Moodle for Blended Learning in EFL: One example
Agreed! Moodle is NOT Social Media. If they are given the choice, instead of accessing “my” Moodle Course, my teenage pupils would rather sign in to Instagram or SnapChat. Since this topic is relevant to teenagers’ lives, it appears on the textbooks we have. Accordingly, I used Moodle for Blended Learning as the perfect complement to teaching the unit and working on all four skills: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing. I try to engage my pupils and teach them English. Moodle as a Hook, I said, remember?
Planning came first, of course. I prepared a document with a detailed step by step plan concerning what I would upload, the order I would place the contents, the sequence when I would make each Moodle Resource and Moodle Activity visible for students, and the words and links I needed. To be sure, I knew that things would not exactly go according to plan, but then, the unexpected is something to expect, isn’t it? After all, I teach teenagers. The unexpected is part of my work.
I started by changing the name of one Moodle Topic into “Social Media and You”, and inserted the “ Social Media, Social Life: Teens Reveal Their Experiences…” Common Sense media video. I made just that Moodle Topic visible. In class, I used the projector to show the first minute or so of the video on the Moodle Platform. While checking comprehension, we discussed what we had watched. I took time to work on vocabulary, and finally told my pupils to watch the full video (3:16 minutes) at home, that is, BEFORE coming to the next lesson (Flipping the Classroom). Incidentally, I could have used H5P to add interactivity to the video (Moodle allows for that). I didn’t, but I guess I will do so when I use the stuff next school year (I hope to import the unit into another course next school year).
I taught the unit using both the textbook and Moodle. Notice, please, that since I mean to present how I did that, I will not show the textbook part. Instead, I will use content, some of which I actually worked on, that is freely available on the Internet. The reason is obvious: I wouldn’t like to be accused of Copyright Infringement.
The following step was adding a Moodle Label (“Introduction”) and a survey by means of Moodle URL. Note that Moodle Choice Activity is an alternative when you want an answer to one question only. Incidentally, I thought of having pupils do a Pre-teaching Moodle Quiz on the subject and vocabulary, but I didn’t. That is, of course, another alternative.
Pupils answered the survey questions in class. Since Google Form turns Responses into graphs and charts, we used these to discuss results. I then had pupils write at least one paragraph to explain each visualization. There was a lot of vocabulary, and grammar involved in the process. Moodle Lightbox Gallery can be used for this task.
To make a long story short, I added and made visible as time went by, different Moodle Resources and Activities as my lessons evolved. I used File, Page, another Label, Glossary, Games, Forum, and Quiz (I could have also used Assignment). I have created this video to illustrate what I have just explained (again, it is not exactly what happened, but will help you visualize the process).
Yes, Moodle is not the first choice for my pupils to sign in, but then the point is to get them interested enough to do so.
Married to Susy, with two daughters: Gabriela and Maia, and three granddaughters (Sol, Dor, and Eliana), Eduardo is teaching English at school.
Having completed with HRDNZ both MoodleBites for Teachers and the six MEC courses, Eduardo is a Moodle Certified Educator.
He is a Certified Israel Ministry of Education Teachers’ teacher.
He has developed and facilitated several Israel Ministry of Education’s Spanish and English as a Foreign Language online workshops.
- Giving access to high-quality educational experiences with Moodle – 28th January 2023
- Enhance K-12 English Foreign Language Skills with Moodle – 28th September 2022
- Dig into Digital: Focus on H5P – 28th August 2022
Great post Eduardo!
I can see the ‘challenges’ that teachers have with getting younger students to use Moodle – an LMS will never feel like Facebook, or Twitter, or Instagram … but of course it shouldn’t!
And LMS is not a socializing environment, in the same way as your online banking does not feel like any of the above, because they serve different purposes.
Of course all technology and online environments can learn tricks, ideas, and best-practice from each other (and they should), but they will always be different 🙂