”. This is an archive of lessons that others have made.

Figure 3

When you have clicked on “New lesson” you can choose the template you prefer and start adding the content that you want according to the topic you have chosen. If you take a look at the right hand side of the picture you can type something that you want to search and automatically relevant material will pop up including videos, pictures, graphs etc. Then you can start dragging the items into your lesson. The significant thing is that you can search many sites without changing tabs. These sites are listed on the grey column on the right.

Figure 4

One of the best aspects of blendspace is that you can get immediate feedback from students that are at home and doing this lesson. Students have the option to click on the grey column on the right and like it or click on the “not a fan”. They are also entitled to comment on the content that you have included. For instance, the picture above depicts the food chain and the teacher has asked the students to comment on it. You can see the comment that a someone has written “The strongest animal eats the weakest.” This is a good opportunity for EFL teachers to get feedback regarding the lesson.

The subsequent task encompasses a video following a quiz. They first watch the video and then do the following quiz.

Figure 5

 

  

Take a look at figure 3. There you will see that in the box, which you selected to add your material, you have the option to create a quiz. This applies to every box.

In the following phases, I have mentioned healthy and unhealthy food as well as the Food Pyramid which depicts carbohydrates and dairy products that I have already discussed in class. Hence, this online lesson allows me to expand and revise elements that blend with my conventional course through diagrams, videos, quizzes etc. Another teacher may choose to speak about organic food, nutrition etc, depending on the level of the learners.

After I have created the lesson in blendspace, I will share it with my students, either by writting down the link (if you are old fashioned) or by embedding it to the class blog (if you are a modern teacher).

With reference to Vygotsky’s ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development), some students might not progress and master certain skills unless they receive the assistance of a skilled teacher (the facilitator)/or a more knowledgeable student. Blended learning can provide, to some extent, this notion of the “facilitator” outside the actual classroom, in a virtual environment, through an online classroom such as blendspace.

Advantages

•  Lessons have become more interesting, as more interactive components are added to the conventional lesson (e.g. e-classes: as mentioned above, blogs, wikis). This helps maintain the student’s attention in the actual lesson and generally maintain student’s motivation.

• Students from around the globe can benefit from the input of a native EFL teacher through an online session that was part of his conventional course. In such sessions learners not only receive input in the foreign language, but they are also encouraged to respond in that language without using the L1.

Challenges

• As an EFL teacher I know very well how easy it is to get overwhelmed by technology and start overloading the students with too much online material. This can have adverse effects on students. Students might become de-motivated by the sight of all the material that a teacher has uploaded in the online session. As EFL teachers we should be on-guard to avoid falling into this pitfall. The complimentary sessions in blended learning should only encompass material that is directly linked/blended to the actual course. In cases where we want to add more materials so as to expose the learners to further issues it is important to specify it to the students so that it doesn’t deter them from the course.   

So, off you go now! Go and blend your courses!!