Blended Learning in English Language Teaching: Course Design and Implementation
Blended Learning in English Language Teaching: Course Design and Implementation
Blended Learning in English Language Teaching: Course Design and Implementation
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A description of the blend/materials/software used<br />
I blended an established face-to-face class based on the coursebook Bus<strong>in</strong>ess<br />
Benchmark (Whitby 2009) with onl<strong>in</strong>e learn<strong>in</strong>g via the creation of a wiki on ‘PBWorks’.<br />
This was simple to achieve by follow<strong>in</strong>g the <strong>in</strong>structions on the PBWorks website to<br />
create <strong>and</strong> name a wiki. It did not require any programm<strong>in</strong>g skills or knowledge as the<br />
software <strong>in</strong>cludes all of the design features. I <strong>in</strong>vited the students to jo<strong>in</strong> by add<strong>in</strong>g<br />
their email addresses to the wiki which sends out email <strong>in</strong>vitations, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g a l<strong>in</strong>k to<br />
create <strong>in</strong>dividual passwords for the site. A learner without an email address was given<br />
a username. The site was private <strong>and</strong> learners created their own passwords so only<br />
this group could see or edit the content of this wiki. Each learner had writer status so<br />
could immediately add or modify content from any <strong>in</strong>ternet connection which meant<br />
that the site could grow with their <strong>in</strong>terests.<br />
The onl<strong>in</strong>e wiki provided the freedom to enhance student opportunities for learn<strong>in</strong>g,<br />
both <strong>in</strong> <strong>and</strong> outside the classroom. It meant more authentic materials could be shared<br />
plus it allowed asynchronous <strong>in</strong>teractions between users, which all students could<br />
learn from.<br />
The wiki<br />
The ‘front page’ <strong>in</strong>cluded a short video of the class say<strong>in</strong>g ‘hello’ which we made<br />
<strong>in</strong> class us<strong>in</strong>g a flip camera so the learners would feel welcome.<br />
I asked the learners to post a photo of themselves along with an <strong>in</strong>troduction.<br />
This <strong>in</strong>itial activity was not done <strong>in</strong> class but it built student confidence with the<br />
technology. It was useful as an <strong>in</strong>itial step <strong>in</strong> the eventual formation of an onl<strong>in</strong>e<br />
community where participants asked for <strong>and</strong> gave advice or made comments on the<br />
page (see Figure 1). Participants could learn from their mistakes <strong>and</strong> share those<br />
experiences because wiki is easy to add to <strong>and</strong> edit like ‘Word’. This activity created<br />
a real need to communicate <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong> <strong>and</strong> six learners succeeded <strong>in</strong> attach<strong>in</strong>g their<br />
photographs <strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong>troductions.<br />
Figure 1: Student comments on <strong>in</strong>itial activity<br />
164 | Us<strong>in</strong>g a wiki to enhance the learn<strong>in</strong>g experience on a bus<strong>in</strong>ess <strong>English</strong> course