26 Letters: Writing feedback: how do you do it?

26 Letters: Writing feedback: how do you do it?

Using a Blog to Engage English Language Learners - the SAMR model

Just a couple of thoughts about using a blog with your class. 

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One thing the use of digital media should do is make the classroom more engaging for students. I know when I can access materials on-line or research the subject matter of courses I’m doing before and after class, I’m more confident, better informed, and basically happier about what I’m studying and my progress. I’m talking from recent experience. This year, I’ve done four courses in my spare time.

Although I said “digital media . . . should make the classroom more engaging” above, I don’t want to imply that the use of digital media alone will result in the class being more engaging. If you use digital media and the Web to do exactly the same thing as pencil and paper used to do, it doesn’t result in more engaging classes. There’s no net gain. This could be compared to phones going from rotary dial to touchtone. Touchtone phones did the same thing as rotary dial phones (at least as far as I am aware). You made calls with them, but they looked more modern than rotary dial phones. The touch tone phone was merely a SUBSTITUTION—the S in the SAMR of the subject line—with no functional improvement. 

When the phone morphed into something that you could walk around the house with and you didn’t need a very long cord, that was a real improvement, an AUGMENTATION—the A in the SAMR model. You didn’t have to run to the room where the phone was to get the call. You didn’t miss calls through not getting to the phone before it rang off. So, you could use the phone in different rooms of the house, have the same phone in the kitchen if you were cooking, or in the bedroom at night. It was a substitute with some functional improvement.

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Then when the first mobile phones were introduced, that was a huge improvement. Those people who wanted to be connected 24/7 could be, if they were willing to lug about a yuppie brick. The phone network changed and life was transformed—the M for MODIFICATION—in the SAMR model. You could now have a mobile office; you could now keep in touch from nearly everywhere you were. (Though we could certainly talk about whether this was a good or a bad thing, we can’t debate that it introduced a huge change to the traditional forms of connectedness.) 

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Finally, when smartphones were invented, we had a REDEFINITION—the R in the SAMR model. The phone had morphed into the tiniest kind of computer, with you wherever you were, and telephony was only one of the options associated with it. (And this option is becoming less and less popular as other functions become more valued.)

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Because there are so many possibilities with digital media, we can stimulate the students more and provide for their different learning styles and preferences. Some students like to learn by playing games and doing puzzles. (I’m one of these.) Some really like the interaction with other students in group work, and learning from their peers in a freer atmosphere than what would happen if they were sitting back in a classroom listening to the teacher. Some students like to watch videos. Some students like working alone, with no distractions in a quiet room. Some students like listening and learning through songs and music. Anyway, you get the idea. There are many preferences and the traditional classroom with the teacher up the front only satisfies one of them.

Ok, so with digital media we can present our students with many opportunities to learn in ways that may suit them better. So, how does the SAMR model relate to the blog?

Now, if we use a blog to allow students to publish their work, that is only using the blog as a substitute for paper and pencil. If they had paper and pencil, or a word processor and a printer, they would be able to do the same thing, i.e., publish their work for others to read. So why go to the trouble of learning how to interact with a blog if there’s no net improvement in learning or enthusiasm.

I think the classroom blog could be much more than that. It could be a place where students look for ideas, inspiration and interest.

• It could be a repository of links to interesting stories: recounts
• It could collect links to useful apps and websites (English language teaching apps/useful websites for learning the grammatical structures they’ll be expected to use)
• It could direct students to other blogs of interest
• It could display photos to stimulate discussion/thinking/writing
• It could link to videos that deal with what will be taught in class the next day, so that students arrive in class prepared to discuss and ask questions.

The above are just some musings about using blogs (or any other technology) in the English language classroom.

For more detailed information on the SAMR model, please go here: http://www.schrockguide.net/samr.html

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