ETC_Final Project

Relevant and Innovative Learning Scenarios Planning

In this post I will be sharing my lesson plan for integrating voicethread in the learning environment.

Target Audience

My target audience will be learners of English as a second language. They will be between the ages of 17-30. Mainly from Europe, Central/South America and Asia. The learners will either be 1) General students, who are here for a short period of time or 2) Academic year students attending for 6/9 months.

Materials

1. A computer for each student.
2. Internet connection.

Objectives– At the end of this scenario the learner will be able to:

1. Create a collaborative voicethread with their classmates.
2. Share their research and ideas with each other.
3. Critique on what fellow class mates have found.
4. Discuss their thoughts and feelings as a whole class.

Procedure– Steps to the process

Pre-requisites – Ensure that you have created a Voicethread account and template voicethread prepared prior to following the steps below. This can be set-up on a previous activity. Be familiar with how to upload files and where to save them.

➢ Have class as a whole brainstorm a particular topic. For this example I will use the idea of researching the pacific islands.
➢ Elicit the different topics which may be researched e.g. tribes and languages. Have enough topics to be divided up amongst the group
o Spend about 15-20 mins on these two activities.
➢ Divide the subtopics between the group.
➢ Give the group 10-15 minutes to decide on the areas of research and roles.
➢ Bring the class back and direct them to the voicethread link.
➢ Over a course of a week students will research their given topic.
➢ Check with students how the research is going and ensure they are adding content to the voicethread.
o Ensure that any files, which are to be added to the voicethread, are PDF’s, DOCs or JPGs.
➢ At the end of the week direct them to the link and user log in details.
➢ Give the students 5-10mins to upload any final findings to the voicethread.
➢ Once this has been done, play the discussion.
➢ Each learner must add at least 5 comments to the voicethread. Ideally a comment on each slide.
➢ At the end of the voicethread, ask the students to answer the following questions
o Name 2 things which you learnt.
o What were you most surprised about?
o What is your overall impression of the voicethread and why?

Web 2.0 Tool

The tool to be used is Voicethread. This is a collaborative multimedia slideshow tool. Voicethread is web based and it allows users to upload different media. Users can then comment on the media via voice, text or drawing.

http://voicethread.com/

• Social Participation/Social Learning–The way social learning and participation will take place in this environment is that students will be able to:

➢ Seek out information on their own terms.
➢ Share information with a group.
➢ Talk about what they have found.
➢ Share their learning experience.
➢ Respond to each other’s comments on the slides.

• Making Connections

In a previous lesson the group was asked to give a presentation on different regions of the world. They then gave a presentation. In this whole class collaborative project, they will be refining their collaborative skills. The learners will also be using pre taught vocabulary and colloquial terminology.

• Create/Produce


The product to be shared is a completed voicethread where all the participants have left the required 3 comments. This will then be shared in the voicethread community as well as posted onto the learner’s individual blog.

• Assessment

➢ Review the voicethread and ensure that each student has left 3 relevant comments.
➢ Review the feedback left at the end of the voicethread.

• Reflection

Learner’s reflections

• Learners will be able to reflect on their experience by posting on their personal blog. The following questions are suggested.
• What was the best thing about using Voicethread?
• What was the worst thing about using Voicethread?
• Would you use it again?
• What would you use it for?

Teacher’s Reflection

• Take the opportunity to reflect on the overall process, suggested questions:

• Evaluate the success of the RILS use the critique left on the student’s blog.
• Review the implementation and make any reflective changes.