Embedded Files
AbstractTeaching is an easy job but being a good teacher is difficult. Traditional teacher centred methods are outdated and GenZ learners have high expectations of their teachers. The content material and the manner in which it is transacted to learners have significant roles these days. This paper attempts to discuss the use of Lumen 5, a Web 2.0 tool to teach phrasal verbs in a critical pedagogy classroom where the learners belong to different socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. The use of technology in the classroom helps to bring the learners together in the learning process irrespective of their differences. The main objective of the critical pedagogy classroom is to bring together varied experiences of learners in the teaching learning process. It enables them to develop critical thinking as well as problem solving skills. The use of technology helps them to be more creative in tasks and enables learning to be made more enjoyable.Key words: lumen 5, phrasal verbs, critical pedagogy classroom
Introduction:Learners are different. So are their perceptions, exposure, experiences, socio-cultural backgrounds and the languages they use. Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach. It’s time to change the approaches of the teachers. Many teachers think that the most effective way to improve themselves as a teacher is by developing their content knowledge. Content knowledge is very important, but equally important is how it is delivered to the diverse learners. Even knowledgeable teachers fail while transacting materials in the classroom to the students. What is taught and how it is taught are linked and are very much dependent to each other. The students of this era prefer multitasking. They prefer e-books over printed texts and visual presentations over lectures. “What should we call these “new” students of today? Some refer to them as the N-[for Net]-gen or D-[for digital]-gen. But the most useful designation I have found for them is Digital Natives. Our students today are all “native speakers” of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet.”(Prenskey 1). Information technology is an integral part of their lives. They are familiar with social networking, chat applications, blogs, wiki presentations, YouTube videos, games and are mostly frank and outspoken. They believe that these tools benefit their critical thinking and ultimately their process of learning. The generation Z learners resort on a video or blog for immediate information and understanding than a textbook. This is one of the reasons for the present popularity of online classes. These days, our students are in the habit of using smartphones in the classrooms. Though it goes against the norms of many institutions, teachers cannot ignore its usage that easily, as we live in a world of technology. Teachers are transformative intellectuals and hence they are expected to be aware of such issues while engaged in teaching. Teachers can try BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) methodology in which students use their own devices, and can adopt new techniques in the classroom to create novel learning experiences for the students. When students bring their own devices to the classroom there is a possibility that they compare the speed and performance of their devices with that of their partners as they come from different socio economic backgrounds. Teachers need to face this Edtech issue and find innovative ways to engage the learners and motivate them.
The present paper is a thought experiment of a teacher who advocates critical pedagogy in the classroom. Critical pedagogy is an approach that makes an attempt to assist students question and challenge the prevailing beliefs and practices. It helps them succeed in attaining critical consciousness. The issue of power within the context of teaching and learning is its major and central concern. It focuses on specific points like “whose interests dominates the knowledge creation, how and how it is ‘passed on’ and additionally it views the perfect aim of education as emancipator.
The practitioner of critical pedagogy believes that what happens in the classroom should bring a difference outside the classroom. The English language teacher finds the learners to be diverse in many aspects. Among the target students, some are from financially sound background while many others are from economically below poverty line families. These less privileged learners usually are silent spectators in the communicative language teaching class. Learners who hail from well to do families are more confident in using computers and the electronic gadgets whereas others are not. This reflected in their level of confidence as well as attitude. Through collaboration and teamwork the teacher can scaffold the learners to boost their confidence in ICT skills. As a practitioner of critical pedagogy the teacher attempts to include everyone in the activities and makes sure that there is no discrimination in the classroom among students.
Teachers can tend to blame students when their strategies fail to work. They may sometimes feel like there are certain structures which cannot be changed, which are beyond our level of understanding and which are to be restructured in our systems. Considering educational technology for such issues through a critical pedagogy lens can create a desirable impact. With these perceptions the teacher decides to give a group activity to study Phrasal verbs with the support of technology to enhance the creativity of the students and to build better relations among the team members. The activity also promotes learner autonomy, teamwork, flexibility, leadership skills, negotiation skills, sharing responsibility, and time-stress management skills.Methodology
Students of this age wishes to experience kin-aesthetic and visual learning activities than the traditional teacher-centred and text-based tasks. Teachers can maximize the student participation and make teaching more effective. The effort taken by the teacher researcher was to teach English phrasal verbs to a group of thirty higher secondary level students from a rural school in Kerala.
Phrasal Verb is the topic the teacher tries to teach them in an innovative way using technology. A phrasal verb is a preposition or adverb added to a verb. It creates a meaning different from the original verb and this makes it difficult for learners to learn it. It requires continuous acquaintance to get a better understanding of this concept. The teacher as the part of the experiment spared one hour to teach them phrasal verbs in the conventional chalk and board method. The students tried to memorize it without much interest and involvement. The teacher doesn’t want them to memorize the phrasal verbs but to understand and learn them in an interesting manner. Hence the teacher decided to try a web2.0 tool to teach the same using computers. A computer lab with internet connectivity in twenty working computers was used by the students along with an LCD projector. Lumen5, was the tool chosen by the teacher to reach the learning objectivesLumen 5
It is a video creation platform that can be used for free, after creating a Lumen 5 account. Pro and business versions of this tool requires payment but they offer additional features. https://lumen5.com is the uniform resource locator (URL) of this tool. Lumen 5 has the following features. The web tool allows a user to generate videos using contents from any blogs or URLs in no time. Unlimited videos can be created and downloaded or shared over other sites. It uses text to video and intelligent media matching technologies. Paid version permits the user to collaborate and use the premium fonts and videos. The content generated can be previewed, saved to our system and can be published. The web tool Lumen 5 comes under creativity and communication tool. Basic computer literacy is adequate to use this tool as this is simple but effective and the learners would definitely find it very interesting. It also promotes learner autonomy. The resources used as input are the phrasal verb contents. It can be created by the user or any contents available over web can be used.Implementation
A list of Phrasal verbs was generated and given to students to create the required videos. Each student was given five phrasal verbs and asked to create appropriate videos for it after understanding its meaning. The user just has to select the text to be included in the video which would be automatically included in appropriate videos. Editing of the videos can be done if the content generated by the tool doesn’t appeal to the user. User can search videos using keywords, slides /frames can be easily added, audios can be added, sentences can be highlighted, made short or long according to the user discretion. It took not more than ten minutes for the students to complete the work. The work was then saved and the students presented it to the class inviting suggestions and feedback from other learners. Reflections and the outcome of the tool was very positive. There was a visible change in the cognitive level of the learners after this tool was used. The same topic when taught verbally with a few activities in the previous class didn’t bring out the desired effect whereas the learners after creating the videos for phrasal verbs found it easy to understand as they got the chance to visualize and create the content for their learning.
The liberal pedagogical canon demands the teachers emphasize self-directed learning, link knowledge to the personal experiences of students, and attempt to help students interact with one another in a positive and harmonious fashion (Giroux 129).Learners were very enthusiastic to create more contents and were interactive while viewing other’s videos. They suggested alternate videos to be used and gave constructive feedback which promoted communication in the classroom. It helped to develop the creativity of students too. It thus turned a dull class vibrant in a short span of time. Any teacher can try this in their classes to make it lively. The advantages of this tool are that it is easy to use, less time consuming and doesn’t require advanced technological skills.Data Analysis and Interpretation:
A survey was conducted by employing a questionnaire to study the effectiveness of the experiment. All the thirty students participated in the survey. The data was collected using a 5 point rating scale, indicating 1 for strongly disagree 2 for disagree 3 for neutral agreement 4 for agree and 5 for strongly agree. The following are the questions included in the questionnaire.1. Learning phrasal verb was more effective.(tick the option that suits you)i) In the conventional chalk and board classii) In the technology enhanced classRate the following based on its effectiveness in the classroom in a five point scale from 1-51-strongly disagree, 2- disagree, 3 - neutral, 4 – agree, 5 – strongly agree.2. Learning phrasal verb using technology was innovative.3. Lumen 5 was very easy to use in the classroom.4. The activity using Lumen 5 was helpful to develop thinking skills.5. The activity using Lumen 5 was helpful to develop creativity.6. The activity using Lumen 5 was fun filled.7. The activity using Lumen 5 helped to enrich communication skills in English.8. The activity using Lumen 5 promoted collaborative learning.9. The activity using Lumen 5 helped to boost confidence. Out of thirty students 12 were male and the rest 18 were female which makes the count to 40% male and 60% female population.
3 students belong to the general category, 15 belong to the backward class, 9 students belong to the most backward class and the remaining 3 belong to the scheduled caste /tribe communities.
Parents of 3 students are Government employees, parents of another 3 students work in private sector, 8 parents are into their own business, 12 parents are engaged in agriculture, and the remaining 4 parents which makes 13.3% of the total population are coolies.
This data shows that the majority of students come from poor socio- economic backgrounds.All the learners were of the opinion that learning phrasal verbs was more effective in the technology enhanced class than the conventional chalk and board class which was more teacher centric .This unanimous response further indicates the GenZ learners’ preference towards technology and learner centred approaches.
22 students strongly agreed that learning phrasal verbs using technology was an innovative exercise whereas the remaining 8 agreed to the same.
22 students strongly agreed that Lumen 5 was very easy to use in the classroom and the remaining 8 agreed to the same
The same result was visible for the statement regarding Lumen 5’s aid to develop thinking skills as 22 students strongly agreed and the remaining 8 agreed.
21 students strongly agreed that the activity using Lumen 5 was helpful to develop creativity whereas the remaining 9 students agreed to the same
23 students when strongly agreed that the activity using Lumen 5 was fun filled in the classroom the remaining 7 agreed to the same.
When 8 students agreed that the activity using Lumen 5 helped to enrich communication skills in English the majority of 22 strongly agreed to it.
26 students strongly agreed to the fact that the activity using Lumen 5 promoted collaborative learning whereas 4 students agreed to the same.
26 students strongly agreed that the activity using Lumen 5 helped to boost their confidence whereas the remaining 4 agreed to the same. Findings and suggestions: Learning phrasal verbs using the web tool Lumen 5 in an interactive way was more effective for the learners. The students felt that in the conventional teaching method without the use of technology, the knowledge flowed from the teacher to the learner in an authoritarian way. The teacher’s knowledge which was passed to the learner in this way was unquestioned. The capacities of the learner, of thought, imagination and creativity were not recognised. But through the activities in the technology enhanced class the teacher and the learner involved in the process of learning for mutual enrichment. Here the teacher learns from the students and the students learn from the teacher which is one of the features of a typical critical pedagogy classroom.The use of technology has provided scope for innovation in the classroom. The students had come up with different pictures and music to connect the ideas which were used in the sentences they created using phrasal verbs. The different images used by the different groups for describing a particular phrasal verb brought fruitful discussion and interaction in the group. It helped the students to generate new information in the classroom.In the technology enriched class there was interaction between the teacher and the learner, interaction with the peers, interaction with the learning material, interaction with the environment and also interaction with lived experiences of the learner. A good rapport between the teacher and the learner was established so that the students were able to look at their teacher as a personal friend and guide. This enabled the students to exchange their views freely with the teacher and clarify their doubts without hesitation.The activities given to the students acted as a catalyst to boost their confidence to bring in suitable materials for teaching and learning in the classroom. They inculcated the skill of organising the material and presenting it in the most suitable way. This has given them more confidence to identify suitable materials and resources from the library and internet and to present it in suitable learning situation. The discussions encouraged them to think independently and to present their standpoints that reflected their individuality. Working in a group enabled the students to discuss various topics and issues and come out with suitable responses. Students who suffered from lack of confidence and inhibition were motivated to speak better. The group was given full freedom to interact among themselves with occasional intervention of the teacher. This lead to co-operative thinking and resulted in collaborative learning. In addition to the understanding of the content it helped the learners to become creative thinkers. They have become critical thinkers too by analysing the real life situations and putting themselves in the position of those people in particular situations. This has helped them in problem solving and decision making and were able to understand the perspectives of others. This activity can be extended for teaching other grammatical structures and enhancing skills like reading and writing in a creative fashion. Works Consulted
Introduction:Learners are different. So are their perceptions, exposure, experiences, socio-cultural backgrounds and the languages they use. Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach. It’s time to change the approaches of the teachers. Many teachers think that the most effective way to improve themselves as a teacher is by developing their content knowledge. Content knowledge is very important, but equally important is how it is delivered to the diverse learners. Even knowledgeable teachers fail while transacting materials in the classroom to the students. What is taught and how it is taught are linked and are very much dependent to each other. The students of this era prefer multitasking. They prefer e-books over printed texts and visual presentations over lectures. “What should we call these “new” students of today? Some refer to them as the N-[for Net]-gen or D-[for digital]-gen. But the most useful designation I have found for them is Digital Natives. Our students today are all “native speakers” of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet.”(Prenskey 1). Information technology is an integral part of their lives. They are familiar with social networking, chat applications, blogs, wiki presentations, YouTube videos, games and are mostly frank and outspoken. They believe that these tools benefit their critical thinking and ultimately their process of learning. The generation Z learners resort on a video or blog for immediate information and understanding than a textbook. This is one of the reasons for the present popularity of online classes. These days, our students are in the habit of using smartphones in the classrooms. Though it goes against the norms of many institutions, teachers cannot ignore its usage that easily, as we live in a world of technology. Teachers are transformative intellectuals and hence they are expected to be aware of such issues while engaged in teaching. Teachers can try BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) methodology in which students use their own devices, and can adopt new techniques in the classroom to create novel learning experiences for the students. When students bring their own devices to the classroom there is a possibility that they compare the speed and performance of their devices with that of their partners as they come from different socio economic backgrounds. Teachers need to face this Edtech issue and find innovative ways to engage the learners and motivate them.
The present paper is a thought experiment of a teacher who advocates critical pedagogy in the classroom. Critical pedagogy is an approach that makes an attempt to assist students question and challenge the prevailing beliefs and practices. It helps them succeed in attaining critical consciousness. The issue of power within the context of teaching and learning is its major and central concern. It focuses on specific points like “whose interests dominates the knowledge creation, how and how it is ‘passed on’ and additionally it views the perfect aim of education as emancipator.
The practitioner of critical pedagogy believes that what happens in the classroom should bring a difference outside the classroom. The English language teacher finds the learners to be diverse in many aspects. Among the target students, some are from financially sound background while many others are from economically below poverty line families. These less privileged learners usually are silent spectators in the communicative language teaching class. Learners who hail from well to do families are more confident in using computers and the electronic gadgets whereas others are not. This reflected in their level of confidence as well as attitude. Through collaboration and teamwork the teacher can scaffold the learners to boost their confidence in ICT skills. As a practitioner of critical pedagogy the teacher attempts to include everyone in the activities and makes sure that there is no discrimination in the classroom among students.
Teachers can tend to blame students when their strategies fail to work. They may sometimes feel like there are certain structures which cannot be changed, which are beyond our level of understanding and which are to be restructured in our systems. Considering educational technology for such issues through a critical pedagogy lens can create a desirable impact. With these perceptions the teacher decides to give a group activity to study Phrasal verbs with the support of technology to enhance the creativity of the students and to build better relations among the team members. The activity also promotes learner autonomy, teamwork, flexibility, leadership skills, negotiation skills, sharing responsibility, and time-stress management skills.Methodology
Students of this age wishes to experience kin-aesthetic and visual learning activities than the traditional teacher-centred and text-based tasks. Teachers can maximize the student participation and make teaching more effective. The effort taken by the teacher researcher was to teach English phrasal verbs to a group of thirty higher secondary level students from a rural school in Kerala.
Phrasal Verb is the topic the teacher tries to teach them in an innovative way using technology. A phrasal verb is a preposition or adverb added to a verb. It creates a meaning different from the original verb and this makes it difficult for learners to learn it. It requires continuous acquaintance to get a better understanding of this concept. The teacher as the part of the experiment spared one hour to teach them phrasal verbs in the conventional chalk and board method. The students tried to memorize it without much interest and involvement. The teacher doesn’t want them to memorize the phrasal verbs but to understand and learn them in an interesting manner. Hence the teacher decided to try a web2.0 tool to teach the same using computers. A computer lab with internet connectivity in twenty working computers was used by the students along with an LCD projector. Lumen5, was the tool chosen by the teacher to reach the learning objectivesLumen 5
It is a video creation platform that can be used for free, after creating a Lumen 5 account. Pro and business versions of this tool requires payment but they offer additional features. https://lumen5.com is the uniform resource locator (URL) of this tool. Lumen 5 has the following features. The web tool allows a user to generate videos using contents from any blogs or URLs in no time. Unlimited videos can be created and downloaded or shared over other sites. It uses text to video and intelligent media matching technologies. Paid version permits the user to collaborate and use the premium fonts and videos. The content generated can be previewed, saved to our system and can be published. The web tool Lumen 5 comes under creativity and communication tool. Basic computer literacy is adequate to use this tool as this is simple but effective and the learners would definitely find it very interesting. It also promotes learner autonomy. The resources used as input are the phrasal verb contents. It can be created by the user or any contents available over web can be used.Implementation
A list of Phrasal verbs was generated and given to students to create the required videos. Each student was given five phrasal verbs and asked to create appropriate videos for it after understanding its meaning. The user just has to select the text to be included in the video which would be automatically included in appropriate videos. Editing of the videos can be done if the content generated by the tool doesn’t appeal to the user. User can search videos using keywords, slides /frames can be easily added, audios can be added, sentences can be highlighted, made short or long according to the user discretion. It took not more than ten minutes for the students to complete the work. The work was then saved and the students presented it to the class inviting suggestions and feedback from other learners. Reflections and the outcome of the tool was very positive. There was a visible change in the cognitive level of the learners after this tool was used. The same topic when taught verbally with a few activities in the previous class didn’t bring out the desired effect whereas the learners after creating the videos for phrasal verbs found it easy to understand as they got the chance to visualize and create the content for their learning.
The liberal pedagogical canon demands the teachers emphasize self-directed learning, link knowledge to the personal experiences of students, and attempt to help students interact with one another in a positive and harmonious fashion (Giroux 129).Learners were very enthusiastic to create more contents and were interactive while viewing other’s videos. They suggested alternate videos to be used and gave constructive feedback which promoted communication in the classroom. It helped to develop the creativity of students too. It thus turned a dull class vibrant in a short span of time. Any teacher can try this in their classes to make it lively. The advantages of this tool are that it is easy to use, less time consuming and doesn’t require advanced technological skills.Data Analysis and Interpretation:
A survey was conducted by employing a questionnaire to study the effectiveness of the experiment. All the thirty students participated in the survey. The data was collected using a 5 point rating scale, indicating 1 for strongly disagree 2 for disagree 3 for neutral agreement 4 for agree and 5 for strongly agree. The following are the questions included in the questionnaire.1. Learning phrasal verb was more effective.(tick the option that suits you)i) In the conventional chalk and board classii) In the technology enhanced classRate the following based on its effectiveness in the classroom in a five point scale from 1-51-strongly disagree, 2- disagree, 3 - neutral, 4 – agree, 5 – strongly agree.2. Learning phrasal verb using technology was innovative.3. Lumen 5 was very easy to use in the classroom.4. The activity using Lumen 5 was helpful to develop thinking skills.5. The activity using Lumen 5 was helpful to develop creativity.6. The activity using Lumen 5 was fun filled.7. The activity using Lumen 5 helped to enrich communication skills in English.8. The activity using Lumen 5 promoted collaborative learning.9. The activity using Lumen 5 helped to boost confidence. Out of thirty students 12 were male and the rest 18 were female which makes the count to 40% male and 60% female population.
3 students belong to the general category, 15 belong to the backward class, 9 students belong to the most backward class and the remaining 3 belong to the scheduled caste /tribe communities.
Parents of 3 students are Government employees, parents of another 3 students work in private sector, 8 parents are into their own business, 12 parents are engaged in agriculture, and the remaining 4 parents which makes 13.3% of the total population are coolies.
This data shows that the majority of students come from poor socio- economic backgrounds.All the learners were of the opinion that learning phrasal verbs was more effective in the technology enhanced class than the conventional chalk and board class which was more teacher centric .This unanimous response further indicates the GenZ learners’ preference towards technology and learner centred approaches.
22 students strongly agreed that learning phrasal verbs using technology was an innovative exercise whereas the remaining 8 agreed to the same.
22 students strongly agreed that Lumen 5 was very easy to use in the classroom and the remaining 8 agreed to the same
The same result was visible for the statement regarding Lumen 5’s aid to develop thinking skills as 22 students strongly agreed and the remaining 8 agreed.
21 students strongly agreed that the activity using Lumen 5 was helpful to develop creativity whereas the remaining 9 students agreed to the same
23 students when strongly agreed that the activity using Lumen 5 was fun filled in the classroom the remaining 7 agreed to the same.
When 8 students agreed that the activity using Lumen 5 helped to enrich communication skills in English the majority of 22 strongly agreed to it.
26 students strongly agreed to the fact that the activity using Lumen 5 promoted collaborative learning whereas 4 students agreed to the same.
26 students strongly agreed that the activity using Lumen 5 helped to boost their confidence whereas the remaining 4 agreed to the same. Findings and suggestions: Learning phrasal verbs using the web tool Lumen 5 in an interactive way was more effective for the learners. The students felt that in the conventional teaching method without the use of technology, the knowledge flowed from the teacher to the learner in an authoritarian way. The teacher’s knowledge which was passed to the learner in this way was unquestioned. The capacities of the learner, of thought, imagination and creativity were not recognised. But through the activities in the technology enhanced class the teacher and the learner involved in the process of learning for mutual enrichment. Here the teacher learns from the students and the students learn from the teacher which is one of the features of a typical critical pedagogy classroom.The use of technology has provided scope for innovation in the classroom. The students had come up with different pictures and music to connect the ideas which were used in the sentences they created using phrasal verbs. The different images used by the different groups for describing a particular phrasal verb brought fruitful discussion and interaction in the group. It helped the students to generate new information in the classroom.In the technology enriched class there was interaction between the teacher and the learner, interaction with the peers, interaction with the learning material, interaction with the environment and also interaction with lived experiences of the learner. A good rapport between the teacher and the learner was established so that the students were able to look at their teacher as a personal friend and guide. This enabled the students to exchange their views freely with the teacher and clarify their doubts without hesitation.The activities given to the students acted as a catalyst to boost their confidence to bring in suitable materials for teaching and learning in the classroom. They inculcated the skill of organising the material and presenting it in the most suitable way. This has given them more confidence to identify suitable materials and resources from the library and internet and to present it in suitable learning situation. The discussions encouraged them to think independently and to present their standpoints that reflected their individuality. Working in a group enabled the students to discuss various topics and issues and come out with suitable responses. Students who suffered from lack of confidence and inhibition were motivated to speak better. The group was given full freedom to interact among themselves with occasional intervention of the teacher. This lead to co-operative thinking and resulted in collaborative learning. In addition to the understanding of the content it helped the learners to become creative thinkers. They have become critical thinkers too by analysing the real life situations and putting themselves in the position of those people in particular situations. This has helped them in problem solving and decision making and were able to understand the perspectives of others. This activity can be extended for teaching other grammatical structures and enhancing skills like reading and writing in a creative fashion. Works Consulted
- Chapelle, Carol. English Language Learning and Technology: Lectures on Applied Linguistics in the Age of Information and Communication Technology. John Benjamins Pub., 2003.
- Dudeney, Gavin, and Nicky Hockly. How to Teach English with Technology. Pearson/Longman, 2007.
- Giroux, Henry A. Schooling for Democracy: Critical Pedagogy in the Modern Age. Routledge, 1989.
- Marc Prensky. “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants.” On the Horizon, vol. 9, no. 5, Oct. 2001, pp. 1–6., www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20%20Digital%20Natives,
- %20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf.
- Person. “Talkin' 'Bout My Label.” The Sydney Morning Herald, The Sydney Morning Herald, 20 July 2011, www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/health-and-wellness/talkin-bout-my-label-20110720-1ho7s.html.
- “Social Videos Made Easy. Turn Articles into Videos in Minutes.” Dashboard, lumen5.com/
Google Sites
Report abuse