BRINGING INTERACTIVE LEARNING TO UTHM: TEACHERS PERSPECTIVES ON SELECTED INTERACTIVE TOOLS FOR LANGUAGE CLASSROOMS

AKEPT SOTL

18 November 2015

Bringing Interactive Learning to UTHM by Dwee Chiew Yen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Interactive Learning and Online Interactive Tools

Interactive learning => students are active participants in the learning process (p.91).

Sessoms (2008)

Interactive Tools => refers to any applications or software online that are able to facilitate the interactive teaching and learning process. They must contain the element of interactivity which is able to engage learners in an active learning process.

What is the significance of this study?

The success of an interactive lecture largely depends on how interactive tools are integrated effectively into the lesson

Based on literature review on the use of interactive learning tools (Brady, Holcomb and Smith, 2010; Bosch, 2009; Kim and Bonk, 2006), there is a need for in-depth qualitative data to explain why lecturers or teachers prefer using certain interactive tools over others and how they employ those tools in a language classroom setting to engage learners

Research Questions

What are the preferred interactive tools of UTHM language teachers and why?

What are some of the features which language teachers think should be included in an interactive tool?

What are the challenges of integrating Interactive tools in a language classroom?

Sample

Convenience sampling participants who are readily available and easy to

contact (Higginbottom, 2004) 10 participants-language lecturers/language

teachers Teaching experience: 2 - 23 years

Methodology

Stage 3

Email interviews

Stage 2

Teachers given one semester to implement interactive tools Classroom observation

Stage 1

IL Workshop Online questionnaire (Google Forms)

Interactive Tools introduced during the workshop

Edynco

Padlet

Todaysmeet

Socrative

Blendspace

Results and discussion

Preferred interactive tools

Padlet

easy to use its useful for writing activities easy, good for discussion the students can participate and get involved more in

the lesson by giving comments, having discussions, sharing videos and pictures

check students writing and class discussions.

Todaysmeet

students are keen in using social network and Whatsapp. So this suits them well

prompt responses from all students at the same time

ask students to give comments or suggestions on a topic

quickly check students understanding on a topic by posting a question

Blendspace

interactive online storage useful for teaching and learning

It is FREE and looks pretty easy to create rich multimedia lessons. In addition, I can collect and organize all my resources in one place and share them with a single link

Edynco

Im a visual person as lecture notes and for students to create notes

Preferred features in an interactive toolPreferred Interactive Tool Features Reasons

Quizzes and tests To evaluate studentsLanguage games Students can have fun while doing side

language practice on their ownRecording functions (audio and visual) Students will be able to record their language

usage and allow their friends, lecturers andeven themselves to evaluate

Feedback function Students will be able to post responses andteachers will be respond to them

Offline Access Software/tools can be downloaded and usedoffline so that lessons can go on as usual evenwith weak Internet connectivity/no internetconnection

User-friendly settings Easy to navigate and use.One tool integrated with many useful features

tailored to the course needsNo need to use different platforms fordifferent kinds of activities

Platform for Discussion Students and teachers can conduct a virtualdiscussion on a certain topic

Resource recommendations Students are able to explore learningresources independently

Challenges in the Application of Interactive tools in the classroom

Poor infrastructure

Wifi connection itself is sometimes very poor

Not all students afford to have a laptop of their own. Well, they may have smartphones for them to use. However, the display is small and I find that it is inconvenient for students to read materials from their phone

Language lab is fully booked, I have to swap the classes with the teachers and sometimes they refused. I have tried to do it in class, it took a very long time to complete a simple activity due to poor coverage especially if I wanted to do quiz or written exercises. So back to paper & pencil, mahjong papers, etc

Challenges in the Application of Interactive tools in the classroom

Lack of Confidence

Lack of knowledge on how to apply it (interactive tools) that makes them less motivated to use it

I am not very used and experienced in using IL. I'll learn later. I really want to!

Challenges in the Application of Interactive tools in the classroom

Teachers/Lecturers prefer to stay within their comfort zone

I am comfortable using the conventional methods of teaching

To be honest, as a language lecturer am struggling to catch up or keep up with the heap of newly invented digital gadgets to effectively adopt them for my own agenda of language pedagogy. I lack courage and confidence to design language tasks with technology and use technology while teaching

Our comfort and confidence with our core strength, teaching face-to-face

Challenges in the Application of Interactive tools in the classroom

Time Constraints

Limited time to upload materials and to check on students' work

It takes more time to create materials for IL. Surely the materials should be interesting, updated and interactive for the students

I would love to try all (interactive tools) but still finding time to explore before starting to use them since I am not that technology-literate

No time to explore

Challenges in the Application of Interactive tools in the classroom

Quality of Discussion

I would think the quality of discussion is poor and (interactive tool) is used as a means to report in, rather than free flow of well thought ideas. In most cases the discussion becomes too loose and drawn out doesnt reflect maturity or critical thinking in place

Concluding thoughts

Regardless of which interactive tools teachers may use in the classroom, care must be taken so that the teaching and learning occur in a meaningful way.

Each interactive tool has its respective strengths and weaknesses so it is important for teachers to be given ample time to explore, experiment and determine what works best for them and their students.

More efforts should be taken at institutions of higher learning to provide systematic IL workshops which not only trains educators on how to use new tools but also provide support in terms of content development so that they will feel empowered and motivated to integrate interactive tools as part of their teaching routine.