Orense, Cielo Rio P.Ed. 234.1

Action Research Media and Technology Application inEducation

Teaching with Technology: Simple Yet Powerful Class Discussion Using A Virtual

Wall

I. INTRODUCTION

Virtual Education is an effort to complement the curriculumtaught in the traditional educational setting with virtualcurriculum that makes use of the vast potential of the Internet.Its goal is to provide information equity for all students,regardless of disability, geographical location, socioeconomicstatus, etc. (Alfieri, 2002).

According to Vitangcol III, one corner of the learning processis the education consumer – the student, acting as an autonomous,self-directed human being who, collaborating with others, musttake a very active role in adopting various learning activitiesin lieu of the passivity of listening to teacher’s lectures. Onthe other hand, the role of the education specialists (e.g.teachers, content providers, instruction teams) is to create alearning environment, which is interactive and participatory,thereby, facilitating and moderating an e-learning process.

In creating a learning environment that facilitate interactionand participation the idea of Flipped Classroom (FC) made itachievable. Flipped Classroom learning is intended to be used asif the classroom was inverted. The Flipped Classroom aims toengage students in the preparation of a prototype class orworkshop on a topic related to the curriculum, rather than theteacher being responsible for organizing all the resources forstudents to work on. Students organize themselves in teams inorder to present the content, according to their own technical,aesthetic, and organizational preferences. Therefore, most studywill occur outside the classroom, at home, at their own pace andaccording to their preferences. In order for this to happen,teachers need to prepare resources that can be used as initiatorsof the study, contextualizing the new learning activities

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intended to promote new knowledge regarding students’ previouslearning. The key idea is to enable students to engage with thenew content in a natural way, appealing and motivating theirinterest. Among the learning objectives of the FC model, the keyones are the development of individual skills, collaboration andself-study, self-learning organization, research, development ofcritical thinking and learning how to learn (cited in CCL).

When planning Learning Activities (LA), teachers must takeinto account the physical and virtual environments where learningactivities take place, what technologies required are available,and what their own roles are and those performed by students andfamily members/parents or others, e.g. experts, students'friends, classmates, etc., allowing students the possibility ofdeveloping teamwork outside school. Even so, the teacher needs toallow students some time to perform individual and collaborativetasks in teams, in the classroom or in the laboratory, dependingon students' needs and styles. The teacher also needs to plan anddesign moments of reflection and building assessment tools forstudents and for the teacher him/herself (cited in CCL).

One example of an assessment tool that can be utilized inclass is the Padlet (http://padlet.com/). It is a web applicationthat enables ideas to be expressed on a topic and to be easilyorganized. It could be useful to present a proposal for a workproject, to design a project or learning scenario. Padlet allowsembedding online documents (e.g. images, video, pdf, etc.), anddocuments that can be uploaded from a computer.

A Web 2.0 technology application such as Padlet can be used ina similar way to create a virtual wall, but with some significantadvantages. It works across the world on virtually any internet-enabled device. It has permanence: the ‘Walls’ can be kept andcan be copied. Multimedia files and documents can be posted. Itcan be used on a simple task such as starters and plenaries orcould be used to run an entire lesson. It needs no specialtraining and it is free. It can be used for collaborativeprojects such as starters, plenaries, differentiation and quizzes(Weller, 2013).

II. Statement of the Problem

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The action research study will focus on how to maximize learning process as well us engaging the students to the topic bycreating a virtual wall called Padlet. Also, the study likewiseseeks to find if passive students will participate in class discussion using a Padlet. Moreover, possible barriers and advantages to attain maximize learning experience will also be considered and noted.

III. Methodology

In a traditional classroom setting, the primary source ofinformation is the teacher. Engaging the students in a particulartopic during class discussion is very challenging. Thetraditional classroom is frequently organized as a place wherethe teacher presents and explains content at the same time asstudents listen to and note down all the information provided.The class is usually teacher centered, though one can have a moredialogic approach with the students, depending on one’s ownperspective. Routinely, in the classroom, all students have to dothe same activities, based on the resources available in theclassroom and following the same pace and the one established bythe teacher.

However, shifting from the “usual” way of teaching to “new”way of presenting a lesson is exciting in a sense that theoutcome is unknown. Looking into different variables is pertinentfor it will determine possible outcome whether teaching withtechnology will aid better learning experience.

Teaching with technology is not merely using the Internet andthe computer. It will take preparation and guidelines in usingyour technology tools to create an enriching learning experience.Another goal of teaching with technology is to cater to differentlearning style of the students whether they are auditory, visual,kinesthetic and tactile learners. Engaging different learnerswill create a student-centered class wherein information is notjust coming from the teacher alone but from various brain waveswith that students will be challenged to think outside the usual,explore possibilities and at the same time to challenge the mindof the students.

Participants

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Three sections of Grade 8 students participated in the miniresearch. The classes were composed of male and female ages from 14 – 16years old.

Procedure

First, students were asked to bring out their laptops andtablets in preparation for the activity prepared for them.Afterwards, students were requested to connect to the school’sWi-Fi. It was followed by an instruction to go to this websitehttp://padlet.com/wall/e6oe3yqeqi/wish/20556982. Then, studentswere asked to answer the question, “What is bullying?” Studentswere encouraged to share their personal opinion, experience,stand and argument regarding the topic. After 20 minutes ofexploring, posting and commenting of each other’s statement. Theteacher discussed the topic using the virtual wall with all thestudents’ responses.

IV. RESULTS and DISCUSSION

Using the Padlet to jumpstart a class discussion made all ofmy students engaged in our class discussion. At first, they werehaving a difficult time posting their comment since it was a newapplication for them to explore. Then, after 5 minutes ofdiscovering how Padlet application works the class started toflood the virtual wall with a lot of comments some were justmaking fun others were serious in answering the question. Then,they started posting pictures, Internet website as a reference totheir answer and leaving messages since the wall was projectedfor the whole class to see different comments.

My personal observation upon introducing the Padlet as mymotivation resulted as an interesting way to start a class.Possible reasons are the following: new way of starting theclass, excitement to use their gadgets, exploration of theapplication’s features and setting, fun in seeing theirclassmates’ answers and indirect brainstorming before posting acomment. In an educator’s point of view using the Padlet inclassroom discussion has the following advantages in teaching duethe application’s features. The boards update in real time,therefore as the students are typing they see each other’s boardsinstantaneously, no matter how far the computers are separated.

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These walls are public and require no account or login. This madefor rapid implementation in class, requiring only two minutes ofinstruction. All students were able to post to the wall. Thisactivity would also have been very suitable for the traditionalPost-it note. It involves peer collaboration and peer reviewing.Students are able to discuss and view each other’s answers and sogenerate a wider understanding of the issues. Padlet adds theadvantage of permanence. The wall is available to view at a laterstage and on many different devices. Another advantage isintroducing students to a new and fun technology. The majority ofstudents found the use of Padlet beneficial for the task set(Weller, 2002).

Instead of using classroom time to present information, theteacher has time to clarify doubts, provide extra resources,create activities in the classroom that might be felt asnecessary and evaluate immediately the students’ performancewithin the classroom. This way, it promotes the improvement ofthe quality of learning. This classroom organization modelinverts the traditional lecturing classroom concept, creatingclasses where students are highly engaged in an active andparticipatory learning (cited in CCL Scenario).

In an article it says that teachers, learning specialist andeducators can be equipped to utilize the web to extend teachingand learning beyond the classroom. Instead of acting as passiverecipients of what the web has to offer, with proper training andresources, they can be empowered to use the web in their owninstructional designs (Pappas, 2000). The virtual educator willneed to learn how to use technologies to facilitate the learningexperience. Technology does not produce interaction, it onlyestablishes the opportunity.

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V. REFERENCES:

Vitangcol III, A. The Implications Of Virtual Education InHigher Education Institutions.

Weller, A (2013). The use of Web 2.0 technology for pre-service teacher.

No.2.. pp. 40–46.

CCL SCENARIO: FLIPPED CLASSSROOM, “What is the FlippedClassroom model, and how to use it?”

http://padlet.com/features

‘Padlet Gallery’ (2013) Online: http://padlet.com/gallery

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