Use TED-Ed To Create A Flipped Classroom
When it comes to traditional English teaching, I think most people who have received 9-year compulsory education and high school English education in China have their say. I didn't feel anything wrong when I was taught the traditional way. Or I took it for granted. We needed to read and memorize vocabulary and grammar repeatedly in the Morning Self-study. In class, the teacher typically taught us new words (learn pronunciation and definition), then continued to teach the content module by module according to the textbook. If the class has time left, we need to do exercises. So, English learning was carried out under such a model, and students have to write all kinds of exercises forever. When discussing the improvement of learning plans and formulation, it might always be around how to improve grades. I remembered that in the second semester of senior three, my English score remained stable at about 130. My teacher told me that "you need to work harder on the 'cloze' section". That was nothing more than "write more exercises and make summaries". However, I did three or four sets of exercises a day and it didn't make a difference. And up to now, I also think those exercises have not changed my English level much.
If someone had asked me at that time, "Do you have any questions or suggestions for the teacher's lesson plan?". I will answer that, "no questions". And if someone asks me, "When is the seminar and workshop for your English class?". I would say, "we don't have that". Or I didn't even know what it is.
Although the English education reform in China has been advocating student-centered, there seems to be little substantive teaching practice and interactive learning. I don't know how much has changed over the years. But if I become an English teacher in the future, I hope to promote these practices to give students more opportunities to learn what they are interested in and actually use English in interactive classroom activities.
In fact, offline teaching has become more difficult due to COVID-19 in the past two years. At the same time, I see hope for reform in English education. After all, offline learning in traditional classrooms is already boring. If the teacher has to live stream the textbook content to the students, it will definitely demotivate the students more! Furthermore, technological advances have led to the emergence of more Technology Support Learning tools. Blended Learning and Virtual Learning Environment have gradually become pedagogical hot topics.
"A lack of reading, surface approaches to learning and a lack of out of class studying as major contributors to the lack of understanding Within modules across the sample studied."
(Russell, 2016, pp. 279)
Russell (2016) claims that video can help with language learning. He found that students were more interested in listening to a combination of videos, but students sometimes didn't think of videos as learning tools. In this case, how should teachers incorporate such digital technologies into the learning environment?
Based on the above reflective discussions, I conclude as follows:
How can teachers incorporate video resources into blended classroom design based on current realities (e.g. Covid-19 and the digital era) and shift the role of the lecturer and pedagogy to a learner-centred environment?
✨ ✨ ✨ ✨ The recommended tool -- TED-Ed ✨ ✨ ✨ ✨
👉 What TED-Ed is?
TED-Ed is a teaching platform where a teacher can register as an educator. It allows teachers to select a short TED video and create multiple choice and open questions to support the topic-based language learning.
👉 The Pros of TED-Ed
1. Layout
2. Videos
The platform has a huge library of original animated videos with interesting design and a wide range of topics (e.g. Economics, Psychology, Education, etc.). And the video subjects will be subdivided to facilitate more accurate search.
Click: Discover - Lessons - Subjects - All subjects
There is also "Collection" option, which allows for extensive research on topics.
Each original presentation represents a creative collaboration between experts in their field. Combined with video-based questions and additional resources ("More from...") related to the topic provided at the bottom of each video to help language learners and scholars conduct further research.
3. Contents
TED-Ed is a constructivist teaching aid. After watching the video, the learner can answer questions set by the creator. And these questions are designed in a progressive and logical way.
In the "Think" column, the creator can set some simple multiple choice and open questions (e.g., interpretation, memorization, explain "how" or "why", etc.).
In the "Dig Deeper" column, the creator can provide more relevant learning materials (by creating links) for learners to conduct in-depth research.
In summary, TED-Ed optimizes TED's original functions (provide multi-domain learning materials for language learners; improve learners' listening and speaking skills; improve their presentation skills; satisfy learners' curiosity) It not only provides an international platform for teachers to create their own interactive lesson plans, but also enable learners to learn in a more interesting and effective way.
👉 How to use TED-Ed in the classroom?
(Target learners: the following plans apply to middle and high school level students in China)
1. Create a lesson.
You can click "Create - Create a lesson", then find your target topic and video, and design the lesson as the instruction.
Or, it is time-saving and convenient for you to customize your own class based on the completed class design (reedit and modify).
2. Share the lesson to your students and let them follow the instruction to finish self-study (Watch - Think - Dig Deeper - Discussion) before the class.
3. If the class is offline, students can conduct self-study at home and the teacher can organize discussion seminar in class. The teacher can guide the student to have a brief review of the video and some simple questions, then focus on additional materials and discussion parts so that the student could complete the basic knowledge building independently at home and then strengthen or deepen the knowledge in class.
If the seminar will be conduct online (via Tencent Meeting or DingTalk), more tools can be used to help students study. For example, online groups are more convenient, and students can discuss with different people in more diversified ways (discussion or presentation). Teachers can also use WordWall to increase word learning, Kahoot to evaluate students' self-study, or Padlet for brainstorming.
👉 Some Possibles Problems
1. I'm not sure if school policy would allow teachers to teach without a uniform textbook;
2. Compared with traditional teaching, using TED-Ed to design classroom requires more time and energy. And in China, some schools (middle and high school) even have two English classes every day, which poses a big challenge for teachers in lesson preparation. Therefore, in the face of possible resistance from the schools as well as the curriculum requirements, teacher may choose one or two classes every week according to actual condition to carry out the flipped teaching.
💟 💟 💟 Hope it helps!
Reference:
Russell, D. (2016). TED-Ed web-based blended learning to support teaching: An action research project. In 2nd. International conference on higher education advances (HEAD'16) (pp. 278-286). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València.
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