Educating the Educators

Educating the Educators on How To use technology!!

David and everybody, I think one factor that is impeding the use of technology in adult education classes is that the teachers may not be familiar enough with the potential of the new ‘gadgets’, especially the smart phone.

Well, I had the same problem about 5 years ago. I was teaching a class of adults and started to send ‘homework’ via text to the students. At that time I still had a “flip” phone, not a smart phone. So I just typed in a few questions, etc.

I remember the first time I discovered how to send a 2 minute audio clip. When I went to the class the next day, I asked the students if they had received it. One showed me on her smart phone. She then told me I should try to send videos too!!! I said: “Videos?!” Everybody laughed!!!

Well, to me this is now ancient history.

BUT I wonder how many teachers really do not know how to use a smart phone.

As a number of people have mentioned, the smart phone is the computer of today, and can be used to increase learning, and interest and motivation.

 

Comments

Hello Paul, I agree that there are many ways teachers can exploit smart phones to support student learning. Since you are so adept at making instructional videos for your students, I wonder if you might like to try creating videos to demonstrate to teachers some of the ways they can use smart phones. You could certainly post links to your videos here on LINCS! I'm certain some of our members would be interested.

Cheers, Susan Finn Miller

Moderator, English Language Acquisition CoP

Hi Paul, Thanks for creating and sharing this video. It's great! We need to keep encouraging each other to explore using technology in all the ways you talk about in this video.

Cheers, Susan Finn Miller

Moderator, English Language Acquisition CoP

Susan...thanks again. Now just one little thing. I cannot figure out how to get LINCS sent to my email!!! This is what happens when I think I finally figure something out!! Like the time in 1992 when I bought my first  computer. My daughter was ten and was learning about computers in school. She came home while I was swearing at the machine. "Oh, Dad, it's real easy!! You just do thisthisthisandtatandwhambammboom you got it."  "Please do it one more time," I begged..."but go slowly!!"

 

Hi Paul, I love your story! I have often said doing things with technology is like magic. It's super easy if you know the "magic words" but impossible if you don't!  Here's a link to the directions for how to get LINCS messages in your email. You can also decide on a 12-hour or 24-hour digest option. 

Cheers, Susan 

 

Hi, Susan, well I think I followed directions but still no success in getting posts sent to my email. For one thing I did not see a "save" button. Also the drop-down menu is on the left. Anyway, I tried and tried! And  also I sent you several emails from here which you did not receive or which got sent to the Spam box.

In any case, all I can say is - I miss the days when we got emails all the time - back  in the old days!! 

Hi Paul, Thanks for posting this message about the challenge you are having with getting LINCS posts in email. If this is happening to you, it must be happening to others, too. I want to urge you to contact the help desk. The people there are always super helpful. So ... go to the very bottom of any page on LINCS and click on "Contact Us." Let them know what the problem is, and I'm sure they'll be able to resolve the issue. Please give an update when you can.

Cheers, Susan Finn Miller

Moderator, English Language Acquisition CoP

I've been getting LINCS posts in e-mail successfully for years, but just in the past couple of months they have ALL started going to my spam folder. This is happening with every single e-mail I get from the Ed.gov domain. I've talked to staff at the US Department of Education about it and they are aware of the problem but there isn't any fix available, except to keep checking your spam folder and "white-listing" or marking as "Not Spam" any legitimate LINCS or Ed.gov e-mails you find there.

Hi AmandaWBS!

You can always reach out to our help desk (https://community.lincs.ed.gov/contact-us or email support@lincs.ed.gov) with questions or comments like this — we'll always be happy to help. (We don't usually see discussion posts though).

It's hard to tell for sure what might be causing this, but my guess is that whoever manages the email for your organization is going to be the best person to help; they should be able to "safelist" email addresses from ed.gov so that they're no longer treated as spam. Most likely there's something about your internal email server configuration that's causing these to be treated with suspicion, and that should be easy to check.

Give us an email at support@lincs.ed.gov if your email administrator has questions, or if you have other questions, and we'll be delighted to answer them.

Thanks!

Ero Gray

LINCS Support

Amanda-This is where my messages went!!! I remember years ago when a message was sent to Spam, I just moved it to the inbox, and then it wouldcontinue to go to the inbox.So let's see what happens.

THANKS!! Oh well, this is why we learn the ditty: If at first you don't succeeed, try, try again!!!

Susan and all, as I mentioned I teach ESL bilingually, using a method I call “bilingual and phonetic”.  I have always argued in favor of using a bilingual method especially in teaching beginning adults, who know little or no English. Teaching English pronunciation via a phonetic method is also an important  part of my course.

The most frequent objection to my point of view usually is made by teachers who teach in a class with students from two or more language backgrounds.

Years ago my response was that it would be very easy to use a picture dictionary in the class so that the students could write the vocabulary words in their notebooks with their own L1 translation. This procedure would only have to be done once, after which the notebooks could be transcribed or copied for the next group of students. It could be a good group activity.

BUT now...with the advent of technology that includes a few free translation sites, I need to amend my position. There is now less of a need to advocate for a bilingual method because...all the students are using their smartphones to translate!!!!

So...from now on I guess I will just argue in favor of teaching pronunciation in Beginning or Level 1 classes….along with using SmartPhones!!!

I once thought a student was using her phone to chat with someone. She showed me that she was translating a word I had written on  the whiteboard. I apologized to her and asked her to show the others.

So...this is a good example of why you should let your students use their phones in class!

 

It's funny, Paul, I had almost the opposite thing happen in class today. We were playing a game in class today and when one student looked at her phone, another told her that she couldn't look up the answers online! The students now assume that when someone else is on their phone in class, it's class-related (although I have a strong suspicion that in this case it was not...).

I generally teach ABE students, and a lot of them have learned to use the voice-to-text feature on their phones as a spelling aid. The student simply says the word aloud, and the texting or search function displays it written out. Students have to be aware that the words aren't always exactly right (homophones, accent issues, etc), but it can be very helpful, especially with longer words. Once one person in class starts doing this, others catch on quickly. It's much more effective than trying to look up a word in the dictionary, and you sometimes get more than one option to choose from, which means that students still have to think about which one is right. It can spark some good discussion!

Hello Paul, Rachel and all, In my experience, students are usually on task when using their smart phones in class. Of course, there are some exceptions. I appreciate your example, Rachel, that students sometimes need to think about which of the words that pops up on their phone is the one they need. And, Paul, I know exactly what you mean about the usefulness of online translating dictionaries. The fact that online dictionaries also give the pronunciation of words is also hugely helpful for English learners.

Cheers, Susan Finn Miller

Moderator, English Language Acquisition and Teaching & Learning CoPs