British Council learning website www learningenglish org uk
British Council learning website: www. learningenglish. org. uk/ Criteria: Good – variety and range of activities is very wide, interactive, can swap emails play games, write poetry, display work online Criteria Bad: Difficult to navigate on homepage, crowded, too much stuff
BBC learning site http: //www. bbc. co. uk/history/multimedia_zone/3 ds/index. sht ml • Good: Options for different categories of learners, coverage of wide subject area, activities for use by yourself or in class, kids stuff is user friendly • Bad: More resource, than interactive. NO clear aim to the activities stated
Esl café www. eslcafe. com Good: Can move around quickly, interactive, predictable, simple view and design Bad: Not creative, tasks are very shallow emphasis on performance and testing, rather than “learning”
Theory • We wanted learner control, interactivity and creativity. • Esl café positioned computer as teacher/executioner in reception model style. Few explanations, emphasis on right and wrong for exercises, although there were things like pen pals n that • We wanted variety in terms of range of resources, media types and activity types. • BBC and British Council tries to appeal to a variety of learning styles *(open for debate, is it just lip service)
Theory 2 • We liked the fact that students could add to the site. Its motivational, putting your ideas into a public space, becoming part of a community, especially if you become a loyal visitor. • This is more constructivist, is it co-constructivist with the computer as the peer? (communicative)
5 features of effective Learning Sites The Good • • • 1 Interactive 2 Simple and Clear 3 Motivating 4 Allows learner creativity/production 5 To encourage collaboration (www difficult. com)
The Bad • • • 1 Messy, cluttered 2 Prescriptive content 3 Pluggins and Muggins: Aware of users 4 Non teacher authors: is that bad? 5 Unclear navigation
The Answer • Aileen? ? Based on a behaviourist model…. . do you know?
- Slides: 8