04 How to Involve Technology Expert Students

8/9/2019 04 How to Involve Technology Expert Students

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How to involve technology-expert students

By Erika Osváth

Erika is a freelance teacher, teacher trainer, materials writer and co-author of the European Language Award-winning

eLearning programme for language exam preparation. Before becoming a freelance trainer in , she worked for

International House schools for years in Eastern and Central Europe. She is currently based in Hungary.

Houston – do we have a problem?

There are an increasing number of students who know

more about technology than teachers and whose

knowledge and skills are sometimes overlooked.

Technology-expert students tend to be bored in purely

book-based lessons, as they get their motivation from

using technology; whether that is simply by using

apps on their smartphones or using the internet.

It is therefore important to make sure we include

technology-based types of learning into our lessons in

order to help these types of students to participate in

the learning process as much as possible. We should

also help them to use their technical knowledge

effectively for learning and to become independent

learners. They should also be encouraged to share

their knowledge with their classmates to help them

become more autonomous learners too. Technology

has the potential to make learning easy and accessible

outside the classroom for all students, regardless of

their technical knowledge.

The ideas in this article will help your

technology-expert students to …· actively participate in the lessons in a rewarding

way

· use technology to improve their English knowledge

and skills

· share their valuable knowledge with other students

· gain confidence in communicating in English by

using different types of technology

Tips for getting started

· Set out rules on using technology with the students

right from the beginning – see idea below – and

always use it as a reference point. You can involve

the students in deciding some of these rules, if you

feel that is appropriate.

· Don’t let technology become the aim of the lesson

– only use it to aid language learning.

· Ask for the students’ permission to share their email

addresses within the group.

· If you are planning to use any piece of technology

during your lesson which you are unfamiliar with,

ask for your technology-expert students for help

before the lesson. You will be more relaxed about

using technology in class and your students will

take pride in their assistant role.

· If you are planning to use mobile phones or

smartphones as part of the class, be aware that

some students might not have these. Similarly, if

you would like students to use computers outside

the lesson, be aware that some students might not

have computers at home. Make sure all students

have access to the technology you are going to use,

so that they are not excluded from the lesson.

· Have strict guidelines about the types of internet

sites your students can share with each other as part

of the lessons and projects, making sure they are all

appropriate (age, content).

· Avoid activities where students are asked to explain

how to use a type of technology that all students

are familiar with. Make sure there is always some

kind of information / knowledge gap in order to

keep up the motivation to speak to each other.

· Allow time for students to talk about their favourite

websites or technology tools, as long as thestudents speak in English and they follow the rules

you set about appropriate language and content.

· Encourage the technology-expert students to

get together outside the lesson to share their

knowledge. If appropriate, they can prepare to

teach other students in the class about things that

might be useful for language learning.


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Seven ideas for dealing with technology-expert students

How good are you at technology?

AIM: To find out who the technology-expert students in your class are and what they are good at,

so that the teacher and the students know who to go to with technical questions.

Give out one of the questionnaires to each student. Ask the students to fill it in for themselves.

Then tell students to ask each other the questions. They should try to find at least three other

classmates who know more about technology than they do.

Put students in groups and ask them to share their results and decide which students are technology experts.

Questionnaire How good are you at technology?

Are these statements true for you? Mark each statement as true or false, or with a tick (✔) or a cross (✘).

When you have finished, ask other students the questions and try to find at least three other classmates who

know more things about technology than you do.

· I know how to take photos and share them with a group of people using a mobile phone.

· I know how to record someone speaking with a smartphone.· I know how to record sound and images at the same time on a computer.

· I know how to research a topic on the internet.

· I know how to find free technology tools on the internet.

· I know how to create documents, presentations and drawing on Google Docs.

· I know how to share documents, presentations and drawing on Google Docs.

· I know what I need to be careful about while using the internet.

· I think I am good at using technology.

TIP: Adapt the questionnaire to the level of your students. For example, with higher level students you can

change “I know how to …” to phrases such as “I am confident about …” , “I am very good at …” , “I can … in my

sleep” , “I have an eye for …” , “I find my way around any … easily” , etc.

Rules on the internet

AIMS: To help students become responsible users of

the internet and think critically about the information

they find and share; to practise using the language

for giving opinions, agreeing / disagreeing and rules.

Put students into groups of – with at least one

technology-expert student in each group.

Ask the groups to discuss and make notes about “rules

on the internet” for themselves. Write the following

categories on the board to help them: Cyber-safety

(e-safety ), Responsible Use, Appropriate Content , Privacy ,

Appropriate Language, Cyber-bullying.

Encouraging technology-expert students to

explain what they think these terms might mean.

Write some examples of language for expressing

opinions, agreement / disagreement, and rules on

the board.

Ask each group to write down a set of rules for

themselves. Each student should write down their

rules.

Rearrange the groups so that there is one student

from each group within a new group. Ask students

to read out their ideas to see which ones the other

students agree / disagree with.

Have a class discussion to come up with a common

set of rules which should always be followed in the

class.

TIP: The language used in the rules will depend

on the level of your students. Here is an example

for reference: http://thedigitalinvasion.com/

images/TEENAGER_S_PLEDGE_FOR_USING_THE_

INTERNET_RESPONSIBLY.pdf

Research and tell us

AIM: To build on the computer skills of the

technology-expert students in the class and find out

about online tools and websites that will help them

and other students become autonomous learners. Put students into small groups, with at least one

technology-expert student.

Ask each group of students to research a different

website or online tool that could be used in your

lessons or for self-study at home. (See the list of

‘Useful website and online tools’ below.)

Give each group of students the list of questions

and sentence starters below.

Ask them to research the website or online tool

they have been given and answer the questions.

They should then prepare a short presentation on

how to make the best use of this website or onlinetool.

Ask the students to give their presentations to the

class.


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Put students into new groups to decide on the websites or tools they think would be most useful for their

language learning.

Research and tell us

Research the website or online tool your teacher gives you and answer the questions below. Use the sentence

starters below to make notes about this website / tool. Finally, give a presentation to your class about yourresearch to the class.

Questions about the tool / website: Sentence starters for the presentation:

· What is the name of the tool / website? · The name of the tool / website is …

· What is it good for? How could it help you to learn

English?

· It is good for … and it can help us learn English

because ….

· Do you need to sign up / register / download it

onto your computer?· You do (not) need to sign up / register / download it.

· How does it work?· This is how it works. First you … Then … Next …

Finally …

· How accessible is it? How easy is it to use? · I think it is (not) (very) easy to use because …

· Is there anything you don't like about it?

If yes, what is it?· The thing that I don't really like about it is that …

· Is there anything you really like about it?

If yes, what is it?· The thing I love about it is that …

· Has it inspired you to use it for something?

If yes, what is it?

· As I was looking at the tool / website it gave me the

idea to …

TIP: Students can record their presentations using an online presentation tool (See the list of ‘Useful website and

online tools’ below).

My favourite …

AIM: To allow technology-expert students to share

their favourite piece of technology with other

classmates; to give students speaking and listening

practice about the topic, expressing likes and dislikes.

NOTE: This activity is very centred around the

technology-expert students. Only use it if you feel

they will be comfortable with the task and don’t

mind doing extra preparation work.

Ask technology-expert students to choose a piece

of technology, an app, an online game, a social

networking site, blog, etc. they would like to talk

about and share with their classmates.

Ask them to complete the sentences below and

add any necessary information to them.

Then ask them to create a screen-capture video

about their piece of technology and record the

sentences they have written.

Ask them to send their videos to the other students

in the class. Alternatively, they can present their

videos in class.

In class, put students into groups of – to discuss

what they like / dislike about the online games,apps, online tools, blogs, etc. that were presented.

Sentence starters for the screen-capture videos:

My favourite … is called …

I love it because …

The best thing about it is that …

I use it … (how often) because …

I really recommend this … because …


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internet addiction test

AIM: To help students become responsible users

of the internet, making them more aware of what

impact it may have on their lives.

Elicit what kinds of questions you might get on an

“internet addiction test”. Put these on the board.For example:

“How long do you spend in front of the computer

every day?”

“How often do you check your email?”

“How often do you go on Facebook or other social

networking sites a day?”

“How long do you spend on Facebook a day?”

“How often do you go on the internet in the evening

before going to sleep?”

“How often do you feel irritated if you have not

checked your Facebook status?”

“How often do you look at your mobile phone in an

hour / two hours?”

Put students in groups of – students, including at

least one technology-expert student. Ask students

to write and “internet addiction test” or a “tech

gadgets addiction test” for the other students in

the class.

Ask the technology-expert students to help the

group create the tests online using free survey

tools such as http://www.surveymonkey.com. They

should then send these to the other students in the

class and ask them to answer the questions.

When they have collected all the answers / results,

each group should report back to the rest of the

class. Give them sentence starters such as:

“Most of our classmates spend … time using a

computer a day.”

“Half of our classmates use computers to … ”

“Nobody / Everybody uses computers to … ”

Or for higher levels:

“It was interesting / surprising to find that … ”

“It was quite shocking to see that … ”

“Initially, I thought that most of my classmates … .

However, what I have found was … ”, etc.

TIP: Instead of Step (creating an online test), you

could ask students to do this questionnaire in class as

a mingling speaking activity. The students should try

to speak to as many of their classmates as possible.

Class blog / diary (intermediate +)

AIM: To encourage technology-expert students to

participate actively in all the lessons; to give students

writing practice in reporting about their lives.

Ask the class if they know about any blogs or class

blogs. Students discuss what they like / dislike

about them*. Ask the class about the advantages and

disadvantages of having a class blog.

Put students into groups of – and ask them to

brainstorm ideas for what they could write about in

a class blog.

Ask each group to feedback their ideas to the class.

Ask them to think of a short name for their class

blogs. Ask the technology-expert students to find out

how to set up a blog on http://edublogs.org/.

Get a few technology-expert students to set up the

class blog using the ideas brainstormed in Step .

You will need to decide and monitor who will edit

the blog.

Each group then writes a post for the blog in a

word document. When they have finished it, they

should send it to the technology-expert student to

upload it onto the blog.

Once all the posts are uploaded, encourage

students to comment on each other’s posts.*If they don’t know any blogs or they don’t know

how they work, ask the students to look at these

blogs at home: http://mrbaldock.edublogs.org/ and

http://petras.edublogs.org/. Give them the following

questions to answer. Then continue the lesson from

Step above.

What is the blog about?

Who is it for? Who do you think are the readers of the

blog?

Who are the authors of the blog?

What can you find out about in the blog?

What is the most interesting thing / post you found onthe blog?

TIP: Writing a blog together also gives you the

opportunity to refer back to the “Rules on the

internet”

Encourage all students to subscribe to the blog to

get notification of any updates.

Make sure you subscribe to the blog and provide

encouraging comments regularly on their posts.

Tools of the trade

AIM: To give technology-expert students the

chance to teach other students technology-related

vocabulary and processes.

Put the students in groups of –, with at least one

technology-expert student in each group.

Ask each group to brainstorm vocabulary related

to technology. For example, open, (double-) click on,

icon, button, press, delete, record , reset , save, go back ,

settings, type, share, folder , send , browser , etc.

Ask them to organize the words according to their

parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.).

Now ask each group to brainstorm some technical

processes. For example, recording speech with a

mobile phone or creating and sharing a Google

document.


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Ask the technology-expert students in each group

to explain one of the technical processes they

brainstormed. Give them the example sentence

starters below to help them.

First, open a browser and type …

Then click on …Next …

And then …

Finally, …

Encourage the other students to ask questions

about the process or to ask for clarification if they

don’t understand.

If you have access in the classroom to the

necessary technology, you can ask the technology-

expert students to demonstrate the process while

they are speaking about it. Alternatively, you could

ask the technology-expert students to direct one of

the other students in order to help them carry outthe process.

Useful websites and online tools:For speaking:vocaroo.com, mailvu.com, voicethread.com, audioboo.

fm, voki.com, voxopop.com

For writing and vocabulary:voki.com (lower levels), drive.google.com, storybird.com,

paperrater.com, oxfordadvancedlearnersdictionary.com,

quizlet.com

Presentation tools:brainshark.com/mybrainshark, present.me,

voicethread.com, prezi.com

Brainstorming tools / Online posters:padlet.com, en.linoit.com

Screen-capture tools (Screen-capture toolsrecord your voice and the screen of your

computer at the same time):‘JING’ is very easy to use; it can be downloaded from:

techsmith.com/download/jing/default.asp

or use ‘Screenr’ from www.screenr.com

Social networking sites:facebook.com, edmodo.com (closed learning

environment that works in a similar way to Facebook)

Documents

04 How to Involve Technology Expert Students