Learning By Doing

Finding new ideas for online classes and camps is not the easiest process in the teaching world. Many ideas are app-based and situational, making replication outside those specific circumstances difficult. There is also the issue of online learning not being as effective as in-person learning (Loeb, 2020). Looking through a few of the ideas posted online, I found a real gem of a lesson plan developed by Liz Romero and Maria Glass. Today we look at Learning by Doing: Creating Engaging Online Learning

The idea behind this paper is to engage students in language learning by providing tasks that may have to do in real-life (pg 1). The authors Romero & Glass stated that online learning lacks the doing function of learning and is too focused on teacher-centered learning (pg 1). So they developed a learning strategy focused on learning real-world skills in an engaging way. 

In their 8 week plan, they follow the story model as mentioned by Jonassen (2002). Jonassen stated that stories are a method of way of interpreting the world around ourselves and because people can center themselves by seeing themselves as characters in a story. The authors of this plan set up the 8-week class syllabus around creating a story for the students to follow. 

Steps of the process:

Students create their own avatar using a site like Voki. You the teacher would create your own and use the avatar in class along with your camera. Guide the students through the process with shaping questions like “Are you a man or woman?” (pg 4). The idea behind the questions is to give students a framework to build their avatar that they will guide through the class. 

Next students need to write a short paragraph introducing their avatar and putting it on Voki’s hangout section (this was not clear in the paper, as Voki appears to have changed in the five years since paper was written). 

Next, you send the students to find friends in the class using Voki. To do this, you have the students write an introduction letter for their avatar and have them check the avatar blogs on Voki to find a friend that matches their interests. Finally they contact the avatar and send the introduction letter, with the hope that contacted students accept the friend request. This could be problematic for students who wrote their avatar introductions in an unfriendly way. However you the teacher can rectify this by contacting the students and adjusting their blogs to be a better match for students. 

The paper’s lesson plan states that the next activity is to have the paired or grouped students plan a trip for their avatars (pg 5). Using Voki’s Hangout or Topic section, students can input trip information into the site, or use a different website and system. I would suggest a shared Google Slide, allowing the students to create a travel itinerary or photo album with their avatars pasted into the pictures. The writers also suggest writing a ‘postcard’ on Voki or another site with the avatar writing about their trip to their parent or friend. Any teacher can consider the ways to use travel themes and other lessons to be incorporated into this activity. The next activity involves the students writing on a group wiki or page about the places they liked the most on their trip. After the group of students read each other’s writing, they work together to create a “Best Place” posting on the class Voki Blog or another site the teacher has set up. You the teacher can change this activity to another method, like a joint trip powerpoint. 

The next major activity is having the students find real-life jobs for their avatars (pg 5). Using the website Vocaroo the students pretend to be their avatar and record themselves explaining why they would be the best fit for the job. The teacher can grade their speaking skills by listening to the recordings sent in by the students. There are other ways a teacher can incorporate job applications into the lesson. I would teach about “dirty jobs” and suggest the students create interviews in which they apply for the “dirty job” of interest (such as septic tank cleaner or mosquito researcher). 

The last major activity is to introduce health words in the form of illnesses and teach the students how to give advice in the form of remedies (pg 6). After getting the examples and scaffolding from the teacher, the students have to write their avatar’s symptoms on their avatar’s blog and then go to each other’s blog. On their friend’s blog, they post advice on how the avatar can get better. After leaving advice, the next step is for students to book an appointment for their avatar to go to the doctor. Using the voice recording software listed above, they pretend to book an appointment with the doctor. The teacher provides an example of a call to the doctor and the scaffolding that students shape their recording around. 

Because this lesson plan and activity set involves a lot of new software and concepts for students, the authors created a blog where students can post questions and ask for help (pg 6). This blog is accessed by all students, making it akin to a forum where students help each other with any problems. It is up to the teacher whether to require the medium of this communication be in English or the students’ native language. 

Conclusion,

Romero and Glass have created a robust multiweek online educational plan with potential for substitutions (in case Vocaroo shuts down, for example) focused around students learning by doing things they have seen in real-life. A clever teacher can swap out activities made by the authors for new ideas without completely disrupting the flow of the lesson. Teachers in need of an interesting online camp idea can build a quick plan using this paper as a guiding point or following the plan as written. The avatar concept could even be applied to online Zoom lessons by having students create the avatar and use the image as their non-camera image. 

Citations:

Learning by Doing: Creating Engaging Online Learning

Author(s): Liz Romero and Maria Glass

Source: Educational Technology , March-April 2015, Vol. 55, No. 2 (March-April 2015),

pp. 35-39

Published by: Educational Technology Publications, Inc.

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/44430355

How Effective Is Online Learning? What the Research Does and Doesn’t Tell Us

Author: Susanna Loeb

Source: Education Week, April 1 2020.

Stable URL: How Effective Is Online Learning? What the Research Does and Doesn't Tell Us (Opinion) (edweek.org)