COLLABORATIVE TECHNOLOGY PROJECT
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Example.docx
COLLABORATIVE TECHNOLOGY PROJECT
TECHNOLOGIES FOR INSTRUCTIONAL SETTING
Schoology.com for ESL (English as a Second Language) Adult Learners
Introduction
The focus of this project is to support Adult ESL learners in their English continuing education during and after classroom instruction using technology as the platform learning tool. With this aim, we propose to use www.schoology.com , a free Learning Management System (LMS) tool that uncovers a set of new-preconceived learning experiences, to be used as extension of the classroom instructions. Schoology allows adult learners, in a user-friendly way, to practice English, assess their learnings, and keep direct connection with classmates and teachers from any computer, tablet, or smartphone with Internet access. On the other hand, Schoology enables instructors to create, manage, and share content and resources with their students and colleges. Teachers are able to follow their adult learners progress in a synchronous or asynchronous way by using their smart devices as well. The adoption of this LMS project could enhance any adult ESL education classroom by increasing the amount of time students spent practicing English on their own self-pace and increase of students’ technology skills. For this end, learning outcomes can be reflected on students’ English level advancement, job placement, and/or continuing education in a long run.
The project team is composed by Abubakr Abdelrasoul who is an electronics and computer systems engineer with over eight years of experience in electronics, software, and management fields. Coming from a third world country, Abubakr is interested in applying technology in educational contexts to increase accessibility to quality education, reduce costs, and promote open source tools. The other team member is Kennia Delafe, an Adult ESL teacher with more than fifteen years of experience working in different areas in the adult ESL education field. Her main focus is to help adult learners to learn English and get acquaintance in their new learning and life community, but also, to close technology knowledge gap in order to become self-sufficient in this rapid-advancing technological era. Both team members are currently students in the IDE:611 Technology for Instructional Settings course at Syracuse University.
The teachers who helped during implementation and evaluation process were Kennia Delafe, Adult ESL Teacher and Soon Young Kong, also Adult Education Teacher. Both teachers were working in setting up the logistics of including English Butterfly LMS within the hours of instruction and as part of the students’ homework.
Needs assessment: justification of the importance of this project; What was the context? How did you know there was a need for this project?
Needs assessment is conducted and there is a definite need for such tool. From experience in adult education, English as a Second Language adult learners have very limited time to learn and practice English in classroom settings which is limited by time and place as well. As a result, learning takes longer than it should and achieved results are not as high as teachers will like it to be. Schoology gives learners the chance to learn, practice, and access learning material without any time or geographical restrictions. To stimulate their interest in continuing their education outside of the classroom, the adoption of this new technology, may stimulate students’ interests in improving their English skills by practicing those four domains.
Goals and objectives of the project
The goal of this project is to implement a learning management system in an ESL learning context to overcome limitations of traditional ESL adult classrooms and extend the opportunities of learning.
Objectives: this project, the development of the Schoology learning management system, will enable ESL adult learners and teachers to:
· Learn English with no time or place restrictions
· Develop technological skill for both learners and instructors
· Create meaningful online lessons and assessments focusing on major learning problems
· Monitor and follow their student’s progress and take corrective actions when needed
· Provide user-friendly learning tools in one place
· Provide instructors with an easy to use tracking and reporting tool
Target audience
The students who participated in the testing of the LMS are refugees who come from different countries. These group of students in the English Level 2 class is from Central America and the Caribbean Islands, Asia, and Africa. This group is composed of around twenty-five students, all from different knowledge background, their English level fluctuates in the beginning English range, and their technology skills also varies from limited to advanced.
The project also targeted ESL teachers that will like to promote continuing ESL education outside of the classrooms and the use of technology as an instrument of learning.
Technology or technologies to be used: (what, how, why use)
This project engaged targeted audience in the use a variety of technologies. Personal computers, tablets, smartphones, and virtual technology with the use of the www.schoology.com site or “online classroom” can be accessed from any school computer lab, library computers, from home or by using other smart devices. Because of the nature of the ESL adult learners, it is important to clarify that all hardware used to access to the English practices must have internet access.
The use of these technologies makes the perfect combination to create system that adult ESL students can use to improve their English by accessing and using teacher-created resources at no additional cost. Participating students were able own and manage their own English acquisition at their own speed and have the possibility to expand their technological skills as an accidental learning. Students had the opportunity to improve their listening, reading, and writing with the use of hands-on exercises, videos, vocabulary drills, flashcards, and more. Besides, having access to an online classroom on-site, students were able to bring it home. Therefore, learning is reaching out those that for various reasons cannot go to school to learn or improve their English.
Teachers, on the other hand (Kennia Delafe and Soon Young Kong for this project), had the opportunity to design their own-private online classroom by using their limited or advanced technology skills for free. The opportunities to expand their creativity and knowledge while creating meaningful lessons that students can use to review concepts learned while away from the classroom, are endless. It’s worth mentioning that teachers can easily organize content by creating folders, upload previous-created lessons, link outside sources into the courses, create quizzes and activities, quickly communicate news, have students chat about specific topics adding discussion sessions, create photo albums from classroom pictures, download useful apps into courses, connect with other teachers for resources within the same platform and much more.
Challenges faced (organizational, attitudinal, physical plant, technical, etc.)
For the Speaking acquisition skill, Schoology might not be of great help as this skill required synchronous interaction whether face-to-face or online. Therefore, having in mind that the main goal of English Butterfly LMS is to expand English learning outside of the classroom and not to replace it, we decided to address more of the speaking during class sessions instead of online.
Another problem that we encounter is the amount of time that training in the use of Schoology is taking for this group of students due to their limited technology skills. As it was explained before, our audience is a group of a multi-English level and multi-technology skills student. This problem had impacted the way training had been delivered; instead of teacher-centered instruction with the use of visuals and step by step materials, it has been more of peer to peer teaching and cooperation. Skilled students in the technology area are helping others to register, sign in and out, sign in again and explore content following visual/written direction in a handout. Still, even though it is taking a long time, it is working.
Besides, the lack of proper hardware at home for students to use our online classroom is another issue. As students started to engage in this project, always remembering that their English is limited, and we cannot give them too much information at a time, we started asking for resources that they could use at home to continue practicing. Around 40 % of the class has a computer or a tablet ready to use with internet access. The other 60% or so, do not have the proper hardware to practice. Therefore, we asked if they have a smartphone with an active internet connection and this was successful. Consequently, another step is taking place to download Schoology app into their phone while on school grounds, to proceed with hands-on practice using their mobile to continue studying English using English Butterfly LMS.
Results (must include the following: What were the outcomes, what went well, what would you have done differently?) Comment by Abubakr Mustafa: There is a section in the progress report “ACCOMPLISHMENTS THUS FAR ON THE PROJECT” I think we can work on it.
Reflection on the Experience (e.g., challenges you've encountered, what you have learned through this project, how your future work/ study can benefit from this experience, etc.); and You must include how your approach to collaboration and project implementation assisted educators and/or students to learn and to use technology for learning.)
APPENDICES
Appendix A
Final Product
Link, username, and password of Butterfly LMS account to go here. Comment by Abubakr Mustafa: After the link, username, and password, we can add as many pictures as we need.
Appendix B
Timetable for project Comment by Abubakr Mustafa: I thought we better add it. What do you think?
10/16 - www.schoology.com online classroom setup (Course Name and Section), selection of ESL materials to be use in the course, Done!
10/23 - Course folders set up, grading system period setup, and instructional materials for registration and use of the site done, Done!
10/30 - 11/6 ESL course instructional materials, exercises and quizzes done, work on progress report and start recruiting students and teachers for online classroom testing, Done!
November 11th - Progress Report, Done!
11/20 - Initial online classroom testing, continue working on instructional materials and learning assessment, record online classroom challenges and needs for changes, Done!
11/27 - Work on online classroom, use data analysis, ultimate changes, complete online classroom details, record online classroom user's’ input, continue working on final submission paper, Done!
12/4 - www.schoology.com LMS ready to be adopted, work on final project paper details, Done!
December 8th - Final submission, Done!
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