Use your ears!

 

Often when teaching language I have told my students that they have just 2 ways to help their brain do what it is wired to do - acquire language. Teachers can find lots of original and fun ways to teach language but it is the learner's brain that is best placed to figure out how to produce language well, it will go on doing so throughout their future, beyond the classroom, if they give it the chance. 

Despite there being 2 ways to help the language learning process by letting examples of usage in, many spend far too long only using one of them. What are the two ways? 

• through the eyes: eg.reading
• through the ears: eg.listening

The "captioning effect" is well researched, a powerful way of combining both forms of input. It was my desire to facilitate listening opportunities online that first brought me into contact with Mark Childs at Warwick University many years ago. He supported my plan to run a professional development session on the importance of voice. I used a digital recording of a baby crying to open the session. That got everyone's attention and how they begged me to make it stop! I think it proved a point - human beings are touched at a very deep level by the souds we hear. Voice is powerful and too often we use our ears selectively as we get older, tuning out the voices we don't want to hear. Older language learners have to reconnect with the often uncomfortable feeling of listening. 

This week I am delighted to be back working with Mark and another friend I have met through ALT, Jane Secker. With my #LTHEchat hat on, I am happy to say these two fab folk will be leading this week's @LTHEchat. And the focus is upon podcasting - a great way to use your ears. I am a fan and have been listening to podcasts for many years, using the old Juice podcaster back in the day.  I love to listen to a comedy podcast before I go to sleep, more recently I have been inspired by the wonderful Pedagodzilla, enjoyed the 25 years of Ed Tech podcast , been interviewed for the Education Burrito and there's another interview on my work with eportfolios coming soon. These are just a few of my many subscriptions now on Google Podcasts. Digital technology has made it so much easier to catch up on conversations at a time and place that suits us. We have come a long way since the days of endless buffering online. 

I embedded listening into my teaching from the early days. When I started teaching we used a reel to reel tape recorder to play audio in class, I later prouced personalised cassettes for students and found it greatly increased their engagement. Since all went digital I have used Soundcloud and digital recorders to provide audio and oral opportunities for my learners and indeed for many purposes. I was an early adopter of audio feedback and when done well this is really appreciated by students. 

So is listening to podcasts just #podcrastination? 

Well, if you want to learn and time is, inevitably, short why would you only use 50% of the resources available to you? 

UPDATE:

My latest podcast on #eportfolio use is available now 

https://podcast.mahara.org/2018360/11549188-teresa-mackinnon-professional-portfolios-values-and-transferable-skills

Future Teacher 3.0: Reflecting on impact

Image by Chräcker Heller from Pixabay

This year sees a new venture added to my retirement activities. An unexpected invitation came from the UK Future Teacher 3.0 team and this was too good an opportunity to turn down. The small UK team are an absolute powerhouse, a great example of how much can be achieved with the right blend of experience, and expertise and a shared commitment to inclusive practice in teaching. Lilian, Alistair and Ron have orchestrated monthly webinars for teachers in HE and FE since 2017 firstly as part of an Erasmus Plus funded project but now unfunded and undaunted! I have had the privilege of contributing to several sessions over the years and I really value the network and the resources they create as OERs. 

Using an open source tool called Xerte they are able to create reusable learning objects which include interactive content and are media rich and accessible. 

I have used the Tool Savvy resource from the 2018 webinar series several times as part of my work on tool choice for UNICollaboration and it is so good to be able to focus minds on key questions when choosing authoring tools. Xerte also means that our trainees can learn about tools whilst using one of the best examples available. 

So this is a network that lives the values of its originators, in the same way as we in #virtualexchange like to "walk the talk". So you can see why I was so excited to be asked to join the team this year. 

Of course, one of the bugbears of doing anything at the "bleeding edge" is that new tools and approaches are constantly being developed but the FT3 UK team have even turned this to an advantage! The second iteration of webinars was Reactivated -bringing new ideas to enhance the earlier recordings and this current series is Reflected, where the focus is on building upon what we have learned through reflection "because future teachers never stop learning". 

In my final years at Warwick I led a course for final year students who were considering teaching as a career. Central to my course design was both virtual exchange and reflection. We used an open source tool Mahara as a private reflection space and students were able to keep private journal posts every week which could, if they so wished, be used as part of their assessed eportfolio. This process of regular reflection incorporated into the course design helped to establish the importance of reflection to those working in time constrained and often demanding roles in teaching. Taking time to take account of how you are feeling and to, over time, develop a picture of the direction you wish to take - these things are so important in life. Sharing some of these thoughts with others can also help to strengthen your professional network and can even lead to unexpected outcomes such as new connections. 

I'm not great at sticking to routines but I do use my blogs to think things through and it has been helpful over the years. Reflecting through writing on a diary or a blog can really bring my thoughts into focus and help me find a way forward. I look forward to reading reflections from others who have been part of the Future Teacher network.

 

Fair Use or Misuse of open badges?

 

Screenshot of point of "badge" issue 

Over the weekend I got a notification on Twitter that I had been awarded a badge. Those who know me will know that I am usually enthusiastic about collecting badges, especially those which help me to keep track of the events I have presented at or recognise new skills I have worked to master. This one was odd though. It claimed to be a fake english language teaching certificate, TEFL. 

English is my first language but I have never been interested in teaching it. I loved learning other languages and chose to specialise in teaching French and Spanish. So where had this badge come from and why had it come to me? 

Intrigued, I followed what links were available. The badge had not been issued to my email address so it didn't exist as something I could accept (or rather reject!). So why did it bear my name? I queried the twitter account which had sent the tweet. I am writing this post as a record of what I discovered but I have removed the details of the "issuer" to spare his blushes, since he has now apologised and I can only accept that apology with good grace. Having engaged with the twitter account in question I also contacted the VP of the platform which had been used, someone I have interacted with before online and who I have always found to be trustworthy. I am grateful to Nate Otto for his prompt engagement. 

Here are some screenshots of the interactions that followed (read below in reverse order). The details of the "issuer" have been redacted for the reasons I outlined above. He has since removed the tweets to me and I have blocked him from my Twitter connections. 

Having asked why he had targeted me with this badge I did not feel the reason given added up. He claims the badge was a parody. I can understand wanting to poke fun at credentials which don't stand scrutiny but I enjoy parody and didn't find this at all funny. He said he wanted to parody diploma mills (I don't believe there is much open badge use there actually). I would totally agree that credit, credentials (micro or otherwise) shouldn't be issued without robust evidence that they are fit for purpose and that the construct behind the criteria for issue need to be clear. If anything, this act was demonstrating how not to create and issue open badges. 

I advocate the use of open badges as a means of open recognition and micro-credentialing. I have used them extensively in European projects to ensure that participants have a way to prove their engagement and expertise in virtual exchange. I have also enjoyed collecting and issuing badges through the open recognition framework which exists. I have researched, written and presented on these activities. 

Nate pointed out that this so called badge issuer had put my name on a badge without my consent. My feminist instincts had already kicked in, this was an act of micro aggression. It was encouraging to see that the platform owner was ready to examine this activity. 

Despite the "issuer" 's apparent contrition, I see he still has a fake badge invitation on his twitter feed. The link leads to this wikipedia page. 

Is this "having fun"? Are those that are interested in open badges are suckers? Not my definition of fun in the midst of a pandemic I'm afraid. Maybe my sense of humour (which is so subjective don't forget) has been blunted by the knowledge that we need experts to help us escape covid 19.  Perhaps though this experience is a timely reminder of how we must always question critically how technologies are being used. Now that's something I can get behind.